Chapter 2:

When I knocked on the door to William’s room, no one answered, so I just walked in. William was laying on his bed, listening to his iPod. No wonder he couldn’t hear me. As soon as he saw me he took off his head phones.

“Hey, what do you need?” he asked.

“Well Margaret just came into my room and told me why she wasn’t acting herself,” I replied.

“Well, are you going to tell me?” William can be so impatient, sometimes.

“Yeah, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Not even mom, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” William was sitting up now, he was anxious to hear what I had to say.

So then I told him everything that Margaret told me. He sat their silently until the end. He didn’t really have any questions for me. I told him the names of the boys and he just shook his head, angry that Margaret had to deal with them.

“Those boys are bad news,” Will told me.

“I know. That was what I told Margaret, but she didn’t seem to take me seriously.”

Will said he wanted to think about it some more, although there was nothing we could do. I left the room after about fifteen minutes and the conversation was over.

William had been interested in the story. Margaret’s story and explained all of William’s questions. Why Margaret was on the other side of the street when William went to get her, and why Margaret wasn’t talking at all.

I decided that I should probably study for my test that I have tomorrow in History. I was a pretty good student. One of those that barely needed to study to get an A. I decided to study for about fifteen minutes. I had already looked over some of my notes earlier this week.

After I put everything away, and was all set for school tomorrow, I looked at the time. It was almost 8:30pm, and I really felt like going on a walk. I go on walks a lot. Usually it is to get out of the house, but tonight I wanted to sort out everything that had happened to Margaret and me.

I felt like a rebel as I grabbed a jacket out of my closet. It was my plan not to tell anyone that I was going on a walk. I didn’t want to answer any questions, and I wanted to be by myself.

I opened the door to my room and Thomas was standing right there. I jumped.

“Hey, sorry,” he said.

“That’s okay. What are you doing,” I asked; so much for no one knowing about my walk.

“I just had a question on our history test.”

“I can’t help you right now. Sorry. I have to go do something, but I should be home in thirty minutes. I might be able to help you then. Please ask questions later.” I put my hand up because I could see that Thomas was about to ask a question. I haven’t gone on a walk by myself in a long time. “And, please, don’t tell anyone that I’m leaving. Bye.” I started to walk down the hallway and all I had was my phone and a jacket.


I walked to the front door without saying anything to anyone else. It was a good thing that there was no one in the kitchen, otherwise I would have has some more explaining to do.

I reached for the handle of the door, but someone grabbed my wrist. I jumped, turned around, and then realized it was only Thomas.

“I can’t let you leave, Katie,” Thomas said, pulling me away from the door.

“Thomas, why not? I’m not going to get into any trouble, I promise.” I told him and Thomas gave me a questioning look. “I promise. I am just going on a walk to sort out my thoughts. Trust me. I have my cell phone too.”

“Fine, but if you aren’t back within thirty minutes, I’m going to tell mom.”

“Okay, whatever. But promise me that you won’t tell anyone I’m gone.”

“Promise,” Thomas mumbled and then let go of my wrist.

I guess the reason that I wanted to keep this whole thing a secret was because our mom never lets us out of the house alone, especially at night. I didn’t want her worrying about me, but after Thomas walked away, I took a deep breath, opened the front door, and left.



Whenever I go on a walk, I always go the same way. It’s just around the block I live on; pretty simple. I take Central Road most of the way. That road takes me right past the high school. Then I turn onto 5th street. I think 5th street is the scariest part of my walk, because there is only one light on the whole street, making it super dark and creepy. When I come to the corner I always turn onto Hegin Street. I take that sidewalk all the way to Maple Street, which leads me back to my house.


After walking a ways, I had already figured out my thoughts, about Margaret and the boys and also my own issues. Margaret just had to try to avoid those boys at all costs. I was almost to 5th street, when I started getting scared. I was getting closer to 5th street with every step. My palms were starting to sweat and my ears were pounding, listening to every step I took.

I rounded the corner and looked down the 5th street sidewalk. There was no one on the sidewalk, but it was still dark and scary. My first thought was to turn around, but I wanted to finish my walk. I had walked this sidewalk in the dark plenty of times before. I could do this.

I was almost to the light post, when I felt like there was someone following me. I turned around, but there was no one there, of course. My heart was pounding, matching my steps on the pavement. I stopped again when I finally reached the light post. I looked left and right. There were some bushes on my left and a road to my right. I couldn’t see anyone.

I took about ten more steps, before I stopped again. I knew for sure that I had heard footsteps. Even though I was positive there was someone following me, I kept walking. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, slowing down, and finally stopping. I was going to call Thomas. Maybe he could talk me through how to get out of this situation.

“Please don’t call anyone,” A voice said, coming from nowhere. There was still no one in sight. I jumped and dropped my phone. The back flew off and the battery was laying a few feet away from me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” the voice rang out again.

“Who are you?” I asked. I was almost scared of my own voice. I opened my mouth slightly. I felt like screaming, but my voice had disappeared. Then someone stepped out from the bushes. The person put his hand over my mouth, quickly, before I could scream.

“Promise me that you won’t scream.” The person said. I just nodded my head up and down, my eyes wide with fear. The person behind me slowly removed his hand from my mouth. I exhaled quickly, realizing I had been holding my breath. I was so scared.

“Brent and Jake, you can come out now,” the man said. I took a step away from the man that had out his hand over my mouth, and backed up right into someone else. I jumped and stepped forward again.

“I turned around to see who was behind me. There were two boys, probably Margaret’s age, standing behind me.

I picked up my phone and started putting it back together. I was going to call Thomas. I don’t care what these guys said.

“It’s okay. Don’t be scared.” One of the boys said, touching my hands and taking the pieces of my phone. I realized I had been struggling to put my phone back together because my hands were shaking so much. The guy put it back together quickly and handed it back to me. “Please don’t call anyone,” he repeated again, looking into my eyes. I nodded my head, too scared to disagree.

“We just want to talk to you about something,” the other boy said.

I was speechless. I was so scared; I had no idea what to do. I started to run into the middle of the street; that being the only way away from these guys. One of the boys grabbed my arm and pulled me back, holding me against him. It was the same guy that put my phone back together.

“Please don’t run. We aren’t going to hurt you. We just want to talk to you about something,” the first man said to me.

I just nodded my head. “Who are you?” I finally managed to get out.

“We work for the ASO, the American 33 Spy Organization,” the man said.

“Why do I need to know you guys?” I asked.

“Just please let us explain,” the boy behind me said.

“Okay, fine.” I said. I was mad now.

The man that had talked to me first, spoke. “First, let me introduce myself. I am Evan Coore, the director of the ASO. Brent Cloud is the one behind you, and Jake Johnson is the one next to you,” Evan explained. I looked to the boy next to me. He smiled, but I just looked away.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” I insisted, trying to wriggle free from Brent, who was holding me from behind.

“We can’t really explain that to you now,” Evan said.

“Well then I am leaving,” I said, trying to pry Brent’s hands off my arms, once again.

Evan stepped forward and put his hand out. “No, stay. I will explain everything. You just have to promise not to tell anyone. I mean it.”

“I promise,” I said, not knowing what I was getting into.

Evan took a deep breath before he began again. “What does your dad do for his job?” he asked.

I hesitated before answering. What did my dad have to do with anything? “I don’t know. He says he’s a salesperson, but he always comes back with bruises and cuts all over him.” I paused and no one said anything. “He works for you.” I realized, finally.

Evan looked at me. “Yes, he does. We think that he is in some trouble. What is your dad doing right now?” He asked me.

“He is in Italy, for work,” I said.

Evan shook his head. “He shouldn’t have done that.”

“Do what?” I asked, curious.

“Your dad is in trouble and it would have been better if he had stayed home.”

“What kind of trouble is he in?” I asked.

“Do you know who Nick Sayner is?” Brent asked me.

“Yeah, he goes to my school. Sells drugs. He’s always in trouble.”

“Well his dad has threatened to kill your dad.”

“What?” I asked, totally surprised. “Why?”

“Well, your dad and Nick’s dad were working together about a year ago. They were trying to track down this criminal in Italy, Jared Storm. One day, your dad caught Nick’s dad talking to someone on the phone. That person was working with Jared; trying to keep him safe. Your dad notified us about what Nick’s dad was doing and we fired him for communicating with the enemy. Nick’s dad argued with us for the longest time. He said that he was trying to figure out where Jared was located, and the guy Nick’s dad was talking to knew where they could find Jared. The whole thing was a big misunderstanding and we fired Nick’s dad for no reason. Obviously we didn’t know it at the time.”
Evan paused, letting me soak this information in. After a second, I looked up at him, ready to hear more. “After we fired Nick’s dad, we decided not to let him back into the business, no matter if it was a misunderstanding or not. We have had issues with him in the past. Nonetheless, he didn’t like that at all. His family had to sell a lot of their stuff and move into a small apartment on the other side of town.”
Evan took another breath. “So, a couple weeks ago, we received a phone call from Nick’s dad. He said that on your dad’s next mission, your dad was going to die. We told your dad not to go to Italy, but he insisted. So, now, your dad is in Rome, trying to finish the case that he was assigned to do with Nick’s dad last year,” Evan finished.

“Well we have to do something! I don’t want my dad to die!” I screamed, trying to rip myself from Brent.

“That is exactly why you are here,” Evan said. “Brent is planning on going to Italy to help your dad, but he needs a partner.”

“Why can’t he just bring Jake?” I asked Evan.

“Jake is leaving us, and can’t go in the trip.”

“Why can’t you just use someone else? Why me?”

“Because you know your dad. What he would do. Where he might be. You can communicate with him without him knowing you are with us,” Evan finished.

“Does this make sense?” Brent asked me. His voice surprised me and his breath was cool on my neck.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said with a shiver.

“So, will you take the job?” Evan asked, eagerly.

“I don’t know. It seems sort of weird. Why all of a sudden? Can I think about it overnight, or can I tell my brother?” I asked.

“You can think about it overnight and call Brent in the morning. You can all tell your brother, but you have to make sure that he doesn’t tell anyone.”

I hesitated before saying anything else. This whole thing could be a huge joke and I would never know. “Okay, I’ll call you tomorrow, then,” I managed to get out. Brent’s hands them left my arms and I suddenly realized how cold it was. Brent had been keeping me warm.

“Good,” Evan said. “I will be anxious to hear your answer. Thank you for your time.” Evan offered his hand to me and I shook it. Jake followed Evan without saying another word to me. Brent stayed behind and watched them walk away.

“Shouldn’t you be going with them?” I asked, slowly backing away from Brent.

“I brought my own car,” Brent said, his voice sounding like silk. Why hadn’t I noticed how gorgeous she was before? “That way I can talk to you longer than them; and walk you home. I want to make sure a beautiful girl like you makes it home safe.”

I was blushing. I wasn’t used to this sort of attention from guys. What was I supposed to say to that? “Why are you talking to me?” I asked, ignoring his comment.

Brent smiled. “I want to get to know you better. You will be working with me, obviously. And it’s easier to work with a partner when you know them well.” Brent had been staring into my eyes the whole time and I couldn’t help but notice how bright his blue eyes were, especially in the moon light.

I blinked a few times, trying to focus on what Brent was saying to me. “I guess that makes sense.”

“Yeah, ready to go home now?” Brent asked.

“Yeah, my brother is probably worried about me.”

He laughed and gently brushed a stray piece of hair behind me ear. “I’ll get you home safe,” he said, leaning in, his breath washing over my face.

It took me a second to realize he was holding out his hand for me to take. I looked at it, trying to figure out if I should trust this complete stranger or not.

“I won’t bite. I promise. Trust me,” Brent said. His voice was captivating, making me want to trust him completely, but I still felt like there was something screwy about the whole situation.

I slowly raised my hand and placed it gently into Brent’s, instantly feeling warmer and safer.


“Shall we?” Brent asked, smiling and squeezing my hand. I nodded in response since my head was too shaken up to form any comprehensive sentences.

Brent’s hand was warm as it held mine. He felt strong too. I took the silence that surrounded us to look Brent over. Starting at his strong muscular jaw that reached his short but tossed hair and blue eyes, I then raked over his built chest that seemed to be trying to rip through his tight t-shirt. He was wearing a short sleeve shirt, but his arm muscles were still defined. Brent was wearing a pair of dark washed jeans, fitting his toned legs perfectly. How did I become so lucky to meet a guy as handsome and perfect as Brent?

The walk home was relatively short and we didn’t really talk much, but I was just glad he was there with me. It wasn’t as scared anymore. When we got to my street, we decided to stop so Brent could leave without anyone noticing there was someone with me.

“So, before I leave, I want to give you my number. You can call me tomorrow, when you have your final answer,” Brent said and wrote his number down on a sheet of paper and then handed it to me.

“Yeah, sounds great. I’ll call you tomorrow then.” I smiled up at him and took a step back. “Bye,” I said, with a quick wave, turning around.

“Bye,” he said, walking away.

Walking back to my house, I was a little confused. I had never seen Brent around, let alone talk to him. It was kind of creepy actually. But he was one of the first guys to tell me I was beautiful. My mind was racing and I didn’t know what to do. Brent was handsome. Better than my brother and most of the kids in my grade. Brent was tall too. Taller than my brother, who I thought was tall. His hands were soft as they held mine. It made me question if he really was a spy; he seemed too innocent.

I looked down at the sheet of paper in my hands. The number was scribbled on the paper. I could barely read the handwriting. I then realized the problem that I have on my hands. What was I supposed to do? The whole thing seemed like a joke to me. What if it was? What I get myself hurt?

I decided not to worry about it until I talked to William. He would be able to tell whether this was a trick or not. He would know what to do.

Chapter 3:


After my weird encounter that night, I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened. I had finished that short walk home as fast as I could. I just couldn’t wait to tell William what had just happened.

As soon as my hand touched the door, my mom opened it up. She looked worried.

“Oh my gosh! Catherine Grace! Where have you been?” My mother questioned.

“I was taking a walk,” I said calmly, even though I was shocked by her outburst. “I’m sorry. I thought I told you.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I was on a walk, but I didn’t tell her where I was or what I was doing.

“You had me worried sick. I can’t believe you did that!”

“I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

“I’d hope so. I’m not letting you leave the house anymore!”

“What? I have place to go! Things to do! You can’t do that!”

“Fine. You can’t leave the house unless William goes with you.” It was easy to change my mom’s opinions on things like this. She is too sweet not to.

I smiled remembering that Brent gave me permission to tell William everything about what happened. So I was glad that mom gave me this punishment. Mom saw me smiling, so I stopped. “Ok. Well can I go upstairs now?”

“Yes, and tell William that he has to make sure you don’t leave the house without him. Otherwise you are both grounded.”

I left the room and basically ran up the stairs. I couldn’t wait to tell William everything. I didn’t even hesitate when I came to his door. I knocked and went in. It looked like he was working on some homework.

“Hey,” I said.

“Oh hey, where have you been? Mom was freaking out. I couldn’t believe you left without telling her. I was about to –,” he said, but I cut him off.

“Yeah, I know. And now she won’t let me leave the house without you.”

“What? I am your punishment?” William was standing now.

“Yeah, but I am glad,” I said.

“Why? Are you okay? Why would you –.”

“I would like to tell you where I was and what I was doing, but you won’t stop asking questions.” I glared at Will and put my hand on my hip. Why won’t he listen?

“Ok. I’m sorry. I don’t like it when my little sister is missing. I’m ready. You can tell me.”

So I went on and told him everything about what happened and when Brent said. I also told him about the encounter that I had with Loren and his friends. William couldn’t believe it. He thought it was weird that the same day Margaret ran into Loren and his friends, was the same day that these boys came to me at school. There has to be a coincidence there, right?

Will was glad that I told him everything and said he would be glad to come with me whenever I needed to. I did make him swear not to tell mom or dad or anyone. He promised and I left his room.

I passed Thomas’ room and hesitated at his door. I told him that I would talk to him later, so I knocked on his door.

Thomas opened the door slowly and peeked around it. “Hey,” he said, opening the door wide enough to let me come inside. Thomas’ room was a mess. I could barely see the floor. All of his drawers were open and there were clothes all over the place. “Sorry about the room.” Thomas must have noticed me gaping as I looked around the room.

“No, it’s okay,” I said, walking further into the room. “Did a tornado go through here?” I asked, only half joking.

Thomas laughed at my joke and smiled at me. “You going to tell me what’s going on?” Thomas asked, going back to being serious.

I took a deep breath. “Look, Thomas, I can’t tell you. I could only tell one person and that person had to be William. Since I left, Mom won’t let me leave the house without him, so it only made sense for him to be the one to know.” I looked up at Thomas.

“So why did you come here then?” Thomas asked.

“I just wanted to make sure that you didn’t think that I was blowing you off. I told you that I would talk to you later. So, I am talking to you. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I understand.” Thomas looked disappointed.

I walked over to him and gave him a big hug. He wasn’t expecting it. I usually didn’t give my brothers hugs. I just felt bad for Thomas.

“Promise me one thing,” Thomas asked, pulling away from the hug.

“Yes?” I asked.

“If things start to get out of control, will you tell me?”

“Yes, if it ever comes to that.” I turned away from Thomas, giving him a hopeful smile and left the room. I quietly headed towards my room. I was so tired. I picked up a few things in my room and changed into my pajamas, looking forward to a good night of sleep.
I got into my bed and couldn’t help but think of Brent and how sweet he was to me. Then again, he was a spy. He was supposed to be dangerous and hurt people. For good though right? Brent was a good guy. I could trust him. Evan seemed like a nice enough guy, I’m sure they are telling the right about the whole situation. They wouldn’t lie to me.

I don’t know how long I laid in my bed thinking about Brent and the whole situation, but minutes were passing by quickly. I turned my lights off, threw my pillow over my head, and forced my eyes shut. I needed to go to bed so I could wake up and call Brent in the morning.

Finally, two hours later, I couldn’t take it any long and sleep finally overtook me and my eyes drooped shut for the night. Brent and all his sexy voice that I get to hear tomorrow, being the last thing that went through my head.

Chapter 4:


Friday morning was normal. I woke up, got ready for school, ate breakfast, and left the house with all my siblings. It was about 11:00am when I realized that I had forgotten to call Brent this morning. Should I call him during the day or just wait until tonight? I decided to call him during free period. William had said it was okay to take the job, but he also said that if I ever felt like it was trap, to back out and leave the boys alone. The only reason that we were even considering the job was the fact that my dad’s life was on the line. William didn’t want our dad to die either.
I was walking down the hall to the bathroom so that I could use my phone. It was weird because there was no one in the hallway during our free period. Usually there were a lot of people walking around, trying to ditch classes.

I kept walking down the hall and came to the bathroom. I walked in and called Brent’s number. The phone only rang once before he answered.

“Hey, I thought you would never call! Aren’t you in school right now?” Brent asked. He seemed happy to hear my voice.

“Yeah, I forgot to call you this morning and remembered that I needed to call you when my friends were talking about Steven Brent.” I laughed at my stupid story. “And yeah, I am in free period,” I said.

“Oh, so what were you going to tell me about?”

“Ok. So after I was scolded by my mom for going on a walk without telling her, I went up to my brother’s room and told him everything. I can’t leave the house anymore, unless William is with me; that’s my punishment. So everything sort of worked out perfectly, since you told me that I could tell William everything and that he could come with me to meetings or stuff.

“Yeah, everything works out great. So what is your final answer?”

“Yeah, I think that I can do it, although I don’t know if William will let me come with you to places without him. So, that I am kind of worried about, but this whole thing kind of seems like a scam. I mean it was just really random and everything.”

Brent sighed heavily and it sounded like he was going to tell me that I was right, but he just let it go.

“Ok, so how about tonight 9:00pm, you and William can meet us. We will be at the same street, but that light pole and we can just talk really quick. It won’t take that long. I don’t even know why we need it, but Evan insists. Although, make your brother promise that we can be alone with no one listening for a little bit after.”

“Ok,” I said, not knowing what that meant. Brent said a couple more things about tonight and Italy in general before hanging up. I checked myself in the mirror before leaving the bathroom and heading back to my classroom. I walked out of the bathroom and ran into someone. “Oh, sorry,” I said, not looking up to see who it was.

“Hey, it’s no problem. You okay?” I looked up and saw Sam Knight. At first I was shocked to see him standing there. Then I realized how hot he looks when you are standing inches away from him. I stared at him for a moment before snapping out of it, his gorgeous blue eyes boring into mine. I guess I was just in shock.

“Oh, my gosh! I am so sorry that I ran into you. I won’t do it again. I promise.” I tried to walk away. It didn’t want Sam to beat me up or something.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sam said, calmly. He grabbed my arm so that I wouldn’t leave.

“What?” I asked in disbelief.

“I don’t care that you ran into me,” Sam repeated. I think that my heart was beating so hard in my chest Sam could hear it.

“Oh, okay.” I said.

“Where are you headed to?” He asked.

“Back to free period,” I replied, still trying to figure out why Sam was acting the way he was. Usually he was mean and angry when he talked to people that weren’t his friends. What is up with him?

“Oh, okay. Well I will see you later, then,” Sam said, and then laughed. I think that he knew something I didn’t know.

I gave him a questioning look, but he just smiled back. “Don’t worry about it,” he said, turning around, shaking his head. I stared at his retreating body. It’s like he knew what I was thinking…

I was confused by the whole thing. I’ve never talked to Sam before and now I am talking to him on a daily basis. And what did he mean by ‘I’ll see you later’?

After my encounter with Sam, again, the day finished really slow. I guess that meant that I was a little excited for tonight and worried about what Sam meant. I didn’t know what to expect. William could go all weird on me and try to protect me or he could just let everything slide. I had no idea what William would think about the whole thing. He seemed okay about it when I told him the whole story. The other thing that I was worried about was what Brent wanted to do. Alone. William would never let that happen. I was so worried.

I was thinking about this as I walked home with Oscar and Thomas. They didn’t really have much to talk about usually, but today was different. Thomas and one of his friends were walking a few steps behind Oscar and me, talking about something in hushed whispers. Oscar has been talking to me the whole time about our really easy History test. Usually Oscar blows off the test as soon as it was over. Now, he couldn’t stop talking about it. He finally seemed like he was about to stop talking when he started talking really quietly.

“So what really happened last night?” He asked, whispering so softly, I could barely hear.

“Oh, nothing,” I lied.

“You sure? Because you ran home as soon as you saw our house. You walked right in and then ran to William’s room.”

“Oh. So you were watching me.”

“Yeah, sort of. I wanted to see what you were up to.”

“Like I said, it was nothing.”

“Then why did you run right into William’s room. You never do that unless you really need help.”

“I just had a few questions for him,” I said. Oscar knew I was lying. I could tell by the way he was looking at me; like he was trying to scan my brain for information or something. Then, suddenly Thomas screamed. Thank God that conversation was over.

“What the hell?” Oscar and I said at the same time. I guess that’s what happened when you have a twin.

“Oh, sorry. I just knew that Kate here needed to be done talking with you.” Thomas pointed at Oscar like he did something wrong.

“What?” Oscar and I said at the same time again.

“Never mind,” Thomas said, annoyed.

I looked at Thomas. I smiled at him as a way of thanking him. He smiled back. Sometimes my brothers were alright. I was surprised that Thomas did something though. Last night he seemed really mad at me for not telling him. I thought that maybe he would take it out on me. Maybe it was because he actually cared about me. Maybe it was because I promised him that if I ever needed him, I would talk to him. Either way, I am glad that he still on my side.

I was thinking this through when my mom interrupted.

“Katie? You okay?” She asked.

“Yeah, I was just thinking about something,” I replied.

“Kate, you just ran into me,” Oscar said.

“What?” I asked, still a little bit out of it.

“You just ran into me,” Oscar said again.

“Oh, sorry,” I said and walked up to my room.

Chapter 5:


It wasn’t until Margaret knocked on my door that I remembered about what Nick, Nate, Sam, and Loren had told her the day before. I felt so bad for forgetting.

“Hey,” I said, letting Margaret know that she could come into my room.

“Hey,” she replied.

“How was your day?”

“It actually wasn’t that bad. The boys stopped me in the hallway and asked me why I left and I told them that I had to go to dinner. They seemed to believe me because they left me alone for the rest of the school day.”

“Well that’s good then.”

“Not exactly.”

“Why? What happened?”

“They came up to me at the end of the say and they told me that they were still mad at me for leaving them. I ignored them and left, but the whole way home I felt like I was being watched. It was really creepy and I think that they followed me home.”

“Yeah, that is kind of creepy. I am going on a walk tonight with William, so we will check everything out and make sure that everything is ok.”

“Ok. Thanks. Did you tell William about yesterday?”

“Yeah, he knew the boys, but not very well. Otherwise he had nothing else to say, really.”

“Okay. Thanks again. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay, bye.”

I didn’t want to tell anyone about what had happened between Sam and I the last two days. I guess it really didn’t seem important, and I was still trying to figure out the meaning behind everything anyways.

When Margaret opened the door to leave my room, she jumped because William was standing right outside the door. I guess my room will be very busy for a while. Margaret gave Will a questioning look and then left the room.

When William came in and shut the door, he looked angry.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing, I just wanted to talk to you about Brent and everything,” he replied without sounding angry at all.

“Oh, ok, then. Ask away.”

“So, did you call them back this morning?”

“Yeah, I told them that I would do the job. We are meeting them at the same street at 9:00pm. Brent wants to talk to you be he is making you promise that Brent and I can be alone to talk for a little bit.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Wait what?”

“I don’t know. I think that Brent liked me or something. He kept talking about how partners need to know each other pretty well before they can work together.”

“He must like you then. Well I’m not going to let him hurt you, but you can be alone with him. Only for a little while though.”

“Okay, thanks. Anyways, on our way home we need to check all around the house.”

“Why?” William sounded a little nervous.

“Margaret thinks that she was followed home by those four boys.

“Ok. That’s bad. I think that we should tell an adult.”

“NO!”

“Why?”

“Ok, well let’s just figure out some more information and then we can turn it over to the police if that’s what it comes to.”

“Fine.”

Then there was a knock at my door. I groaned because I knew it would be Thomas or Oscar, or both.

“Come in,” I said.

“Hi,” Thomas and Oscar said.

“Hi. Do you need something?”

“Yeah, we wanted to talk to you about the walk home.” Oscar said. Thomas just rolled his eyes. I could tell that Thomas didn’t want to talk about it, especially with Oscar in the room.

I looked at William. I haven’t told him about what happened, because it wasn’t that big of a deal. He looked at me, confused.

“Fine. Sit down,” I said.

They did as they were told.

“What’s going on?” William finally said.

“Katie didn’t tell you?” Oscar asked.

“Tell me about what?”

“What happened on the way home? She is hiding something from us. She won’t tell us where she was last night and we want to know why.”

“Ok. Just tell me what happened,” William demanded.

“Ok. So Thomas was walking behind Kate and me because he was talking to his friend. I was talking to Kate about our test today and –,” Oscar said, getting cut off.

“What. You were talking to Kate about a test you took today?” William asked, in disbelief. Oscar was only shocked for a few seconds and then finished the story finally. Thomas and I laughed.

“So, what is really going on, Kate?” Oscar asked.

“Nothing is going on. She is fine,” William cut in.

“Wait, you know something about this?” Oscar asked.

“Yeah, I do. Just leave her alone. I’m taking care of her. You ask her about it one more time and I will kill both of you,” William said, jokingly.

“Why can’t you just tell us?” Oscar asked.

“William is right. Let’s just leave her alone, like I told you,” Thomas said.

“She was told to only tell one person and that person was me, so like I said, leave her alone,” William said, sounding angry.

“Fine,” Oscar said. Then Oscar and Thomas got up and left the room. Now, just William and I were in the room.

“What was that?” I asked.

“We can’t tell them anything and they are never going to listen to you. They need to heat it from me,” William said.

“Well, what if they tell mom and I get caught anyway?”

“I will go tell them not to tell anyone about this conversation.”

“So, they want us at the corner at 9:00pm. We should leave at about 8:50pm and then we can check the house on our way back home.”

“Ok. Well I should probably get out of your room. I think that dinner is going to be ready soon too.”

“Ok, bye,” I said.

“Bye,” William said and left the room.

Five minutes later, dinner was ready and I left my room and went downstairs. There was something going on. Something didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t figure it out. As we sat down at the table, everyone was quiet. I looked at William, but he just shrugged. Maybe he felt like there was something wrong too…

Chapter 6


Dinner seemed to be going fine, but I was more focused on tonight’s meeting. I couldn’t tell if I was nervous or scared. I was pretty sure that when Margaret told me that she though the four boys followed her home, I was scared. I knew that I would be fine because William would be with me. Right?

I was focusing on that thought when there was a knock at the door. I looked up at William and he looked nervous. Margaret looked scared too. My mom got up and answered the door, opening it wide enough for all of us too see who it was. There was a delivery man dressed in his uniform, on our front porch.

“Hi, my name is Max. I am here to deliver your new T.V.” He looked really young.

“Oh, well I don’t think that I ordered a T.V,” my mom said.

“It says that it’s a gift from Richard Stone.”

That was my dad’s name! Why would he send a gift without us knowing? He would never do that. Just then I knew this wasn’t right. This must have been what I was feeling earlier. I looked at the man closer. I gasped and the delivery man looked straight at me, smiling wickedly. It was Sam Knight. I looked away and glanced over at William. Sam had stopped looking at me and was now looking at Margaret, who was really confused. I mouthed ‘Sam’ to William and he stood up. My mom turned around and looked at William.

“Yeah, we don’t know a Richard Stone, so if you could please leave, I think you have the wrong house,” William lied.

“William, honey –,” Mom tried to say.

William interrupted her. “Come on mom, just shut the door and we can finish eating our dinner,” William said. He pointed at the telephone and mouthed Brent’s name to me.

“Are you sure you don’t know who Richard Stone is?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, we are sure,” William said as he shut the door.

I ran upstairs and grabbed my cell phone. I called Brent’s number.

“Hello?” Brent asked on the other line.

“Brent! We need help. Loren and his friends are hiding around our house and Sam –,” I tried to say, but Brent cut me off.

“Catherine, relax,” Brent said.

“What?”

“You’re fine.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“We are watching your house because we were notified that those four boys had followed your sister home. We just got to your house and we were walking around the back, checking the yard.”

“So that’s why no one stopped Sam, then.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sam just tried to get into our house. He said that we had ordered a new T.V.”

“What? Did you guys figure it out?”

“Yeah, we made sure he didn’t make it into the house.”

“Well sorry that we couldn’t help. I thought we had more time before they made a move, and we couldn’t be seen. Sorry again.” Brent paused for a moment, almost as if to think. “Okay, so instead of the meeting on the street we are going to come into your window on the second floor. It will be just me and Evan. Jake is going to stay and watch the house along with two other men. Have William in your room in ten minutes without anyone knowing anything. And make sure you lock all the doors and windows.”

“Okay, sounds good,” I said.

“Oh did you talk to your brother about having a little bit of alone time with me?” Brent asked, calmer now.

“Yeah, he said I could, but only for a little bit.”

“Ok, I will see you in ten minutes then,” Brent said, hanging up.


I looked at my phone and then the time. It was almost 8:30pm. I was guessing Brent would be here soon, so I calmly went downstairs to find William. Everyone was sitting back down like nothing had ever happened.

“Hi,” I said.

“Where did you go?” Mom asked.

“I had to go write myself a note to remind myself about something,” I lied.

“Oh, ok.”

Everyone was done eating a few minutes later. William and I offered to clean up the dishes and then went around the house and locked all the doors and windows. Then we both went upstairs. We had a few minutes to kill before Brent and Evan showed up.

“What did you tell Mom after I left?” I asked.

“I just told her that Sam was trying to get into our house that we should lock all the doors,” William replied.

“So she seemed to really believe it?”

“Yeah, I think so. Did you call Brent?”

“Yeah, he said that he was going to watch the house with four other men because people had told him that those boys had followed Margaret home. I guess they were in the backyard looking for signs of Sam trying to get in the house from the back, so they missed Sam in the front of the house. I guess Brent didn’t expect Sam to try to get in the front so easily like that. Brent also doesn’t want us to leave the house tonight, so he is going to come here and climb up through the window.”

“Oh, okay, I guess that all makes sense. How is he getting up here then?”

“Maybe a ladder? But Brent is brining Evan with him and he still wants that ‘alone’ time,” I said.

Just then there was a knock on the window that made me jump. William got up and looked out. Brent was somehow right outside the window. William opened frame and Brent climbed in, followed quickly by Evan.

“Hi,” I said. Brent looked amazing. He looked even hotter that he did the last time I saw him. I couldn’t believe it. He was wearing another tight t-shirt, showing off his muscles. He was pretty tan, probably from working outside and his skin looked so soft, I just wanted to touch it. His hair was messed up a little bit because of the wind outside. I really like his hair that way. It made him look even more attractive. I couldn’t take my eyes away.

“Hi,” Brent said, a little out of breath, which was totally sexy.

