“I happen to agree with you, but it’s going to take some finagling to ensure that outcome.”
“Who do we need to talk to?” Jack asked. “I’m more than willing to be the one to put in the request if it’s necessary.”
“Actually, I’m going to see if I can call in a favor first,” Brian said. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll try other methods. Until then, I think it’s best if Ivy keeps mentoring at the barn.”
Ivy let loose with a long-suffering groan. “Ugh. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
“Oh, nice reference, honey.” Jack patted her back, amused. “I think it’s probably good for you to be around the girls as long as you’re really careful about what you drink. I think some sort of rules should be put in place about what the girls drink, too.”
“That should be simple enough,” Ivy said. “I’ll run to the market before I head over there and grab a couple of cases of bottled water. I’ll make sure all of the bottles are checked to make sure the seals are in place before the girls open them.”
“That’s a good idea,” Brian said. “Right now, we have suspicions but not enough evidence to move on them. Simone is going to remain in charge … at least for the next few hours. You need to keep an eye on her without killing her. Do you think you can do that?”
Ivy adopted an innocent expression. “What do you take me for?”
“A fiery woman who tends to melt down under certain circumstances,” Brian replied without hesitation. “We need you to keep your cool until we can get Simone removed as the pageant coordinator.”
“I think I can manage it,” Ivy said dryly. “I am an adult, after all.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I thought when I sat through that meal with you and Max yesterday,” Jack deadpanned. “Speaking of that, have you considered giving him some space to deal with his love life on his own personal time?”
“No.” Ivy was so matter-of-fact Jack couldn’t stop himself from grinning.
“I didn’t think so,” Jack said. “Still, you might give him a little space to make a decision on his own. If you push him, it’s only going to make matters worse.”
“Don’t worry about Max,” Ivy said. “He’s my brother. I know him best. I’ve got everything under control. Better than that, I’ve got a plan.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of,” Jack muttered.
“Don’t worry. It’s a good plan.”
“Yeah. When this blows up in your pretty little face, remember that I warned you.”
“It’s not going to blow up.”
“If you say so.”
“It’s not.”
“Just … drink your tea. I think we all need a few minutes of quiet.”
“Whatever you say, my king,” Ivy teased.
“Keep it up.”
“I plan to. If I’m the queen like you said, then you definitely have to be the king.”
“Ugh. I haven’t even eaten yet and I already want to throw up,” Brian lamented. “I should’ve let you guys keep fighting.”
Eleven
Ivy gave Simone a wide berth when she got to the barn, pasting a wide smile on her face as she joined the girls for dance practice.
“What are we working on today?”
Simone’s daughter Sadie opened her mouth, closed it, and then looked to her friends for an answer. When none of them so much as made eye contact, she barreled forward. “I thought you were done helping us.”
Ivy forced herself to remain cool and collected. “Who told you that?”
“Well … my mom.”
“She was misinformed.”
“But … um … are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Ivy was firm as she crossed her arms over her chest. She expected resistance – her reaction to Mackenzie’s bottle the afternoon before had been theatrical enough that some of the girls were put off by her presence – but she knew she had to stick around while Brian and Jack worked to have Simone removed from her position of power.
“But aren’t you crazy?” one of the other girls asked.
“Not last time I checked.”
“But … Mrs. Graham says you’re crazy – and potentially a witch.”
“And I think Mrs. Graham worries far too much about what other people are doing,” Ivy countered. “I’m not crazy. If you have questions about what happened yesterday afternoon, though, I’m more than willing to answer them.”
“I have a few questions,” Mackenzie said, shuffling closer, her expression unreadable. “Why did you knock that bottle out of my hand the way you did?”
“Because I was worried it was dosed with antifreeze.” Ivy saw no reason to lie. “Listen, you all know what happened to Aubrey. I thought Mackenzie’s water bottle looked a little yellow. I didn’t want her to drink it and, yeah, I probably could’ve been quieter when I reacted. It was an instinctive thing and I’m sorry for frightening you.”
“W-was it poisoned?” Mackenzie almost looked afraid to hear the answer.
“The state lab is testing it.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. The state lab did test the water bottle. Ivy figured it was safer to keep the results to herself for the time being, though. “They’ll have results today.”
“Okay but … if someone is trying to poison us, shouldn’t we cancel the pageant?” Mackenzie shrank back when the other girls made indignant growling noises. “Or … um … not.”
“I’m with you on cancelling the pageant, but I don’t think anyone else is going to agree with us.” Ivy put a reassuring hand on Mackenzie’s shoulder while fixing the other girls with a challenging look. “As it stands, the pageant will go forward. I do have a solution to the water problem, though.”
“What’s that?”
“I bought three cases of water from the grocery store,” Ivy explained. “It’s all sealed, which means it wasn’t tampered with. This way you guys will be able to see that those plastic rings aren’t broken so there’s no reason to worry about it.”
“Oh, well, that’s actually a good idea.” Mackenzie brightened. “I’m sorry I thought you were being weird yesterday. I … um … you kind of freaked me out.”
