Forgotten Truths (The Forgotten Truths Series) (20 page)

“Please say something!” he begged.

I slowly lifted my head out of my hands and put my finger on my cheek. The cut Mark had given me spanned from the middle of my cheek, over my eye and stopped in the middle of my forehead. I couldn’t let James see this now, not to mention that I felt so ashamed from Mark kissing me.

“Andrea, Love? Please tell me what happened.”

I looked up toward the ledge but since I was leaning against the same wall I couldn’t see him. I couldn’t climb up to see him, so I lay down instead. I closed my eyes, still unable to sleep. My sobs had slowed a little, but I was still shaking.

A little noise came from up in the corner, and then I heard a frustrated grunt. James was probably trying to pull the bars off, as if it were possible. I heard a muted thud along with a word I’d never heard him use before. After a few quiet moments, I heard him sigh, and then he started to hum. It was the same tune as the one he’d used before to try to comfort me.

“Thank you,” I whispered. I knew that even though I was too quiet to be heard, he knew.

I must have dozed off because I suddenly felt hands on my arms,
and I was yanked to my feet. I was so disoriented that I didn’t know where I was for a moment. The candle wasn’t lit and whoever was holding me didn’t take me out of the room. A hand wrapped around my throat. I was lifted off the floor, and I started to kick but didn’t make contact. Tears stung my eyes as I gasped for air. Right before I blacked out, I was dropped. I hadn’t even sucked in a fresh breath of air before I was kicked in the stomach. I felt my hair yanked back, as I was pulled upright. The way I was positioned left my throat exposed. Thankfully though, that wasn’t where I was hit. Instead, I took it under my jaw. I was then thrown back to the ground. I coughed hard and tried to catch my breath. This was something new. Any time I had been beaten it had never been in my cell. The door opened behind me and then shut, And I was alone once again.

But I was never truly alone. Since I wa
s now in the middle of the room, I looked up at the ledge. James wasn’t visible at the moment, but a few more seconds went by and I saw the shape of his body, barely distinct in the small amount of light, but still there. I was grateful that he couldn’t see me, even though I knew it was killing him. But just being able to see his shape made me hope that we would get out of here one day. 

It
was a long time before I heard anything. When I a door opened, I knew it wasn’t mine. It sounded like it came from James’ cell. I barely lifted my head and looked in the direction of the opening by the ledge. I heard some shuffling and then a dull thud followed by whispering. I sat up, curious about what was going on when my own door suddenly opened. Mark lit the candle quickly before he came over to me. I didn’t have enough time to get to my feet so he grabbed my upper arm and yanked me to him.

“I’m getting tired of waiting for your father to respond.” He shoved me back into the wall, his hands firm on my shoulders. “What kind of father doesn’t care about his child enough to at least try to talk to the ki
dnappers? It’s been almost a week!”

I just looked at him
, unable to respond. That was it? It felt like I had been there so much longer. I didn’t know what he wanted me to say. I didn’t know where Captain Brown was.

“Where is he?” he shouted as he glared at me. He shoved
me harder into the wall.

“I don’t know!” I yelled back.

He was about to say something else when he looked at my shoulder, at my scar. He removed his hands from my shoulders but before I could move he had his hand around my neck. He lifted me just enough so that the tips of my toes were the only part of my feet touching the ground. My throat was still tender, and his tight grip brought tears to my eyes. I reached up to pry his hand away from me when he suddenly lifted his free hand above the scar. My hands instantly froze over his as my attention stayed on his free hand.

“I don’t know why I asked for your permission to do what I want to do to you.” He glanced up at my eyes, which were still locked on his hand, before
he looked back down at the scar. “I’m not getting what I want, and I need something if you’re going to be staying alive much longer.”

He
met my gaze again as he gently put his finger on the scar. I felt a burning sensation start at the scar and blaze deep inside me. I couldn’t let him touch me again, not how he wanted to. This was my only chance to save myself. I could feel the desperation and rage rush through me, and I was suddenly able to push his hand off my neck. I fell back against the wall but before he could react, I punched him in the stomach with my non-broken hand. I still felt the fire race inside me so that I couldn’t feel the pain from my dislocated fingers. Instead of keeling over like I had hoped, he threw me to the ground. When I landed, I twisted my body in the same motion and, kicked the back of his knees the way I had with James on the island. He collapsed to the ground, which gave me enough time to scramble to my feet. I tried to run past him to the door, but he reached out and grabbed my ankle. I fell right back to the ground face first. I screamed from the instant pain. He was suddenly on my back. He grabbed my arm and held it behind me with one hand while he pushed on my shoulder with the other. He pushed my shoulder into the ground and then yanked on my arm. I felt a pop, and then my shoulder felt like there were hundreds of little glass shards inside it. I cried out in pain, but he didn’t let go. I closed my eyes. I just wanted it to end. Then I heard heavy footsteps. Maybe it would end quickly. The thuds grew louder, and when I opened my eyes I saw boots close to my head.

“Get off of her.” It was a young man’s voice, one I thought sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure why.

Mark moved off me slowly just as another pair of boots appeared in the doorway. They quickly came around the first guy and then the person knelt down. His hand slid under my cheek to turn my face toward him. My eyes followed his arm up to his eyes, his beautiful brown eyes. But James wasn’t looking back at my face. Instead his eyes stared at my legs. His gaze slowly traveled up my body, and when they landed on my face, he did a double take. He scrunched his brows together as he brushed my cheek. He couldn’t seem to stop looking at the scar over my eye. He touched it gently. His finger traced from my cheek up to my forehead while he slowly shook his head in disbelief and horror at what had become of me. He looked me in the eye, and after a moment he adjusted his position so that instead of kneeling, he was crouching on his feet. He carefully turned me, but touched my shoulder in the process. I cried out as tears burned in my eyes. It startled him.