“How did you get up here? This high?” I asked, Brent’s presence still having an effect on me.

Brent smiled before responding, obviously noticing my eyes roaming all over his body. “We have a ladder that extends really high and is still really strong.”

I got up and looked out the window. Sure enough there was a really long ladder leaning against the side of the house. I turned around and sat on my bed right next to William. Brent was sitting on my desk chair and Evan decided to stay standing.

“Hi, William. I’m Evan, director of the American 33 Spy Organization, otherwise known as the ASO.” Evan paused before continuing. “This is Brent. He is my top spy in his division right now and at the moment he has been traveling around with me. Brent and his friend Jake work together a lot. Anyway, Jake is leaving and Brent needs a new partner and I suggested that it be a girl. I believe that Catherine has told you everything about your dad and stuff, so I don’t need to go into detail about why this is happening,” Evan said.

“Yes, Kate told me a lot about what is going on,” William said. I couldn’t tell if Will thought that that was a good thing or not.

“Yes, and not to be rude, but we need someone on watch. Would you mind standing at the door in case someone decides to enter, William?” Evan asked, being totally serious.

“No, I don’t mind at all. Whatever you need,” William said and walked over to my bedroom door. I loved my brother; he would do anything for me.

“Catherine, do you have any questions for us?” Evan asked, now looking at me.

I paused, trying to think of a reasonable question for Evan and Brent. “Yeah, what I am looking for?” I asked. I didn’t know what to expect for an answer.

“Good question. Well, while you are still in the states, look for any suspicious activity coming from the boys. You probably won’t see a lot of activity concerning your dad and Italy from the boys now, but you can always keep an eye out for other activities. I have heard that one of the boys sells drugs, but we never finalized that information.” Evan paused because William and I were looking at each other, both of us thinking about Margaret and her situations.

“What’s going on?” Brent asked, noticing the exchange between me and William.

“Oh, nothing,” I said, sounding nervous, trying to get the attention off of me.

“Okay then...” Evan said, a little confused. “As I was saying, some clues would be the boys skipping classes or walking around suspiciously or even passing notes. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, I think so,” I said. Brent was scaring me. He must be very serious about his job. That is probably why he is the top spy in his division at ASO.

“I am sure that Brent will inform you about stuff you need to look out for while you are on your trip too. If you ever have any other questions then you can just ask Brent or me. Ok?” Evan finished off.

“Ok,” I said. Well that was quick. Evan must have somewhere he needs to be, but I guess they did say this meeting was going to be short.

“Ok, well, Brent told me that he wanted to talk to you for a little bit, alone. I am going to go down the ladder and walk around the house a few times and William can leave. I think that there might be something going on down there. I can hear extra voices. Brent, you can just come down whenever you’re done,” Evan said as he climbed out the window.


A few minutes later, it was just Brent and me in my room. Brent came over to my bed and sat down next to me. I was nervous and my hands were shaking. I had never really had a boy in my room before, besides my brothers. Brent was just making me nervous. He must have noticed my hands shaking because he slowly took my hands in his, making me feel more relaxed almost instantly.

“Cat, you okay?” Brent asked.

“What? I mean, yeah, I’m okay,” I managed to get out. Since when did I have a new nickname? I could barely form coherent sentences without Brent calling me names, now I could even think straight. Brent’s words sent my mind on a whirlwind I couldn’t control. I was pretty sure Brent was saying something to me, but I wasn’t really paying attention. Whenever Brent looked at me, my stomach filled with butterflies. How was I supposed to save my dad when the guy next to me basically makes me stop thinking just by his presence?

“Ok, good. I want to talk to you about something.”

“What do you want to talk to me about?”

“Well, I am a freshman in college, and you are a junior in high school…”

“Yeah,” I said, still trying to figure out where he was going with this.

“So, I am not trying to sounds creepy or anything, but I’ve been watching you lately, especially for my job, trying to figure out who you are as a person. What you like to do, who you hang out with, what you eat, stuff like that. Anyway, I like what I have found, again, not trying to sound creepy. You’re a really interesting girl and I would really like to get to know you better before this trip. You have this feeling you give off and for some reason I just want to protect you and take care of you. I really don’t know why I feel that way, but I first noticed it when I first laid eyes on you.” Brent paused, and I was trying to make sense of what he was saying. “Well I guess, I dunno, you’re a super sweet girl, and I really want you to understand that I want to take care of you, protect you.”

I didn’t know what to say. Was he asking me to be his girlfriend? What was he trying to tell me? I looked at our hands and then back up at Brent. My mouth was open, but no words were coming out.

“It’s fine, Cat, there’s nothing you need to say. I just wanted to let you know what’s been going through my mind, so we are on the same page.”

“Ok, yeah that’s fine,” I said, not really knowing what I was agreeing to.

I looked at Brent again, his eyes were shining and he was smiling at me. He looked happy, but I didn’t really know why. I liked Brent, I really did, and I could see him being an amazing boyfriend. I mean that’s kind of what he was implying wasn’t it? I guess I will just have to see how everything plays out.

Brent looked at me and raised his hand, his fingers brushing against my cheek bone, which of course made me blush and Brent smiled. I thought he was going to kiss me, but Brent just pulled me into him, giving me a hug that made my heart melt. He was such a sweet guy. Brent had a really great personality, from what I have seen. He’s super dedicated to his work and exerts a lot of energy doing so. I’m sure a lot of people like him and admire him, since he’s so good at his job. And of course, Brent’s natural looks help attract people. So why did he chose me? There’s nothing special about me…

We were both sitting there, him holding me, my brain going wild, when there was a loud sound outside. Brent stood up quickly and looked out the window.

“Damn,” he paused. “The ladder’s gone. The boys must have taken it knowing I was still in here. I have to call Evan.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked, calmly.

“I don’t know. Just let me call Evan real quick, okay Cat?”

Then Brent got out his phone and pressed one button. He listened to the phone as it started to ring.

“Hello?” a voice said, interrupting the rings.

“Hi, who is this?” Brent asked.

“This is Loren Dorn and I bet that you are looking for Evan.”

“What did you do to him?”

“Nothing…yet.”

“What do you want Loren?”

“I want to talk to Catherine.” Loren responded. I must have looked really confused because Brent came over and sat right next to me, resting his hand on my lower back. My stomach was in butterflies again. He looked worried and still hadn’t responded to what Loren had said.

“How did you know about her?” Brent asked Loren.

“Evan told me. I had to work it out of him.”

“Fine. Why do you want her?”

By then I knew who they were talking about. Loren wanted me. Brent didn’t know why, but he wasn’t too happy about it. Why would Loren and the rest of the boys want me? Why not Margaret?

“I want her because she is something that is very special to you and your program. I know why you need her Brent.”

“Can I talk to Evan?” Brent asked, ignoring Loren’s statement.

“You can come out here and talk to him as long as you bring Catherine.”

“Well, I need to get out somehow.” Brent sounded mad.

“Oh, right. One minute,” Loren responded.

“Fine, where do I meet you?”

“You mean ‘we’,” Loren paused, putting emphasis on the ‘we’ part. “And I’ll have Sam bring you to us. See you soon,” Loren said, and hung up.

Brent just looked at the phone.

“What just happened?” I asked.

“Ok, I’m sorry Car, but they want you,” Brent responded.

“What?”

“Don’t worry. I’m here to keep you safe. I just need to see what is going on. I just need you to trust me. Promise me that you will trust me?”

“I promise,” I said, not sure what I was getting into. I was scared and didn’t know what to do.

Chapter 7


A few seconds later, there as another loud noise and Brent went over to the window. Brent rushed me to the opening and looked out to see that the ladder had been replaced.

“Ok. We can go down now. I want you to stay close when we go down the ladder, ok?” Brent asked.

“Yeah, okay,” I said, not so sure about the whole going down the ladder idea.

Brent started to climb down the ladder. He was always looking right at Sam. Probably to make sure that Sam wouldn’t do anything stupid. Now, I knew what Sam meant when he was talking to me earlier.

“Okay, Cat, you can come out now,” Brent said.

I looked out the window. It was a long way down to the ground, but I had to be safe. Brent was there right?

I started to climb down. I thought I was only about halfway when Brent said that I could step off the ladder. I must have been lost in my thoughts.

Brent grabbed my hand and started to walk over to Sam. His hand felt so right holding mine. I wanted to lean into him, just to feel more of him. Brent’s touch was sending my mind on a whirlwind. I felt like electricity was running through my hand and into my chest. My heart was beating so fast, I thought for sure I was going to pass out. How could Brent already have this kind of effect on me? I tried to ignore Brent’s touch, as much as I could, so I could really focus on what was going on around me.

Sam was ahead of where Brent and I were walking so Brent whispered some information into my ear. “Okay, so from now on there is nothing you need to say. If they ask you a question, answer it, but very carefully. You can tell them the truth, but tell them wisely. You don’t need to go into complete detail about everything. Just keep your stories vague. We don’t need them to know everything we are doing, obviously,” Brent said.

“What about the rest of my family? My window is wide open and the ladder is just sitting there. Anyone can get in,” I said.

“Your family should be fine. Loren didn’t say anything about them. I doubt he is thinking about them.”

I decided not to say anything more. Brent knew what he was doing and even though I basically just met him, I trusted him. I knew that he was going to keep my safe, and that I would be home safely soon.

After a few more minutes, we reached a clearing in the woods that I never knew was even there.

“Ah. Good. You brought the girl.” Loren’s voice seemed to come from the middle of nowhere.

“The girl’s name is Catherine,” Brent said.

“Oh, is that the name?” Loren laughed. I then realized that Loren’s voice was coming from behind me. “There are a lot of nicknames that can go along with that one. I am sure that is why your mom named you that.” He had his hand on my left shoulder, but I still couldn’t see him. I tried to shrug Loren’s hand off but he just held on tighter. I squeezed Brent’s hand and he looked at Loren over his shoulder.

“Stop,” Brent said with a stern voice.

“Oh, why? You don’t like it when I tough your girlfriend?” Loren slowly walked around me; his hand gently sliding down my shoulder, over my elbow, to my wrist and back to my shoulder, very slowly. His touch was sending shivers all over my body, making the hair stand up on the back of my neck. But Loren was having a different effect on me compared to Brent. Loren’s touch was scaring me, and I tried not to run away or wrap Brent’s arms around me. By now, Loren was standing right in front of me, his eyes boring into mine.

“She’s not my girlfriend. Just leave her alone. She has nothing to do with any of this!”

“She’s not your girlfriend…yet. Oh, and I believe she has everything to do with this. First, her sister doesn’t listen to us. Then her dad. Then you ask her to work for you. And now you are basically dating her. How does she not have anything to do with this?” Loren’s eyes never left mine, and I wasn’t going to look away first.

“My sister has nothing to do with anything,” I said through clenched teeth. I knew right after I said it that I shouldn’t have talked. Loren scowled quickly before his hand moved from my shoulder to my face and back very quickly. My cheek was now stinging.

“Don’t talk unless I ask you too!” Loren’s voice was deafening against the silence of the forest.

“You don’t need to slap her!” Brent was mad now.

“She is just too irresistible though,” Loren replied, his hand stroking my cheek. “Your face is so soft,” he whispered, sending more shivers down my spine. I back away from Loren’s touch, but he just laughed, and looked behind me at something.

“Yeah, I mean she is pretty cute. All I want to do is touch her,” another voice rang out. I tensed up at a felt another hand on my other shoulder, but I still couldn’t see who it was.

“Be quiet Nate. I think you’re scaring her,” another voice whispered.

I felt Brent’s hand tense up next to mine. My stomach was in butterflies once again, but for a totally different reason. I felt like I was going to throw up.

“Shut up Sam!” Brent yelled.

“Maybe you should be slapped too,” Sam replied, his voice flat.

“What do you want with her?” Brent asked, angrily.

“We just want to ask her some questions,” answered Sam.

“What if she doesn’t want to?” Brent asked.

“Then you don’t get to talk to Evan or see him for that matter. We might just keep him here with us. You need to talk to him about travel plans right?” Nick asked, smirking.

“I’m not leaving her side,” Brent responded, not answering Nick.

“That’s too bad, because neither are we. When you let go of her, we let go of her, and Nick will take you to Evan. It’ll work perfectly for everyone,” Loren said.

“But I really don’t mind my hands touching her,” Sam said from behind me. It was then that I realized that there were four hands touching me. Loren’s hand on one shoulder, Nate’s hand on the other, and Sam’s hands were wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer to him, his cool breath on my neck. Loren moved so that he was standing in front of Brent and me, his hand now cupping my neck, making me nervous.

“Just let go of her and we will figure things out from there. You can even talk to her for a few seconds before Nick takes you to Evan. You can talk to him for a couple minutes and then Nick will bring you back to her and you guys can go home.” Loren was very clear with what he wanted.

“I doubt that will actually work,” Brent said.

“It will as long as you listen, because if you don’t, we keep Kate,” Loren sounded so serious.

Brent’s hand tensed up one more time before he let go of my hand, stepping away. Brent must really trust Loren in a small way, to let me stay with him, alone. As soon as my hand was free, Loren and Nate removed their hands. Sam’s hands lingered around my waist, playing with the hem of my shirt, before his touch was completely absent. I could feel Sam standing right behind me still. It was like I wasn’t even there. He was basically standing on top of me. I was scared, but for some reason Sam’s body was a little bit comforting. The heat radiating off his chest was penetrating into my back, keeping me warm. Then I remember what the situation was and I removed all positive thoughts concerning Sam.

Nick, who was standing off in the distance earlier, grabbed Brent by the arm and started to pull him away.

“Wait,” Brent said.

“What?” Loren asked.

“You said I could talk to Kate for a little bit.”

“Oh, yes, you’re right. Nick let them talk.”

Nick let go of Brent and he walked over to me, giving me a hug. “No matter what happens tonight, I will always keep you safe.” Brent smiled at me. I knew Brent had feelings for me, I could tell by the way he was looking at me. He meant what he said, and it melted my heart. Had I actually found someone who wanted to protect me and keep me safe? I smiled back at Brent, trying to keep my mind on the issue at hand. “Try to answer the questions with simple answers and don’t get yourself hurt. I should be back to get you in fifteen minutes.” Brent was talking really fast. He must have been worried a little bit.

“Okay, and I trust you Brent,” I said. Brent looked at me one last night and then he left; still smiling to himself, and followed Nick into the darkness.

I turned around slowly, gulping loudly. How was I supposed to handle this on my own? Loren, Nate, and Sam were all watching me. Loren whispered something to them and they started to walk towards me, an evil smile plastered on their faces.

Chapter 8


Nate and Sam grabbed my arms and started pulling me along back towards where Loren was standing.

“If you don’t answer these next questions, you will never see Brent or your family again. Do you understand?” Loren asked, angrily.

I nodded and then he slapped me across the face. I winced; my cheek was stilling burning from his abuse earlier. I tried to move away from Loren, his anger scaring me, but Sam and Nate held me tight. Why was Loren so mad at me?

“What was that for?” I asked through gritted teeth. I needed to relax, or else the situation could escalate. I regretted asking Loren his purpose for hitting me when I saw the look on his face. Loren’s smile was one of the most evil smiles I had ever seen. His eyes were searing mine and I had to look away first.

“I just wanted to see how feisty you were and I think, from the events so far, we are going to have a…interesting night.”

I glared at him and he turned around with a low chuckle, making me want to tackle him to the ground and teach him a lesson. Loren started to walk away and Nate, Sam and I followed. Having nothing to do, I spent my time trying to get to know the faces of my kidnappers.

Nate was tall and very strong. He has a body built like Brent, but then again, they all did. He has dirty blonde hair that had been cut short and his face was skinny; his jaw bone defined. He had deep green eyes, which matched the tight shirt he was wearing at the moment and his dark jeans showed off his muscular legs. I never really realized how attractive my kidnappers were. I quickly shoved that thought away as I remember the situation I was in.

I sneaked a glance at Sam, and for some reason I wish I hadn’t. I couldn’t take my eyes away from him. Sam was hot. His eyes were the darkest shade of blue, almost black. I have only seen them a couple times, but let me tell you I was hard for me to look away. His eyes always captured mine. Sam wasn’t short, but compared to the rest of his friends he was. I guess Loren, Nate, and Nick were just freakishly tall. Sam has lighter brown hair, a little bit darker that the normal caramel color and only a little bit longer than Nate’s. Sam’s hair almost matched his skin tone, but was still a shade darker. His arms were big and I could tell Sam worked out. Needless to say, if I were in a dark forest alone and Sam wasn’t the one kidnapping me, I would feel completely safe wrapped in his arms. That thought reminded me of how I felt when Sam had his arms wrapped around my waist earlier and butterflies invaded my body once again. I shoved that thought away as well.

Loren on the other hand, isn’t as tall as Nate but is still taller than Sam. He has a really dark shade of brown hair, almost black, which really stood out against his pale skin. I knew Loren was strong, but his body wasn’t as defined at the rest of the boys and I feel like Loren didn’t flaunt his abilities either. Loren seemed like the type of guy that liked to mask everything about him. His chiseled face was always stern and eyes brows furrowed, never relaxed. His thin lips always pursed, never showing emotion, unless, of course, you are as lucky as me to have him grinning evilly at you majority of the time.

“Are you done analyzing?” Sam’s voice brought me out of my thoughts. I then registered what he has said and blushed. I knew there was no way out of that one, so I just stayed silent.

I looked around for Loren, but he was nowhere to be found. Had we gotten lost? My chest constricted and I tried to pull away from Sam and Nate’s grip.

“Relax, we know where we are going,” Sam said as if he was reading my mind. I looked at him confused and wondered how he knew what I was thinking. Sam just smirked and winked at me, which made me all the more confused.

“So Kate, how do you like Brent?” Nate asked breaking the trance Sam had me under.

“Why do you care?” I snapped.

“Just answer the question,” Sam retorted.

“No, it’s not your business,” I said, trying to twist out of their grip on me.

“Loren was right. We are going to have fun with her,” Nate said to Sam.

“To bad Brent isn’t here to protect her,” Sam replied to Nate, but looking at me.

“I have a question for you,” I said.

“I’m not answering,” Nate said, being difficult.

“Is Loren the leader of this ‘group’ or whatever you call it?” I asked, ignoring Nate’s statement.

There was silence as I looked at Nate. I turned to look at Sam with pleading eyes.

Sam sighed, giving in. “Yeah, I think you could say that.” Sam paused. “We always listen to him, but sometimes we have to split up and do things our own way. Last week I had to do something so Nick and I went to work on that but Loren didn’t really tell us what to do. I guess it sorta depends on what the situation is.”

It was silent after that. I had no more questions for either of them. I was just hoping to make it back home before something bad happened. The forest was quiet, like always, which made this experience creepier than it needed to be.

“Can you please let go of me?” I asked, breaking the silence.

Nate’s grip on my arm tightened so I looked at Sam again, hoping I could change his mind. “Please,” I begged.

“As long as you don’t run,” Sam said.

“I won’t.” They eventually let go of me, but stayed really close. “But what if I did?” I asked, teasingly, but I was also curious.

Nate tensed up before answering. “You won’t. You don’t want to know what’ll happen.”

I wanted to keep prying, but Loren’s voice interrupted.

“Glad you guys caught up. Now, if you would please go inside and sit down...” I was glad that I could actually see Loren. His voice coming from nowhere, earlier, had really put me on edge. It was relieving to see his face even.

I looked over the building before I entered it. The house was small and it looked pretty nice from the outside, but knowing Loren, anything was possible.

I was really nervous and scared, walking into the one room house, but after taking in my surroundings, I could feel myself relax. The house had a warm homey feeling, that made me want to curl up on the couch next to the fireplace. Stepping into the house, straight ahead, there were actually two couches, parallel to each other with a coffee table in between, now that I viewed the room more thoroughly. There was also a table and a couple chairs farther back into the small room, past the couches. Off to the right there was a bigger table, like the one in my dining room, with four chairs around it. A mini fridge stood on the far right hand corner of the room sitting on a small counter. Lastly the fireplace which was on the wall to the far left next to the couches was burning brightly.

The small, one room building, almost felt like a cabin. Most of the structure was made of wood and there were blankets and pillows scattered around the room. I was in love with the small building and I suddenly wished I was here for a completely different reason. I felt completely at home here, but then I remember who I was with, and I wished I was at home in my own bed.

Just then the door opened and Loren walked in. Sam and Nate had already sat down in some chairs in the far back of the room. They were talking quietly to themselves as Loren sat down on the couch opposite me. Loren had one of his evil smiles plastered across his face and Sam and Nate had finally stopped whispering.

“Hi Catherine,” Loren said.

I just looked at him, ready to leave, or run away.

“What do you prefer I call you? Catherine, Kate, Katie, or Cat?”

The last name got to me. That was what Brent had called me and hearing that name made me want to be home even more. I just wanted Brent to hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay. I think I was really falling for Brent’s charms. I tensed up, ready to pounce, when I remembered what Loren wanted to call me and he must have noticed, because the evil smirk on his face grew wider. Why was I in this situation again?

“What will it be?” Loren asked again.

“Catherine,” I said quietly.

“Good. Now that we got that out of our way, we want to ask you some questions about yourself, your family, and Brent,” Loren said.

I didn’t even look at him. I was looking down at my hands. They were intertwined together and turning different colors. I hadn’t realized that I was taking my anger out on my hands. I was squeezing them so hard. I relaxed my grip and looked up to see Loren staring at me.

“How many people are in your family?” Loren continued, knowing he had my attention. “We know that there is you and your sister, Margaret, and of course William and your dad.”

I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t ask for this to happen, so I wasn’t going to answer any questions. Why would I give these answers to strangers, whether or not they go to the same school as me?

“Catherine, answer the question,” Loren said.

“No, I don’t want to,” I replied. “There is no reason for you to know about my family. I don’t even understand why I am here. It’s not fair! You guys are a waste of space on this earth.”

“So that’s how this is going be. Well then, I guess I should start my telling you that your family is in danger right now. If you don’t answer the question then we will lock you up in here and you will never see your family or Brent again. So we will ask you one more time.” Loren paused.
“How many people are in your family?” Sam asked.
“Brent said that he was going to talk to you about the safety of my family!” I protested, ignoring Sam.

“I understand. But we don’t always do what we say. So please answer the question. Or I will call one of my friends. He is just outside your house, waiting for me to tell him to climb inside your window.” Loren took the phone out of his pocket.

“You’re threatening me!” I yelled, standing up.

“Yes we are. Please answer the question!” Loren’s voice was louder than mine and he had produced a knife. It reflected against the light in the room and I sat down, shrinking back into my seat. I hated knives. I had always had a fear of them, ever since I was little and now Loren knew that, which scared me. Loren seemed to notice my extreme fear and leaned in towards me, his hand holding the knife still.

“Catherine,” Loren said quietly.

“There are seven of us,” I replied, defeated and scared.

Loren leaned back against the couch, smiling. “Seven?” He asked innocently. “I thought there were only five. Okay, tell us some more.”

I hesitated, not wanting to tell him too much, but he flipped his knife open again, causing my heart to start beating rapidly. “I have two brothers, Oscar and Thomas. We are triplets. My mom is always inside, and she rarely has time to leave the house. That’s why you never see her.” I said, not wanting the knife to come any closer to me.

“Oh, ok. I understand now. Thank you for answering the question. Now, how did you meet up with Brent? Are you working for Evan?”

“I don’t want to answer that question,” I said, quietly, with a shaky breath.

Loren whispered something to Nate and Sam and they stood up from their chairs. I inched backwards more into the couch as they sat down on either side of me, grabbing my arms to hold me there. Sam was on my left and Nate on the right and I could barely move.

“Ok, now answer the question or else these two will pick you up and lock you in that room.” Loren pointed to a small door in the corner of the room across from where I was sitting.

The boys waited for me to answer the question, but I still refused. Loren nodded towards Nate and he temporarily let of my arm. I used this to my advantage and stood up, but Sam pulled me back down on his lap and secured his arms around me. Butterflies filled my stomach because of Sam’s touch, and I knew I was in trouble. I could not have feelings for my kidnapper.

I tried to wriggle free from Sam’s embrace, even though I was content with staying in that position, but then I looked at Nate. He had pulled a knife out from somewhere and was just playing with it in his hands. I froze and tried to move away from Nate, but Sam did just the opposite, placing me on the couch where I began, between the two of them. Nate grabbed my arm with his empty hand, and so did Sam. I held my breath as Nate’s other hand slowly crept back into view, this knife easily visible. I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled my hands into fists, holding back a scream.

“Answer the question Catherine,” Sam whispered into my ear. He almost sounded sympathetic, but I pushed the thought away. He was just acting.

By now the knife was inches from my face. “Fine, fine. I’ll answer the question, please just put the knife away.” I said, my voice barely a whisper. I tear trickled down my face. “Please.”

Nate closed the knife and pulled it away so I couldn’t see it. I instantly felt myself relax and my breathing returned to normal. I slowly opened my eyes to see Loren smiling at me, again.

I scowled and then proceeded to tell Loren, Sam, and Nate everything about what had happened. When I was finally done Sam and Nate stood up, yanking me off the couch with them. They walked over to the door towards the front of the small building. Then Loren opened the door and we started to walk back to where I had left Brent.
**


Nick barely said anything to Brent as they walked from the clearing to a small shelter on the other side of the forest. The walk was short but it wasn’t awkward for the two boys. They used to be friends back in middle school, but recently Nick got tied up into the wrong group and Brent had joined the Spy Organization. The two just grew apart; it was that simple.

When they finally arrived Nick told Brent where to find Evan and then he sat down on the bench right outside the shelter. Brent didn’t hesitate. He opened the door and walked in. He went down one hallway and took a left. He came to the first door on the right and opened it.

Sure enough Evan was inside the bare room. The floor, ceiling, and walls were all made out of cement. The only thing that was in the cold room was a metal chair. Evan was tied to the chair with duct tape over his mouth.

When Evan saw Brent, his eyes widened. Brent went right over to him and ripped off the tape.

“Oww!” Evan yelled and Brent looked at him with a questioning expression. “And thank you.” Evan said, a little out of breath.

“What happened?” Brent asked while untying Evan’s wrists.

“Once I got down the ladder they captured me and brought me here. They asked me questions about what we were up to and then tired me up. They told me that they were going to go and get you and Catherine. Where is she? Is she okay?”

“She’s with them. They wouldn’t let me talk to you unless she went with them.”

“They’re probably going to ask her questions. She is going to tell the truth.”

“Yeah, she will, but it shouldn’t matter to them. I told her to be careful what to tell them when we were on our way over to meet them. What did you tell them?” Brent asked.

“I told them simple answers, some of them not completely true, but they shouldn’t notice the difference.” Evan said. “We just have to make sure that she doesn’t tell them the exact reason she was asked to work with us. You haven’t told her have you?”

“No, I haven’t. I never want to,” Brent said.

“Well you are going to have to sometime. Just make sure it’s the right time. Otherwise she might back out of the job, and that would be bad.”

“Yeah, I understand. I just wish it didn’t have to be this way.”

“Don’t tell me you are changing your mind about her.”

“No, I’m not,” Brent rushed out and changed the subject. “I am supposed to meet them back there pretty soon. I’ll come back later to get you.”

“Okay. Good luck, Brent and keep her safe. We need her,” Evan said.

“Yes, I know, Evan,” Brent said as he left the room.

**


By the time I got back to the clearing Brent looked like he had been waiting awhile. He was leaning against a tree, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes were closed. When he heard us approach his eyes snapped open, concern flashing across them.

“Brent,” I said. I was then slapped again by Loren.

“Don’t talk,” Loren warned. Brent stood up and started to walk over towards us. “If you take one more step, you will never touch her again.” Brent stopped walking. Nate and Sam were still holding onto my shoulders, and had no sign of letting go. “I assume that you were able to talk to Evan,” Loren asked Brent.

“Yes, I was. Thank you,” Brent replied.

“Good, well Catherine was a…good girl for us.” Loren paused, obviously knowing I was not a good girl at all. “So you can have her back, for now. We might want to talk to her later, but that is out of your control.”

“Can I have her back then?” Brent asked.

“Yes, here you go,” Loren said. I was then pushed really hard and I almost fell flat on my face, but Brent caught me as if I was as light as a feather. He pulled me into him and I wrapped my arms around his torso. I could finally relax fully. I already felt a ton better.

“Can’t wait to see you again Catherine,” Nick said and laughed quietly. He just entered the clearing. There had to be more meaning to that.

“You will never be seeing her again,” Brent replied for me, glaring at Nick.

“Don’t be so sure, Brent,” Nick replied and started to walk away with Loren. They laughed quietly. Nate followed Loren and Sam stayed behind.

“I’ll walk you back to your house Catherine,” Sam said. “We wouldn’t want you getting lost.”

“Thanks, but I think I can handle it,” Brent replied, taking a step towards Sam, pushing me behind him protectively.

“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll walk her home and you can go and get Evan from his room and bring him home as well.” Sam said, touching my arm.

“How do I know that she’ll be home safely?”

“I’ll let her call you when she gets there. Or William could call. Trust me. Nick wants me to keep her very safe. I won’t let anything happen to her.” Brent looked over at Sam one more time.

“Fine, but if she isn’t safe I am going to call the police. You got that?”


“Yeah, I understand. Now let go of her so I can lead her to safety.” Sam was smiling.

Brent slowly let go of me and Sam grabbed my hand, yanking me towards him as he put his arm around my shoulder. I looked back at Brent, but he looked really sad. I smiled at him and he forced a smile back. Then I turned around and let Sam walk me back towards my house, while Brent turned the other way and walked back deeper into the forest.

Chapter 9


As soon as Brent was out of my sight I shook Sam’s arm off my shoulders. He stopped walking and looked at me, but I kept walking towards my house.

“Hey! Come back here,” he yelled at me.

“No, I don’t want to,” I said back. He ran up to me and grabbed my arm. He yanked me back towards him so that we were only inches away from each other. His cold breath was mixing with my own. “Do you need something?” I asked, trying to back away from him.

“Yeah, I need you to behave or else we won’t go back to your house.” His hands were on my hips, making sure I didn’t move.

“How do I know you are taking me there right now?”

“If I wasn’t, I would be in really big trouble with Loren if he found out.”

“Why do you even have to bug me and my family?”

Sam sighed and let me go. We began walking again before he answered my question. “Well, Loren thinks your sister is hot and then we realized that Nick’s dad used to work with your dad until your dad got him fired.” Sam paused. “So, Loren wants to get to know your sister and Nick is just mad at your family.”

“What about you and Nate?”

“We both just think you’re cute.” He laughed at that. Then he grabbed my hand as we were walking.

We walked in silence for a while and all we could here was our footsteps. I tried to pull my hand from his but he just held on tighter.

“Can you please let go of me?” I asked, breaking the silence.

“No,” Sam replied, as if it was obvious.

“Why not?”

“I want to hold your hand for as long as I can before I have to let you go back to Brent.”

“Well I don’t want to hold your hand.” I was lying. I really didn’t mind, which was scaring me. I pulled as hard as I could, but my hand didn’t move. Then I stuck my leg out and tripped Sam. He fell to the ground and my hand came free.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“For not letting go of my hand,” I replied, trying to hold back my laugh. I started walking again but he jumped up and wrapped his arms around me so that I couldn’t move. Then he leaned down a little bit and whispered in my ear. “You may think it’s funny, but tripping me was a very bad idea, Catherine.” Sam’s breath was sending shivers all over my body.

“And why is that?” I asked.

“You didn’t listen to me and you let go of my hand.”

“And your point is…?”

“Shut up!” Sam shook me. “I don’t care what you think, but now you are in in deep shit. We are going to turn around and go straight back to Loren. He will know how to properly punish you. It’s easy to do now that we know how terrified you are of knives.”

“You promised Brent that you would bring me home,” I said a little worried that Sam was being serious.

“I don’t care. I don’t have to listen to anybody right now. You are coming with me whether you like it or not.”

I struggled against his grip around me, but I couldn’t move. Sam was too strong for me. “What do I have to do to make you bring me back home?” I asked sadly, knowing that I had lost the battle.

“Oh, so now you will listen?” he asked me.

“Just tell me what I have to do.” I was not happy.

“Well you could let my hold your hand and bring you home safely and when we get there, you are going to kiss me.”

“No!! I am not doing that! Are you crazy?”

“Okay, then I will bring you back to Loren.” He smiled, knowing that he was going to get his wish.

“Fine. But nothing else.”

“We’ll see.”

He slowly let go of me and grabbed my hand. We began walking again without talking. It seemed like forever, but we finally managed to reach the fence that surrounded my house. Sam stopped walking and he let go of my hand and grabbed my shoulders, turning me so that I was facing him.

“You happy?” I asked Sam.

“I will be after you kiss me,” he replied.

My smile vanished. “Do I have to right now? Or can we wait until I see you again?” I asked, pleadingly with puppy dog eyes.

“I guess it doesn’t really matter, but you have to promise me that I will have a kiss from you before the week is over,” he said with a sigh. “I’m not letting this go, just so you know. I’ll talk to you and kiss you at school if I have to.”

