by Ashley Emma
Liv swallowed the bile rising in her throat, nausea stirring in her stomach. He had been watching her? And she had never even known? She, a cop, should have known. She should have noticed a noise, a shadow, a movement…something.
“You know, I was going to take Diana tonight. But I’m glad you crashed the party, gorgeous. So, on second thought, since you’re here…”
In confusion, she looked up to see his arm raising. He placed the damp cloth over her mouth and nose so quickly, even before she had a chance to remember to hold her breath.
She couldn’t fight it. She felt as light as a cloud, and her knees gave out from under her, her surroundings fading to black.
Chapter Thirteen
Liv groaned, her head foggy for some reason. Oh, that’s right, she had been drugged.
Realization and memories of the masked man slammed into her. Her eyes snapped open to see a wooden, beat up floor from where she sat. Boots covered large feet in front of her, and Liv’s eyes traveled up to peer into the face of her kidnapper. Finally, his mask was removed. A huge, muscular man in his late thirties stared back at her, his blond hair cut into a military high and tight. His cold, steely blue eyes bored into her face. Then she looked down at herself, trying to stand up and run, but she was tied to the chair she was sitting in with ropes.
No! She panicked, her heart rate speeding up. She tried to get free, but she was caught like a butterfly in a net. She hated this, hated being confined, feeling claustrophobic.
“Don’t bother. Houdini himself couldn’t have gotten out of those knots,” he gloated and walked toward her as casually as if he was on a walk in the park. She noticed her cell phone on the table, the battery taken out so no one could track her. This man was smart. There was a Glock sitting beside it. Was that the weapon used to kill Bishop Johnson?
The man pulled Liv’s gun out of his belt. Anger burned within her, boiling her blood at the sight of him handling her M&P Shield. That was her pistol, and now it was in a killer’s hands!
“Why am I here?” she growled. “What do you want with me?”
“Well, for one thing, you just wouldn’t quit trying to stop me. I couldn’t have that, and even though I threatened you and your boyfriend, you ignored my requests. Second of all, you killed my brother. And that is unforgiveable.”
His brother? What, was this guy adopted? “What? I don’t understand.”
“Well, that’s rude. You don’t recognize me?” He leaned toward her and gripped her arm. She shrank back from his cold touch and his closeness, squirming. “Think far back.”
Oh, my…. She took in a deep breath of realization, her eyes widening. “Ian Sullivan.” The young man who had left the community years ago. Now that she thought of it, he was almost the same size as Samuel, only a little bigger. Much scarier. No wonder she had thought he was Samuel when she had seen him masked.
“Correct! In the flesh.” He flipped his hands palms up. “You were young when I left, but still, I’m surprised you didn’t remember me. I had a big crush on you back then, you know,” he said coolly, walking around her.
She tried not to gag. He was several years older than her, and she must have been just a little kid at the time. What was wrong with this sociopath?
“Anyway, about you killing my brother. It really is time that you pay. You know, after I came home from my tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, I looked for you for months. Then, one day, I found you. I found out you work at CPDU. Found out you liked to go out to eat at that little Thai place on the corner. And I found your house.” His gravelly voice grated her sanity. He turned to her, and those cold eyes gripped her like talons. “Look, see what I made for you?” He motioned toward the wall, and she turned her head.
There, covering the wall, were pictures of Liv. Photos of her eating at her favorite café, pictures of her at the laundromat, the bookstore, near CPDU, and walking on the street. There was a close-up of her face at the grocery store. He had to have been right near her to have taken such a close-up picture! How had she not noticed?
“This one is my favorite,” he whispered, pointing to one in the middle. It was of her sitting on her couch watching TV. In her house!
He had been in her house? And she hadn’t even realized it. Her breath caught in her throat, and her heart felt like it had dropped to the floor.
“Well, I do love this one, too,” he murmured, and she looked where he was pointing. It was of her sleeping. “You look so peaceful, so serene. So beautiful.”