“I don’t blame you.” Ivy honestly didn’t. Mackenzie was a victim in all this, her more than anyone else. “I should’ve picked a different way to approach you, but I panicked instead. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, at least I didn’t drink the water.” Mackenzie smiled. “If we find out there was something in there, you might’ve saved my life or something.”
“I was simply being careful.” Ivy returned her smile for a long beat and then clapped her hands. “Okay, you guys are practicing one of the dance numbers, right? Get in position and go to it. We’ll take a break in thirty minutes and get the water then.”
“Okay,” Sadie said dubiously. “If you go crazy again, though, I’m telling my mother.”
Ivy met her snotty gaze with a dark one of her own. “I would expect nothing less.”
“I’M SURPRISED TO SEE YOU back here.”
Max, who was working on the sets yet again, left Ivy to her own devices for a full two hours before approaching. He was nervous, which was completely unlike him where his sister was concerned, but he was also eager to get their relationship back on track. He didn’t like it when they were fighting. Sure, he thrived on it when they were kids, but he was an adult now. He still considered Ivy one of his primary responsibilities despite Jack’s presence in her life.
“Did you think I would run away and hide?” Ivy flicked her eyes to her brother. He looked tired, as if he hadn’t slept, and worry warred with anger for a brief moment. Sadly for her, the anger won. “Were you up late with your new girlfriend?”
Max scowled. “She’s not my girlfriend and stop being a pain in the rear end,” he snapped. “I don’t see why my potentially dating Simone has your nose so far out of joint, but there’s no reason to be a crazy person about it.”
Ivy was affronted. “How am I being a crazy person?”
“Um … I’m never a crazy person.”
“I bet Jack has a story or two to tell that proves that assertion wrong,” Max muttered.
“Actually, Jack and I had a long discussion last night about whether or not I am crazy. We decided I wasn’t.”
Max smirked. “Well, at least you guys agreed on the subject.”
“Whatever.” Ivy rolled her neck until it cracked, arching an eyebrow when one of the girls tripped and fell toward Sadie, causing the high-strung girl to break from the choreography. “Keep your lines straight. Sadie, don’t pick a fight with her. It was an accident.”
“But … she knocked me out of the routine,” Sadie protested.
“It was an accident,” Ivy stressed. “That’s why we have practice in the first place. You want to get these little bugs out of the way before the pageant rolls around. It’s not the end of the world. Suck it up and keep going.”
Sadie muttered something under her breath that Ivy couldn’t quite make out. Ivy was sure it wasn’t flattering so she chose to ignore it. She caught Simone’s gaze from across the room, something akin to hatred passing between them, and then Ivy turned back to Max.
“What can you possibly see in her?”
Max shrugged, noncommittal. “She’s pretty.”
“And you’re handsome,” Ivy said. “You could have any woman in town. Heck, you’ve already had half of them. If you’re running out of options, there are plenty of surrounding towns. In fact, if you need a wingman, I’ll send Jack to the bar with you. He can help you pick an acceptable woman.”
Max snorted, genuinely amused. “You’re going to send your fiancé out trolling for women with me? Do you think that’s a smart idea?”
“Jack would never cheat on me. If he can help keep you away from a she-devil like Simone Graham, I’m all for a few outings.”
Max gave his sister an appraising look. “Do you know what I like best about Jack?”
“The fact that I got him off the market quickly so he wasn’t competition for you with the unsuspecting women of Shadow Lake?”
Max shook his dark head. “That he makes you feel so secure you don’t even care if he goes to the bar and helps me pick up women.”
Ivy scratched an itch on the side of her nose. “I trust him. We had a long talk about that last night, too.”
“In regards to what happened yesterday?” Max lowered his voice. “You saw something before you knocked that bottle out of Mackenzie’s hand, didn’t you?”
Even though she was angry with him, Ivy implicitly trusted her brother. “Yeah. It’s happened twice now. I saw Aubrey fall seconds before she dropped. Yesterday was different, though. It was like I saw this flash … and it showed me Mackenzie drinking the water and then getting sick later in the night. I just reacted.”
“And what about the bottle?” Max asked. “I know you said the state police are testing it, but I could tell you were lying.”
“Could the rest of them tell?”
“No. They don’t know you as well as I do.”
“Oh, well, that’s a relief.” Ivy glanced around to make sure no one was listening before continuing. “The water tested positive for antifreeze.”
“Which is why you bought water and are keeping it close to you,” Max mused. “I saw you instructing the girls to pour out whatever water they didn’t finish in the drinking fountain before tossing the bottles. That was smart.”
“I don’t think we can be too careful right now and I would rather fork over twenty bucks for bottles of water than watch one of these girls get poisoned.”
“I get that and agree,” Max said. “Who do you think is doing this, though? That’s the big question. I mean … could one of these girls actually be trying to poison the others to thin the herd?”
“That’s a disturbing possibility,” Ivy conceded. “There’s another possibility, though. Maybe Simone is so desperate for her daughter to win she’s decided that she needs to take out the front-runners.”
Max made a face. “That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?”
“I think this entire pageant is a little extreme. I’ve always thought that. I wish they would disband the entire thing because it’s nothing but a self-esteem nightmare for these girls.”
