Lorana Hoopes

Chapter 1 - Melissa

An eerie stillness floated in the air, hanging like an invisible curtain, blocking the silence but not the pervasive danger that Melissa could feel prickling her skin. This was not the quiet comfort of a night in the country. No, this quiet felt forced and fabricated as if to hide the feeling of a thousand eyes watching her every move. She held her breath, pausing long enough to peer into the inky darkness, her eyes searching for any sign of movement, any sign of them.

She would not let them get her. Not her baby. Melissa’s heart thudded as she cuddled the baby to her chest, willing her not to cry or make a sound. If she made even a small peep, they would both be caught. Melissa wasn’t sure what would happen, but she’d seen other women break or disappear. She’d heard cries of faceless women in the night. The punishment was nothing good, of that she was sure. Nothing good had happened to her since she’d arrived. Nothing except Chloe, and they’d had nothing to do with her anyway.

A loud crunch split the silence, and Melissa’s heart rate doubled. The hairs on the back of her neck and along her arm shot to attention, as if she were in a sea of static electricity. Though she could see no one, she knew they were out there. She’d known they would come after her, and from the proximity of the sound, they were close. Too close for comfort. Forcing her feet to move once again, she darted among the shadows, hardly daring to breathe in case it was loud enough for them to hear.

When she emerged onto a lighted path, she pushed her feet faster, but she could feel her strength draining. She couldn’t outrun them, not with a baby in her arms. There would be no way for both her and the baby to escape, but maybe she could save Chloe. Maybe there would be enough time to hide Chloe before they caught up to her.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek, desperately searching for any other solution, any other option than Chloe falling into their hands. A crevice in the side of the path caught her attention. It wasn’t a deep hole, but it was deep enough to place the bundled baby, and there were pieces of asphalt she could cover the hole with. Then she would just have to trust that Chloe would be found before anything happened to her and by people who could help her.

Fighting back tears, she stared down at the face of her angel. The pregnancy had not been an easy one, not from the day she’d found out she was pregnant but it had been worth it when she glimpsed the beautiful face of her baby girl.

“I’m so sorry, Chloe,” she whispered to the sleeping newborn. “I hope I’ll be able to come back for you and if not, that we’ll meet again someday. Know that I love you, and while I wish I had made different choices after finding out about you, I have never regretted having you.”

There was more she wanted to say, a lifetime more, but emotions constricted her throat, and she knew she was losing time. She glanced around one more time to make sure they hadn’t found her yet. Then, with quivering lips, she placed a kiss on the baby’s head and situated her in the crevice. Then she stacked the asphalt pieces so the baby was hidden but not crushed.

Leaving the baby took every ounce of her strength, but she knew it was Chloe’s only hope of survival. Though she had never been a believer, she lifted her eyes to Heaven as she began to run again. “God, if you are real, please protect Chloe. Don’t let her die out here. Please.”

“There she is!”

The voices were too close behind her, and though exhaustion pulled at her bones, she pushed herself to run faster. She chanced one glance over her shoulder in hopes they would not have seen her drop the baby, and when they ran past the crevice, her heart breathed a tiny sigh of relief. Chloe was safe. For now. And that was all she could really ask for.

She could feel her legs getting heavy. Her lungs screamed with every breath she took, and she knew that she wouldn’t make it much farther. A large building came into view, and with a desperate glance behind her, she forced her body to its limits as she ran for the door of the building. The doors were large and solid and she barely had time to register the sign above the door before she was inside. A church. How on earth had she ended up in a church?

“Can I help you?” A man dressed all in black except for the smallest white square of fabric under his chin hurried toward her.

“Hide.” She doubled over, trying to catch her breath and give her words life. “I need to hide.”

His eyes scanned her for the briefest of seconds before he nodded, took her arm, and led her down the hallway. She paid attention to nothing except the maroon carpet beneath her feet, trying to inhale breaths and keep the tears at bay at the same time.

“Hide in the wardrobe here. It’s not the most comfortable quarters for which I apologize, but I think you’ll be safe. There are people looking for you, am I right?”

