Stepbrother: The Game He Plays

by Lucy Ivey

  “Do you wanna go somewhere and talk?”

  “Sure. Where do you wanna go?”

  “Anywhere but here. Fuck! Will you just get me out of here, please?”

  He took my hand in his and led the way to his car. As we drove away from the sea of police cars and news vans, I didn’t look back once.

  We sat close to each other on the rocky edge of the mountain. He stared at me. I stared ahead watching a thick blanket of fog cover the sky above us. The wet clouds were sure to release their rain at any moment as the heavy winds rolled in from all around.

  “How do you know about this place?”

  “Do you like it?”

  “It’s kinda spooky.”

  “Yeah, I think that’s why I like it.”

  His light eyes were dull, darker staring into mine.

  “I know a lot of secluded places around here. Places where no one would ever find you.”

  “Good,” I whispered. I didn’t want to be found. Not right now.

  I told Ryan about how Gray and the other girls upset me at lunch without going into any details. My vague explanation didn’t seem to bother him. He seemed distracted.

  “What are you thinking about?” I asked.

  “Sarah.”

  I’d been thinking about her all morning. I was comforted to know he was thinking about her, too.

  “What about her?”

  “I don’t know.” He sighed. “How she probably had no clue she was going to die that night.”

  My stomach dropped. I felt nauseated. Out of all the thoughts I had about Sarah throughout the day, that one had never crossed my mind. How could she have known? Who would know something like that? It can happen so fast and when you least expect it.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know. It’s sad when you think about it. Dying all alone. No one there to help you. Comfort you in your last moments.”

  He seemed brokenhearted about her death. As he answered a text from someone, I thought about the deaths of the three girls in the past few years in the town and the two within the past month.

  All of them were about the same age, three of them were employees at the resort, and none of their murders had been solved. As of right now, Sarah’s seemed like an accident. But so did Joe’s girlfriend’s murder, at first. What if the coroner finds out that Sarah was actually murdered by a person instead of killed by an animal attack? Who could have gotten so close to all of these girls? Close enough for them to trust? Close enough for them to die? My head was spinning at all my thoughts. I didn’t want to be here anymore.

  “Karley?”

  He was holding my arm.

  “What?”

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “Nothing. I’m sorry.”

  “You must have been deep in thought about something!” He laughed nudging my side with the tips of his fingers.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I said your name three times and you didn’t even blink.”

  “Sorry, I have a lot on my mind right now.”

  “Do you wanna talk about it?”

  I didn’t. There was only one person I wanted to talk to about it. Joe. He was the only one with the answers. I couldn’t get him being with Gray last night out of my mind … or the fact that he had plans to go back to her house again tonight. My stomach flipped again.

  “No, I’m fine … everything going on right now is just too much, you know.”

  He nodded his head slowly and looked out over the darkening gray sky.

  “Listen. The whole Sarah thing … unfortunately, it’s something we’ve all been through before around here. And as bad as it sounds, things will be back to normal soon.”

  Something they’ve all been through before?

  “Do you mean with the girl a few weeks ago?”

  “No, I didn’t know her. I was actually talking about Maddie.”

  Joe’s girlfriend.

  My heart sank into the emptiness of my stomach.

  “But you knew her?”

  “Yeah. Not very well.” His light eyes narrowed. He was searching for a word to describe the relationship he had with her. “Well, kinda, I guess. It was the same relationship I had with Sarah. We all hung out at the resort after hours.”

  I didn’t understand what he meant.

  “What do you mean ‘after hours’?”

  “What? Justin’s never taken you to the resort after hours?” he asked in total disbelief.

  “No.”

  “Really?” He chuckled. “Maybe he doesn’t like you as much as he acts like it!”

  I didn’t laugh at his joke. I thought back to the first night Justin and I hung out and he wanted to take me to the resort.

  “I’m kidding.” He was serious again. “Some of the employees have their own keys to the resort. I’m sure Justin and Joe do because they’re the owner’s sons.” His face tightened slightly as he continued. “They get a lot of things the rest of us have to work for because of who they are.”

  He seemed to be so envious of them. I didn’t care about his envy. I wanted to know more about after hours at the resort.

  “Who else would have keys?”

  “Well, my dad has a key because he’s in charge of maintenance.”

  “So, you have access?”

  “With my dad’s keys I do. Not my own set. Don’t tell anyone.”

  “Couldn’t you get in trouble?”

  “Yeah!” He laughed. “That’s why I said don’t tell anyone!”

  Warmth rushed to my cheeks.

  The fog set tighter around us. The mist of the air felt like sweat against my skin. Nausea set back in making everything fade together and spin slowly.

  “Why do you use them?”

  “Sometimes it’s easier to work when nobody else is around. It’s nice having full access to the place, too. To be able to go up there and hang out when it’s closed. Or other things.”

  “Other things?”

  He nudged his body against mine playfully.

