by MK Harkins
The doors burst open, and the good doctor rushed into the middle of the bathroom with a panicked look on his face. “Why did you scream? Did something happen?”
“Why are you in our bathroom? Get out!” The water continued to splatter us. There was no curtain, so privacy was nonexistent.
His searching gaze caught Ivy’s. I looked at her for the first time. She was smiling again, maybe even laughing.
“What’s wrong with the hot water tank? Is it broken? It’s crazy cold in here.”
I don’t think he meant to, but his eyes did a full body scan. I looked down at my clothing. Unfortunately, I wore a white t-shirt with shorts, and I was pretty sure nothing was left to the imagination.
I yelled, “Get out now! And tell someone to fix the hot water tank!”
Hands on hips, and with that stupid grin on his face, he said, “We don’t have hot water tanks in the huts.”
Oh, hell. I’d have to live through an ice shower every day?
I turned off the water. “If you don’t leave, I’m going scream even louder.”
That sound came from Ivy again. Giggling. She was enjoying this.
Doctor Barge-In noticed and asked, “Do you think I should leave, Ivy? I could always check for bugs and make sure you have towels.”
“Dottie gave us towels, and I’ve already checked.”
“They come up the drain sometimes.”
I shrieked again, grabbed Ivy, and moved back from the drain. I studied it closer, half-expecting a horde of cockroaches to come crawling out. Or flying…
There was no mistaking Ivy’s laugh this time. She covered her mouth and looked back and forth between us.
“Well, I guess we’re entertaining Ivy. But you need to leave so I can wash away whatever is coating her body.” I looked back down to the offending drain, making sure it stayed empty. I thought for a second. “Wait. How did you hear me and get here so fast?”
His thumb pointed to the connecting door behind him.
No.
“You don’t share this bathroom with me do you? Tell me you aren’t my hut-mate.”
This time, his face lit in an all-out grin.
The smile was devastating in all the wrong ways. His face was handsome with a scowl, but now he was downright beautiful. His eyes, those crystal blue eyes, showed amusement and maybe even playfulness. How could I hold onto my hatred of him? My stomach took a dive, and my mind went right down the drain I currently feared.
“Well, it isn’t proper to share a bathroom. I’ll talk to Dottie about it. I’m sure it’s a mistake.”
If it wasn’t, I would board up the door leading to his hut. He must not be a real doctor. A physician would never live in such conditions. He probably received the title for putting Band-Aids on the children.
“You’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. All the huts are occupied. You received the last one available,” he said, continuing his taunting smile.
Quit that.
“You’ve seen the Wizard of Oz?”
He did one of those exaggerated eye-rolls. Good. That’s better. I could go back to hating him.
“Yes. I studied medicine and did my residency in the United States,” he said, now with a serious expression. It was almost as if he knew I didn’t think he was a real doctor.
“Okay, Doctor-United-States-Fancy-Education, can you leave now? I’m freezing and Ivy needs a scrub down.”
He shook his head. “You really are clueless, aren’t you? Never mind, don’t answer that.” He turned and left.
We were back to status quo. But instead of relief, I felt a little lost. And angry.
I needed to shake off these confused feelings and get myself organized for my escape. First thing on my list, I’d get my phone charged. Next, I’d place a few calls. I needed more money than I had stashed away.
I pushed away the guilt and let the new plan form.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tiffany
“DAD, YOU AREN’T serious.”
“Before you overreact, hear me out.” He held up a hand to stop the outburst he knew was brewing. “I received a call from Sergeant Campbell. He told me about the fire alarm last night.”
“So?”
“Think about it, Tiffany. Doesn’t it strike you as odd that these two events happened in one week?”
“Yes. It did seem a little strange. But why would you tell me to stay away from Todd? What does he have to do with this?”
“I didn’t say for you to stay away from him forever. But you’ll need to keep your distance until we can figure this out. I have GC from security working on it. Sergeant Campbell doesn’t think you’re in immediate danger, but it struck him as odd. The two times you’ve been together, there’s been a false emergency. It appears someone doesn’t want you to date Todd.”
Monica. No, that’s stupid. She only just met him. I didn’t know though. Todd is one of those guys women go crazy for. Including me.
“Why are you smiling? This is serious.” His brow furrowed.
“Sorry, Dad. But aren’t you giving this a little too much thought? If someone was trying to keep us apart, it’s all pretty tame. Both incidents were harmless.”
“If a police sergeant calls me at home with a concern, I’m going to take it seriously.”
The doorbell rang. “Now what!” He stomped out of the room.
An uncomfortable weight settled low in my belly. I wasn’t going to freak out about it, but I didn’t like that someone might be watching Todd and me, trying to keep us from being together.
Fletcher? No. He was just drunk the other night.
Dad came back into the library, appearing pale. He held an envelope in both hands.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“It’s another reason you can’t be anywhere around Todd right now.” He slapped the large manila envelope on the desk in front of me.
“Can I look?” I asked
“Yes. But brace yourself”
Slowly, I slid out what looked to be an old newspaper article. The headline at the top of the page read, “Todd Jameson Questioned in Parents’ Murder.” All the blood left my head.