Melissa nodded, still unable to make her throat work.

“Okay, if they come, I’ll take care of them and then we can talk.”

Talking was the last thing Melissa wanted to do, but as he was putting his life on the line to protect her, she figured she owed him the truth at least. And who knew? Maybe he could help her. She climbed into the wardrobe, pulling her knees to her chest to fit into the cramped space. He was right. It wasn’t the most comfortable arrangement, but her body was exhausted and it wasn’t long after the darkness enveloped her that she found herself drifting to sleep.

Chapter 2 - Kevin

Anger, like an ember encouraged by a breath of oxygen, ignited in Kevin’s stomach. The heat licked and rose from the inside out, up his throat and across his neck. Red splotches would be erupting on his face as they did whenever he let his emotions get the better of him, but it couldn’t be helped this time. His people, incompetent people, had failed him. “What do you mean she’s missing? How could she be missing?” He stalked to the window and peered out as if his mere presence would fix the issue before him. Though there appeared to be a few more guards running around, the rest of the scene looked the same as it did every day. Peaceful, organized, secure.

The soldier, a peon hired to do one job, hung his head. “I’m sorry, sir. Evidently, she snuck out with the supply truck. We’ve got men combing the area for her. She can’t get far. Not with the baby.”

“She shouldn’t have escaped at all.” Kevin pounded his fist on the wall, unable to comprehend the sheer incompetence of the men working for him. He ruled with an iron fist, and there was no reason for this lapse to have occurred. He worked hard to not only keep his organization secret but dispose of anyone who learned the truth or got in the way. Normally that meant the women he recruited, but occasionally it meant those working for him as well. Those who allowed things like this to happen. He turned back to the man, who now stared at the floor. Kevin was not a mindreader, but he’d seen enough men cower to know this one feared for his life. Good. He should.

“No, sir, she shouldn’t. We will be much more thorough at the gate from now on. I’ll personally see to it.” There was the quickest glance up from lowered eyes - a gauging to see if Kevin believed the statement, if he would be allowed to live.

“You do that.”

As the soldier hurried out of the room, Joanna swept in, her appearance immaculate as always except for the scowl marring her delicate features. “Is it true? Did we lose Melissa and her baby?” She folded her arms across her chest and fixed him with a deadly glare.

“I’m handling it,” Kevin said, waving a dismissive hand. There were days he loved having Joanna with him - she was definitely an asset when it came to luring young women to their compound - but there were other times, like today, when he wished she would stay out of the business.

“And how exactly are you handling it?” She gestured to the empty room and lifted a brow in question. “I saw men running around outside, but I don’t see anything happening in here.”

“There is nothing I can do from in here,” Kevin seethed. “The men are out looking for her, and they will find her.”

“Do they even know which direction she went? Did you bother to pull the cameras?”

Kevin sighed. Of course he had pulled the cameras. It was how he knew which direction to send the men, but the cameras were limited. They had only given them a starting direction. It wasn’t like they had a satellite on her or some other way to track her after she was out of camera range. “I’m handling it, Joanna. Why don’t you go see when the next woman is due. Perhaps we can just substitute her baby for Melissa’s.”

“All of the babies are already placed, Kevin.” She rolled her eyes as she spat his name out. “That’s how we stay in such demand. Now, I have to go find another woman close to delivery time to make up for this. They aren’t just growing on trees you know.”

“Go to the local clinic. You’re bound to find a few desperate women there who wouldn’t mind earning some money.” In truth, the abortion industry had actually taken a large chunk of their business and Kevin was trying to find a way to close them. Not because he cared about abortions, the mothers who had them, or the babies who died, but because his clients wanted the babies alive.

“You have some nerve,” she hissed back at him. “I’m the reason we have half the women we do, so don’t tell me what to do.”

His thread of patience snapped. How dare she accuse him of infringing on her job? He crossed the room in five short steps, wrapped his hands around Joanna’s neck, and began to squeeze. “I am in charge here, and I will tell you what to do whenever I want. Do you understand me?”