He had been in her bedroom? Bile rose in her throat. The room spun, and she started breathing faster and faster as her heart rate doubled and lightheadedness crept in. She was having a panic attack.
He had been stalking her. And she had had no idea the entire time. How had she been so careless and oblivious?
He came toward her and caressed her face with his sandpapery fingers. She turned her head away as if he had slapped her. If she wasn’t tied up, she would have gladly socked him in the face for that, but all she could do was sit there in disgust.
“I was going to kill you that night in your house, but I enjoyed watching you too much. You’re a beautiful woman, Olivia, even after chopping all your long hair off. I see now why my brother married you. I wanted you to myself, but Jake told me he was going to marry you even before you dated Isaac Troyer. But then I left and forgot about you…until I got a call saying you murdered my brother!” His voice raised an octave at the end, his face reddened, his fists clenched. For a moment, she was afraid he was going to hit her. She let out a breath of relief when he didn’t.
“I didn’t murder him!” she cried. “He was trying to choke me to death. The court said I only acted in self-defense.”
“I don’t care what the court says!” he retorted in rage. “You killed my brother, and that’s all there is to it. And now, you’re going to pay for what you did to him.”
He turned to a small table at the front of the shack and picked up the knife he had been holding in the Sullivans’ house. He ran his fingers up the side of the blade, smiling at her sinisterly.
Her stomach twisted with a sickening fear. No, it was something beyond fear. She was terrified, more terrified than she had ever been in her life, except for when her house had burned down with her family inside. Why was he dragging this out?
He glared at her. “You know what else? You took the little girl away, didn’t you? You found her in that cabin where I was keeping her and took her.” When she hesitated, he lunged toward her and screamed, “Didn’t you?”
“No. Actually, that was the police.” She spewed out the words.
Wait. She had something he wanted. Something that might keep her alive, maybe buy her some time or give her a way to escape.
“She was my Ava. She looks just like Ava had looked when she had been alive. She was about Jill’s age when she drowned. The same blonde hair, the same innocent brown eyes.” Ian got a faraway look on his face as he turned and looked out the window. “Ava drowned in that pond, right there.” He moved and she looked out the window to see a still pond, smooth as glass. “I come out here when I really miss her. Helps me feel better. But after a while, I missed her more than I could bear. I needed her back. I knew if I took her back I would stop hearing my father’s voice in my head, constantly telling me it was my fault she drowned.”
He turned to face her again. “I was supposed to be watching her that day. But I got distracted playing a game with my friends while she was swimming. Playing with Jake, Seth, and Isaac. Then, after a while I turned around to check on her, and she was gone. She died, and it was all my fault.
“My father blamed me every day after that. He never let me forget, not even for an hour. It was just too much, so I left. I joined the military, became a Navy SEAL, went overseas, then came here to look for you to get my revenge. Then I realized, maybe if I killed my father, his voice in my head would stop. So I shot him. But still, the voices didn’t stop.
“Then I thought maybe if I killed the bishop
, I’d feel better. After all, he should have done something about my father’s abuse. He should have known there was something wrong, and he should have done something about it. He had to pay for what he did, so I shot him.” He spoke matter-of-factly, showing no remorse for the murders he had committed. He stabbed the knife into the table top, making Liv jump.
“So…you believed you were serving them justice,” she concluded.
“Definitely.” He nodded.
He was so twisted! She understood he had been hurt, but that was no excuse to commit murder!
“I have one question,” she said meekly.
“What?”
“Why did you attack Isaac Troyer the night you killed Bill?”
“What…? No, I didn’t attack Isaac. I smashed in his buggy, because you love him, but I didn’t attack him. I was going to, that night I tried to sneak into his house, but that was when you came along and shot at me.” He growled and pulled the knife out of the wood.
“What about trying to run me off the road on my drive here? Was that you?”