I flopped down into the leather chair in front of his desk. “Todd told me about this.”
“Go on.”
“His parents were murdered, that’s true, but Todd and his sister were on and off the suspect list within a day. A few despicable paparazzi printed the story anyway.”
He rubbed his forehead and sighed. “Right now, I’m more concerned that someone wanted me to know about it.”
“Yeah. Same here. What should we do?”
“I’ll call Sergeant Campbell, and you’re going to need to call Todd.”
I nodded in agreement. This wouldn’t be an easy call to make.
***
Todd
“TIFFANY, I KNOW you’re trying to tell me something. Just say it.”
She’d started then stopped several times in the last thirty seconds. In a low voice, she finally blurted, “I can’t see you for a little while.”
I followed my first instinct and threw the phone on the bed. I didn’t want to hear her words. I paced around my bedroom then down the hall and back. I needed to think before I spoke to her again. I was angry. She’d been home all of three hours, and now this? Every time I went back to my room, I heard her calling to me from the phone. I didn’t want to pick it up and hear what she had to say, whatever it was couldn’t be good by the way she’d started.
I just got her, I can’t lose her now. Was history repeating itself? I’d let Savannah’s father win all those years ago. But I wasn’t the same man I was four years ago. This time, I’d fight.
I grabbed the phone from the bed and said, “I’m ready now.”
“Ready for what?” She sounded hoarse, probably from yelling into the phone. “Why did it take so long for you to answer? Did you hear anything I said?”
“No. I left the phone on the bed. Tiffany, I won’t do it again.”
&
nbsp; “What are you talking about?”
“I’m not going down without a fight. And I can guarantee you, it’ll be huge if needed.”
Silence.
“Tiffany?”
“Oh, Todd. You thought I was trying to break things off?”
“Well?” I asked.
“And you planned to fight for me?” She sounded pleased.
“Yes.” I said. And I meant it.
“That is so romantic!”
“This isn’t a brush-off call?”
“Of course not!” she shouted. Then, in a much quieter voice, “Darn. I meant to say, no, it isn’t.”
All my fighting instincts— the adrenaline, fast heartbeat, rapid breathing, sweaty palms—started to return to normal. I should have known better. Tiffany wasn’t anything like Savannah. But the memory of rejection came back to haunt me for a few moments.
“Maybe you should explain.”
“Sergeant Campbell, the policeman from the two false alarms, called my dad. He was concerned about the incidents—the bomb scare and fire alarm. When I got home, I talked to my dad about it and he was also concerned. Anyway, while we were discussing it, someone dropped off a newspaper article from years ago.”
Everything stopped. I stood stock still and waited, holding my breath.
“It was the article about you, Todd.”
I let out my breath. “Someone doesn’t want us together,” I said. Damn.
“Yeah. That’s what my dad thinks, too. He’s in a meeting with the head of his security team and has called Sergeant Campbell to go over some of the details. We expect he’ll arrive any minute. They’ll do the usual, you know, try to lift fingerprints from the envelope, but they already think it’s been wiped clean. Until this is figured out and resolved, Dad has asked—well, more like demanded—I don’t put myself in harm’s way.”
“And that means staying away from me?” I asked.
“Until he’s able to get my security into place.” Her voice sounded muffled when she yelled “What?” to someone in the background. “Oh, Sergeant Campbell is here. He wants you to come over. He has some questions for you. It looks like we get to see each other sooner than I thought," she added with glee.
“I’ll be there in a half hour.” I clicked off the phone and grabbed my keys.
I pulled up to the Thompson home twenty-nine minutes later. I’d prepared myself for a mansion, but not this. This was a palatial manor that sat on probably two acres of prime waterfront in the city of Medina. The home of Bill Gates was just a few driveways down.
I pushed the button on the intercom in front of the gated driveway. At least Tiffany would have good security here. It looked like a fortress.
“Your name?” asked a disembodied voice.
“Todd Jameson,” I answered and waited for an acknowledgement. Instead, the two huge wrought iron gates swung open. Pulling my car up to the ten-car garage, I noticed my white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. This wasn’t like me. I knew a lot of rich people through work. While houses like this were above the norm, I’d visited enough that it shouldn’t make a difference.
You know why you’re nervous.
I sucked it up and walked to the front door. I started to knock, but it swung open before my hand was able to make a sound.
“Shh!” she said and grabbed my arm. “In here.”
She led me across a huge foyer with two large wrap around staircases, one on each side. Gone with the Wind came to mind.
“In here,” she whispered and shoved me in…a closet? It was dark, and it smelled of perfume and cologne.
“We don’t have much time.” Her lips met mine in the darkness, and I forgot where I was. Her lips were soft and inviting, teasing. She laughed and pulled me closer. God. What was this woman doing to me?
“I thought I wouldn’t be able to see you this soon. I almost went crazy.” She wrapped herself around me.
I felt the same, and we’d been together just the night before.
I couldn’t see her, but felt her. I was on fire and couldn’t get close enough. Letting my hands move from her silky hair down to her waist, I pulled her to me, deepening the kiss. She held me tighter and moaned into my mouth. I knew we should cut this short, but I couldn’t.
