by AJ Scudiere
She thought she heard them give up on the blacksmith’s shop. She thought she heard them coming across the grass. She couldn’t be certain from down here. But if she was right, they could be dead.
At four feet above the ground, she jumped off. Not the quietest of landings, but it needed to be done. She was now at the bottom of the icehouse, almost directly across from the door, and anyone looking in would see her. But first they’d see Ivy, shimmying down the beam right in their frame of sight.
Kayla ran and set the gears she held onto the hay-covered ground just below the doorway. Unless someone stood at the edge and leaned over to look directly down, they wouldn’t see this spot. It was cloaked by shadows and angles, a good spot for Ivy and herself, too.
Having stashed the parts, she ran back and reached up, but Ivy was still too high to touch. Climbing onto the beam would only bow it more and further disturb the already frightened Ivy. Instead, Kayla reached her hands up. Standing underneath Ivy, she spoke softly. “Drop the gear to me.”
It was the heaviest one, and her palm screamed in pain as it smacked, but Kayla was running the twenty feet to the other wall even before she fully had the grasp of it. When she turned, she nearly smacked into Ivy, who must have suddenly shimmied faster.
Ivy grabbed her hand—her good hand—and yanked her.
They plastered their backs against the wall as the door opened twenty feet above their heads letting in a swath of early morning sunlight. Immediately, the space filled with two distinct human-formed shadows.
Voices came from directly above. Kayla held her breath and listened, but didn’t look up, just clutched tighter at Ivy’s hand.
“I thought I saw some movement here.”
“It’s cold. What is this place?”
“The icehouse.” That was it. No explanation, no comment on the beams. This person knew something about plantations. But it wasn’t the man who had visited before. Not the man who had come in his nice suit and shiny shoes and planted the bug. Wrong voice. Still there was something reminiscent that made Kayla think the two were together. The second man, the one who’d asked about the cold, didn’t know about plantations. His response was the norm.
For a moment there were no sounds and Kayla guessed they were looking around. Through her eyelids she could see that the light was changing, which told her something was happening in the doorway. They were probably checking out the cross beams, probably considered the slim staircase and recognized it for the hazard it was.
For a split second a thought rocketed through her brain.
Evan.
Reenie.
What if they came out now? What if they ran into these two? What if these two were armed?
Kayla opened her eyes. Letting go of Ivy’s hand, as silently as she could, she moved to pull the gun from her waist band.
She couldn’t chamber a round; the sound would ricochet around in here worse than a bullet and draw the wrong eyes directly to them. It would do the exact opposite of keeping them safe. So Kayla stood still and watched while Ivy slowly followed suit.
After what seemed forever, the light finally changed and as she heard the words, “Maybe they just went around this building.” The doors were pushed shut. Her vision sunk into the deep dark again.
Ivy held her hand tight, keeping her pinned with her back to the rocks that were ice cold even through these hottest days of July.
Kayla leaned in until her lips brushed Ivy’s ear, and she whispered. “Reenie. Evan.”
Then, as they stood still, they heard the door get one final push into place. And Kayla’s heart sank when she heard the latch click home.
“Shit.” It was whispered, Ivy’s voice reaching only to Kayla. “We’re stuck, aren’t we?”
“I think so.” She wasn’t sure it was worth risking the climb in near total darkness. If they fell, they would have no hope. They could be here for days. Bones broken, knocked out. And even if they reached the top, they likely couldn’t open the door. The chance of stepping backward off the slim outcropping was too high. No, they were better off here.
Kayla switched her grasp on the gear. “My hand is burned.”
“What?”
“From stopping the machine.” She pressed it, palm flat to the cold rocks. They were soothing against the damaged flesh, but not to the rest of her. She figured the two of them had maybe an hour before they started to get too cold, medically concerning cold. In Kayla’s mind it would suck to die of irony—getting hypothermia in the middle of July. On a Georgia plantation at that.
