“His toys were left in the yard where he’d been playing. I thought maybe he’d gone in for a snack, then my stomach had that hollow feeling – you know, the kind when you worry. I wondered if he’d been hurt. I stood at the edge of the woods and watched the house. I’d been trained to know my surroundings, to be safe and never walk into an ambush, so I waited, listened, even smelled the air. Not a sound. That tingle at the back of my neck that made the finest hairs stand tall had me wanting to run toward the house, but I fought off that feeling because of that thing going on in my stomach. Wait. Observe. Evaluate. All the words Eli had taught me rang loud in my head, and it was like I was frozen in place.”
“My father was in town. He’d come to visit us every so often, but he never stayed for long. He brought a small army with him, and they’d search the house and grounds every time they were there. It was odd – like round-the-clock guards who would rotate shifts every so many hours.”
“You didn’t ask your father what they were there for?” Wylie asked.
“Of course. He’d say, you can never be too cautious, Ivy Bean. I knew he was important, had a big job – government or something. I figured it was par for the course.”
Carter became curious at this point. “Did he ever tell you what he did?”
“No. He’d tell me the less we knew, the safer we’d be. That he had an important job that dealt with bad people, and it put us at risk. That’s why we were under protection and would move frequently. He didn’t stay with us because it was safer, he said. I assumed it was some sort of witness protection or something, and he worked for the government. The cars they’d all arrive in gave it away – or maybe I just watch too many movies. Either way, I assumed that’s what it was, and I have no reason to doubt him.”
“I can attest to that,” Eli said. “I’m on his payroll, but it goes to an offshore account his team set up. The bank is one the US Government uses for international dealings – many nations have holdings there, in fact.”
“Go on,” Dace said, nodding at Ivy.
She bit her bottom lip to stop the quivering as she mentally went over the next chapter of that horrid day. She let out a deep, cleansing breath and closed her eyes. “The cars were still parked where they had been when I left. Black SUVs – that’s what they always traveled in. Nothing had moved while I stood there, and that was the problem. I wondered where the guards were that had been circling the grounds. The men who stood at the end of the driveway weren’t there. I didn’t see the guard on the front or back porch. I couldn’t see anything inside, so I couldn’t tell if the men in there were still marching their little circle.”
“That’s when I noticed the dormer window in the attic. The man who stands there and watches wasn’t there, but something was different. Something on the window maybe. A glare from the setting sun made it hard to see what it was, but I knew it wasn’t there before. That sinking feeling in my gut became more recognizable. It was fear. Something was wrong.”
“Where was Eli during all of this? Wasn’t he with you?” Wylie asked.
“I remained at the house. Her father called a meeting and wanted me to attend. That usually meant we were moving.”
“You’re her bodyguard – because she needs a bodyguard – and you let her go to town alone?” Dace questioned with disgust.
“We’d been in this place the longest. It felt safe, and her father said he had men in town doing exactly what they were doing here. When I say it was a small army, I’m being quite literal,” Eli defended. “It wasn’t like this hadn’t happened before. If it wasn’t safe, we were ordered to move immediately, and this was just a visit.”
Dace shook his head. “And we’re supposed to trust your judgment? Your integrity through all this now?”
Eli was seated just on the other side of Ivy and stood to look around her right in Dace’s face. “I wasn’t in charge. He was. I told him it wasn’t a good idea, and the man who signs my paycheck and outranks me here said stay. I didn’t have much choice. Remember the small army?”
“You had to have known something wasn’t right.”
“Of course I did. I knew something wasn’t right every time he came to town. My job wasn’t to figure that out, though – it was to protect Ivy and Cash, so that’s what I did. The more I could find out, the better.”
“Fighting over this helps no one at this point,” Ivy interrupted. “Please, stop. We can’t make enemies out of each other right now because there is a little boy out there who needs us – needs you – both of you.”
“Fuck.” Dace tossed his pencil at the table and leaned back in his chair. The swollen veins in his arms and neck revealed the seething anger he was carrying.
“It was like they suddenly appeared,” Ivy said.
The men each looked around the table at one another with confusion until Wylie finally asked for clarification. “Who? Who suddenly appeared?”
“The bodies?” Her voice became pitchy, and words landed as questions like she was in disbelief herself. “It was like a dream; I couldn’t wrap my mind around what I was looking at. It was as if my mind was playing tricks on me. I shook my head, sat on a nearby stump, and tried to catch my breath. I didn’t know I was breathing so hard. They had to have been there all along, but it was like…like my mind was trying to protect my heart – protect me, really – and give me the chance to pace myself instead of panicking and running right into the line of fire.”
“Tell us about the bodies, Ivy,” Dace coaxed. “They need to hear it.”
Her head lightly bobbed, and she continued. “There was a man lying on the ground near the bush next to the back step. Maybe he was hard to see at first because his clothes blended with the piece of earth he was sprawling? But I finally saw him. I also saw the man on the ground in the driveway between two SUVs. If I ducked down just right, I had a clear view of the ground underneath the vehicle he was behind. He was so still, and at that moment, the realization struck me. He was dead. They both were. I scanned the property and saw two more people on the ground. I have no idea if they were dead or alive, but I know how still they were. So still.
“I had to get inside, and the only way to get in undetected was by following the tree line to the front of the property and ducking behind a white picket fence.” Ivy snorted. “White picket fence and bodies everywhere – such a contradiction, right? I made it in. Turned out I didn’t need to be so careful. There wasn’t anyone there. Everyone was dead. Inside and out. There was blood everywhere. Bodies everywhere. I nearly passed out from the horrific sight and panic that overwhelmed me. It didn’t seem real. Ya know?”
“I’m sure that was hard for you.” Wylie couldn’t help but feel compassionate for her. They’d all witnessed some of the most devastating encounters, and though it’d been more often than not, given their line of work, it was still hard to see and hear. Ivy hadn’t lived that kind of life – not until now.
“Hard? Yeah. I guess that’s a good word for it – hard.” She forced a small smile, trying to appreciate the sentiment, but it felt so out of place. “I ran to Cash’s room, and he wasn’t there. I searched every room, every hiding place, and then I did it again…and again. He was gone. While looking for him, I found my father’s glasses, broken and lying in a pool of blood. His phone was there too, the screen cracked. He was gone. Given the number of bodies left, I have to assume they are both alive, or they would have left them? Right? They would have left them there…for me to see. I would have found them. Right?”