“I kind of froze,” Jessica admitted. “I was terrified and I had no idea what direction to run. I remembered what direction the house was, though, so I ran in the opposite direction and didn’t look back. I was sure he was going to find me and track me down, but I made it to town. The first place I saw was the barn and I just … ran. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You were very brave,” Ivy said. “That was smart, too. Are you sure you don’t know who he is? There has to be something that you can remember to lead us to him. It could be a minor detail. Like … did he ever wear coveralls or anything with a name on it?”
Jessica screwed up her face in concentration. “I can’t think of anything,” she said. “He always smelled like gasoline, though. I don’t know why.”
“Hmm.” Ivy searched her mind for another avenue of attack, and as she did her eyes restlessly roamed the edge of the clearing. She involuntarily gasped when she found a man looking at her from about twenty feet away. She hadn’t even heard him approach. “What are you doing here, Frank?”
Jessica whipped around, surprised they weren’t alone. When her gaze landed on Frank Simpson, her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed with color. “Oh, no.”
“It’s okay,” Ivy said. “He probably needs something at the nursery.” She pushed herself to a standing position and dusted off the seat of her skirt. “My dad is back at the nursery if you need help with something. He knows how to find everything there, and if we don’t have it, we can order it.”
“I already found what I was looking for,” Frank said, his eyes trained on Jessica. The suggestive leer on his face caused Ivy’s stomach to roll. “You shouldn’t have run away. Now you’re going to have to be punished.”
“He found me,” Jessica whimpered, her hand flying to her mouth.
Ivy didn’t waste any time, instead grabbing the girl’s arm and jerking her to a standing position. “Run,” she hissed.
Jessica didn’t move, fear overwhelming her.
“Run!”
Ivy’s bellow jerked Jessica out of her glacial state and when the woman pushed the younger girl in the direction of her cottage and then stepped forward to cut off Frank’s avenue of attack Jessica finally found her footing. She raced toward the edge of the clearing, pulling up short when she realized Ivy didn’t follow her.
“What about you?”
“Get Jack,” Ivy ordered. “Tell him Frank Simpson is the man who took you. He’ll understand and know what to do.”
“Are you sure?”
“Don’t argue,” Ivy said, holding her hands out as Frank closed the distance between them. “Run!”
Twenty-Three
“Come back here!”
Ivy had known Frank Simpson for as long as she could remember. The man in front of her was a stranger, though.
“Jessica!” Frank barely paid any attention to Ivy as he moved to sidestep her and chase the terrified teenager into the woods.
Ivy reacted instinctively and grabbed his arm, digging her fingernails into his skin and doing what came naturally as she lifted her knee and slammed it into Frank’s groin. The man saw the blow coming and managed to deflect most of it, but he groaned when Ivy made contact.
“Son of a … !” Frank reached out to grab Ivy’s arm, but she smartly released him and stumbled over a fallen tree branch in her haste to evade his grip.
Ivy thought for sure she was going down, but instead she managed to retain her footing and anchored her center of gravity with her hands as she pushed up from the tilted earth and scrambled away from Frank.
“I’m going to kill you,” Frank seethed, his face red from exertion as he rubbed his sore groin. “I’m going to rip your stupid pink hair out of your head and kill you.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” Ivy shot back, her chest heaving as she leaned against a tree. She was about seven feet away from Frank. It wasn’t an insurmountable distance by any stretch of the imagination, but it would give her a chance to react should he lunge for her. She didn’t have a plan, but this was hardly the worst situation she’d ever been in. She had faith things would work out. She just had to wait for Jack to find her.
“I’m not a young girl who you grabbed on the street,” Ivy added. “You can’t terrorize me into doing your bidding. You don’t scare me at all.”
“Then you’re dumber than you look,” Frank said, holding his hands out as he lurched forward.
Ivy reacted quickly, barely evading him as she moved toward the thicker trees and disappeared into the ferns and fallen branches. She needed help. Frank wasn’t going to give up. She needed … .
