by Lisa Ladew
“Joe Bristow, he’s my partner. He was talking on the radio in the car. I didn’t wait for him. I’d dealt with Dawn before. I was cocky. I won’t make that mistake again.”
Ivy nodded. Maybe she did save Officer Price’s life. With a shy smile she said, “You’re welcome, Officer Price.”
“Call me Kara.” She smiled again and Ivy’s smile grew a bit wider. Ivy didn’t make friends easily, but in that moment, she did feel like she and Officer Pr— she and Kara could become friends.
“So is it true that you are going to be in the upcoming recruit class?” Kara asked.
The question hit Ivy hard and she looked around for a clock. Today was Monday. Had the class started yet? The white, circular clock on the wall said 9:15.
“Yeah, I was. But I guess not anymore. It started today.” Ivy said quietly.
“Today? Oh.” Kara’s face fell. But she brightened almost immediately. “They might still let you in. Or if not this one, then definitely the next one. I’ll make sure of it. I’m one of the FTOs so I’ve got a bit of influence over Sgt. Rice - he’s the main instructor.”
“FTO?”
“Field training officer. When you are done in the academy, you ride with an experienced officer for several months. I’m one of those officers.”
Ivy was impressed. That must be a hard job dealing with absolute green recruits on the road. “So you’re … going back to work then?”
“Oh yeah, the doctor says I can go back in two to three months. I bet I’ll be back in six weeks.” Kara smiled her broad smile and winked at Ivy again. A chiming noise issued from the pocket of her bathrobe. Kara pulled out her phone. “Oh, sorry, I’ve got to take this. Do you mind?”
Ivy shook her head no.
Kara answered the phone. “Hi, Dad. Yeah, I found her. She’s in room 418. OK, see ya.” Kara made a pained expression. “I’m so sorry but my dad wants to tell you thank you too. He insisted. I hope you don’t mind.”
Ivy’s eyes grew wide. She did mind. “He wants to thank me?”
“Yeah, for saving my life. He’s like that. Super close with the entire police community. Does lots of volunteer work and advocate or mediation work when cops get hurt or there’s a problem between cops and citizens. He wanted to thank you regardless but when he found out you were a recruit he insisted. No matter what I said.” Kara leaned forward and dropped her voice like she was conveying a secret. “I’m his only child. My mom died of a heart attack a few weeks before I joined the department. He had just retired. With me working and mom gone and him suddenly retired he got super depressed and I was distraught about it. I almost got kicked out of the recruit class till I told Sgt. Rice what was going on. He called my dad and told him my recruit class needed a volunteer. Like a den mother for cub scouts. Someone to help the instructors grade tests, carry equipment, encourage stragglers, stuff like that. My dad came in that day and he’s been volunteering for everything under the sun since. Sometimes I think it saved his life. He’s part of Citizens on Patrol and he brings the dispatchers and desk sergeant dinners on holidays. He’s even kept up his license so he can give free legal advice to officers who can’t afford to hire a lawyer.”
“He’s a lawyer?” Ivy asked, fascinated in spite of herself. She was always fascinated with other people’s fathers.
Before Kara could answer, the hospital door whooshed open and an older man with a thick head of white hair and Kara’s dark eyes peeked just his head in. “Kare-bear!” he beamed, pushing the door the rest of the way open. In his other hand, he held two bright, red, foil balloons. Packages were stuffed under his arms.
“Hi, Dad,” Kara said with a swift grin. She turned to Ivy. “Ivy, this is my dad, William Price.”
William rushed in the room. Ivy noticed immediately that he had the same easy manner, high energy, and broad smile as his daughter. He came straight to her and held out a balloon. “Hi Ivy, this is for you. I know you’re not eight, but I didn’t know if you liked plants and a kitten seemed like too much.”
Ivy took the balloon, laughing. William turned and gave the other balloon to his daughter. “What else do we have here? Oh, OK, this is for you and this is for you.” He distributed two boxes of candy and two teddy bears to the women.
Kara caught Ivy’s gaze and rolled her eyes. “I saw that,” William growled in mock anger. Ivy laughed again. This was turning out to be OK.
His hands finally empty, William turned to Ivy and grasped one of her hands, his face serious. “I can’t ever thank you enough for saving my little girl’s life. But I still have to try. Thank you, Ivy.” He lifted Ivy’s hand to his mouth and kissed it. Stunned, Ivy couldn’t think of anything to say.
Kara spoke up behind her. “OK, Dad. I’ve just been in here thanking her too. Give her some space. I think we’re overwhelming her.”
William dropped Ivy’s hand, and with a last grin and a wink, he backed up, kissed Kara on the cheek and raised his hand in a kind of salute. “OK! I’m off to the children’s ward. I’ve got twenty-eight toys and twelve stuffed animals to distribute!” He backed out the door, but right before he closed it he told Kara, “I’ll be front and center at your press conference. Make sure you show them your best side.”
Ivy gave him a wave as he left, then turned an inquisitive eye on Kara.
“I’ve got a press conference at two o’clock this afternoon here at the hospital. I’m the first cop to get shot this year or something. They want to know how I’m doing. I would have told the Chief I didn’t want to do it but Dad thinks it will be good for me and the department. Keep public opinion high or something. He’s probably right.”
