Page 86 of Liberating Lily

“Yes, what I didn’t ask is for you to get involved with his fiancée.”

“Ex-fiancée.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ronan said. “Whatever is going on with her and her family is none of our business. But if you get arrested for kidnapping, that is very much my business.”

“I’m not going to get arrested for kidnapping. She’s with me of her own free will.”

Sort of.

Ronan’s eyes narrowed as he gazed at him. “Don’t lie to me, brother.”

Shit. Fuck.

“Fine. I picked her up and carried her out of that house. But she didn’t make any sort of protest and her sister was there. If anyone accuses me of kidnapping her, I have witnesses to the fact she didn’t protest.”

“And you think that will save you?” Ronan asked, almost looking tired. “We don’t need this kind of attention, Harvey.”

Harvey knew that. Which is why he’d been putting off telling Ronan any of this. He knew that his oldest brother wouldn’t approve of his actions. Of him getting involved in any of this.

But this wasn’t something that he hadn’t carefully considered. Yeah, he hadn’t been certain when he would take her. But he’d known for a while now that she was going to be his.

“She’s not just a fling. I’ve thought about this for a long time and it was a considered move even though it seemed impulsive. I am going to keep her, Ronan. I don’t think anyone is actually going to send the cops after me. They don’t want me going to the police with what’s happened to Lily.”

“And what has happened to Lily,” Ronan asked.

“When I got her away from her mother, she started panicking. Said she needed her medication. That she couldn’t be without it. She was worried that she might hurt me without her pills.”

Harvey shook his head at the craziness of that statement. As if she could hurt him.

“And what did she need the pills for?” Ronan asked.

“She said they were for her nervous system. That without the pills to calm her down, she could go into a rage and harm somebody. So I sent Gareth into her mother’s house to get her handbag, which had a bottle of medication. Michaela was suspicious of what was going on, and she wanted to get the pills tested to see if they were really what they said they were. Because the label on the bottle said they were just a mild sedative. It turns out they were laced with Devil’s Breath.”

Ronan raised an eyebrow, which was a big reaction for him. “Devil’s Breath? Someone was feeding her Devil’s Breath? Did they know what that could do to her?”

“Yeah, I’m sure they did. They wanted her docile so she’d marry Rick.”

“Who did? Her mother?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Harvey said. “The doctor had to be a part of it too.”

“Seems extreme,” Ronan said.

“She took enough to make her docile, to make her susceptible to suggestion, and to create gaps in her memory. Even now, after detoxing off those pills, she still can’t remember a lot of things, or they’re coming back to her in nightmares.”

“And she’s probably not sure what’s real and what’s not,” Ronan guessed.

“Exactly, and it’s terrifying for her.”

“Who is the doctor?” Ronan asked.

“His name is David Wallace. He owns a private clinic and hospital here in Boston. He’s got a dodgy past. We’ve questioned the doctor. He seems shady as hell. He wanted us to bring her to him and said that he would keep her in his clinic free of charge.”

“In his clinic?” Ronan asked

“Got a very expensive looking place,” Paddy explained. “Strange for a doctor who was forced out of his last job due to rumors of misconduct. Not that anything came of them. We think somebody swept it all under the rug, but he seems to have landed on his feet. Doesn’t appear to have many clients and yet has a small hospital where patients can stay overnight with him as the only doctor.”

“I don’t like that, and I don’t like that one of his patients was taking pills laced with Devil’s Breath. That drug is dangerous and expensive. If her mother is broke, how is she paying for Devil’s Breath? That stuff isn’t cheap. None of it adds up. She has a sister, right?” Ronan asked.