Jack!
“I THINK you’re whipped where my sister is concerned,” Max said, grinning as he opened the greenhouse door. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m just saying you’re … kind of a woman.”
“Ha, ha,” Jack intoned, rolling his eyes. “You can make fun of me all you want. If I’m whipped, I’m proud of it.”
“Ugh. That’s just pathetic,” Max said. “I … what’s wrong?” His eyes narrowed as they landed on Jack’s face. Only seconds before the man had been laughing and carousing as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Now he was gripping the spot above his heart as his face twisted. “Jack? Please tell me you’re not having a heart attack.”
“I’m not having a heart attack,” Jack gritted out. “I … something hurts.”
“What?”
“I don’t know,” Jack murmured, closing his eyes. He could hear something, almost a whisper on the wind. It was his name. “Ivy,” he muttered, swiveling toward the densely forested area that separated him from the woman he adored. “Ivy is in trouble.”
“How can you be sure?” Max was confused … and worried. As far as he knew Jack had never reacted this way before.
“I can feel her,” Jack replied, gripping his chest again. “She needs me. Come on.”
“But … how can you feel her?” Max had a sneaking suspicion Jack was playing a game with him. There could be no other explanation.
“Come on!” Jack barked, hurrying toward the trees. “Something terrible is about to happen.”
“HOW CAN you live with yourself?” Ivy spat, keeping a small trio of joined trees between Frank and herself as she watched the man stalk the open area on the other side of her resting place. “You stole a little girl and … threw her in a hole in the ground. You raped her. You kept her prisoner. You hit and threatened her. What kind of man does something like that? It’s not a real one. I can promise you that.”
“Oh, listen to yourself,” Frank said. “You’re so high and mighty it gives me an ulcer. You’ve always been full of yourself. I can see it the way you prance around town in your little skirts … and the way you look at people. You think you’re better than everyone else.”
“Well, you’ve got it partially right,” Ivy shot back. “I definitely think I’m better than you.”
“Jessica thought she was better than me, too,” Frank said. “How did that work out?”
Ivy knit her eyebrows together, confused. She wasn’t exactly comfortable with her current predicament, but as long as she could keep Frank talking – instead of attacking – she knew she could outlast him. “How did Jessica act superior to you? She was a child.”
“Hey, if you’re old enough to bleed, you’re old enough to breed,” Frank sneered, causing Ivy’s stomach to flip. “I saw her in the store when she was buying candy that day. I tried to talk to her, but she blew right past me. What? Didn’t she mention that part in her story?”
She hadn’t, but Ivy had a feeling that’s because she didn’t remember the encounter. “That’s probably because she knew she wasn’t supposed to be buying candy and wanted to get out of the store and head home as soon as possible,” Ivy replied. “She didn’t pay attention to you because talking to perverted strangers in a store when you’re buying candy is never a good idea.”
“Oh, shut your mouth,” Frank snapped, lurching to the side to see if he could get Ivy
to run. She held her ground, though, which frustrated him. He worried his feet would get caught up in the thick foliage if he tried to go in after her and preferred spooking her enough that she ran into the open and made his job easier. “I’m not a pervert. I’m simply a man who saw what he wanted and took it. That’s my right. That’s what makes me a man.”
“That makes you an asshole, too,” Ivy said. “You took a child. You’re … sick.”
“Oh, please,” Frank snorted. “She loved every minute with me. Why do you think she hasn’t told anyone who took her? She wants to come home with me. That’s where she belongs.”
“You terrorized her,” Ivy said, leaning to her right when Frank tried to reach out and grab her shoulder. He was understandably leery about stepping into the underbrush and accidentally losing his footing. If he tried, Ivy knew exactly where she would run – and it wasn’t the spot he was trying to drive her. She was just waiting for him to make his move. “You beat her down emotionally. You never talked to her. You raped her every chance you got. You starved her. You’re a pathetic piece of … crap!”
