The ringing of her phone pulled Lilly from sleep. Zach lurched out of bed and fumbled to snatch it off the dresser.
“Lilly Price’s phone.”
Lilly looked across the darkened room. The glow of her phone faintly illuminated the air around Zach.
“You realize it’s four-thirty in the morning?” Zach asked. “What could be so important that you have to talk to her right now?”
A tingle of alarm thrilled through her. News at four-thirty was never good.
“Fine. Hang on.” Zach came back to bed and set the phone in Lilly’s hand. “It’s Detective Spalding from New York, honey.”
A shiver coursed through her. “Hello, Detective. Can I help you?”
“Where are you right now, Miss Price?” Spalding’s stark voice crashed over the line, setting off her already-fragile nerves.
The phone shook in her hand, and Lilly cleared her throat. “I’m at a friend’s house in Serenity. What’s happened?”
“When did you last talk to your father?”
“My father?” Lilly paused as dread descended into the very marrow of her bones. “What’s wrong with my father?”
“Answer the question please.”
“I talked to him last week. I called to warn him about...” she trailed off, not wanting to go into the details.
“About what?” Spalding asked.
Lilly sighed, deciding she had to tell him. “I’ve had a little trouble out here with a stalker. I thought if that person learned I gave Daddy my money, he might be in danger. Daddy blew me off and told me to stay out his life.” She paused, not really wanting to know the answer to her next question, but having to ask. “Is he okay?”
“No, he’s not.” Spalding’s voice held no emotion. “He was found dead in his house this morning.”
“Dead? How did he...I mean.” Lilly took a deep breath. “What happened?”
“It appears he was stabbed to death yesterday afternoon. The staff had the day off and found him this morning.”
Lilly squeezed her eyes shut to hold back her tears, and Zach placed an arm around her. “Do you have any leads?”
“Not yet,” Spalding responded. “When were you last in New York?”
“I guess around seven months ago,” she answered automatically.
“And what are you doing for money these days?” he asked.
“I have a job.” Why was Spalding asking these questions? She couldn’t think, didn’t know how to feel.
“But, you gave your fortune to Mr. Price?” Spalding asked. “Have things been difficult since then?”
Lilly sucked in a sharp breath. The tone in Spalding’s voice was reminiscent of how he sounded when questioning her about Charles’ murder. “What are you really asking here?”
“The valet overheard the conversation last week. He said it sounded like you really needed money. Did you do something to get it back?”
Tears burned behind Lilly’s eyes, but she refused to cry while talking to this bastard. “I didn’t want the money.”
“The valet claims you two fought about it.”
Lilly’s temper flared, burning away the sadness. “That’s what you’re basing your accusations on? The word of a valet who heard half a conversation? Daddy assumed I called about money, because that’s all that matters to him. That’s not why I called. You should look for my stalker—he’s the one making threats. Call Officer McMann to get that information for your so-called investigation.”
Lilly chucked her phone across the room before dissolving into tears. Zach rocked her back and forth. He didn’t ask questions, just allowed her to rage against him.
Eventually, her anger subsided. A terrible emptiness took its place. “My father’s dead. I have no family now, not even the horrible kind he was.”
“What happened?”
She shrugged helplessly. “He was murdered in the middle of the night.”
“We’ll call McMann about the detective accusing you. Don’t worry, that man’s just fishing for suspects.” He cuddled her more firmly against him. “We need to make plans for everything.”
“My father’s estate lawyer will handle it. I don’t want to go to New York.”
“Not even for his funeral?” Zach didn’t disguise the shock in his voice.
Lilly hung her head, ashamed. How could she not want to attend the funeral? “You’ll be with me?”
“Every second.”
Waves of emotion flooded through her. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she clung to the shelter and warmth Zach offered. His muscular arms held her, providing silent comfort. They sat there until the sun came up.
Perhaps she and Stewart hadn’t been close, but Lilly always hoped that would change. That would never happen now. The stalker made good on his threat, and her father was dead.
***
Zach eased out of bed around seven-thirty. Lilly finally fell into a fitful sleep a half-hour earlier. He picked her phone up from the floor and put it on the dresser. After using the bathroom, he came out to find Lilly sitting up, staring at the wall.
“Lil? Is there anything I can do for you?”
She shook her head without looking at him.
“I’m going to make coffee. Want some?”
She shook her head again, but climbed out of bed and walked to the breakfast nook. Zach watched as she stared out the window. She looked broken. He had become used to her rages, used to her crying. Now, she seemed to have no feelings at all. He hoped crying before mended some of her hurt, but he knew she had a complicated relationship with her father. She would be long in healing from his murder.
With the coffee brewed, Zach poured two mugs, put sugar in hers, and placed it in front of her. She sipped it automatically, even though she hadn’t wanted any. He held her free hand as he drank his own. He didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know what magic words would erase her pain.
“Guess I’m rich again.” She rubbed her hand across her face. “If Spalding doesn’t send me back to jail on charges of killing my own father, scary men stay away from me, and my stalker doesn’t kill anyone else, my life will be just frickin’ perfect.”