“I was trying to prevent you from getting here and investigating, but it didn’t work so well, did it? Not even when I threatened you that night.”
“You could have killed us!” Liv snapped.
Ian shrugged unsympathetically. “But I didn’t. I care too much about you to kill you.”
Liv tried not to roll her eyes. “What about the note in Isaac’s house?”
“Oh, yeah. That was me. I was trying to scare you into not snooping around anymore. But I guess you don’t scare that easily.”
“No, I don’t,” she retorted, then wished she hadn’t. He came at her, holding the knife up.
“Oh, really? Let’s see about that…” He brought the knife closer to her arm, and she asked him another question to distract him.
“What about the fire at Sid’s house?”
He chuckled, then backed off, the boards of the shed creaking under his weight. She let out a breath, slowly, quietly, her heart slowing a little.
“Yeah, that was a good one. I got one of Samuel’s hats from his house and put it there in the rubble, trying to make you think he was the one behind all this. And you fell for it!” He laughed, then touched his chin. “Besides, I like fire.”
Fire? And when she had first arrived and he had threatened her from the woods, he had talked about her family dying there in the fire.
Liv’s little sister had been the same age that Ava had been when she had drowned, and had had blonde hair. Would Ian’s grief push him so far that he would burn down the house of a family who had a daughter the same age as his sister when she had died?
She wanted so desperately to ask him, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to contain herself if he admitted to the crime, which could anger him and get her hurt. She pushed the question out of her mind to save for later.
She looked away. Yes, she had fallen for his tricks. “So, Samuel didn’t do any of this? He didn’t help you?”
“Nope. It was all me. I was just hoping you’d think it was all him. I got you good, didn’t I?’ He smiled again, flashing those white teeth.
“Yeah. You got me good,” she muttered.
“But now, you have to pay for all you did to me, especially taking Ava away from me. I mean, Jill. Look,” he demanded, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look at the other wall, which was covered in more pictures.
Pictures of Jill Johnson.
“I love that little girl as if she were my own sister,” he said softly, making disgust wash over her as her gaze wandered over the photos. There were images of Jill playing in the fields, helping her mother hang out laundry, riding in a buggy with her parents, sitting on her front porch swing with her father. There was a close up of her shopping at a store with her mother.
“You’ve been stalking her, too?” Liv cried, feeling even more disgusted than when she had found out she had been stalked. At least Liv knew how and was willing to protect herself. But Jill was as vulnerable as a wobbly foal. He could have easily killed her while he had her in that cabin, and Liv thanked God that he hadn’t.
“Yes, for a long time. She is so much like Ava. She is Ava. I know if I had her back, everything would be fine again. I’d be happy. But now I don’t know where she is.”
Liv swallowed the overwhelming guilt rising in her throat. She couldn’t believe what she was about to say.
“I know where she is.”
Ian whirled around. “Where? Tell me!”
If Liv could convince him to let her take him to Jill, it would give her a chance to call for help or escape. “Better than that, I can lead you to her. And I can get you close to her. You really think you’d have a chance of getting close to her once she sees your face? She’d scream for help the second she sees you!”
“Where is she?” he demanded, grabbing her arm again.
“The nearby hospital. I know what room she is in. She is protected by security, but Jill knows me and she likes me. They’ll let me in, and if you dress like the Amish, they’ll let you in with me.” She hoped he bought her bluff.
“If I dress that way, they might let me in alone.”
“You don’t want to risk that. For one thing, they won’t recognize you as her friend. And you don’t want to risk Jill screaming for help.” She watched him think, pondering his options.
“Right. Okay, we leave now.” He whipped out his knife again, and Liv flinched, fearing the worst. But all he did was cut off the ropes binding her to the chair.
He brought the knife up to her face, and she froze.
“You try anything, and I swear, I will kill you and Isaac. And your family. Or what’s left of it. Are we clear?” Maniacal fire burned in his eyes.
