I thought back quickly to the last thing I could remember. The ride to the cottage was quicker than I had thought and I pulled up in front of the log cabin and turned my lights off. My gun was tucked in the back of my pants, and I ran my hand over the handle to help feel more secure. I remembered getting out of the car and approaching the front door. The handle was cold, but the door was unlocked, and I pushed it open. The cabin seemed abandoned, nothing like the pictures, and I quickly realized I had been tricked. But how? Kait had recommended it saying Tommy said he stayed for a fishing trip and it was incredible. I heard a creak in the floorboards behind me, and I reached around to grab my gun, but before my hand hit the handle, a pain shot through my head and I remember seeing muddy boots as I hit the ground and blacked out.
I looked at the back of the man standing in front of me, and he struck me as familiar, but I kept my mouth closed as not to alert him I was awake yet. On the stainless steel table in front of him were surgical tools and I knew immediately what those were used for. A streak of fear flew through my chest as I realized those tools were being spread out for me. I gasped slightly and shook my chair, causing the man to turn around slowly. As the hanging light above me removed the shadow from the killer’s face, my mouth dropped open, and I just stared.
“Surprise,” he said laughing. “Didn’t see that one coming did you, sis?”
“Tommy,” I said gasping. “But I don’t understand. Why? Is Kait…”
“Kait,” Tommy said chuckling. “Yeah right. She can’t even stomach watching me cook hamburgers. But I will tell you she fit in nicely with all of this. She did exactly what I knew she would do. She did exactly what every woman always does. You should be aware all about that having lived with mom all those years.”
“What,” I said still slightly confused from the gash in my head. “Why are you calling her mom? Why are you calling me sis?”
“Awe,” Tommy said bending down in front of me. “No one ever told you? Not even that pretty little girlfriend of yours?”
“You leave Julie out of this,” I snapped. “And I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“You see….sis,” he mocked. “Your mother went out and had an affair when you were just a little baby. Then our father found out a few years later when your mom was pregnant with me. He couldn’t take it, so he left. He's gone my mother all alone with two damn children and addiction.”
“I don’t remember you,” I said in disbelief. “You were never around when I was a child.”
“No,” he said taking a deep breath and tapping a scalpel against the shiny metal table. “That’s because you were three and mom gave me up for adoption. She couldn’t deal with it.”
“That’s insane,” I yelled out. “She would have told me.”
“Hahahaha,” he laughed manically. “She had lots of secrets dear. She kept you around to clean up her damn mess. But at least you got to stay.”
“But you were around since…since ” I said straining to remember my first encounter with Tommy.
“Since freshman year of high school,” he replied. “I ran away from my foster family. Changed my name and fit right in, girlfriend and all. Until she fucking cheated on me too.”
“What,” I said still confused. “Kait cheated on you?”
“Yes,” he said eerily calm. “She said I just wasn’t giving her the attention she needed. Just like a woman to lay it on the man. But that’s okay she will get hers in the end too. All three of you will make a beautiful end to my masterpiece. Three of the town sweethearts hanging in the town square for all to see. Ha ha ha hahaha. It’s perfect. Almost as perfect as your mother’s whore body laid out in the snow or our father’s in the warehouse. You should be glad I got rid him; he didn’t give a shit about you either.”
“You sick bastard,” I said channeling my anger. “How dare you come back into my life this way. You don’t deserve any of my attention.”
I was so angry I didn’t care what I was saying. I didn’t care that he was starting to become enraged and had grabbed the butcher knife from the table. He had killed my family, and when Julie got here there was nothing I could do to protect her, he would butcher her too. What kind of sick mess had I gotten myself into? I looked up at Tommy who had pulled a mask and goggles over his face and began walking towards me.
