Chapter 22
Chapter twenty-two
Invoice
Lukas
Monday morning, Dem, Isaac, and I were back in the building while Ivy and Preston stayed home to let her toe rest one more day.
She was already feeling good enough to walk around yesterday, and if she was still feeling up to it by the end of the day, we’d all agreed to go shopping for her room and nest after work.
Upstairs in the crow’s nest, I looked out the window, watching company class, soon to be over in five minutes. Dem and I had been preparing a quick announcement with the company to update them on Ivy, but to also put pressure on whoever did this.
I looked over to Dem who was leaning over his desk, his hands gripping the edge. I could tell he’d been frustrated all weekend—frustration didn’t actually begin to describe what we all felt towards Ivy getting hurt.
“We’ll find this person,” I said. “Then, they’ll be arrested.” He nodded, not quite looking like he believed me. Then he stood up, sighing deeply as he turned to me.
“This is hard,” he said. “For the longest time since high school, it was you and me. We were always together and took care of each other. Other people came in and out of our lives, but I knew I could count on you.”
“I know, I was there,” I said, softly laughing.
“Then Preston needed us, and Isaac joined us, and we became this pack,” he continued. “I’m the pack leader, but we’ve never really needed each other to get along with the day.”
“Yeah…”
“But Ivy needs us to get this right,” he said. “We can’t fail her, and now the stakes are going to be that much higher to get it right while we announce our scent-match.”
“We all believe in your leadership,” I said. “Don’t let the stress of all this get to you.”
He shot me a weak smile, then reached down for our prepared speech. “Shall we head downstairs?”
Together, we left Dem’s office and walked downstairs to the main studio. The dancers were thanking Steven and applauding the end of class as was customary. Before anyone could leave, Dem lifted his hands and commanded everyone to stay.
“Dancers, before you leave, I have an announcement to make,” Dem said, drawing everyone’s attention to him.
I leaned against the piano, pulling out my phone to take notes while he spoke. I already knew what he was going to say—I’d helped write the speech. What I really wanted, though, was to analyze everyone’s reaction to the message.
“As I’m sure you’re all aware by now,” he said. “Last Friday, Ivy was injured by a piece of glass placed in her pointe shoe. She was taken to the emergency room, where the shard was extracted, and her toe was treated.”
I watched all the dancers as some whispered to each other while others looked stunned. There were a few, though, that looked like they couldn’t be bothered to listen. I quickly typed a few names into my phone.
“The amount of glass that was placed, and the way it was placed in multiple pairs of Ivy’s shoes, led us to conclude that this was a malicious attack against her from someone within this organization.
” Dem took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice calm.
“We absolutely will not tolerate this kind of attack on any of our company dancers. The police have been called and will be actively investigating who could have done this.”
Several of the dancers gasped, shaking their heads in disbelief. They were probably just as shocked as we were—this had been a pretty tight-knit group throughout these past few years.
“If anyone has any information that would benefit the police’s investigation, I am offering a five-hundred-dollar reward so long as it leads to this person’s arrest.”
Dem paused, taking another deep breath as his hands slowly crumbled the paper he was holding. I raised my brows curiously—unscripted Dem tended to be very passionate with his messaging.
“I don’t think it needs to be said how I feel on this matter. My mate was attacked within my company, under my watch. This will not be tolerated, and if justice were up to me…”
I cleared my throat, stepping forward to interrupt Dem.
“Dancers, Ivy will be out today, but will most likely be back in the building tomorrow. Thankfully, there was no permanent damage done, and she was already back on her feet as of yesterday. In the meantime, if you do have any additional information, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. ”
“Dismissed,” Dem said, crushing the paper further in his hands. He turned to me and gave a weak smile. “Thanks for stopping me.”
“Anytime,” I said. Turning to watch the dancers scatter, my eyes immediately landed on Millie, who was slowly sauntering up to me.
“Ivy’s been sending me updates on her toe all weekend. I’m so thankful she’ll be alright.” Millie gestured to my phone. “Who’s on your list of suspects so far?”
“Three of the corps girls, Adrienne, Nerissa, and a few of the boys,” I whispered, showing her my list.
“The boys seem unlikely, but best not to rule anyone out,” she said. “You heard about Adrienne and Preston last Friday?”