She believed him. “Crystal.”
He opened a box and pulled out an Amish man’s shirt, pants, and hat. “I kept these from when I lived here, just in case I ever needed them. Good thing I did, even though they might be a bit small for me now.” He lifted a small lavender dress out of the box. “This was Ava’s. I will be glad to see it put to good use again.” The way he smiled made her sick, but she stood up shakily, slowly, ready to do whatever it would take to save Jill’s life and escape.
“Wait. There will be security guards. How do you expect to get her past them?” She watched his reaction, hoping she had stumped him, but he just gave her a smile that made her skin crawl.
“I can make a decoy version of her.” He grabbed some clothes and blankets off the floor. Liv watched in horror as he fashioned what resembled a child’s body out of the fabric and some rope. He put the Amish clothes on it. With the round cloth head covered by a kapp, and the rest of it covered in the frock, it looked like a giant cloth doll. But when Ian picked it up, rested it against his shoulder like a sleeping child and draped a blanket over it, Liv’s stomach fell to the floor.
It looked like Ian was carrying a sleeping little Amish girl. Realization sunk into her like a poisonous fluid in her veins.
His plan might work after all. What had she been thinking, telling him where Jill was? Would the security guards realize what was happening and stop them?
If anything ever happened to Jill because of Liv leading this crazed maniac to her, she’d never forgive herself. She would do everything she could to protect that child, even if it meant risking her own life.
“Are we ready, dear?” He lifted one eyebrow.
She couldn’t speak, and he didn’t wait for an answer. He led her to his car in the woods behind the shack. He put her in the front seat with her hands still tied, then he quickly changed into his clothes behind some trees. He walked over to the car, and though his shirt was too tight around his bulky arms, he definitely looked like an innocent Amish man.
As they drove to the hospital, Liv thought of every possible way she could either escape with Jill, get someone’s attention, or somehow get help. Maybe she could stab Ian with his own knife, causing a scene and injuring Ian long enough to give her the chance to tell someone
she had been kidnapped. Maybe she could somehow slip someone a note. Or make a sign to show the security cameras.
Possibilities swam through her mind. They both stayed silent and listened to the radio as they drove. When they pulled into the parking lot, Liv felt sick as he cut the ropes that tied her hands.
“Let’s go,” he ordered, prodding her. He rested the decoy on his shoulder like a sleeping girl again and the draped a blanket over it. Liv got out of the car and walked with him toward the hospital, slowing down a little with each step. But each time Ian noticed, he pushed her forward.
They went inside, got on the elevator and went up to the third floor. Liv spotted Jill’s room. With every step, Liv’s feet felt as though they were sinking further and further into cement. Ian grabbed her arm and all but dragged her to Jill’s room.
The security guards stood watch by her door. Liv stared at them, begging them with her eyes to stop them. But they just looked at Ian and Liv’s clothing and remained oblivious to the threat right in front of them. Ian nodded at them politely.
“Idiots.” He whispered the insult as they entered the room. Jill was asleep on her bed.
“I’m sorry, but the patient should be resting right now,” a passing nurse told them as she saw them walk in.
“We just drove a very long way and our driver had some car trouble. We are friends of Jill’s. She’ll want to see us, and we’ll be only a minute. Could you make an exception just this once?” Ian flashed her a deceivingly warm smile, using his charm to the max. “We will be quick.”
“Well…” She bit her lip, looking at their quaint clothing just as the security guards had. Why would she expect them to do anything ill-natured? “All right. You can have just a few minutes.” She walked away.
As soon as the nurse was out of sight, Ian hurried to Jill’s side.
“Oh, Ava,” he cooed. “I missed you.” He pulled the piece of cloth and the bottle of chloroform out of his pocket and raised it, putting it over her mouth. She woke up for a second then fell unconscious. Ian removed the clothing from the makeshift giant doll he had made, then stuffed the decoy under the bed.