No, she wasn’t going to die here, and she wasn’t going to let Reenie or Evan get hurt either. She turned to Ivy. “Phone?”
Next to her, she heard and felt her friend shuffle around, presumably checking pockets. “Shit. No. I must have dropped it.”
If it fell back at the blacksmith’s then it was certain they knew someone had been there. It was hard to make a place look abandoned or at least unused when there was a cell phone lying around. Kayla pulled her hand from the wall. Reluctant to set down the gear, she sucked it up and pulled out her phone.
Looking up and listening for a moment, she didn’t hear anything. Then she ruined the adjustment their eyes had achieved by turning the phone on. Had someone been standing up there looking down, they couldn’t have missed the light, but if they were outside, they’d never see it.
She called Evan.
“Kayla?”
Her heart beat easier just for hearing his voice.
Evan headed out across the expanse of field, his gun tucked into the back of his pants and his heart tucked into his throat. He managed to convince Reenie to stay back at the house, armed with her phone, but wishing for a sniper rifle. He considered her aim for a moment, deciding that he was grateful they didn’t have one. Instead, she had opted for the attic of the big house, hoping to find a way onto the front of the roof—for safety, lookout purposes, and cell phone contact.
He saw the two men down by the big barn and had the fleeting thought that maybe one of them was wearing boots with the right-sized tread. He kept one hand fisted at his waist near the butt of the gun, but the other he raised high and yelled out to them as though he just spotted some friendly neighbors on his property.
Friendly, my ass, he thought.
Then he wondered if maybe they weren’t all on overkill.
He hadn’t had a chance to ask Ivy and Kayla if they had been threatened in any way. At least, this morning, by these two men. Maybe these were just neighbors coming over to check out the activity on a prominent house in the area that had previously sat neglected. There had also been talk around the small town, he knew. Reenie had been asked at the grocery store what the plans for the plantation were, and she hadn’t been shy about telling everyone that they were opening a museum and all would be invited.
So it was possible that Kayla and Ivy had hit the deck for no real reason. But then again, these two were trespassing even if they were trying to be friendly. And Evan didn’t think Kay and Ivy were much for hysterical reactions. So he yelled out “H-e-l-l-oooo!” and thought, “Get the fuck off my land.”
“Hey.” The straighter one waved back.
The second guy—the one who didn’t wave—struck Evan as uncertain, even from this distance. He appeared to be the same height as his friend, but he stepped to the back, clearly letting the first do the talking. His shoulders stooped just a little, and his posture said he was unhappy with the whole situation. He even looked a little frightened, lagging just a beat or two behind the first.
As they all headed toward the center of the field to meet up, their faces became clearer, and Evan’s initial judgments appeared to bear out. The second’s eyes shifted one way then another; he only nodded and didn’t reach out a hand or make any overtly friendly gestures.
The first was the polar opposite. He smiled grandly, looked at Evan like he was glad to see an old friend. He gestured wide and asked about the plantation with e
nthusiastic questions.
He seemed to have nothing but lies.
Still, Evan questioned his own perception. He’d come out here because of a frantic call from Kayla. He was primed to believe the worst. Then again, the bug in the back area also primed him to assume the worst. It had been planted by another friendly neighbor who had been all smiles and innocuous questions.
Evan, still keeping his hand at his waist, close to the gun, fed them the usual lines about being busy. About the plantation opening in two months and to come back then. He told them he worried about liability, what with so many untended buildings and who-knew-what out there.
They took the news the way they had done everything in the interaction—the second one hanging back, looking into the distance, often at the icehouse. The first one smiled and said of course he understood.
But he lied. Because instead of getting off the property, he asked more questions. What had they found on the plantation? Clothing? Chests?
Evan made the mistake of saying, “Of course.” Instead of telling him to go the hell away.
