“Were you able to tell them anything helpful? I can’t bear the thought of that criminal out there plotting another attack.”
“I don’t think I was any help,” I replied sadly, pouring steaming water into each cup.
When we were settled beside each other and our tea prepared, I turned my full gaze onto my stepmother. “I just can’t imagine who would do something like this.”
Making a tsking sound, she reached out to touch the ends of my hair. “And your hair,” she said sadly. “It was so beautiful.”
“Ethan told me you contacted him right away when I went missing so he could cover my business.”
“It was the least I could do. I hadn’t given up hope, not even after they said you could be dead. I knew you’d come home, and I didn’t want you to have to worry about the businesses.”
“Well, I don’t do the daily operation for W. You know that. I own the company, but it’s run by the team of directors Daddy put in place before he died.”
“Your father was very thorough in planning for anything that could have happened.”
I made a sound of agreement and sipped my tea.
“I still miss him every day,” she said, her voice filled with emotion. “He meant everything to me.”
My cup made a delicate clang when I set it on the saucer. A pang of something hit me upon hearing the feelings in her words.
Placing aside her own tea, she reached out, covering my hand with hers. “This is why I am so grateful you are home and well. I wouldn’t have been able to bear another loss. It comforts me so to have you here, to have a piece of your father still in my life.” Tears swam in her eyes, making them glisten and shine. Her nude-painted lips turned in as she composed herself and then released them, letting out a shaky breath.
That little pang of something was guilt. Guilt that I could ever think so low of her. It was true she was usually indifferent, cool, and we weren’t close, but to think she was trying to kill me?
There really wasn’t a reason. As she just said, my father planned for everything—even his death. She was taken care of for the rest of her life. She wouldn’t want for anything. Killing me would give her nothing.
“I know we’ve never been close.” She went on, patting my hand. “And I apologize. I don’t have any motherly instincts, but I’ve always been proud of you and I’m relieved you are all right.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, emotion piercing my heart. I hadn’t realized how I’d longed to hear that. How much I’d wanted her acceptance.
Both my parents were dead. I was an only child… All I had was my stepmother. Perhaps the silver lining in all of this chaos would be a stronger relationship with her.
Sniffling a bit, she smiled. “How about some fruit?” she suggested, glancing at the giant gift basket.
“It does look delicious.” I agreed, eyeing a particularly shiny red apple.
“Don’t these apples look gorgeous?” she said, following my gaze. “I told them I wanted the best they had, and they certainly delivered.”
“It all looks amazing.” I looked over the various selection of fruit.
Reaching into the back of the basket, she grabbed a knife, then reached for the apple.
“You brought a knife?” I asked, surprised.
“The company I ordered this from said they put one in every basket.”
“Of course.”
“Frankly, I think it should include a diamond tiara, considering what I paid for it.” She laughed.
The knife slid easily through a section of the apple as she cut out a small piece for herself and then handed me the rest of the plump-looking fruit.
“Don’t you want more?” I asked, taking what she offered.
“There’s plenty. Besides, it’s a mother’s joy to see her child fed.”
A weird feeling tingled the base of my spine.
Setting aside the knife, Audra took a bite of the apple. “Mm,” she said around the snack. “It’s delicious.”
“It certainly looks it.” I agreed.
“Try it, try it,” she insisted, pushing my hand and the apple toward my lips.
My teeth cut through the crisp fruit, juice exploding over my tongue. Sweet tanginess filled my senses as Audra smiled. Chewing, I returned her smile. “Very delicious.”
Juice dripped down the back of my throat, creating a tickle.
My tongue started to swell, the rapidness with which it blew up creating immediate panic to seize me.
Clutching the apple, I started to wheeze, air becoming something so hard to find. Lifting a hand to my throat, I began to gag, my lips turning numb and a fuzzy feeling stinging my entire body.
Heaving, I was desperate for air.
Frightened, I reached for Audra, the woman I’d just given the benefit of the doubt. She slapped my hand away and cackled.
“Stupid girl!” She cackled again. “If I had known you would be this gullible, I would have just handled you myself long ago!”
The sound of my throat rattling filled the room. My tongue felt so wide and hot I wanted to vomit. My hand flailed, searching for relief, and hit the basket. It tumbled over, fruit spilling everywhere.
Nearly collapsing on the island, I wheezed, reaching around for something. Anything. Numbly, I noticed my hand bump against something.
Through tear-soaked, blurry eyes, I saw it.
The strawberries.
Beneath all the fruit in the basket Audra had brought was a pile of bright-red strawberries.
Angry, I wrenched up, ignoring the way the room swam and the way my lungs screamed. Grabbing the basket, I threw it at her.
She cackled again, her laugh wild and chilling.
With that last burst of strength, I collapsed, sprawling onto the kitchen floor with the apple still clutched in my hand.
“Stupid, stupid girl.” Audra preened, staring down at my struggling form. “All I had to do was rub that berry all over that apple, cut up some with that knife, and then pile all the safe fruit on top. You had no idea.”
The apple! My sluggish, oxygen-deprived brain worried. I was still touching it. Still poisoning my body.