Her normally haughty stare grew wide as she fought for air. He wouldn’t kill her, at least not yet, but it was high time she realized who was really in charge of this operation. When her eyes began to roll back, he released her, smiling slightly as she collapsed to the floor, gasping and pawing at her neck. She had always been hard headed, but perhaps this was a lesson she wouldn’t soon be forgetting now.

“You will regret that,” she wheezed as she shot daggers up at him.

“I sincerely doubt that,” he said, returning to his post at the window.

She scoffed, the sound low and derisive. “You do know that was Kathy’s baby, right?”

He stilled. Kathy? Crazy Kathy? He hadn’t wanted to get involved with the woman, but Joanna had insisted that if they didn’t help her get a baby, she would end up killing more women trying to tear the baby from their wombs. She’d already left a trail of bodies in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Unfortunately, while the woman was clinical in her ability to kill without thought, she had no knowledge of how to remove a baby safely.

“I’ll take care of Kathy if I have to.” In fact, he probably should have already had Kathy eliminated, but she was wealthy and she was willing to pay, so he’d wrongly assumed he could take her money and then be done with her. It was a small misstep. They didn’t lose babies often, but it had happened before. It had always worked itself out and it would this time too. Of that, he had no doubt.

Chapter 3 - Ivy

A date. It was just one date. How bad could it be? Ivy didn’t bother to answer the rhetorical question as she tucked her blonde hair behind her ears and shook her head at her reflection in the mirror. She didn’t know what she had been thinking, agreeing to a date with Luca of all people. It wasn’t that Luca was a bad guy, but he and Ivy were opposites in nearly every way. Of course, maybe that was a good thing considering the last serious relationship she’d been in had been with a guy she thought she had everything in common with, yet it had ended. Badly.

Still, Ivy hailed from the west coast and Luca was from the South. And not south of Fire Beach. The South. The part of the country that had its own customs, language, and culinary curiosities. Luca thought every meal should contain meat and potatoes while Ivy avoided potatoes like the plague. People might call them a vegetable but in her world, they were starches, plain and simple. However, they were both single, and with all of their friends pairing up around them, they’d decided to see if any chemistry existed between the two of them.

Ivy honestly doubted it, and Luca’s invitation certainly hadn’t given her any extra warm fuzzies. He’d walked up to her during shift a few days ago and said, “hey, wanna grab some food together?” At first, she’d been confused as they ate meals together at the station every time they were on the same shift, but then he’d clarified that he meant out somewhere, just the two of them. She’d opened her mouth to say no; after all, that invitation had been less than stellar, but something in his eyes had tugged on her heart strings and made her say yes. It wasn’t a sad puppy dog look per se, but there’d been a hopefulness in his eyes that she didn’t feel like crushing. Especially when she couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t have fun. Stranger things had happened which was why she was now getting ready for a date that would probably leave her feeling bloated and puffy tomorrow but hopefully wouldn’t leave her and Luca performing an awkward dance as they passed each other at work. Why couldn’t she just say no sometimes?

The buzz of the doorbell carried through the house. “Here goes nothing,” Ivy said, giving herself one final look in the mirror. Flipping off the light in her bathroom, she made her way to the front door, smiling as she opened it.

She’d never seen Luca uncomfortable before, but it hovered around him now like PigPen’s cloud of dust from the Charlie Brown comic. His weight shifted from one foot to the other and his hands dug into his pockets before he removed them and ran them down his jeans. “Hey, you look great,” he said, the tips of his ears turning pink with his words.

“Thanks, you too.” She was surprised at how handsome he looked. His button down shirt fit his frame nicely, and the jeans he sported were a stark contrast to the sweats he normally wore around the firehouse.

“So, I hope you don’t mind, but since it’s so nice out, I figured we’d take a walk and then hit a cafe for a light dinner. Deacon’s on my case about nutrition and exercise again.” He chuckled as he patted his middle which was a little thicker than most firemen’s but Ivy knew a lot of it was muscle.

She smiled as she locked the door behind her. “I love both of those suggestions.”