The first one still hadn’t provided a name. Did he think Evan wouldn’t notice? Or was this just one big farce? The three of them standing there having a pretend conversation while they all knew Ivy and Kayla were at the bottom of the icehouse. Probably freezing their asses off. Did these two catch a glimpse of Reenie? Evan didn’t look up toward the front of the property, didn’t want to give her away. But she had to be up on the roof of the big house by now, watching.
The first kept talking. “Did you find anything else? I hear there are lots of hidey holes in these places. You can dig up coins and stuff from the yard, from where they buried it during the Civil War. Lots of famous people came through this part of Georgia, you know. Maybe you’ll find some interesting letters or papers. Sherman marched right by here. Longstreet came this way. Phineas Miller’s ranch is right over the hill. I hear he and Whitney invented the cotton gin there. Cobb was here, too, in Ebenezer.”
But Evan had stopped listening. He’d heard enough. So when the man paused and waited for his fish to bite, Evan didn’t.
He shook his head as though he was saddened by it, rather than near murderous. “We haven’t found much but an old teapot and some broken dishes. I’m really sorry, but I have to get to work. We have just so much to do to open on time. But we’d love for you to come back then.” He lied through his teeth.
“Oh, I understand.” The man smiled and clapped him on the back, not seeming to notice, or maybe not to care, that Evan stiffened as he did.
He hadn’t been able to fight it, to pretend to be okay with any of this.
The man kept talking. “I’m a collector myself. It’s why I live here in the Old South. Here’s my card—” he handed over another slick smile along with the small rectangle—“give me a call if you find anything interesting or unusual. I’ll make it worth your while.”
Evan took the card—it was that or pull the gun. So he nodded and tried to casually use his right hand to untuck his shirt and cover the gun before he turned and walked away.
He was more than several steps away before he turned and looked at them. They hadn’t moved. The first offered a nod and, as one, they turned and began walking toward the edge of the property.
For a moment, Evan frowned. They were headed to the far corner. They would have to climb the low rock wall that skirted the whole front of the land, or they’d have to head out through the woods. Neither option seemed normal. But these two didn’t change direction. They didn’t head to the front or down the drive.
Then Evan gathered his thoughts and headed back to the house. Still he didn’t look up to see if Reenie was perched on the roof. If she was good, she’d be out of sight anyway. He didn’t glance at the icehouse but walked right by. There was no way he was going over and letting Kayla and Ivy out while still within eyeshot and earshot of these two guys.
He had to admit, he didn’t know that the two weren’t going to go park themselves in the woods, likely just out of sight, and watch everything. Who was to say they hadn’t been doing it all along?
Turning again, he surveyed the land. The two men were now nowhere to be seen. They’d left or taken cover—he didn’t know which. What he did know was that even though they were gone, the fear wasn’t.
Kayla moved her hand three times. Each time her palm warmed the rock she’d pressed it against, she pulled it back and checked to see if the burn returned. It did.
She and Ivy didn’t speak much as they strained to listen to the sounds outside. She wanted to hear Evan throw the bastards off their land. She didn’t want to hear gunshots.
But there was nothing. No one came close enough to overpower the resonant echo of their own breathing as it bounced off the cold, dry walls. There were no outside noises save for a low hum with a long cadence. It had taken Kayla a while to figure out that it was the sound of the water from the creek, transferred through the ground and finally the rock, getting caught in what was essentially a sound chamber now that the icehouse had no ice to absorb it.
Her phone buzzed in her hand and scrambled to stop the sound. The harsh whisper of her answer reverberated back to her tenfold. “Evan?”
“Hey, Kay. They’re gone. There were two of them, and they offered to buy unusual things that we found while renovating.” He sounded resigned.
“Those bastards!” Kayla heard Reenie in the background and nearly smiled at the woman’s cussing.
Evan started speaking again. “I didn’t know how to escort them off the property without being really suspicious. And I went with the ‘if we don’t act like there’s anything to protect, there mustn’t be anything to protect’ theory. So I can tell you that I can’t see them anymore, but I can’t be sure they’re actually gone.”
