Tainted Love

by Stacy Claflin

  Ava groaned. “This is why I wasn’t going to say anything.”

  Nick took a deep breath and thought about all the advice their counselor had given him. “I’m not going to get upset, but it is my job to keep you safe. If there’s anything I should know, I hope you’ll tell me. I love you, Ava.”

  “I love you, too, Dad.” She handed Genevieve’s engagement ring back to him.

  “And about Mason?”

  “Well, nobody knows where he is, right?”

  “Correct.” Nick frowned. The kid had disappeared around the time Corrine and Dave had been arrested, and nobody had seen him. He’d been staying with Dave’s parents before running away. Nick had made sure the force kept an eye out for him, knowing he might go after Ava. He’d assaulted her before, but he also hadn’t known they were half-siblings—though he had known they were going to be step-siblings.

  Either way, the kid was sick, which wasn’t surprising given his genetics. Two mentally-unstable parents didn’t give him much of a chance at a normal life.

  Ava sat up straight. “Let me know when you want to propose to Genevieve, and I’ll clear my schedule. If you want help planning your speech or whatever, let me know. I can help you say something really romantic.”

  “You don’t think I can be romantic on my own? I’ve won her over with my charm so far.”

  She half-smiled and stood. “I’m just saying I can add a little something. If you want the help. I’m sure she’ll say yes either way. ’Night, Dad.”

  Nick studied her, wanting to ask more about Mason, but kept silent. If she was really worried, she’d say something. “Goodnight, sweetie.”

  Ava spun around and left the room, humming. Maybe she really was okay.

  He held up the engagement ring, and his heart thundered. Were they really ready for the next step?

  Texts

  Ava flopped onto her bed and sighed. It sucked having to lie to Dad, but what other choice did she have? It wasn’t like she could tell him she was in contact with Mason. He’d freak. Like, legit freak out.

  But at least she knew where Mason was. He was far away, and that was where he needed to be. The only reason she replied to his emails and texts was to keep her enemy close. Friends close and enemies closer, right?

  She shoved down the thought of him making moves on her that one Halloween and focused on the fact that he was her brother. Well, half-brother.

  Her phone played the tune indicating she had a text.

  “Please be Braylon.”

  It was Mason.

  She threw her head back, but read the message anyway.

  Mason: Talked 2 mom & dad?

  Ava: Dave’s not my dad.

  Mason: Did u?

  Ava: No.

  Mason: Not even mom?

  Ava: No.

  Mason: Not very talkative, ru?

  Ava: Homework.

  Mason: I need u2 talk to them.

  Ava: Talk 2 them urself.

  Mason: I can’t show up at prison!

  Ava: And I don’t want 2 talk 2 them!

  Mason: It’s important.

  Ava: I’m going 2 do my homework now. Bye.

  Mason: I’m in Boise.

  She froze. He was in Idaho? As in, one state away? Mason had been staying in Kansas before. Her hands shook so much she couldn’t read the phone’s screen.

  Mason texted her again, but she dropped her cell. Was he planning on coming to Washington? To find her?

  Ava’s stomach lurched at the thought. It was one thing to text him while he was halfway across the country, but to actually have to see him again? To risk him putting his hands on her again? No. It was too much. He was getting too close.

  Her phone played the tune again. Another text.

  What was she supposed to say? Did she dare ask if he was coming her way? Maybe she never should’ve responded to him in the first place. Too late for that now.

  Another text came in.

  She stuffed the phone under her pillow. It wasn’t the time to respond. She needed to calm down and figure out what to say first. Be able to say the right things and quickly.

  Knock, knock!

  Ava swore. “Who is it?”

  “Me.” Parker.

  Her other brother. Her real brother. The good one. Annoying, but good.

  “Hello?”

  Ava grabbed her phone, silenced it, then shoved it under her pillow. “Come in.”

  He opened the door and marched in, closing it behind him. Pushing his bangs out of his eyes, he looked directly at her. “You hiding something?”

  Her stomach twisted. “No. You?”

  “What would I be hiding?” He plopped down on her computer chair and pulled a string from his torn black skinny jeans.

  “You tell me.”

  “Why do you look guilty?”

  “I don’t look guilty.”

  “Right, and mom’s not in prison.”

  Ava glared at Parker. “Shut up.”

  “About what? Mom or you?”

  She took a deep breath. “What do you want?”

  “Do you think Dad’s acting weird?”

  “No. Do you?”

  He shrugged.

  “Why do you think that? I just talked to him. He’s fine.” She debated bringing up the proposal, but decided to keep quiet. Dad would tell Parker when he was ready, if he hadn’t already. “Maybe he’s worried about you. I think he worries about us more now.”

  “Maybe you,” Parker snapped.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You were the one missing. The one who was violated. He has more reason to worry about you.”

  “Dave didn’t touch me,” she said quickly. “Not like that.”

  “But Mason did when we were at that Halloween party and—”

  “I don’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t a big deal. I got him to stop.” Ava glared at him to drop the subject. “Why are you bringing this up now? The counselor said—”

  “I can talk about what I want.” Parker crossed his arms.