An expression of pure relief flooded Luca’s face as he stepped back to give her room. “You look like you know a lot about nutrition,” he said as they headed toward the park.

Ivy chuckled, not sure exactly how to take the comment. “Yeah, I guess. I wasn’t always in shape, but when I got to college, I decided I wanted to make a change. Before deciding to become an EMT, I studied nutrition.”

“Wow, I didn’t know that. What made you change your mind?”

Images of her ex-husband’s disappointed face flooded her mind, but she pushed them away. Not only was that story too dark for a first date, but no one knew the real truth. Not even Cassidy. It was a past she had run from, one she had buried and covered up with another life. “I just realized that while nutrition was important, it didn’t save people immediately, and I wanted to do that. Give them more time with the people they love. I wanted to do more.”

Luca nodded. “I can understand that. Running into burning buildings is cool and all, but saving people is what keeps me going too.”

“I think it’s what keeps most of us going,” Ivy said, thinking back over the last year. There had certainly been some terrifying life or death moments for her and her friends, but none of them had considered hanging up their careers. Instead, she was fairly certain it only made them work harder.

Suddenly, Ivy stilled, her ears listening intently as her eyes darted around.

“What is it?” Luca asked, halting his steps as well.

What was it indeed? Something had grabbed her attention, but she wasn’t sure what it was. A feeling? A sound? She had learned to trust her instincts as a paramedic, and every fiber in her body told her something wasn’t right even though the scene appeared picturesque.

She held a finger to her lips as she strained to listen again. A tiny whimper like that of a kitten or puppy drew her eyes to the side of the path. Most of it was clear, but there was one area that looked different. Tiles of asphalt were stacked oddly over what appeared to be a crevice. Perhaps it was nothing, a mar on the side of the road that the crews hadn’t fixed yet, but she was drawn to it nonetheless.

“Ivy, you okay?” Luca whispered, furrowed lines etching his forehead. Clearly, he did not have the same sense she did or else hers was off, but she didn’t think so. It had served her well over the years.

“I don’t know. It may be nothing, but I thought I heard something.” She was mildly surprised that Luca hadn’t heard the noise. After all, wasn’t that a large part of his job? Being able to hear those crying out for help as he scoured smoke-filled buildings? But she supposed she could understand it. People often missed things when they were out of their element. He wasn’t expecting to help someone in danger here, so his ears were not in tune the way they normally would be. Ivy, on the other hand, needed to be alert for all types of situations, and she’d never mastered the art of turning her radar off when she wasn’t at work. It was probably one reason why she’d yet to have a successful relationship and why her stress level always remained higher than it should.

“Get more sleep,” her therapist had said, “and learn to relax.” And Ivy had tried. She’d taken up yoga and cut sugar from her diet, but nothing had worked. When she wasn’t running from the horrors of her past, she was faced with traumas in the present, and so she’d learned to hide behind her smile. To fake a positive attitude and convince everyone she was okay, even when she often wasn’t on the inside.

She glanced around as she lifted the first piece of asphalt as if expecting someone to jump out or take a shot at her. No one did, but that did nothing to prepare her for the sight she found under the asphalt. “Oh my gosh, Luca, it’s a baby.”

“What?” Instantly, he was at her side, helping her remove the asphalt. “Who would leave a baby on the side of the road like this? Don’t they know Illinois is a safe-haven state?”

The shock and anger in Luca’s voice mirrored the emotions warring in her chest as they cleared the remaining pieces away. Illinois had been a safe haven state for more than two decades. Parents could leave babies at hospitals, police departments, or fire houses with no criminal penalties as long as the baby showed no signs of neglect, so why would someone just throw a child to the side of the road like this? But even as the question formed in her mind, she realized that none of the pieces of debris had been on the baby. None of them even touched the child. Instead, they had been placed in such a way as if to protect and hide the baby.

As she removed the last piece, she looked up at Luca with wide eyes. “We need to call the police, Luca. I think this is a crime scene.”