His laugh was echoing through the walls of the basement like the Joker. His eyes were black, and the sweat was beaded up on his forehead. I could only imagine the sick smile hiding behind that surgical mask. I struggled in my chair for a moment but realized there was no escape. I wouldn’t give this man the satisfaction of begging for my life. I gritted my teeth as he grabbed my hair and pulled my hair back. He pressed the sharp edge of the butcher knife against my throat and paused long enough to lean in and kiss me on the cheek. My stomach grew nauseous at the smell of him, and I closed my eyes and gripped the edge of the chair, waiting for the pain to strike me.
I waited. I waited for the end to come.
Chapter Six
The echo of the gunshot rang through the basement, up the stairwell, and out into the woods. I could feel Kait’s face pressed into my back, her hands shaking at her sides. Tears streamed down Lydia’s face, but she kept her chin back, and her eyes firmly pressed shut. I walked slowly towards Tommy who was lying on the floor in a puddle of blood. Kait ran to the side and kicked the knife away from his hand. There was no need to be fearful, from the aim, and the closeness of the shot, there was no doubt that Tommy was dead. I looked up at Kait who was staring down; wide-eyed at his body.
“I’m sorry Kait,” I said sympathetically.
“What,” she said looking up. “Are you kidding me? Screw that crazy asshole. You saved me from a life where I probably would have become a lampshade.”
“Wow,” I said trying not to laugh and turning towards Lydia who I realized was still tied to the chair. “Oh, God.”
I moved quickly, wiping the tears from Lydia’s eyes so she could see and untie her hands. She pulled them up and rubbed her wrists, the look on her face still and calm. I bent down and untied her legs, but she stayed seated in the chair. Kait unwrapped her sweater from around her waist and pressed it against Lydia’s bleeding head, ignoring her flinches. I could hear the sirens approaching the in the background, and I placed my gun back into my holster. It was a good thing the Sheriff thought it pertinent to give me a weapon. My job as the coroner would be pretty simple too since I knew exactly what the cause of death was.
Lydia carefully grasped my hand and looked up at me holding the sweater against her head. I bent down to get closer to her face in case she wanted to say something. When I squatted down, she smiled and pressed her face against mine and kissed me on the cheek. She was already doing better than I thought she would have in this situation.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “It’s not every day the girl you love saves your life from her psycho killer brother.”
“You are more than welcome,” I replied. “But you don’t have any more siblings I should know about do you?”
“I sure as hell hope not,” she said smiling. “Let’s get upstairs; this place is creepy…and sad.”
I helped Lydia up out of the chair, and Kate took her by the arm, and they started up the stairs. The room was silent, and the blood from Tommy ran across the floor and dropped into a drain installed in the center of the tile. I realized at that moment that this was the room that so many women had spent their final moments in before Tommy put his tools to work. The white tile shimmered in the swinging light above my head, and a feeling of sadness crept over me. At least it was over, it was done, and no one else had to lose their lives.
The stairs seemed much tougher to climb than they did when I was taking three at a time down. They were made of cement, so when I came down them, there was nothing to make any sound which was good for me but bad for Tommy. The police had arrived and helped Lydia out to an ambulance. They met me in the hall where I told them what happened, so they didn’
t go crazy searching for a killer that was already dead.
When I was done, I walked out to the ambulance and leaned against the back door, watching the medic clean up the wound on the back of Lydia’s head. She smiled and flinched at the same time, and I chuckled to myself. She was so adorable, and with everything going on I had almost forgotten to take notice. The medic jumped down from the back and reached their hand out to help Lydia down.
“Whoa, whoa,” I said putting my hands up. “Shouldn’t she be going to the hospital.”
“I am,” Lydia sighed. “But I didn’t want to take the ambulance, too dramatic. I figured you could drive me.”
“Oh,” I replied putting my hand out to steady her. “Of course.”
We walked towards my car which was parked to the side of the police cars that had pulled in. I nodded at the Sheriff as we passed so he would know I was taking Lydia to the hospital and then I helped inside the car. After I had climbed into the driver seat, I leaned over and gave her a kiss.
