Ragan's Song (Fairfield Corners #2)

by L. A. Remenicky

  He pulled a wig out of the bag he had brought in with him and bunched the pillows and blankets to make it appear as if someone were still in the bed. Taking a step back to judge the placement of the wig, he decided it looked good enough to fool anyone looking in from the door. He turned and tucked a blanket around her legs before wheeling her out into the hallway.

  Chapter 33

  Adam whistled as he waited for the elevator to reach the fourth floor; happier than he had been since Ragan disappeared three years ago. He finally thought his life was back on track. For the first time in three years, the melody that he had heard since he was nine rang clearly in his head, begging for him to write it down and put the right words to it. If Ragan was still asleep when he arrived at her room, he’d find some paper and start working on it. This time, it would work.

  His phone started ringing as he stepped off the elevator, and he was reaching for it when he turned the corner and noticed Logan on his phone, too. Nearby, James moved around stiffly, obviously agitated and talking to the floor nurses and a Fort Wayne police officer. A detective in a jacket and tie stood in front of Robbie, who sat in a chair outside Ragan’s room with his head in his hands. Adam glanced at the phone in his hand and saw Logan’s name on the screen, so he hung up. The expression on Logan’s face frightening, he wore his “cop face.” No doubt in Adam’s mind… something was seriously wrong.

  “Adam, I was just trying to call you…”

  “What’s happened? Is Ragan okay? What’s going on?” Adam asked frantically, getting more worried by the second.

  “She’s not here, Adam. She’s gone.” Logan grabbed Adam as he tried to force his way into Ragan’s room to see for himself. “You can’t go in there, it’s a crime scene.”

  “What do you mean ‘a crime scene’? What the hell is going on, Logan?” Adam’s loud voice trembled, afraid of what Logan was going to tell him next.

  “Someone kidnapped Ragan,” his cousin enunciated succinctly.

  “No, there’s got to be some mistake. You better be screwing with me, Cuz.” The fear that radiated on Logan’s face finally convinced Adam that Ragan was gone. The tune he’d been hearing in his head a few minutes ago had become a crashing of chords instead of a sweet melody. He turned around and slowly started walking away, talking to himself. “How many times do I have to lose her?” He reached the window and leaned his head against the glass, letting out a shuddering breath and barely keeping the tears from falling.

  Logan walked up behind him and put his hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find her, bud. You’ve got to believe that.”

  James followed. “Tell him, Logan. He needs to know.”

  Adam frowned at James and then at Logan. “What do I need to know? What are you keeping from me?”

  “Can you give us a few minutes, James?”

  “Sure. Use the waiting room. I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed.” James walked back down the hall towards the nurse’s station.

  Adam lowered himself onto one of the cushioned couches, trying to massage the stress from the back of his neck. “What’s going on, Logan? What don’t I know?”

  Logan removed his hat and ran his hand through his hair. “A couple of weeks ago Cassie called me over to Ragan’s. I wasn’t happy about it, but when my darlin’ asks, I just can’t refuse.” He smiled slightly at the thought of Cassie. “It seems that Ragan was being stalked and had received threatening notes.”

  “A stalker? You knew she had a stalker and you didn’t tell me?” Adam stood, holding his clenched hands at his sides. “Why in the hell didn’t you tell me?”

  “Ragan asked me not to.”

  “You let her make that decision? You son of a bitch.” He plowed his fist into Logan’s face, relishing the feel of Logan’s lips smashing against his teeth. “How long have you known about this? God, he could have tried something when Sky or Jenna was with her.” The thought of something happening to the kids made his breath lock in his chest. Backing up, he sat down heavily when the back of his legs hit the edge of the couch against the far wall as he struggled to breathe. “Dammit, you put my family in danger,” he yelled as thoughts of a life without Ragan in it ran through his mind.

  Logan took a deep breath and continued, “It gets worse.”

  “How the hell could it get any worse?”

