by A. B. Medley
I make my way as quietly as I can into the hospital. I left my phone in the Jeep, so if Sterling tracks it, he won’t come right here and give me time to figure this out, but he’ll be close enough to help. He’s smart, and if he finds my phone, I know he’ll find me.
I make my way down the halls in the dark until I see a light coming from the very last room in this hall. I tiptoe to the doorway and see Lucy in a white, long-sleeved shirt and jeans. There’s blood on her shirt, and her hands are bound together with rope, tied above her head on a hook. Her legs are tied together at her ankles too. She has duct tape over her mouth.
I rush to her side and sit my shoes down. I see the source of the blood that’s been running down her face. She has a nasty gash on her head that I’m sure needs stitches. Her eye is swelling badly and bruising. I start to try untying her, and she starts crying again, but she can’t speak for the duct tape. She starts to shake her head.
I feel, rather than see someone approach. Before I can turn, I hear a voice that turns my stomach and erupts fury in my whole body. “How nice of you to finally join the party. I hope you’re ready for a really big surprise.” An evil laugh follows.
I meet Lucy’s eyes and try to tell her it’ll be okay, but she cries harder, as if she doesn’t believe that’s true.
“Damn it all to hell! Why didn’t you tell me right when she said that to you, Briella?” I slam my fist on the steering wheel.
“She told me not to. Look, I had my eyes on her. The recording was obviously a distraction. I didn’t think she’d run.” She mumbles the last part.
“What?” I say in a raised voice.
“Nothing. Look there’s more going on with Ivie than you know. At this point, only she and I know. It’s not my place to talk to you about it. It’s for her to tell when she’s ready.”
“What does that even mean? This isn’t the time to get all sentimental and cryptic with a girl I’m seeing and take sides.” I side-eye her as I press the pedal down and urge the cruiser to move faster.
“Whoa, now. That’s not what this is, and you know it. She’s not just some girl; you love her, and this isn’t me taking sides. This is something I literally have no right telling you. She has to.”
“You aren’t making this sound any better, you know that right? Is the trace complete yet? I can’t believe she got away without us being able to find her.”
We grabbed Tate when we left Paris Hall, too, and this time, he chimes in. “I think you may have underestimated Ivie a bit, bro.”
I flick my eyes to him in the rearview mirror. I can’t call for backup because I’m so clueless as to what’s going on right now. “Not helping,” I growl at him.
An anxious knot is building in my chest. Where is she and what is happening? I’m the detective. It’s my job to figure out what’s happening—and to protect her, damn it.
“Got her. She’s at the playground right down from the outlook.”
The playground? “I need to call it in, at least to Trudeau.”
I call him on his cell. “Hey, Chief, I don’t know what’s going on, but I tracked Ivie after she ran out of the party. She’s at the playground past the outlook.”
“Something’s going down, Brigg. Be careful. I’m going to send two cars to back you up just in case, but I’ll tell them to lay low until you need them. I need to stay back at Paris Hall with Judge Davis and Rayna.”
“Thanks, Chief, and just so you know, Briella and Tate are with me.”
“Okay, all of you just be careful and watch your backs. Call me with an update as soon as you can.” He gets quiet for a minute then I hear a string of curses before he comes back on the line.
“Brigg, the judge is missing too. We’re going to have to call everyone out.” With that he ends the call.
“This night couldn’t get worse.”
“What happened, Sterling?” Briella asks. She’s chewing her bottom lip like she does when she’s nervous.
“Rhett Davis is now MIA too,” I say as we pull up to the playground and see Ivie’s Jeep. I throw my car in park and run to it with my service Glock drawn.
Briella raises her dress and pulls out the .380 she had strapped to her thigh and has it in hand as well, trained on the Jeep. Tate hangs back, but he stays vigilant.
“Ivie?” I call out. I use my flashlight with one hand to look in the Jeep and I see nothing. Except, is that…? “Shit, there’s her cell phone.”
New panic surges through me. “Where the hell is she?” I grip my flashlight so tight my hand hurts.
