Love Behind Lies (18 page)

Chapter 35

It was about 11:30 am by the time that we showed up at the little house and I was breathing hard. Sam knocked on the door, and Loren answered it.
“Thank you, Sam, for coming.” Loren said.
“Where is Margaret?” I asked.
“She is inside, don’t worry, Katie.” Loren said to me sweetly.
I was now leading Sam. I was not scared of these boys anymore.
Margaret was sitting on the couch that I sat on about a week ago. It was a scary thought. I let go of Sam and rushed towards her, but was stopped short. Someone had grabbed me around the waist, and was pulling me backwards.
I was kicking. The body was familiar, but I was positive that it wasn’t Sam. I was taken backwards, away from Margaret. The person behind me set me down in a chair off to the side. He tied my hands behind my back.
I tried to twist myself around to see who had captured me, but he had grabbed my head, and twisted it forward.
“I would sit still if I were you.” Now, I knew who was behind me. Brent had tricked us. He wasn’t shocked at all. He was there. Brent was the one that had tied me to this chair.
I was furious, and I shook in my chair. Brent’s hands rested on my shoulders. 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 whole 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 yelling at Loren.
Brent walked around my chair so that he was facing me. He bent down so that he could look me straight in the eye. He grabbed my face so that I couldn’t move it.
“I am going to suggest something to you Cat. I would stop talking. I really don’t want to hurt you.” Brent seemed really relaxed, but it was like he forgot everything that he had promised me last night.
I just glared at Brent, until he stood up and returned to his position behind me. I tried to shake his hands off my shoulders again, but his hands stayed there. Brent had a death grip on my shoulders, and I could tell that he was trying to keep his cool.
I tried to shake off is his one more time, just to see if he would snap. Suddenly, I was flipped over, and I had skidded across the room. I wasn’t hurt, but I was smiling. Brent had lost it. He had flipped me.
Brent walked over to where he had thrown me. He untied my wrists, and yanked me off the ground.
Sam tried to stand up, but Nate’s arms held him down. Nate’s had a knife to Sam’s throat, and he was whispering something into Sam’s ear.
Brent led me to the front door, and then outside. He was furious.
“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 at the sky. Then suddenly Brent’s hand came out and slapped my right across the face, knocking me to the ground.
My face hurt so bad. I began to cry, knowing that Brent wasn’t going to comfort me.
“You deserve every bit of this.” Brent spat at me.
“How do you believe that?” I asked, standing up.
“You should have stayed with me. You would have been much safer.”
“How do you figure?” I asked. “I thought that we figured all this out last night.”
Brent’s hand came out and punched me right in the stomach. I couldn’t breathe.
“I don’t know, and I thought that we did too, but Loren pulled me into this.”
“After everything that you have done to me and my family?” I asked, regaining my strength.
Brent came at me, without saying anything else. I tried to kick him, but he dodged it. Brent grabbed me so hard that I screamed. His hand came over my mouth.
“Stop talking.” He ordered and then removed his hand slowly.
“What is wrong with you?” I asked, ignoring Brent’s rule.
Brent grabbed something from his pocket; a knife. He held it to my neck. Now, I was nervous. One of his hands was on my lower back, pulling me towards him. The other held the knife, but it was still a ways away from my face.
“Please, Cat. This is so hard for me you have no idea. Just please listen. I don’t want to hurt you. I still love you remember?” Brent asked me.
I hit Brent’s hand, making the knife fall to the ground about four 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 that question?
I remembered the conversation that we had had the night before. I stared straight into his eyes. “I used to love you. Do you remember that? I used to trust you too. Do you remember that?” I paused. “I do. We had so much fun together. I loved you, and you loved me. We trusted each other, and we had a great time. Then, you left me. You turned me in, for no reason. You let me fall. You tricked me. You almost got me killed. And now, you 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 more trouble.
A took a deep breath and decided to finished 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? Nothing. I got nothing in return, except a very painful stab in the back.”
Brent’s arms were still around me, and I was almost done talking. “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. You are the reason that all of this happened. Not me.”
I turned out of his hands and began to walk back into the building that everyone else was in. Brent had said nothing, which was good. I wanted him to think about everything that he had done.