It seemed to take forever to pry my fingers away from the red flesh, but when I did, it fell out of my palm beside me.
My entire body felt as if it were on fire, burning from the inside out. My skin hurt, my face hurt, and I couldn’t breathe or swallow.
Tears leaked out of my eyes, rushing over my cheeks and dripping onto the floor I lay on.
“W-w-why?” I gasped, wanting to know why I had to die.
“Yes, your father left me more than enough money,” Audra answered right away, probably eager to spill the hate she’d carried around for so long. “But when he died, so did a lot of my power.”
I couldn’t understand. My brain just didn’t comprehend.
Gasp. Rasp. Wheeze. If only I could get to my EpiPen. If only…
“That stupid man left you W and with it, all the power. But it’s not you who’s to be the most powerful in this city! It’s me! I earned this! It’s my time to enjoy everything I worked for. If you had died all those years ago like you were supposed to, then all would already be mine!”
Everything went quiet. Her screaming, incensed tone dropped away as if I’d been plunged into the depths of an ocean, the water so deep and thick it muted every sound.
Dry, cracked lips moved, but no sound came out. Tears stopped falling as though my body had nothing more to give.
My heart squeezed, lungs seared, and my vision began to fade.
Mirror, mirror on the wall… who’s the most powerful of them all?
I stared up, straining to see the woman who hated me enough to kill. The last words I would ever hear echoed within my head. If you had died all those years ago like you were supposed to…
Darkness.
58
Neo
* * *
Curiosity nearly starved me, but I endured. Even though I knew she was gone, butterflies still b
uzzed beneath my ribcage, and an unsteady feeling hummed through my limbs when I opened the apartment door, stepping inside.
It was almost like I could still feel her presence. Her scent and aura still lingered in the air. The second I stepped inside, a wave of homesickness slammed into me, staggering in intensity. Why would I be homesick while standing in the middle of my home?
Why did I inhale deeper, trying to claim what was left of her scent?
I missed her so much I’d turned into some kind of desperate rodent searching for crumbs.
Beau and Fletch looked up, disappointment filling their gazes when finding only me. Like they, too, missed her presence and wanted it back.
Beau grunted. “I was starting to think you were never coming home.”
“I’ve been working a lot,” I mumbled, but everyone knew what I was really doing was hiding.
“Ivory was here,” Fletcher announced, holding up a colorful mug as though he’d won some award. “Look what she gave me!”
The tightening of my heart made it hard to swallow as I took in the gift. “She came by to give you a gift?” I asked, trying to keep my tone even.
Fletch nodded, but then his face fell. “Seemed like she wanted to say good-bye.”
A cold wind howled through my suddenly hollow heart.
“Don’t be dramatic,” Beau scolded. “It was more of a thank-you.”
Swallowing, I nodded, my eyes zeroing in on the familiar red and green shirts draped over the back of the couch.
A pregnant pause filled the room. Then Beau cleared his throat. “Ivory asked me to give those to you.”
“How’d she get them anyway?” Fletch wondered out loud.
Fingertips brushing over the green shirt, I remembered the way she looked tucked into her cloud-like bed, wrapped in my shirt.
She brought it back… “I have to piss,” I declared, taking myself into the bathroom and slamming the door.
My fingers throbbed from gripping the edge of the pedestal sink so tight, my head hanging between my shoulder blades as emotion pummeled my heart.
I had no right to feel angry or hurt because I was the one who left.
Sniffing, I looked up, catching my wrung-out reflection in the mirror. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the stupidest of them all?
“You,” I whispered, spinning away in disgust.
My eyes landed on the row of cups and toothbrushes… specifically the pink one. Longing so potent filled me up so there was no room for any fear.
Why was I doing this? Why was I pushing her away?
I stalked into the other room, pacing, feeling like a lion trapped in some kind of too-small cage. Fletcher started to speak, but I growled, which sent him scurrying off into the bathroom for safety.
“I don’t know what’s going on between you two,” Beau said quietly, “but if it helps at all, she clearly misses you.”
“It doesn’t,” I snapped.
“Maybe it should.”
The door banged open without warning, slamming so hard against the wall that everything nearby rattled dangerously.
I spun, whatever I would say to Beau forgotten. Fletch ran out of the bathroom as though there could be some freak earthquake, his footsteps halting when he saw Earth darkening the room.
The bartender’s near-black eyes glittered dangerously, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths. The fingers at his sides were pure white from the force with which he clenched his fists. Even my churned-up mood seemed to pale in comparison to the gale-force storm raging inside him.
It was something… something I’d never seen before. Wickedness. It was the only way I could describe it. And while no one in this room was pure of heart or clear of crime, this felt different.
Yet somehow familiar.
Tingles of warning exploded at the back of my neck, racing up and down my spine, muddying my thoughts.
“Earth?” I questioned, leveling my complete attention on the keyed-up man. “What’s wrong?”
A sharp inhale of breath.
A shadow of dread behind his intense stare.
The tingles morphed to full-blown screams. Just as I was about to shout, his chest puffed out with a great inhale.