Briella looks at me with deep-set worry. Tate too. He speaks up. “Think, Sterling. Where else could she go on foot? We need to assume she did this on purpose to throw you off. Or… Hey, is her Jeep locked? Maybe you can check her messages.”
That’s brilliant. In my panic, I didn’t even let that enter my mind. I check the doors and they’re unlocked, thankfully. I reach in for her phone punching in her code, feeling a little guilty that I learned it when I saw her enter it a few times, but right now—way more thankful that I was paying attention to detail. Skimming the texts, I see the last one from the unknown number. I read the message and see the picture attached. “Shit!”
“What is it Sterling?” Briella asks.
“She absolutely did this on purpose. The psycho has Lucy at the old Rich Family Hospital up the road. They threatened me too,” I say as I continue searching the thread.
Briella pales a bit, and Tate works his jaw but sets his eyes on me, his expression unreadable. “Let’s go get them, then,” he says bluntly.
“Tate, do you have a weapon on you?” He reaches under his arm in his tuxedo jacket and pulls out a 9mm from a shoulder holster. I smirk. “Okay, I’m going in first when we get there. Both of you hang back and cover me.”
They both nod with determination in their eyes, both silently agreeing to have my back and each other’s too. The way we always have, the way we always do.
We make our way on foot to the old hospital and as we get closer, my spine tingles with dread. All of this ends tonight. I just hope we can all handle the truth of what and who this is.
“Get up and step away from her, you little tramp,” the voice snarls. My eyes are still trained on Lucy, and I slowly stand.
“Put your hands up now.” Lucy looks at me, terrified. She’s helpless, the way she’s restrained. Think quick, Ivie. I squeeze my eyes shut for a minute. You’ve got to get out of this for the baby. For Lucy. For Sterling.
I slowly turn to face the terrorist in my life. “Jade.”
She laughs. “I’m surprised that you never figured it out. This has been too much fun.”
She has a pistol trained on my chest. I still have my hands up. “Why are you doing this?”
Her eyes change from controlled to wild and full of rage. “Are you really asking me that?” She laughs again and takes the safety off the pistol and suddenly turns serious. “Careful, or I won’t get to tell you about the rest of your surprise.”
She takes something out of her pocket, and my heart leaps when I realize what it is. A pair of silver handcuffs. She tosses them to me. “Now be a good girl for once and put these on so we can talk. Wouldn’t want you to mess up and ruin everything.”
I bend slowly to get them and put them on my wrists. “Go sit by Lucy.”
I back over until I feel the wall and slide down beside her. “Don’t worry, baby girl,” she snarls. “We’re just waiting on one more guest, should be here any minute.”
A few minutes tick by, and I look over at Lucy, who has stopped shaking but still has tears silently rolling down her face. I need to keep Jade talking, make her mess up.
“What are you doing, Jade? What are you hoping to accomplish by kidnapping Lucy and holding me against my will?”
“You came on your own, sweetheart. I knew you’d come running when you realized I had Lucy. You’re so predictable, and you came alone just like I told you to. No one knows you’re here. Who in their right mind would su
spect this place? Taylor’s family’s abandoned hospital. And Lucy, well, she has some other things going on that you don’t know about. Isn’t that right?” Jade saunters over and crouches in front of us and runs her hand over Lucy’s face. “Life can be so unfair, can’t it?”
Lucy tries to murmur something, but she chokes on her sobs that she can’t quite get out. “Leave her alone, Jade. You’ve been messing with me. She’s not a part of this, just let her go.”
Jade stands again but is towering over us. “That’s where you’re wrong. She’s very much a part of this. A really big part.”
We hear footsteps, and Jade turns her gun toward the door. My heart pounds out of control. I squeeze my eyes shut for a split-second and send up a silent prayer that Sterling has found us.
I look up to see the ashen face of my own father. “Ivie.” He looks over and sees Lucy, and I think I hear his heart crack. “Lucy.” He tries to make his way to us, but Jade pushes the gun into his back. He stops short. Lucy stills, then whimpers.