“Fine. I promise.” I said. “Speaking of talking to me at school…”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean, you seem so nice at school. Making sure I was okay and everything. Your personality is totally different now.”

Sam looked confused as he tried to figure out how to respond. “You are the one who if being stubborn now. I am just trying to do my job.”

“And why do you keep running into me in the hallways?”

“Because I feel like it,” Sam said, looking away.

“Whatever.”

Sam let go of my shoulder and we walked towards my house. When we reached the ladder, I said goodbye and I climbed up to my room. When I reached my window, I slowly lowered myself into my room and shut the window. Finally I was home safe. I then realized I should probably call Brent.

“Cat? Are you okay?” Brent answered on the first ring.

“Yeah. I am home. Where are you?” I asked him.

“I am just outside the fence to your house. I will be there soon. Just let me say goodbye to Evan.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry Cat.”

“It’s okay.”

The line went dead and I shut my phone.

I went downstairs and found my mom working at her desk in her office and my brothers watching T.V. in the living room. There was no sign of Margaret.

“Where’s Margaret?” I asked my brothers as I walked into the living room.

“She’s upstairs working on homework. Why?” Oscar asked.

“No reason. William, can I talk to you?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right there,” William responded.

I went back to my room and shut the door. A few minutes later William walked into my room.

“Where the hell were you?” He demanded.

“In the woods,” I replied as if it were no big deal.

“Doing what?” William asked throwing his arms in the air.

I then proceeded to tell Will everything that happened. He looked worried.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t have time to call you! They wouldn’t even let me talk to Brent, let alone call you! I’m sorry.”

“Well, I’m not letting you leave the house anymore without me knowing about it.”

“Okay.”

“If the rest of the family had known you left the house again, we would have gone crazy. I hope you know that. I can’t believe you! You go from being a perfect angel one week to a rebel the next. This isn’t you Katie.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do. I’ll try to be safe.”

“You better do more than try or else I’m telling mom everything.” Then Will got up and left my room, closing the door with more force than necessary.
Well, that went well, I thought to myself. I didn’t know that Will was so protective of me.



I decided that I really didn’t want to go to school on Monday. I see Sam every day in the hallway and I really don’t know how to deal with him. Why can’t Brent be a normal teenager and be able to talk to me without this spy shit following us around? I would only have to worry about whether or not Brent is my actual boyfriend or not. My life is becoming too stressful.

I sat there thinking about all of this, when there was a knock at my window. My heart jumped and I got up to open it, happy to see Brent.

“Hi,” Brent said, as he climbed through the window.

“Hi,” I replied. As soon as he was in my room, safe, he gave me a big hug. I felt much safer than I had earlier tonight. We stood in the middle of my room hugging for what seemed like forever.

“Sorry,” Brent whispered into my ear.

“For what?” I asked.

“For getting you into this. It wasn’t my idea to use you, but I am really glad that Evan decided you would be good. I think we are going to get along really well. I just wish…” Brent trailed off.

“Wish what?” I asked curiously.

Brent looked at me, a pained expression on his face. “Nothing. Never mind.”

I looked at him confused, but he let me go and walked away. “Alright. Well don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I trust that you will keep my safe no matter what.”

“You don’t need to worry. I will always keep you safe.” We sat down on my bed that was in the corner of my room, closest to the door. We leaned against the head board and relaxed.

“So tell me what happened to you tonight? What did Loren and those guys do?” Brent asked, grabbing my hand.

“Uhmm, they just asked me some questions.”

“Please just tell me what they did to you. I know you’re stubborn. You didn’t give into them easily. Loren hesitated when he said you were a good girl for them.”

I winced. “Well I didn’t want to answer their questions. So I guess I was being stubborn. But then I did and the questions weren’t too bad, and I made sure to answer them carefully.”

“I’m sure you did fine. But you still haven’t told me how they made you answer the questions. How did they threaten you? You can tell me. I knew they wouldn’t let you get away easy.”

“I am strongly terrified of knives,” I answered.

“So I assume they figured that out and used it against you.”

I could only nod as I replayed the earlier events in my head, making it harder to take in air as my breaths became short. Brent wrapped an arm around me, pulling me into him. “It’s okay, Cat. No more knives tonight. But I am curious, and if you’re willing to share, why you so scared of them?”

“It’s really lame. But when I was younger, my siblings and I were all home alone and Will was in charge. Anyway, he and Margaret thought it would be funny to watch a scary movie even though our parents wouldn’t let us. I don’t even know what movie we watched, but the bad guy was known for using knives as his weapon and he usually carved words or pictures into his victims’ faces. It was probably the worst movie for any of us to watch, especially for me, Thomas, and Oscar. We couldn’t fall asleep and I made William hide all the knives in the house. I had nightmares for months and I wouldn’t talk to Will for a while because he was joking around, trying to scare me, with a knife and he accidently cut my arm a little bit. He felt so bad afterward because I ending up having to get stiches, but ever since then, knives scare me.”

“Yeah, I would be scared of knives if I were you too,” Brent said, making me smile. “I’ll make sure to keep knives away from you.”

“Thanks,” I said, and cuddled in closer to Brent unconsciously. His arms tightened around me.

“What happened with Sam, on the walk home?” Brent asked.

“Nothing. Sam and I just walked home.” I said, a little too quickly.

“You know you can’t lie to me. Tell me what really happened.”

“Well he wanted to hold my hand, but I wouldn’t let him and then was going to bring me back to Loren. Then I promised that he could hold my hand.”

“Cat, I know there is more. Tell me. I won’t be mad.”

“He made me promise that I would kiss him before the end of the week.” I smiled sheepishly and I could feel the blood rise to my cheeks.

“Ahh, I see. So did you just kiss him when you got home?”

“No. I didn’t want to. I was too mad.”

“That’s okay. Was it really that hard to tell me that?”

“No.” I laughed a little and he squeezed me again. Then he slowly turned toward me and grabbed my chin. Our faces were only inches apart. My heart was beating rapidly. “Cat, I really like you,” he whispered to me and then he gently kissed my lips.

His other hand reached around my back and pulled me closer to him. Brent was very gentle with me. Almost as if I was a piece of glass. He gently rolled me so I was on my back and he let himself lay gently on top of me. I barely even felt him move his hand from my chin, along my jaw line to my neck. I have never been kissed like this before. I felt like I was floating and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.

Our lips finally parted and we were both breathing heavily. He lay down next to me and pulled me into him again, my head resting on his chest. We sat there, so many things going through my head, I almost didn’t hear him whisper, “I really do like you,” again into my ear. I looked at him and he looked at me. His eyes were like the sky when there were no clouds, a really light but bright blue. “Sorry for kissing you,” he smiled. “I couldn’t help myself.” He kissed my nose and I smiled. Brent then let go of my hand and stood up, leaving me on the bed. He walked over to the other side of the room where his backpack was sitting on my desk.

He unzipped the front pocket of his bag and took out a small box. “Evan said that I could give this to you. It’s a laser ring. It can burn through anything. If I give this to you, it will make me feel better when I’m not around out, especially since I am barely ever around you during the day.”

“Thanks,” I said and he took my hand again. Brent slipped the ring over my finger and it fit perfectly. It was beautiful too. He kissed my hand and then pulled me up to him. He hugged me again and then let me go.

“Do you want to know how it works?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I responded. I was anxious to see how it worked.

“Ok. So say you were tied up or something with chains. All you have to do is rotate the diamond clockwise and it will start to laser through anything in its path.” Brent pulled on some rope from his backpack. He rotated the diamond and the rope began to burn.

“That’s cool!” I stood up and walked over to where he was standing.

“Yeah, but you have to be very careful with. Promise?”

“Yeah, I promise.”

“Show me,” he said, smirking. I pulled his head down towards me gently and kissed his soft lips, smiling. He pulled me even closer and deepened our kiss. We broke apart after a short moment and then he hugged me, burying his face in my hair.

“I should probably go,” Brent said with a sigh. “I’ll see you later. Text or call me if you need anything.”

“I will, and Brent?”

“Yeah?”

“What do I do about Sam? Should I just ignore him?”

“Oh, yeah. I don’t want to get yourself into trouble, so just be safe and do what you think is best. I know that you won’t fall for him. Call me if you need any help.” Brent started to walk to the window but turned around suddenly. “Oh! I almost forgot. You have to rotate the diamond clockwise for the laser to work and then if you rotate it counter-clockwise it calls me. That way you can reach me even if you don’t have your cell phone. Also, if you pull the actual stone out, it clicks and it send a message to my phone telling me where you are. That way if you can’t call me I can still find you.”

“Okay. I think I got it. Thanks so much, Brent.”

“You’re welcome. Bye Cat. Sleep good okay? And try not to think about what happened tonight with the other guys.”

I grimaced, immediately remembering the knives. “Okay. Bye Brent.” I said and then he was gone down the ladder. I already missed him. I didn’t know how much I was really falling for him until he kissed me. Now I’m just confused on where we stand, but I guess I have plenty of time to figure that one out. I just hope he doesn’t hurt me, or his work doesn’t interfere too much with our relationship.
I’ve never developed feelings for someone so quickly, but I really did like Brent. He was super nice from the very beginning and I haven’t stopped thinking about him. I miss his presence. How am I supposed to go a whole weekend without seeing him? Maybe he will want to go out sometime this weekend. Plus I had to get some more details about this job that I am taking.

My mind started to drift elsewhere and I soon found myself wanting to fall asleep so my mind could actually shut down. I couldn’t get a certain kidnapper out of my head. Or the thought of actually kissing him. Or his dark blue eyes, or the way I felt with is muscular arms wrapped around me… I was scared my emotions were going to take over for me, which I didn’t need with Brent hovering over me. I guess only time will tell.

Chapter 10


I only sat in my room for a little bit longer before I got ready for bed. I was excited to sleep in tomorrow and maybe see Brent. Since my family usually went to church on Sunday’s, Saturday’s are my sleep in days. Today being Saturday also meant that I still had the rest of the weekend to enjoy before I had to go to school on Monday.

The next morning my phone ringing woke me up. I was still tired but reluctantly answered after a few rings.

“Hello?” I asked, still sounding tired.

“Cat, you okay?” Brent’s voice was more alert than mine.

“Yeah, why?”

“Jake disappeared last night so I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know what happened. He was supposed to meet me for breakfast. When he didn’t show up, I went to his apartment and the door was unlocked so I went inside. He was nowhere to be seen.”

“Where do you think he is? Did he leave a note?” My voice was getting louder and I was sitting up in bed now.

“Yeah, but I don’t recognize the handwriting. The note says, ‘I need to talk to Catherine. I need something from her.’ And then there is a smiley face.” Brent sounded angry.

I knew exactly who the note was from. Sam wants a kiss from me and he knew that he would get to me through Brent. Smart move.

“Cat? You still there?”

“What? Yeah, sorry. Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“The note.”

“You know who it’s from, don’t you?”

“Yeah, it’s from Sam. He wants that damn kiss.”

“That was the only person I could think of too.”

“What do we do?”

“Let’s just see how the day goes and then you can go to school on Monday and work out everything there.” I shuddered at the thought of seeing Sam at school on Monday. I was not looking forwards to that at all.

“But you won’t be there. What if something happens to me or to Margaret and if –?”

“Cat, relax. You will be fine. You will always have the ring and just stay close to your friends.” I didn’t respond. He was right. I needed to relax. Brent must have known that my mind was still whirling.

“I’m coming over right now,” Brent said without warning.

“Ok. Give me fifteen minutes to get ready.”

“Ok. Everything is going to be fine. Don’t worry. Trust me, Cat.”

“I trust you.” Then the phone was silent as I hung up. I set my phone back on my nightstand and flopped back onto my bed. Ugh. This is not what I had in mind for my Saturday morning. I didn’t know what I was going to do. What if this didn’t work out and something happened to my family? Or my dad? I laid there on my bed and thought all of this through. I then decided that I should probably start getting ready.

When I got to my bedroom door the leave, I hesitated. I didn’t want to see anyone right now and I just wanted to be comforted by Brent. I finally opened the door and looked down the hallway. There was no one in sight. I quickly ran down the hallway to my bathroom. I turned up my music and proceeded to get ready.

I was almost finished when there was a knock on my door. I opened it a little bit; enough to see that Margaret was standing outside my bathroom.

“Good morning. You’re up early,” Margaret said.

“Yeah, I guess,” I replied still tired.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting ready,” I replied and Margaret rolled her eyes.

“Well obviously. Getting ready for what?”

“Something,” I said, not wanting to go into detail, especially with a boy in the equation.

“Care to elaborate?”

“No not really. Just go back to bed,” I said, with a wave of my hand.

“There must be a boy involved,” Margaret stated.

I blushed. “I don’t want to explain this right now. Maybe later.”

“How old is he?” She demanded.

“Freshman in college?”

“Fine. We will talk about this later, young lady.”

“Okay, mom,” I joked, laughing a little. I was finally ready and I made my way downstairs to wait for Brent to show up. I grabbed a piece of toast, from dinner last night, which was sitting on the counter. It was really quiet downstairs. No one was up yet, well except Margaret. I looked out the window, trying to pass time, when I saw Brent walking up the sidewalk. My heart leaped in my chest and I ran to the door. I was excited to see him.

I opened the door before he knocked and he looked surprised, but only for a moment. The he shut the door and walked further into my house and kissed me quickly on the cheek.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi,” I replied, sounding more awake.

“How did you sleep last night? No nightmares?”

“Yeah, no nightmares, thank God. How about you?”

“I slept okay. I missed you a lot. I wish I could have just brought you home with me,”
Brent said. I was pretty sure I was blushing; I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. “Well what do you want to do today?” Brent asked, smiling.

“I don’t care. Whatever you want to do.”

“Do you want to go out somewhere or stick around here?”

“William would have to come with us if we left, and he isn’t up yet. So, let’s just hang out here for a while.”

“Okay. Sounds good to me.”

“We can go up to my room. I think that my sister is the only one awake.”

Brent nodded and looked content with whatever. I led him up to my room and shut the door quietly. I didn’t want to walk anyone up.

As soon as I shut the door he grabbed me from behind and pulled me against him. I turned around and wrapped my arms around his neck as he buried his face in my neck, breathing in my scent.

“What was that for?” I asked, pulling away.

“I’m so sorry. I feel so bad about all of this.”

I stared at him a quick moment before I spoke. “Don’t worry. It’s okay. I think we should make a deal.” I grabbed his hand and pulling him to the end of my bed. “We won’t feel bad about anything that happens to each other from here on out. No matter how serious it is, we won’t get mad or feel bad about what happened. Deal?”

He smiled a little bit. “Deal,” he said, and then put his arm around my shoulder. “So I think we should get to know each other a little bit more.”

“I think that’s a good idea. You can start by asking me a question,” I replied.

“Okay. Well I know you go to Central High School here in Evansville. I know you are a junior. So what grades are your siblings in?”

“Oscar and Thomas are obviously in 11th grade, Margaret is a senior, and William is a freshman in college. What about you?”

“I go to a small community college right outside the cities. People have rarely even heard of it, it’s that small. I am a freshman in college, so we are only a couple years apart.” Brent paused, trying to think of another question. “Okay. When is your birthday?”

“March 17th. You?” I asked with curiosity.

“July 29th.”

“You’re lucky. I wish my birthday was in the summer.”

“Yeah I like having it in the summer…”


We talked for a long time and we really go to know each other. I thought that it was a little weird that no one had come into my room this morning, so I thought I would go and look around.

“Hey, I’ll be right back. I am going to see if anyone is up yet,” I told Brent and let go of his hand.

“Okay. Hurry back.” Brent smiled at me before I left the room.

I laughed as I left and opened the door to go downstairs. My mom was working at her desk and Oscar and Thomas were watching T.V.

“Good morning sunshine,” my mom said as I walked in the room. Oscar and Thomas turned their heads towards me.

“Good morning,” I replied. “Where is everyone else?”

“Margaret is still sleeping as far as I know and I don’t know where William is. I think he might be in his room.” Thomas replied for Mom.

“Okay. Thanks. I think that William and I are going to go downtown for the afternoon,” I informed my mom.

“Okay. Have fun!”

I walked up the stairs and knocked on William’s door.

“Come in,” William’s voice sounded tired. I opened the door. “Hey,” William said.

“Hey,” I replied as I stepped further into the room.

“What do you need?”

“Just wondering when you were going to be ready to go, because Brent and I want to go into town.”

“Oh. Well thanks for telling me you were going somewhere and not just leaving. Give me about fifteen minutes and I’ll be ready to go. Do you want me to knock on your door when I’m ready?”

“Sure. Oh, and he’s already here.”

“What? Brent’s here?”

“Yeah, he has been since early this morning.” It was almost noon now.

“Oh okay! Well I will hurry then.

“Okay, thanks.” I shut the door and walked to my room. Brent was still sitting on my bed but he had my year book from last year sitting out.

“Oh, hey,” he said, setting the book aside.

“So, William is going to be ready to go soon. We can leave and then go into town if you want.”

“Yeah! That sounds like fun. It will keep our minds off of things for a while too.” He stood up and walked towards me. Brent wrapped me up in a big hug and then we started talking again until William was ready.

“I have a question,” I told Brent.

“Yeah?” Brent was curious.

“When you were talking with Sam, before he brought me home, he said that Loren wanted me to stay ‘very safe.’ Do you know why?”

Brent hesitated. It almost seemed that Brent knew the answer, but he didn’t want me to know. “Evan and I have been thinking about that for a while and we sort of have an idea. We don’t want to tell you yet because we aren’t sure of the real reason.” It almost seemed like he was lying again.

“Okay,” I replied, still wondering what it could mean and if he was lying or not. Brent looked away from me, so I stood up and walked to the door. I had heard a slight knock and I knew that William was ready to go. Brent stood up and followed me towards the door.

Chapter 11


About ten minutes later we were driving into town, down the main road in Evansville. We drove for a while before we found a good parking spot. Will was picky about where he parallel parked. We all stayed in the car for a little bit, trying to figure out what we wanted to do.

“Where do you want to go?” William asked me.

“I don’t care. Whatever you guys want to do,” I replied. William and Brent hadn’t talked much on the way here. I think that William might be mad at Brent for the whole forest incident from last night.

“Well do you want to get something to eat?” Brent asked.

“Sure. I haven’t eaten yet today,” I replied.

“Where do you want to eat?” Will asked.

“I don’t know!” I was angry that they kept asking me the questions. It was silent for a little bit, but I had had enough. “Will, why don’t you go somewhere and meet up with us later?” I asked.

“No! I’m not leaving you alone with him,” he yelled back, pointing accusingly at Brent.

“So that’s what this is all about? You don’t feel that I am safe with Brent?” I asked, fuming. Brent grabbed my hand in attempt to relax me.

“Well, after you were basically kidnapped in the forest, don’t you think I have the reason to be a little bit worried about you being with him?”

“I’m still safe and I’m with you. If I were missing right now, I would understand. But, I’m not missing, am I?” William was silent. I moved on. “Okay. Let’s go get something to eat. We can just walk down the sidewalk until we find something we like. Okay?” I received two head nods and that was it. I was mad at William. There was no reason for him to talk about Brent that way, especially with Brent in the car.

I got out of the car and began to walk. Brent grabbed my hand and William followed behind us.

“Sorry,” Brent said.

“You need to stop apologizing, right now,” I said and Brent laughed a little.

“I know, but I just feel so bad for you.”

“It’s okay. Don’t feel bad. You’re just going to make me angry if you keep apologizing,” I said and he started smiling and I smiled back, trying not to laugh. “I’m serious.”

“Are you sure?” Brent asked, smirking.

“Yes, I’m sure.” I said, smiling.

“Hey, you two love birds,” William said behind us. We both turned around and slowed down. “Do you want to stop here to eat?” Brent and I looked up at the sign and then we both shrugged.

“Sure,” I said.




We walked into the small Mexican restaurant. The building is usually full of life, but that’s always at night. Since it’s pretty early in the morning, there weren’t many people eating. The main dining area of the restaurant was bright with the sun light, making the vibrant red walls stand out more than usual. At night, there are Christmas lights that line the ceiling, illuminating the eating area, so I never really see the red walls.

The waitress led the three of us further into the restaurant, to a booth in the corner of the main room. We sat down and began looking through our menus. Brent and I sat on one sat and William sat across from us.

“You guys hungry?” I asked.

“Yeah, I guess,” Brent said.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve eaten since last night,” William said.

“What did everyone do last night?” I asked, Will.

“We basically just sat around. Some of us started to get hungry after dinner, so Mom just made us some toast for us to munch on,” Will responded.

“Yeah, I saw the toast on the table this morning.”

“Yeah, and then Margaret went to see someone and was gone for an hour or two. Thomas and Oscar played video games until mom wanted to watch the news. I worked on homework and sat around. Nothing special. You certainly didn’t miss much.”

“Well that sounds exciting,” I replied. “What did you do after you last night?” I asked Brent.

“I went home and watched some sports and then went to bed. I was really tired and didn’t really feel like doing anything.” William laughed and I glared at him. Brent must have noticed because he squeezed my hand under the table. I looked up at him and he gave me that look saying everything was okay. Why was William so mad at Brent?

“If you keep being mean to Brent, I’m not going to tell you when I’m leaving and where I’m going,” I said to William. “This is ridiculous.”

“Fine. But it’s not gonna change the way I feel about all of this.”

“That’s fine. I could care less what you think about this. Your opinion does not impact me whatsoever.” I snapped and William was silent.

The rest of lunch went by slowly after that. There was very little talk and all you could hear was the sounds of forks clanging. When we were all finished eating, we paid and then left. William walked beside Brent and me as we walked down the sidewalk towards our parking spot. When we reached the car, everyone piled in and we drove home. As soon as the car stopped in our driveway, William was opening the door and getting out.

“Sorry about William. I’ll talk to him,” I said to Brent.

“Cat, you can’t lecture me about being sorry and then start apologizing all the time,” Brent said. We were both smiling because we both knew he was right.

“I know, you’re right. But I’m still going to talk to him.”

“Okay. Whatever you want. Hey, I found Jake by the way. I texted Sam earlier and I told him what you told me. Sam seemed amused, but he told me where Jake was and Evan went to pick Jake up. Jake is at home now, but I would listen to Sam. He might do something else if you don’t listen to him.”

“Ok, good. I will try to figure that one out.” Brent must be efficient with his phone. I hadn’t seen Brent using it all morning.

“Call me if anything happens.”

“Okay, I will, and thank you for taking me out to eat today,” I said.

“No problem. It was…interesting. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

“Bye.” I opened the car door and got out of the car. I walked up the path to my front door and walked inside. William must have already been up in his room, because he was nowhere in sight.

“Hey, where were you?” Thomas asked. He was sitting at the kitchen table, looking at a sheet of paper.

“Out. Why?” I replied.

“Just wondering.” He didn’t even look up at me.

“Oh, okay.”

I started walking up the stairs. I stopped for a second at William’s door and then decided to keep walking down the hall to my room. I would talk to William later. I was more worried about my day at school on Monday.

Chapter 12



I worked on homework and sauntered around the house all day Sunday. I didn’t want to do anything else. I went downstairs for dinner and then came back to my room as soon as I was done, wanting to prepare myself mentally for school on Monday.

I got ready for bed as soon as possible; I didn’t want to stay up late thinking about my day tomorrow. I just wanted to get it done and over with. I was just super nervous that something bad was going to happen; even though Brent reassured me everything was going to be fine.

I went over to my desk and picked up the ring Brent gave me. I wanted to test it, but couldn’t find anything to test it on, so I just set is back down next to my bed, and climbed under my sheets. I turned off my lights and took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and fell asleep almost instantly. I must have been so tired, because I’m pretty sure I didn’t even dream and I slept through my alarm the next morning.

“Catherine! Are you up,” someone was knocking on my door and yelling.

“What,” I asked, I was trying to figure out what was going on. I hadn’t woken up all the way yet.

“Are you up? We are leaving in 30 minutes and you need to get ready!” The voice belonged to Margaret and she had opened the door slightly so that I could hear her better.

“Shit! I must have slept through my alarm! Thank you Margaret. I’ll be ready soon.” I jumped out of bed and was in and out of the shower quickly. I ran a brush through my hair and got dressed. I went back into the room, grabbed the ring and my backpack and then headed downstairs for breakfast, my hair already drying straight.

“Don’t you just love how straight out hair dries? If you are running late in the morning, you don’t have to waste time blow drying it and stuff. I love it,” Margaret said.

I laughed and grabbed a granola bar. Then I said goodbye to my mom and we all walked out the door. My family was pretty close, so we didn’t have any problems walking to school together.

Once I got outside, I took a deep breath. I had been rushed out of the house and I had a big day ahead of me. I was not excited to see Sam whatsoever, or any of those boys for that matter. I need to prepare myself. I walked behind the rest of my family in silence, trying to make myself feel better.

“Hey. You have to watch your back today and play everything safe, okay,” William asked, breaking the silence. William decided to walk all of us to school. Made him feel better about my safety.

“Yeah, I got it. I am just really nervous that something bad is going to happen and I haven’t seen them since that night.” I didn’t need to be specific. William knew that I was talking about the four boys and the kidnapping incident in the forest.

“You’ll be fine. Don’t worry. And if anything happens to you, and it has to do with Brent, you’re never going to see him again,” William said, smirking. Well that made me feel a ton better.

“What? He has nothing to do with this. You can’t do that to me,” I argued.

“Then don’t get into any trouble.”

I was gaping as William. I couldn’t believe him. William just smiled at me.

“Whatever.”

We walked in silence for only a little bit more before we came to the school’s entrance, and William had already put me in a bad mood. He didn’t even need to walk with us!

“Okay, I’m going to head back home so I can get ready for my college lecture. I want you all to meet here after school, and walk home together okay?” William was looking right at me when he said that last part. I rolled my eyes and Oscar, Thomas, and I all walked to our first class.

“What was William talking to you about,” Thomas asked.

“Nothing really,” I replied.

“Why don’t we ever get to know anything,” Oscar asked.

“I promised that I wouldn’t tell anyone but Will. If I ever get the chance, I will tell you guys someday.” They both looked at me with confused looks, but kept walking.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I took it out to see who it was from.



I don’t think I can meet in the hallway during homeroom today.



The text was from Margaret. Our plan had been to meet and stay together during homeroom so she wouldn’t have to deal with Loren and his friends. I didn’t know what was going to happen now.



Ok. Have a good day.


I shut my phone and walked to my locker in the main hallway. I was really nervous. I guess that I am lucky the Sam, Nate, Nick, and Loren aren’t in my grade. I feel bad for Margaret. I hope everything goes okay for her today.

I went to my locker with no sign of the boys. When I opened my locker, a note fell out. My stomach fluttered. I was trying to think of who the note would be from. I unfolded the piece of paper and read what was written.


Meet us in the main hallway during 5th hour. After lunch. If you don’t show up we will spread rumors about you and your family. You don’t want that do you?

Sincerely,


Loren


I couldn’t believe it. The boys were going to get to me with words rather than in person. That’s ridiculous. I was about to text Margaret telling her that I couldn’t meet with her, and then realized what she has just told me. I bet she got the same note, which made me even angrier.

We were both supposed to meet them after lunch. I began walking to my first class, when I realized that I was probably walking into trouble again. Hopefully this time won’t be as scary. Maybe I can stand up for myself.

I reached down and touched the ring that rested on my finger. Brent was probably busy with school too. If I needed him, he might not be able to come. I took a deep breath and walked to my first hour class. I walked into my classroom just as the bell rang.

The first half of my day went really slow. I never really thought about what I was going to do after lunch. I thought about texting Brent once, but decided against it. I knew I was going to be just fine. I mean, I had the ring if worse comes to worse.

After lunch I went to my locker and put my stuff away. I wasn’t missing any class because it was my homeroom and students didn’t have to report to homeroom because it is more like a free period. The extra time give students the opportunity to go home to eat or finish homework.

I walked down the main hall in Central High and I could already hear footsteps behind me. I turned around to find Margaret.

“Hey,” I said to Margaret, turning around and waiting for her to catch up.


“What are you doing? I told you that I couldn’t meet during this time,” Margaret said, catching up.

“I’m not coming here to meet you. I’m here to meet someone else.”

“Who are you coming to meet,” Margaret asked, looking confused.

“Loren and his friends, the ones that we talked about a couple nights ago.”

Margaret’s smile disappeared. “Uh oh. That’s who I’m meeting.”

“Well this’ll be interesting,” I said as we walked down the hallway.

Suddenly, four figures stepped out from behind the wall right in front of us. Margaret stopped walking, but I didn’t. I could tell she was scared.

“I’m so glad that you showed up. You would have been pretty mad at us if you hadn’t,” Nick said. I just glared at him. Margaret had taken a few steps forward to stand next to me.

“What do you want from us,” I asked.

“You know what I want from you,” Sam said to me, smiling. I glared at him.

“Whatever, Sam. Leave us alone. You may never get what you want after this anyway.” I paused. “Why did you need to talk to Margaret,” I asked.

“You know that too. Why do you have to keep asking us questions that you already know the answer to,” Loren asked, laughing.

“You think that Margaret is hot and that’s why you stalk her,” I snapped. I looked at Margaret who didn’t look shocked.

“Yeah, pretty much. But we are stalking you for different reasons. Do you have a problem with that…Cat,” Sam asked.

“Yeah I have a problem with that! Why can’t you just leave us alone? And don’t call me Cat,” I yelled, glaring at Sam. He makes me so mad.

“Maybe we should take her somewhere before someone hears her,” Nate whispered to Loren.

“Yeah and quick,” Loren replied and grabbed Margaret, who didn’t even look surprised. I tried to help her, but Sam caught on to what Loren was doing and grabbed me from behind.

“What are you doing with us? Where are you--,” I yelled, but I couldn’t even finish my sentence because Sam’s hand covered my mouth.

“I suggest that you stay quiet from this point forward. We don’t want people to know what we are doing,” Sam whispered in my ear. I struggled against his hold on me but he didn’t let go. Where was everyone? Why weren’t there any students in the hallway to witness this? I have never seen the hallways so empty.

I gave up on freeing myself. I knew that even if I did get free, Sam would just grab me again.

“I like the feeling of you struggling against me,” Sam said. My last thought flew out the window as I pushed my elbow back as hard as I could and hit him in the gut. He dropped to the ground and I was free. Loren turned around with Margaret, and Nate and Nick came running towards me. I tried to run, but Nate grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him. Nate was much stronger than Sam so I didn’t struggle at all.

“Nice try Catherine,” Nate said to me as he started walking again. Where are we going? The only places down this hallway were the locker rooms and we couldn’t go into the guys’ locker room and vice versa.

“Where are we going,” I asked.

“A special room that no one knows about except us,” Loren said.

“Great,” I mumbled. Sam finally caught up to us again and was only a few steps behind Nate and me. He must have been really angry at me because he was breathing really hard.

Loren finally stopped walking and let go of Margaret. Margaret didn’t even move. She must have been terrified. Nothing like this has ever happened to her before. I guess it’s never really happened to before either…

“Catherine, I think you should learn from your sister. She is a very good listener,” Loren said to me. I just glared back at him. Loren took out a key and unlocked a door I have never seen before. He opened the door and led us all through it and into the small room.

Chapter 13


When we go in the room, I could see that there were two chairs and one small table, all metal and plain. The walls were bare and the main part of the room was a perfect square. In back left hand corner there was a small doorway that led to another room, smaller than the one we were in now. As far as I could see from where I was standing, there was only a desk in the back room.

Nate brought me over to one of the cold metal chairs and sat me down forcefully. Then he got some tough looking rope and tied my arms together behind the chair.

“Do you really think this is necessary,” I asked.

“Yes. I do,” Nate said and let tightened my ropes, making me gasp with pain. “You okay,” he asked sarcastically.

“Never been better,” I sneered.

Nate stood up and walked back towards the door. As he moved away I noticed Margaret had received the same treatment. I tried moving my wrists, but that only brought me more pain. The rope was digging into my skin, making it burn so bad I couldn’t take the pain. I looked across at Margaret to see that she wasn’t struggling at all, but had fear written across her face.

“Okay. Well now that this is all settled, we are going to leave you here and go back to class. So yeah. We will come and get you after school is over. Don’t even try to escape. You’ll only hurt yourself and we don’t want that. It’s impossible anyway. The rope has thick wire through the middle,” Loren informed us.

No one said anything else as the boys all left the room. Sam didn’t even say anything else to me about earlier, so that was good. Nick had taken our cell phones and anything they thought could help us get out. Everything but my ring.

After they left, it was silent for a few minutes before I noticed that there were tears streaming down Margaret’s face.

“Margaret, what’s wrong? Did they hurt you,” I asked her, sincerely.

“What’s wrong? Are you serious,” she screamed. “We are tied to some old chairs in a room no one’s ever heard of. We are going to be kidnapped. They will probably torture us, beat us, who knows!” Margaret was stressed. I just had to ignore her. She needed to relax before anyone could talk sense into her.