“What is it? What did I touch?” He looked over me again, and I could tell by his expression that he knew it could have been anything to cause my outburst.

“My shoulder.” I sat up the rest of the way by myself, and when I was in a position where he could lift me, he put his arm under my legs and the other one around my back. As carefully as possible, he lifted me. I gasped, unable to hide it. It didn’t matter how gentle he was, he was going to hurt me anywhere he touched me. However, I was going to do everything possible not to cry, not in front of James.

I looked toward the ba
ck of the cell where Mark stood. He glared at me before turning his attention to the person who had saved me. I slowly turned my head but couldn’t get a look at him. James quickly carried me into the hallway. We didn’t get far before I heard a gunshot. I buried my head in James shoulder trying not to think what was happening behind us. It was a good thing, too, because we suddenly appeared in sunlight. I tilted my head a little to see where we were. It almost blinded me.

“What’s wrong?” James asked but kept moving.

“The light. I’ve been in the dark for so long that it hurts my eyes.”

He stopped. “It’ll be dark soon. As soon as Will is done here we’ll head out.”

It was Will? He had finally come for us? I knew I had recognized his voice but since I had only heard it once, I couldn’t place it. I felt so much relief with finally being out in the open air.

“Here, let’s go into the forest a little ways. It’ll be slightly darker, and you’ll be able to open your eyes.” He started
to walk again. I didn’t care how far it was going to be, I just wanted to be able to see again. He stopped after several minutes and then set me down. He leaned me back against what I assumed was a tree. My shoulder was killing me, but I tried not to think about it as I slowly opened my eyes. We were in a clearing. I couldn’t see the building, and for all I knew, we could have been back where we had been before being captured. James sat down next to me and gently pulled me onto his lap. He held me loosely against him but didn’t say anything. I heard leaves rustling behind us, which made me turn my head.

A young man about James’ age
stepped into the small clearing. I felt my heart skip a few beats when he locked his eyes on mine. It was as if I was looking in a mirror. His eyes and his mouth… his face as a whole was the exact same as mine. His hair was the same color brown as mine, cut shorter now that mine had grown out some. There was no doubt that I was related to him and I knew by the way he was looking at me that he’d known it since the first time he’d seen me sleeping in my bedroom. This was William.

Suddenly a switch flipped on in my mind, and I was overwhelmed with memories from my past. I remembered running on the beach with him and splashing
in the water as we tried to dunk one another. I remembered parties, and a few times when we snuck into the doors under the stairs where there was a huge ballroom. Ladies and gentlemen were dressed up and swirled by us in time with the music. Then one day Will and I were in town. We were playing around as we waited for Captain Brown to get something done so we decided to chase each other. I hid in an alley and that was where Peter found me and snagged me away. I remembered it all.

I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder
which made me cringe.

“What is it?” James asked.

“It’s her shoulder.” Will quickly came over and knelt down in front of us. He looked at it and then glanced at James. “That bastard dislocated it.”

He scrunched his brows together as he took in how my shoulder was angled and then turned
his attention back to James. “Okay, I need you to hold her. Place your right arm around her stomach and then place your left hand on her other shoulder, wrapping it around her body.”

James did what he said.

“What are you doing?” I asked. I felt uneasy and I could hear it in the tone of my voice.

Will ignored me as he took hold of my
hand. I ripped it away from him though I gasped at the pain in my shoulder when I did it. Will looked at me and then at James.

James pressed his lips to my ear. “Andrea, L
ove, just trust us. We’re only going to help.”

“Why?” I asked as Will took my hand and then held it
out in front of me. He adjusted it so his palm was against mine. He then placed his other hand on my shoulder as gently as he could. I was about to ask what was going on when he suddenly yanked my arm toward him. I felt my shoulder snap and screamed. It was louder than I was prepared for since it echoed through the trees.

Will looked at me slightly alarmed as I curled back into James.
He reached toward me but I buried my face in James’ neck.

“Andrea, listen to me,
” Will said. “We needed to put your shoulder back into place. Now it’ll be better. I’m sorry for the pain, but it would have only gotten worse.”

“Look at her hands,” James said next. He took
hold of my wrist and held my hand upward. I opened my eyes and watched him as he looked closer at it. “This one looks different than the last time I saw it.”

“I broke it.” I mumbled.

“How did you do that? Or was it not your fault?” James asked. When I didn’t answer right away, he gently moved my face so he could see me.

“I punched Mark
as hard as I possibly could.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

James’ eyes
narrowed but he didn’t say anything.

Will sighed. “You’ll need to fix those soon, too.”

“No!” I yelled as I yanked my wrist out of his hold and wrapped it around my body. “Don’t touch me!”

“Love, we need to fix them,
” James said in my ear.

“Don’t h
urt me anymore please!” I cried. Tears flowed down my cheeks as I looked at him. “I can’t take it any longer.”

James
’ expression became softer and after a moment he lifted his hand to the side of my face. “It has to be done.”

“I just want the pain to stop.” I
started to tremble. I couldn’t handle any more pain at the moment.

Will had stayed quiet through this exchange but now cleared his throat. “James,
I think it should wait.”

James turned to him. “It’ll only get worse.”

Will looked at me for a long moment before saying, “She’s been through enough. She knows it’ll hurt, but right now, leave her alone.”

I sighed. I was
grateful to have someone on my side.

He attempted a small smile before
he said, “I’m William.”

I slowly nodded. “I remember you.”