Page 96 of Liberating Lily

“How could it have been dangerous? There was no one here.”

“But I didn’t know that, did I?” he said, as Paddy returned from searching the house. “There could have been someone in the house, hiding. Or outside, watching. All of this is just stuff. But you are not.”

“The worms aren’t stuff! They were tipped over. We’ll never recover them!”

“It’s all right, we can get new worms,” he soothed. Even though he’d rather strip naked and run down the street. Then he turned to Paddy. “All clear?”

“Yeah, but it’s the same in every room. You pissed someone off lately?” Paddy asked as he walked over and messed up Bea’s hair.

She snarled at him. “Stop messing up my hair.”

“Nah, don’t want to.”

She huffed out a breath and straightened her hair. “Wait, why did you ask Harvey if he’d pissed anyone off lately? Isn’t this just a random robbery? They must have realized he wasn’t home, right? Or is something going on?”

Shit.

Paddy and his big mouth.

“Nothing is going on, Bea,” he said.

Although he did wonder if this break-in was related to what was going on with Lily.

But they couldn’t rule it out either.

“And why don’t I believe you? Do you know why? Because you’re lying to me.” She waggled her finger at him.

“What’s going on in here?”

Oh, fuck. Could this day get any worse? Harvey managed to cover his groan with a cough as Ronan stepped into the room.

Who had called him?

Then as Bea spun and threw herself into Ronan’s arms, he had his answer. Of course, she’d called Ronan. Both of his sisters called their oldest brother for everything they needed.

Ronan’s dark eyes flashed to Harvey. “You should have called me instead of leaving it up to your little sister.”

“It’s just a break-in, Ronan. It doesn’t require your attention,” Harvey told him.

“Just a break-in. Normally, during a break-in they take things rather than destroying them all. Looks like whoever it was, was searching for something.”

“They ruined the worm farm and I can’t find any of the worms. I could try and find some of them, I guess.” Bea’s voice was filled with sadness, and he knew that it would be a trigger for his oldest brother, because he didn’t like their sisters to feel anything except happy.

Nothing else was acceptable to him.

“Don’t worry,” Ronan told their sister gently. That voice was reserved for just her or Fiadh. “We’ll get some more worms.”

“And you’ll make sure whoever did this to them pays,” Bea said.

And Ronan’s voice hardened. “Oh, yes, I’ll make sure whoever did this pays.” He glanced over at Harvey. “You had Bea coming to your house when you weren’t here?”

“She was feeding the worms. It was only once every three or four days.”

“This person could have still been here when she arrived. She could have been harmed.”

“I’m fine, Ro,” Bea told him, glancing up at him with a smile. “Just upset about the worms and all the mess. Poor Harvey. They destroyed all of his stuff. I mean, most of it was ugly, but still, it was his stuff, and they had no right to mess it all up like this.”

Why did everyone keep saying that his stuff was ugly? His house hadn’t looked that bad, had it? Well, he guessed he’d never taken a lot of notice. Most of the furniture had just come with the house and then he’d added bits and pieces.