16. Last Prayer

16

LAST PRAYER

LIVVIE

M y cheeks burned from smiling for the entire drive home from Blake’s. And it wasn’t only because River was chatty and super happy about the time he spent with his new aunties. Sated by Blake, I could probably fall asleep easily tonight.

The new car smell could also have something to do with the euphoria flooding my soul. Blake let me drive it home with River, while one of his sisters took him to get his truck from the dealership. The sporty model, with leather heated seats and so many extras, was so much easier to drive as an automatic versus my manual VW beetle. I began to see Blake’s wisdom about the new versus the old.

Besides, wasn’t I in search of a do-over? Kissing Springs was supposed to be my fresh start. Why cling to the old clunker so hard? I should let go and trust in Blake. Besides Porsche would look so adorable driving it it if were fixed up.

“We’re almost home, sweetie. We’ll have a bath, then get to bed.” I caught his yawn in the rearview mirror. “It was such a fun but tiring day, wasn’t it?”

“Yep. So fun.”

“Do you like Kissing Springs now?” I held my breath for his answer.

“Yes, Mommy.” His eyes drooped to a close, so I stopped asking him questions and turned on soft music. This was even better. I’d skip his bath and put him straight to bed. I dreamed of taking a bath myself to clean up after my time with Blake anyway, so I could take my time.

When I arrived at the house, it was enveloped in darkness, a little eerie. Strange, because Nancy didn’t mention to me about any plans for the night. In the garage, her car was there, however. I glanced over at Spence’s, where his porch light was on and the TV glowed through his front window. I’d bet she was having a good time with her “man friend.” I giggled, realizing how right she was about sex.

I parked outside and carried River in. He weighed heavier, like he’d gained five pounds today, or else I was more tired than I thought, although there was a ton of food and treats at the festival. Tracy sure knew how to throw a party.

My hand felt for the light switch on the kitchen wall, finally illuminating the house, thank goodness. River first. I laid him down on his bed in his room, not even bothering to remove his clothes, costume or shoes for fear he’d wake up.

How he adored his Billy the dog costume. He could wake up in it and in the morning I’d give it a fresh-up, spot clean it, whatever it needed so he could wear it to the Halloween party at school. I’d give him a quick bath, too.

For now, I covered him with a blanket, and kissed his cheek.

“Goodnight, my little love,” I whispered, and left his door slightly ajar. I turned back down the hall, hoping I’d find a note or something from Nancy. After searching about, I found nothing.

We definitely needed to have a long talk about things. I shook it off and headed to the bathroom. I leaned over and tilted the dials to adjust the water temperature. When I stood, movement in the mirror held me captive as I tried to make sense of the man I saw coming toward me, holding his phone up.

“Spence?” I turned, terrified, backing up to the countertop.

“Don’t scream. Not if you want to see Nancy again.” His phone screen revealed a photo of her lying on a floor somewhere, motionless.

“What have you done?” My voice shook, barely audible.

“She’s alive, simply in a deep sleep. Like the other day, when you came home and found me and River mowing the lawn. You make a wrong move, though, and I make sure her sleep is permanent. I have to commend you on your instincts about me. You should have listened to them,” he said in a twisted and evil voice unlike the usual middle-aged man he’d portrayed.

I went for my phone in my pocket, but he produced a gun in his other hand and trained it on me.

“Hand it over. Unless you want me to hurt you and River, too.”

I sucked in a breath and did as I was told. He could do anything to me he wanted, as long as River went unharmed. Of that, I was resolutely certain.

“What do you want?” My eyes darted around for something, anything I could grab and use as a weapon, finding nothing but bath bombs and toothbrushes.

“You don’t recognize me, do you?”

I squinted and shook my head.

“About a year ago, my employer and I stopped in to visit with a man, Sam Carlson, at his shit-hole bar in St. Louis for a friendly high stakes poker game in the back of the bar. We played at a round table setup in the bar kitchen. But we weren’t there for fun; we had ulterior motives. Then you ran in, chasing after your mischievous son, who apparently had evaded you at bedtime, causing a ruckus throughout the bar.”

I blinked several times, seeing that night play through my head. How could I forget? His employer was some Las Vegas mafia type, whose name started with a B… Button? Bodega? Oh, Bottesta. Dad had wanted to get in good with him, to work for him, and to find an angle where he could exploit him for money, saying this could be his cash cow. Greed was always the reason behind everything he did. He forced me to clean things extra good the entire week before to impress this man even more.

“Ah, I see it in your face. You recall now. Anyway, I’ll never forget how that asshole Ward chewed you out for interrupting the game. He threatened to beat the kid and reached for him, but you got between them. He smacked you and you fell back against the hot stove, burning your back. He grabbed a knife, but I’d had enough of that brute. So I stood up and punched him in the gut, doubling him over. I never liked the prick. Your dad was okay, though. But hey, we’re all scumbags of varying degrees.”

