by Willow Rose
Mary didn’t like it. She had promised Peter to come alone. Now she was showing up with an entire entourage just to protect her. From who? Peter? He was her husband for sixteen years. Shouldn’t she be able to handle him? To persuade him not to hurt Cole or her?
I don’t get it.
It was so hard to believe that he could contain that much hatred. The man who had loved her? The man she had loved? How was this possible? Had Peter really kidnapped the twins back then just to hurt her? Had he killed Blake?
Mary shook her head and took I-4 toward the Villages and the mall like he had asked her to.
If anyone follows you, the boy is dead.
Mary glanced in the rearview mirror. She could still see Eva Rae and her minivan. If she could see it, then Peter could too. She didn’t like not following his instructions correctly. Peter wasn’t a man you tricked. He was clever and would know they would try to be there to protect her. He had to know Eva Rae would be there too.
“What’s your plan, Peter?” she whispered out in the darkness as she found the exit to Mall at Millenia and slowed down to take a turn. She was fighting her tears, thinking about him, and about the life they had lived together. They had been through so much. And she had thought they were in it together. How could any human being be so cruel?
“What is it you want?”
She drove past the mall, then found the big IKEA behind it. She glanced in the mirror once again, but now she could no longer see the minivan behind her. She breathed relieved. Eva Rae had pulled back like she said she would.
Mary felt her heart beat faster as she drove into the parking lot and scanned the area to see if she could spot him. The tears were slowly substituted for anger inside of her; the more she thought about what Peter had done to her, the more she wanted to hurt him back.
But first, she wanted to get her boy.
Chapter 73
“There’s no one here,” Mary mumbled to herself, letting her eyes search the parking lot for Peter and Cole. There was nothing to see in the darkness. The area was only lit up by the lampposts outside of the IKEA building.
Not even a car.
“Why have you brought me here, Peter?” she whispered and looked out the windshield. He wasn’t even here, was he? He was toying with her.
Her phone vibrated, and Mary gasped. She looked at it. It was an unknown number like Agent Thomas said it might be because he was changing phones so they couldn’t trace him. It had to be him.
“Peter. I’m here now. Where are you?” she said to make sure she got to say something before he hung up again.
“Turn around and go back,” his hoarse voice crackled on the other end. “Then go on the turnpike. You have ten minutes.”
“The turnpike…but…?”
He hung up again. Mary stared at the phone. What was going on here? Hadn’t he just brought her to this place? Now, he wanted her to go back that same way and then continue? Was it all just a joke to him?
Mary felt her hands shake heavily as she put the car in drive and took off, tears rolling across her cheeks, tears of anger and frustration. She was sick of being the victim here. She was sick of being bossed around, of people walking all over her. Peter had taken enough from her as it was. She wasn’t going to let him take more. She wasn’t going to let him get away with treating her like this.
I loved you! I gave you my heart. How could you do this to me? How could you?
She slammed her hand on the wheel and let the tears roll while trying to focus on the road and the task ahead. So now he had her running down the turnpike, and then what? How did she know that doing this would get her to her boy? How could she know that he wouldn’t just tell her to go somewhere else when she got there, maybe all the way back again? Just to mock her? Just because he knew he could get her to do anything? Was this nothing but a demonstration of his power? The power he had possessed over her for her entire adult life? Telling her what to do, pretending to love her, to want to build a life with her when all he wanted was to tear it all down? To hurt her?
All those times he had held her in his arms, comforting her, telling her he loved her, and that they’d get through this together, while she cried helplessly over the loss of her children.
Had it all been a lie? Was her life just a joke? A game?
“Well, the game is about to be over soon,” she mumbled as she passed the exit to the resort again and continued onto the turnpike. She looked at her watch—exactly ten minutes. She was here, now what?
“Now what, you bastard?” she yelled into the cabin of the car, slamming her hands on the wheel. “You sick bastard, what do you want me to do now, huh? Jump out of the moving car? Rob a bank, huh? What?”
Mary sobbed and cried, holding onto the wheel for dear life when her phone rang again. It was him. Of course, it was.
“I’m here now, on the turnpike. Now what?” she asked.
“Good girl. Now, you floor it.”
“Floor it?”
“Drive as fast as you can, paying no attention to the speed limit.”
“Is that all? For how far? Peter? Peter?”
He was gone.
Chapter 74
“Where on earth was he taking her?”
I looked at Allison next to me. She was sitting with her laptop on her knees, tracking Mary on the screen. We had heard the phone ring and her getting new instructions. We had seen her drive out of the parking lot by IKEA and drive back toward the hotel, shaking our heads, puzzled at what was going on. We were listening in on her conversations, or Allison was through her headset, but all we got from what was being said on the phone was the turnpike, and as she took the ramp toward it, I understood that Peter—or Roy—had given her new instructions. He was toying with her, making sure she was following his instructions properly, and probably trying to get rid of us in the process as well.
