by Amber Malloy
“If you’d like, I can prescribe you some more.”
“It’s like we’re destined to be friends,” Cayden gushed. She took Lora’s hand into hers before the women tore off into a peal of giggles.
“Anyone Megan hates, I love. That especially goes for you, Levi.” She pointed at him.
“What do I have to do with this?”
“Did he tell you? It was the last day in the quad and—”
“Okay.” Levi moved fast off the wall to grab her arm. “We just wanted to check to see if you knew anything, thanks.”
“Heads up, Lora.” Cayden unlocked her phone before she tossed it to her. “Put your number in there and we’ll dish about whatever shitty thing Levi did.”
“Calandra,” he said, though gritted teeth.
Considering Levi never used her real name, Lora’s story must have been a true winner. “One more question,” she said.
“Sure.” Lora giggled while typing on Cayden’s screen.
“Shana didn’t have any jewelry on when she was found. Is there something she may have normally worn?”
“Now that you mention it.” The doctor pushed her glasses off her face and onto her head. “She used to wear this gold anchor with a rope wrapped around it. I think it was religious. Gosh, I wish I could have been more help.”
“Actually, you were great. Thanks!” As Levi dragged her away, she caught the phone Lora tossed back to her.
****
May 2004—The Real Graduation Day
No one cared about school. The seniors only showed up to get their yearbooks signed and grab their graduation robes for Sunday’s ceremony.
While the underclassmen took finals, seniors had the run of the campus. Levi didn’t care about any of that crap, he just wanted to get out of the house. Ever since prom night, he made it a habit to grab Cayden after her last class at Chesterfield. Soon, it would be time to pick her up.
“What did you do last Saturday?” They waited for Bud to finish cleaning out Mike’s locker. As he dug through his dead brother’s stuff, they tried to keep everything nice and upbeat. The dance squad decorated it with photographs after he died. No one had the heart to take the stuff down until the last day.
“Moved crap from the barn like I told you.”
“We came by to help but you weren’t there,” Greg told him.
Levi almost choked on his Mountain Dew. He spun a quick lie. “I went by Meghan’s first to see if I could catch up with her.”
“You want her back?” Shawn sounded surprised. “It’s the last summer before college. Why would you want to get back with her?”
“Wouldn’t say get back with per se,” he implied with the tilt of his eyebrow, and he took a jump shot and sunk his bottle into the trash can near the lockers.
The shrill ring of the bell plunged the hallway into chaos. Grateful that it cut short his interrogation, he debated whether or not to tell them about the Marines. The four of them made plans to attend the University of Illinois together, but he had changed his mind.
Freshman crowded the halls, happy to be done with their first year of school, and the juniors looked forward to the next semester where they would be top dogs. “Hey, did you guys hear?” Cam Peters, head of the basketball team, stopped in front of them. “There’s a girl missing at that fancy school.”
“You mean Chesterfield?”
The kid mumbled something and nodded. Levi’s insides dropped to the floor. “They’re shutting down the campus. Maybe even the exits in and out of the city.”
“Just because a fake-me-out Paris Hilton got lost in the woods?” Bud groaned. “I wanted to hit a couple of balls at the batting cages.”
“I’ve g-got t-to…” Levi tried to stutter out a lame excuse. “My parents—”
“You’re not going anywhere.” Greg pointed out the window and laughed while everyone crowded next to him.
His heart sank. Sitting on all flats, Levi’s truck had been t-peed. In shaving cream, the words “asshole” covered his windshield. Meghan and her gang of cheerleading idiots sat inside his flatbed, waving at everyone who came by.
“I’ll catch you guys at graduation,” he muttered before he made a run for it.
“Hey, wait! The party is still at the resort, right?”
Levi didn’t bother to answer. Instead, he took off down the stairs and out the front door. As he trucked it across the campus to the exit, he knew the lazy day he planned just blew up.
Frustrated drivers waited in line to get out of the parking lot. He slid across the hood of a crappy Honda Accord. A long line of kids extended their good-byes to one another for the summer.
“W.T.F., dude?”
“Sorry,” he threw out but didn’t slow down.
“L-E-V-I,” the cheerleaders chanted over the chaotic mess the last day of school churned out at St. Geneva High.
“Tina!” When he stuck his head in the punk girl’s window, she jumped. “Are you going home?”
“Yeah.”
“Take me with you.”
“Huh?” she asked.
“Your house is closest to the…” He glanced over her shoulder at his truck.
“Holy shit. Did the Meghan Monster do that?”
“Yeah, and I have to get to … Chesterfield,” he admitted. Levi wanted to lie but couldn’t think of a good one. “The trail, do you mind?”
“Come on.” She waved him in. “I’ve been waiting on this kind of get back for years.”
He jumped into the cramped VW Bug. “Uh, we’re not taking the main street?” he asked while Tina did a hard U-turn out of the line and sped close to Meghan and her friends.
“Can you hand me that?” She pointed to the plastic bottle and cap partially covered on the floor by trash.
He moved food wrappers and balled-up notebook paper out of his way and tossed it to her.
