by Jodi Kae
“Hey, Mate, you miss me already?”
“Jax, we’ve got a problem. I need you to pull information on Estella Ann White, Livvy’s mother. I need current address and cell phone number if it’s listed.” I hear him typing away and know he will get me everything I need, no questions asked.
“What’s going on, Mate?”
Okay, so I was wrong about the no questions because he is a nosy bastard. When it comes to his personal life, he is a vault, but when it comes to everyone else he cares about, he’s Oprah. He’ll just dig and dig until you cave.
“Livvy went to meet her mother in town at noon and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. She hasn’t spoken to her mother since she told her she was pregnant and I am worried about her intentions toward Livvy and my son. I need to find her A.S.A.P.” I hear the click of his keyboard in the background and know he will have the information in a second.
“Maybe they just went shopping and she left her phone in the car. Maybe they just got caught up on catching up and she lost track of time. Here it is. I’ve got an address, home and cell, and place of work. I’ll text it to you now. I’ll call her work and see if they have any info on if and why she took time off. Do ya think that maybe you’re just paranoid, Mate? Our women do like to get together and socialize.”
“Here’s the problem with that thought: Livvy doesn’t talk to her mother since she abandoned her years ago; Livvy is not with Ren and Tori to socialize. Remember that time I called you in the middle of the night to see if things were okay with you?
“Yeah, but what does that have to do with this?”
“I told you I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, that someone I cared about was in trouble or suffering. Well, Livvy and I figured out that was the day she gave birth to my son. She went into labor at 2:00 a.m. and had Alex at 7:00 a.m. After I had called you, I wasn’t able to go back to sleep that night because that feeling didn’t go away. I have that same gut-wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach that something is wrong.”
“Shit!”
“You make your calls; I’ll make mine. Call Derek and tell him we need help.” I hang up, and Jax’s text beeps through so I call her mom immediately. On three rings she finally picks up.
“John, is that you? Why didn’t you show up?”
“Estella, this is FBI Agent Troy Savage and I need to ask you some questions about your daughter Olivia. I understand you are in Boston so can I come to your hotel and meet with you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else. Of course, of course, I am staying at the Marriot on 5th. What did Olivia do, is she in trouble with the law? It wouldn’t surprise me, you know, she was always defiant. I told John it was a waste of his time to find her, but he insisted that he see for himself. He was head over heels for her and she went and had an affair while they were on vacation, breaking his heart. He was never the same after that and went back to his parent’s farm in Kentucky, poor soul.”
With every word out of her mouth, a feeling of dread engulfs my body. Am I dealing with another crazy ex-boyfriend? I can’t blame them for being obsessed because that is what I have been since the moment I laid eyes on her. The difference is if she told me to leave her alone, I would, because I just want her to be happy.
“Estella, you said he never showed. Are you sure?”
“Yes, of course. I’m not stupid. She didn’t stay long enough to meet him, though. As soon as I told her he wanted to catch up on old times, she panicked and left. She didn’t even look my way as she drove off. I have never been so insulted in my life and by my only daughter no less.”
Thank God I put an information tracker on her car. It is an older Honda and I wanted to be able to check service alerts and mechanical problems. Lucky for me it acts as a GPS tracker as well. I start to log in to the service website the tracker provides to get the location of the car.
“Do you have a cell phone number for John that you can give me? Also, if he calls you, I want to be the first person you notify. Whether you had good intentions or not, Olivia is in danger and you put her there by bringing that man back into her life. If anything happens to her, I will make sure you are charged with conspiracy to commit a crime. The inside of a prison cell might not look too pretty on you if you do not cooperate with me on this. What is John’s last name and what is his birthday?”
“Casen, July 16th, 1988.” She tries to sputter out a response to the rest of my accusations but just ends up giving me the phone number and a promise to call me if he calls her. I hang up just as the information shows up on my computer, letting me know her car is traveling just on the outskirts of New York. I call Jax so he can do a search on John Casen.
“Sav, you are not going to like this, but it looks like mommy dearest bragged to her coworkers that her daughter’s ex-boyfriend paid her five thousand dollars plus expenses to fly to Boston to see her daughter.”
“Shit! Well, I need you to look up John Casen, DOB July 16th, 1988. I think he has her and the GPS attached to her car says they are traveling on I 95 near New York. Call Ren and and fill her in; she has Alex and I don’t know how long I’ll be. I am getting in my car now and heading in that direction. I am going to text you my login information for the car tracker so you can keep me posted on directions. As far as I can tell, he only has a four-hour head start and as long as he doesn’t dump her car, I can follow this bastard anywhere.”
“What is it with her and obsessed men? Not you, of course, just the crazy ones.”
“Shut up and look up the info, Jax. I don’t have time for your shit and neither does Livvy.”
I hang up and call my boss, the Director of the FBI and ask him to put her on an amber alert and ask for some time off. He grants me everything I ask for and even offers backup when needed. It seems like hours later when Jax calls but I know it has only been thirty to forty-five minutes.
“Hey Jax, what do you have for me?”