Ivy felt her eyes widen. A press conference. She couldn’t imagine it. She hoped she didn’t ever have to give one.
Kara’s phone chimed in her pocket again. She looked at the screen. “Uh oh. Joe texted me. Says to turn on the TV. Something big is going on.” Kara tried to heave herself onto her stiff leg but Ivy snatched the remote. “I’ll get it.” She punched the button to turn on the TV and didn’t even have to change the channel. The chaos of a live TV feed at the scene of a police standoff came up immediately.
A pretty reporter was talking into the camera. Ivy listened with only half an ear. Her eyes had been immediately drawn to a man in the background that looked exactly like Ryker. He was crouching behind a squad car and bent over something. Ivy couldn’t tell what. On both sides of him, officers in uniforms had their guns drawn and pointed at a small house across the street. Ivy strained her eyes, trying desperately to see if the man was Ryker or not.
“Oh my God,” Kara breathed.
Ivy looked at her. “What?!”
“The bomb squad. See them in the background? And they’ve got the whole neighborhood roped off. There must be explosives in that house.”
Ivy’s eyes flew back to the screen. Ryker’s words came tumbling back to her. Tell him Brandon is getting the explosives for this by having me set off C4 at Westwood Prep on Monday. But that wasn’t a high school they were surrounding. It was a neighborhood.
The two women listened raptly. A nurse came in to check on Ivy. Ivy answered her irritably, not wanting to tear her attention away from the gripping scene on the TV. The man she thought could be Ryker turned and yelled something to someone behind him. For a split second she saw his face. It was him. Fear gripped Ivy’s heart once again. So this is why he’d said it wasn’t over. And she’d come to the hospital and slept all night. Not realizing that for Ryker, getting rid of Brandon had only been a first step.
On the TV, two members of the bomb squad ran for the police cars, yelling something Ivy couldn’t understand. She held her breath. All the police officers dropped fully behind the cars. Some covered their heads with their hands. Ivy thought she saw Ryker get up from the ground and start to run but the camera view wobbled and then the pretty reporter threw a worried glance over her shoulder, blocking Ivy’s view. One of the bomb squad members ran for her. Ivy could finally hear him. “Get down!”
And Ryker was nowhere to be seen.
Chapter 20
Ivy and Kara locked eyes, identical expressions of horror on each of their faces. Ivy stood up forcefully. There was no way she was sitting here. She looked around the room for her clothes. She started for the wardrobe but her IV held her up. She grabbed the plastic wires and ripped the IV out of her arm¸ leaving it to drip on the floor.
“What are you doing?” Kara asked.
“I’m going. My boyfriend is there.”
“You know where that was?”
Ivy stopped short. “Well I guess I’ll just follow the smoke.”
“Ivy they won’t let you anywhere near that place. Is your boyfriend a cop?”
“No, he’s a recruit just like me. He was the big guy in jeans crouched behind the car.”
“Why was he there?”
“I’m not totally sure. All I know is it has something to do with the guy who gave me this.” Ivy pointed at her nose.
“Maybe you’d be better off going to the police station to wait for him there.” Kara’s voice became quiet. “Or just wait here and make sure he doesn’t turn up at the ER.”
Ivy flashed her an angry look, which deflated immediately at the compassion in Kara’s eyes. “Oh God, you think he might have gotten hurt?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t we just watch a little bit more? See if we can catch a glimpse of him.”
Shakily, Ivy nodded. She sat down again on the bed. The reporter was talking a mile a minute, describing the aftermath. The camera had panned in on the police officer on the ground. A large piece of splintered wood stuck out of his leg and a team of medics surrounded him.
“Flip to a different channel. Maybe find a different view,” Kara suggested.
Ivy grabbed the remote and pressed the button hard. The channel changed. The next station showed the huge hole in the ground. She pressed it again. The next station was talking to a family. A distraught mother wearing what appeared to be pajamas and holding a young girl was gesturing at the house to the right of the hole. Behind her, Ivy could see a flurry of police officer movement. She stared hard, trying to pick out what was going on. Then she saw Hunter. He was talking to someone just off-screen. Finally, he moved backwards a bit and gestured to a patrol car. The man he was talking to got in the car and Ivy collapsed in relief. It was Ryker. He looked whole and unmarked.
“There he is, he’s OK.”
Kara heaved herself to her feet and made her way stiffly to Ivy. She held out her arms. Ivy let herself be hugged. “It’s OK sweetie. See, he’s fine. They are probably taking him to the police station now. You might as well stick around though, you won’t be able to talk to him for a while I bet.”
Ivy nodded into Kara’s shoulder. She’d almost lost Ryker again. But he was OK. She felt drained, wrung out. Ready to sleep another eight hours. She pulled away from Kara and pushed herself backwards onto the bed. The machine on her discarded IV pole started beeping loudly, startling her.