Kayla nodded, then squeezed her eyes shut. “Yeah, Ev. I got you. You want us to stay down here a while to be sure they’re really gone?”
“Do you mind?”
“I don’t, but it’s cold in here. We’re good for another forty minutes maybe.”
Ivy was leaning into her, trying to share the call. Even though Kayla knew what was coming, she wasn’t able to prevent it.
“Evan,” Ivy spoke in the direction of the phone, “Kayla burned her hand stopping the machine. I know we need to wait. But the sooner the better.”
Kayla pushed at her, trying to keep her out of the conversation. “I’m good. I did burn it, but the rocks are cold in here, and I don’t think there’s anything anyone can or needs to do for me at this point. I don’t think it’s going to do anything more than sting a bit. I grabbed the bar when it was spinning.”
The hiss of Evan’s breath told her what he thought about that. “Oh, shit.”
“Ev. I’m okay. I’m not in need of a hospital or even a doctor. We can handle it in a while.” But it was cold and this time when Ivy plastered herself to Kayla to get to the phone, Kayla didn’t protest.
“She’s not going to die Evan, but we need to look at it when we get out.”
“Okay.” He sighed, “I’ll be there relatively soon. And hope to hell these guys are gone.”
They said good-bye and hung up. Her phone battery looked good. There were twenty-three things she did as part of getting ready for bed; charging her phone was always one of them.
Then the screen went black and their unadjusted eyes plunged them into total darkness again.
Ivy snuggled up against her, probably trying to stay warm now that they knew help would be a while. But Kayla didn’t worry. She told Ivy not to, too.
“But I do worry about you, Kayla. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
Ivy shifted and shifted again, and in the inky black that seemed to press in on her, Kayla couldn’t figure out what Ivy was doing. Not until she felt Ivy’s breath on her cheek, soft and warm. Slim hands found her arms and slid up slowly until they framed her face.
As Kayla caught on, Ivy’s mouth closed over hers, soft
and gentle and bone melting.
14
Back Field
“What?” Evan yelled to Reenie.
“I need to look at it to see.” Under the protective headphones, gunfire came through as clear, distinct pops, but voices sounded like they’d traveled between two tin cans and a string.
Ivy had surprised him, hitting her target dead center, then done it again, putting her bullets so close that they ripped into previous holes. Then she had smiled, tucked her gun away, and gone off to do whatever she was doing with her day.
Evan wasn’t sure what that might be or if it was even anything good. But he was certain he didn’t like the brightness that came into Kayla’s eyes when she said, “Go have fun,” to Ivy.
He hadn’t said anything to Kayla about what he and Reenie suspected—that they were curious if Ivy was maybe doing some fencing on the side. Then again it could be worse, she could be bringing these people to their door. And now it looked like it was already too late to do anything about any of it.
How was he supposed to tell his sister that one of the few true friends she’d had in her life was neither true nor a friend? In not knowing, he had procrastinated. And in procrastinating, he had clearly raised the cost for his sister.
The three remaining shooters signaled, took off their protective gear, and quietly put the safeties on their guns before tucking them away. Then they headed to the hay bales he’d constructed into a stack and pulled their targets. Evan had spent the morning with his heart pounding in abject terror that a stray bullet would hit something of importance. It was their land, but shooting a trespasser wasn’t in his cards. He hoped. He didn’t want to accidentally hit a neighbor’s dog or even take out a random Bambi. He wasn’t that kind of guy.
But he was forced to acknowledge that could change.
Kayla pulled her target from where he’d stabbed shims into the bales to hold the corners. She had a cluster of holes around the heart area. She might have killed her target with that. The several head shots she’d landed looked better. He did a quick count and saw that over half her bullets had made no holes. Which meant she’d either put them directly through these holes—which was incredibly unlikely, even for Kayla—or she’d just missed.