“Are you sure you’re not projecting a few of your own feelings about the pageant onto these girls?” Max challenged. “Not all of them are going to have a miserable experience. Some of them really enjoy this.”
“I know I’m projecting, Max. I can’t quite seem to shake what happened to me. What’s really sad is, in the grand scheme of things, Maisie and Ava torturing me for five days straight wasn’t that big of a deal. I got over it.”
“I’m not sure you did.”
“No, I did,” Ivy argued. “I let it go and moved on. Coming back here and helping, though, it’s put me on edge. I can’t explain it. If you think I’m proud of how I’ve been handling things, you’re wrong. I’m not proud.”
“Then why are you still here?”
“Because someone has to watch these girls.”
“Isn’t that Simone’s job?”
Ivy let loose with an exaggerated look that even a brother couldn’t love. It was so hilarious that Max couldn’t stop himself from chuckling.
“Do you really think that Simone is poisoning these girls so Sadie can win?” Max turned serious. “Be really honest with me.”
“I think it’s a definite possibility,” Ivy replied. “Her fingers were on all the bottles. She admitted herself that she’s the one who gets the water for the girls.”
“Yeah. Why would she admit that if she was poisoning them?”
Ivy shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe she doesn’t think she’s doing anything wrong. Maybe she’s that off kilter. Maybe she’s like that story we heard when we were kids. You remember the one, right? It was about a mother who was so desperate to get her kid on the cheerleading team that she hired a hitman.”
“I thought that was a Lifetime movie.”
“That they based on a real incident.”
“Huh. That’s a little depressing.” Max rubbed his chin as he stared across the room, his eyes landing on Simone. She offered a bright wave when she caught him staring, something he only half returned as he rolled his hips and stretched his back. “Maybe I just don’t want to believe she’s capable of something like that.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Max.”
“Yeah.”
“Wait, that’s not true.” Ivy regrouped. “You’re much better than Simone Graham and I don’t want you to date her. Pick someone else. Heck, pick anyone else.”
Max didn’t want to smile. It would only encourage her, after all. He couldn’t stop himself. “You are such a piece of work.”
“I also love you.” Ivy’s voice softened. “I don’t think this is a good situation for you.”
“I’ll give it some thought. I promise.” Max took them both by surprise when he leaned over and pressed a quick kiss against Ivy’s cheek. “I love you, too. I’m sick of fighting, though. It’s nowhere near as much fun as it was when we were kids.”
“Well, at least we can agree there. In fact … .” Ivy’s attention was diverted to the dance floor when Sadie let loose with a violent scream and threw herself toward Mackenzie.
“I’m going to kill you!”
“Holy crap.” Ivy scurried forward, grabbing Mackenzie by the shoulder and sheltering her from Sadie’s vicious onslaught as she helped the girl to her feet. “What happened?”
Mackenzie didn’t get a chance to answer. Her eyes went so wide Ivy was convinced an ax murderer stood behind her, ready to strike. When Ivy swiveled, Sadie smacked her so hard across the face it caused Ivy’s eyes to tear.
“Hey!” Max bellowed, grabbing Sadie’s hand before she could let loose with a second slap. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“She caused me to miss my mark,” Sadie snapped. “She
’s a freaking troll.”
“That doesn’t mean you can hit her,” Max shot back. “That definitely doesn’t mean you can hit my sister. What were you thinking?”
“She got in the way,” Sadie seethed. “They’re both in my way.”
“Your way for what?” Sadie’s reaction set Max’s teeth on edge. She was like a feral animal. “What are they in the way of?”
“Me winning,” Sadie replied. “I’m going to win this year. Me.” She thumped her chest for emphasis. “I won’t stand by and watch anyone ruin this for me.” She wrenched her other arm away from Max and took a step back. “I won’t stand for it. Do you hear me?”
Max turned his eyes to Simone, frowning when he found her merely standing at the edge of the ruckus with a bland look on her face. “Aren’t you going to say something to her?”
“What should I say?” Simone asked. “She needs to be fierce if she expects to win.”
Max was dumbfounded. “It’s a freaking high school pageant,” he snapped, whipping around so he could check on Ivy. Other than the fury on her face, his sister looked relatively okay. “Did she hurt you?”
“Surprised me,” Ivy replied. “I wasn’t expecting … that.”
“No, I don’t blame you.” Max’s fingers were gentle as they moved over Ivy’s cheeks. “This is freaking ridiculous.”
“What’s going on here?” Jack asked, walking into the room with Brian close on his heels. His eyes immediately went to Ivy. “What happened?”
“That little heathen smacked her when she tried to intervene in a fight,” Max answered, gesturing toward Sadie. “It was … unbelievable.”
“You hit her?” Jack turned a set of furious eyes on Sadie. “What gives you the right to do that?”
“She got in the way,” Sadie replied, her lower lip quivering. “I wasn’t trying to hit her. I was going after Mackenzie. She threw me off my routine.”
“And that gives you the right to go after her?” Brian challenged, keeping one eye on a furious Jack, who looked over Ivy’s face, and the other on Sadie. “You know that’s assault, right? We could take you in right now and charge you for striking Ms. Morgan.”
Wicked Hearts (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 9) Page 10