  “She received notes three years ago. That’s the real reason she left. She thought she was saving you by leaving. Finding out about your ex and Jenna was only a convenient excuse.”

  “An excuse? Why would she need an excuse to leave me?” Adam asked, trying to make sense of Logan’s words.

  “She left to keep you safe,” Logan replied, “because the threats were against you, not her. She thought that leaving was the only way to keep you from getting hurt.”

  “She tore out my heart and stomped on it to keep me safe? Is that what you’re telling me?” Adam nearly shouted.

  “Well, yes. But that’s not the whole story,” Logan said as he stood and started to pace. He knew the next part would be hard for Adam to believe. “Ragan had a vision of you being dead.”

  “A vision? Like a psychic vision? What the hell are you talking about, Logan?”

  “Yes, she had a vision of the future, a future where the stalker killed you. According to Cassie, Ragan has had visions since she was a kid.” Logan stopped in front of Adam and looked him in the eye. “She actually had two visions about you. In the first, the two of you had just gotten married and you were dancing at your reception to a song I was singing.”

  Logan raked his fingers through his hair again. “She hummed the song I was singing. Adam, it was the song you were humming once when we were kids; the one you said would disappear if you focused on it. When I heard her hum that tune, I believed her.”

  Reality sinking in, Adam’s blood boiled. “Why in the hell didn’t anyone tell me? Dammit, Logan, didn’t you learn three years ago what secrets can do?” Adam yelled, frustrated at the situation and angered that he had been kept in the dark.

  James came in the room holding an evidence bag. “Steve found this at Ragan’s,” he said as he handed the bag to Logan.

  Logan frowned at the letter, which was just as Ragan predicted, except it said, Adam will die instead of he will die. “Has anyone spotted the blue Toyota?” he asked James.

  “What blue Toyota?” Adam cut in. “Does this piece of shit drive a blue Toyota?”

  James answered calmly, “We believe so. Ragan sent Logan a picture of a car that she had seen for the last three or four days.”

  “Show me,” Adam said with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

  Logan pulled the picture up on his phone and handed it to Adam. “It was following her just before the tornado hit.”

  “Jesus,” Adam said as he handed the phone back to Logan, his hand shaking. “He almost ran me down out in the parking lot earlier, when I was leaving the hospital to go shower.” He lowered his head and laced his fingers behind his neck. “He was probably on his way here to kidnap Ragan.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Logan asked.

  “Because I thought it was just some moron speeding through the parking lot,” Adam countered hotly. “If I had known about the stalker situation, I would have called you and you probably could have caught him before he grabbed her.” Adam strode over to the door, needing to move around and do something. “Are the kids safe?” he asked as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’m calling Will and Colt. I hope they can get here on short notice.”

  Twenty minutes later, Adam paced the length of the waiting room and back again. Worry and fear for Ragan made his hands tremble every time he tried to sip the coffee sitting on the table. The thought of Will and Colt on their way to Fairfield Corners helped put his mind at ease about the kids.

  Will Jamison and Colt LeBrea were bodyguards who specialized in the music industry. Longtime friends of Adam and Logan, they put their Navy Seal skills to good use as Adam’s security while he was on tour. When Ad
am stopped touring, they started to freelance, taking only the jobs they wanted. Adam had paid them so well over the years that they could have retired quite comfortably, but neither one was the type to sit still for long. Within twenty minutes, Adam had confirmation texts from them both that they would be in Fairfield Corners before the end of the day.

  Adam prayed that Ragan would be home before they arrived.

  Chapter 34

  The hinges squealed in protest as he pushed the door open with his foot. “You belong with me, not him,” he said as he carried Ragan into the dilapidated house. The bedroom upstairs was ready for her; he had replaced the mattress and the bedding, knowing that she wouldn’t want to sleep on musty sheets and a worn-out set of springs. Only the best for her. He snapped the manacle around her ankle after carefully laying her on the bed. “I hate that I have to do this, but I have to make sure you won’t run away until I have a chance to win your heart,” he said as he caressed her cheek.