The door whooshed open and a young nurse walked in, tucking a pen into her scrubs pocket. When she saw the puddle on the floor and the IV catheter hanging limply, she turned an incensed eye on Ivy.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Kara told the nurse. “I fell and Ivy caught me, but I accidentally pulled her IV out of her arm. The nurse looked at her for a second then turned back to Ivy. Ivy nodded weakly and bit back a smile when Kara winked at her.
“You’re going to be discharged this afternoon anyway, I’ll see if the doctor will write us an early discontinue order on that IV,” the nurse said, pressing a few buttons on the machine and then bustling out of the room again.
***
By 12:30, Ivy’s doctor had been in to see her. He pronounced her well and gave her instructions for the next few days, then told her she was free to go. Kara had left an hour before and Ivy had just sat in the bed, watching the scene unfold on the TV. The news people knew very little, but they had talked to the neighbors and were starting to piece together who the house had belonged to. A man named Arthur Monroe, who was apparently not a very nice neighbor. An anchorwoman had broken into the live feed and giddily announced that Arthur Monroe’s house was scheduled to be foreclosed upon in one month, and he was to be evicted in one week. Ivy grimaced at that point and turned the sound off, the anchorwoman’s joy at a man’s misfortune irritating her.
After the doctor discharged her she got dressed slowly, and wondered how she was going to get to the police station. Her phone was dead. Maybe Kara would let her use her phone? She made up her mind to ask the nurse what room Kara was in when her door opened one last time.
Ivy’s eyes widened. It was Jen, but a Jen she’d never seen before. Jen’s hair was blond instead of pink, and pulled back in a neat bun. She was wearing a smart outfit of blue pants and a white button down shirt with black work boots. She looked sophisticated, capable, and in charge.
“Jen! You look so good!”
Jen rushed to her and hugged her. “Ivy, are you OK?”
“Yeah, in fact I was just about to get out of here. They let me go.” Ivy gave her a lopsided grin. “Drive me back to the police station?”
“Sure, yeah, of course. But you have to tell me everything that happened. I heard Ryker’s mom and sister are back and safe.”
“Yeah, thanks to you.” Ivy squeezed her hand, then stood up to go. “Have you heard about the explosion?” Ivy asked her as they walked to the elevator.
“Yeah, Hunter just texted me and told me there was one, and he and Ryker were there and they were both OK. He told me you were in the hospital and I should come by on my lunch break.”
“He didn’t tell you last night?”
“No. He didn’t come home last night. He texted around eight o’clock and said he’d be very late and maybe wouldn’t be coming home at all. He said they had a big case but he couldn’t tell me what. Why was Ryker there?”
“I don’t really know,” Ivy admitted. “I just know it had something to do with the guy that took Ryker’s mom and sister.” Ivy recounted the events of the last few days. When she told Jen about Brandon slamming her face first into the truck, and then chasing her through the neighborhood Jen winced and threw her arms around her again.
“I can’t believe it. I can’t believe all that happened. I’m so glad you’re OK.”
They got in Jen’s small hatchback and Jen headed for the police station. It took the entire drive for Ivy to finish her story. But when they got there Jen had to run straight back to class.
Ivy walked into the waiting room outside the cell block and asked the desk sergeant if he knew where Ryker Wells was. She explained Ryker was probably being debriefed or questioned somewhere, but he wasn’t under arrest. The desk sergeant eyed her suspiciously and said he’d check. Ivy sat down, not very hopeful. This was the area of the police station where they dealt with people who were being arrested. She couldn’t get back to the offices where Ryker probably was.
Sure enough, in ten minutes the desk sergeant called h
er back and said no one in the back had even heard of Ryker Wells. Ivy thanked him and sank into a chair, not sure what to do now. She didn’t want to go home. All she could think about was Ryker and being there for him when he was finally done.
She pulled out her phone but it hadn’t magically recharged itself. She decided to walk a few blocks away to a store and see if she could find a generic charger for it. She left the station, on the lookout for Ryker or any car that might hold Ryker. She saw nothing.
Thirty minutes later, when she made it back to the police station with a charger, some food, and something she’d never bought before, she sat near an outlet and charged her phone. Once she was able to turn it on, she saw that Ryker had texted her only once.
Babe. Love you. It's over and OK now for real. Being interviewed at PD. Will be a while. Hope you’re OK. MSG me back if you are.
Ivy’s heart swelled. It was over. And he did love her. She held the phone to her chest for a few minutes and let the feelings wash over her. At this point, all she wanted was to get him back to her place and recover from this together.
I’m good. The hospital released me. I’m at PD waiting for you to be done. She held her fingers over the keyboard, wanting to text I love you too, but not quite daring. She did love him, but she didn’t want to tell him for the first time in a text. She wanted to see his face, touch his skin, inhale his breath. She pressed send and stared at the phone for several minutes, willing him to return text her.
When nothing came she ate her breakfast bars, disappointed, but understanding. Who knew where he was and what he was doing.
Ivy sat in the chair and watched the afternoon sun sink low in the sky from out the double doors at the front of the waiting room. The sunset colors turned orange then red, then slowly disappeared as day turned to night. Ryker texted her one more time, just after the sky turned completely dark.
You should go home. I’m nowhere near done.
Yeah right, Ivy thought. Go home and do what? I’m not leaving, she texted back.