Chapter 36

I walked back into the building. I must have interrupted something because everyone was staring at me, when I walked into the room.
“Katie, are you okay?” Sam’s voice seemed very concerned. Nate had removed the knife from Sam’s neck.
“Yes, Sam, I am fine.” I replied, grabbing my chair and setting it up right. Hopefully Sam didn’t see my face too well. It still hurt like hell.
“Well okay then,” Loren said.
I sat down in my chair. “What did I miss?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Loren said. “We were 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. I tensed up anticipating his hands coming down on my shoulders, but there was nothing. Brent was just standing there. He didn’t tie my hands up, and he didn’t put his hands on my shoulders.
“She isn’t going to go 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 weren’t hard to answer, and I didn’t have to lie, that much. I had totally forgotten about the dream when Loren informed me that Nick was now in jail here in Evansville, and that he won’t be leaving for awhile. I guess the rules in Indiana are different from the rules from Italy. Nick was receiving more punishments.
Loren didn’t have a chance 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 that any of this was going on.
Loren seemed surprised by what I told him. He didn’t think that Nick would have done any of that in the first place.
I was asked a variety of questions. It all started from when I first met Brent. Loren wanted to know what I thought about his ideas, and I told him that I knew it was scam the whole time. Loren asked me what my reaction was when Brent told us this was all a scam. I didn’t have a hard time going into detail about that.
The last thing I was asked was what I did with Nick and what happened after I was rescued. That was the hardest part. I didn’t want to go into detail about what Nick had done to me. I was still having trouble going to sleep at night. Nick haunted me in my dreams.
At one point, while I was explaining the one night I spent with Nick, I began to cry. I was shaking and I started crying. The memories were coming back to me. Brent’s hands came down on my shoulders. But this time, they weren’t there to hold me down. They were there to comfort me, just like the Brent I once knew would have done.
I finally got through the whole story. All the way through to what Brent and I had just talked about, outside, by ourselves. Everyone was 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, if I texted you and told you to meet me somewhere. You are too smart now.” Loren paused. What he said had made total sense to me. “I didn’t want to come knocking on your door, just to ask you questions about your trip, either.” Loren finished.
“I guess that makes sense.” I replied. “Why did you want to know? And how did Brent get caught up in this?”
“I wanted to know the whole story. I knew that there was something different about Nick, and when I heard about this I wanted to know all of the details. It all makes sense now.” Loren paused. “I called Brent when I couldn’t figure out how to get to you. He knew that Margaret would come out and here and that she would get you to come out here too. The whole thing was virtually his idea.”
“Oh okay.” I replied. Brent’s hands were on my shoulders still.
“So what is 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 came over to me. He took my hand and brought me in for a tight hug.
“I will be waiting outside for you, love.” Sam told me. He kissed me gently on my forehead. He let go of me and walked out the door.
“I will take Margaret home,” Nate said, walking over to Margaret, who stood up.
“I’m going to wait outside. I will talk to Cat after you Loren.” Brent said.
“Brent?” I asked.
“Yes, Cat?” Brent replied.
“Please don’t do anything stupid. Sam is out there you know.”
Brent just nodded as he walked out the door.
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. That surprised me. I never expected Loren to apologize for everything he did to my family. “I know that you probably hate me right now, but I wanted everything to be right between us.”
I looked up at him.
“I never should have done what I did. I know what I did was wrong, and I will try not to do it again. From now on, I am going to leave your family alone. Not just you and Margaret, either. I am leaving everyone alone. I am also breaking this group up. Sam is obviously glued to you. Nick is in jail, and he was the one we got all the drugs from. Nate is a really sweet guy and I have my own life too.”
I was still staring at him.
“Do you forgive me?” Loren asked.
“Yes, I do. Did you already apologize to my sister?” I asked.
“Yes. Yes, I did.”
“Then I think that everything is good between us.” I said.
Loren smiled and stood up. I did the same. Loren came closer to me, but I wasn’t scared. He gave me a quick hug, and that was it. He was now my friend. Not an enemy.
Loren and I separated and then Loren left the building. The room was only silent for a couple seconds before Brent was with me.
Brent came right over to me. We were both standing.
Brent grabbed both my hands in his 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. I looked down at the ground. One of Brent’s hands left mine and went to my face, 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 slapped me. I winced, because of the pain. There was probably going to be a bruise there. He kept his hand there. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He paused. “In any way, I mean.”
Brent was talking about abusing me and leaving me alone on the Italy trip.
I just stared back at Brent. I really didn’t feel like talking.
“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, though.” Brent said.
“Please, don’t leave me for good. Stay in town. Come and visit me. I thought that we had this all planned out last night.” I replied, whining a little.
Yes, Brent had hurt me, badly, but I still loved him. Deep down he was truly a nice person, and I love 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 of my hand. He moved his open hand to my back, and raised his head.
“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 have done?”
I nodded my head once more.
“Then I guess I will stay.” Brent said smiling. I smiled back. Brent brought me in for a tight hug. “Can I ask for one thing from you. I will never need one after this. I promise you.”
“No, Brent,” I said. I had a small idea.
“Please, Cat. One last time.” He begged.
Brent 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. Brent pulled me closer to him now, and I had shivers going down my spine.
“Please don’t,” I said. Brent was just ignoring 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. I wasn’t going to let him move them anywhere else. I kept my hands around his neck, not wanting to make it too obvious that I didn’t want this.
I was the one that broke the kiss.
“Thank you Cat,” Brent said, a little bit out of breath.
“Did you talk to Sam? Is everything alright between you too?” I asked Brent.
“Everything is worked out for the most part. I am still extremely jealous of him, but there is nothing that I can do about that,” Brent said, smiling. He grabbed my hand and walked me to the door.