  “Oh, other things.” I wasn’t sure if he meant smoking pot or making out. I didn’t want to ask but he was laying everything out in front of me.

  “So, Maddie would go up there with you?”

  “Sometimes. Not just with me. She and I were never alone. She was always hanging around Joe. Justin was always with Sarah. Well, sometimes Sarah was with Joe, too. So I never really talked to any of them that much. They had their own thing going on. But we were all up there together, if that makes sense?”

  Again, Ryan was making it sound like Justin and Sarah had been a couple.

  “Yeah, sure,” I whispered. “It makes sense.”

  It didn’t make sense. Nothing was making sense anymore.

  If Gray knew anything, she wouldn’t tell me. Especially after today. Most likely, she didn’t know anyway. If she had been part of the “after hours” get-togethers, she would have already told me. She would have been too excited to keep the secret. Especially if Joe had been the one to invite her. And now, once again, my thoughts led back to him.

  Joe.

  Did what happen to Sarah remind him of Maddie? Was that why he had to leave last night? Why did he go to Gray? Why was he going to her again tonight?

  “Karley?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You know, that day I dropped you off at your house I wanted to tell you that I was the one that found her.”

  “Who? Maddie?”

  He nodded.

  “On the mountain?”

  He hesitated for a moment.

  “In this very spot.” My stomach tightened. My wide eyes were glued to him as he ran his hands through his thick blond hair. “Karley, nobody knows.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Remorse filled his eyes.

  “Well, besides my father and Mr. Osborne and the police chief. You can’t tell anyone.”

  “I won’t,” I whispered. My pounding heart raced. I understood why he wouldn’t want a
nyone to know—why none of them would. I just didn’t understand why he would take me here. To the very spot she was found.

  “How did you find her?”

  “I snuck into the resort after it closed. I hadn’t lived here very long. I’d just graduated from college and my life was going nowhere. I was working a minimum-wage job and living back home. It fucking sucked. One night it got real bad and I just needed to get away. Back in California, I’d go up to Big Bear Lake and snowboard all the time. It relaxed me. So, I took my dad’s keys and came up here.”

  He took an extended breath in and exhaled slowly.

  “After a couple of runs, I came to this spot to smoke a joint,” his eyes flickered toward me waiting for judgment. I shrugged my shoulders to let him know it didn’t make me think any less of him. With a thankful grin, he continued.

  “And there she was lying near the tree line, half hidden by the snow.”

  “Oh, my God!”

  I imagined a gruesome image with the beautiful face in the picture with Joe.

  “Yeah, it was awful.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “I fucking stood above her for the longest time. I just didn’t know what to do. I felt like since I found her lying face up and eyes open in the snow, I had to do something, you know? She had this empty look in her lifeless eyes that made me feel like I was responsible for what happened to her.”

  He stared at me with a slightly opened mouth like he was searching for more words to describe the horrible moment he found her, and yet waiting, wanting me to interrupt the painful image in his head with a question.

  “What did you do?”

  “I boarded to the bottom of the mountain where my phone had service and called my dad. He called Mr. Osborne and they showed up a few minutes later with the police.”

  His voice shook. The memory of seeing her still haunted him.

  “I told them where the body was and how I found it.”

  “What happened?”

  He exhaled with relief.

  “Mr. Osborne is a good guy. He protects the people he cares about. I mean, he could have pressed charges against me for trespassing but he didn’t. He never doubted my innocence even before the police questioned me about her.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like, why was I at the resort after hours? How well did I know her? Had I ever fucked her before? Crazy shit like that, you know?” His eyes flickered in my direction again. I didn’t move. “Just tons of fucking questions that made my head spin.”

  “How did Bill help you?”

  “He made sure it stayed a secret about me finding her, too. He knew if everyone knew it would have made my life and my dad’s life really crazy. He knew it would have destroyed our family.”

  My thoughts shifted to Bill. Family was important to him. So was business. Maybe more important. I believed he was worried about Ryan’s well-being and his family’s, but I wasn’t convinced he cared more about them before his own reputation and the resort’s. That was more likely the reason he’d wanted to keep everything hush-hush.

  “What happened?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean when they found out she had been murdered.”

  “It caused quite a scare because of the other girl. She had been strangled, too.”

  I shook my head quickly.

  “What?”

  What other girl?

  “There was a girl the summer before. She wasn’t found on the mountain but close enough to the resort to make people talk.” I stared ahead. The fog was starting to lift and I could see the outline of the resort in the distance. Its peaceful and safe appearance made my stomach twist again. “Like I said, things go back to normal.”

  As unfair as his words sounded, they were true. After a while, people start to feel safe again. Even around the people they shouldn’t.

  If I leaned forward I would have thrown up from the disgust of what I was thinking. The fear of being one of them. Of trusting someone too much and not realizing until it was too late … or being attacked by someone you never knew was there all along—watching, wanting, waiting.

  “Hey, you don’t look so good.”