“It’s her stepmother. She’s going to kill her. We might already be too late.”
One second of suspended time that felt like one thousand years paused everything, shock silencing all but then dropping as if I hadn’t just aged exponentially in the flash of a moment.
“What?”
“It’s Ivory’s stepmother. We have to go.”
Beau’s chair banged against the wall when he stood, abandoning his workstation without a second glance. Fletcher leaped over the back of the couch, not questioning anything Earth said. Both of them rushed to the door, making enough noise for an entire herd of elephants.
But I just stood there rooted to the ground like someone had turned my legs to stone. As if my body were still frozen in that deferred moment.
“How do you know?” The question scraped out of me, its edges sharp, leaving the taste of blood on my tongue.
“That’s not important right now!” Earth barked, turning to usher everyone out.
But it was. I knew its importance down to my core.
Fletcher and Beau stared between us, suddenly sensing my mood.
Fletch glanced at Earth. “Earth?”
Earth stiffened but didn’t retreat. “Because I didn’t do it for her.”
I—What? It made no sense. I struggled to understand, but even so, I moved, feet light, flying over the ground, knocking into Earth and pinning him against the wall. Despite my trouble comprehending, adrenaline and anger were fully present.
Earth knocked me away, halting the impending attack with his words. “She might already be dead.”
My vision flickered, turning everything in the room to black and white.
No more color. No more life.
I rushed out of the apartment, hearing everyone else close behind. Snort’s heavy breathing followed us down the stairs as we raced out onto the sidewalk.
“How are we going to get to the Upper East Side so fast? Traffic this time of day is always jammed.” Fletch worried.
Pulling out his phone, Beau said, “We can run for a while. I’ll order a car to meet us halfway.”
I started to run, but something slammed into the middle of my back. An unexpected flashback from the night at the fish market flooded my racing mind. Pain radiated through my skull as I recalled the hit, remembered falling…
“Follow me,” Earth ordered, hand gripping the center of my back, half dragging me until my feet got with the program and I began to run.
“We don’t have time for this!” I roared, wondering why we were going deep into some random alley and not toward the main street.
“Help me.” Earth grunted, throwing his weight into a large dumpster against the building.
All of us did as he asked, the giant metal bin sliding out of the way to reveal a garage door. A door I didn’t even know existed.
“What is this?” Beau asked.
Earth hit a code, and the door lifted, revealing a small space.
Beau whistled low the second the vintage black muscle car came into sight. It was equipped with some obvious upgrades, filling the hood with chrome.
“Let’s go,” Earth declared, rushing to the driver’s side, Snort hot on his heels.
Breaking glass, weightlessness, blood, vacant eyes… death.
More flashbacks barraged my mind, twisting my stomach and making it hard to breathe.
A loud slapping against metal sound snapped me out of it, and my head shot up. Earth was pounding on the roof, signaling for me to get in.
A vision of Ivory swam behind my eyes and, with it, fear I never wanted to feel again. Feet pounding over pavement, I jumped into the car as the engine roared to life, the rumble so intense the entire car vibrated.
“You gonna be okay?” Earth asked, flicking me a look of concern.
He didn’t ask twice. Hell, I was surprised he asked at all. The car squealed out of the hidden parking space, fishtailing slightly with the excessive speed he started with. The alley filled with smoke from the exhaust and spinning tires as he fired ahead, not even pausing before drifting out onto the road.
Sounds of that night from seven years ago filled the back of my mind, and bile burned my esophagus. Gripping the handle above my head, I gave Earth a look. “Faster.”
Steering expertly through the streets of New York City, Earth maneuvered the car none of us knew he had through alleyways and over curbs and disobeyed every law and sign as he went. The loud purr of the modified engine drowned out everything except the thrashing of my heart.
Vicious memories from that long-ago night and the more recent one when we were attacked at the fish market clashed in my head, blurring together to create one giant nightmare.
Every moment that passed by made me sweat harder, made me wonder if we were too late.
I was selfish. Cowardly. I wanted her so badly, but I walked out. I let fear and pride rule my actions… but they had never been able to rule my heart.
And now here I was, racing to the woman I loved despite trying desperately not to. It didn’t matter that I was too afraid to fall. I fell anyway.
And now she might be dead.
Taken away like almost everyone else.
At least they knew how much you loved them. But Ivory could die thinking I didn’t care. Thinking she didn’t mean anything at all.
“Hurry up!” I roared, pounding on the dash.
Moments later, Earth muscled the car up over the sidewalk, forcing people to dive out of the way. The car had barely stopped, and I was already out, leaping over the hood and racing inside the building.
The doorman tried to stop me, but I evaded, slamming my hand over the elevator button repeatedly.
“You can’t just barge in here!” he yelled.
“Call up to Ivory White’s penthouse. She’s in danger!”
“Danger?” The man wondered. “Nonsense, she’s with her stepmother.”
How did Earth know? Impatience roared through my body, panic pummeling me, and I nearly fell into the elevator doors when they sprang open.
Ivory White : A House of Misfits Standalone Page 29