Her voice held the same edge of hysteria it had the first night the stalker called. Zach wondered about her wanting scary men to stay away from her. Did she mean Curtis Crandall? He still had a feeling that jerk harmed Lilly, but he hadn’t dared bring up the subject again.
Zach soothed Lilly’s hair against her head, wishing he knew how to help her. She needed sleep.
He walked to the bathroom, grabbed some nighttime tablets out of the cupboard, and brought them back to her. Lilly stared out the window, seemingly unaware he even left.
He handed her the pills. “Take these, sweetie, so you can get more sleep.”
She swallowed them without question and limped to the bedroom, crawling on top of the covers. Before she turned to face the wall, Zach saw fresh tears track their way down her cheeks.
He felt so damn helpless. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She rolled toward him and held her arms out. “Hold me until I fall asleep?”
Zach crawled in next to her. “I’ll hold you until we both wake up.”
“I don’t even know why I’m so upset, not really,” she said. “It wasn’t like Daddy and I ever had a good relationship. I was never his little angel or anything like that.”
“But you wanted to be.” Zach grabbed a tissue from the nightstand and handed it to her.
“Yeah, I did.” She broke off in another sob. “I never thought Stewart would die.”
He wiped some of her tears away and kissed her cheek.
“I’m sorry our life has been so out of control, Zach.” She snuggled close to his chest. “I love you so much. Thank you for standing by my side. Surely, things won’t always be like this and we can find some peace.”
“Together, we can face anything.”
She looked at him and smiled faintly. “You’re right. Together we can handle this.” She pressed a kiss against
his lips. “I like that.”
Zach stroked her back. Thankfully, the horrible, empty quality had disappeared from her voice. She sighed and her body relaxed as she dropped off to sleep.
They had a lot to organize, but everything could wait.
***
Lilly woke again when Zach crawled out of bed. He pulled on his robe and headed out of the room. She wanted to ask him where he was going, but then heard pounding on the front door.
The clock read a little past eleven. Those pills Zach gave her must’ve knocked her out. She crawled out of bed and went to the bathroom, splashing water on her face. Calmness settled over her, and she felt better than she had since receiving the text message.
Her father was dead; nothing would change that. She’d never experience the relationship with him she’d dreamed of having. She’d never be Daddy’s little girl.
Zach’s head popped around the corner of the doorframe. “It’s my family, baby. They heard what happened from people in town and brought lunch over.”
Gossip sure spread fast. How did other people even know? Spalding must have called Officer McMann, and he spread the tale.
Lilly tried not to let Zach see how exhausting she found the prospect of dealing with his family. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
He stripped off his robe and pulled on some fresh clothes. “Take your time, honey. You don’t have to come out if you don’t want to. I’ll send them away.”
Obviously, she wasn’t good at hiding her feelings today. “No, no. Don’t do that. It’s fine. It was nice of them to come. I’ll be right there.”
He shut the door behind him when he left. She found some old denim jeans and pulled on a gray sweater, feeling chilled despite the sun shining through the sliding glass door and windows. She needed more coffee.
In an effort to conceal the dark circles underlying her sunken eyes, she smoothed on some base. It didn’t appear to make a difference. Maybe with the still-yellow bruise across her cheek, no one would notice the bags.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door. All heads turned to face her. Sarah, Steven, and Savannah sat at the small table in the breakfast nook. Tommy and Bridget shared the plush chair adjacent to the sectional, and Patricia and James sat with Zach on the couch.
Margaret was ensconced in the remaining chair, and she shook her head when Lilly looked at her. “I’m so sorry, child.”
Lilly shuffled toward Zach, self-conscious of the unwanted attention of his family.
Zach stood from his spot next to Patricia and ushered Lilly into the space. No one else said a word.
They’re probably afraid I’m going to break.
She sighed. “Thank you for coming to check on us.”
At her words, they all talked at once. Sentiments of sympathy flowed from every direction, and Lilly could only nod her head numbly. Their words flowed over her, not really making an impression. She said the reassuring phrases people say when they lose someone. Things to make the people around them, those untouched by loss, feel comfortable. “Thank you so much...Yes, I’ll let you know if I need anything...I agree, he’s in a better place.”
She wondered how long they would stay—how long she would have to pretend to be normal.
Patricia stood, walked to the kitchen, and waved Zach over to her. “Let’s get lunch dished up.”
Sarah sat next to Lilly and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I know this doesn’t mean much, but I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. I was never close with my father anyway.” Lilly closed her eyes, forcing the tears to stay beneath her lashes. Her words sounded so cold. They were nothing less than the truth, but it broke her heart to speak them aloud.
Sarah sniffed next to her, and Lilly tried to tune her out, certain she would cry in front of everyone if Sarah started. A soft kiss against her cheek, and then Lilly felt Sarah’s weight leave the couch.
Someone thrust a tissue into her fingers, and Lilly dried the few tears that escaped despite her best intentions. “Thank you,” she whispered to James, realizing it came from him.
Zach returned with a mug in one hand and a bowl in the other. He set the mug on the end table next to her, and Lilly was pleased to see coffee in it. The contents of the bowl were more questionable. It looked like some sort of macaroni salad, but the smell of dill was so strong, Lilly wondered if she’d be able to gag any down.
