It took her a while. She locked herself into the bedroom and ignored everyone who tried to get her to open the door and talk to them. Couldn’t they see that she was busy? Couldn’t they see that she was trying to decode Summer’s cryptic message? Why wouldn’t they leave her alone when she was trying to solve the most important thing in her life?
She wished Nick were here. He would’ve demanded that they butt out, and they would have. He had that kind of a presence when it came to her. But he’d stalked off to wherever he had felt like, not caring at all that she might need him or that he should hang around so that they could go get Lily together. After all, Lily probably would want Daddy, wouldn’t she?
Autumn scowled when she realized she was thinking of Nick instead of the message Summer had given her.
We promised to stick by each other through thick and thin. Forever and always.
What the hell had she meant by that? Autumn tried to replay dozens of memories of her childhood years. The years before their parents had died, before Summer’s mind had been warped. As hard as she tried, though, her mind simply couldn’t figure it out.
She and Summer had always sworn to stick together, no matter what, but there had never been a specific place they’d said it. She could remember laying in bed at night and whispering secrets to each other, and then pinky-swearing that they’d never tell because they were sisters. Forever and always.
Summer had always seemed to need that link, that bond more than she had, Autumn remembered. She’d been almost fanatical about never losing each other. They’d even gone so far as to slice open their palms and mix blood, even though they were identical and shared the same blood.
Had her need for space been the catalyst that had pushed Summer to the brink? Autumn stared at her palm where the faintest of lines reminded her of that pact. She’d always been comfortable in knowing that they’d always be together and close, but it had been as though Summer had known the day would come when they would be separated.
“Oh, Summer,” she whispered as she lowered herself to the bed. “Did I miss how much you needed me? Is that why this is happening now? Is that why you are the way you are now?” She wished for an answer to come but knew it wouldn’t.
Was that what she was doing again? With Nick? Autumn stared hard at the scar and hoped it wasn’t. She wasn’t holding anyone at arm’s-length when it came to her emotions. She knew how she felt, Autumn told herself. She was in tune with her emotions, and Nick had been wrong that she was lying to herself about her feelings.
Forever and always.
Her gaze focused on the scar again, and the memory reared up and slammed into the front of her mind.
They stood on the beach in the fading sunlight. Gulls soared and swooped overhead. The silver of the knife flashed in the glow of sun.
Summer lifted the knife and, biting her tongue, sliced open her palm. Blood immediately began to drip from the shallow cut. She handed the knife to Autumn. “Hurry, Autumn! I don’t want us to bleed to death.”
Autumn took the knife and, equally as nervous, she pricked her skin then quickly made the cut, trying not to cry at the pain. The knife fell to the sand between them as they clasped their bloody palms together.
“We’ll always be there for each other. We’ll stick together, no matter what, through thick and thin. Forever and always.” They spoke together, the feeling of being bonded glowing within and around them.
Autumn sat up straight, gasping with the knowledge. Oh, my god. I know where she is.
She dashed out of the bedroom, a crazed gleam in her eye, and headed straight for the door. Jack tried to reach for her, but she was moving too fast.
“Autumn!” Brian grabbed her hand to stop her, but she jerked out of his hold.
“I have to go! I know where she is!” And she kept moving.
The police officers in the room leapt to attention at her words. “Ma’am, you can’t leave! Wait!”
But even they were too slow. Within moments, Autumn was dashing onto the elevator and closing the doors before anyone could grab her. Remembering how Nick had gotten them out the back way, she skipped out the back. Running once she got outside, she sped down three blocks before she stopped to catch a taxi—and her breath.
“Take me to Long Island,” she demanded of the driver. “I know it’s expensive, but I’ll pay you extra if you can get me there in the next half hour!”
The taxi driver grumbled, but the lure of extra money had him stepping on the accelerator and weaving in and out of traffic.
Flopping back in her seat, Autumn started to gather up her energy for what she was sure would be a showdown to remember. She wasn’t sure what she would say, but she hoped that, once the dust settled, everything would be over. For good.
Even as she watched the buildings zoom past her window, Autumn pulled out her phone and sent the text message.
***
Nick showed up in the suite five minutes after Autumn had bolted. The room was abuzz, and there was a lot of yelling and swearing.
There was no Autumn.