Meanwhile, I wriggled my hands to that I could get to my ring. My fingers brushed up against the diamond. My heart was beating so hard, that I thought Margaret could hear it. My fingers finally grasped the stone and I rotated it slowly clockwise, three times. Then I pointed the ring down so that it could cut through the rope. I heard sizzling coming from behind me and I could feel the heat from the laser radiating through the back of my chair. Finally the ropes loosened and my wrists were free. I stood up and walked over to Margaret.

Fear disappeared from her face, and amazement took over in her eyes. She was speechless as what I just did. I pointed my ring towards her tied wrists and freed her in seconds. I looked at my ring and rotated it counter-clockwise once and then waited for the call to be put through to Brent. The ring made a small noise and the Brent’s voice was being projected throughout the room.

“What’s wrong?” Brent’s voice was frantic.

“Margaret and I are locked up in a secret room in the basement of our school. The ring helped us untie ourselves from the chairs, but we can’t get out of the room. Loren locked it from the outside. He’s coming back at the end of the school day. What should we do?” My voice become more shaky as I explained my story and by the time I was actually done tears were in my eyes.

“Okay. Cat, it’s okay. You’re going to be fine. Don’t worry. I’m in my car on my way to you and Margaret. The ring has a tracking device on it, so I know exactly where you are. I’ll be right there, okay?”

“Okay,” I said.


“I will see you in about five minutes. Stay calm and take deep breaths. Don’t make any loud noises because we don’t want the boys to come back.”

“Okay.” I hung up and took a deep breath.

“Who was that,” Margaret asked. I had totally forgotten that she had no idea about Brent and the spy organization.

“He’s just a good friend of mine. He’s going to come and help us out,” I replied, still trying to relax.

“What’s his name?”

“Brent.”

I stepped away from Margaret and took a deep breath. I looked around the small room and my eyes landed on the back room with the desk in the middle of it. I had seen Sam go back there after he took our phones. I walked over to the desk and began opening drawers. I found my cell phone in the first drawer, along with Margaret’s. I kept looking through the desk just to see if there was anything else out of the ordinary. In one of the filing drawers I found a manila folder with some papers inside it, so I kept it. Maybe Brent can make something of it.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and my eyes darted to Margaret, who looked worried again. There was another series of pounding and I walked towards the door quietly. Once I reached the door, I touched the handle but didn’t do anything. The handle slowly moved my hand as the door opened quietly. I quickly let go of the handle and took a couple steps backwards. Who was opening the door?

Sam’s head popped around the halfway opened door. “Aren’t you supposed to be tied up right now?” Sam scared me and I jumped back farther away from the door.

We were screwed. Sam made no move towards me but slowly stepped more inside the room, leaving the door propped open with his foot. “What do you think you’re doing, Catherine?” I didn’t answer Sam’s question. Brent should be here soon.

“Where is everyone else,” I asked Sam.

“In class. They just sent me down here to check up on you.”

“Why did you knock on the door?”

“Instinct I guess?”

I had nothing else to say, so Sam and I just stared at each other.

“Cat?” Brent’s voice boomed down the hallway as his footsteps echoed nearby. Sam’s head snapped around he went to see who was coming, letting the door shut, locking Margaret and me back in here.

“Who was that,” Margaret asked, referring to the voice we heard in the hallway that made Sam leave.

“Brent, I hope.”

“Okay, good. Let’s hope we can get out of here then.”

I leaned back against the door Sam had just disappeared behind. Now all we have to do it wait. As soon as I put weight into the door, I fell backwards, landing on my ass.

“Katie! Are you okay?” Margaret ran over to me.

“Yeah, I’m fine. At least this means we can see where Brent and Sam went.” I turned around just in time to see the a door across the hallway closing.

I quickly stood up and ran across the hallway, opening the door that had just closed. I snuck down the small hallway until I could hear Brent and Sam arguing.

“You need to leave them alone!” Brent sounded really angry.

“No, I can do whatever I want!” Sam’s voice was strong, but deep down I knew he was scared.


“If you lay your hands on either one of them, you will go to jail for many years. Do you understand?”

“I don’t care what you say. I want Catherine!”

“You can’t have her! Why don’t you understand? She doesn’t want you!”

“How do you know that? Have you asked her?”

“Yes, I have. Now can you just take my advice and leave Catherine and Margaret alone?”

“I can’t make any promises. I only listen to what Loren tells me to do.”

“Then you better tell him that you are done with him! Do you understand?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.”

“Now, leave these guys alone. I am going to bring Catherine and Margaret home, after I talk to the front desk.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that,” Sam said.

“Why?”

“Loren said that if anyone finds out about what happened today that he was going to send people to Catherine’s house and that he was going to make sure that Catherine’s dad was going to die.”

“Fine, then. I won’t tell anyone about today,” Brent said, defeated.


Someone started walking so I ran back to the hallway and then back into the room that Margaret and I had been in. Margaret was still in the room, sitting on a chair, when I came back.

“Where did you go,” she asked when I quietly closed the door behind me.

“I followed Brent and Sam and listened to their conversation. Brent basically yelled at Sam the whole time, but there are on their way back now, so I had to run back quickly.”

“Oh, so we are going to be able to go home soon?”

“Yeah, I think so, but make sure that you don’t tell anyone about what happened today.” I wasn’t going to tell Margaret why, because she would probably faint from being too stressed out.

“We sat there for Brent to come back for about ten minutes before there was a knock on the door before it slowly opened. Brent’s eyes connected with mine.

“How are you,” he asked.

“We’re fine,” I said. I could tell he was stressed.

“Okay. Let’s get you out of here.” He sounded mad or something and he didn’t even smile, scaring me.

“Wait.” I said, making Brent stop walking towards the door. He turned around. “I found some papers in that desk,” I finished, pointing to the desk in the back room.

“Oh. Good.” Brent nodded his head and actually smiled at me. “Why don’t you bring those with us and I can look them over when I get back.”

I grabbed the papers and then followed Brent out the door with Margaret following quietly.

We walked out of the school without saying anything to anyone. There were only 45 minutes left in the school day anyway. We walked into the parking lot and hopped into Brent’s car and drove home in silence. Good thing it was a short ride.

Margaret got out of the car as soon as Brent put the car in park, leaving me and Brent in the car.

“I’ll talk to you later, okay,” Brent asked.

“Ok, and thanks for helping me out and not apologizing. Oh, and please don’t tell William what happened,” I said.

“Anything for you, Cat. I promise that I will keep you safe from this point forward. Keep in touch okay?”

“Okay. Bye,” I said, as I got out of the car.

Chapter 14


I went straight to my room when I got inside my house and I didn’t even stop to try to see my mom, who was probably in her office. Hopefully she wouldn’t notice me or Margaret.

I looked at my cell phone when I got to my room. William had texted me.



How is your day going?


Going great! (:


I replied, lying. He was going to find out soon enough and I would never be able to see Brent again. I wonder when, if ever, I was going to see Brent again. My phone vibrated and I looked at the text, but didn’t recognize the number.


Where r u?


Why would someone reply to that? I wonder who it is. My phone vibrated again.


This is Sam btw (:


How did he get my number? I never gave it to him.


I’m not talking to u. Leave me alone. Wait til Brent finds out ur textin me.


I replied to him. I was angry because Brent was right. If Brent had never like me, I would not be in this situation right now. I didn’t wait to see what Sam said, because I turned off my phone and went to lie down on my bed. I needed to relax and think.

First thought through my mind. Brent. I had been home for almost thirty minutes and hadn’t heard anything from him, especially about those papers I gave to him. I was still confused with the situation. What was Loren going to do with me and Margaret? What was the purpose of today? I couldn’t comprehend anything that was flowing through my mind, so I went downstairs. I could feel a headache coming on.

When I got downstairs, Margaret was watching T.V.

“Hey, how are you doing,” I asked, sitting down next to her.

“I’m doing okay. I’m still shaken up a little though,” she replied.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not your fault. I brought this all on you. If I didn’t bring you into this, we would both be fine.”

This was annoying. Margaret has no idea that I was kidnapped by the same guys that tried to make her do drugs. We were on totally different pages. She has no idea what’s been going on in my life since the end of last week and I can’t even tell her about it.

“Trust me. It’s not just you,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t tell you. If I could tell you, trust me, I would. I could only tell one person and it had to be William. Sorry.”

Margaret looked confused. She had the right to be confused though.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. Seriously. I have it all under control. Trust me,” I ensured her.

“Okay, but promise me that if it gets out of control, that you will tell me?” Margaret was serious.

“Yeah, I promise.”

We sat there in silence. Hopefully mom won’t come downstairs before everyone gets home.

Margaret and I watched T.V. for a while when all of a sudden the screen went black.

“What the heck?” I turned around to find William looming over me, with angry eyes.

“Would you like to explain something to me,” he asked. I was too scared to look at him so I slowly turned around and looked at my hands.

“No, I don’t think so,” I replied, keeping my head down. Then suddenly I was yanked off the couch by my arm. I didn’t scream, because I knew it was coming.

“William! Stop!” Thomas yelled, trying to pull me away from Will.

“No, Thomas. Stop. You don’t know what’s going on.” William and Thomas stared at each other and eventually Thomas looked away first, letting William drag me up to my room.

When we got there he pushed me to my bed, so I sat down.

“Catherine! Explain to me why you were home before the others.” William’s face was in mine as he spat his words at me. I was sitting on my bed while he stood in front of me, demanding answers. I didn’t really know how to answer his questions. I could lie, but William would sniff that out right away. So I have to tell the truth, which will result in me never seeing Brent again. “Now!!” William yelled, making me shrink back away from him.

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

“I’m sorry, what did you say,” William asked snidely.

“I said, I don’t know,” I said a little louder.

“Stop lying to me Kate. Tell me the truth. Thomas and Oscar told me you weren’t there after school. Margaret too.” William relaxed, controlling his anger.

All I did was shake my head. I didn’t want to talk about what happened today. I wanted to see Brent. Save my dad. That’s all.

William sat next to me on my bed. He put his arm around me, but I shrugged it off.


“Sorry I yelled at you Katie. I was worried when Thomas told me neither you nor Margaret were in sight after school. What happened? What aren’t you telling me?”

God, he was so smart. I’m just screwed, I guess. I should probably just tell Brent to never talk to me again. I took a deep breath.

“You’re right,” I said, exhaling.

“About what,” William asked.

“Everything.”

“Ok Good. Now will you tell me what’s going on?”

“I will, but you need to promise me that you won’t get mad at Brent.” I held my breath and waited for William to explode again.

“I promise,” William said, very relaxed. He gave me a small smile. I was so surprised. “I know how much you mean to each other and how imperative it for you two to work together to save dad, so I’m not going to get mad at either of you. I know that you are safe and that is all that I care about. Now, please, tell me what happened from the exact moment that I left you this morning.”

I took one last deep breath and began to tell William about my day.

***

My room was silent when I finished my story. William had left my room about five minutes earlier and I was left alone. It was almost time for dinner so I didn’t even get my homework out. I turned my phone on instead.



Hey Cat! Sry again for what happened today. I promise that nothing will ever happen to u w/o me being there to keep u safe. We don’t need to have a meeting tonight. I will see u tmrw morn. I will meet u and Margaret at school in the morn before school. Talk to u then.


How was I supposed to respond to that?


Ok. Sounds good Brent. See u tmrw.


I hope that worked. I didn’t know what else to say. My phone vibrated again.


Ok.


I felt better know. After dinner, I would go to bed. My mind wouldn’t be going crazy, trying to figure things out. I would go to school like normal. Everything was going to be okay.

I was thinking about what William had said. He wasn’t too angry. I could tell that he wasn’t too happy, but I knew I was going to be able to see Brent again and hopefully save my dad. My phone vibrated again, confusing me. I wasn’t expecting to hear from Brent again.


Brent won’t find out that I’m texting u. if he does. U wont see him again.


I forgot that Sam has randomly texted me.


What makes u think I haven’t already told him?


I replied.

I kept thinking about Brent. The more I thought about him, the more I realized how quiet he’s been lately. Whenever I talked to him on the phone or even when I was with him, it seemed like he was trying hard to choose the right words, as if he was hiding something from me.

My phone vibrated.



I trust u.


Sam replied. I can’t believe him.


Well I don’t trust u. leave me alone.


I replied back. I was so fed up with Sam. I can’t figure out what he’s trying to accomplish. At first he seems sweet. Then now he seems devilish.

I shut my phone and put it on my desk next to my computer and go downstairs. Dinner had to be ready soon anyway.

When I got downstairs, the table was set, so I knew dinner would be in about five minutes. I went and sat down on the couch next to Thomas, who was playing video games.

“Hey. How’s it going,” Thomas asked.

“Fine,” I grumbled back.

“Where were you after school?”

“None of your business,” William said as he walked in the room. I looked at William and he smiled at me. Now I was certain he wasn’t angry with me. I smiled back.

“Okay,” Thomas said, sounding a little confused.

“Dinner is ready,” Mom’s voice yelled out over the T.V.

All of us go up and walked over to the table and sat down. The beginning of dinner was quiet and no one really talked much. Most of us were done eating with my mom finally spoke up.

“So, your dad called today with some bad news. He said that the people he was working with in Italy want him to stay for another month.”

“What,” William asked. He looked at me. My heart was racing. What if something has happened to him?

“Well you guys all know that for his last three trips, he’s been going to Italy. He works for a company there for two weeks and then comes back home. Apparently this company he’s been working for was doing bad until he started helping out. Now, since he’s been helping, they’ve been doing better, so that want your dad to stay and help out a little longer.”

The table was silent. No one know what to say.

“It’s going to be okay you guys. He’ll be sending us more money than usual and he will stay safer over there too.” My mom’s facial expression was telling us differently.

In the silence, I thought I head a window opening and then walking around upstairs, but I was probably just imagining things.

“Okay, well I guess that it’s a good thing then, right,” Margaret asked. Margaret was always the positive one.

“Yes, it will be very good. I’m sure the time will fly by fast. There is nothing to worry about,” Mom replied.

“Ok, well I’m going to go upstairs. Thanks for dinner Mom,” I said, and then got up, put my dishes away and then walked up the stairs.

When I got to my room, I hesitated at the door. I thought I heard voices, and then I remembered what I heard when we were eating dinner. All of a sudden I was scared to open my door. I was about to go back downstairs when a voice came from inside my room.

“Who’s there?” I recognized the voice as Sam’s but I wasn’t sure.

“It’s Catherine. Who’s in my room?” I was so scared, I was shaking.

“Oh! Catherine! Come in. Don’t be scared. It’s just me, Sam.” Oh yeah. There was nothing scary about Sam being in my room. I opened the door and looked inside. Sam was sitting on my bed like everything was completely normal. “Hi. How are you,” Sam asked, acting so innocent.

“What are you doing on my room,” I asked, quickly shutting the door behind me.

“I just wanted to see what you were up to.”

“Okay. Well I just finished dinner, so you can leave now.” I went over to my desk to grab my phone so that I could call Brent. “Where is my phone?” I turned around and Sam was smiling at me.

“Oh, you don’t need that,” Sam said, standing up.

“Actually I do. You broke into my house, Sam.”

“Do you really think that I care?”

“What is your problem? I want you out. Now!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Sam said, with a smirk.

“And why is that,” I asked, putting a hand on my hip and raising an eyebrow.

“Well you see,” Sam paused and took a step towards the window. “When I was climbing through your window, my foot hit the ladder and it fell. I came here by myself, so I couldn’t have someone put the ladder back against your house.” Sam was smiling.

“What,” I asked in disbelief.

“The ladder fell,” Sam said flatly, his smile vanishing.

“And you expect me to believe the ladder fell by accident?”

“Yup!” Sam’s excitement came back to life.

I walked over to the window and looked down. Sure enough the ladder was lying on the ground. I turned around then then gasped. While I was looking out the window, Sam had come up behind me. Now that I was facing him, he was standing directly in front of me. I took a deep breath, preparing myself.

“Do you need something,” I asked. Even though I already knew what he wanted, I still felt like asking. I tried to take a step back, but the window was the only thing behind me.

“What is the point of asking if you already know the answer?” Sam was looking in my eyes, but I wasn’t looking at him. I was looking behind him. Sam’s eyes scare me. If I looked at them for too long, I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

I didn’t respond. He took my chin in his hand, forcing me to look at him. I struggled a little bit and Sam smiled.

“There’s no point in struggling against me. I’m always going to win.” That smile never left Sam’s face.

“Well, you’re not winning this one.” I basically spit the words at him.

He smiled again and put his other hand on my back, pulling me closer to him.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” He kept smiling. “Where is Brent tonight?” I didn’t answer. “Hmm?”

I started to look away from him again and he jerked my head back so that I was facing him. I winced in pain.

“Oh, sorry. Did I hurt your neck?”

“Shut up.”

“Give me what I want!”

“No. Are you crazy? After everything you’ve done to me, my sister, and Brent?”

“If you put it that way, then I guess I am crazy.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I punched him in the stomach. He let go of my and stepped aside. I didn’t waste any time and I ran to the door.

Sam must have recovered quicker than I thought as he grabbed my wrist and yanked me towards him. I was only inches away from the door knob. I thought that my arm had been ripped out of its socket. I yelled, but it was cut short as Sam’s hand covered my mouth.

“You speak or try to get away one more time and you will regret it,” Sam whispered, sending shivers down my back. I nodded. “Don’t make me pull I knife out. I really don’t want to.” I instantly shrunk back towards him, away from his hand. “Yes, come closer to me, my dear.” He paused. “Now, I want to be able to trust you. So, I am going to let go of you, shut your window, and come back. If you move…” Sam trailed off, slowly leaving me in the middle of my room.

He slowly walked over to the window, shut it and locked it. “Thank you for not moving. Now I want you to come to me Katie.”

I slowly walked toward him. I was shaking. I should have ran downstairs when I knew there was someone in my room.

When I was about a foot away from Sam, I stopped walking. He obviously wasn’t happy with that because he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. We were only inches apart now.

“You don’t like to listen do you,” Sam asked me. I didn’t respond in any way. Once again he put one hand on my chin and the other on my back. I squirmed a little, but then he pulled me into a tight hug. I could barely breathe as he held me close. I tried not to enjoy it, but the butterflies in my stomach were telling me differently. I finally relaxed and put my arms around him. I had given up. I was too tired to fight anyway.

“You don’t listen, but you learn very well.” Sam was pleased with himself, even though he didn’t get exactly what he wanted—yet.

My brain was numb. Sam’s smelled had overwhelmed me and I couldn’t think straight. I almost forgot that Sam had broken into my house and snuck into my room. It was like Sam had put me under a spell. The first couple of times that I had talked to Sam, he seemed really nice and sweet. Since then, he has just bullied me and been mean to me. Right now, his sweet side was coming out, and I liked that sweet side.

I seemed that Sam’s hug was never going to end, but finally, he let me back away, but only as far as his arms could reach, because he was determined to keep his warm hands on my lower back.

Sam kept staring at me. “Can I have what I want now? What you promised me?”

Crap. I thought he had forgotten about the kiss. I should have known better. Maybe I can distract him more.
“Let’s make a deal,” Sam suggested. “I still have your phone, I’m still in your room, and I have a secret for you, but I can’t tell you what it is. Sorry.” Sam smiled at me before he went on. “If you kiss me, I will give you what you want. Except for the secret. You will figure that out soon enough.”
He pulled me closer to him again and he grabbed my chin, gently this time, sending shivers down my spine. He hand slid down around to my neck and he brought our heads together gradually. I pulled me up to him so that I was on my toes and our lips were inches apart. I was so tempted to kiss him. I was totally mesmerized
“Catherine,” he whispered and then he moved in, our lips touching.
He kissed me for what seemed like forever, but I knew it really wasn’t that long. His arms had snaked around me bringing me closer to him, as if that were possible, but I found myself clinging to him, never wanting to let go. His warmth, his touch, him, did amazing things to my soul. My body was filled with electricity that I wish I could experience forever. One of his hands moved up my back and rested on my neck, pulling me closer still. I wrapped my arms around his neck and then realized that was actually happening and tried to pull away.

Finally he stopped kissing me and pulled back, letting me breathe.

“Thank you,” He said, smiling again, his forehead leaning against mine.

“Can I have my phone now?” I asked, trying not to let Sam know the effect he had had on me.

“Is that all you really care about?” Sam paused, but when I didn’t answer, he went on. “Let me ask you a question. And don’t lie because I will know.”

“Fine,” I sighed, crossing my arms.

“Did you enjoy that?”

“That kiss?” I smiled, but hid it quickly, embarrassed. “I don’t know.”

“You did, don’t lie. Tell me the truth Katie.”

“A little. But don’t get any ideas. I…Brent…”

“Yes, I know. You love him. I just wanted to know if that kiss was really that bad. There could be more in your future if you want.”

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I never want a kiss from you again. I want you to leave me alone. And I want my phone too.” Only the last part had been the truth, but I couldn’t tell Sam how much I wished he would hold me like that again. So carefully, so tenderly.

“I’m afraid that you will be seeing me a lot after tonight, but right now, I can’t tell you why. A kiss could come later too, maybe.” He spoke as he dug my phone out of his pocket and handed it to me, attempting to hug me again as he did it. I tried to back away, but he just laughed and hugged me harder.

“And now, you can go. Now,” I said, shooing him away from me.

“Yes, Catherine. I will see you tomorrow morning.”

“Wait what? Before school?”

“Yes.”

“What? Explain to me now.” I was so confused. I thought that it was just me, Brent, and Margaret.

“No, you told me to go.” Sam was smiling again.

“Sam, stay here and tell me why you will see me tomorrow.”

“So, you want me to stay now?”

“No, I don’t. I will figure it out tomorrow morning. You can go.”

“One more kiss?”

“No!”

“Fine. Goodbye Catherine! I had fun tonight.”

I didn’t respond. I watched him pull a string and the ladder was slowly pulled to the window. I hadn’t noticed the string before. I hated him even more now.

Sam climbed out and down the side of my house without saying anything else. I shut the window as soon as I could and locked it before going back downstairs.

I was in a bad mood now. My eye brows were all scrunched up and I didn’t want to talk to anyone. My siblings were going to know right away that I was crabby now. It’s too obvious. Sam had made me so mad, and the worst part is, is that I bought the whole story. I even halfway enjoyed the kiss and that’s just disgusting. He broke into my house, told me lies, stole my phone, made me kiss him, and then left my on the edge with so many questions. This is no fair.

When I got downstairs, there was nothing really going on. The boys were playing video games again and Margaret and Mom were in the kitchen cleaning up. How long had I been upstairs?

“There you are. I was wondering where…why are you angry,” William asked, standing up.

“I was in my room,” I replied flatly.

“Tell me what happened.”

“My room,” I asked, hoping we could talk privately.

“Yeah, sure,” William agreed.

We walked upstairs without another word. When we got to my room, I sat down on my bed, and William leaned against my desk.

“So, what the hell happened? I thought I heard you scream, but I thought I was imagining things.” William waited for my answer.

I told him the entire story, beginning with what I had heard during dinner. By the time I finished telling Will everything, I thought he was going to explode. I told him everything, even what I felt like after kissing Sam.

After thinking about the kiss, I realized I actually liked it better than Brent’s kiss, which worried me. Maybe that was why I was so nervous about seeing Brent and Sam tomorrow morning.

“Okay, that was not what I was expecting at all,” William said, still trying to comprehend what I had just told him.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to do.”

“I think what you did was right. Maybe not in Brent’s mind, but I think that listening to Sam is better than him kidnapping you. Don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I guess. I still feel bad about it though.”

“I guess that’s what happens when you ‘cheat’ on your boyfriend, or whatever he is, whether it’s forced or not.”

“Yeah, I guess. Thanks.”

“For what?”

“Worrying about me and helping me get through this.”

“Oh, yeah. No problem, that’s what I am here for. I will stay with you until the last minutes tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. Sounds good.”

“Okay, well I am going to go back downstairs. I’ll talk to you later then.”

“Sounds good.”

I leaned back on my bed as William left the room. I thought about what happened tonight. William was right. About everything. I should feel bad. All I want to do right now is talk to Brent. I guess I don’t have to feel bad. Brent would understand, right?

I went over to my desk and grabbed my phone. I had two messages.

The first one was from Brent.


Hey. Sry to bug u again. About meeting early in the morn, I think we should beet 30 min before school. Want to make sure we have tine. Ok?


I needed to tell Brent about what happened tonight first. That was going to take extra time.


I think that will work. I need to tell u something too.


I hope Brent doesn’t go insane. I moved down in my inbox to the next unread message.


Have u told Brent about tonight yet?



I didn’t have to look at the name to know it was from Sam.


Why do u care?


I replied. Sam was making me so angry!

I sat on my bed. There was so much going through my head that I just wanted to go to bed, but I wanted to stay up and see what Brent and Sam had to say to me.

My phone vibrated. I was expecting it to be from Brent, but Sam had responded first.


Don’t tell him anything.


Sam said.


Once again. What if I already did?


I replied. My phone buzzed again, flashing Brent’s name.


Ok. What do u have to tell me?


Brent seemed to be more relaxed that I thought he would be. What do I say now? According to Sam, I couldn’t tell Brent anything. I’ll wait to see what Sam says, I thought to myself as my phone vibrated.


If u did then u wont be happy tmrw. Plz tell me if u already told him.


Sam was hiding something from me. I already knew that he was going to be at school early tomorrow, but he knows something I don’t.


No. I haven’t told him…yet.


I replied. Sam must be right next to his phone, because my phone vibrated right away.

Plz don’t tell him. I want to be there, with u, when u tell him. Itll be great.


I was so angry by Sam’s reply I didn’t respond. How could Sam be so sweet one second and rude the next?


I cant tell u right now Brent. Tmrw morn I will.


That was my final response to Brent. Hopefully he won’t me too angry.


Ok. Sounds good. Trust u.


Brent replied quickly.


Thank u. see u tmrw. Goodnight.


I was hoping Brent would understand tomorrow morning. I’m sure he will.


Goodnight. Stay safe plz.


Alright. I was content now and definitely ready for bed.

Chapter 15


When I woke up Tuesday morning, Sam and Brent were the first think on my mind and butterflies were in my stomach. Today is the last day I should be excited to go to school. This could be the worst morning of my life. Sam might tell Brent about everything and apparently there’s some big secret I’m not allowed to know about!

I got out of bed and walked to my bathroom down the hall. Margaret knocked on the door while I was getting ready.

“Hey!” Margaret sounded wide awake.

“Hi,” I replied, still half asleep.

“You excited for school?”

“Why would I be excited for school? I’m never excited for school.” I lied because I was a little bit excited this morning, but I didn’t want her to ask why.

“Yeah, good point. I guess I don’t know why I’m excited. The last time I was there I was kidnaped and tied to a chair. I shouldn’t be excited.”

I grimaced at the thought of what happened the other day. “Yeah, probably not.” Wasn’t Brent supposed to talk to Margaret and I about not going to school for a while because of what happened?

“Hey, we are going to talk to that guy who drove us home, right? You coming,” Margaret asked.

I paused and thought for a second. “Shoot! I forgot we have to be there earlier than normal.” How could I forget that? I guess I was more nervous than I thought.

“Kate, Margaret! We have to go in five minutes!” William sounded impatient.

“Okay,” I yelled back. Now I was really nervous.


I got ready in five minutes and was in the car driving only a few minutes late, but I knew Brent wouldn’t mind. We pulled into the parking lot of my school and my mom dropped us off at the main door.

“Thanks for the ride,” I yelled as I shut the door.

My mom drove off and Margaret, William and I were left standing on the sidewalk, but it wasn’t long before I heard my name.

“Cat!” Brent must have come up behind me. He gave me huge hug, lifting me off the ground. Evan was behind him and Margaret looked confused.

“Hi, Brent!” I was actually happy to see him. I felt safer now and all my thoughts and nerves having to do with Sam disappeared for a split second.

“Hey Margaret. I’m glad you came this morning, because I actually wanted to talk to you face to face about something.” Brent paused and looked at Margaret and me before continuing. “I was talking to the school board this morning and I lied to them. I told them that you are going on a trip and won’t be going to school for a week or so. I think after this meeting we can sit down with your mom and talk to her about everything and she will understand why skipping school will be a good thing. Obviously, you will have to talk to your teachers when you go back to school about what you missed and everything, but other than that, you should be good to go!”

“Really,” Margaret asked, her smile finally showing.

“Yup! So you can actually walk home and go back to bed if you want, but I still have to talk to Catherine,” Brent said and he squeezed my hand.

“I think sleep sounds like a wonderful idea. Bye Katie and Will. I’ll see you later!” Margaret basically skipped home. She seemed to be pretty happy.

“Now, as for you. We need to talk.” Brent went all serious. “Sam, Nate, and Loren are going to be here soon, but I just want to prepare you. William, you don’t have to stay. I promise I won’t let go of her. If I do, you won’t ever see me again, but you can’t be out here either.”

“Okay.” William paused, as if he were contemplating on leaving me completely or not. “I’m just going to go inside,” William finished, making his way to the door.

“That’s fine. Thank you.”

“No problem.” William turned around and left. Not it was just me, Brent and Evan.

“Cat, we are going to tell you some more information about your dad. I just want to warn you.”

“Yeah, okay.” That’s all I could get out at the moment.

“Cat, look at me.”

I turned my head to face Brent. He grabbed my chin, gently, in his hand. “I am never going to let go of you. You heard what I just promised to your brother. Trust me, okay?”

“Okay,” I mumbled. My mind seemed really foggy all of a sudden. I could barely hear Brent. There was so much going through my mind.

“Thank you.” Then Brent pulled me closer to him and gently kissed my lips, bringing me out of my head finally. The kiss ended too short, but it reminded me of last night.

“I trust you,” I whispered, snapping out of my head.

Brent smiled. “I trust you too,” he whispered back at me.


I stepped away from him and, as he promised, he never let go of me. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me towards him. I felt perfectly safe and secure standing next to Brent.

I was thinking about what was going to happen with my dad, when someone tapped my shoulder. I jumped and Brent looked my way, and then narrowed his eyes at someone behind me. I turned around and found Sam standing behind me. I never heard him come up behind me. I must have been really lost in my thoughts.

“Good morning Catherine,” Sam sounded so pleased with himself and I could tell right away that he was not going to be nice to me this morning. I liked the Sam that was sweet to be way better; the Sam that was in my room with me when we kissed.

“Hi,” I mumbled the words. My stomach was in butterflies and I couldn’t concentrate.

Brent squeezed me tighter against his side.

“Hello Brent. I am sure that you are excited about this morning,” Sam sounded sarcastic.

“I am not excited at all. I am pretty sure you are the only one, Sam,” Brent sounded tired.

“What would make you think that I was excited to be here?”

“Sam, you haven’t stopped smiling since Kate was in your sight.”

“Oh, really? I guess I didn’t notice.”

“Sure you didn’t,” Brent said under his breath.

I was scared to look at Sam. I didn’t want Brent to pick up on something he wasn’t supposed to.

Brent didn’t say anything else as Sam stood in front of us. Loren and Nate had shown up and were standing behind Sam. Nick was missing, but I could really care less. Now, it looked like Sam was the leader. Even came and stood next to me, opposite Brent.

“How much does Catherine know, Brent,” Loren asked. Everyone was serious now.

“Not much. I’m not sure she knows anything actually,” Brent said.

“Do you want me to tell her,” Sam asked.

“No,” Brent said. He had tensed up beside me.

“I will tell her,” Loren responded. “Catherine, we have some bad news. I’m not even happy to be telling you this. You’re father isn’t actually staying longer in Italy because the company wants him to.” Loren paused and I looked up at Brent. He pulled me even closer to him. “He has actually been kidnapped by some man in Italy. This man was assigned to kidnap your dad and possibly kill him. We think that this kidnapper brought your dad to Rome.”


It was hard for me to take this in. When my mom was telling about my Dad staying in Italy longer, I immediately thought that something was wrong. Now, I know for sure something is wrong and I’m pretty sure no one in my family knows about it. I suddenly remembered that Nick’s dad was the one that wanted him dead and Nick was still missing from this meeting. Coincidence?

“As of right now, this is the plan.” Loren paused again. “Brent has decided that you and him go to Italy and try to find your dad.” I just nodded my head. “Now, you must be wondering why Sam, Nate and I are even here.” Loren paused and took a deep breath. “Brent proposed the idea of you and him going to Italy to Evan and Evan thinks that it is too dangerous for the two of you to go together. So he proposed that you should bring someone else with you, who is more your age and experienced is this kind of work. So, Evan called us.” Loren stopped talking and took a step forward, now standing right next to Sam.

“You know Sam, right,” Loren asked.

“Yes,” was all I could say.

“Good. Now, Sam, why don’t you tell her the rest of the story.” Loren patted Sam’s shoulder and took a step back.