“What?” His eyes grew even wider than they’d been before, and as if realizing the danger could still be nearby, he scanned the area before leaning closer to her. “How do you know?”

His whispered tones sent a shiver down Ivy’s spine, but she forced her voice to remain calm as she began to examine the baby. They would need to take the infant to the hospital for a more thorough examination, but she wanted to be sure there were no injuries before she picked the child up. “The way the pieces of rubble were placed. None of them hurt the baby. I think someone placed it here to protect it.”

“Protect it? From what?”

Confident that the baby was physically fine, she lifted the baby into her arms and stood. Memories of years past instantly flooded her, and she forced herself to take deep breaths and reinforce the emotional wall she’d crafted over time. When it was firmly in place once again, she answered Luca, “I think the better question is from whom? Can you call Jordan?”

Luca pulled his phone out and punched in numbers before putting the call on speaker.

“You’ve reached Detective Jordan Graves. Leave a message, and I’ll call you back.”

Briefly, Ivy wondered where Jordan was. She’d never received his recording before, but then again, she’d rarely called him, and even though he was a detective, he was entitled to a life as well.

“You want me to leave a message?” Luca asked.

“No, this can’t wait. Try Al. Maybe she’s around.” She rattled off the numbers for Jordan’s partner Alayna, whom everyone called Al, and waited for the sound of the woman’s voice.

“This is Al.”

“Al, it’s Ivy. We found a baby. At first, I thought someone abandoned her, but I think she was deliberately hidden. There was a cry, or not really a cry, but a noise, and then what looked like a mound of discarded asphalt, but when we removed the asphalt, there was a baby beneath.” The words flew from her mouth as if they were running a race and no obstacle would stop them.

“Ivy, slow down. What are you talking about?”

“We found a baby. Luca and I found a baby on the side of the road. We’re taking it to the hospital to be checked over, but Al, you need to get out here. The baby was covered as if someone was trying to hide it. I think we might be looking at a crime scene.”

“Call an ambulance, Ivy, and I’ll be right there. Don’t leave until I get there.”

Ivy’s gut tightened as Luca ended the call and then began dialing for an ambulance. What scenario could be so grim that a mother would leave a baby on the side of the road in hopes that someone would find her?

Chapter 4 - Ivy

The hospital lights, so familiar and normal, now seemed foreign and heavy to Ivy as she waited for Dr. Brady Cavanaugh to finish his assessment of the baby. Her fingers tapped lightly against the bed, wishing they could do something to help but unsure what that might be. A hand touched her back, and she turned to Luca who looked out of place in the small exam room, but she was thankful for his presence.

“It’s a good thing you guys found her when you did,” Brady said, placing his stethoscope back around his neck. “She seems okay. Hungry and in need of a new diaper but okay.”

“How old is she?” Ivy asked, forcing her hands to remain on the table and not cradle the infant again. A motherly instinct she’d thought long extinguished tugged on her heart and urged her to pick the baby up, to show it warmth and love.

“Two weeks. Maybe three,” Brady said, turning to the computer to input information into the baby’s chart. “She appears to be in good health, so someone took care of this baby.”

“Then why leave her on the side of the road?” Luca asked.

Brady paused and turned to them. “I have no idea. You said Al was looking into it?”

Ivy nodded. Thankfully, Al had arrived moments before the ambulance, and Ivy had been able to share what they knew before climbing in the ambulance with the baby.

“Then, hopefully she’ll be able to tell us something soon. I’ve got a call placed into CPS. They should be here soon to take the baby until her parents can be found.”

A heaviness settled on Ivy’s heart, along with an uncharacteristic desire to protect the baby. She knew calling CPS was the law, but she’d been hoping to be able to take the baby home herself, even though she knew it would only be temporary.

Light tapping sounded at the door frame, and the trio turned to see a woman in the doorway. Even without her identifying badge, Ivy would have guessed this was the woman from CPS. Her suit appeared worn and used. Her brown hair was pulled back in what had once been a neat bun but had now slipped into a slightly disheveled messy one, and a feeling of weariness exuded from her rolled shoulders and pursed lips.