“Where’s Autumn?” he asked no one in particular. When none of them heard him, he raised his voice. “Where is Autumn?”
This time, the room grew quiet as everyone turned to find him standing in the doorway, his face pale, his eyes dark. No one said a word.
“I’m going to ask one more time,” he said quietly. “Where is Autumn? Where did she go?”
Brian stepped forward carefully. “Look, Nick. We tried to stop her, we really did. It’s just that-”
“I don’t want excuses. Where the hell is my wife?” His voice rose as panic and fear coated his insides. Something was wrong. “Where’s Autumn?”
One of the officers spoke up. “Mr. Carter, your wife claimed she knew where her sister was, and she left.”
“She was running,” Leighanne added quickly, seeing the fury building on Nick’s face. “None of us could hold her down long enough to find out where she was going or how she knew where to find Summer.”
When Nick just held up a hand, everyone grew silent again. There was something seriously wrong, he thought. He could feel it. Autumn was in danger, she was about to step into a trap. He’d figured it out as he paced the alleyway next to the hotel. Summer would’ve never given Autumn a clue to her whereabouts if she hadn’t had something else in mind. Wherever Autumn was, he knew she was definitely not safe.
“Let me get this straight,” he began. “Autumn just left this room, this hotel with all of you, including several police officers, crowding around here, and not one person could stop her long enough to find out where she was going? Or one of you,” he turned to the officers, “you couldn’t go with her? Follow her?”
“There’s only one elevator, sir. By the time we got to the lobby, she was long gone.”
Nick’s eyes narrowed as the fear bubbling inside him defeated all rational thought and reason. “What the hell kind of training do they give you in that fucking academy of yours? There were probably a bunch of ways you could’ve stopped her, held her off long enough, but you didn’t do anything!”
“Nick-” But Brian was cut off by one look from Nick.
“I don’t care about your excuses! My wife is about to walk into a fucking trap, and not one of you could do anything to prevent it!”
“Look, Nick-” Jack stepped forward but shut his mouth when Nick fixed a deadly stare on him.
“Don’t even talk to me. You’re worse than the rest of them.”
Jack’s hands balled into fists. “Like you’re any better? You just walked out when you should’ve been here. Instead, you go off in a jealous rage.”
Nick lifted his own fist. “Oh, you haven’t seen me rage, yet. But you will.”
Even as AJ and Brian moved to block his way, Nick’s phone rang. He yanked it out of his pocket and flipped it open. “Hello?” Silence. “Hello?” Still silence.
He frowned at it then realized his mistake. “Shit.” Nick pressed a combination of buttons and the message popped up on the screen. When he saw it, his heart began to pound. Not thinking, he headed right back out the door, ignoring the voices calling him back. “I have to go” was all he said over his shoulder. Then, he too was gone.
***
“Where to, lady?” The taxi drove off the bridge onto the island, and Autumn strained to remember where it was her family had once spent three weeks one summer.
“Just stay on this road. I’m pretty sure it’ll be a left turn.” She shut her eyes and tried to play the memory image again. “I’ll know it when I see it.”
As the driver grumbled about crazy people, Autumn continued to scan the scenery, hoping that something would spark her memory. It had been seventeen years since she’d been here, but she hoped she would be able to find something to remind her.
Fifteen minutes later, she spotted the sign for an ice cream parlor, one that had a dancing cow on it, and she remembered. “Turn left here!”
The cab swerved left onto a road that slowly thinned from strip malls and corporate centers to homes and neighborhoods. As they passed an elementary school, Autumn remembered Summer wishing that they could stay on Long Island forever and go to that school.
“At the next light, you have to turn right,” she instructed the driver, and, moments later, he complied.
Two turns later, they drove into a neighborhood lined with single family homes and leafy oaks and maples. If she looked beyond the houses on one side, she could see the beach and the ocean beyond it. Shifting, she studied every house until her eyes lit on one. It was two stories tall with a wraparound porch in white trim. Red brick and white stone made up its structure, and there was a For Sale sign on its neatly trimmed lawn. She knew with certainty that her daughter was inside.
“That one! Right there. Number seven-oh-two.” When the taxi stopped in front, she tossed a wad of bills at the driver and scrambled out, not waiting for the change.