  I looked in his direction still feeling nauseated.

  “I don’t feel so good.”

  He stood up and reached his hand out to me. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  I nodded and held his hand all the way back down the mountain—my thoughts never forgetting how close I was to the girls’ deaths just moments ago.

  Chapter 18

  Stuck in the Middle

  After dinner, I told everyone I was going upstairs to take a shower. Honestly, that was my plan. But when I finally got a moment to myself, I thought about everything that was going on.

  My world was falling apart.

  Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

  I found out the truth about my parents’ divorce and was actually enjoying being with my mother again—and her new husband.

  I was putting friendships on the back burner—something I had never done. Marissa had texted twice and I hadn’t her back.

  I was considering moving away from California for good—to be with a guy I just met last month … who also happened to be my stepbrother … and the guy I lost my virginity to a week ago.

  Now, I was thinking about sleeping with his brother!

  I felt stuck in the middle. Helpless.

  They were arguing when I got home earlier and now they weren’t even looking at each other. Something happened between them. Something dividing them for the first time. Something major. Me.

  I’d heard Justin say my name over and over again to his brother. He sounded desperate. Pleading. About what, I didn’t know. His words were inaudible. I did know that he wouldn’t discuss it with me. He would continue to protect his brother.

  It didn’t matter.

  I needed time alone. To figure things out for myself. I wasn’t sure what the fuck I was thinking anymore—yet alone doing. I needed to get my shit together.

  Joe did something to me.

  He was always on my mind. The way he looked at me. The way he talked to me. The way he touched me. Especially, the way he said he felt about me. I was starting to feel the same way about him. I just didn’t know how real it was for him. I wanted to believe him. More importantly, I didn’t know how I would tell Justin … or when I would tell him. Then, I started to wonder if I would tell him.

  Maybe I wouldn’t have to tell him. Joe would. Eventually. I was the only secret he was keeping from him. He wouldn’t allow that for very long.

  He wanted me. The closer I let him get, the more he wanted me. I just didn’t know at what cost. Losing his brother? Unlikely. I felt like I knew so much about him but there was still so much I didn’t know. One thing was certain: if I fell for him, I would never recover. I just wasn’t sure if there was anything I could do about it anymore.

  I was so confused.

  I needed to clear my head before I started my assignment. I pulled my laptop out and decided to look at colleges in Connecticut. I didn’t know why. Moving there was definitely not an option anymore. I didn’t care. I needed something to distract me from everything going on around me.

  After a few minutes of reading about a small university just a few miles outside of New Haven, I scanned down the local online paper noticing an article about a recently unsolved murder in the area. It was another young girl who attended classes at Yale during the day and worked as a waitress at night. Their university. I started thinking about the girl they knew who was murdered a few years ago. A familiar sick feeling rolled around in my stomach.

  I didn’t know her name. I couldn’t remember if Justin told me or not. I started researching all the young, female murders in the area in the past few years. More than I expected popped up on the web page. I narrowed my search down to Yale University students and found an article about a young girl named Elizabeth “Lizzie” Dawson who was found murdered near the university three years ago. />
  I read through several articles on the girl’s academic life at the university. As I read, I cried. She had so much going for her when she died. She was enrolled in the psychology program and was an honor student. She was extremely involved in the community and had plans on becoming a psychiatrist to help women and children of domestic abuse. Her life was going great until someone took her plans, her dreams, and her life away from her.

  As I continued looking through articles, I found two pictures of her. The first was her class picture. She was a beautiful girl with long, brown hair and brown eyes. Her smile was honest and even on paper, infectious. The second picture I found was of her and some friends at a local charity event to prevent domestic violence. All of the students had their arms wrapped around the shoulders of the person next to them. The person on the right side of Lizzie was cut out of the picture but the hand on her shoulder was still visible.

  She looked so happy.

  I tried zooming in on the picture as much as I could but her face became too blurry. So I zoomed back out and noticed the names under the picture.

  Eleanor Simpson.

  Peter Jeffries.

  Claudia St. Pierre.

  Gloria Richardson.

  Joseph Osborne.

  My heart stopped. Immediately, I looked back up at the picture and noticed Joe standing in the row behind her smiling. I couldn’t stop staring at the black-and-white picture.

  The blurry pixels of the paper were no match for the cool blueness of his eyes and the white of his smile. He was stunning. His happiness made him almost unrecognizable to me. His eyes were brighter. His smile more sincere. It was him but he looked like a totally different person than who he was today.

  I wondered how close he was to her. And if he missed her. He kept a picture of Maddie in his room. He missed her. How close had he gotten to Lizzie before she died?

  I brushed my finger over his face. Everything led me back to him.

  I slammed the lid of the laptop down when I heard a knock at my door.

  “Yeah?”

  Justin peeked his head inside. “Hey, almost done?”

  “Yeah,” I lied. I hadn’t even started.

  “Wanna come hang out downstairs and watch a movie with me?”