“Yeah, he mentioned it,” I replied. “That almost seems too convenient.”
“I agree,” she said. “Then there’s Susan, who is always a big gossip, and her minions—Tracy and Erika. Tracy has been griping to anyone who will listen about being overlooked for roles. Erika is a scatterbrain.”
I laughed at Millie’s description. “Maybe I’ll start in the dancer’s lounge and see where that leaves me.”
“Sounds good,” she said. “I’ll keep my ears open, too.”
***
Once the morning rehearsals started, I slowly made my way to the dancers’ lounge, phone in hand and ready to take notes. Past the front door, the first thing that caught my eye was the rock Ivy had mentioned. It had been placed off to the side near a row of lockers.
I walked over to it and knelt, inspecting the rock. Colorful pictures and sweet messages for Ivy had been written all over the rock. It was hard to believe this was a source of bullying and hate towards Ivy at one point.
Reaching along the side, I gently pivoted the rock to the backside, looking to see if any of the original message was still present. On the back, I could read very faint parts of the message that someone had tried to remove.
newest anchor…pack…deadweight
I switched my phone over to take a picture of the writing, hoping I could compare it to something we had on file. Looking at the writing made my heart ache; Ivy had been enduring all of this without telling any of us. I just wanted to keep her safe in my arms.
I stood up from the rock and walked over to the pointe shoe room.
Last Friday still haunted me with how frantic Millie had been when she found me in the halls.
I remembered crashing into this room, panicked that Ivy had been seriously hurt.
The look on Ivy’s face was heartbreaking—damn, I couldn’t keep thinking about that, I had to do my job here.
Isaac had already cleared out all of Ivy’s reserved pointe shoes and tossed them in the trash.
We didn’t want to take any chances of any lingering shards or anything.
We also inspected all of the other dancers' shoes, but no one else seemed to have glass like Ivy’s did.
I’d told all the dancers to be cautious, and if anyone felt they needed new shoes, too, they just needed to let us know.
My hand felt along the floor for any traces of glass shards. A tiny prick hit my pinky finger as I slid it across the carpet. Lifting my hand, I let out an annoyed sigh. We’d vacuumed this carpet at least a dozen times to try to get all the glass out, but here I was, still finding some.
I walked out of the supply closet and grabbed a nearby vacuum. After plugging it into the wall, I turned on the vacuum and proceeded to, once again, clean the closet.
Little pings of dirt and debris (and probably more glass) sounded out with each pass I made over the carpet.
After a final pass of little noise, an idea struck me as I turned and looked at the rest of the locker room.
I maneuvered the vacuum to the locker room now and began my pass, once again hearing that ping of debris being collected.
One spot in particular, though, really set off the vacuum. I paused my pass and turned off the machine, looking up to see the name ‘Christian’ written along the locker. He was one of the boys in the corps and on my list as a potential suspect.
I knelt on the floor and gently brushed my hand over the carpet. Once again, a tiny prick of glass found my hand. Just as I was standing up, Christian and Lushian strolled into the locker room, laughing and joking about something from class.
“Hey Lukas! They have you on cleaning duty or something?” Lushian called out to me.
“Something like that,” I said, putting on a smile for them. “Christian, would you mind opening your locker for me?”
Christian shot me the oddest look before shrugging and walking over to his locker. Standing in front of me, he entered the combination and pulled his lock off, then swung the door open.
Watching him open the door, my suspicions eased a bit. He certainly didn’t seem like he had anything to hide. I peeked inside his locker as he stood back and looked over to me.
“Does anything seem out of place?” I asked, watching his reaction as he turned back to his locker.
“Nah, some old stuff. Sorry if a rat died in here,” he joked. His whole demeanor changed, however, when his eyes landed on something on the top shelf. “What’s this?” He asked, reaching for a small container.
I leaned forward as he peeled the lid off the container. Sure enough, inside were tiny bits of glass shards.
“What the hell?” he stammered as his gaze shot towards me. “Lukas, I didn’t do it. I didn’t know this was in here. I had no reason to harm Ivy. I honestly didn’t care about any of this omega stuff.”
“May I?” I asked, closing the container back open and taking it from him. “If you didn’t do it, then who would have stashed this in your locker? Who knows your locker combo?”