  “It wasn’t a big deal,” Ava muttered.

  “He’s our half-brother.”

  “Nothing happened!”

  They stared each other down before Parker spoke again. “You think Dad’s gonna pop the question to Genevieve?”

  Ava hesitated. “Probably.”

  Parker scowled. “He’s so selfish!”

  “No, he’s not.”

  “Yes, he is! After everything we’ve been through, he’s going to get married and throw in another sibling into the mix. Like our family isn’t screwed up enough.”

  Ava crossed her arms. “Mom was going to marry Dave, and you didn’t have a problem with it. She moved us across the country away from all our friends. Then she worked with that jerk when he kidnapped me. You and Hanna were next, you know. Thank God Dad stopped it.”

  “Dad wasn’t on that case, remember?”

  “Officially. But you know he was working on it at some level since I was missing.”

  “Whatever. You weren’t even here to know.”

  “Look. If you’re just in here to bug me, then go. I have homework.”

  He glanced around. “I don’t see any.”

  “It’s in my bag. Go.”

  “Fine.” He left without another word, slamming the door behind him.

  Ava rolled her eyes. He was handling everything worse than she was, even though she’d been through more. She didn’t have time to think about that because she really did have homework to do, and if she didn’t get started, she’d be up all night.

  Once she got her books on the bed, she pulled her phone out from under the pillow.

  Four more texts from Mason.

  Her stomach knotted. Should she respond and tell him to leave her alone, or would it be better to ignore him and get the point ac
ross with her actions?

  Another text came in from him.

  Anger boiled in her gut. She opened the texting conversation, read his string of annoying messages, and replied.

  Ava: I told you I’m doing homework. Leave me alone.

  Mason: I’ll decide when I’ll leave you alone.

  She stared at the message, her hands shaking.

  Mason: Got that? I decide.

  Researching

  Alex yawned and wiped something yellow off his pants. It was sticky, and he cringed. He’d just returned to the station after a drug bust, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what the sticky stuff was.

  “You want to take your lunch?”

  Alex looked up to see Detective Sanchez. She looked as tired as he felt. He rose and stretched. “I don’t get why it’s called lunch at this hour.”

  “What would you call a three o’clock meal? It’s too early for breakfast.”

  “It sure isn’t lunch.” Alex slid the paperwork into a file. “I’ll see you in a half-hour.”

  “Sounds good, Mercer.”

  He gathered his things and nodded as he walked away. Now that he was on break, his mind wandered back to the mommy blogger. Something was definitely awry there. Kids don’t just disappear into thin air, and parents don’t simply go on as if nothing happened.

  Alex knew that firsthand. At his lowest point, he’d been an uninvolved parent—he’d given Ari up for adoption and let Zoey walk out of his life. He only saw his daughter twice a year most years before her abduction. And even with all his issues, it had ripped his world apart when she went missing. He did everything in his power to find her, including telling everyone he could about the kidnapping.

  Even as uncommitted and self-absorbed as he’d been at the time, there was no way he could have gone on with his life as if nothing had changed.

  That was why he couldn’t let go of the mommy blogger. Why had she suddenly stopped posting about her son? It was highly suspicious that she’d deleted comments asking about him.

  He mindlessly ate his warmed-up leftovers from the barbecue as he scrolled through the blog posts. They seemed to go back forever. He stopped where he was and found his way to the very beginning. Eight years earlier. It was a blog about the mom’s pregnancy. Her first pregnancy. The oldest was seven, so that made sense.

  Alex skimmed through the posts and jotted notes in his phone about everything that struck him as odd. Not one picture of the mom’s face—how strange was that? Worried about her identity but posted dozens of pictures of her kids daily. She also never mentioned a father. No pictures or mentions that identified where she was located. She blacked out identifying information on the ultrasound images. There weren’t any pictures at the hospital. Not even any pictures of the baby at first, and when she did start posting those, she didn’t show the baby’s face for months. Then all of a sudden, the blog posts were filled with pictures of the baby’s face.

  Why go from nothing to overboard all of a sudden? It just didn’t add up.

  “You ready?” Detective Sanchez’s voice pulled Alex back to the station.

  He looked up at her, then down to his half-eaten burger. “Has it been half an hour already?”

  She nodded. “And we have a holdup at the convenience store on Jackson and Twelfth.”

  “Again?” Alex stuffed as much of the food into his mouth as he could and shoved his phone into his pocket.

  “That side of town is getting bad, and I can’t see it getting better anytime soon.”

  Alex swallowed. “Do we have backup?”

  “That’d be us. Archer and Davies are already on their way.”

  He finished his food and followed Sanchez to a cruiser. By the time they reached the convenience store, the other officers had already apprehended the suspect. But they got word of a home invasion, so they headed toward the mobile home park a few blocks away.

  “Never a dull moment anymore,” Sanchez muttered.

  “The town’s really changed,” Alex agreed.

  “This part, anyway.”

  By the time they made it back to the station, they’d arrested the burglar and pulled over two speeding vehicles, one of which had illegal drugs spread out on the dashboard.