She hurried up the driveway, her heart pounding in her ears. What would she say? What was going to happen? Would Summer try to kill her or would they be able to talk rationally? Autumn secretly feared that Summer was past rationality and that it would come down to a matter of life and death.
Before she knocked on the door, she took out her cell phone once more and sent a final text. She hoped it got her the help she needed badly. It was the only thing she could rely on.
Snapping her cell phone shut, she knocked on the door. When there was no answer, she tried the doorknob and, when it turned easily in her hand, she pushed open the door and walked in.
***
Nick could barely sit still in the taxi. Much as Autumn had, he’d gone out the back entrance of the hotel and hailed a cab a few blocks from where there were, suddenly, way more police cars and reporters than there had been a few hours earlier. Obviously, they’d all heard something important was happening. He had no doubt that the news would leak soon enough.
He just hoped he could make it to wherever on Long Island Autumn was. Her text had simply read: On way to Long Island. Summer’s there. Need you.
Part of him was overjoyed by the fact that she’d called him, was relying on him to help her out. The other part was worried sick that, by the time he found her, it would be too late.
For the first time in a long time, he prayed. He couldn’t lose his family, not now that he’d finally found them. Autumn and Lily had so quickly become the most important people in his life, and he could only pray that they would stay safe until he found them. He knew Autumn was okay, for the time being. If something had happened to her or if she was—he swallowed hard—dead, he would’ve known it. He was sure his heart would’ve stopped beating if she were gone.
When the taxi pulled off the bridge onto Long Island, the driver asked him where he wanted to go.
“Uh, just keep driving on this road.” He needed Autumn to send him another message, let him know where she was. “I’ll tell you when I figure it out.”
“Sure thing.” The driver eyed him in the rearview mirror. There was something familiar about the guy, he thought but didn’t say anything. “You okay?”
Nick stared out the window, his fingers clutching his cell phone tightly. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. As soon as we get to where I need to be.”
Ten minutes later, as they passed the ice cream parlor Autumn had seen, the text came. Nick flipped open his phone and read the message frantically.
702 Bluebird Lane off of Jefferson Highway. Hurry.
Nick rattled off the address to the driver, hoping beyond all hope that he would make it in time.
***
Autumn stepped inside the empty house and cautiously moved into the parlor. The room was bare, and there were lighter patches on the walls where pictures had once hung.
“Hello?” she called out tentatively. Then, louder. “Hello? Summer! Lily? Honey, Mama’s here. Lily, can you hear me?”
She moved from the parlor, past the library, and into the kitchen. Still no sign of anyone. She thought she could smell a faint hint of french fries and hoped it wasn’t her imagination. If someone had recently eaten here, then there was a chance that Summer hadn’t just sent her on a wild goose chase.
Then she heard it. The laugh, the faint, mocking laughter. Spinning away from the kitchen window, she dashed to the front of the house and started up the stairs.
“Summer! Is that you? Look, I came. I did what you wanted, and I came. Please, let me see Lily.” Autumn clenched her hands together as she went up the stairs, deathly nervous of what awaited her.
The hallway was silent and empty as were the first two bedrooms she found. As she stepped back into the hallway from the second bedroom, she froze. “Summer.”
“It took you long enough.” Summer stood at the end of the hallway by the room that they’d shared one long ago summer. There was a triumphant smile on her face, and Autumn suddenly wondered what she’d just walked into. “We’ve been waiting.”
“Look, Summer, I just want Lily. I just want my daughter back, and I swear I’ll give you whatever the hell it is you want from me.” Autumn took one step towards her sister. “Please.”
Summer shook her head. “Did you really think it would be that easy? That you show up, and I give you your kid back and let you win again?”
“Please.” The word was a whisper.
“Why should I?”
“Because I was wrong!” Autumn let the words burst from her. “I was wrong, and you were right. All of our lives, I’ve always been the one who never needed anyone to get by, and you were the one who did. I didn’t see that, and I didn’t realize how it would hurt you when I seemed like I didn’t care.” She gripped her hands together tightly. “I’m sorry for it, and I’ve tried to apologize to you before, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“Apologize?” Summer sneered. “You really think that coming to my apartment and demanding that I stop slandering you was an apology? Wow, sister dearest, you have a lot to learn about apology, and, clearly, I’m the one to teach it to you.”
