Love Behind Lies (17 page)

Chapter 33

It was dark when I realized that Sam was shaking me. I opened my eyes and looked at him. He smiled at me and I smiled back. We were both sitting on the couch still, but my head was now resting on his legs. I looked around the room which was a mess. There were plates and cups all over the place. I must have been out. I don’t remember any of this happeneing.
“Richard and Thomas brought some food back after you fell asleep. We haven’t had time to clean it up yet.” Sam informed me. It was like he was reading my mind again. “Your dad said he would clean it up before he went to bed. So we can leave the mess. I thought that you might want to go to your own bed though. I was sort of falling asleep too.” The only thing I could do was nod my head.
Sam moved me off of his lap, stood up and then helped me up. We walked back to my bedroom. On the way back I could hear Thomas and my dad talking. They must have been in the kitchen. I was scared of sleeping in the bed that Brent was in earlier so I insisted on sleeping in the other bed. Sam rolled down the sheets and fixed the pillows. I crawled into my bed and Sam crawled into his. The room was pretty much silent, now.
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 stayed very quiet to make sure that I didn’t wake him up. Then there was a body next to me. Sam’s body was very comforting. My stomach was in butterflies.
“I’m here now, Catherine.” Sam’s voice was quiet and smooth. I could barely hear him. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed 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 loved Sam so much.
Saturday morning was brutal. As soon as I woke up all the memories flooded into my head. I shuddered and squeezed my eyes shut. Then someone squeezed me. My stomach went into a flurry when I remembered that Sam was next to me.
“You okay?” Sam asked me.
“The memories keep coming back!” I choked out before the tears came. I rolled over and buried my head in Sam’s chest. He squeezed me tight, showing no signs of letting me go.
“I got you, Katie. Don’t worry. You’re safe now.” Sam assured me. I relaxed a little bit and held in my tears. We laid there and Sam just held me. That was all that I needed right now. Sam knew me so well.
After everyone got up and ready we left the hotel and headed towards 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. 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 either.
The five of us waited for the plane that was going to bring us home. Nick was brought to us, by police, as we were waiting for the plane to show up.
The whole morning was pretty boring. No one talked and everyone kept to themselves. I guess there was nothing really to talk about.
The plane finally arrived and we all boarded the plane Saturday afternoon, including Nick. Nick kept to himself though. He didn’t talk to anyone else. He just sat in the back alone. I sat by Sam. Richard and Thomas sat by each other and Brent insisted on sitting by himself. The flight went by fast and I only slept for a little bit of it. We arrived in Indianapolis around 2:15 P.M. on Saturday afternoon.
As, we departed the plane I took a big sigh of relief. I walked off the little plane that took us to Italy and was relieved to be back in Indianapolis. The airport wasn’t crowded that bad, so six of us got out of the airport pretty quickly.
Again, the drive was silent. We were even more squished than normal. We had added Nick to the equation, and we made him sit in the front. Sam, Thomas, my dad, and I sat in the back.
After awhile, everyone was still in the car, except Nick. We had already dropped him off at his house. He hadn’t said anything to any of us on the ride home.
My mind didn’t wander too much that afternoon. I was happy about that too. I didn’t want to think about Brent, and I didn’t want to think about Nick. I just wanted to be home, away from everyone that had betrayed me. I wanted to feel safe again.
The next thing I knew we were pulling into my drive way. Sam was probably going to end up sleeping over night 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. Sam and I brought up the back.
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. My mom made us all come inside. I think we had a lot of explaining to do.
I was happy to see Margaret. I missed her a ton. I would have to talk to her about all my boy troubles. She would know exactly what to do.
We all settled down in the living room. My dad wanted to tell his side of the story. As he went, the rest of us would probably fill in the story.
Everyone sat in the living room for almost two hours. By the time that the story was finished it was almost dark outside. My mom had a couple of questions, but everyone was just happy that we were home, 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. I stood up and began to walk towards the stairs.
“Cat,” Brent said.
“Katie,” Sam said. The two boys were almost in sync. I turned around.
“What?” I asked.
“Can I talk to you?” Brent asked.
“No, I don’t trust you anymore.” I replied.
“I won’t do anything to hurt you, I promise. I just want to gain your trust back, 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. Which gave the go ahead for Brent to talk to me.
“Fine.” I said, unhappily.
Brent stood up. “Can we go to your room?” He asked.
“Sure.” I said. I was scared that he was going to bring back the memories again.
We walked up the stairs, leaving Sam in the living room. The walk was silent. I had nothing to say to him.
