Chapter Fifty-Three
She still couldn’t believe it when her former roommate first came into view. How could Jordy be involved with the disappearance of Brady and Clover? It wasn’t a trick of the eyes — the short, freckled girl with a sly look on her face was just a few yards away from her, kicking up gravel with her Doc Martens knockoffs. Lily had never before noticed how much the girl’s lips resembled a fish mouth, with its downturned corners. Even when the corner of one lip was curled up in a sneer, as it was now.
TraceyAnn had been right about her. Underwear and underhanded roommates. Great. TraceyAnn was going two for two. What would she give to be back at the Staff Childcare Center right now, listening to more of TraceyAnn’s pontifications, with the twins happily up to their latest mischief?
Instead, they were on the front porch of a ramshackle prefab building, at the edges of a sun-drenched quarry.
As she scrambled out of the car, she’d been greeted by Jordy, and a scruffy guy in his twenties, and the man from the lingerie shop. Jordy had pointed a gun at her midriff and told her to raise her hands in the air.
Lily had recognized Phoebe Buffay’s tormenter right away. He was apparently the one in charge. Of course, one clue was that Jordy kept calling him “Boss”. Not to mention her uncharacteristic obsequiousness towards him. What happened to Jordy’s pride in her promotion at the Faire? Lily wondered. It didn’t make sense. Not that any of this made sense.
Just like the previous day, the man looked like he stepped out of some style magazine for older men. Maybe a photo spread on proper, bespoke attire for Gentleman Psycho Killers, in planning a day out in the Quarry.
Except today he sported a huge shiner over his left eye, most likely from last night. Good. Lily hoped it hurt. She wasn’t going to say it out loud, though. The man had done something worse to Rey. She hoped she wouldn’t find out exactly what he had done firsthand.
The third of the trio, who was as different from the two as they were from each other, was assigned the task of tying rope around Lily to a rickety wooden chair. But of course now Lily was a pro at this, wasn’t she? How many other people could claim to being tied up by an abductor’s accomplice twice within the space of two days? She fidgeted as much as she could, kept taking deep breaths and holding it, to make it difficult for him. And to maybe buy herself some wiggle room when he finished.
It wasn’t hard to hold her breath. He didn’t exactly have even a passing acquaintance with soap. Or laundry detergent.
Her eyes kept going back to Jordy, anyway, as if there had to be mistake. But no, it was still Jordy standing there in a Bruce Campbell t-shirt, denim cutoffs and knockoff DMs, not an evil twin. And it was the same person had so nicely offered to take Lily to Undercover Frills the day before. It suddenly clicked.
“You’re the reason he knew where to find me yesterday, aren’t you?” Lily’s voice was filled with hurt.
Jordy just smirked, which was all the confirmation Lily needed. Not that she was going to be able to do anything with that information. Jordy had also probably given the man her cell phone number; she would have had access to it, being part of the Ops team.
The man neared Lily menacingly, and she instinctively shrank into her chair, which creaked with the movement.
“We may as well get properly acquainted.” The man’s voice was silky, with undertones of evil. His pupils were practically pure black. “I am Cadmus. And you are—?”
“You obviously know who I am, if you’ve been trying to get at me twice.” Lily said.
Cadmus smiled. And then his arm swung out, the back of his hand snapping hard against Lily’s cheek. Tears sprung to Lily’s eyes. Not enough to blur Jordy’s Cheshire Cat grin in the background, though.
“How I deplore the loss of manners in today’s society.” Cadmus said. It was similar to what he had said in the store yesterday. Obviously this dude had an Emily Post hangup.
“Shall we try again, perhaps with a question that is of actual interest to me?”
He towered over her, and seemed to expect an answer. She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Or to keep from spitting at him. Except —
“Please, you promised to show me the kids were ok, if I turned myself over to your goon.” Lily indicated the biohazard in overalls who was still working on tying her fidgeting arms. She swallowed. Please let them be ok.
“Ah yes, I did.” His voice was like a snake, slithering through her mind, and she shivered. “Besides keeping my word, their presence can be used to provide an additional…enticement, shall we say?” He snapped at Jordy. “Bring them out!”
The girl threw one more spiteful look at Lily, and scurried to one of the parked vehicles sitting outside in the hot sun, the gravel crunching underneath every step of her knockoff DMs. Lily was horrified. Were the twins being kept inside of a locked car? In theheat?
She watched in dismay as Jordy opened the door to the back seat. And then took out a knife.
Lily’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to scream, as Jordy leaned into the back seat, the knife disappearing into the dark interior.
The scream caught in her throat, as Jordy yanked two familiar forms out of the back seat. A silent prayer of thanks came out of her mouth instead, thanks to any deity listening that Brady and Clover were both alive and conscious, as they tumbled out onto the gravel, their little legs scrambling for purchase as Jordy gripped the fabric of their tee-shirts forcefully. The remains of duct tape fluttered around their ankles. Apparently Jordy had just cut loose the bonds around their ankles, but not their arms. A piece of duct tape had been placed over their mouths, and the two were obviously crying, their little shoulders shaking.
Clover was the first to regain her balance while still being in Jordy’s death grip, scrabbling on the noisy gravel. She managed to spin her body and with one well-aimed kick, nail the girl in the shins. Jordy’s howl echoed in the Quarry.
Brady, emboldened, kicked her other shin and that was enough for Jordy to release her grip on both.
“Brady, Clover, run!” Lily yelled. And her head snapped back with another backhand from Cadmus. She tasted the tang of copper in her mouth.
“One should never encourage bad behavior.” Cadmus said. “Really, that is most likely a contributing factor to the dearth of manners in our society. And as you can see, quite futile in any case.”