“Yes, Loren. I love this part of the story.” Sam hadn’t stopped staring at me. He took a small step towards me and Brent stiffened. “So, Evan called me. He knew I was strong and he knew that I had experience to do the job!” Sam sounded so excited.

I should have expected this. Why else would Sam and his friends be involved? My jaw must have dropped open because I had to shut it.

“So, I get to go to Italy with you guys!”

“Why?” I mumbled the words and let my head fall back onto Brent’s shoulder.

Sam and Brent exchanged words but I had stopped listening. I had noticed silence a few seconds later and come to the conclusion that the meeting had ended officially. Evan walked over to Loren and Nate after saying a few words to Brent and then all three walked away.

Now, it was just me, Brent, and Sam.

“Cat, listen. You’re not going to school today and neither are Sam and I. Would you like to go somewhere and talk about this?” Brent asked.

All I could do was nod my head. There was so much going on in my mind right now I couldn’t even speak.

William came out of the school once he saw that we were leaving.

“Hey! Everything okay?” William ran to catch up with me.

“Yeah!” I lied. “I’ll tell you more later, okay? I’m going to go and talk with Brent and Sam more about it.”

“Okay, sounds good. Have a good rest of your day then Kate.”

“Thanks, you too!” I waved at William and then ran to catch up with Brent and Sam.

I climbed into Brent’s car and we left my school.

“Are you okay, Cat?” Brent looked concerned.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry Brent, there’s just a lot going on right now.”

“Yeah, I get that. It’s okay to feel that way.”

“Brent, Sam’s going to want me to tell you something, sometime soon, but I don’t want to wait for him. Sam broke into my house last night and forced me to kiss him. He scared the crap out of me,” I told Brent.

“Wow. Okay, I didn’t know he was planning on breaking into your house. Why didn’t you call me,” Brent asked.

“Sam stole my phone before I came into my room,” I told him.

“Oh, I guess that makes sense then. Cat it’s okay. You don’t need to worry about it. I trust you.”

I looked over at him and he just smiled at me. Brent reached over with his hand and softly stroked my cheek and then grabbed my hand until we arrived at the restaurant downtown.

Sam had taken a different was so he hadn’t arrived yet.

“Sorry.” Brent broke the silence.

“For what,” I asked.

“Everything.”

“I thought we made a deal.” I kept my eyes forward.

“I can’t take it anymore.”

“Okay.”

“Are you okay,” Brent asked me.

“Yeah, are you?”

“Cat, I can’t explain to you how bad I feel.”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

I leaned over the arm rest and kissed Brent gently on the lips and took a deep breath.

“Cat, I never want to lose you,” Brent said to me, resting a hand on my back.

“You won’t lose me. I’m not going anywhere,” I said, but Brent never responded.


My phone vibrated.



U ready? Or r u staying in the car?


Sam texted me.

“Where is he,” Brent asked. He must have been looking over my shoulder.

“I have no idea,” I replied to Brent.

“Well, we should probably get out then.”

“Probably.” I opened the car door and got out of the car. Brent followed me and we walked into the restaurant together.

Sam was already sitting at a table.

“How did you get here so fast? I thought you were behind us,” I asked.

“I sped here. I wanted to see you.” Sam smiled and then laughed.

“Stop talking,” Brent snapped. He pulled me closer to him and we sat down opposite of Sam.

We told our waiter what we wanted to drink and then waited patiently for her to come back. After she brought us our drinks, we began to get serious.

“So, what is our goal,” Sam asked.

“Before we do all this, I think you should fill me in on what’s going on,” I said.

Brent took a deep breath. He was choosing his words wisely again. “Cat, it’s going to take a while. I don’t even know where to begin. Loren told you most of it. What do you want to know?” Brent sounded really concerned.

“I guess I don’t know. I just feel really lost and I want to know more about what’s going on. I’m still flustered by the whole situation,” I replied. Brent shook his head. He didn’t know what to say.

“That makes sense, Catherine, but the circumstances are hard to understand, even for us. This is just something we are going to have to roll with and take as it comes.” Sam paused and looked at me with the same eyes he looked at me with last night. “Don’t worry about it though. We will figure it out. It’ll be fun!” Sam exclaimed, looking away from me.

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s going to be a ton of fun…” Brent said sarcastically. “So anyways,
Sam and I just stared at Brent. “We are going to be leaving on Wednesday, tomorrow, by plane.”

“Are you sure that will be enough time to get ready,” I asked the boys.

“We have to find your dad soon. Something could happen to him if we don’t Cat.” Brent reached over and grabbed my hand.

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” I replied. It was silent for a moment. “How long are we out of school,” I asked.

“A week, or until we are ready to come back,” Brent said.

There didn’t seem to me much more to talk about. Everyone acted like there was something missing, something that everyone didn’t know about. I think that was what was bothering me. I could tell for sure that Brent was keeping something from me, but I knew for sure that he wasn’t going to tell me anytime soon.

“Are we done then? I have no other questions.” I was really bored and we were really getting nowhere.

“Yeah, I think so.” Brent sounded bored too.

“Cat, can I talk to you for a moment.” Sam was serious. “Privately?” Sam looked at Brent.

I looked at Brent too, who nodded back at me. He got up and left, leaving Sam and me sitting in the booth.

“I wouldn’t try anything. He is probably watching you,” I told Sam as soon as Brent was out of the restaurant.

“I wasn’t going to try anything. Trust me,” Sam replied. He stood up and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of my seat before I answered.

“Why would I want to trust you?”

“You should trust someone you will be working with for the next week.”

I groaned. “I don’t want anything to do with you.” I took a step away from Sam, taking my hand from his.

“I don’t believe that. I know that you love kissing me more than Brent. I could tell by your reactions.” I looked away from Sam’s stare. “Have you told him that you kissed me?”

“Yes.”

“I told you not to tell him unless I was around!” Sam’s voice was almost whiney.

“I am not listening to you, in case you didn’t notice.”

“Why not?”

“Why should I?”

“Cat, you are going to have to like me at some point. Like I said, we are going to be working together for a long time.”

“Don’t call me Cat! You don’t deserve it!” I was quickly making my way towards the door.

Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him. The restaurant was almost empty. Thank God. He wrapped his arms around me and I could barely move.

“Let me go!” I struggled against him.

“There’s no point in trying to get away. I thought you said Brent would be watching.”

“He is. He’s just waiting.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“What in the world do you think you are doing!” Brent’s voice was so loud.

Sam let go of me quickly. I couldn’t even feel Sam’s presence anymore. He must have taken some steps backwards too. I walked over to Brent who then grabbed my arm. I winced, but made no effort to make Brent let go. I still felt safe, even if my arm was going numb.

“Let go. You’re hurting her,” Sam said, looking at me, with those eyes again.

“You should stop talking. You don’t have to go on this trip with us if we don’t want you to.” Brent let go of my arm and I began to rub it.

“I am coming with you,” Sam said.

“Only if we want you to,” I said.

“Catherine, you know you want me to go.” Sam looked right into my eyes. I twisted under his gaze and looked away.

“Stop it! We are going home right now and we will see you at the airport on Wednesday morning. If you have any questions call me. Don’t text Cat.” Brent’s voice was stern.

“Yeah, I got it.” Sam laughed and we walked out of the restaurant, leaving Sam to himself.

What Sam had said about me wanting him to go with us, really hit me. I realized that part of me did want him to go. I wanted him to be there with me, even if that meant danger for me. I liked Sam, but I loved Brent. I just wish that Brent would have waited a bit longer before he kissed me. That night seemed too rushed and I wasn’t sure of what I was getting myself into. Sam has taken the time to get to know me, a little bit. Now, whether it was in a good way or in a bad way, I have still gotten to know Sam pretty well.

Sam was also right about the kiss we shared. I did enjoy it. I enjoyed it more than Brent’s kiss, but I don’t know why, unless it was because it was forced and that made it more exciting.

I couldn’t organize my thoughts at all. What did all of this mean? Between Brent, Sam and my dad, I am about to explode. The worst thing is that I can’t do anything to help my dad without Brent and Sam.

I took a deep breath and tried to control my mind. I had gotten into Brent’s car and we were on our way home. I couldn’t let Brent see my confusion over everything. He would start to question the relationship between me and Sam and I couldn’t let that happen.

Chapter 16



Brent must have been pretty mad at Sam, because he didn’t say anything about it until we were almost home.

“What was going on back there,” Brent asked me as we pulled into my driveway.

“I don’t know,” I responded.

“What was he talking to you about?” Brent unlocked his car and we both got out.

“Trust,” I said, once I was out of the car.

“What about it?”

“How I need to have some in him.” We were making out way to my front door.

“Why would you have trust in him? After everything he’s put you through?”

“That’s what I told him and he blew up.”

“He makes me so angry!”

“I know.”

“I’m sorry,” Brent said before we opened the front door.

“For what,” I asked, with a sigh.

“Sam. I wish there was some other way that we could save your dad without having to drag Sam along. He is very smart and he is perfect for the situation, but he’s not right for you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I have you, right?”

Brent took another one of his deep breaths. “You will always have me,” Brent said as he tried to open the front door. The door was locked, but we have a spare key under the mat. I grabbed it and opened the door, leading into my huge kitchen. Margaret was either out of the house or sleeping, so we kept sort of quiet. Everyone else was at school and my mom had some meetings today, so she was out of the house too.

“What do you want to do,” Brent asked me after we had settled in.

“I don’t care.”

“There’s got to be something.”

“Okay. Do you want to watch T.V. or something?”

“Sure. That works for me! I never have time to watch T.V. anymore.”

We went over to the couch that always sat in our living room. I turned on the T.V. and sat down next to Brent. He wrapped his arms around me and I leaned against him. I was really tired and didn’t really feel like watching T.V., so I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

About 30 minutes later I was jerked awake.

“What’s going on,” I asked Brent.

“I’m not sure yet. Someone just knocked on your front door and then your back door. It sounded like they were hitting the door with something metal.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just stay here, okay?”

I didn’t say a word. I sat up a little bit and watched as Brent slowly walked over to the window. The banging had stopped for the moment. Brent opened the curtain covering the window in the living room. He looked around but found nothing.

Then, there was another knock at the front door. Brent hurried over to it and opened the door. It was Sam.

“What the heck are you doing here,” Brent asked Sam. “I’m not supposed to see you until Wednesday.”

“Just messing around,” Sam replied, taking a step into my house.

“Were you the one knocking on the windows and doors?”

“Yup,” Sam laughed.

“It’s not funny,” Brent replied with a straight face.

“Yeah, sure.”

“You scared Catherine.”

“Oh.” Sam’s smile faded. “I’m sorry Kate.” He actually looked sorry.

“You don’t mean that,” Brent said as Sam looked straight into my eyes.

“Actually I do.” Sam shut the front door all the way and started walking towards me and Brent followed behind him.

Sam sat down right next to me on the couch and Brent sat down on the other side of me, but a little closer than normal. Well now what was I supposed to do?

“You can fall back asleep if you want, Catherine,” Sam said, putting his arm around me. It felt so right there and I instantly wanted to lean onto Sam and fall back asleep.

“Yeah, on my shoulder.” Brent leaned over and wrapped his arms around me and pulled me away from Sam and onto his own lap and using his hand to force my head to his chest. I slowly closed my eyes and relaxed.

“She can trust me,” Brent whispered to Sam.

“She’ll learn to trust me soon enough,” Sam said. He stood up, grabbed the remote to the T.V. and sat back down. He muted the T.V., afraid of waking me up.

I fell asleep again listening to Brent’s heartbeat and eventually woke up a few hours later. Through the back porch window I could see the sun setting in the west, making the sky turn all sorts of pretty colors. I was still on my couch, but Brent must have moved me because now only my head was lying on his lap. Brent was relaxed, watching T.V. and Sam looked as if he had never moved. I was surprised Brent hadn’t made him leave a while ago.

“Cat, you awake?” Brent asked very sweetly. He must have noticed that I was awake and looking around.

“Yeah, still tired though,” I replied. “What time is it?”

“Around 6:30 PM. When does your family get home,” Sam asked.

“They should be home by now.”

The room was silent as I was thinking of where they were, but then I remembered.

“But William has a late test for one of his midterms. Thomas and Oscar had a party right after school and Margaret had a date tonight. Did she leave?”

“Yeah, she left right before you woke up,” Brent said to me.

“Oh. Okay. My mom has a late shift as work today, after her meetings, so she won’t be home until 8:30 PM or so. She should be the first one home,” I said to the boys.

“So we are home alone until then?”

“Yeah, I guess.” I paused. “I guess I’m still surprised you’re still here.”

“I was never asked to leave,” Sam said.

“Oh. Okay.” I relaxed my head again.

The room was silent for a moment. I was thinking about what we are going to do for the rest of the night. My stomach growled and we all laughed.

“Should we get sleeping beauty something to eat,” Brent asked.

“I think we should,” Sam said, standing up. “Come on.” He put his hands out, offering to help me up. I took his hands and he pulled me up.

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

“No problem,” Sam said as he walked towards the kitchen. I turned around to help Brent up.

He grabbed my hands, but instead of my helping him, he pulled me back down and all of a sudden I was sitting on his lap again. We both laughed and then he pulled me closer kissing my forehead gently.

I smiled and climbed off his lap and I offered to help him up again. He took my hands and I helped pull him up, but he let go of my hands on the way up and grabbed my face between his hands, kissing my lips softly. His kiss was unexpected, but sweet and it made me smile.

“Do you two lovebirds want something else to eat?” Sam’s voice sounded happy but irritated at the same time.

I pulled away from Brent and walked over to where Sam was. “I am very hungry, Sam,” I said.

“Yeah, I thought you would be.” Sam smiled at me and I had no choice but to smile back.

“What do you think we should have for dinner,” I asked Sam and Brent.

“I don’t really care. We could order pizza or something,” Sam said.

“That sounds good.” Brent agreed.

“Okay then. Let’s order some pizza.” I went over to the telephone and called the pizza shop downtown. The boys told me what they wanted and we all went back to the couch to wait for the pizza.

About 20 minutes later the doorbell rang. I got up to get it, but Sam pulled my back on the couch and Brent stood up to get the door.

“What the heck? I was going to get the door,” I snapped at Sam.

“Don’t worry about it. Just relax,” Sam said to me. He patted the couch space next to him, but I just stood up and went into the kitchen.

Sam had no idea how badly I wanted to sit down next to him with his arms around me, but I couldn’t here; not with Brent in the house.



The pizza was good that night, but there was too much on my mind to really enjoy it. I was worried about Wednesday. I didn’t want Sam to come on the trip, because I was scared that I was going to start showing how much I really liked him and that wouldn’t fly with Brent. I mean I used to hate Sam, but then he forced me to kiss him, and that made me realized that feelings can change quickly.

After dinner, I cleaned up and put everything away. When I was done, I went and sat down on the couch between Sam and Brent. Brent put his arm around me immediately, just to make sure that Sam wasn’t going to touch me. I smiled to myself and laughed in my head.

I think that Brent knew that there was something going on between me and Sam. It wasn’t that hard to figure out. I still didn’t trust Sam, but when Sam looks at me, I can tell he never wants to stop.

As I was thinking, the boys were talking about Italy. I couldn’t listen without stressing out, so I decided to go to my room so that I could relax and collect my thoughts.

It didn’t take long for the boys to notice I was out of it and soon after I laid down on my bed, there was a knock on my door.

“Come in,” I said, expecting it to be Brent.

The door opened and Sam walked in.

“What do you want,” I asked him.

“Brent said that I could talk to you,” Sam said.

“He must really trust you, then.”

“I told him that if I mess up, I won’t go to Italy with you guys.”

“Oh.”

“Can I sit next to you?” Sam walked closer to my bed.


“Sure.” I moved away from where he was about to sit.

“I just want to talk to you.”

“Obviously.”

Sam laughed and then began talking again. “I just want to clarify what is going on between us before we go to Italy. There won’t be a lot of time for the two of us to be alone and I thought this would be a good time.” Sam paused for a second. “I like you Catherine. A lot. I want you to know that. The only thing that I am not looking forward to during this trip is seeing Brent all over you. I hate it when his arm is around you or if he kisses you. I just want to rip him off you and tell him to never touch you again. It makes me so jealous.” He paused and waited for me to look at him. When I did, he began to talk again.

“I haven’t had that much time to get to know you, but from when we talked through the forest, the last time we were in your room, and the incidents at school, I’ve grown to like you. I think you’ve noticed.” I nodded and he kept talking. “I guess I just have a question for you.” I looked up at him and he smiled at me. “Do you like me?”

I took a deep breath before I answered this question. I knew that Sam was going to ask me this question sooner or later. I had my answer too. I just didn’t want to mess up anything that I already had with Brent.

“This is a hard question to answer, Sam.”

“I know, but I have been thinking about it all afternoon.”

“Yes.” I looked down at the floor. Sam grabbed my chin gently and forced me to look at him.

“You know, I already knew that. I just wanted to hear you say it.” He smiled again and I pulled my face from his hands, looking back at the floor. “Tell me more,” Sam requested.

“Okay. I used to hate you. That was obvious, but because I hated you , I thought about you all the time, especially after you ran into me in the hallway, and even when you stood up for me in front of your friends. Everything changed after you made me kiss you. I realized how much you were right and how much I really did like you. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about those nights and butterflies invade my stomach whenever I see you. However, Brent has done more for me. I mean, yes, I enjoyed your kisses, but I can’t base a relationship on that. Honestly, you confuse me too. The incidents at school and when you kiss me, you are the sweetest boy on the planet and I felt like I was under a spell. But when we were in the forest you were so mean to me and that’s when I hated you most. I like you, Sam, but I like Brent more. I want you to get to know you more, and I guess that’s why I actually want you to come to Italy with us, but it also scares me, because I don’t want Brent to find any of this out.” I took a deep breath and waited for Sam’s response. I had been rambling.

“Can you say that again, please?” Sam was smiling.

“Are you serious? I can’t remember all that,” I said.

“Just the part about how much you like me.” Sam’s eyes were shining.

“Sam, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since that kiss,” I said, looking down at my hands.

“I know. I haven’t stopped thinking about you either.”

“But, Brent,” I said, conflicted.

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry I’m putting this stress on you and being so confusing. The first time I talked to you, I was sweet, like you said. The second time we talked, I was kidnapping you in the forest. I can see why you would be confused and stressed. Trust me.” We both smiled. “Thank you for talking to me Kate.”

“You’re welcome, but just because I confessed that I like you, doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” He smiled and I just shook my head. Maybe I liked that too, when he teases me.

We walked down the stairs and I sat next to Brent on the couch. He put his arm around me and I instantly thought of how much that made Sam jealous. There was nothing I could do about that though. If I moved away, Brent would think that I was mad. So, I just sat there and thought. Everyone would be home soon and the boys would have to go home anyways.

There was a knock at the door. I looked at Brent and he immediately got up to get the door. I moved towards Sam who put his hand in my hand and as soon as he touched my, I forgot everything. I had to focus hard just to realize who was at the door and it was then I realized I recognized the voice; Loren.

“What is he doing here,” I whispered to Sam.

“I have no idea,” Sam replied and ducked down so it looked like he wasn’t here.

“What are you doing here,” Brent asked Loren, who was standing outside.

“What are you doing here,” Loren asked Brent.

“Catherine and I are hanging out.”

“Oh.”

“So, answer my question.”

“Oh, yeah. I just wanted to talk to Catherine, that’s all.”

“Why do you need to talk to her,” Brent asked.

“I wanted to talk to her about your trip to Italy.”

“What about it,” Brent was getting angry.

“Just please let me talk to her.” Loren was fed up too.

“Cat, Loren wants to talk to you.” Brent yelled across the room. I got up, leaving Sam on the couch and walked over to the front door, where Brent and Loren were.

“Hi, Catherine,” Loren changed his tone of voice.

“Hi,” I mumbled.

“Can I talk to you outside for a moment,” Loren asked me.

“No! You can both come in here,” Brent demanded. “I will leave the room.” Brent shut the front door, sat us down at the table and winked at me. I knew that he remembered that Sam was on the couch, and would listen in, or help me if I needed it.

“So, what’s new,” Loren asked me.

“I thought we were talking about Italy,” I said.

“Why are you so stubborn?”


“I don’t want to talk to you, so let’s get this over with.”

“Did he tell you everything?” I knew that Loren was talking about Brent.

“I don’t know.”

“Okay, let me tell you some important details.”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you know about your dad?”

“That he was kidnapped.”

“Do you know why?”

“I think so,” I said hesitantly, thinking of Nick’s dad and his history with my dad.

“So you don’t know for sure?”

“No, I don’t know, why?” I just wanted Loren to leave.

“I think they left out something very important.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you think you are going with?”

“To help find my dad.”

Loren laughed. “That’s what Brent told you?” I had nothing to say. I was terrified. “Would you like me to tell you the real reason why you are going?”

“Sure,” I wasn’t sure what to say and my hands were shaking.

“Loren! You’re scaring her.”

Loren’s head snapped up in surprise. Sam sat up and walked over towards where we were sitting in the kitchen. Loren was speechless. He has no idea Sam was in the other room. Brent came into the room as well.

“What is going on here?” Loren was so confused.

“Sam said you were scaring her and I’m pretty sure you don’t know the real reason or have the right to tell Cat that information,” Brent said. His face was serious. I wasn’t going to ask any questions. I was going to make Brent and Sam tell me later. I had to get Loren out of my house first.

“I know what Sam said. What is Sam doing here?” Loren snapped.

“I’m hanging out with Brent and Catherine.”

“Right.” Loren seemed angry. “You’re switching sides.”

“I think you should leave now,” Sam said, ignoring Loren.

“Fine, I will leave then, but she deserves to know Brent.” Loren pointed at Brent, looked at me and then walked out the door, letting himself out without another word.

Once the door was shut and I was sure that Loren was gone, I stood up and went to the couch.

“What was Loren talking about,” Sam asked Brent as I walked away.

“Nothing you need to worry about, Sam,” Brent said with no expression.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know anymore. All I wanted to know was why I wasn’t told earlier and why Loren thought he could come over to my house to tell me.

Now I was 100% sure that Brent was keeping something from everyone. I don’t think Sam or I know what we are truly getting into, but I can’t back out now. I need to make sure my dad and safe at home by next week.

Chapter 17


I sat on the couch for a few minutes as the boys talked in the kitchen. A few minutes later Brent came over.

“You okay, Cat?” Brent asked. He took my chin in his hand and forced me to look at him. I nodded my head and then laid down. I was suddenly tired and knew it was going to get bust here soon when the rest of my family got home. Brent didn’t try to keep me awake after I laid down. He seemed pretty content to let me sleep as we walked back to the kitchen, probably to talk to Sam again.



I slept hard this time and when I woke up Thomas was tapping me.

“What are you doing,” I asked.

“I don’t know. I was seeing if you were awake.”

“Obviously I wasn’t. What time is it?”

“Around 10:00 PM.”

“Where is everyone?”

“Brent and Sam are trying to distract mom from the kitchen. I think that they want to get her out of the house, maybe grocery shopping or something. William, Margaret, and Oscar are working on homework, and I’m here with you.”

“Oh.” Thomas had always been there for me. He was much nicer than Oscar and wasn’t always asking me questions about my personal life. He would occasionally, but not as much as Oscar did.

I started to get up off the couch, but suddenly Brent was next to Thomas and wanted me to stay sleeping.

“Let me get up,” I told Brent.

“No, you need your rest,” Brent replied.

“I just slept. Let me get up!” I began sitting up, but another hand rested on my shoulder.

“Lay down.” Sam’s voice was strong and convincing.

“Why?” I asked, giving in.

“You really need to sleep because of the time difference between here and Italy,” Brent explained, but I didn’t buy it.

“Seriously.”

“Okay, seriously, he should be telling us something, but he won’t tell us until we are in Italy,” Sam said staring at me as I looked at Brent who didn’t make eye contact. Now it is obvious Brent was keeping something from everyone.

“What does that have to do with me getting up,” I asked, trying to convince everyone Brent’s secret wasn’t bothering me.

“It doesn’t. We just don’t want you in the kitchen. It’s a bit overwhelming with all the maps and everything.”

“Brent, what’s going on really?” I grabbed his hand so that he would really look at me.

“I can’t tell you, Cat,” Brent said. He wasn’t smiling and I could tell it pained him to tell me that.

I looked at Brent a second longer and then turned to Thomas.

“Yes, Catherine. I know what’s going on with dad.” Thomas answered my question before I even asked it.

“Oh.” I relaxed. Brent laid down on the couch next to me.

“I’m sorry Cat. I really am. I wish so bad that I could tell you, you have no idea.”

“Okay Brent.”

“I can’t help but worry about you.”

I had nothing else to say, but Brent kissed my neck and took a deep breath.

“Brent! I need you in here!” Sam sounded mad.

“I’m coming,” Brent yelled to Sam. “Sorry Cat.” Brent got up and left so I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep.


When I woke up shortly after, it was even darker and Thomas was sleeping in the chair next to me. I felt like such a slug. As soon as I moved, Thomas jerked awake.

“Katie, you okay,” Thomas asked.

“Yeah Thomas, thanks,” I replied.

“No problem.”

Brent walked over to the couch with Sam close behind.

“How are you doing Cat,” Brent asked.

“I’m fine guys. Stop worrying about me.”

“Sorry,” they all mumbled to me.

Brent sat down next to me and put his arm around me.

“Any new information,” Thomas asked.

“Yeah, actually. We learned the general area of where your dad might be and we figured out how to keep everyone safe,” Sam said.


“Alright,” I said.

“Look Cat, you don’t need to worry. We have everything under control. The only thing you have to do is to listen and be smart,” Brent said.

“We might actually bring someone else with us,” Sam said.

“Who,” I asked.

“Thomas, if that’s okay with you,” Sam said, smiling.

“Really,” I asked excitedly.

“Yeah,” Brent said.

“Sweet!” I jumped off the couch and gave my brother a hug.

“So I can come,” Thomas asked.

“Of course,” I replied.

“Let’s get back to business though,” Brent told us.

“Okay,” Sam said. He sat on the couch leaving space for me and Thomas. Brent was going to stand and talk to us about the plan.

“We are leaving tomorrow morning. Sam and I will pick the two of you up in the morning and then our flight will take off late afternoon. Now we are going to arrive in Italy very early the next day with the time differences. That’s really all I needed to tell you. There will be more information we can talk about when we are on the airplane and when we get to the hotel. We are staying at the St. Regis Rome Hotel, if anyone cares to know that.” Brent paused. “Now Cat, you need to stay safe because we are playing into the hands of a kidnapper. He captured your dad, so he could kidnap you. That’s why Evan wants me to keep you safe. Your dad knows we are coming, you specifically, and earlier this week his kidnapper told him he was going to come for you.” Brent paused again. “My job is to keep the kidnapper away from you.”

“Okay.” I was trying to wrap my head around this new information. “So my dad’s kidnapper wants me, and he is going to come and find me. That’s why I have to stay safe,” I clarified. So this was new, but I still felt like there was something else Brent was keeping from me.

“Yes. Loren is sort of mad at your dad for bringing him into the situation, but that doesn’t really matter anymore.”

“Thanks Brent.” I understand now and I had no more questions. “So you’re going to keep me safe right?” I asked Brent.

“Of course,” Brent replied looking at the floor, before quickly changing the subject. “Okay, then. I think that is it for now, Thomas you can leave. Sam, I don’t care what you do, but I’m going to leave. I have to get ready for tomorrow. Goodnight Cat.” Brent bent down and kissed my lips gently and left without saying another word. Thomas left then too.

“You okay Catherine,” Sam asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” I replied. I leaned towards him and put my head on his shoulder. He put his arm around me and pulled me closer.

“I’m sorry about everything, mostly about your dad and getting you into this. I know I didn’t have much to do with it, but I still feel bad for you.”

“It is okay, Sam. Please, don’t worry about it.”

“Okay, I won’t. I promise.” Sam’s around me tightened and I never felt safer. I liked this Sam, his sweet side.

“Can we go up to your room and talk please,” Sam asked.

“Yeah, sure,” I replied.

We both stood up and walked up the stairs. When we got to my room I sat on my desk chair and Sam stood by my window.

“Are you nervous for tomorrow,” Sam asked me.

“No, I don’t think so,” I said.

“Well good, because there’s nothing for you to be worried about.”

“Are you Sam?”

“Nervous? No, not really. I think that Brent has everything under control.”

It was silent for a while and Sam walked over to me and pulled me towards him. He hugged me and then we walked over towards my window.

“Do you know what I would like before we go to Italy,” Sam asked. I barely had to think.

“Yes,” I mumbled. He wanted a kiss, but I wasn’t going to give him one. I felt bad already for kissing him earlier in the week and I don’t think I could tell Brent that I kissed Sam again. Brent trusted Sam. If he didn’t, Brent wouldn’t have left Sam at my house alone.

“What’s wrong,” Sam asked.

“I can’t do that to Brent,” I said.

“Brent doesn’t have to know.”

“It doesn’t matter, Sam. I don’t want to kiss you.”

“Katie, I know how much you liked it the first time, stop lying to me, please.”

“I can’t do it, Sam.” I tried to step away, but Sam pulled me closer to him.

“Katie, tell me the truth. Who do you like kissing more?” Sam had his hands on either side of my face. He was looking deep into my eyes.

“You.” I paused. “But that doesn’t matter.”

“Why not?” Sam asked, throwing his arms in the air. “I deserve you more. Please, be mine. You can do better than him.”

“No.”

“Katie, you’re lying to yourself again.”

“No, I’m not!” Sam gave me a questioning look. “Okay fine, maybe a little,” I confessed and gave Sam a small smile.

“I’ll take that. Now, will you please kiss me.”

“No.”

“Why not? You know how much you like it.”

“That doesn’t matter. I belong to Brent, not you.” This conversation was going in circles.

“Brent doesn’t have to know, Katie.” Sam ensured me. I gave up. I pulled myself away from Sam and walked towards my desk.

Sam grabbed my arm, and put it around his neck and pulled me closer to him. His arms tightened around me, and I could barely move.

“Struggling is going to get you nowhere. I would’ve thought you’d learned that by now. If you kiss me, I’ll let you go.”

“I don’t want to kiss you.”

“Stop lying.” Sam tightened his arms again and closed his eyes. I could barely breathe.

I had no choice but to kiss him. He was right; I did want to kiss him, very badly and that was why I was so reluctant to give in. I stopped struggling, ready to make the worst choice I could.

Sam opened his eyes. “Ready,” he asked, smiling.

“No,” I replied.

Sam’s arms around me loosened enough for me to reach on my toes and touch my lips to his. I barely touched his lips, but his hand moved up my back and to my neck, forcing me closer to him. There was no going back now and I put my other arm around his neck. My stomach was in butterflies and I didn’t want to stop, but I had to. As much as I wanted to have him hold me until I fell asleep and his me until I stopped breathing, that’s just not how it works. This had to end, before Brent finds out and ends it the hard way.

I started to back away, but he followed me. I tried to push Sam away with my hands but he was way too strong and didn’t move a bit. I let go with one of my hands, leaving his neck and now resting at my side. I was trying to make him stop kissing me. He grabbed my hand and put it on his chest, and then he pulled me closer to him again. His touch was soft and I could barely feel him touching me; his movements were subtle, but still rough enough for me to listen.

I had to be done kissing him now, so I punched him in the stomach, and he stopped kissing me instantly. This situation was bad and this shouldn’t be happening.

“What’s wrong,” Sam asked, out of breath.

“I was trying to stop and you wouldn’t let me, Sam,” I replied.

“I wasn’t done.”

“But, Sam. We can’t do this. This isn’t how it’s supposed to work.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Come back here.” Sam and I were on opposite side of my room.

“No,” I replied.

“Katie, please, get back here, or else I won’t let your brother come with us to Italy.”

I slowly walked over to Sam. I was scared he was going to grab me and start kissing me again.

“I’m not going to do anything.” Sam sounded too innocent. I kept walking and when I got to him, he put his arms out. “All I want is a hug Kate. Let me hold you.” Butterflies invaded my stomach as I finally reached him and his arms wrapped around my body. He kissed me gently on my forehead. “Was is really that bad,” Sam asked me.

“No, but I’m still mad,” I replied.

“I’m sorry Katie, you’re right. I shouldn’t have made you kiss me when you’re so hung up with Brent. You are just so hard to resist. I want to kiss you and hold you whenever I see you.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Can I at least kiss you on the cheek?”

“No! You can’t touch me,” I snapped.

“You can’t control that.”

“Yes. Yes I can.” I turned around and reached for the door, but Sam’s hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. “I told you not to--” Sam interrupted me. He pushed me up against my door and began kissing me again. I kissed him back for a short time before I realized what I was doing. I pushed as hard as I could on Sam’s chest and even tried moving me head, but Sam kept my head still with both of his hands.

I pushed again and this time Sam stopped, but his lips were still less than an inch from mine and I could feel his breath on my face.

“I told you--” Sam cut me off and began kissing me again. Sam wasn’t touching me but his arms were on either side of me body. I realized he was going to keep kissing me until I stopped talking and listened to what he had to say.