Even now I winced at the memory like the burn was fresh. With Ward bent over, I’d grabbed my scared little River and locked myself in my apartment above the bar for two days. Dad finally came and promised me Ward wouldn’t touch me again as long as I came back to work to do the cleaning, laundry, bartending, serving, whatever else, as long as it didn’t involve cooking. I’d prayed ever since, that night wouldn’t traumatize my boy.

I don’t recall Spence there, so worried about River, that I never got a good look at the face of the man who clobbered Ward. My older brother deserved the beating though, as a menace to our neighborhood, bullying everyone, including me, for far too long.

“I’m confused. So our paths crossed. So what? What are you doing?”

“I think you’ll find this interesting. My employer has no beef with you. This was all a matter of coincidence. I moved here to help Nate and the security team assigned to watch over Tori and Porsche, since they are currently hiding in this podunk town. That’s not even their real names, and her marriage to Nate is a fraud.” He snorted.

The news startled me. I thought I was getting to know her so well, even envied her life, and her cool relationship with her daughter and husband. “None of it is real?”

“That’s right. Anyway, just to pass the time, I started up a fun relationship with the cougar next door. Then the day I meet her granddaughter, you, and find out from Nancy you’re working with Tori, BAM. Recognized you instantly. That one little spark started off a chain reaction of connections, bringing us to this very point.”

I must be dreaming. I was so tired, exhausted from every amazing thing Blake did to me today, that I must have come home and put River to bed, then dropped onto the couch and dozed off. That’s the only explanation for this crazy person to be holding me at gunpoint.

Wake up! Wake up! I didn’t dare move a muscle, but I bit my tongue in my mouth to shock myself awake. I half expected Spence to disappear with a poof! , but he didn’t move an inch.

“What the hell do you want from me, Spence?”

“Good. I’m glad we’ve reached this portion of the night. Simple. Do everything I say, or else I hurt River.”

Panic struck, my pulse racing. Little oxygen was getting to my brain, and dizziness sent me swaying.

He reached out and patted my cheek. “Hey, stay with me. I need you to help me isolate Tori and Porsche. That’s all. You see they are very important to my boss. So here’s your phone back. Now, call Tori and tell her exactly this: You need her to meet you at the pie shop where you left your purse yesterday. In your purse is medicine River has to take every day. Critical you get it right now. I don’t care how, but you make it seem like a life and death situation if she doesn’t open up the shop so you can get the purse. River will die or some shit if he doesn’t have the medicine tonight. And, well, it is life or death, so you wouldn’t exactly be lying.” He shook the gun to remind me it was there.

His words all ran together and made no sense. I couldn’t move.

“Come on, Olivia. Don’t make me hurt you. I hated what Ward did to you. I hate hurting women and children. Of course, there are situations where I’ve had to, doesn’t mean I want to. Now. Pick. Up. The. Phone.” He shoved it into my shaking hands.

I swallowed hard and clicked around, dying to call Blake. But Spence said to listen to my gut, and right now it told me not to test him. He could hurt me or my son or both.

“O-okay. Y-yes. I’m dialing.” I blew out air, then forced more in, repeating a few times.

“That’s it. Calm yourself down. Put it on speakerphone. One wrong move, and you’re a goner.”

The phone rang three times before it picked up.

“Hello, Livvie? Don’t tell me you have the flu bug now and can’t show up to work tomorrow. That’d be just my luck.” Tori laughed.

“Uh, no, but I do have an emergency. I just realized that I ran out of River’s medicine he takes every night. The pharmacy is closed. But I have a spare bottle in my purse, only guess where my purse is?” I threw in a nervous chuckle.

“Your employee locker at the shop? Girl, as a mom I’ve totally been there, forgetting things. It’ll take me a few minutes to check in with Nate, but I’ll be there, say, within a half hour?”

“Yes. Perfect. Oh, how is Porsche?”

“Better. She’s going back to school in the morning.”

“River can’t stop talking about her since they met the other day. Can you bring her along?”

“Um. Actually, I might. She’s going a little stir crazy tonight after two days straight in bed. She’s been texting some boy nonstop all night and won’t tell me who.”

Could it be Connor? And what the hell was Spence going to do with them once they arrived at the shop? Or me? And what about River?

“Okay. Thank you. See you soon.”

“No problem. Bye,” she said and ended the call.

Spence yanked the phone from my hand and clicked it off, then pocketed it. “Good. What a great actress you are.”

“Why do you need to see them?”

“Because it’s time for them to stop playing hide and seek. My employer wants his family back.”

Suddenly, things clicked. My gut was right about Spence. “So they belonged to Bottesta? And you’re playing both sides aren’t you? Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The good guy working with Nate on this cover up, while in reality you’re really just a thug working for a despicable man.”

“Hm. Smart girl. Putting all the pieces together. And that’s why it’s time for you to go to sleep.”

“What?” Next thing I knew, someone else’s hand clamped around my mouth with a towel. I reacted, fighting back, but another set of arms held me down. I struggled to breath, but fumes of some sort of chemical scrambled my brain. Screams caught in my throat, as I slowly faded out.

My last remaining thought was of my son sleeping in his bed. The last prayer I sent up was for Blake to save our son.