“Tiffany,” I pleaded, but I wasn’t sure what I asked for. The passion between us was all-consuming, rushing through me, obliterating every thought except for her.
I had her against the door, our hands linked above our heads, when deep voices and heavy footsteps tapped outside in the foyer.
“I don’t know what happened to her. She said she was going to get a glass of water.” Her dad’s voice sounded concerned.
“We have to get out of here before my dad gets any more worried. With everything that’s going on, he’ll flip out if I don’t show my face soon.” She kissed me gently on the lips. “I promise, as soon as this is all cleared up, I’m moving out. I’m so sorry about this.”
She opened the door and the two men turned and stared at us.
She straightened and said, “So, Todd, you’ve seen the closet. Have I showed you the kitchen yet? It’s right this way.” She latched on to my arm and pulled me in the opposite direction, waving at the sergeant and her dad as we exited the foyer.
Smooth.
Halfway down the hall, I teased, “I’m sure they had no idea what we were doing.”
“As I said, I’m moving out soon."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Angela
Six Months earlier
THE WARM, MORNING sun did its job. After I’d scrubbed down Ivy, we went outside to dry off on one of the benches scattered around the open field. She looked…better. Her hair was a light brown, instead of the stringy, medium brown it was before I poured a bottle of shampoo over her head. Ivy smiled and tilted her head up to the sun.
What will she do without you?
She’ll be fine, I assured myself. I’d met almost all the staff at dinner last night and they all seemed nice. A lot nicer than me, that’s for sure. She’ll bond with someone else.
But I can breathe here.
Ugh! I needed to stop these thoughts. I had a plan. A good one that would get me out of here. It should make me enough money so I wouldn’t have to rely on my parents. I hated the control they had over me.
“So, let’s go,” Dr. Stefan all but groaned. He’d approached from the back, so we didn’t seen him coming.
“What do you mean? Jerome is taking us on the tour,” I informed him.
Dr. Grouchy stood in front of me, hands on hips, not looking pleased, and answered, “Jerome was called away. Part of the north fence was knocked down, and he’s investigating.”
“Investigating?” I asked.
“A breach.” He glanced at Ivy.
I guessed the breach wasn’t something I should ask about. But I was curious.
“Where to, leader?” I stood and saluted him, which earned another eye roll and a smirk from Dr. Irritating.
I grabbed Ivy’s hand before she had the chance to latch onto my leg. I whispered, “Remember our deal? I promise I won’t go anywhere.”
Liar.
Ivy, in true fashion, grabbed my hand and held tight like a shopper with the last pair of marked-down Jimmy Choos.
“We’ll start walking the perimeter on the north side and work our way around.” He tilted his head in the direction we’d start.
After a few hundred feet, I asked, “So, what’s the story with the breach?” I couldn’t help myself. I was always too curious.
Another glance from him at Ivy confirmed it. It wasn’t something he wanted to discuss in front of her. I walked up next to his left side so we could talk quietly without Ivy hearing.
“Can you tell me if you whisper?” I asked.
He looked skyward for a moment and replied, “There’s a hole in the fence.”
“Oh,” I whispered. “One of the children tried to escape?”
“I wish.”
“What does that
mean?”
“There were two children…” a glance at Ivy, and he lowered his voice even more, “…taken last year.”
My stomach sank and my throat constricted. “Kidnappers?” I asked.
“Worse.” His mouth turned down. “Traffickers.”
I stopped walking for a moment while the words sank in. “But, but…why?”
“They prey on the weak. The police are understaffed, and they don’t consider it a priority. This is a poor country, and the system is broken, especially with government agencies. Have you seen the guards posted at night?”
“Yeah. I noticed that.”
“The Rutherfords have to pay out of their own pocket for private security. It puts a huge financial burden on the orphanage. They’ve had to make cuts in other areas.”
“What areas?”
“Mainly, the amount of children they can take. As it stands, they have fifty, but if it weren’t for the security they had to put into place, they could probably take twenty more. That’s twenty more children they could rescue from horrible conditions. Has anyone told you about some of the state-run orphanages?”
“No.”
He looked at Ivy and continued talking low so she couldn’t hear. “That’s the by-product of one of them,” he said, tipping his head her way. “There’ve been many improvements in the last ten years, but not with all of them.”
Anger, fast and furious, took over. I hadn’t looked at Ivy’s file yet, but it was obvious she’d been abused and neglected. My hands started to shake, and, this time, I tightened my hand in hers.
He noticed my distress, gentled his expression, and said, “She’ll be good now. She has us.” But she didn’t. At least not me. I was going to leave. Instead of saying anything, I nodded.
A few minutes passed before I asked, “So, why are you here? I mean, I know you’re a doctor and all, but why this place?”
He paused for a moment before answering, “I’m a graduate.”
“What does that mean?”
“I came here when I was ten. Dottie and Jerome rescued me from horrible living conditions. The Rutherfords are family to me. They mentored me and paired me with a benefactor to help pay my tuition in the States. If it weren’t for them, I probably wouldn’t be alive.”