  Nick was clocking in when Alex entered.

  “Long night?” The captain poured himself some coffee.

  Alex nodded. “Hard to believe this is the same quiet town I grew up in.”

  “Time has a way of changing things.” Nick sipped his coffee. “And not always for the better. We see the worst of it.”

  “Isn’t there anything else we can do? It feels like we just keep putting out campfires when there’s a raging forest fire.”

  “We’re doing all we can. And there always was crime, even if you didn’t see it.”

  Alex shrugged. “I suppose. Hey, can I ask you something?”

  “Go for it.”

  “In your office?”

  “Sure.” Nick led the way and closed the door behind them. “What’s up?”

  Alex sat across from him and told him about the mommy blogger and the missing kid.

  “I’m not sure that sounds suspicious, Alex.” Nick raked his fingers through his hair. “I know we’ve seen a lot of child abductions, but that doesn’t mean every kid out there is in danger.”

  Of course it wouldn’t be easy to convince the captain. Alex drew in a deep breath. “What mother suddenly stops talking about one of her kids? I mean, really. Want me to show you the posts? She writes thousands of words a day about her four kids. Then suddenly, nothing on Connor.”

  “There could be something behind the scenes she doesn’t want to broadcast to the world.”

  “Like what?” Alex leaned forward.

  “Custody issues, for example.”

  “With just one kid?”

  “Maybe all the children have different fathers. I’m sure she wouldn’t want that getting out, especially if she’s such a big name in the mommy blogger space.”

  Alex drew in a deep breath. “I don’t buy it. Not for a moment, and I can’t believe you do, either.”

  “Maybe he was a foster child, and she thought she’d adopt him? If it fell through, she’d be crushed.”

  Alex wanted to pull his hair out. “If he was adopted, she wouldn’t have ultrasound and pregnant belly pictures! Or photos of him right after she came home from the hospital. Does that sound like a foster kid to you? And besides, would she even be allowed to blog about a foster kid and show his picture a million times on her popular website?”

  Nick’s mouth twisted. “Okay. Say something’s wrong. Is she local?”

  “I don’t know where she is. She never posts anything that gives away her location.”

  “We can’t take it on as a case if she isn’t here in town.”

  Alex frowned. “Even though there’s a missing kid? We can’t even look into it and then pass along what we find once we figure out where she is?”

  “You know how things work around here, Alex.”

  He leaned forward and tapped the desk. “So, there’s nothing we can do?”

  “I didn’t say that. You have your blog, and you’ve built a big following of people who like to help find missing kids. Use that platform.”

  “We have more resources here. That’s why I haven’t done much with my blog.”

  “Not because you have two babies at home and a new career?”

  Alex took a deep breath. “Yeah, obviously that plays into it. What if I find a connection to our jurisdiction? Then will you look at it?”

  “Of course. Why don’t you go home and get some sleep?”

  “Okay.” He got up and yawned. “Goodnight. Or morning, or whatever it is.”

  “Get some sleep, Alex.”

  He waved as he left then headed home. Zoey was asleep with the babies again. Maybe she was right about their schedules
changing. Imagine if all four of them could sleep at the same time and also be awake at the same time.

  Once he got out of the shower, one of the babies was crying. He gave Zoey a kiss and took Laney from her. “Go back to sleep. I’ll take care of her.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.” He bounced the baby and tucked the blankets around Zoey, then changed Laney while he warmed a bottle for her.

  While he fed her, he scrolled through more posts on his phone. When the blogger became pregnant for the second time, it was much the same as the first time—belly pictures, but never anything with her face, and no pictures at doctor appointments like the other bloggers had. Once she had the baby, she posted plenty of images of the older daughter with her new brother, but no pictures of his face until he was nearly six months old.

  Laney finished eating, so Alex burped her. Then, after a quick cuddle, he lay her down to sleep. Just before he climbed into bed, he noticed a new post on her blog. He stopped to glance at it then froze.

  Pictures of the family at a park.

  Alex recognized the playground.

  Deflect

  Jess gritted her teeth as she deleted yet another blog comment asking about Connor. She should’ve known that not posting about him would make people curious. Her blog was really popular, after all. She’d worked hard for that status. Not just the popularity, but also the income. Without the ads, sponsored posts, and other money flowing in from her blog, she couldn’t stay home and support her kids.

  And she wasn’t going to let this take her down. What she needed was a good cover story. A really good reason for why she hadn’t posted about Connor for a long time. It had to be something people would believe. Something that would garner sympathy and stop the accusatory comments and emails. Something that would—

  “Mommy!”

  “Mom!”

  Daisy and Willow burst into the room, shoving each other.

  “Girls!” Jess glared at them. “How many times have I told you not to bother me when I’m working?”

  Daisy glared at her older sister. “She’s being bossy.”

  “She won’t listen to me!”

  Jess took a deep breath. Why wouldn’t these kids ever listen? “Daisy, when I’m working, Willow is in charge. Willow, don’t be mean to your sister. She’s only three. You’re seven—a big girl. Act like it.”