“Now, I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to answer it by nodding your head. That’s it.” I nodded my head. “Did you enjoy those kisses? Be honest.”

I nodded my head and Sam smiled. As Sam leaned against my door, over me, I slowly wrapped my arms around his wide chest and pulled myself up to him. He stood up and wrapped his arms around me as well making me feel safe and secure.

“Katie. I want you to be mine so bad.”

I had nothing to say to that. I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. “I have a request Sam.”

“Anything.”

“Don’t make me tell Brent.”

“I promise. He doesn’t have to know.”

“Okay.” I paused and stopped hugging Sam. “Sam, I’m scared.”

“About what? The trip?”

“Yeah, Brent’s keeping something from us.”

“I know, but it can’t be that bad. Right?”

“I hope not.”

“I’ll be here for you, Kate. I promise.”

“Okay, Sam.”

He kissed my forehead again. “Alright, I have to go Catherine.” Sam opened my bedroom door and we started walking to the front door.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.”

“Goodnight, Sam.”

“Goodnight. Sleep tight. Text me if you need anything.” Sam smiled at me, and then closed the front door behind him, leaving me alone in my kitchen.

My mind was racing. I didn’t know what to do or how to think. I had never been in this situation and never dreamed of it either. Maybe I should ask Margaret, but she’s still out with her boy. I could talk to Thomas, but he won’t want to hear about my drama.

I was convinced that Brent was still hiding something and I know that Sam believes that too. I meant to ask Brent about it specifically, but he left in such I rush, I didn’t have a chance. Maybe Brent is just really nervous and he’s not hiding anything from us at all. I mean, what could he possibly be hiding?

I needed to go to bed. That’s the only way I was going to be able to shut my brain down and stop thinking. Tomorrow was going to be crazy too, so it was best that I went to bed anyway.

Chapter 18


The next morning it took my alarm and my ringing phone to wake me up and it was brutal. When I finally understood what was happening, I looked at my phone. Brent was calling me.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Good morning Cat! How’d you sleep?” Brent seemed wide awake.

“Pretty good. You?”

“Good! Are you ready to go?”

“Yup. Just have to get dressed. When are you and Sam picking us up?”

“15 minutes.”

“Alright,” I said, and hung up. I really had to get going. I rushed out of bed and got dressed first. I had packed my suitcase already and had it waiting by the front door, so I didn’t have to worry about that.

The doorbell rang just as I was walking downstairs. Thomas opened the door and Sam was standing there, waiting.

“Good morning Catherine,” Sam sounded happy.

“Morning, Sam,” I answered, trying not to sound so excited to see him.

“Are you both ready to go,” Sam asked me and Thomas.

“Yeah, I think so,” I replied. I walked over to the stair well and said goodbye to my mom. She was sad to see me go, but knew I was going to be safe since Thomas was coming with. She doesn’t know the real reason we are leaving, or even where we are going. We came up with a pretty good story about visiting some old friends in New York and she bought it.

We left the house as soon as possible. I think everyone was anxious to get on the road and out of town. As we drove to the airport, Brent went over final details for the next couple of days.
I was sitting shotgun with Brent driving and the other boys in the back. We were riding in Brent’s black Porsche, which is the nicest car I’ve ever been in. I was almost too scared to touch it, but I guess it’s a company car, so it’s no big deal to Brent.

“You ready to go,” Brent asked me as we walked in the airport. The drive here had been fast. I must have been in my own world again.

“Yeah, I think so,” I replied.

We all walked towards the elevator, chatting about our trip and life in general. Thomas and Sam were getting pretty close which was nice to see.

The airport was pretty busy for a Wednesday morning, but we all stuck together and made it to our gate with ten minutes to spare. Brent and Thomas decided to hit the bathroom before we started boarding. I guess Sam and I were just too nervous to use the bathroom right now.

“So, how’d you sleep last night,” Sam asked me, breaking the silence.

“Good, I guess. You?” I didn’t really want to about last night.


“Pretty good. I missed you though.”

“Yeah.”

“Katie, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I guess I just feel bad about last night.

“Kate, you don’t need to feel bad. There is nothing wrong with what happened.”

“Sam, are you stupid? I kiss you twice, and I have Brent already! Cheating is no good for anyone.”

“Katie, I thought we talked about this.” Sam reached out his hand to touch my knee but I pulled it away. I didn’t want him touching me.

“That was before you made me kiss you. I think you brainwashed me or something.”

“No, I talked some sense into you. The only thing that you did wrong last night was lie to yourself. You knew you wanted to kiss me, but you denied it.”

“I still knew it was wrong! I should have been smarter.” I slouched in my chair. I didn’t want to talk about last night anymore. The only thing it did was stress me out, and there was no good in doing that.

I could sense Sam staring at me. He wanted to talk to me, but that wasn’t going to happen. He succeeded in laying a hand on my thigh and it actually felt nice; some type of comfort. I liked it there, but suddenly Sam’s head snapped up and his hand disappeared.

Brent and Thomas were back from the bathroom. Thank God. I was for sure done talking about last night, for the moment at least, but I really did like Sam’s hand on my leg.

“Everything okay here,” Brent asked, looking at me and Sam.

I looked sternly at Sam, who smiled back at me.

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” I grumbled.

A few minutes later the plan pulled into the gate. It was a small plane; one of those special ones spies get just for being spied. We needed a direct flight to Rome, Italy and this was the only option.

The four of us stood up and gave our tickets to the nice ladies at the gate door, and then we made our way to the plane. Once inside, I could see leather seats near the front of the plane and a lounge area in the back. There was a mini fridge and a T.V. This plane was pretty impressive. The food was amazing and it was never ending. Even the drinks tasted better than normal.
The trip was long and I spent much of it sleeping or talking to Brent who sat right next to me and never took his eyes off me. When the plane finally landed in Rome, I was wide awake, which wasn’t the best thing ever since we were going back to our hotel room to sleep because it was very early in the morning.

We all got into another nice car that Brent set up for us and drove to our hotel. We checked in at the very elaborate front desk and I took a second to take in my surroundings. The lobby to the hotel was like a castle. Warm lighting made the entrance feel like home and the grand staircase coming down the middle was beautiful. The whole scene was just wonderful.

After Brent checked us in, we made our way up to our suite with 3 bedrooms, kitchen, living room and 2 bathrooms. I was super excited to settle in. When we reached our suite, I was the first to walk into our full kitchen that was absolutely stunning. I walked through the kitchen into the living room with the whole back wall being windows that overlooked the city. This room had two big couches and a couple of chairs, along with the huge T.V and a mini fridge.

I turned to me left and found myself in a bedroom with two big fluffy beds and a walk out porch. The bathroom, which was attached, had a Jacuzzi and a shower with two heads. It was the nicest bathroom I’ve ever been in.

Brent was right. This hotel was really, really nice. It was almost insane. I would never been able to stay in a hotel like this with my family. There would be too many of us and it would be super expensive.

I went back into the living room, leaving my suitcase on the bed I just left behind.

“I’ll sleep in that room over there,” I said, pointing to the room I had just come from.

“Okay, sounds good. There are two more bedrooms on the other side of the suite.” Brent was talking over everyone. “Either two of us can share a room, or one of us can sleep on the couch. Catherine gets her own room no matter what.” Brent and Sam both looked at each other.

“I will take the couch,” Sam announced.

“Alright, perfect. Thank you. Feel free to make yourself at home guys,” Brent said and then went into the kitchen.
It was still dark out in Rome. There weren’t that many people on the roads either even though it was a big city. Many people live here, and it was weird knowing that my dad could be close by.

Thomas and Brent had disappeared into their rooms and I was stuck with Sam in the living room.

“I’m mad at you,” I told Sam, breaking the silence.

“I know,” Sam sounded disappointed. We stayed silent. “So, is this going to be how this whole trip goes,” Sam asked me.

“I don’t want it to be this way,” I replied. I walked towards him and sat down next to him on the couch.

“Why did you come and sit next to me?”

“Fine, I’ll leave.” I started to stand up, but Sam grabbed my hand, pulling me back towards the couch.

“What can I do to make you not mad at me,” Sam asked, completely serious.

“I don’t know. I feel like I can’t be too close to you anymore because of Brent. But who knows how that’ll turn out.

“Fine.” Sam sounded mad now. He stood up and left the room. Now I was the sad one. I got up and walked to the kitchen. I was getting something to eat from the refrigerator when someone started banging on our hotel door. I looked at the door surprised that someone would be knocking this early in the morning. I started walking towards the door to look through the hole, curious to see who it was, but someone came up from behind me, covering my mouth and wrapping their arm around me.

“Be very quiet,” Sam’s voice was a whisper. He removed his hand from my mouth and grabbed my arm, bringing me towards my bedroom. Someone pounded on the door again, scaring me and making me cling to Sam.

“Who’s going to get the door?” I was whispering, even though we were safe and sound in my room.

“Brent is.” Sam’s voice was quiet too. “Come over here.” I tiptoed over to Sam who was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. I sat on his lap and he put his arms around me. I felt much safer now. “You okay?”

“Yes, thank you,” I replied

“You’re always welcome.”

We sat there, silent for a while. The pounding had stopped, but I never figured out if Brent answered the door or not.

Someone knocked on my bedroom door and I jumped.

“Can I come in?” Brent’s voice had no emotion.

“Yeah, come on in,” Sam replied.

Brent opened the door and walked over to where I was sitting with Sam. I got off Sam’s and rushed over to Brent. He gave me a big hug, holding me tight.

“Are you okay,” Brent asked.

“Yeah, thanks to Sam. He kept me safe,” I replied.

“Thank you, Sam,” Brent said.

“Anytime,” Sam mumbled.

“Where is Thomas?” I asked.

“He’s out in the living room. He’s okay.” Brent said, still holding me.

Sam stood up and left the room. Brent and I followed him and we all sat down on the couch.

“Okay, so I put a camera outside the door when we came in the first time. I was just looking through the film and I didn’t recognize the man. He didn’t leave a note either, so I would forget that ever happened.” Brent seemed pretty calm about the whole situation.

“Catherine, we need to keep you safe, so don’t talk to anyone that you don’t know well.” Sam sounded mad again.

“Okay,” I replied.

“Just stay away from the door from now on, okay?” Thomas’ voice was serious.

I nodded my head and stayed quiet.

The next couple of hours were silent. We decided that we should get some sleep so we could get some stuff done when we really started searching.

We all fell asleep pretty quickly in our own beds and when we all finally started waking up again, the sun was out and it was time to eat.

“So, is everyone hungry,” Brent asked everyone.

“Yeah, I think so,” Sam said.

“Should we order room service, or what,” I asked.

“I could go get something from somewhere,” Thomas offered.

“That sounds like a good idea. I’ll come with you,” Sam agreed.

“Yeah, that works,” Brent said.

Brent and I gave Sam and Thomas our orders and the two boys left.

“So what are we going to do today,” I asked Brent.

“Not sure yet, Cat,” Brent replied. “Come over here. Sit by me.”

I walked over to him and sat down. He put his arm around me and I rested my head on his shoulder, and we just sat there.

“How are you doing?” Brent’s voice was a whisper.

“Good. You?”

“Missing you. I feel like I haven’t had much time with you lately.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” I lifted my head so I could see him. He sat up more and moved his hands so they were holding my neck and chin, pulling me closer to him. I could feel his breath on my face and there were butterflies in my stomach.

When our lips pressed together, it felt like the first time he kissed me. There was so much tenderness and love in the way he held me close to him. I put my arms around Brent’s neck and pulled him closer to me. He wasn’t letting me go anywhere as his hands tightened around me. I never wanted this kiss to end. This was a real kiss, not forced, by someone who actually cared about me. This felt right and I was happy.

“I’m going to keep you safe, Cat,” Brent whispered to me before pecking my lips a couple more times. I had nothing else to say, so I just kissed him back.

I don’t know how much longer that lasted, but eventually I collapsed in his arms, my head on his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around me.

“Promise me that no matter what happens after this trip you will always be my friend and love me,” Brent whispered.

“I promise,” I replied without thinking.

“Cat, I,” Brent paused. “I love you.” That was the first time any boy has ever said that to me and I was speechless at first, not knowing what to do.

“I love you too,” I responded, a smile forming on my face. I was so content in this moment; I never wanted it to end.

About ten minutes later, Thomas and Sam arrived. They brought our food in, and put it on the kitchen table.

“You guys ready to eat,” Sam asked, as he walked into the living room area.

“Yeah, I think we are,” Brent replied. He kissed me gently on the lips before letting me go, allowing me to stand up.

“What did you guys do while we were gone,” Thomas asked.

I looked at Brent and smiled. “We just talked,” I replied, unsure of myself.

“Oh, sure,” Sam replied, smiling at me.

“So, what do we have to eat,” I asked Thomas and Sam, changing the subject.

“Oh, a little bit of everything, Kate,” Thomas replied.

“Good! I’m so hungry,” I said. Brent’s hand rested on the small of my back as he led me over to the kitchen.

Chapter 19


We ate breakfast fairly quickly and then we finished settling into the hotel room; unpacking our bags and getting ready for our first day of searching.

Our first stop was where my dad was last called into work before he was kidnapped. The building was only a few blocks away and towered over the surrounding buildings. As we approached the building Brent reminded us of a few things.

“Okay, I’m going to talk. The rest of you; please be quiet. Oh, and if something goes wrong everyone fights for themselves, except Cat. Sam, I trust you to keep her safe.” Brent was really getting down to business.

Brent looked at me and then to Sam, who nodded. Sam and I then smiled at each other. As much as I was nervous for whatever was going on with my dad, I was excited too.

The four of us walked into the tall building and Brent talked to the guy at the front desk. He seemed to recognize my dad’s name and gave us new directions.

We traveled around the city, from person to person, just like a scavenger hunt; finding out new clues and pursuing them. We didn’t find any new information until our last stop. It was a restaurant that my dad was supposedly last seen in.

It was an old Chinese restaurant and the man behind the counter in the back of the main floor was older. As we approached him he looked up at us. Brent slowed down his pace and suddenly I felt like I was in danger. Sam and Thomas moved closer to me.

“Hi, we have a couple questions for you,” Brent said cautiously to the Chinese man behind the counter.

“What questions could you possibly have for a Chinese man?” The man spoke with a strong Chinese accent.

“We are wondering if you’ve heard of the name Richard Stone.”

“Why do you want to know?” The man had tensed up and looked away.

“We are just trying to find him.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of the name,” the man paused, as if her were trying to choose his words. “He left my restaurant without paying. One second he was here and the next he was gone.”

“Oh, okay,” Brent seemed disappointed, but I think he had caught onto the man’s lies. “Do you have any idea where he is?”

The man shook his head and made a point of not looking up at us.

“Do you mind if I look around the place,” Brent asked.

“Yeah, actually.” The man’s head snapped up in defense. “You can’t do that.”

“I just want to look around.” Brent was testing the man.

“No!” The man yelled. “You cant.”

Suddenly another man came from the back of the store.

“What’s going on out here,” The younger man asked. He looked at us and then his eyes landed on Brent. I thought I saw a flash of recognition in his eyes when he saw Brent, but I wasn’t too sure.

“This man wants to search our restaurant because he is trying to find Richard Stone,” the older man exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

“Why do you need to find him,” the younger man asked, looking at Brent again.

“Do you know where he is,” Brent asked.

“Yes, I do.” The younger Chinese man replied. He looked at me and started smiling, making me feel uncomfortable. Sam and Thomas took one more step towards me and then stopped. Brent backed up, keeping an eye on the two men.

The younger man started walking towards me and I began moving back towards the door we walked in. Brent’s hand moved around to his back signaling me to stop moving backwards.

“Where is he?” Brent asked the men.

“We can’t give you the information,” the older man replied. So, he had been lying to us.

“Why not,” Brent asked.

“Why would we tell some random guy where he is?” The younger man was yelling.

“We know who he is,” Brent yelled back. The older man gave Brent a questioning look, but the younger man hadn’t taken his eyes off of me.

“Prove it!” The young man shouted. Brent hesitated.

Brent fumbled around in his pockets until he found my passport. He handed it over to the younger man, who took it. He opened it and read over the information. Brent handed him Thomas passport too, and the man inspected that one as well.

The young man looked at Brent and then at me and Thomas.

“I see,” the young man said; quieter now.

Brent just nodded his head and I felt like I was missing something.

“If you come back with those two,” the younger man pointed at me and Thomas “tonight around 5:30PM, we will tell you where Richard Stone is, and that’s it.”

“Do they have to come with,” Brent asked.

“Of course they do. You know why, Brent.” The young man looked at Brent as if he was dumb, but how did he know Brent’s name?

“Promise these two won’t get hurt and we’ll come back tonight.” Brent seemed to ignore what the Chinese man just said.

“Promise,” the man said at the same time.

“Okay. We’ll see you later then,” Brent said and then slowly turned around and began walked towards the rest of us. “Let’s go,” he said under his breath.

We quickly walked as far away from the restaurant as possible. None of us talked. It wasn’t until we were in the car driving back to the hotel that someone spoke.

“So are we going back there tonight?” It was Sam who asked the question.

“Yeah. We have to.” Brent seemed pretty sure of his decision.

“Okay. So we have some time to kill. We can unwind and relax in the hotel before we have to leave again. Okay,” Sam offered.

“That works. We can get something to eat there,” Brent said.

“Okay, that’s good with me,” I said, my head still whirling. There was something going on that I didn’t know, and it was driving me crazy.

“Kate, are you okay?” Thomas sounded concerned.

“Yeah, I think I have some questions though,” I replied.

“Ask away,” Brent said. He smiled at me, but it wasn’t his normal smile; something was different. He looked worried and scared, even sorry.

“You knew the younger Chinese guy. You’ve met him before because he knew your name when you never told him what it was. He kept staring at me. As soon as he walked in, he knew who I was. You’re keeping something from us. Why do they want me? Where is my dad?”

Brent took a deep breath before responding. “Look, Cat, you’re right. About everything.” I didn’t even look at him. “Just don’t be mad.” He paused. “The only reason your dad was kidnapped was so that the kidnapper could get to you. You knew that, right?”

“Yeah, I knew that,” I snapped. He was going to tell me what he was hiding from us.

“I’m the delivery man. It’s my job to bring you to the kidnapper.” He paused. The car was silent. “The company really needs your dad back. They don’t care about you. The first time we met; that was all a lie. Evan wanted me and you close. Close enough so that you would trust me. That way, the exchange is easier.” He paused again. “And you’re right. I knew Kang. He was the one that came to our door when we got to the hotel earlier. He thought he was supposed to pick you up, but I told him that we would meet him later and he left. I’m sorry I lied to you. I thought that this was going to be easier Cat, but it’s actually hard, because I fell in love with you.”

“So the only reason I ever met you was so that you could free my dad? This whole thing was just a joke? A big lie?” I was trying to hold in my anger as tears ran down my cheeks. I turned around and looked in the back seat where Sam and Thomas were sitting. They both looed as surprised as I did; the only person that knew this information was Brent.

“Cat, I’m really sorry. I’m still not going to let anything happen to you. You still have to trust me!” Brent reached across and tried to wipe my tears off my face, but I slapped his hand away and moved as far away from him as possible.

“Why would I trust you when you’ve been lying to me this whole time?”

“I haven’t lied the entire time. I didn’t know where your dad was this morning. So all the searching today; that was real! And I love you Cat! That’s true. I wouldn’t lie to you about that. Promise me you still trust me.”

“I don’t,” I said, lowering my voice. “And the only reason that I am going back to that place tonight, is to free my dad. Not because I trust you and not because I love you, Brent.”

I was a good thing that we were in the parking lot of the hotel. I got out of the car as fast as possible and made my way to the front door.

Sam caught up with me in the elevator up to our room. He put his hand in mine and forced me to look at him. “I’m so sorry Katie. I had no idea that’s what his plan was.” His hand was resting on my cheek and he truly looked sorry and innocent.

“I can’t believe he tricked all of us,” I said, tears rushing down my face as I buried my face in Sam’s shoulder.

Sam held my hand until we got to the room and Thomas was there shortly after, tears in his eyes too. Brent was still nowhere to be found, which was good. I can’t handle seeing him right now.

I went to my room and threw myself on the bed, wanting to be alone for more than five minutes. A while later, I heard the hotel door open and someone come in, assuming it was Brent.

Soon after, there was a knock at my door.

“Who is it,” I asked, hoping it wasn’t Brent.

“Sam.” His voice was low.

I went over to the door and opened it slowly. Sure enough, Sam was standing outside my door. I opened the door wider and let Sam slip inside. I shut the door and then turned to look at him. I could tell he was upset as he wrapped me up in a hug.

I buried my face in his shoulder again and let the tears flow. I squeezed him hard, never wanting to let him go. Sam was the one that really cared about me. He had been right the whole time. I should have followed my heart from the beginning, especially when I was questioning Brent the first night I met him.

“I am so sorry, Kate. I had no idea.” Sam’s voice was muffled by my hair. He kept telling me how sorry he was and I just hugged him back, letting him comfort me as I cried.

“Thank you for being here,” I said, as we moved over to the big comfy chair.

“You’re always welcome, Katie.”

Sam and I sat and talked awhile longer until there was a knock at my door.

“Catherine, we have to go.” It was Brent.

I looked at Sam and we both stood up and walked over to the door. Brent didn’t look surprised when he opened the door and saw me and Sam. No one said anything as we left the hotel room.

When we reached the car, I sat in the back with Thomas and Sam, leaving Brent alone in the front. Sam held my hand the whole way, just to comfort me.

“Okay, so we are going to go in there and listen to what they have to say,” Brent acted as if nothing ever happened. No one in the back seat acknowledged Brent.

We arrived at the restaurant and we walked in silently. It had been closed for a while by the time we got there and the two Chinese men were waiting in the back.

“Well, it is nice to see you again,” the older man said to us. “By the way, my name is Chang and this is my nephew Kang.” Chang smiled.

“So, let’s get down to business. Where is Richard?” Brent was serious.

“The only thing that I can tell you right now is that he is still in the city and he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.” Chang laughed and then stepped towards Brent. “I could give you more information,” Chang said to Brent and then looked at me. I took a step back into Sam’s arms, because I felt safe there. He wrapped him arms around my torso and squeezed tight.

“She has nothing to do with this,” Brent said to Chang.

“And we all know that’s a lie,” Kang piped up for the first time and smiled at Brent.

Brent didn’t smile back. Inside I knew Brent still cared for me, but there was no way I could forgive him for putting my life in danger and keeping his plan from me.

“Well, you know, it’s not me that wants the girl,” Chang said. “I may have been the kidnapper, but I was hired by someone else. He’s the one that wants her.”

“Well you don’t get her,” Brent said.

“Why not,” Chang asked.

“You don’t need her.”

“You’re right. I don’t. But someone else does.”

“Too bad,” Brent said, finally smiling.

“How am I going to get my father back,” I asked.

Everyone turned to look at me. They hadn’t expected me to talk. Chang started walking towards me. Brent stepped in front of me, but Chang pulled out a knife, placing it on Brent’s throat. I stopped breathing, scared to move.

“Move away from the girl,” Chang said. Everyone around me took a couple steps away from me, except Sam.

“Please let go of the girl,” Chang asked Sam, whose arms were still around me.

“No, she doesn’t deserve this,” Sam replied.

“Yes, she does. She was the one who showed up!” Chang paused. “If you don’t let go I will kill him right now,” Chang threatened, gesturing towards Brent.

I flinched but stayed in Sam’s arms. He squeezed me one more time, kissed my head and then slowly released me from his arms. “I’ll be back. I’m not leaving without you,” Sam whispered and took a couple steps back.

“Thank you.” Chang paused, took a step away from Brent and then looked at Kang. Without talking, Kang moved towards me. I was too scared to move. He grabbed me so hard I gasped and he forced me to the back of the restaurant. He turned me around so that I was facing Brent, Sam and Thomas. One of his hands was holding my wrists, the other holding a knife to my throat. I had started holding my breath, scared to move again because of my intense fear of knifes.

“Don’t touch her,” Sam begged. “And take away the knife. She won’t run.”

“I don’t trust her yet.” The knife Kang was holding dug into my skin a little more and I backed up towards Kang to try to get away from the knife. “I like that feeling,” Kang whispered in my ear, sending shivers down my spine. “Too bad I’m not the one who wants you.”

“She had nothing to do with this,” Sam yelled.

“I can tell you right now, you’re lying. If she has nothing to do with this, then why is she here?” Chang was looking right into Brent’s eyes.

“It’s my fault,” Brent gasped. “I tricked her. I made her come without knowing the real reason.”

“Well that’s not very nice,” Kang said to Brent. “Are you mad at him,” Kang asked me quietly.

I nodded my head even though there was still a knife on my throat.

“Too bad she might die because of you,” Chang announced.

“She will not be dying anytime soon,” Sam replied.

“What makes you so sure,” Chang responded.

“I won’t let it happen,” Sam said.

“Right, okay,” Chang replied laughing.

“Where’s Richard?” Brent asked, ignoring the fact that I might die because of him.

Kang’s grip on my tightened and now Chang was standing next to him. “Actually, he’s here, in this building,” Chang said, smiling.

I fought against Kang’s grip, but he only tightened his grip and pulled me closer to him. His cheek was touching mine and I could hear him breathing in my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

“How do we get him?” Brent asked.

“You don’t, unless you let us keep the girl. Or, we will keep both for a while before giving them back. That is, if they aren’t dead,” Chang said.

“That’s not fair!” Sam was angry and stressed.

“Fine! We keep the girl and you can have Richard.” Kang replied. “Fair enough?”

“How do we get her back,” Thomas asked, saying something for the first time.

“I don’t know yet. We don’t really need her for anything, so maybe we will just kill her,” Chang said. “Otherwise, we can talk to our boss.”

“You can’t just kill her!” Sam was fuming.

“Watch me,” Chang said, pulling out another knife.

“No!” Sam yelled and Change lightly placed the knife on my forearm. He smiled into my eyes and then I could feel the pressure of the knife against my skin, and then a sharp pain. I screamed, scared to look down at my arm, which I’m sure had blood rushing out. I closed my eyes and started crying. “Stop!!” Sam was still yelling, but he hadn’t reached me. I bet Brent and Thomas are holding him back. “Please, stop.” Sam sounded defeated.

“You are the one that really loves her,” Chang said, letting me go and giving me a towel to hold on my now bleeding arm.

I looked up at Sam. His eyes were watery. Brent wasn’t facing me and Thomas looked scared.

“Please, just don’t hurt her anymore,” Sam begged, ignoring Chang’s comment.

Kang took that moment to turn my away from everyone and lead me down a flight of stairs.

Chapter 20

“We didn’t make a deal,” Brent forced words out between clenched teeth.

“Too late,” Chang said. “Richard is all yours though.”

Brent was about to argue with Chang when Sam walked up behind him.

“Let her go. I know it’s hard, but if we have Richard, he can help us get her back,” Sam whispered into Brent’s ear, talking to him for the first time since Brent told the truth.

Brent just nodded his head, trying not to show any emotion. He didn’t want to show the enemy how hard it was for him to watch Catherine go.

“Fine. Bring Richard to us,” Brent said to Chang, who turned around and left the room the same way Kang had left with Catherine.

“Nobody say a thing,” Brent informed the group. “They might have cameras or voice recorders. Just stay quiet until he comes back.”

A few moments later, Chang returned with Richard, and everyone kept quiet.

“Are you happy,” Chang asked Brent.

“Not has happy and I could be, but we’ll take it,” Brent replied. “Don’t be surprised if we come back before the end of the week.”

Chang just nodded his head and pushed Richard towards Brent, who turned around and began walking.

Thomas had gone outside to wait so that Richard wouldn’t communicate during the exchange, so when Richard walked outside following two strangers, he was completely surprised to see Thomas standing there.

Thomas ran to his dad and gave him a hug, but then the celebration was over and there was some major explaining to do.

The boys all hopped in the rental car, and drove back to the hotel. The car was silent.

As the arrived at the hotel, everyone got out and they met up in the living room.

“Let’s all go and sit down on the couch,” Brent told the group.

They all sat down and Brent stood, as usual.

“Okay, first of all, Richard, I am Brent Cloud. I work for A33 or the American Spy Organization, same as you. I work in a different department in the organization, which is why our paths have never crossed before now. This is Sam Knight. He goes to school with Margaret and Catherine.”

“How do you know my family,” Richard asked, defensively.

“Please, let me finish.” Brent replied and then went on. “A few months ago, my boss Evan Coore asked me to keep a close eye on Richard’s family. He said that since Richard accidently had Nick Sayner’s dad fired, and that Mr. Sayner made some very serious threats against Richard’s family, there was a very high possibility that trouble would occur later on down the road. The organization has had problems with the Sayner’s previously, and didn’t want anything to reoccur.” Brent paused.

Sam couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Sure enough, something came up. Mr. Sayner asked Chang and Kang from the Chinese restaurant to kidnap Richard when he was on a business trip to Italy. When this happened, I was told to go and get Richard and bring him back no matter what the circumstances were. Right before I was about to leave, Evan stopped me. Chang had contacted Evan, informing us that Catherine was the key to bringing Richard home safely.” Brent paused again. “Nick’s dad has been working with Chang obviously and I believe Nick is the man who wants Catherine. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Nick was in the building right now.”

“Are you crazy?” Sam stood up and began walking over to Brent. “She loved you Brent. She trusted you and now you are just pushing her to the side as if nothing ever happened?” Sam had Brent pinned up against the wall.

“Guys, stop fighting!” Thomas was up off the couch now, trying to separate the two. “We aren’t going to get Kate back if you two are fighting.”

“Can someone please explain more. I am still lost.” Richard was still sitting on the couch.

“The rest of the story,” Brent said, pushing Sam off of him, “Is that Evan told me to meet with Catherine and talk to her about working with me. She accepted, knowing that she could help save her father. It was just going to be the two of us traveling, but Sam’s friends had Evan kidnapped so that Nick could talk to Catherine to see what she knew about the trip. Sam and her met that evening and they seemed to work well together, despite all the fighting they go through. Evan knew they had met and had me ask Sam to join us and he agreed. Sam and I wanted one more person to bring, to even things out and we knew that Cat trusted Thomas the most so we decided to bring him along with us as well.”

“So you basically tricked all of us into coming here,” Sam sounded bitter.

“Please! Be quiet!” Brent snapped and then finished the story. “We all flew here yesterday, spent all day looking for clues on where you might be,” Brent said, pointing to Richard. “We stopped in at the Chinese restaurant, knowing you were close by and Chang and Kang told us to come back later. When I was talking to Catherine, I told her why she really came, and of course she got mad at me and then about an hour ago we showed up at the restaurant again. We negotiated and talked with Chang and they took Catherine away from us and gave of you instead. That brings us to where we are now.”

Richard was shocked. “You’re telling me, that my daughter is where I have been for the past couple weeks?”

“Yes sir,” Brent said. “I’m very sorry, sir. I was told to retrieve you by any means necessary.”

Richard has nothing else to say as he put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

“Well how are you going to get her back, Brent?” Thomas asked. He was so mad. “Because this is all your fault.”

Brent stood up. “Look you guys. I know you all probably hate me right now, but I loved her too. I didn’t plan to fall in love with her and you have no idea how hard it was for me to watch them take her. So, I’ll take the blame for all this and I am going to get her back. I promise. I’ll come up with a plan.” With that, Brent left the room, leaving everyone to think.

About an hour later, all the boys were crowded around the table, sharing ideas. They had a plan forming. It would take a lot of work and it could be done, but they all had to work together, and that would be the hardest part.

Chapter 21


I was almost in tears by the time I reached the bottom of the stairs that Kang had led me down. We were walking through small hallways and I had lost all sense of direction. The only thing I knew was that we had gone down at least one flight of stairs, putting us underground.

Kang had finally stopped pushing me and unlocked a door on the right side of the hallway. He opened the door, pushed me through it, and then slammed the door behind me, locking it.

It took me a moment to figure out what was going on. The lights were on and there was a couch and a T.V. The walls were white and there was only one lamp on a side table. In the middle of the room, in front of the couch was a long coffee table.

There were feet resting on the table, which scared me. I thought I was alone. I slowly looked from the feet to the head of the person I was sharing this room with and was petrified with I met eyes with Nick Sayner. He was sitting on the couch, completely relaxed, staring at me.

“Why aren’t you happy to see me,” Nick asked, jokingly.

“Why would I be happy to see you? The last time I saw you, I was in the woods after you kidnapped Evan,” I replied, a little more sure of myself.

“I guess that makes sense. Why don’t you come and sit down next to me.”

“Why am I here?”

“Come and sit, and I will explain everything.”

I slowly walked over to him and sat down on the couch. He moved closer to me and rested his arm around my shoulders. I tried to move away but he wouldn’t let go of me.