“Thanks.” She drove with her knees while she put the cap back on the bottle and shook it hard. “We should probably drive to the front gate. The trail from my house is overgrown.”
“Hey, bitch, I got your boyfriend!” she hollered out the window before she chucked the bottle at his truck. The sugary spray hit the cheerleaders with sticky foam from her pop.
As she gunned the little motor of the VW Bug, the screams from the teenage girls followed them. “God, that felt good.” Tina cackled.
Chapter Thirty
Present Day
Gentle notes from classical music wafted into the cracked window.
Cayden woke with a start. Confused, she sat in the truck. She tried to shake off the heavy fog of sleep and noticed the view. Parked on the hilltop that looked down on the city, lights twinkled from below.
Beautiful.
Through the passenger side mirror, Cayden caught sight of Levi relaxing in front of a campfire. She knew why he didn’t want to drive straight home, besides the obvious—his parents. Slipping out of her clothes, she grabbed his wool blanket from the backseat and wrapped it around her shoulders.
Diagnosed with PTSD a little while after his stint in the Iraq war, Levi didn’t want to go on drugs. The doctor prescribed a host of meditative remedies, and classical music made the top of his list. Mostly an American rock type of guy, Johann Sebastian Bach worked well with the ruggedly handsome man.
Cayden got out of the truck.
Sitting against a huge log, he read off his tablet, probably waiting for her to wake up. “I thought you would be asleep for at least another hour…” Levi’s voice petered out once he looked up. As Cayden stepped between his legs, he put his tablet down.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he placed his head on her stomach and hummed. She found the act arousing. The vibration from his mouth shot throughout her entire body.
Cayden dropped the blanket to the ground, which left her with only socks and Timberland boots on. Seemingly pleased by the easy access, Levi lowered his head and kissed her clit.
The sweet peck sent shivers up her spine. “Mmmhh.”
Cupping her ass, he brought her closer to his mouth. The softness he displayed became short lived when he began to fumble with his jeans. Pulling her down on his cock, he attacked her nipple with his mouth.
Levi thrusted inside of her with a powerful need. He matched the large notes to the music perfectly. She unbuttoned his shirt to kiss his chest and made her way to his neck.
As he plowed into her pussy on the hill, she teetered toward the good side of a mind-blowing orgasm. The growing pressure in her body ramped up. He attacked her lips with his mouth and sent her over the edge.
****
Wrapped within the wool blanket, they relaxed on top of sleeping bags. Levi caressed her leg and surfed the Internet on his tablet.
“What’s got you so tense?”
“After that workout, nothing.” He chuckled and bent down to kiss her leg. “I’m researching where the girls were before they were taken.”
“Good idea.” Focused on Shana, Cayden didn’t consider the others victims’ background.
“That will last me the next ten years … until I have another light-bulb moment.”
She punched his shoulder with a chuckle.
“You’re not sleeping again, are you?”
“On and off,” she admitted. “You drove up here for what, me to sleep?
“Earlier you were loopy. You commandeered yourself a new best friend, which begs the question, what did the old one do?”
She waved off his concerns. “Girl stuff.”
He stared as if he wanted to say something, but shook his head. Apparently, he made the decision to move on. “Until we figure this out, I want you to take Belle everywhere. Even when I’m not with you.”
“I’m positive no one will notice the big blue beast,” she complained.
“At least she will scare off unfamiliar people.”
“Come on, Levi, we both know the person who killed Shana, and probably the ponies, aren’t strangers.”
“You know about the ponies?” His blues eyes twinkled from the light of the fire.
She reached out to smooth down the concerned crinkle in his brow. “Word travels fast around these parts.”
Chapter Thirty-One
May 2004—The Real Graduation Day—Cont.
Hoping to avoid any unnecessary attention, Levi crossed the grounds and waited near the edge of the trail. Security and police combed the Chesterfield campus. Afraid he would be caught, he refused to leave until he found her. Pacing back and forth, he checked his phone. He texted Cayden, but he didn’t receive a reply.
“Levi.” She came from behind him.
“Shit!”
“Sorry.” She laughed. “How did you get on campus?”
Happy to see her, he grabbed her hand. “The bushes in the front.” Pulling Cayden close, he hurried down the path.
“Where’s the truck?”
“Long story,” Levi mumbled.
“Hey.” She tugged him back. “What’s going on?”
“A girl has gone missing.”
She opened her pretty brown eyes wide as her lips puckered in surprised. “Who?”
“Is this the first you’ve heard of it?” he inquired, surprised that she didn’t know anything.
“Yeah, I’ve been taking finals all day.”
Relieved, he pulled her into his lips, grateful because he’d thought the worst had happened.
“What?” she asked once they parted.
“Come on, Cayden, you don’t need to be here … why even bother to take the test?” Holding hands, they started back down the trail.
“True, but I’ve seen it through this far.”
Levi batted away a fly from his face. Humidity snuck up fast around these parts. Spring tended to be chilly at first, then switched to wicked hot toward the end of June. The odds summer would be a beast seemed high.
“You two stop!” Chesterfield security called out.
“Run!” Levi screamed.
