Free Relentless by Cindy Stark Page B

so tired of Hannah and her lies.  She's given me enough misery to last ten lifetimes.  I'm fine with her hating me, but she's turned half the town against me.  Just when people seemed to have forgotten, she shows up and everyone's whispering again."
    "I'm going to talk to her, Luke, when we get back.  Maybe I can get her to confess."
    He picked up her horse's reins and handed them to her again.  "Don't hold your breath."  He untied and mounted his horse.
    Lily climbed on Charlee and scrambled to keep up with Luke as he headed down the hillside.
    Luke made it quite a distance back toward his property before Lily was able to get close enough to talk to him.  She'd had to gallop her horse to make that happen.
    "Luke?" she called out when he nudged Hades to go faster.  "Stop."
    The worry in her voice must have reached out to him because he slowed his horse and then stopped to face her.  The last sliver of sun dipped behind the horizon, and it was hard to read his expression in the waning light.
    "Luke?  Please tell me what happened between the two of you."  She moved her horse in close to his.
    "I'm not going there, Lily."  His voice vibrated with dark emotion.  "I've already told you, she started the lie and she'll have to be the one to fix it.  I can't.  No one will believe me now."
    "I'd believe you," she said quietly into the night.
    "No, you wouldn't.  You've already made it perfectly clear your loyalties lie with Hannah."  He urged Hades to start walking again, and Lily followed. 
    "Why won't you try?"  She didn't understand.  "If Hannah lied all those years ago, why don't you just tell the truth?"
    "Because me telling you won't change things.  Hannah has to speak up.  She has to clear the air, and she refuses."  He glanced at her with a pointed look. 
    "That doesn't mean—"
    An eerie screech stole her words, and she froze.  "What was that?" she whispered.
    "I don't know," Luke answered, also speaking softly.  He shifted in his saddle and then pointed west, in the direction of town.  "Look?  Do you see those lights angling into the sky?"
    Lily turned.  "What are they?"
    "I'm not sure, but I think something's wrong."  The worry in his voice raised the goosebumps on her arms.  "There aren't any lights out that way.  If it was just headlights from a car on the road, they wouldn't be angled like that and they'd be moving."  He dismounted his horse, holding his arms up for her.  "Come on.  You need to ride with me.  I'm going to ride hard, and I don't want to worry about you getting hurt.  I'll tether Charlee to Hades."
    A moment later, she was in front of Luke again, his arms around her.  Her stomach turned as he took off, and her heart thundered along with the horses' hooves.  She wasn't quite sure what they'd find, but from all indications, it wouldn't be good.

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Mother of God. 
    Luke kicked his horse to a faster speed when he realized the lights he saw were the headlights of a car angled skyward, and it looked like a small fire burned in the grass.  Someone had rolled a vehicle off the highway.  As he drew closer, he could see that the upside down vehicle was a truck, and there was also another SUV off the opposite side of the road in a ditch.  He didn't recognize the truck, but the red Bronco belonged to Caroline Delaney. 
    He galloped to Caroline's vehicle and jumped off his horse before Hades had come to a complete stop.  Lily followed him down.
    The whole ghastly scene unnerved him.  The lights on the vehicles were still blazing, but other than that, it was deathly quiet.  Hades whinnied his nervousness. 
    The scent of gasoline permeated the air, and even an idiot would realize this bad situation could get much worse if that grass fire met the leaking gasoline.
    A dog barked from inside Caroline's SUV as he approached.  He jerked open the door and found her slumped to the side, her seatbelt the only thing holding her in the driver's seat.  The front