Nick sighed and then began his story. “I will start from the very beginning. Your dad and my dad worked together. One day, your dad told the company to fire my dad. My dad couldn’t get another job and we had to sell our house and move into an apartment. My family is pretty good at revenge. I guess you could say we’re known for it by certain people, however we are also notorious for not getting caught, so my dad thought that kidnapping your dad was the best option. That way, he could get whatever he wanted by threatening to kill your dad. So my dad decided to call some old friends here in Italy and they drafted a plan. They decided to go into action when your dad came into the Chinese restaurant. The managers would kidnap him and they would hold him hostage until notified. Of course, my dad knew your dad’s exact moves since they were supposed to work on this mission together.” Nick paused. “Now, that, my dear, is all I know. I don’t know how Brent got into the equation. My guess would be that the ASO had their eyes on my family and decided to have Brent trick you into coming here so that the ASO could get your dad back safely. I told my dad I wanted you to myself, so that’s why you’re here.”

“I hate you.” That was all I could muster.

“That is really unfortunate, because you are stuck with me for a while, unless you miss behave. Then they might just kill you.”

I just stayed quiet.

“Well, you must be tired. You can go ahead and sleep if you want. I promise I won’t hurt you if you keep listening to me. I’ll wake you up when I need you later.”

Nick moved away from me and then pulled me down so that my head was resting on his legs. He arm snaked around my back and under my shirt, resting on my waist. I tried to ignore his touch, but I couldn’t. I grabbed his hand to move it but he only held on tighter.

“I told you Catherine. I won’t hurt you if you listen to me. Let me touch you, love.”

“Don’t you ever call me that. You don’t love me. If you did, you would treat me better.”

“That may be true Catherine. Now sleep.”

He was right. I was tired. I fell asleep almost instantly, but I did remember one thing. The ring Brent had given me. What was it? Rotate the ring counter-clock wise twice? Yeah, that was it. I rotated it twice and then fell asleep peacefully in Nick’s lap.

Chapter 22


Brent’s phone started beeping. It was late in the night and the boys were almost done perfecting their plan. Everyone when quiet when they heard Brent’s phone, but when Brent looked at his screen, he started smiling.

“What,” Sam asked.

“She’s such a good listener,” Brent replied.

“Who are you talking about? Catherine?” Richard asked, anxiously.

“The first time I met Cat I gave her a ring to keep her safe when I’m not there. It has a tracking device on it. She must have had some time alone, because she triggered the device, which sends me a message with her coordinates and now I have the exact location of her.

Chapter 23


This whole week had gone by fast and I couldn’t believe that it was Friday when I woke up the next morning. The only thing that I was sure of in this moment, was that Nick was gone and he had left a note.


Catherine,


I have stepped out for awhile to get something for you to eat. Please don’t try to leave. I don’t want to have you killed and all the doors are locked anyways. I’ll be back soon.

Love,


Nick


I couldn’t believe it. I was so mad at Nick. Why would he want me? Hopefully, Brent had received my location from the ring and help would be on the way soon. I don’t know how much longer I could listen to Nick.

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I got up and was about to open the door when I remember that it was locked. I stood there and stared at the door and then it opened slowly. I was confused at first, but then Nick’s smiling face popped into view, making me grimace.

“I’m so glad you’re up. I found us some food!” Nick had so much energy.

I just glared at Nick and shut the door he had just come through.

“Why are you so angry? I let you sleep for ten hours.”

My emotions didn’t change. I kept glaring at Nick as he moved around me and set the food down on the coffee table. I followed him with my eyes, making me turn away from the door. He walked back to where I was standing, leaving only inches between us. I could feel his breath on my face.

He slowly wrapped his arms around me, pushing me against the door. One of his hands rested on the back of my head and the other on my lower back. I put my arms between our bodies and pushed as hard as I could. I was not going to kiss Nick.

“Please don’t fight this,” Nick whispered. Then he pulled something from his pocket. It was a small knife and I suddenly felt like I was going to throw up again. My arms froze and my breathing quickened. Nick’s arm on my lower back tightened as the knife came closer to my neck. I could feel the blade on my skin now. “You have a fear of knives, do you not?” Nick’s voice was serious and steady.

“Nick, please. Don’t.” I was begging him, as I could feel my eyes tearing up. I had had way too much contact with knives in the past week.

“Put your arms around me.” Nick’s voice was calm, but demanding and it almost made me trust him. I did as I was told. With my heart racing, I put one arm around his neck and the other stopped at his arm with the knife. I climbed up is arm to his hand, uncurled his fingers from the knife, and made him drop the knife.

The knife hitting the floor sounded like a bowling ball. The room had been so quiet. I moved my arm so both my arms were around Nick’s neck, my breathing returning to normal. Nick leaned in towards me and moments before our lips touched, I brought my leg up and kneed him right between the legs. He groaned and let go of me. I took this opportunity to pick up the knife and hold it in front of me.

Nick looked up and began smiling. “You have learned well,” he paused. “Now, drop the knife and kiss me. Or else I will tie you down and have you killed. Please, Catherine, I really don’t want to hurt you.”

I bent down and slid the knife under the door so that neither of us could reach it. He smiled at me. “Fair enough.”

Then he took another step towards me, put his hands on my back and neck and pulled me towards him. My heart was beating so fast. I didn’t want to kiss Nick; I wanted Sam, the only boy who actually loved me.

Nick didn’t care what I wanted, though. He began to kiss me and the only think I could do was kiss him back. He pushed me towards the couch and I tried to resist him, but he was much taller than me; not to mention how strong he was. Nick basically picked me up and moved me across the room.

This whole time he never stopped kissing me. Occasionally his lips would me down to my neck and then move slowly up towards my lips again, but I could barely feel him. His lips were so soft on my skin and I was trying not to pay attention to what was going on.

I was still struggling against him when he finally stopped kissing me. We were sitting on the couch now and he was hovering over me. We were both breathing hard. “You have got to stop struggling. You aren’t going to get your way, so stop trying.” Nick was furious and his eyes were dark, scaring me.

“Did it ever occur to you that I don’t want to kiss you,” I asked.

“Obviously you don’t, but you will have to learn to like it.”

Nick came at me again, but not before flipping us over so that I was on top of him. He pulled me closer to him and started to move his hands. The one on my neck slowly crept down my arm, over my waist, and rested on my upper thigh. Nick’s touch made me shiver, but I couldn’t let him know that. I tried to move his hand back up to my neck, but he didn’t budge.

The only thing he did in response was squeeze me closer to him. I could barely breathe and now his other hand was on the move. His hand moved to my hip and slowly starting creeping under my shirt.

In an effort to stop Nick from touching me, I moved, only to have him roll over. Now I was on the bottom again and he was pinning me down on the couch.

“Stop fighting me,” he panted. Then his lips locked on mine and his hand moved farther up my shirt.

There was no way I was going to let this happen. Neither Brent nor Sam had done this to me, so there was no way I was going to let Nick do it.

I quickly brought my knee up again and hit Nick in between his legs once again. He snapped up and rolled off the couch. I moved quickly, got off the couch, and ran towards the door. Nick was right behind me when I turned around to see what he was doing.

He grabbed my arms, pinned them up against the door. He came at me one last time, but this time his lips stopped short of mine. “You are going to regret everything you’ve just done. I am done giving you changes. Tomorrow morning, I am going to take you out. By myself.” He let me go and shoved me towards the couch. “You better sleep. Tomorrow is going to be very stressful.

I sat down on the couch and he followed. He pulled me down so that my head was on his lap again and he covered me with a blanket, but by that time I was already sleeping and dreaming about the man I really loved.

When I woke up the next morning I was scared. I didn’t know where I was or who I was lying on, but it didn’t take me long to figure it out. I was in the same room I’d been in for two days and Nick was now shaking me.

“You need to get up, now!” Nick was yelling in my ear. Nothing like a rude awakening to start your weekend.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes, as they were still trying to adjust to the lighting.

“We are leaving this room in an hour.” Nick got up and left the room without saying another word.

I was left, in a quiet room, with nothing else to think about, but my own death.

Chapter 24



“Come one! We need to hurry! They might have killed her by now!” Sam was going crazy. He couldn’t take being away from Kate any longer. He wanted her, safe, in his arms.

Brent was basically speeding down some back road in Rome. The boys had been up two nights in a row getting ready and perfecting their plan. They had to wait until Saturday to rescue Catherine because that was the only morning when the restaurant was closed.

The boys’ plan had just been put into action. Brent had dropped Richard off at a Subway station a few blocks away from the restaurant. Richard knew there were underground tunnels that would eventually lead to the hallway he had been kept in for a few weeks, which also happens to be where Catherine is located.

Brent was now driving to where Sam and Thomas were being dropped off; about a block away from the restaurant, so they wouldn’t be seen. That way they could reach the back door quickly. Brent was going to park in front of the restaurant, going in for the initial distraction by himself.

The rental car pulled into a parking spot about a block away from the back of the Chinese restaurant. The boys couldn’t risk being seen until the very right moment.

“Now, be patient or else this plan isn’t going to work. Thomas make sure you keep Sam in place until the perfect time,” Brent instructed the two boys, before letting them out of the car.

Brent was only a few blocks away from reaching his own drop off destination. He had to park farther away from the building, but as soon as he parked the car, he jumped out and began running to the front door. He walked as he grew closer to the building, trying to catch his breath and time this whole thing just right.


***


Richard was walking swiftly through the underground tunnels. He knew them well after living down here for a few weeks and studying the maps really well over the past day.

He kept walking until he found the one he recognized from the maps. He reached the same hallway he had lived in and found his exact room. Brent had told him the room number of Catherine’s door and now Richard was only a few steps away.

Catherine’s dad came to her door and stopped dead. All of a sudden he was nervous. He couldn’t bring his hand to the door. He was scared of what he might find.



***


Sam and Thomas had just reached the back door. Sam was ready to pounce and try to find Kate, but he knew better and Thomas was doing his best at keeping Sam calm.

The plan for the two boys was to listen quietly for any commotion from inside the building. When they heard anything they would break open the door and go from there, not knowing what they may find. So, until then, all they had to do was wait.


***


Brent was only about six steps away from the front door and he still hadn’t controlled his breathing. Not because he had been running, but because he was nervous too. What if the plan didn’t work? What if Cat was already dead?

Despite his negative thoughts, Brent pushed forward and slowly opened the door.


***


I was shaking so much and the only thing I was doing was being stared at by Nick.

“What?” I asked, despite my nervousness.

“Are you ready to go,” Nick asked, like nothing was really going on.

“You’re not going to go through with this.”

“Yes, I am.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well you should have been a better guest.” Nick looked at me and I scowled back at him. Then he grabbed my hands and pulled me to the door; to my death.



***


As Brent walked into the restaurant he was relieved to see Chang sitting in the back of the room. That meant Catherine was still okay, maybe.

“Can I talk to you,” Brent asked casually.

“Why,” Chang asked. “I know why you’re here. You are here to kidnap Catherine, but you are too late, my friend. If Nick was true on his word, she is already dead.” Chang was completely calm.

Brent snapped with anger. He couldn’t take it anymore. He ran to the back of the restaurant and started pounding Change, who didn’t see Brent coming and was totally caught by surprise.

In the back of Brent’s mind he made sure to make enough loud noises so that Thomas and Sam could hear him, but the only thing he was really thinking about was Catherine. He didn’t know what he would do without her in his life, especially since it was his fault she was here in the first place.

He forced himself and Catherine to fall in love, just trying to gain her trust faster, but after while he actually started loving her. Brent had felt so bad after he told her what the plan had been the whole time, but what hurt the most was seeing Sam in her room afterward. He tried not to show how disappointed her was, but deep down, that was still really bothering him.

Brent was also mad, because he totally deserved everything that he was getting. He wasn’t good enough for Cat anymore, that was obvious and no one would let him forget that. Sam has been the right one for her from the beginning. Brent and Sam both knew that. Brent just had to suck it up and move on. He probably lost Cat forever, but he still wanted to fight for her to be safe.

Brent was about to stop fighting, because he was clearly winning. Chang was over in the corner trying to catch his breath when Brent stopped thinking about Cat and brought himself back to reality. It was quiet in the room, but suddenly Kang came running in with Sam and Thomas right behind him. Brent smiled; glad his plan had worked so far, and ran towards Chang, hoping to finish him off.


***


Richard was about to reach for Catherine’s door when it opened. Richard jumped back in surprise, but then relief flooded his body as he realized his daughter was still alive. Her wrists were tied behind her back and tape covered her mouth, but she was breathing nonetheless. Nick was holding onto her from behind and both him and Catherine had a look of surprise across their faces.

It took a moment for Richard to realize what was going on, but he soon got a hold of Nick, released Catherine and told her to run. When she was out of sight, Richard began to fight Nick, beating him down until he could barely move.


***


Sam was about to hit Kang over the head with a glass bottle that he had found behind a table, when he saw Catherine.

“Kate! You’re alive!” Sam was overjoyed.

“Sam focus!” Thomas was still in fight mode. Sam brought his attention back to Catherine, hit Kang over the head and then rushed back to the girl he loved. Sam wrapped her in his arms, loving the feeling of her body against his.

“You need to go out the back door.” Sam pointed behind him. “Go around the building and Brent’s car should be somewhere on the street. Get in the car, lock the doors, and stay hidden. We will all meet you there when we are done.”

Sam grabbed her hands and untied her wrists. He took the tape off her lips and they stared at each other for a split second before Catherine leaned forward placing her hands on either side of Sam’s face and kissing him gently. Sam tried to say something back to her, but she was already gone, heading towards the door.


***


Brent and Chang had moved to the front of the restaurant and were feet away from the front door. Chang kept looking at the entrance and Brent realized he might use that entrance as an escape route. Brent protected the only exit for Chang. That was until he saw Catherine run by it. Brent stopped fighting and stared at her, glad she was alive and well, but snapped out of his mind when he realized Chang had sneaked by him and was now chasing Cat down the sidewalk, a knife in his hand.

Brent burst out of the restaurant and ran as fast as he could. He was right behind Chang now and he jumped up into the air, aiming for his enemy.


***


I didn’t really know what was going on, but I did know that someone was chasing me down the sidewalk and no one was telling me to stop. It was a good thing that Sam had taken the tape and rope off my lips and mouth, otherwise running would be a bit of an issue.

I was almost to Brent’s car and I wasn’t going to let anything or anyone stop me. That was until I heard a loud crash behind me. Then I slowed down and turned around to find Brent and Chang lying on the concrete; both motionless.

When I took a few steps closer it looked like that were both dead and I rush of nausea came over me. I didn’t know what to do. What if they were both dead? I kept inching closer, wanting to know for sure.

Suddenly, Brent’s arm began to move and then his whole body was moving, but Chang still looked like a statue. Brent was on his feet now and I was relieved as we both stared down at Chang’s motionless body.

Brent slowly bent over and rolled Chang’s body over. I gasped and turned away. Apparently Chang had been running with a knife, as it was now lodged almost all the way through his chest. Chang’s eyes were wide opened and he was clearly dead.

I looked back and Brent, who slowly turned towards me. I knew what he wanted and I was scared I wasn’t going to be strong enough to refuse. He stopped about five inches away from me. I tried to take a step back, but he grabbed both my hands and pulled them up to his neck. I let my hands rest there as he placed his hands on the small of my back and lured me closer to him. I let my hands relax and they slowly slid down to Brent’s chest. My heart was beating quickly, but I knew I couldn’t let anything happen.

“Brent, I can’t do this,” I whispered.

“Cat, I’m so sorry. I wish that none of this would have happened. I love you so much and I wish that I could take back these last couple days and have a normal relationship with you.” Brent hugged me gently. “This wasn’t the plan Cat. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you like I did. I just want you back again.”

“It’s too late now, Brent. You blew it.” I stepped away from him and stepped over Chang’s body so that I could walk back towards the restaurant that I had just escaped from.

The streets were silent for the most part. It seemed as if everyone in Rome had decided to sleep in. There were a few people that drove down the street, but no one took the time to wonder why there was a dead body on the ground. There was a couple walking down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road, completely oblivious to what just occurred.

Brent caught up to me. He put an arm around my waist and escorted me back to the building. When we walked back inside the doors of the Chinese restaurant, I was scared all over again. I took an instinctive step back towards Brent, who held me close.

As we neared the back of the restaurant, I found Sam and Thomas, both hovering over Kang’s body.

“Is he dead,” Brent asked.

“No, unconscious. Sam hit him over the head with a glass bottle. Then he fell over and hit his head on the table,” Thomas replied.

Sam and I said nothing. We just stared at each other. I realized I really loved Sam, I always had. I walked over to him and he gave me a big hug and kissed my forehead. I squeezed him hard, never wanting to let him go. I felt safe in his arms and that was all I wanted right now.

Of course Brent had to ruin the moment. “We should go check on Richard,” Brent murmured, obviously annoyed with the attention I was giving Sam.

We all walked down the stairs to find another body lying on the floor.

“Is he dead,” Thomas asked, pointing at Nick’s body.

“No, just unconscious. I put him in a deadlock until he passed out. He should be fine by tomorrow.”

My dad looked up and his eyes met mine. My eyes started to water. I have never been so happy to see my dad. I rushed over to him and gave him a big hug. Everyone joined in, relieved that the hardest part was over.

“Now what do we do,” I asked the boys. “Shouldn’t we call the police or something?”

“Yeah, we probably should. There are three bodies lying on the floor,” Brent replied.

“Here I got the number,” my dad said.

Brent took out his phone and dialed the number. The hallway was quiet, almost as if nothing had happened.

We all walked upstairs to wait for the police. When they finally arrived, Sam and I waited in the back, while the rest of the boys went to explain the situation.

“I am so sorry, Katie.” Sam grabbed my hands, holding them tight. I pulled my hands from him and wrapped my arms around his torso. He pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arms around me, kissing me head. “Catherine?”

“Yeah,” I asked.

“I promise to always keep you safe. If I am with you, you will be safe, okay?”

“Sam, that was the same thing Brent said to me.” It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Sam, I was just scared now of letting someone take care of my heart and my body.

“Kate, don’t compare me to him.”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“I’ll prove it to you, okay?”

“Sounds good.”

Chapter 25


The police arrived shortly after we had all settled down and caught up with what had all happened. Brent, Thomas, and Richard had been talking to the police for a while before Sam and I finally joined them.

“I still don’t understand why Nick should be arrested,” the policeman said.

“The only think I know was that when I saw my daughter come out of a room with him, her arms were tied behind her back and her mouth was taped,” Richard spoke up.

“Well is your daughter here,” the policeman questioned.

“Yeah, I’m here.” I stepped forward, out of Sam’s arms.

“I see.” The policeman was observing me. I did notice that he paused to look twice at the slash on my arm, which was still bloody. “Tell me what happened after you were taken into the room downstairs.”

“I was locked into a room with Nick Sayner. He was generally nice to me, but he forced me to do things I didn’t want to do. Nothing too bad, but still.”

“You are going to have to be more specific than that.”

I looked around, nervous and uncomfortable. “Can we talk somewhere private?”

“Yes, of course.” The policeman led me to a side table in the restaurant. “Tell me everything, please.”

“It’s really not that bad. I just felt uncomfortable with everyone listening.”

“I completely understand.”

“Okay, so I was in this room with Nick. There was a couch and that was about it. He let me sleep most of the time and one time he left to get me food, which I never ate. When he returned from being out, he tried to kiss me, and when I wouldn’t let him, he pulled a knife on my throat. I somehow got the knife away from him, and slid it under the door, but after that, he kissed me and wouldn’t stop kissing me and he moved us to the couch. He tried touching me, but I wouldn’t let him, making him more angry. Eventually I kicked him in between the legs and rushed to the door. He was so mad he didn’t even try to do anything after that. He made me sleep and then told me he was going to kill me. He woke me up, tied my wrists and that was when we found my dad outside my door.”

“Alright. Thank you Catherine. That is very valuable information,” he paused and I stood up to leave, but the policeman grabbed my arm, revealing the swollen red line from my elbow to my wrist. “Who did this?”

“Kang.”

“Why?”

“Sam told Kang that he didn’t believe Kang would actually kill me. Kang said ‘watch me’ and did this.”

“And you have a fear of knives, do you not?”

“That is true, officer.”

The officer stood up with me and we walked back over to where another policeman was conversing with the boys.

“Everything okay,” Sam asked.

“Mmhmm,” I replied.

“She’s a stubborn one, boys. Stronger than you think,” the officer I had talk to smiled and winked at me. I have him a weak smile back.

Sam stepped closer to me and slid his hands under my own and wrapped his arms around my stomach. I leaned back on Sam, trusting him completely for the time being.

“Okay. I think we are done here boys,” the officer paused. “And Catherine. Thank you for the call, and I hope you have a safe flight home. I’m glad you are all okay.” The two policemen nodded their heads at us and left the restaurant to make a few calls to help clean up the scene.

The whole group breathed a sigh of relief as we all relaxed.

“So what happened,” I asked, breaking the silence.

“Kang woke up and was arrested. He will be brought in for questioning later. Nick is being held at a local prison, but we are bringing him home to Indiana when we leave. We will figure out his punishment there, along with his dad. Chang’s body is going to be picked up by a medical team from the local hospital.” Brent shared all this with us quickly.

The group nodded in agreement and dispersed to gather up a few things.

“Brent,” I said, trying to get his attention. He turned to look at me. “What’s next for you?”

“I’ve been talking to Evan and he has decided that I switch jobs. He wants me to stay in the area instead of traveling around the world. He wants me to keep an eye on you and your family, Cat.”

“That’s great Brent. I’m happy for you,” I said, putting a hand on his arm.

“You don’t have to pretend Cat. I know you don’t want me in your life.”

“Don’t say that. We will work this all out.”

Brent gave me a small smile. “Alright everyone! Let’s get back to the hotel and rest. It’s been a long morning and we are leaving first thing in the morning.”

My dad, the three boys, and I all left, and walked down the street towards our rental car. My dad was talking to Brent and Thomas, so Sam and I were able to talk.

“I don’t know what to do with him,” I told Sam.

“You’ll figure it out, eventually,” he replied.

“I mean, think of what he did to me Sam.”

“Kate, listen. I understand. I was devastated for you. I loved you Kate. The whole time, I loved you. I have loved you since the day we met. I was obsessed with you before that. Everyone wanted your sister, but I only wanted you. Whenever I saw you at school, my stomach would flip over a thousand times. When I heard that Loren and Nick were going to talk to your sister, Nate and I joined, hoping that I could talk to you. I am so glad that I did. Anyway, I am mad at Brent too, but we can’t hate him for what he did to you.” He paused and looked at me. I gave him a questioning look. “Trust me, he stole the girl I love, from me and he almost delivered her to her own death. I am livid with Brent.”

I slid my hand into Sam’s before saying anything else. “Fine, Sam. I agree, but I am really disappointed in him, and sometimes that’s worse.” I paused, remembering that Sam had just confessed his love for me. “And I never knew you liked me before all this. It that why you stuck up for me earlier this week? And why you ran into me in the hallway?”

“Yeah,” Sam laughed. “I must have seemed nice then and then later I was mean to you. You must have been really confused.”

“It made me never stop thinking about you.” I smiled at him and he smiled back.

We had finally reached the small car and we all squished in the back seat and began our journey back to the hotel. The car ride was silent, making it very uncomfortable. When we finally drove into the parking lot, I realized we had a small issue.

“Where is my dad going to sleep,” I asked Sam.

“I don’t know. That’s a good question. Don’t you have two beds in your room though?” Sam whispered his response into my ear.

“Yeah, I do.”

“I could sleep in that bed if you want and your dad could take the couch.”

I smiled up at Sam and he smiled back. “You might have to talk to Brent about that first,” I told Sam, but he just shrugged and we walked through the lobby and into the elevator. Brent and my dad were talking about something, but I didn’t know what, some sort of ASO language.

As soon as I got into the hotel room, I went to my bedroom. I took a quick shower and changed into some comfortable clothes, and lay down on my bed.

Dinner was just around the corner by the time everyone had settled in for the night. We had been at the restaurant longer than I thought.

Suddenly there was a knock at my door.

“Come in,” I said.

Sam opened the door a little bit. “Are you going to want something to eat?”

“No, I’m good.” I haven’t eaten in a very long time, but food just didn’t sound good to be right now.

“Okay, well, if you get hungry you can have some of mine.”

“Okay, did you talk to Brent?”

“Yeah, he said he didn’t care. Not that he would have been able to stop me, but your dad is going to take Thomas’s room and then Thomas is going to sleep on the couch. Brent seemed pretty upset when I asked him about the sleeping arrangements, though,” Sam told me.

“Did I?” Brent’s voice came from behind Sam, surprising me.

“Yeah, you did,” Sam said, turning around.

“Oh, well my bad. I will try to sound happier when another guy asks to sleep with my girlfriend.”

“I didn’t know she was your girlfriend, Brent. You broke her heart pretty bad.”

“Can I talk to you, Cat, please,” Brent asked, ignoring Sam’s comment and stepping farther into my room.

“I want some time to myself,” I replied without looking at Brent.

“For God’s sake! I am going to talk to you. Now,” Brent yelled at me, scaring me half to death, making me jump slide down under the covers in my bed.

“Brent! Leave the room,” Sam was yelling too as he stepped in front of Brent and was trying to get him to leave the room. Brent’s fist came up and punched Sam in the stomach. Sam bent over and fell sideways, his eyes wide.

“Sam!” I got out of bed to see if he was okay, but Brent’s hand came out, wrapping around my torso and stopping me from going anywhere. I struggled to get by, but Brent’s eyes were narrowed in on me, so I stopped, scared of what he could do to me.

Brent let me go and bent down to roll Sam over. He helped Sam stand up and then shoved him out of my hotel room. Brent closed the door and locked it.

“What are you doing,” I asked Brent, worry in my voice.

“I am going to talk to you,” Brent said. His voice was much quieter now, but his voice still stern. He walked over to my bed. I crawled in and he sat down next to me.

“Brent. I don’t want to talk to you right now. I don’t know what to feel anymore and I’m definitely not your girl-” Brent’s index finger met my lips, interrupting my sentence.

“Come closer to me.” Brent was telling, not asking. I hesitated before moving closer to him. We were both leaning up against the back board of the bed now. Brent turned our bodies so that we were facing each other.

Brent’s hand came up to my face. He hesitated and then his hand made contact with my skin. I jumped a little bit, surprised by his touch. Brent smiled at me.

“I loved you, Cat,” Brent told me as he urged me to move even closer.

I didn’t move. I was scared. Brent saw my confusion and pulled me. I tried to move away, but Brent was much stronger.

“Please don’t do this to me, Cat,” Brent pleaded.

“It’s too late,” I replied.

“No, no it’s not.” Brent quickly leaned forward and kissed me.

I was furious. This was the last thing I expected. I tried to pull away, but Brent’s arms were wrapped all the way around me. I had no chance. The only thing I could do was kick him, so I brought my knee up as hard as I could right in between his legs. That seemed to be the only way to make boys stop kissing me.

Brent yelled and let go of me. I took this opportunity and ran for the door, knowing it was locked. I quickly unlocked it and ran into the main room. Sam was sitting on the couch, but as soon as he saw me, he stood up and wrapped his arms around me, making me feel safe again.

There was no one else in the room, which was nice, because I didn’t want to explain anything to my dad or brother.

I hadn’t realized at first, but I was crying. Sam was trying to calm me, but the only thing I could think of was Nick and his knife. Brent had brought back those memories that I had intended to store away forever.

“It’s okay Katie. You have me now. Everything’s going to be okay,” Sam said. He was rubbing my back, trying to comfort me. Sam stood there with me in silence for a while before Brent even came out of the room. He didn’t look angry as he sulked to his own room. It was almost as if he knew he deserved it.

When Brent had crossed the room, he turned around. “I’m sorry,” Brent said.

Sam let go of me and stood right in front of Brent. “Sorry for what? Bringing back the memories of Nick holding a knife to Kate’s neck? Sorry for tricking her into loving you? Sorry for getting her kidnapped? Brent, she loved you! She trusted you! And what did you do? You stepped out from behind her and watched her fall. And the sad thing is, is that you knew this was coming. The whole time! From the very beginning. I can’t believe that you could have don’t that to Katie. She doesn’t deserve you.” By the time Sam was finished, he was inches away from Brent and Sam’s finger was poking Brent in the chest.

Brent didn’t even say anything though. He just walked past me and Sam and went into his room.

Sam walked back over to me and sat on the couch. I sat right next to him, cuddling up close. Sam knows me more than I know. He basically read my mind. He knew right away that Brent’s actions had reminded me of Nick.

“Where is everyone,” I asked Sam. Tears were still slowly sliding down my face.

“They went to go pick up some dinner, but don’t worry about them. You need to relax.” Sam’s voice was soothing. I relaxed and stopped crying, letting Sam hold me close. He rubbed my back and laid his head on top of mine. I was so happy and content in this moment. I was happy to be in the arms of someone who truly cared about me and loved me. With this realization, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Chapter 26


It was dark when I realized that Sam was gently trying to wake me up. I opened my eyes and looked at him. He smiled at me and I smiled back, happy. We were both sitting on the couch still, but my head was now resting on his legs. I looked around and saw a mess. There were plates and cups all over the place. Either everyone must have eaten quickly and quietly, or I was completely knocked out sleeping.

“Richard and Thomas brought some food back after you fell asleep. We haven’t had time to clean it up yet,” Sam informed me. “Your dad said he would clean it up before he went to bed. So we can leave the mess. I thought you might want to be more comfortable and sleep in your own bed.”

I nodded my head in agreement and Sam moved me off his lap, stood up, and then helped me up. We walked back to my bedroom and on the way back I could hear Thomas and my dad talking in the kitchen. I was scared to sleep in the bed that Brent and I were in earlier so I insisted on sleeping in the other bed. Sam rolled down the sheets and fixed the pillows for me before I crawled into bed. Sam went back to the other bed to lie down, leaving me cold and lonely.

I was up for a long time after that. I couldn’t fall asleep. The memories of the past day kept haunting my thoughts. I twisted and turned and I still couldn’t fall asleep. Awhile later, Sam started to move. I kept still so that I wouldn’t wake him up. Then I felt the bed dip down and as a body lay down next to me. My stomach exploded with butterflies as he pulled me into him and wrapped his arms around me.

“I’m here now, Catherine.” Sam’s voice was quiet and smooth. I could barely feel him gently kiss the back of my head.

After that, I slept like a rock. I don’t know what it was, but as soon as Sam was next to me all the bad memories went away and everything went back to normal again. That was why I was slowly but surely falling in love with Sam.



Saturday morning was brutal. As soon as I woke up all the memories flooded back into my head and I squeezed me eyes tight and moved away from the body lying next to me. When his arms pulled me into him and struggled to get away. “Catherine,” the voice said, but then I remembered I wasn’t with Nick and I wasn’t with Brent. It was Sam. So I slowly relaxed and let Sam pull me into him.

“You okay,” Sam asked me.

“The memories keep coming back,” I whispered as tears stung my eyes. I rolled over and buried my face in Sam’s chest. He squeezed me tight, showing no signs of ever letting me go.

“I got you now, Katie. Don’t worry. You’re safe now.” Sam assured me. I relaxed a little and held in my tears. The two of us laid there as I calmed down and Sam held me. It was perfect.


After everyone was up and ready to leave, we all piled into Brent’s car and headed to the airport. The past three days all blended together, and I didn’t want to remember any of them.

Everyone was pretty much silent as we walked around the airport trying to find our gate. I stayed near Sam as much as possible. I never had to worry about Brent either. It seemed as if he was almost trying to stay away from me, but I was okay with that. I didn’t want to deal with him right now either.

I five of us waited for our plane home. Nick was brought to his by the police as the plane was finally pulling up to the gate. We all boarded the plane, including Nick, but he mostly just kept to himself. I sat by Sam, my dad and Thomas sat next to each other and Brent sat alone.

I slept for the majority of the flight and when I woke up I played some card games until we finally landed in Indianapolis late afternoon.

As we departed the plane, I took a big sigh of relief, happy to be home. The drive home was silent once again, but I didn’t mind it. The silence was relaxing. We had all squished into the car since we had added an extra body, but it didn’t last long because we dropped Nick off first. He hadn’t said anything to any of us since we got on the plane which was probably for the best.

My mind wasn’t wandering much either, so my stress level was down. I didn’t want to think about Brent and I really didn’t want to relive what happened between me and Nick. I just wanted to home, away from everyone that’s betrayed me. I want to feel safe again.

The next thing I knew we were pulling into my driveway. Sam was probably going to end up sleeping over tonight and I had to do something about Brent. I actually missed his voice.

Brent turned the car off and we all got out. We were silent as we walked to the front door. My dad was the one who knocked on the door. My mom answered and was overly surprised by his presence. Oscar, William and Margaret came to the door to see what was going on and eventually my mom made us all come inside and sit on the couch. We had a lot of explaining to do.

I was happy to see Margaret. I missed her a lot. I will have to talk to her about all my boy trouble. She would know exactly what to do.

We all settled down in the living room. We all decided my dad should start with his side of the story. As he went on in his explanation, the rest of us would most likely fill in the gaps.