“Hello, Judge Davis. You’re gonna come sit over here at the desk.” She pushes him until he moves and sits in an old desk chair that’s chained to the heavy, antique desk. She cuffs his legs and hands to the desk then smiles, because she thinks she has us all.
“So now that the gang is all here, let’s get started, shall we?” She waves the gun I the air like it’s a toy.
Dad looks at me with pleading eyes. Unspoken apologies lie there, and I brace myself for what’s coming.
“Okay, you have our attention. We’re listening.”
“Do you want to see what dear old Dad has to say first?” she asks joyfully, like we aren’t in a hostage situation.
He opens his mouth, but she shushes him. “Never mind, Judge. I think I’ll tell it from the beginning.
“My dad, Harlan, and your dad have always been rivals. That didn’t stop when they grew up. Your daddy was born with a silver spoon in his handsome devil mouth. They always competed for everything. Friends, sports, women, jobs.” She pauses, looking at my dad with a smirk.
“When dad married my mom, he finally had something of his own, something untouched by Rhett Davis. He encouraged healthy competition between you and me, Ivie, growing up. He pushed his old rivalry onto me to carry out. We’ve always been in the same circles, competed in sports, academics, you name it. Our lives have been very similar. But you’ve always had all the friends, all the boys, all the luck, all the love. I had no one.”
What am I hearing? She thinks I’ve had it easy? She thinks no one liked her?
“Jade, we were always friends. I mean, yeah, we competed in a lot of things but that doesn’t mean I didn’t consider you my friend.”
She whips around on me and presses the barrel of the gun to my head. Dad’s eyes widen in fear. “Jade, no, keep talking, we want to hear your story.” He says it in a calm and soothing voice.
She stands back upright and starts pacing again while she talks. We’re facing Dad, and he us, while she walks in between us.
“You were never my friend. You just tolerated me. Dad warned me about you, pushed me to be better than you in every way. He wanted his daughter to be better than Rhett Davis’s little princess. I tried my best to make him happy and do just that, but then when we were in junior high, I realized I was so consumed with making him happy that I had done nothing to make myself happy. Truth be told, I started to like you. We hung out a few times, just us, without my dad knowing, of course. But Lucy always interrupted. She took you from me when I thought we might have a chance at really being friends. After that, it was always just you and her. Then the boys came. Sterling liked you before Dean did, by the way, in case you didn’t know. See, I’ve been watching everything since the day you chose Lucy over me. I made your business my business.”
I feel like someone threw cold water on me. He liked me first? It wasn’t just me?
“My mom left my dad one day when we were in high school and never came back to us. She just wanted away from him, wanted a new life. I wasn’t good enough for my own mom, isn’t that a trip?” She laughs humorlessly.
“So then Dad became obsessed with me besting you in every way. I didn’t matter anymore as his daughter; nothing was ever good enough after that. So, I took it to the next level. When you became serious with Dean, I started sleeping with him, right under that pretty little nose of yours. He told me every time was the last, that he loved his precious little V.”
She cackles at that. “But I always kept him coming back. The night of Taylor’s Halloween party, he was with me. That’s why he was late.” She sneers.
I think I may be sick.
“Oh, but I knew you had eyes for Sterling, too. Any fool could see that, even Dean. I was the one blackmailing him. He had no clue. That night I lured him outside and beat him with a wooden 2x4. I almost killed him. I wanted to cause you pain. Why were you treated like a princess and loved so much no matter what you did, while I never got anything but your sloppy seconds? I’ve never been good enough to be anyone’s first choice, and I have a dad who hates me because I look just like my mother, and I still couldn’t be better than his enemy’s daughter.”
“Jade, I…”
She stalks over and backhands me so hard I see stars. “Shut up, Ivie. There you go again, trying to steal the show.”
We reach the old hospital, and I see Rhett’s truck. I stop and radio to Chief that I found it. He tells me he’s sending backup.
“Okay, guys, they have to be in there. Remember, stay quiet and stay behind me. Be vigilant,” I tell them as we get ready to enter the hospital.