Autumn shook her head. “I meant it as an apology, and you’re going to have to believe me. Now, please, let me see Lily.”
“No.” But, as soon as she said the word, the sound of Lily’s crying could be heard from the last room, closest to Summer.
Autumn leapt forward. “Lily!”
Even as she headed towards the room, there was a clicking sound…and Autumn froze in her tracks. When she turned her head, she found herself facing the shiny metal of a black gun. Behind it, Summer smirked.
“Not so fearless now, are you?” She gestured with the weapon. “Why don’t you take a few steps back that way? We’re not done talking.”
Gulping down the hot ball of fear lodged in her throat, Autumn complied. As she took one step, then two, back, her eyes stayed on the barrel. She sincerely hoped her sister wasn’t trigger-happy.
“How’s this?” she asked, when she was back to where she’d been standing. “Far enough away?”
Summer lifted the gun and cocked it. “Not quite. But I can fix that.”
Autumn saw the intent in her sister’s eyes and opened her mouth to scream.
The scream never emerged. There was the sound of a gunshot, and then, as if in slow motion, she watched her sister stumble and keel over to the side.
“I don’t think so.” Liz walked into the hallway from the room where Lily’s cries could still be heard. “We’re not finished yet.” She stared at Summer’s body with disgust then turned to Autumn and smiled. “Hello, Autumn. Glad you could join the party.”
***
“Can’t you go any faster?” Nick leaned forward and watched the speedometer hover at fifty. “I’m in a serious hurry. Life or death, buddy.”
The driver didn’t spare him a glance. “Look, pal, I’m going as fast as I can. If you don’t want me to get pulled over for speeding, then you’ll just sit tight. We’re almost there.”
Nick struggled to calm down, to relax, but every muscle in his body was tense. Something was happening, and he was going to be too late to stop it.
***
“Liz? I…What are you doing here?” Autumn tried not to think the worst, but it was quickly becoming obvious that she’d been wrong about a lot of things from the very beginning.
Liz shook her head. “You’re not stupid, Autumn, so don’t play dumb. If you want to go ahead and be shocked that I’m here, that I shot Summer after I helped her kidnap Lily, now would be the time. Later,” she lifted the revolver in her hand. “It might be too late.”
Autumn fought to breathe as the air in her lungs backed up. How could her best friend have been involved in Summer’s scheme? Why had she done it? And why on earth hadn’t Autumn seen this coming?
“You’re my best friend,” she managed to say.
Liz chuckled. “Oh, how foolish you’ve been. You’ve never been my best friend, Autumn. I don’t have any friends. Once upon a time, Summer was, but, well, my feelings have changed.” She touched Summer’s side lightly with the toe of her shoe and seemed pleased when there was no movement. Blood was seeping through the pristine white carpet.
“You…but how? I don’t—I don’t understand.” Shock blurred reason and logic in her mind, and Autumn fought to clear it.
“How did you think Summer figured out where you were? How was it that she had the money to follow you everywhere?” Liz shook her head. “Oh, Autumn, you weren’t even thinking along those lines, were you?”
Autumn’s breath hitched as she realized nothing had been what it seemed. “Why? Why did you do it? Why did you pretend to be my friend, to help my career, to do so much for me if you hated me all along?”
“Oh, well now, I didn’t hate you always.” Liz began to pace as she spoke. “See, I met Summer when she was a freshman and I was a senior in high school. She was so lost, and I needed, well, a minion of my own. She was very helpful to me that year, so, a few years later, when she told me that she had a sister who had always wanted to be an actress, I began to track you down. I followed your trail from your aunt’s home to LA, and then I found you. I’d just started working at the agency and thought, if you were any good, you would be my golden ticket to the top.” She turned and aimed a smile at Autumn. “You were. All that work definitely paid off.”
“That’s how Summer knew how to find me a couple years ago.” Autumn could feel the puzzle pieces falling into place. “You told her where I lived and worked.”
Liz shrugged. “It was the least I could do after she’d led me to a talent like yours. Not my fault she was a junkie by then and couldn’t control her boyfriend. I really was sorry when you were hurt, Autumn.” She paused. “So, fast forward to last year, and we met Nick.” Her eyes frosted over now. “I really wanted Nick, you know. I thought, finally, I’m going to have everything I’ve ever wanted. I fell in love with him and thought that was it. He was it. But you and your sister just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?”