She put a spoonful in her mouth. Mayonnaise coated each of the mushy noodles, and the dill was as strong as she thought it would be. She tried to be appreciative of the Woodbridges’ effort, taking a few more bites, but finally set it down in favor of the coffee.
She knew she concentrated on all these little issues so she wouldn’t have to think about her real problems—wouldn’t have to think about her father.
Bridget stood and grabbed Lilly’s bowl of mush, squeezing her shoulder gently. “I’m sorry,” she whispered into Lilly’s ear, “and I’m sorry for being so mean to you earlier.”
Lilly nodded and took another sip of coffee, hoping it could somehow warm the frozen place inside her.
A knock sounded at the door, and Zach answered it. Officer McMann stood on the other side.
“I don’t mean to intrude on a family gathering, especially not at a time like this.” His beefy face reddened and he rubbed a hand against his bald forehead.
“No problem, Officer,” Zach said.
McMann nodded toward Lilly. “I came to talk to Miss Price. Can we go somewhere private?”
Lilly waved that aside. These people knew all her secrets. Nothing McMann had to say would likely shock them. “What did you want to tell me?”
“I’ve been on the phone all morning with that detective from New York. He seems convinced you have motive for the crime, and I can’t talk him out of it.”
Lilly sighed. “I’ve been trying to talk him out of that line of thinking for years, Officer McMann. Too bad your luck is as rotten as mine.”
He walked toward Lilly and held out a folder to her. “I wanted to give you these back. We’re done with them, and maybe if you show them to Detective Spalding, he’ll feel a little inclined to look further than what he thinks he knows.”
Lilly flipped the folder open to see the pictures of her and Zach. “You didn’t get any leads on the stalker then?”
“Afraid not. The text yesterday came from a disposable phone and pinged off a tower in New York.”
“What?” Lilly’s brow furrowed. “I don’t understand what that means.”
McMann shook his head. “Basically, the stalker was in New York when he sent that text yesterday, and we have no way to trace it.”
“Yes, of course. He’d have to be in New York, wouldn’t he? So that he could kill my—” Lilly choked down a sob and blinked rapidly.
McMann shifted from foot to foot. “Spalding wants an interview when you go back for the funeral. I told him about your problems here, including my suspicions about...” The officer broke off and looked around the room. “I mean, I told him about your little fall down the stairs the other day, and the text messages.”
Lilly shook her head once curtly. She knew that McMann thought Crandall had done something and she hadn’t really fallen, but Lilly couldn’t afford to have everyone discover the stairs story was a fabrication. Charles killing people in New York was bad enough. Lilly couldn’t let McMann approach Crandall now and risk harm coming to Sarah.
“I appreciate you standing up for me,” she said. “I’ll be sure to pass these pictures along to him.”
“You’re one of us now, Miss Price. Of course I’ll stand up for you.” McMann patted her shoulder. “I’m awfully sorry about your father.”
Lilly nodded, touched that he said she belonged in this little community. “Thank you.”
McMann left quickly, obviously as uncomfortable in the full house as Lilly. She wished everyone else would go away so easily.
“You had a threat yesterday?” Patricia asked after he left. “What was h
e talking about?”
Lilly took another sip of her drink. There was no help for it. They had to tell them about the message, but she left it to Zach to explain.
“You should have told us, son,” James said as fear crossed his normally calm face. “What if that psycho came after you or one of us? We could’ve helped.”
Zach sat down between James and Lilly, and she curled up against him. Although she understood James was scared, couldn’t they hash this out at another time? Maybe she could get away with being completely rude and go back to the bedroom.
No—she refused to embarrass Zach that way.
“There’s nothing anyone could do,” Zach replied to his father. “We took what steps we thought we needed to. We never anticipated anything like this.”
“Damn it, Zach.” Patricia slapped her hand against her leg. “This is getting seriously dangerous. Maybe Lilly’s problems are too big for you to handle. We could send her away, someplace nice and protected. We’ll pay for bodyguards. She’ll be okay, and you can move on.”
Lilly bit her tongue against the angry words resting there. Really, that kind of behavior from Patricia didn’t surprise her, but Lilly didn’t want to deal with her rudeness today.
Margaret glared at the younger woman. “I always knew you were completely tactless, Patricia, but what the hell is wrong with you?”
Patricia hugged her arms around herself and shook her head. “I’m trying to be realistic. I don’t want our family in danger because a killer is after Lilly.”
Zach’s arm tightened around Lilly’s shoulder, and his mouth dipped in a deep frown. “So that’s your solution? Send her away and move me on to one of your girls?”
Patricia put a hand on her hip. “For pity sake, Zach, don’t get in a huff. I didn’t mean it that way. I’m scared. We never had trouble like this when you were married to Victoria.”
Sarah’s gasp was the only sound in the deathly quiet room for several long seconds.
Zach’s entire body twitched. “No, Mother, I certainly didn’t have any of these problems with Victoria. She was perfect.” His voice dipped to a menacing whisper, and Lilly feared what he would say next.
Always & Forever Page 27