When we walk in it’s all dark, but I keep my flashlight off and allow my eyes to adjust. We need the element of surprise.
I hear muffled voices and stop. I put my hand up to let Tate and Briella know to stop and then signal for them to follow me. They silently check rooms as we walk the long hallway. We finally see a light at the end of it, and the voices get louder.
We get close enough that I can see Ivie in handcuffs on the floor, her cheek starting to bruise. Beside her is Lucy, and she looks terrible. She has blood all over her and she’s tightly restrained. One of her eyes is swollen shut.
I hold up my hand again to let them know to be silent. We need to figure out the best way to approach, and I still don’t know who has them.
Suddenly, I hear a wickedly familiar voice. Jade Lancaster. I can’t believe it.
“Where was I?” She taps her chin. “Oh right. So, I almost killed Dean, then what did you do, Ivie? You went and fell into Sterling’s arms.” She laughs so hard she swipes a tear from the corner of her eye.
She turns on my dad. “Sorry, Rhett, but Sterling knocked your princess up.” The blood drains from my dad’s face as his eyes find mine. I can see his jaw working. “Which brings me to Lynn. When you moved in on Sterling, she became my little helper. She never really got her hands dirty, but she spied for me. Between the two of us, we’ve always been able to keep tabs on you.”
“I assume by now you know I attacked you at the outlook. I would’ve killed you, but Sterling showed up. I had to settle for the licks I got in before he arrived. Then imagine my surprise when I found out you were pregnant and I didn’t kill you, but I killed your unborn baby.”
She smiles at me with no hint of humanity, looking at me through soulless eyes. “That was a good one, not even planned. Didn’t even know. It felt good to take something from you, though. Then you up and left and I thought, I finally won, I ran you out of town, I bested you. Maybe I could be happy without you here, and I was for a while. Dean was done with me when you left. It wasn’t long before he left town without really looking back. You broke Sterling, too, but he stayed. I haven’t broken through his walls yet, but I will. I’ve already driven a wedge between you and Sterling with Dean. Dean’s turned into an honorable guy, he backed off when you told him you loved Sterling. But Sterling doesn’t know that. He thinks you’ll pick Dean.”
She laughs, and it drips
with malice. “It’s pathetic, but I’ll be there to console him when you’re gone for good.”
She claps her hands together, avoiding the gun she’s still holding. “So, let’s get to the really big surprise. This has to do with all of you here in this room, except me. See, when you stalk and spy on people, you find out all kinds of truths you weren’t even looking for. One day back in high school, when Lucy’s daddy left them, I overheard the reason why, but then I dug some more to find confirmation. Later I told Lucy I knew, and she made me swear to never to tell anyone. It’s hilarious she thought I was a good person and that I cared.”
She walks back over to Lucy and twirls a strand of Lucy’s hair in her fingers. Lucy looks at her, then me, and finally at my dad. I see his eyes glistening with unshed tears.
“Two people you love more than anything have deceived you, sweetie,” she says with pleasure, and I feel the contents of my stomach heave. I lurch forward, throwing up at Jade’s feet. She reacts to my sudden movement by kicking at me, connecting with my hip as I instinctively ball up to protect my baby, fear cutting me to my soul.
“That’s right, get sick, little tramp. Your daddy never told you, but you have a sister. Your daddy never told your mom, either. Your own sister has known for years but didn’t tell you. Maybe that does mean I’m better than you. I knew before you, and no one tried to lie to me. Why would they keep that from you? Hmm.”
She ponders for a moment. “Are you finished putting the pieces together yet? Lucy is your sister, sweetheart. It makes sense now, doesn’t it? You both have always looked alike and acted alike. But of course, once again, Ivie, you’re the chosen one, the perfect one. Dear Daddy didn’t claim her. He knocked up Lucy’s mom after he knocked up your mom and didn’t look back. He couldn’t settle for one woman.”
I look at my dad as the tears he tried to blink away fall down his tired face. Lucy starts sobbing uncontrollably again behind the tape. My stomach lurches once more and I cover my mouth as I dry heave.