“You don’t talk to property,” Frank said. “That’s all she was. She belonged to me … and I’m getting her back. I’m putting her back in that room and she’s never getting out again.”
“I won’t ever let that happen.”
“You’ll be dead, so it won’t matter what you want,” Frank said. “I’m going to snap your neck and leave you out here with your stupid … tree and mushrooms. That seems fitting for someone like you, doesn’t it? I’ll throw you away like the garbage you are.”
“It’s better than having to touch you,” Ivy said, not missing a beat. “That would be much more disgusting. I mean … look at you. You’re old and disgusting – try brushing your teeth occasionally, too – and the only way you can get a woman is to steal her when she’s a child and force yourself on her.
“You’re a disgusting piece of filth, Frank,” she continued. “How did you keep it from your wife, by the way? How did she not know about Jessica?” Something horrible dawned on Ivy when she realized how preposterous the entire scenario sounded when she really thought about it. “Unless … oh, no.”
“You’re finally putting it all together, aren’t you?” Frank said, barking out a hoarse laugh. “You realize it was bigger than you thought. Marcia knew all about Jessica and me. She was jealous at first, don’t get me wrong, but when you’re married to a woman who only cares about appearances, you would be surprised what you can talk her into doing.”
“You kidnapped Jessica and brought her home to do … unspeakable things … to her, and Marcia knew the entire time,” Ivy mused, her stomach rolling. “That is … despicable. She’s even worse than you.”
“She’s a dried up old hag and she knew if she wanted to hold onto me she was going to have to agree to allow my … whims,” Frank said. “She wasn’t happy at first. In fact, she suggested we drop the girl off in a park and leave her there. When I explained the girl could identify me to police, do you know what she did?”
Ivy was too horrified to hazard a guess.
“She suggested we kill her and bury her in the woods somewhere,” Frank said, answering his own question. “I mean … you think I’m a terrible person, but she’s much worse than I am. She wanted to kill the girl. I didn’t want her dead. I just wanted to … love … her.”
“What you did to that girl wasn’t love. It was depravity,” Ivy countered, her mind busy as the second part of the equation snapped into place. “The baby. You said Marcia was dried up. That means she couldn’t give you more children. Jessica did, though, and you took that baby from her.”
“Jessica was in no position to raise our child,” Frank clarified. “Jessica was my plaything. To shut Marcia up, I had to give her something to focus on. I was worried she would try and kill Jessica when I wasn’t looking. That’s how jealous she was. That stupid kid was the best thing to happen to me. Marcia dotes on him and the more time she spends with the kid, the more time I’m allowed to spend with my girlfriend.”
Ivy swallowed her distaste at the “girlfriend” comment and focused her memory on the small boy she saw loitering around Marcia’s feet that day at the house. He had Jessica’s eyes. Unfortunately he had Frank’s coloring, but the eyes belonged to his mother. “Noah,” she said, exhaling heavily. “Noah is Jessica’s baby.”
“He’s Marcia’s baby,” Frank corrected. “Jessica is my toy. Don’t think that’s going to change.” Frank lashed out with his hand again, narrowly missing being able to grab a hank of Ivy’s hair. She wisely took a step back so he would have no choice but to brave the thick underbrush if he wanted to get his hands on her.
“How is that going to work, Frank?” Ivy challenged. “I know who you are. You can say you’re going to kill me, but we both know I’m much more familiar with these woods than you are. Then there’s Jessica. I told her your name. Jack and Max are at the nursery. She’ll find them. She’ll tell them what’s happening. It’s all over for you.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Frank hissed. “You’d like to think your cop – he’s freaking tall, by the way – is going to run to your rescue and save you. I’ve been leading him around by his nose from the beginning, though. He doesn’t have a chance of catching me and banking on Jessica is a mistake. She’s mine. She’s been mine for a long time. She’ll do what I want her to do.