Everyone sat in the living room for almost two hours. By the time the story was completely finished it was almost dark outside. My mom couldn’t believe the story, but she was just happy that everyone was safe.

One by one, everyone got up and left the room. After about ten minutes, Sam, Brent, and I were the only ones left, and it was silent. I couldn’t take the silence anymore and I was really tired, so I stood up and began walking to my room.

“Cat,” Brent said at the same time Sam said, “Katie.” The two boys were innocently staring at me as I turned around.

“What,” I asked.

“Can I talk to you,” Brent asked.

“No, I don’t trust you anymore.” I replied, guilt filling my heart. I still loved that boy and didn’t want to hurt him.

“I won’t do anything to hurt you, I promise. I just want to gain your trust back, Cat. Please.”

I hesitated. I wanted to give in, but only a little. I looked at Sam, who shrugged, not knowing what I should do.

“I’ll wait for you Katie,” Sam said after a few seconds, giving me the go ahead for Brent to talk to me.

“Fine,” I said.

Brent stood up. “Can we go to your room,” he asked.

“Sure,” I said even though I was scared he was going to do something I didn’t want.

We walked up the stairs, leaving Sam in the living room. When we reached my room I walked in and sat on my bed while he sat on my desk.

“Cat, I am so sorry.” Brent said, looking me straight in the eyes. “I didn’t mean for any of this to go down. I knew it was going to happen, just not like that. Do you understand what I am trying to say?”

I nodded my head.

“I still love you, Cat. I know that I forced you to love me from the beginning and I didn’t expect us to fall in love like this.”

I still said nothing.


“I don’t really know what else to say. I just want to be with you again, Cat.” Brent sounded like he was about to cry.

“Brent, I can’t do this.” I paused. “I understand why everything happened the way it did, but I just don’t think we can do this,” I told Brent.

“Please, Cat, no. Don’t do this to me,” Brent begged.

“After everything that you did to me, you expect me just to move on like nothing ever happened?”

“I don’t want to lose you.”

“Brent, I trust you. I love you. But, I think that we need to take a break from each other right now. I need my space and time to collect myself again. You can come over and we can hang out, but I can’t commit myself to you right now. I need to recover.”

“Fine. I understand. Just promise me that you will still talk to me. Call me if you ever need help. We can even hang out sometimes. Please promise me.”

“I promise. Just give me some space.”

Brent nodded, stood up and sat down next to me on my bed. My heart jumped, only because I was scared.

“Trust me, Cat,” Brent whispered. I tried to relax, but it wasn’t working. The memories were coming back.

Brent’s arm came around me and he pulled me towards him. I was shaking and my whole body was tense. “Relax,” Brent told me. I tried to relax slowly and eventually I let my whole body settle and ease. I put my head on his shoulder and took a deep breath.

He promised he wasn’t going to hurt me, but my mind was still racing. I remembered my confusion when I first met Brent. I remember thinking about how I thought the whole thing was a scam. How it just came out of nowhere. My instincts had been right. The whole thing was made up. It was a huge trick to get my dad back.

As I thought all of this through, I could feel my eyes closing and my body falling asleep. I was surprised that sleep had come easy, considering that I was unable to sleep unless Sam was with me last night.

Brent must have picked me up and laid me down so that my head was on my pillow because when I woke up a little bit after I was confused and the lights in my bedroom were off, but I could see someone sitting in my chair at my desk. My heartbeat picked up and I tensed up.

“It’s okay Katie, I am right here.” Sam’s voice was always reassuring.

“Where did Brent go,” I asked.

“He left after you fell asleep. Are you two on better terms,” Sam asked.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Do you still have feelings for him?”

“Well yeah,” I said.

“Do you want me to come lay next to you,” Sam asked, changing the subject.

“Yes, please,” I replied.

I heard Sam stand up and walk over to be bed. He laid down right next to be and wrapped his arms around me, squeezing me tight. I rolled over and kissed Sam on the lips. When I pulled away, his hand came up to my head and he kissed me again. His other hand slide down my side, to my upper thigh and I wrapped my arms around Sam, trying to get closer to him.

Sam never seemed to loosen his grip. His hand on the back of me hear was intertwined with my hair and he kept trying to pull me closer to him. The hand on my upper thigh had a strong grasp and he pulled my leg over his body. He rolled me over and now I was on top of him. Every inch of my body was touching his and the hand on my upper thigh moved to my lower back, under my shirt, making my skin tingle. At first, his touch there scared me, reminding me of Nick, but then I realized I was with Sam, someone who actually cared about me.

I broke the kiss long enough to take a quick breath, but then Sam was pushing my head towards his face again. My hands were on either side of Sam’s face, until I moved one of my hands down his side to his waist. I slowly slid my hand under his shirt and brought it up to his chest. I let it rest there, just like his hand was resting on my back.

I slowly pulled away from his face, my lips tingling, and I laid my head down on his chest. “I love you,” I whispered. I pulled my hand out from under his shirt and wrapped both my hands around his torso.

“I love you too, Catherine,” Sam said, his voice husky.

Sam gave me a tight squeeze and gently kissed my forehead. He rolled me off of him, but just enough so that we were lying on our sides, facing each other. Then he pulled me in close and just hugged me. I took another deep breath and closed my eyes. I was so content right now. I felt so safe. Sam kissed me one more time before we both fell asleep.

Chapter 27


It was still dark outside when I first work up on Sunday morning; a nightmare still fresh in my mind.

Nick and Brent were threatening to kill Sam and they were making me watch. I was tied to a chair in the corner of a cold room and they were pressing me for answers to their questions. If I didn’t answer, they whipped Sam. I was crying in my dream and then I realized that in real life, I had tears running down my cheeks.

I couldn’t remember what questions I had been asked in my dream, and I was glad that I did. All I remembered was witnessing Sam’s pain and death. I wiped the tears from my eyes, glad that it was just a dream and not reality. I opened my eyes again to make sure that Sam hadn’t woken up, but when I looked up at him, he had his eyes open and he was just staring at me. I gasped and moved away from him, scared

“I didn’t mean to scare you, Cat,” he said, pulling me into him again. “Are you okay,” Sam asked, rubbing my back.

“I just didn’t expect you to be awake. That’s why you scared me,” I whispered back.

“Right.” Sam smiled. “Are you okay though? You are crying.” Sam tilted me head so that I was looking right into his eyes. There was no way I could lie to him now. He knew there was something wrong.

“Just a bad dream,” I said, hoping that Sam would leave it at that.

“You’re not going to get away with that,” Sam said, smiling. “What was it about?”

“You,” I said.

“What about me? Did I do something to hurt you?” Sam had a look of concern on his face.

“No,” I paused. “They were killing you.”

Sam stayed quiet. I guess he had nothing to say.

“Brent and Nick were torturing you and they were making me watch. They were whipping you if I didn’t do something right.”

Sam cupped my face in his soft hands and kissed me gently on the forehead. “It was just a dream Katie. Don’t worry. I am right here. Everything is going to be more than okay,” Sam whispered in my ear.

I tried to push all of my thoughts about Brent and Nick out of my head, but even with Sam there, it was hard to fall asleep again.

I had nothing to say to Sam and Sam had nothing more to say to me. We just lay in bed together and after about an hour, we both fell asleep again, finally.

The next time I woke up, it was light out and I hadn’t woken up from a bad dream. Sam was still lying right next to me; making sure that I was okay.

“Good morning sunshine,” Sam said after he saw my eyes open. “How are you feeling? Better?”

I twisted and turned, trying to wake up more. “Yeah, I am feeling better, thanks.” I sat up, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the light that was streaming into my room.

“I am sorry about last night,” Sam said.

“What are you sorry about,” I asked.

“The dream. I wish that none of that would have happened.” Sam paused. It was obvious that he had more to say, so I stayed quiet. “I was awake for a long time before you woke up. You talk in your sleep. I first woke up when you screamed. I tried to wake you up, but you never moved, so I just sat there quietly, and watched you. You were saying my name and you had a look of confusion on your face. I was sort of amused, but then you said Brent’s name and you started crying. I shook you as hard as I could and you finally woke up. I was watching you suffer too and it was a horrible experience.”

I hadn’t realized that it was Sam that woke me up and I didn’t know that I was talking in my sleep. I wonder how much Sam really knew.

I didn’t know what to say, so I laid back down, kissing Sam. His hands were instantly around me and he was kissing me back.

“Sam, can you promise me something?” I looked at him.

“Anything for you, Katie,” Sam replied, smiling.

“Promise me that you will never leave me for something dumb. I want to be able to trust you, always. I love you and I want to keep you.”

“I promise that I will never leave you. You will always be able to trust me and I will always be by your side, supporting you. I love you with all my heart and you will always be mine,” Sam said, and then kissed me again.

This kiss was special; a promise. Sam crept down my neck with his lips and gently nibbled on my collar bone. His hands were on my bare skin, holding me close to him. Sam was rough with passion but his touch was still so gentle.

I broke the kiss because someone had knocked on my door. Sam heard the knock and was staring at me, scared.

“Who is it,” I asked.

“It’s me, Thomas,” he sounded very tired.

I looked at Sam, who seemed to relax. Thomas didn’t care that Sam was here. “Oh, come in,” I replied.

Thomas opened the door and crept in, closing the door gently behind him. “I knew he was in here, if that’s what you were worried about,” Thomas said, sitting on my desk.

I ignored his comment. “Do you need something,” I asked.

“Well Margaret said she was going on walk. She hasn’t come back yet,” Thomas was looking at me, unconcerned.

“Have you tried calling her,” I asked, grabbing Sam’s arm.

“Yeah, she won’t answer her phone. We haven’t told anyone yet.”

“We?”

“William and me.”


“Oh. Did she tell you where she was going?”

“No.”

I grabbed my phone to call Brent, but I had a test message from Margaret.


I need help. w/ L&N


I had read the message out loud so Sam and Thomas could hear.

“L and N?” Thomas asked.

“Loren and Nick?” Sam suggested.

“I think it is Loren for sure, but Nick shouldn’t be causing trouble. Could it be Nate?” I replied.

“Oh I bet that’s it,” Sam said, standing up.

“I need to call Brent.” I paused. “Shouldn’t he be making sure my family is safe?”

“He was supposed to keep us safe from Nick and his family, not Loren and Nate,” Sam pointed out.

“So he ditched me again,” I mentioned to Sam.

Sam shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to point out the obvious.

“Do you have Loren’s number,” I asked Sam.

“Yeah, why,” Sam asked, pulling out his phone.

“I want to call him,” I said. I took Sam’s phone and found Loren’s number, calling it. It only rand once before I heard Loren’s voice on the other line.

“Hello,” his voice sounded tense.

I freaked out and quickly gave the phone to Sam and told him to say hi.

“Hi Loren, this is Sam,” Sam said into the phone.

“Oh, I assume you are looking for Margaret,” Loren asked, his voice loud enough for me to hear.

“Yes,” Sam responded.

“Well I will tell you where we are, but you have to bring Catherine with you. We won’t hurt her, we promise. We just have to ask her questions, because Margaret doesn’t know any of the answers.”

“Where are you,” Sam asked.

“We are in the forest, where Catherine and I talked, in that little house. Do you know how to get there?”

“Yes, I do.” Sam flipped his phone shut. “Come on. We are leaving right now.” Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me out of bed. Sam and Thomas left the room so that I could get dressed real quick and then Sam and I left without another word.

Once we got outside, Sam started telling me what to do. “I think we should text Brent real quick and tell him what is going on.”

“Sam, I think you should, you know more about what’s going on than I do,” I replied, holding Sam’s hand.

“Okay, then. I will call him real quick.” Sam opened his phone and called Brent. When he answered, Brent’s voice was loud on the other line.

“Hello?”


“Hi, it’s Sam.”

“Yes, Sam?”

“Well Catherine and I are on our way to the forest again. Loren and Nate found Margaret and she needs help. I know what you were told to only look after Nick and his family, but I think that there is something else going on. Something that we are all missing. I just wanted to give you a heads up. I don’t think that you need to come over here, but I just wanted to warn you.” Sam was talking really fast.

“Okay, wow. That’s really surprising.” Brent’s voice was shocked. “I will see what I can do. Thank you for calling me and please keep Cat safe.”

“Always,” Sam replied and then hung up.

“They took her to that house.” I told Sam.

“Guess so,” Sam replied.

“What happens once we get there?”

“They want to ask you some questions. They said that Margaret didn’t know the answers to some of them. They also said that they weren’t going to hurt you, but something seems off,” Sam said, holding my hand tightly as we walked briskly in the dark.

When we reached the little house, I was breathing hard and I was shaking from nervousness. Sam knocked on the door and after a minute, Loren answered the door.

“Thanks for coming, Sam,” Loren said.

“Where’s Margaret,” I asked.

“She’s inside, don’t worry Katie,” Loren said to me sweetly, making me roll my eyes.

I was now leading Sam. I wasn’t scared of these boys anymore. When I got inside the house and had a chance to look around I saw Margaret sitting on the couch that I had sat on a week ago. It was a scary thought. I let go of Sam’s hand and rushed towards her, but was stopped short. Someone had grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back into them.

I was kicking and instinctively moving my body so that I could get away. The body behind me was familiar, but I knew it wasn’t Sam. The person who had a firm grasp on my body pulled me away from Margaret and set me down in a chair off to the side, tying my hands behind my back.

I tried to twist myself around to see who had captured me, but he grabbed my head and twisted it forward. “I would sit still if I were you,” the voice behind me said, chilling my blood. Now I knew who was behind me. Brent had tricked us. He hadn’t been shocked at all. He was there. Brent was the one who had tied me to the chair.

I was furious and I shook my chair, trying to get away. Brent’s hands rested on my shoulder. I tried to shake them off, but his hands weren’t moving.

I looked over at Sam. He was just sitting in a chair. He wasn’t tied up or anything, but Nate was standing behind him. Margaret and Loren had stayed quiet this entire time.

“Okay, well now that we have that settled, we can begin,” Loren informed the group.

“What is your guys’ problem? Why can’t you just leave us alone?” I was furious.

Brent walked around my chair so that he was facing me. He bent down so that he could look me straight in the eye and grabbed my face between his rough hands. “I am going to suggest something to you, Cat. I would stop talking, because I really don’t want to hurt you.” Brent seemed pretty relaxed, but it was like he forgot everything that he promised me last night.

I just glared at Brent, until he stood up and returned to his position behind me, hands on my shoulders. I tried shaking them off again, but his hands were digging into my shoulder with a death grip. I could tell he was trying to keep his cool, but I was really pushing his buttons.

I tried one last time to shake off his hands, just to see how far I could push him. Suddenly, I was flipped over sideways on my chair and I skidded across the wooden floor. I wasn’t hurt, but I was smiling. Brent had lost it and he flipped me. He walked over to where he had thrown my and untied my wrists, yanking me off the ground.

Sam tried to stand up, but Nate’s arms held him down, holding a knife to his throat whispering something in Sam’s ear.

Brent led me to the front door and then outside. “I only brought you out here so that I wouldn’t make a scene in there. Do you understand,” Brent asked. His hands were in fists because he was so angry. He had let me go, but I wasn’t going to run, and he knew that.

We were just standing there. Brent was huffing and puffing and I was looking up at the sky, waiting for him to say something. Then, suddenly, Brent’s hand came out and slapped me right across the face, knocking me to the ground. I started crying because my face was numb and I never knew someone like Brent could do that to me.

“You deserved that,” Brent spat at me.

“How do you honestly believe that,” I asked, standing up and holding my face with my hand.

“You should have stayed with me. You would have been much safer.”

“How do you figure,” I asked. “I thought we had this all figured out last night.”

Brent’s hand came out and smacked my face again, leaving me breathless.

“I don’t know, Cat. I thought we did too, but Loren pulled me into this.”

“After everything you’ve done to me and my family?” I was finally regaining my strength.

Brent came at me again, without saying anything else. I tried to kick him, but he dodged it and grabbed me so hard I screamed, but his he slapped his hand over my mouth quickly.

“Stop talking.” He ordered and then removed his hand slowly.

“What is wrong with you,” I asked, ignoring what Brent just said.

Brent grabbed something from his pocket; a knife, and held it to my neck. Now I was nervous. I was facing him with one of his hands on my lower back, pulling me towards him, and the other holding his knife. “Please, Cat. This is harder for me than you think. Just please, listen. I don’t want to hurt you. I still love you, remember?”

I hit Brent’s hand, making the knife fall to the ground a few feet away from us. Brent took a step, as if he was going to grab the knife, but I grabbed his arm, stopping him from moving. I was furious. How dare he ask me that.

I remembered the conversation that we had had the night before. I stared straight into his eyes. “I used to love you. I used to trust you. Do you remember that?” I paused. “I do. We had so much fun together. I love you and you loved me. It was perfect. We trusted each other and we had a great time. Then you left me. You turned me in. You let me fall. You tricked me. You almost got me killed. And now you dare ask me why I left you?”

I was standing very still. I could tell that Brent was relaxed, but I was huffing and puffing. I was trying so hard not to punch Brent in the face. I knew that would only get me into trouble.

I took a deep breath and decided to finish what I had started to say. “The only person that you should be mad at is yourself. I gave you everything that you wanted from the beginning. And what did I get from you? Lies and a very painful stab in the back.” Brent’s arms were still around me as I finished my speech. “I am sorry Brent. I really am. But there is no reason to hurt me. I didn’t do anything but what you asked me to do. You are the reason that all of this happened. Not me.”

I pulled myself out of his hands and walked back to the small house that I would probably have nightmares about one day. Brent had said nothing to me, which was good. I wanted him to think about everything that he had done.

Chapter 28


I walked back into the building. I must have interrupted something because everyone was staring at me after I walked into the room.

“Katie, are you okay?” Sam’s voice seemed concerned. Nate removed the knife from Sam’s neck.

“Yes, Sam. I’m fine,” I replied, grabbing my chair, setting it up right. Hopefully Sam hadn’t seem my face, because I could feel it starting to swell and bruise.

“Well okay then,” Loren said.

I sat down in my chair. “What did I miss,” I asked.

“Nothing,” Loren said. “We are just waiting for you. Where is Brent?”

“Right here,” Brent said, walking into the room as well.

“Oh, okay. I guess that we are all set then,” Loren said.

Brent came up behind me and I tensed up, anticipating his hands coming down on my shoulders, but there was nothing. Brent was just standing there. He didn’t even tie my hands up.

“She isn’t going anywhere is she Brent,” Loren asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Brent replied.

“Good,” Loren replied, smiling. “Now Kate, we have some questions for you.” This was just like my dream, from the night before. I tensed up, but I knew that things were going to go differently.

The questions that Loren asked me weren’t hard to answer, and I didn’t have to lie, too much. I had totally forgotten about the dream when Loren informed me that Nick was now in jail here in Evansville, and he wouldn’t be leaving for a while. I guess the laws in Indiana were different from the laws in Italy since Nick was receiving more punishment.

Loren didn’t have a change to talk to Nick before he was put into jail, so Loren was counting on me to fill him in on what happened. My guess was that Loren had no idea any of this was going on. He seemed surprised by what I told him. He didn’t think that Nick was the type of person to do anything like what he did.

I was asked a variety of questions, all starting from when I first met Brent. Loren wanted to know what I thought about Brent’s ideas and I told him, flat out, that I knew it was a scam the entire time. Loren asked me what my reaction was when Brent told us the truth. I didn’t have a hard time going into detail about that.

The last thing I was asked had to do with the day I was stuck with Nick in a room, alone. Answering this part was definitely the hardest. I didn’t want to go into detail about what Nick had done to me. I was still having trouble sleeping at night because sometimes Nick haunted me there.

At one point, while I was explaining the one night I spent with Nick, I began to cry. The memories were coming back to me. Brent’s hands gently rested on my shoulders, then. It was as if he was trying to comfort me, just like the Brent I once knew would have done.

I finally got through the whole story, even about what had just happened outside with Brent. Everyone had been filled in on everything, even Margaret.

“So why did you think that Margaret would know the answers to these questions,” I asked Loren after I was done explaining.

“Well I knew that you wouldn’t come talk to me if I texted you and told you to meet me somewhere. You’re too smart now.” Loren paused. He was absolutely right. “I didn’t want to come knocking on your door to ask you questions, because that’s too boring. So I just brought Margaret up here.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to make sense of him. “Why did you want to know? And how did Brent get caught up in this?”

“I wanted to know the whole story. I knew there was something different about Nick and when I heard about this I wanted to know all of the details.” Loren paused. “I called Brent when I couldn’t figure out how to get to you. He knew that Margaret would come out here and you would follow eventually. The whole thing was his idea.”


My blood started to boil, but I took a deep breath. “Oh, okay.” Brent’s hands were still on my shoulders.

“So what’s next,” Margaret asked, speaking for the first time.

“I actually want to talk to Catherine, alone,” Loren requested.

“I do too,” Brent said.

I looked at Sam. He stood up and walked over to me, taking my hand and bringing me into him. “I will be waiting for you outside, love,” Sam told me. He kissed me gently on my forehead and let go of me, walking out the door.

“I’ll take Margaret home,” Nate said, walking over to Margaret, who stood up.

“I’m going to wait outside. I’ll talk to Cat after you, Loren,” Brent said.

“Brent?” I asked.

“Yes, Cat?”

“Please don’t do anything stupid. Sam’s out there, you know.”

Brent just nodded and walked out.

I stood up and walked over to Loren, who motioned for me to sit opposite him. It was just the two of us in the room now.

“I am sorry Catherine,” Loren said. I never expected Loren to apologize for anything. “I know that you probably hate me right now, but I want everything to be right between us.” I looked up at him and he continued. “I never should have done what I did. I know what I did was wrong and I won’t do it again. From now on, I am going to leave your family alone. Not just you and Margaret; everyone. I’m breaking the group up. Sam’s not going to participate with you in the picture, Nick’s in jail, and we got all the drugs from him anyway. Nate is a really sweet guy and I have my own life and future too.” I was still staring at him. “Do you forgive me,” Loren asked.

“Yes, I do. Did you apologize to my sister yet?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Then I think everything is good between us,” I said. Loren smiled and stood up. I did the same and Loren came closer to me, but I wasn’t scared. He gave me a quick hug and that was it. He was a friend now; not an enemy.

Loren and I separated and then he left the small house, but the room was only silent for a couple seconds before Brent was with me. He came right over to me and we just stood there, staring at me. He grabbed both my hands and waited until I looked him straight in the eye.

“I am sorry Cat,” Brent began. “I know that you trusted me and I know that I probably lost your trust again. Please forgive me.”
I didn’t want to say anything, so I looked down at the ground. One of Brent’s hands left mine and went to my cheek, forcing me to look at him. “I am sorry,” Brent said again. “I guess I just lost control.” His hand brushed up against where he had hit me twice. I winced because of the pain, but he still kept his hand there. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He paused. “In any way I mean.”
I just stared back at Brent. I had nothing to say.

“Cat, I understand now. I understand what you must be going through. I don’t expect you to forgive me anymore. I promise that I will leave you alone forever. From now on.” Brent was dead serious.

“Brent…” I said.

“I am serious Catherine,” Brent said.

“Please don’t leave me for good. Stay in town. Come and visit me. I thought we had this all planned out last night,” I replied, my heart beat picking up because I didn’t want him to disappear. Yes, Brent had hurt me, badly, but I still loved him. Deep down he was truly a nice person and I loved having him around.

“I know what I promised you, but---” I cut him off.

“Please don’t break another one of our promises,” I said.

Brent just let his head fall. He kept his hand on my cheek but let go on my hand and put a hand on my back. After a moment, he raised his head to look me in the eye. “So you want me to stay forever,” Brent asked.

I nodded my head.

“Even after everything I have put you through?”

I nodded my head again.

“And you forgive me, for everything that I’ve done?”

I nodded my head for the last time.

“Then I guess I will stay,” Brent said, smiling. I smiled back. Brent brought me in for a tight hug. “Can I ask you from you? I will never need on after this. I promise you.”

“No, Brent,” I said, knowing what he wanted.

“Please, Cat. One last time,” he begged and backed away from me enough so that he could see my face. Both of his hands came up to my jaw line and stayed there. He pulled me closer to him now and I had shivers going down my spine.

“Please don’t,” I said, but Brent ignored me.

“I want a kiss,” Brent said.

“No,” I said, trying to pull away.

“Please,” Brent said. I decided to stop arguing. He obviously wasn’t listening to me.

This was going to be my last kiss from Brent and I wasn’t excited about it. Our lips met and it was like the first time we kissed. He had a lot of energy and I was just along for the ride. Brent’s hands stayed where they were and I wasn’t going to let them move anywhere else. I kept my hands around his neck, not wanting to make it too obvious that I didn’t want this, however, I was the one who broke the kiss.

“Thank you Cat,” Brent said, a little bit out of breath.

“Did you talk to Sam while you were outside? Is everything alright between you two,” I asked Brent.

“Everything is worked out for the most part. I’m jealous of him, but there is nothing I can do about that,” Brent said, smiling. He grabbed my hand and then walked me to the door.

I think Sam was happy to see me. I wasn’t really gone for that long, but I am pretty sure that Sam doesn’t like it when Brent and I are alone.

“Katie, are you okay,” Sam asked, stepping towards me.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied.

“Are you ready to go home then?”

“Yeah,” I said. Brent let go of my hand and I took Sam’s instead.

“Can I walk home with you guys,” Brent asked.

“Sure,” I said. Sam didn’t seem to mind.

Most of the walk home was silent. We didn’t really have anything to talk about and when we got back to my house, Brent left and Sam and I went inside. Sam led me up to my room and we both flopped down on my bed.

“So, what did you and Brent talk about,” Sam asked, sitting up.

“He apologized,” I replied. I didn’t want to go into detail.

“Oh, anything else? You were in there for a while,” Sam pointed out.

“He told me that he was going to disappear. Leave, forever.”

“And?”

“I asked him to stay.”

“Why?”

I took a deep breath. Sam’s questions were persistent and I wasn’t in the mood to talk about anything serious. “I still care about him, Sam.”

“I know that, don’t worry.”

I gave a sigh of relief. I was hoping Sam would react like that. I wasn’t in the mood to argue either.

“What else happened?”

“Why are you asking so many questions?” I was flustered now. I took a deep breath. “He said he would stay.”

“And,” Sam persisted.

Okay so Sam must know that I kissed Brent because he keeps trying to get more out of me which is actually starting to make me angry. “We kissed Sam. Okay?”

“I know.”

“I know, you knew. So why didn’t you just drop it?”

“Why did you do it Katie?”

“It was a goodbye kiss and he forced me to do it.”

“It’s okay Katie, I get it. Now, don’t let it happen again, because you’re all mine and only mine now. Okay?” Sam was smiling as he leaned into me and kissed me softly on the lips. My hair had fallen over my swollen cheek and Sam gently removed it, touching the swollen area while doing so. I grimaced and pulled myself away from him.

“It’s really bad Katie. It’s getting worse. I didn’t know it was that bad.” Sam paused. “I’m sorry. I should have stopped him from hurting you.”

“No, I’m glad you didn’t. I needed to talk to him. He was a little confused and we needed to talk it out.”

“I believe you,” Sam said and gently kissed me on the lips, being careful not to touch my cheek. “I bet Brent feels bad about leaving that bad of a mark,” Sam told me.

“He does, I think,” I replied, sitting up and looking at Sam. “I think he still loves me.”

“Oh I know that’s the case,” Sam said, looking down.

“I’m not leaving you, Sam. I just wanted to tell you that. Don’t worry about me. I promise I’m not going anywhere.”

“I trust you, Katie and I’m going to prove it.”

“How so,” I asked.

Sam got up and locked my bedroom door and I stood up from my bed. My hair was on end. I trusted Sam but I was still scared.

“Relax babe, I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.” Sam came over to me slowly and gently wrapped his arms around me. He slipped his arms around my hips. “I think we should make us official,” Sam said. “Kiss me.”

I reached up to his lips and touched them quickly, my hands resting on his arms.

“Really? That’s it,” He asked and I just smiled back at him.

“Do you remember our first kiss,” I asked Sam.

He laughed. “Of course I remember. You hated me.”

“Yeah, what did you expect? You forced me to kiss you.” I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“Yes, I did. I don’t blame you,” Sam replied.

“The good thing is…that you don’t have to force me to kiss you anymore and I love you.” Then I made my lips lock with his. I felt him smile against my lips and then I was lost in his embrace.

Our kiss was gently at first. We were both standing in my room. Sam’s hands were under my shirt and on my back in no time. He pushed us over to my bed. We laid down, relaxing a little before Sam tried to take off my shirt.

“No Sam,” I said, breaking the kiss.

“Please Katie,” Sam begged.

“No.”

“Okay, Katie. I’m sorry. You’re right.”

“Sam, I’m scared still. You’re the only guy I trust not to hurt me, but I’m still freaked out right now. Can we go slow please?”

“Of course Catherine. I understand.” Sam smiled and then began kissing me again. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him closer to me, although that was impossible. One of his hands left my waist and grabbed my leg, slowly moving down to my thigh before he pulled it up and wrapped it around his hip.

He was the one who broke the kiss this time. “I love you, Katie. I really do,” Sam said and relaxed his head on the pillow.

“I love you too,” I replied, laying my head on his arm.

Sam’s lips brushed up against mine one last time before he was up and off the bed. “Let’s go do something,” Sam said.

“What are you thinking we should do,” I asked, wanting his warm body to come back over to me.

“I don’t know, but do you think we have to bring William with us,” Sam asked.

I shook my head. “Let’s go get something to eat. I haven’t eaten yet,” I said.

“Good plan.” Sam grabbed my hand and led me downstairs.

It was a short walk downtown form where I lived. As we walked, Sam and I talked about everything imaginable. It made me realize that that Sam and I had never really had any alone time to talk and get to know each other the way normal couples do. As we walked into the restaurant, I made sure to take a moment to look back outside.

The sky was blue and there were no clouds in the sky. Sam and I had walked down the sidewalk, hand in hand and at this exact moment, there are no problems I have to fix. Nothing is on my mind and I had nothing to worry about. For the first time in two weeks, I felt like myself again, and I plan to keep it that way, at least until I run out of time.

Epilogue


About a week later, Sam, Margaret and I all went back to school. It was hard to get used to doing again, but the school year was almost over anyway. We hadn’t really missed that much either. Loren and Nate returned to school too. Of course there were rumors about Nick, but they had died down by the time the week was over. We all tried to stop anything from spreading as soon as possible.

Yeah, we were all upset with him, but we had to protect him for later on down the road. We were all done being enemies. We were friends now and I got to say, I love it. When you really take time to take a step back, these guys are actually pretty amazing.

Brent and I still talk every day. He’s my best friend and I love our relationship. When we are alone we always have something to talk about and I can even tell that Brent is trying to get along with Sam, for me especially. Deep down, I know that Brent still loves me and there’s a small part of me that loves him back, but it just wouldn’t work out. I am still disappointed in him, but he knows that, and he’s still trying to make up for it.
Sam and Brent have taught me so much since I grew closer to them and I love them both, but differently. Brent and I have learned from our experiences but we still hang out sometimes and Sam is okay with that.

Margaret and Nate are now dating. I guess that walk home the other day was a success for both parties. They are literally always together and it makes me really happy to see my sister happy. Sometimes Sam and I hang out with them and I always have a great time. I think that Nate brings out the best in Margaret and I really haven’t seen that side of her in a while. So I am glad that she found someone she can really trust.

My dad is now safe and sounds. He has a new job in the business that keeps him at home all the time now. I know he loves it but I can tell it’s an adjustment. I can tell he gets bored with us sometimes because he barely has to leave the house.

After he got back to the Unites States, he quit his job, but still stayed with the ASO. He just picked up a simpler job that’s safer for him and our family. Nick’s dad is now back at the ASO, taking my dad’s old spot and I think that everything is good between them, for the most part. Nick’s dad got enough money to move his family back into the house they once had, which makes everyone happy. Nick even got released from jail early.

My three brothers are closer to me than ever before. Will is doing just fine. I think he decided he liked being single since Margaret and I always complain if we are ever in an argument with our boyfriends. So I find that amusing, but I think he is learning tips from us too. My twin brothers are more annoying than ever because they constantly find something to bother me about, especially when it comes to Sam.

My mom has decided to come out of retirement, although she wasn’t fully retired to begin with. She now has shifts at the office almost every day and I know she loves it. All the kids can tell how much happier she’s been since she started working full time again.

Everything is pretty much back to normal now. Sam is like another kid in our house because he is over all the time, so I guess it’s a good thing everyone likes him. I am so happy with him and I know my family can tell. There’s been no trouble lately, except for the occasional disagreement with Sam, but that’s a given.

Overall, even know the past few weeks have been incredibly hectic and dangerous, I think that my family has changed for the better. I almost want to thank Nick and his dad. Because of them, I found the love of my life, my family grew closer, and I’ve learned a few valuable life lessons, and I’m thankful for that.