As they took off, the guy grabbed his walkie-talkie and chased after them. Sprinting across the uneven gravel, Levi kept a tight hold of her hand.
“What the hell?”
“They’re locking down your campus,” Levi huffed. “I didn’t want you to be stuck here all night.” Stealing a glimpse over his shoulder, he saw another guard had joined in the pursuit. He yanked Cayden toward the right of the split. Mostly downhill from that point forward, they gained speed. If push came to shove, he’d cut through the trees. A much slower trek, but if they went into the forest, they could definitely shake security.
“We lost them,” she said.
Out of breath, he bent over his knees. He had to admit the terrain of the trail made him look clumsy.
While he caught his breath, he noticed the sweat that gathered in the middle of her white t-shirt. Averting his eyes, Levi couldn’t believe how his mind went to the gutter so fast with her. She grabbed the band around her wrist to wrap her long hair into a bun.
“How are you going to do in basic training if you can’t lose a rent-a-cop?” She punched his arm.
“The hill is steep,” he muttered before he started down the path again.
“How did you hear about the missing girl?” Cayden walked backward, facing him.
As he thumbed at the fullness of her face, a slight blush of red tinted her brown cheeks. He found it hard to believe the life-sized doll could be real. Turning toward his touch, Levi realized he would have a hard time keeping his hands off of her.
“Kids at my school said the roads are being shut down. The cops are probably putting up check points.”
“Must be serious,” she said.
Something black stuck out of the grass. “Cayden,” he muttered. The junior high kids and teens used the trail for screwing and drinking after hours. The police patrolled the area way more than they used to, but they still couldn’t stop anything that happened on the trail.
“If they’re getting the whole town in on it, then maybe it’s serious.”
The normal sway of the pussy willows blowing in the breeze confused him further. “Cayden!” He tried to unscramble the strange scene. The rock turned into a leg. Impossible, his mind screamed.
“What?” The smile slipped off of her face when she stumbled over Shana Waters. Before she could fall, Levi grabbed her arm and caught her. Gathering her close, he shielded her away from the sight of the girl’s dead-eyed stare.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Present Day
Frost covered the grass. Still in the beginning days of November, Cayden could tell there would be an early winter. While the farmhands walked the horses in the paddock, she gave them a wave. She wanted to get on the path before it snowed. She caught Levi and Fernando huddled near the office.
When she reached out for him, he instantly stiffened at her touch. “It’s just me.” He’d been grumpy since he found out that the girls who went missing came from low-income families, and she didn’t talk about the case much.
“It looks like that guy tried to break into the barn again.” Levi turned the tablet they studied toward her. The locks had been changed on all of the doors and new cameras were installed. They couldn’t make out any distinct features. The intruder, who was covered from head-to-toe in camo gear, ventured close to the barn door but retreated even faster.
“Maybe he heard something,” Fernando offered. “Dickie’s been patrolling the area more frequently.”
“Perhaps,” Levi replied, not sounding very convinced.
“What’s that?” She pointed to a spot farther back where light shone over the barn door.
Levi hit pause. “Not sure … a shadow of something, a branch?” The object seemed too far away and faint to really tell.
“Want me to call the sheriff?”
“No! I’ll take care of it,” he told his manager. “Thanks.”
Fernando nodded his head and left them in the barn.
Levi hadn’t mentioned his hunting trip again. Whatever went down between him and his friends had to b
e pretty major. Cayden wondered why he didn’t want to call Shawn.
“There’s something the police missed and I think it might still be on the trail.”
“I’m swamped right now, we’ll go later,” he said. It suddenly dawned on Cayden that Levi would never take her.
“Fine, give me one of the farmhands and—”
He put his face in front of hers, closing in the space between them. “I said no.”
“I’m not asking permission like a kid,” she hissed, tired of walking on eggshells around him.
“Then stop acting like one,” he volleyed back with hot anger in his eyes.
“Hey, boss, we have the manager meeting. Do you want me to wait?” Fernando asked.
Without taking his eyes off her, he stood up straight, which automatically put her at a height disadvantage.
“The ground is frozen, and there’s no way you’ll find what you’re looking for after thirteen years.” Shoving his hand through his hair, he took a deep breath. “Do me a favor and wait.”
Levi just recently got his PTSD under control. Shana’s murder site could possibly push his meter closer toward the red zone. “Look, I—”
Swooping in fast, he captured her lips between his, slowly softening his harsh stance. “I’ll be back around three. Wait, okay?” he said again, with a little more tenderness.
****
August 18, 2005—A Birthday Gift
Levi quickly hid her presents under the bench, out of sight. After they found Shana’s body, Cayden’s grandfather forced her to leave Chesterfield. Levi didn’t even get a chance to say good-bye.
“Nice haircut, townie!” Cayden shouted from the dock. It had been two months since he had last seen her. Levi jumped down from his parents’ new pontoon boat and scooped her off of her feet. Beyond happy to see her, he gave crazy pecks to her face and neck.
Prettier than ever, Cayden twisted her hair in long braids that fell down the back of her summer dress. As he placed her back down on her feet, they laughed.