Page 42 of A Sublime Casualt
Lizzy sniffs into her shoulder. “When we arrived, Neil was different. The cabin had locks that you needed a key to use from the inside, bars on the windows. But then, Ashley came over, and I thought everything might be okay.” Her eyes spill their deluge as she looks to her old friend. “It turns out, Neil and Ashley had plans of their own.”
I turn slowly to the girl I dated for so long, a shell of the former girl I thought I once knew. She closes her eyes, doesn’t move, as if my sister’s words had the power to end her life.
Lizzy takes in another ragged breath. “Ashley and Neil have been together, Theo. They were feasting off one another while you were still with her. In fact, they credit you for the introductions.” She groans at Ash in disgust. “Isn’t that lovely? They made quite the perverse power couple. I’ll spare you the grisly details, but let’s just say my incarceration turned into an unwanted imprisonment—one they didn’t mind exploiting for their own enjoyment. Neil was never going to let me leave.” She bears hard into Ashley. “And guess what? If my brother hadn’t come, you wouldn’t have left today either.”
Ashley’s eyes widen, her face grows alabaster as if she understood Lizzy’s words had a ring of truth to them.
“He was going to make it look like an accident.” Lizzy shakes her head. “You knew too much, and he was through with you. But he was going to have his way with you first. Neil does like his special brand of fun.” She swallows hard as she shifts her focus to me. “I’m sorry, Theo. There are just some things I’m not comfortable sharing with you.”
My mind goes to all the dark places first, and I try my best to push them away for now. “What about those cryptic messages? Did you send them to Miles?”
Lizzy’s face turns to stone. “What messages?”
Ashley averts her eyes, and the answer is clear.
“Why?” I take a step toward her, and she backs up into the wall, her eyes jetting nervously from me to the gun.
“Because”—she fills her lungs with an enormous breath—“Miles was an annoying ass. You all were. Worshipping Lizzy’s countenance as if she were a god. I was sick of him crawling to the library asking questions. I wanted to get him off my back. He was an asshole to her. He deserved it.”
Lizzy’s mouth gapes open. “He was a sweetheart.”
Phoebe chokes down a laugh. “She said you were in hell. She tormented the guy—not to mention what she did to your family. Theo was a wreck.”
A dull moan comes from my sister as if words were not enough for what she and Ashley put us through, and they’re not.
The flash of red and blue lights ignites the room as a small-framed woman storms in, gun drawn, red-faced, and angry.
“All of you—hands up!” she screams, top volume, and we’re quick to comply.
Fiona is here. The reinforcements have arrived. It’s finally over.
I help get Ashley and my sister into the car. Six squad cars arrive on the scene. That’s half the force, and I’m damn glad about it, too.
Fiona drives Jackson, Phoebe, and me down to our trucks, and I speed Phoebe right to Wakefield General.
A part of me feels relieved it’s over. Lizzy is alive, and Phoebe survived, but my gut doesn’t feel all that relieved. It feels as if this nightmare is still slowly unfurling, the gauze slowly being removed from our eyes. Lizzy is a master of suspense. That has been my sister for as long as I can remember.
I guess some things never change.
* * *
Lizzy,Ashley, and Phoebe are seen at the hospital. Ashley’s under armed guard and, per my suggestion, so is Lizzy. It turns out, Phoebe had a bullet shatter the radius in her left arm—a bullet grazed her right shoulder. She was wheeled off immediately to surgery, so I head into my sister’s room just as my mother and Nikki storm it. The two of them launch at Lizzy, locked in an embrace filled with wailing and tears. As soon as my phone picked up reception, I called them and let them know Lizzy was found, to meet up with us here.
Thomas comes in while they’re still locked in a huddle, and he jumps over and pulls Lizzy aside for himself. His body bucks as he holds her tight. My sister weeps deeply into his chest, tears of deliverance, perhaps even regret.
The room settles down just enough as Lizzy sits on the edge of the bed with Thomas next to her, his arm still wrapped around her tight. My mom and sister each sit with a chair pulled up close, their eyes never leaving my sister’s beautiful face.
Lizzy looks to me and shakes her head. The distress overtaking her is palpable. “I can’t, Theo. I can’t do it. Tell them everything went wrong. It’s not what I wanted. That’s not how it was supposed to be.”
I step in close and relay the sorted story Lizzy laid out for me at the cabin. About the planned kidnapping, the fact Neil wouldn’t let her leave. I let them know that Ashley was a part of it, that I’m not entirely sure what really went down.
“I’m sure Neil will have another story.” The rat bastard is alive and kicking in surgery, right along with Phoebe. I’m glad he’s still alive, though. He’s got a lot of sins to pay for, and death would be too easy.
My mother leaps over and shakes Lizzy. “You staged this?”
“No!” She shakes her head, her hair whipping back and forth like a pompom. “It went wrong. When I arrived, there was another girl. I heard her crying in the basement. I don’t know what happened to her. Neil locked me in the bedroom. A couple of weeks later, he let me out, and I never heard her again. Ashley started coming around once a week, usually on weekends. But Neil was short with her. She thought it had gone too far, but she still wanted something out of the deal.” She turns to Thomas. “You. And when you rejected her, she lost her mind. She blamed me for it. When she saw she couldn’t have Thomas, she decided she wanted Theo back. And I was glad to hear you had someone else in your life.” She shudders as Thomas lands a blanket over her shoulders.
Nikki kicks Lizzy in the foot. “How did things get started with you and Neil? I don’t care who’s in the room. I want answers.”