“Mate, you need to pull over before I give you this info. I don’t need you crashing before you can find her.”
“Don’t mess with me, Jax, just give me the goddamn info.”
“Sav, if you wreck, it is your own damn fault.”
He pauses and I know I should pull over but can’t stand the thought of having more distance between saving Olivia and myself.
“John Casen was born to Kathy and Theodore Casen in 1988 but was given up for adoption when their rights were terminated for neglect. He was adopted by Tom and Patricia Stanford at the age of two and lives in Kentucky near his adoptive parents. His brother is Jerry Stanford, first known psychopath to kidnap and abuse Olivia. At twenty-one, John reclaimed his birth name, Casen, but has remained close to his adoptive family to mooch off of the kind old people who took him in. I called Tom and Patricia and they said that John came back to Kentucky after a bad break up with a girl in Atlanta and became a shut-in. While I was on the phone with them, they went and checked out his apartment above the barn. They said his walls are covered in pictures of a blonde woman. I assume this would be Olivia and we just uncovered another stalker.”
He was right; I should have pulled over; at this point, I do not even see the road. The images flashing through my head are of Livvy buried in dirt and leaves in a desperate attempt to escape a mad man. The trauma of that situation caused her to suffer temporary blindness and I don’t think she will survive the same kind of torture again.
~Olivia~
Nothing can prepare you for finding another person in your backseat when you thought you were alone. I have watched scary movies where a killer springs from the backseat to kill an unsuspecting victim but never thought I would find myself in that kind of situation.
“Don’t scream and keep driving Liv. I won’t hurt you if you do what I say.”
When my heart slows and I can actually speak, I calmly ask the question I already have the answer to. “What are you doing, John?” I know better than to ask too many questions to someone who isn’t operating with a fu
ll deck. He is the one with a knife to the side of my throat and any wrong move could be a fatal one. He reaches over the seat and grabs my purse and I hear the contents spill out onto the seat.
“I came to tell you that I forgive you and I’m bringing you home to meet my family. All but my brother, of course, he’s dead. Don’t talk, just drive, Liv. Get on I 93 and I will guide you from there.”
I have been driving forever and my eyes are tired. John hasn’t said a word since he ordered me to roll down the window to throw out my phone. The unknown and the silence are killing me and if he hurts me for talking, then so be it, because I’m going to hurt us by falling asleep at the wheel. “I’m so sorry, John. I didn’t even know you had a brother.” Maybe if I am sympathetic to his situation, he will be to mine when I beg him to let me go.
“You shouldn’t be sorry. He tortured you and raped you according to the police reports. Mom and dad were so devastated because he was their only biological son. Not that they made me feel any less, they are wonderful parents, but I knew I was different. I knew they loved me but loved him more.”
“John, what are you talking about? I didn’t know your brother or even know that you had one.”
“Oh, you knew him alright. My brother was Jerry Stanford, the man you lived with for a year. He came out to Atlanta to get revenge for my broken heart after I went home to nurse my wounds when you left me for that man in Miami. He was going to find you and bring you to Kentucky where we could live happily ever after, but I think he decided to keep you for himself. At first, he told me he was stalking you to memorize your routine and also to figure out how many people would search for you if you went missing. I told him to avoid meeting your crazy mother so she wouldn’t have anyone to identify as a possible suspect. Then he just quit contacting us all together. He changed his phone number and his address with no forwarding information. It wasn’t until a year later that he contacted me and asked me for a loan to buy some property in Alabama. He said he was buying it for us to live in and as soon as he had you, he would come get me for our reunion.”
I have become instantly nauseous and tears are blurring my vision so I can’t see the road clearly. I have been driving for over four hours and I’m physically exhausted and now emotionally drained. I see a pull out on the highway and slow down to pull over.
“What the hell are you doing, Liv? One slice and I could kill you. Do you want that after I’ve just found you? I want to take care of you and you need to let me, understand? Mom and Dad are so sad right now so I’m bringing you home to cheer them up.”
“John, I am sick and I can’t drive anymore. Please just let me stop or I will throw up in the car?” He doesn’t object so as soon as my car comes to a stop, I jump out and run to the other side of my car, fall to my knees and empty my stomach in the dirt and weeds. This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this really can’t be happening, I chant inside my head. I rock back and forth just thinking of the nightmare ahead. What are the odds of me meeting and attracting two crazy people from the same family? Probably greater than me having a baby from a one-night stand? If I stay on the side of the road long enough, will someone stop to help so I can escape? His hand on my shoulder lets me know that is not going to be possible.
“Climb in the back, Liv. I will drive for a while but I have to handcuff you to the frame of the seat. Make sure you are comfortable because I won’t be stopping for a while.”
At least with Jerry, I knew when the crazy was coming, with John it is here all the time. He speaks as if what he is doing is completely normal and acceptable. He acts as if he is doing me a favor and I should be happy he found me. He is more dangerous than Jerry because I’m pretty sure he really thinks he is helping me while he handcuffs me to the bottom frame of the passenger seat. I fall asleep at some point, only to be awakened as he releases my wrists from the handcuffs and walks me to the outside restroom of a gas station. He stands in the doorway, giving me no privacy, and then takes me back to the car. He doesn’t handcuff me but hands me a white paper bag with fried food inside and tells me to eat. I have absolutely no appetite and when I tell him so, he screams and tells me to eat every goddamn bite and not be ungrateful, so I eat to keep him calm.