“She probably didn’t go very far,” he continued. “She’s probably hiding behind a tree and crying – because that’s all she does – and I’ll find her as soon as I’m done taking care of you. Then I’ll take Jessica home where she belongs. She’s earned some punishment, don’t get me wrong, but things will be how they should be very soon.”
Ivy barely listened to Frank’s words as she mulled Marcia’s involvement in the situation. “Marcia came to the hospital the night we found Jessica,” she said. “She wanted to see her. Did Jessica ever see Marcia before that night?”
“Jessica thought she and I were the only people in the world,” Frank replied, taking a wide arc as he finally stepped into the foliage. He was trying to get behind Ivy and drive her back into the open. He was running out of time and he knew it. He had to hurry this situation along. “She had no idea I was married. What? Didn’t she answer all of your questions before now? Of course not. She knows better than to answer. I trained her.”
“You didn’t train her,” Ivy countered, taking a step in the opposite direction from where Frank tried to direct her. “You mentally and physically abused her. She doesn’t have loyalty to you. She fears you, sure, but that’s not loyalty. She won’t shed a tear when you’re locked up.
“How is it going to feel, Frank?” she continued, taking another step into the trees. She was done playing games. Jessica should’ve found Jack and Max by now. If she hadn’t – if she’d run in the wrong direction – Ivy was going to have to handle things herself. That meant bolting for the nursery on her own. “You locked Jessica up and raped her for years. Now you’re going to be locked up and raped. Somehow that seems … poetic.”
“That’s not going to happen!” Frank howled as he lunged forward. Ivy was expecting the move, though, and she turned and raced into the trees. She could hear Frank lumbering behind her as he tried to navigate an area he wasn’t familiar with, cursing a blue streak as he tripped over an overgrown root and stumbled. She just had to keep ahead of him. “I’m going to kill you!”
Ivy increased her pace, paying zero heed when a branch slashed her cheek as she moved past a withered tree. She knew exactly where she was heading and her mind was busy with how she was going to alert people to her presence – and Frank’s nefarious deeds – when a hand shot out from behind the nearby tree and dragged her away from freedom.
Ivy lashed out, kicking hard. She had no idea how Frank got ahead of her, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight.
“Ow!” Max groaned as he covered his face. “Again? You and I need to have a talk about your
violent tendencies.”
Ivy stilled her assault. “Max?” She threw her arms around her brother’s neck, relieved and overwhelmed with love. “It’s Frank Simpson.”
“We know,” Max whispered, smoothing the back of Ivy’s hair as he pulled her close. “We found Jessica on our way here. Jack already knew you were in trouble – although I have no idea how. Dad has Jessica and Brian is on his way with the state police.”
“Where is Jack?”
“I … .” Max grinned and pointed to the open area a vociferously swearing Frank approached. “Just watch. I think Jack has some aggression he needs to work out.”
Ivy widened her eyes as a blur of muscle barreled out from behind a nearby tree and tackled Frank as he closed the distance between Ivy and himself. Jack knocked the wind out of Frank when they landed on the ground, cocking his fist and pummeling it into Frank’s face.
“You piece of crap,” Jack howled, hitting him again as Frank rolled to his side to protect his face. “You took a child … you did terrible things to her … and then you tried to pin it on your own cousin. You’re sick!”
“Don’t forget the part where he chased me in the woods,” Ivy supplied, moving out from behind the tree with Max and glaring at Frank. “He said he was going to kill me.”
“I am going to kill you,” Frank screeched. “I am! You’re ruining my plan. You’re ruining my life.”
“The baby is Noah,” Ivy explained as Jack slammed his fist into Frank’s face a third time and then reached for the cuffs on his belt. He showed tremendous restraint given the circumstances, and Ivy couldn’t help but be proud of him. “The baby is alive … and it’s Noah.”
“I heard you,” Jack muttered, slapping the back of Frank’s head before climbing to his feet and heading in her direction. “We’ll figure all of that out in a little bit. Right now, I just … .”
Wicked Warning (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 5) Page 19