“I am sorry this happened,” I said. “But I am so glad it is over, and you are okay. Maybe now we can go to bed without checking the locks fifteen times.”
“Maybe,” she smiled as we pulled off towards the hospital and away from the horror at the cabin in the woods.
They had to give Lydia stitches, but there was no internal damage, and she was released after just a couple of hours. They offered her therapy, but she refused, knowing she always did better working through things on her own.
I watched as she answered questions from the police with strength and dignity. She didn’t let what happened completely ruin her, and I was in awe of her self-control and poise. Had it been me in that situation I probably would have been a sobbing disgusting mess.
But I hadn’t grown up with her, and though I felt for her, her background is what kept her strong at that moment, and willing to be strong to the end, if that is what it took.
Epilogue
The wind blew in from the windows, and it wrapped me in warmth and sunshine. It was spring in our sweet little town and more than just the snow had blown out of here. It had been six months since Tommy was killed and so much had changed. Kait started seeing a really incredible guy from two towns over, and he treated her like a queen. Lydia moved into my house, or our house now, officially and we sold her mother’s old house. It took a bit of work to get it cleaned up, but when we were done, it was almost unrecognizable which was good since it took Lydia a couple of months to be able even to walk past it.
Now, though, life was better, different, but so much better. Lydia had come out of her shell and was celebrating life on a daily basis. She still worked for the Sheriff but was also building her own business. She loved to write, so she started working part time for the local paper and writing a book. At first, we pushed her to write about what happened, but she said she would rather stick to fiction since her life was like a movie for so many years. I gave back my gun and detective privileges and decided working with the dead was a lot easier than figuring out the living. Kait was still my assistant, but she had talked the department into remodeling the morgue so that she didn’t have to sit in the same room as the bodies all the time. She actually had her own reception area now, door and all.
I closed my eyes as the wind blew through my hair, imagining myself down by the creek when I was a child. I felt two hands touch my back and Lydia slowly wrapped her arms around my waist and kissed the back of my neck. There was almost no better feeling in the world than being at peace and happy with the person you love. Though I would give anything to give those girls, and Lydia’s father their life back, Tommy did do one thing for Lydia and me, and that brought us together. Every bad situation has a silver lining, and that is mine.
Lydia's hands grasped my hips, and she spun me around to face her, planting one on me before my eyes could focus. I smiled as she kissed me and she reached around my back and pulled me in closer. The wind felt so good on both of us that we almost forgot that the blinds and the curtains were wide open. I stepped forward into Lydia, shutting the window from behind me as I went. She reached behind me and pulled the curtains closed, and the room took on a healthy evening glow.
I ran my hands through Lydia’s hair, appreciating every moment I got to touch her beautiful face. She pulled me towards the couch, and I ran my hands up her legs as she climbed on top of me. I giggled thinking about the first time we had made love in this living room and how the feeling and the want was even more intense among us. The sun was setting outside, but Lydia, and I didn’t notice the ending of the day as we were too engrossed in each other. She peeled back layer after layer of clothing until both of our bodies were naked, intertwined with each other.
She began kissing my neck and moving down my body, but I brought her back up, wanting to be as close as possible to her while still seeing her eyes. As we moved in sync, bringing our bodies to a mutual sense of pleasure, my heart throbbed in my chest. After everything that had happened Lydia and I were exactly where we needed to be. We were right where we were always meant to be, sinking slowly into ecstasy and slowly into forever in each other’s arms.
The End
I wanted to thank you for taking the time in reading Hidden Motive. We hoped you enjoyed the last part of the Ladies of Bushwick series and look forward to seeing how the cliffhanger concludes in the sequels.
It brought me great joy to write this as I love writing stories that entertain readers and draws them into another world with characters you love and hate. They say great books are those that evoke emotion out of you and I hope that’s what it has done for you.
Thank you once again, and I’ll see you in the next one.
One Little Letter_A Bad Boy, Second Chance Romance Page 73