“Summer ratted me out. You didn’t know she was going to do that?” Autumn could no longer hear Lily, and she focused on keeping calm and steady. If she could get the gun away from Liz, she could get to Lily.
“Of course not! I would’ve murdered her if I’d known she was going to do that.” Liz shook her head as she studied the body at her feet again. “Well, better late than never. I let it go, and I figured all the scandal could only do wonders for your career. I just hadn’t realized that Nick didn’t feel the same way about me that I felt about him. I didn’t see that his eyes were on you.”
“You convinced me to marry him. That wasn’t my fault.”
“Did I say it was?” Liz snapped. “You obviously didn’t want to do it, so I thought it would be okay if I let you and Nick get married. There was no danger to our relationship, I thought. But I was wrong. He fell for you, and that was it.”
Autumn swallowed hard at the fury in Liz’s eyes. “I’m sorry, I really am. I didn’t know that it would hurt you so much. I just—God, Liz, I can’t believe you’ve done all this.”
“You never really got to know me. Our friendship was all about you, you, you. Never me.” Liz smiled slowly. “Well, I got my revenge, didn’t I? I helped Summer threaten you, I planned that surprise party just so she could get into the hotel and snatch Lily, and then I helped her get you here. So I could end it.”
Liz raised the hand with the revolver in it, and, for the second time in the last hour, Autumn found herself looking death in the eye. This time, she was sure nothing could save her.
***
Nick rushed up the driveway, yelling into his phone as he ran. “Yes, 702 Bluebird Lane. Summer Evans has her sister, Autumn, and Lily Evans held hostage there. I’m right outside! Please, hurry!”
He hung up on the emergency dispatcher and pounded on the door. “Autumn! It’s Nick! I’m here! It’s going to be okay!” When the door opened on its own, he bounded into the front hall.
***
Autumn’s fear doubled when she heard Nick’s voice. She saw Liz’s expression change and stopped fearing for her own life. “No! Liz, don’t do it!” But she knew her words wouldn’t change anything. “Nick! Don’t come upstairs! Don’t do it! She has a gun!”
“Autumn!” Nick didn’t care what she said, he was going up those stairs. “Hold on, I’m coming!”
“Please, Liz, don’t hurt him! This is between you and me!” Autumn tried to plead, to beg, but it was too late.
Even as she heard Nick reach the second floor and start down the hallway—damn it, she could hear his breath—Liz’s arm moved. In an instant, there was the sound of gunshots, and Autumn turned, in horror, to see Nick stop, then stumble, and fall backwards.
She was by his side in a second. “Nick, oh god. Nick, don’t die on me.” There was blood seeping through the side of his shirt and high on his chest. His eyelids fluttered. “Nick, come on. Don’t leave me.”
“Autumn.” His hand lifted to her cheek as his pain-filled blue eyes fixed on hers. “I’m sorry. Too late.”
Autumn clutched his hand as tears filled her eyes. “No, damn it, Carter. Stay with me. It’s not too late. Please, Nick. You’re gonna be fine.”
His breathing was labored, and the smell of blood was so strong. “Love you, Autumn. I love you.” And his eyes rolled back in his head.
“Nick!” She shook his hand, his shoulder. “Nick! Wake up! Come on, Nick.” But there was no movement, no response.
It felt as though her whole world had crashed around her, and Autumn wanted to die with him. But, even as her world turned dark and bleak, fury filled her. She leapt up and turned to face Liz.
“How could you?” She spat the words out. “You said you loved him, and then you kill him?” Her voice broke on the last words, but she was still seeing red.
Liz shrugged. “Casualties happen. Now, your turn.”
But, before Liz could move, Autumn sprang on top of her, knocking them both to the ground. She clawed at Liz’s face, and lost her breath when Liz pounded a fist into her face. Neither of them heard the wail of sirens as they scratched, kicked, and rolled over the carpet.
Even as shouts could be heard from below, Autumn managed to roll back on top and slammed Liz’s head into the wall once, then twice. Suddenly, the sound of a single shot filled the air, and both women jerked in response.
As she watched Liz’s eyes widen, Autumn felt her world go black and fade away.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Eek! Here it is! The big one! I hope you enjoy...only three chapters left after this one...