When we got to our room he pulled up a chair and I sat on my bed.
“Cat, I am really sorry.” Brent took my hands in his. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I knew it was going to happen, just not like this. Do you understand what I am trying to say?” Brent asked.
I just 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 really don’t know what else there is 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 pulled my hands from his. “I understand why everything happened the way it did, but I just don’t think that 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, I am not allowed to break up with you?” I asked.
“Cat, I don’t want to lose you.”
“Brent, I trust you. I love you. But, I think that we need to be away from each other right now. 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, Brent.”
Brent got 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. He pulled me towards him. I was shaking and my whole body was tense. “Relax,” Brent told me. I tried to relax. Then little by little I let my whole body relax. I put my head on his shoulder and took a deep breath. Brent’s head came down on mine.
My mind was still racing, though. I remembered my confusion when I first met Brent. I remember thinking about how I thought the whole thing was a scam. It came out of nowhere. My instincts were 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 fell asleep. I was surprised that I was able to, considering that I was unable to sleep unless Sam was with me the night before.
Brent must have picked me up and laid me down so that my head was on my pillow instead of Brent’s shoulder. I woke up a little bit after that and all the lights in my bedroom were off. There was someone sitting in my chair at my desk.
“It’s okay Katie, I am right here.” Sam’s voice was always so reassuring.
“Where did Brent go?” I asked.
“He left after you fell asleep. Are you guys on better terms?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Do you still love him?”
“No, I like him. I love you, Sam.” Sam didn’t say anything to that.
“Do you want me to come lay next to you?” Sam asked.
“Yes, please.” I replied.
I heard Sam stand up. He walked over to my bed and laid down right next to me. He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed 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 was sliding down my side, on its way to my leg. I wrapped my arms around Sam. My stomach felt like it was going to explode.
Sam never seemed to loosen his grip. His hand on the back of my head was intertwined with my hair. He was pulling me closer to him every second. His other hand was resting on my upper thigh. His thumb was moving back and forth there, comforting me.
He rolled over, and now I was on top of him. Sam was still pulling me closer to him. Every inch of my body was touching him. The hand on my thigh moved up to my lower back. His hand was under my shirt. At first it scared me. Nick had just done the same thing. Then I realized that I loved Sam, and that he was allowed to do that.
I broke the kiss long enough to take a quick breath, but then Sam was pushing my head towards his face again. When I kissed him this time, I thought that my heart was going to break through my chest. I was so happy right now.
Sam’s hand had made it up my shirt and was resting on my bare skin, but I could barely feel it on my upper back. Sam’s touch was too soft.
My hands were on either side of Sam’s face. One of my hands moved down his stomach, to his waist. I 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. Sam barely seemed to notice that it was there.
I broke the kiss, and 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, breathing heavily.
Sam gave me a tight squeeze and kissed my forehead. He rolled back over so that we were both
facing each other on our sides. Then he pulled me in close and just hugged me. I took another deep breath and closed my eyes. I was happy to be in the arms of Sam. He kissed me one more time before we both fell asleep.

Chapter 34

It was still dark out when I first woke up on Sunday morning. I had woken up from a bad dream.
In my dream, Nick and Brent were both threatening to kill Sam and I had to watch. I was tied to a chair in the corner of a room. And they were asking me questions. If I didn’t answer them fast enough they were going to whip Sam. I was crying in my dream, and when I woke up I was still crying.
I couldn’t remember what questions I was being asked in the dream, once I woke up. All I knew was that I was witnessing Sam’s death. I wiped the tears from my eyes; happy that it was just a dream. I opened my eyes. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t wake Sam up. When I looked up at Sam his eyes were open and he was just staring at me.
I gasped. Sam had scared me. I hadn’t expected him to be up. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Sam squeezed me hard, knowing that I had been crying.
“I didn’t mean to scare you. Are you okay?” Sam asked rubbing my back.
“No, it’s okay. I didn’t expect you to be awake. That is why you scared me.” I whispered back.
“Right.” Sam smiled. “Are you okay though? You are crying.” Sam tilted my head, so that I was looking Sam straight in the eye. There was no way that I could lie to him now. He knew that 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? Why are you crying?”
“You were dying.”
Sam stayed quiet. I guess there was nothing he had to say.
“Brent and Nick were torturing you, and I had to watch. They were whipping you.” Tears started to roll down my cheeks again.
Sam used his thumb to stop the tears from flowing. I started to cry harder, and then Sam gave up. The tears were coming too fast. Sam just pulled my towards him, and held me there.