Now, as he had seen her follow his directions closely, he would know that he could make her do anything. My guess was he liked that. He enjoyed being in charge—ruling over her life completely.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Allison said. “The turnpike could take her anywhere. All I can see is she’s going south so far.”
“I sure hope he’s not just getting rid of all of us, getting us out of town, so he can take the boy and leave town in the other direction,” I said.
“You mean it could all be a diversion?” Allison asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s a risk we have to take,” she said.
“True. What do you think his game is?” I asked.
“Like you said. Demonstrate his power over her, crush her.”
I nodded and drove onto the turnpike. We were keeping a reasonable distance so we couldn’t be seen. Behind me sat two deputies, Deputy Hanson and Deputy Johnson, from the sheriff’s office, that I had asked to go with us in case we needed backup. They were sitting in the seat where my children usually sat.
My children. Gosh, how I missed them.
Alex had called before he went to bed, and I had sung for him like I usually did. He had then told me he was sick of being babysat by grandma since she always yelled at him for not picking up his toys from the floor. I was usually pretty relaxed about toys on the floor since I knew it’d only get messy again the next day, so instead, I usually had one day a week when we cleaned everything up. My mom was old school and didn’t like my relaxed attitude.
“A boy needs to learn how to clean up after himself, or he’ll grow up to be a messy head,” she’d say constantly.
“You asked me to clean up constantly during my childhood and look how that turned out. If you ask me, you’re wasting your time,” was my reply the last time she said it.
That shut her up for a little while.
I thought about Alex and smiled secretly, looking forward to tucking him in properly again soon, as I landed on the turnpike and looked at Allison.
“Is she still on it?”
“Oh-oh,” she said.
“Oh-oh,
what?”
“She’s flooring it. Peter just called again, and I think he told her to. Look at her car,” she said and turned the screen so I could see. The red dot was darting south on the turnpike.
“He’s making it hard for us to catch up to her,” I said and let my foot weigh down on the accelerator. The minivan jolted forward. “But she’s not the only one who can drive fast.”
Chapter 75
She was driving faster than ever before. Mary was doing as she was told, flooring the BMW. She never liked this car much. It was Peter’s, and he insisted on them taking it to Florida when they left for the vacation because he preferred to drive it over the big Cadillac SUV she drove when they were at home.
Did he know it would end like this? Did he already plan to have me speeding like this to save my son’s life?
The thought gnawed at her insides, and tears sprang to her eyes again. Peter knew how much she hated to drive fast, how scared she got when he sped. He was doing this just to torture her, wasn’t he?
Luckily, it was so late that there weren’t many cars on the turnpike. Mary drove up behind one now, then changed lanes and zigzagged between that car and another one close to it. She had to slow down to get past them both, then sped up as soon as she could. She knew she risked losing Eva Rae Thomas by going this fast, but for now, she didn’t dare to defy Peter’s orders.
Not when her son’s life was at stake.
Sweat sprang to her forehead as she realized she was going a hundred. She had never done that before. Yet the BMW seemed steady on the road, and as she zigzagged between more cars, she got the feeling that maybe she could actually do this. She had made it this far, hadn’t she? Now she only worried that Peter hadn’t told her how far she was supposed to go like this.
She glanced at the phone next to her, but it remained eerily quiet.
If I continue like this, I’ll end up in Miami, she thought nervously.
Yet the phone remained quiet.
She lost the other cars and came to a part of the road where she was all alone. Heart throbbing in her chest, she clenched the wheel as it shook profoundly due to the speed she was going. She looked out the windshield, then spotted something on the side of the road.
Or rather someone.
Peter!
He was waving at her to stop, and she did. She hit the brakes so hard, the car skidded sideways down the road, passing Peter and the car he had parked in the grass. Mary closed her eyes as she lost control of the BMW, and it flew into the grass, then finally stopped. Panting, she sat for a few seconds with her eyes closed, hands still clenched on the wheel. Outside stood Peter, signaling for her to get out.
Mary held her breath as she laid eyes on him, then swallowed the anger rising inside of her.
She got out and approached him, taking long and angry steps. “Peter? What in the world…?”
He placed a gun against her forehead, and she stopped. Then he looked down at her shirt, let a hand slide across it, feeling it, till he found the small microphone they had pinned to it, and pulled it off.
Mary watched it land in the grass, then looked up at Peter. He nodded toward the car on the side of the road.
“Get in.”
Chapter 76
“She stopped.”
Allison turned her head and looked at me.
“What do you mean she stopped?” I asked, still flooring the minivan, zigzagging between cars in front of us.
“She stopped moving. The dot is suddenly standing still.”
She turned the screen so I could see, and I looked briefly, then returned my eyes to the road ahead. I passed a big truck transporting groceries to Publix.