  She opened her eyes slightly at his touch, but the anesthetic kept her in a semi-conscious state. Her eyes closed again.

  An hour later, Ragan’s eyes opened, and she winced at the pain in her ribs. Looking up at the ceiling with its water stains and sagging plaster, she realized she no longer lay in the hospital. She had a vague recollection of a man in her room, injecting something into her IV, and then everything went blank until she woke up here. Moving only her head, she searched her immediate surroundings, wondering where she was and why. The fog in her mind started to lift and she remembered the notes. The stalker.

  She slowly sat up and swung her legs off the side of the bed, feeling the drag of a chain. “I can’t have you running back to him,” she heard a voice coming from the far corner of the room. “You belong with me, Ragan,” he said as he entered her field of vision.

  “Mark?” she asked, realizing her mistake when he came closer to the lantern. “You’re not Mark.” His resemblance to Mark jogged her memory. “Billy? You’re my stalker?” She remembered how he had looked so lost at the funeral. “Billy, if you let me go, I won’t tell anyone it was you. It’ll be our secret,” she promised, hoping he would believe her.

  “It’s too late for that. You’re mine now. We can fix up this big old house and be the envy of everyone in town,” he said with a childish grin on his face. “They’ll finally see that I’m the one who deserves their respect, not that rocker who stole you away from me.”

  “But, I don’t love you, Billy,” she said, trying to reason with him. “I love Adam.”

  “No, no, no,” he yelled, “You love me!” He stomped back and forth, mumbling to himself, “She loves me, she loves me,” over and over.

  He stopped pacing. “He brainwashed you, that’s got to be it.” His eyes darted wildly around the room, searching for something. He turned his gaze on Ragan and she saw a different side of him, with his expression twisted with evil.

  “I don’t know what he sees in you, bitch,” he said in a gravelly voice. “You’re nothing but a whore, giving yourself to that singer and having his bastard.” His eyes burned with hatred as he said, “He needs to die.” Without another word or gesture, he turned and exited the room.

  Ragan tried to push herself up on the bed, the pain in her ribs becoming sharper. When it dulled slightly, she stood and walked as far as the chain would let her, searching around for anything that might help her escape. The tether kept her from reaching the windows or door, and the broken-down dresser stood just out of her reach. The pain in her ribs worsened, forcing her to lie back down on the bed as her vision went grey at the edges. Her hand went to her stomach as if to protect the life nestled there. “Don’t worry, little one. Your daddy will find us, I know it.”

  The song Logan had been singing in her vision started playing out of thin air, the melody comforting her as she drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 35

  Adam sat in a chair in his studio with the lights off, his cell phone lying on the table in front of him. He stared at the phone as if he could get it to ring using sheer willpower. Waiting for it to turn on, he anxiously flipped through the pictures on it, stopping at one he had taken of Ragan at the zoo before she knew he was there. She had just snapped a shot of Skylar as he fed the giraffes, and they were both laughing and smiling. He wanted to smash the phone, the memory making the ache in his heart unbearable.

  It had been five days since Ragan was kidnapped, and he hadn’t slept more than thirty minutes at a time since it happened. He rubbed his eyes, looking up in hope when he heard the door open.

  “Adam?” Cassie asked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. “Please come and eat. Sky is crying for you; he knows his mama isn’t here, and he’s scared.” The kids were the only thing keeping him from tearing the room apart in anger.

  He stood and slipped the phone back into his pocket, forcing himself to return to the house with the others and face his son.

  Cassie grabbed his hand. “They’ll find her, Adam. You know Logan won’t stop until they do.”

  “I know. I feel so helpless, sitting here and doing nothing. This waiting is killing me. I need to be out there searching.”

  “You know that’s not a good idea. The last note specifically said that you will die.”

  “I think I’m the one who has to find her. That damn song keeps playing in my head, over and over. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I’m going crazy.”