While he drives, I decide to ask questions in case any information he gives will help me for later. He hasn’t mentioned Alex so I will not give him leverage over me by bringing up my son. “So where in Kentucky do you live, John?”
“Just south of Lexington. My parents own a farm near the Boone Forest and I live in a barn loft that I have turned into our home. You are going to love it there. I work on the farm for my dad and one day, when he dies, it will all belong to us.”
He says that with absolutely no feeling of loss, just matter of fact, and I am now afraid for the parents who took him in twenty-six years ago. “Are we going to Kentucky now?”
“Yes, I need to make my parents proud of me. They will be happy that I found a wife to give them grandchildren. Since Jerry died, they have been wasting away. You really shouldn’t have let those people kill him, Liv. He was my brother and best friend; he was only trying to help me.”
I am not going to tell this man how little his brother thought of him while he was torturing me. How he never even mentioned that he had a brother. I am not going to mention that Jerry had lost his mind and was no longer functioning as a sane person. Now I don’t think he ever was sane, but I don’t plan on saying that either. “I’m sorry,” is all I can say before I lay down and fall asleep once more.
Chapter Twenty-three
Crazed:
*make someone wildly insane or out of control.
~Savage~
“Jax, what have you got for me?”
“I have an address and the parent’s cooperation. Derek is gathering the crew and getting his plane ready for Lexington. We are not sure that we will land before he gets there but we are trying damn hard.”
“What is the location of her car?”
“Right now, I’m showing Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and not moving.”
“Shit! Right now I’m in Allentown, at least two hours behind. Can you see where they are stopped?” In my head, I imagine the worst. Is he forcing her into a hotel room to take over where his brother left off? Has she fought him and he killed her in the process and is trying to dump the body? I have been driving like a bat out of hell and have been pulled over twice by Highway Patrol. I have my boss on the phone before they even get to the window and I’m out of there and back on the road in less than five minutes. To me, that is still ten minutes wasted.
“My screen just refreshed and they are moving again. Mate, you are driving like crazy and have already made up two hours of the four you were behind. You may even have him caught and killed by the time we make it to Lexington, leaving us with no work to do.”
“I am counting on Livvy stalling every chance she gets to slow them up. She has to know that we are coming for her.”
“I will call you when we take off for Kentucky. That will be the last time I can give you updates until we land. Drive careful, Mate, killing yourself now will not do her any good.”
I press on the gas pedal because leaving her in the hands of a crazy stalker will not do her any good either.
~Olivia~
I am getting married in two weeks and Alexander will not tell me where we are going for our honeymoon. I have begged and teased him to orgasm and he is still tight-lipped about it. He says it will ruin the surprise and jinx our future, so there is no way in hell he is telling me. He says it in a nice way while he kisses his way to my core and I forgive him for being so stubborn.
He keeps nudging me to wake me up but after last night’s shower, I am a little sore in every muscle of my body. “No, my beautiful savage. Let me sleep.”
“I really like that nickname, Liv, and I like it even more that you dream of me.”
My eyes fly open in shock and my dream fantasy has become dark and dreary. John is leaning into the back seat a
nd staring at me with lust in his eyes. I will not survive another Jerry and it looks like that is what I’ve been dealt. Why is it that some people have all the luck? “How long have I been out?”
“For most of the way. We are only two hours from my home and it’s 2:00 a.m. Your moaning and sighing have driven me nuts for the last hour. We can take care of your virginity now if you want. We won’t have much privacy once we get home.”
In the hours I have been asleep, it seems he has reverted to two and a half years ago. Apparently, he doesn’t even remember that his brother raped and tortured me for a week. I don’t plan to tell him any different because I don’t need him to lose his grip on the self-control he is barely hanging on to now. “John, we really should wait until we get to your home. Remember the nice loft above the barn?” The look on his face could go either way and I prepare myself for the fight of my life. I look around and see that we are parked at a small gas station with an attached diner. “John, I’m hungry. Can we go inside the restaurant and eat? My muscles ache from being in the car for so long.”
“Don’t try anything, Liv. I don’t want to, but I will punish you for being bad.”
My promise to behave seems to placate him enough and he pulls me along behind him into the diner. We sit in a sixties style, red and white booth with cracked vinyl on the seats and a chipped Formica table. At 2:00 a.m. it looks like we have a one-man show and the cook with greasy hair and a filthy apron comes out to take our order. One look at his fingernails makes me lose my appetite but I can tell by the set of John’s mouth that a punishment will be coming if I don’t eat. “I’ll have the house burger and fries.” My hope is that anything he touches will be cooked and heated to a high enough temperature to kill any bacteria lurking in the place and on his hands. John orders the same and as soon as the cook walks away, I start to slide out of the booth.