“It was just a dream Katie. Don’t worry. I am right here. Everything will be just fine.” Sam was whispering into my ear.
I tried to push all of my thoughts about Brent and Nick out of my head, but even with Sam there, I couldn’t fall asleep again.
I had nothing to say to Sam and Sam had nothing to say to me. We just laid in my bed together. After about an hour, we had both fallen asleep. We were both tired from the trip to Italy, especially because of the time change.
The next time I woke up, it was light out and I hadn’t woken up from a bad dream. Sam was still laying 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. Then 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. That was when you began to cry. I shook you as hard as I could, and you finally woke up. I was watching you suffer too. It was a horrible experience.” Sam said.
I hadn’t realized that it was Sam that woke me up. And I didn’t know that I was talking while I was in my dream. 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. We only kissed for a little bit, but that little bit was amazing.
“Sam, I will keep going out with you if you promise me one thing.” I looked at Sam.
“Anything for you, Katie,” Sam replied smiling.
“Promise me that you will never leave me. I want to be able to trust you, whole heartedly, always. Please don’t ever step out from under me. I love you, and I want to keep you.” I smiled, because I knew that Sam would never leave me.
“I promise that I will never leave you. You will always be able to trust me and I will never step out from under you. I will never watch you fall. I want to keep you forever, and I love you with all my heart.” Sam replied. Then he kissed me again.
This kiss was his promise to me, so he made it good. My stomach was doing back flips and my heart was pounding. This kiss was even better than last night’s.
Sam crept down my neck with his lips. He was now kissing me on my collarbone. He stayed there for awhile before he made his way back up to my mouth. Both of his hands were under my shirt, holding me to him. Sam was rough during this kiss, but his touch was still gentle enough that I could barely feel him.
I broke the kiss, because someone had knocked on my door. Sam had heard the knock and was staring at me.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“It’s me, Thomas,” Thomas sounded very tired.
I looked at Sam, who seemed to be fine. Thomas wouldn’t care that Sam had slept over. “Oh, you can come in then.” I replied to Thomas.
Thomas opened the door and crept in, closing the door behind him. “I knew that he was already in here, if that was what you were worried about.” Thomas said, sitting on my desk.
“Oh, okay then. Do you need something?” I asked.
“Well, Margaret said that he was going to go on a walk. She hasn’t come back yet.” Thomas was looking at me like it was no big deal.
“Have you tried to call her?” I asked. I had grabbed Sam’s arm.
“Yeah, she won’t answer her phone. We haven’t told anyone yet.”
“We?”I asked.
“William and me.”
“Oh. Did she tell you where she was going?”
“No.”
“Okay. Well, what should we do?” I looked at Sam. Sam shrugged his shoulders.
“We could call Brent.” Sam suggested.
I made a face, and then reached for my phone. I had a text message.
I need help. I am with L and N.
The text was from Margaret. I read the text out loud after I read it to myself.
“L and N?” Thomas asked.
“Loren and Nick?” Sam asked.
“I think that it is Loren, but Nick shouldn’t be causing trouble. Could it be Nate?” I replied.
“Oh, I bet that is it.” Sam replied.
“Okay, so who do we call? Wasn’t Brent supposed to be making sure that my family was safe?” I asked.
“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 asked Sam.
Sam just shrugged. He didn’t want to answer my question.
“Do you have Loren’s phone number?” I asked Sam.
“Yeah, why?” Sam asked, pulling his phone out.
“I want to call him.” I said. I took Sam’s phone and found Loren’s number. The phone only rung once.
“Hello,” Loren’s 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 replied.
“Oh, I assume that you are looking for Margaret?” Loren asked. Loren’s voice was 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, as I got dressed. Thomas had to stay home, so Sam and I left without another word.
Once we got outside, Sam started telling me what to do. “I think that you should text Brent real quick. Just tell him what is going on.”
“Sam, I don’t know what is going on.” I replied, holding Sam’s hand.
“Right. Okay, then. I will call him real quick.” Sam opened his phone and called Brent.
Brent’s voice was loud on the other line, when he answered. “Hello?” Brent asked.
“Hi, this is 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 that 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 the forest?” I asked Sam.
“Guess so.” Sam replied.
“What are we going to do once we get there?”
“They wanted to ask you some questions. They said that Margaret didn’t know that answers to some of them. They also said that they weren’t going to hurt you, but I am not sure that I trust them.” Sam said.
We were walking really fast through the forest. Sam was holding my hand and had no intention of letting go.