“Okay, what is going on with her. Is she saying anything?”
Allison went quiet. “She’s saying something now. Wait.”
Two cars in each lane were blocking my way, and I was forced to slow down. Annoyed, I drove up behind the one in the left lane, hoping he’d get out of my way. He didn’t. Probably was one of those types who thought that since he was going the speed limit, then he was entitled to be in the passing lane and stay there. If I wanted to pass, I’d have to wait.
I grumbled when Allison took off her headset.
“Something is wrong,” she said.
“What?”
Finally, the guy passed the other car and changed his lane so I could pass both of them. I roared past him, then continued.
“I heard her talk to him, and then she went quiet. As in completely silent.”
“What do you mean. Him? Peter?” I asked.
“Yes. She was in the middle of a sentence when she suddenly went quiet. Now, I can’t hear anything except the sound of roaring cars, and in between them, I hear…?”
“Yes? What?”
“Cicadas?”
“What?”
Allison stared at the screen. “We’re getting closer to where she stopped. It should come up on our right in a few seconds.”
I slowed down and spotted the BMW on the side of the road, parked in the grass, facing the wrong direction. I hit the brakes and turned into the side as well, then stopped.
“There’s nothing here,” I said. “Not even a rest area. Why did she stop here?”
I unbuckled and jumped out of the minivan, then rushed toward the BMW. I pulled the door open.
“Mary?”
As I suspected, she wasn’t there. I exhaled, annoyed, then looked at Allison. “She’s not here. He must have been here, then taken her with him.”
Allison looked at the grass. “Looks like a car parked here recently.”
“Looks like he met her here and took her with him. Great. The tracker was in the car, so now we can’t trace her. Her phone was left inside the car too.”
Allison walked a few steps, then reached into the grass and pulled something out.
“Guess that’s why we heard cicadas,” she said and showed me the microphone.
“Dang it,” I said, grabbing my hair. “We don’t even know what car he is driving, or what direction they are going. We lost her. She’s completely on her own now.”
Chapter 77
“Cole?”
Mary almost screamed his name when she saw him in the back seat. His eyes were closed, and he wasn’t moving. Seeing this, her heart dropped.
“What did you do to him, Peter? What did you do?”
She sat in the seat next to him in the back of the car, while Peter jumped into the front seat and started up the engine. He roared onto the road.
“Peter?”
“Relax,” he said, looking at her in the rearview mirror. “He’s just sleeping. It’s been a long day.”
Mary’s heart throbbed, and she placed her head on the boy’s chest. When she heard a heartbeat and could feel his chest heave up and down, she breathed with relief. He was still alive.
“Did you hurt him?” she asked, looking at his arms and legs for bruises. She touched him frantically, so extremely relieved to see him again that she wasn’t sure he was really there, that it wasn’t a dream or an illusion in her mind.
Peter didn’t answer. He accelerated the car, still holding the gun in his right hand. Cole began to move, and Mary gasped. He blinked, then opened his eyes. A smile spread across his face.
“Mommy! You came!”
Mary pulled him into a hug and held him while tears welled up in her eyes. “Oh, my sweet boy. My darling Cole. You have no idea how glad I am to see you.”
She loosened her grip even though she didn’t want to, but she needed to look into his eyes. She grabbed his face between her hands.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
He shook his head, biting his lips. She sighed, relieved again, and pulled him into a second hug, crying tears of joy, but also worry, as the terrifying thought emerged inside of her.
Now what?
“Oh, my boy, my sweet boy,” she said and ruffled his hair as he leaned back in his seat. She focused on calming herself as the panic threatened to erupt. Yes, she
had found her boy, but what was next? How would they get away from Peter alive? She had lost her backup; that much she was sure of. There was no way they’d be able to trace her or listen in anymore.
“Where are you taking us?” she asked Peter after a few seconds of finding the courage.
He glared at her in the mirror, a smirk on his face, madness gleaming in his eyes, frightening her. She had never seen this side of her husband before, this strange malevolence when he looked at her.
Or maybe she had. Maybe she had actually seen him look at her with evil in his eyes before. But she had just ignored it, smiled at him, and seen it give away to his affectionate eyes. But it had all been a charade, hadn’t it? It was all an act to hide his real lunacy that had always lurked beneath that façade he had worn for sixteen years.
“P-Peter?”
She pulled the boy closer, nervously.
“Dad?” Cole said, trying to help her. “Where are we going?”
She leaned forward and placed a hand on Peter’s shoulder like she used to do to calm him when he got upset. Only this time, touching him filled her with a deep disgust that she hid behind her smile and affectionate tone of voice.
“Peter, we’re together now. It’s all that matters. All of us here, together. As a family. This is all I ever wanted, and I know it is what you wanted too. To be a family.”
He stared at her in the mirror, his nostrils flaring. The madness seemed to subside slightly, at least for a second.