  Cassie pulled him into a hug, willing her strength into him. “I know how you feel. That’s how I was when Logan was in a coma. I wanted to grab him and shake him and scream at him to wake up.” She pulled back and looked Adam in the eye, “You got me through that. Now it’s my turn to get you through this.” Taking his hand firmly, she led him into the kitchen where his children waited.

  As soon as Adam stepped through the door, Skylar reached for him. “Daddy, where’s Mama?”

  Jenna choked back a sob as she met Adam and hugged him.

  He swallowed hard as he picked up Skylar and snuggled them both close. “Your Mama had to go away for a while, but she’ll be back soon.” Adam rubbed the boy’s back to quiet him as he carried the child out to the living room, away from the commotion in the crowded room. He turned on the stereo and stretched out on the couch with his son in his arms and his daughter curled up next to him.

  Twenty minutes later, Cassie went to tell him that dinner was ready and found them all asleep. She pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and covered them, smiling sadly at the three of them clinging to each other.

  She still stood staring at them, lost in thought, when the front door opened. Her eyes shining with unshed tears, she hurried over to Logan to implore him to be quiet so Adam could sleep, then looked up at him and hissed quietly, “Anything?”

  “No, darlin’,” he said sadly as he pulled off his hat. “There’s no trace of her or the blue Toyota.”

  “I’m really worried about Adam. He sits in his studio with the lights off for hours. He doesn’t eat, doesn’t sleep, but the worst is the lifeless look in his eyes.”

  Logan set his hat and keys on the table by the door before pulling Cassie into a hug, informing her softly, “It’s been too long. I’m starting to worry that the stalker has taken her out of the area.”

  “I’m sure you’ll find something soon; you have to.” She grabbed Logan’s hand and pulled him toward the kitchen, frowning at his slight limp that showed just how exhausted he was. “Are you hungry? I made spaghetti.”

  “Yeah, I guess I should eat.” He smiled as Violet ran and jumped into his arms as soon as he took a seat at the table. “How’s my favorite little flower?”

  She chattered about her day as he leaned on his elbows and nodded to the bodyguards Adam had hired. “All quiet here?” he asked as he watched Cassie dish up some spaghetti. “I almost wish the guy would go after Adam so we could find him.”

  “You don’t really mean that, do you?” Cassie asked as she set a plate in front of him.

  “No, I don’t reall
y want that. I’m just frustrated by our lack of leads. It’s as if he vanished off the face of the earth and took Ragan with him,” he grumbled.

  “I’m sure you’ll find her soon.” She picked up Violet and kissed her forehead, “I need to get this little one home and into bed. I’ll see you later, Dudley.”

  “I have some things I’m working on, but I should be home in a couple of hours.” He stood and kissed the top of Violet’s head and then kissed Cassie. “I’ll call if I’m going to be any later. Love you, darlin’.”

  Logan had just finished his meal and was contemplating another helping when he heard the front door close. When Colt didn’t walk into the kitchen, Logan stood and frowned at the sound of a car starting.

  He checked the living room and sent off an angry text when he discovered Adam was gone.

  Logan—Where u going?

  Adam—Ragan’s. B back later

  “Dammit. He’s going to get himself killed.” Logan grabbed his hat and realized Adam had taken his cruiser. Logan snatched up Adam’s spare set of keys from the kitchen and told Will that Adam was at Ragan’s and he was going to keep an eye on him. “I’ll call when I need you to take over.”

  “Sure thing, Logan,” Will replied.

  Ten minutes later, Adam pulled into Ragan’s driveway, hoping that Logan would give him some time alone. When he opened the front door, the memories crashed down on him, the worry and fear almost bringing him to his knees.

  He walked through the house, feeling closer to her there with her things. He sat at the computer, remembering the day she showed him the pictures she had taken for his album cover. He replayed the kiss in his mind as the song played louder, as if it were trying to tell him something. As he reached over to turn on the laptop, the song changed. Accessing the images she had snapped, he felt drawn to the pictures they had discussed that day.