Fated Dreams (Book One In The Affinity series) (33 page)

I studied our
rescuer; she was about my mom’s age with her black hair pulled back in a long
braid. She looked to be wearing work clothes, and I thought I smelled the
slightest hint of horse. My sharp intuition told me that she lived on a farm.
We passed through the rural area and started seeing houses. “So where are you
kids from?” she asked, turning her head away from the road briefly.

“Brownridge, we
went to Renford for the night to visit some friends,” I lied.

Lucas turned
his head and raised his eyebrows at me but didn’t say anything. I continued.
“We were on our way home, when a car came at us in our lane. Lucas swerved out
of his way, and that’s how we landed at the bottom of the hill.”

“Careless
drivers, you get them everywhere,” she said, shaking her head. I didn’t mention
the fact that we thought that the careless driver might be a crazy stalker that
was trying to kill us.

“By the way, my
name is Molly, you’re Lucas, and…?” She turned to me, waiting for my answer.

“Sarah. Thank
you so much for your help, Molly. We have to be home soon, and I was worried
we’d be out there all night, walking.”

“No problem.”
She smiled. “Here we are, and we’re in luck, Jake’s home.”

I glanced out
my window and saw that we had pulled up to an old farmhouse. It was a large
white house that desperately needed a paint job. It didn’t appear to be a
working farm. I could see into the red barn, and it looked like he used it to
fix cars. There was a hoist with a car sitting on top. A man, maybe in his late
twenties, came strolling out. He was wearing jeans and a ratty T-shirt with
grease stains smudged on the edges. His hair was hidden under an old ball cap
with the words Jake’s Auto on it. He leaned into Molly’s window. I was guessing
that this was Jake. His eyes were blue; his skin was rough and leathery.
“What’s going on, Molly? Who do you have with you?” he asked as he leaned in
the window.

“I found these
two kids walking down Gibson’s Lane. Their car went over Gibson’s Hill, and
they were hoping you might be able to give them a tow. I said I was sure you
would, considering how sweet you are.” She threw in a wide grin with her
compliment.

“Ah shucks,
Mol, you’re such a charmer,” he said, smiling. He looked up at Lucas. “How did
you manage to get your car down Gibson’s Hill?”

“Another car
was driving in my lane. I swerved out of the way and lost control.”

Jake seemed to
be considering if he should help us or not, then he finally said, “Sure, come
on, you can ride with me. I’ll pull your car out, and you can be on your way.”
He waved at Molly, and strolled over to his tow truck, which was light blue and
covered in rust.

“Thank you so
much, Molly,” Lucas said as he climbed out of her car. I waved and smiled after
I got out.

“You’re welcome
and good luck. Watch out for those crazy drivers,” she yelled, honking her horn
as she drove off.

Lucas took my
hand and squeezed it tightly. Somehow I knew he was trying to protect me from
Jake. Although he seemed harmless, we didn’t know him.

“Climb in,” Jake
said as he hopped into the driver’s side.

“Thank you so
much for your help.” I climbed in beside him onto the worn leather seat. There
were coffee cups and candy wrappers littering the floor, but thankfully the air
smelled of pine instead of garbage. I sat in the middle with Jake and Lucas on
either side of me, Lucas' hand still clasped tightly in mine.

“No problem, I
wasn’t very busy. Where are you two kids from anyway? I’ve never seen you
around here before.” He tapped the steering wheel to the beat of the song that
was playing on the radio.

Lucas explained
where we were from, and told him the same lie I had told Molly. It didn’t take
long to get to the hill. It was only a fifteen-minute drive that would have
taken us an hour or two to walk.

He backed up on
the edge of the road, and then he and Lucas took the cable down to hook it to
the car. Lucas stayed down there to make sure the hook stayed in place while
Jake hopped into the truck to push the button that would pull the cable up.

I watched as
Lucas walked beside the car, and when it was finally up on the shoulder of the
road, the two of them took the hook out. Lucas got in and started it.

“Motor sounds
fine, no damage to the body,” Jake said, walking slowly around the car,
assessing for damage. “I’d say you two got away without a scratch.”

“What do I owe
you?” Lucas asked, reaching in his back pocket for his wallet.

Jake shook his
head. “Nothing, just get your girl home safe.”

“Are you sure?”
His hand still hovered above his wallet.

“I’m sure, you
seem like nice kids.”

Lucas shook his
hand. “Thank you for everything.”

Jake smiled and
waved at me. He hopped into his truck, and as he drove away, gravel spun behind
his tires.

Lucas turned to
me. “Well, are you ready to go? I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

When he finally pulled up to my house an
hour later, I turned to him. “Thank you, Lucas. Besides the attempted murder, I
had a lot of fun.”

“Me too. I’ll
look online to see if I can find a yearbook for the guy at NYU.”

“I’ll look too.
I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

“Okay,” he
said, smiling. He looked as happy as I felt. I leaned in and brushed my lips on
his, lingering longer than I meant to, but once I touched his lips, it was hard
to pull away. I was smiling when I drew back.

A look of shock
mixed with pleasure crossed his face. “Habit?” he asked.

“No,” I said,
feeling frisky. I grabbed my bag from the back and opened the car door. I waved
as he drove off.

I was humming a
country song that we danced to as I walked into my house.

“It’s about
time, Sarah. Don’t ever do that again, I was so worried. Why are you so late,
and why are you smiling?” my mother asked, standing in front of me with an oven
mitt in one hand and an annoyed expression on her face.

“I had fun,
well, before we had car trouble, that’s why I’m so late, but we found a
mechanic, and he helped us. I’m sorry I lied to you, Mom. It won’t happen
again. I’m going up to my room.” I was lying to her, as I told her that I
wouldn’t lie again, but I wanted to keep my happy mood. She would have to wait
until later for all the gory details.

“Okay, but
we’re not finished,” I heard her yell from downstairs. I was already in my room
with my door shut.

Even my
mother’s anger couldn’t ruin my good mood. I didn’t think anything could. But
was I wrong.

I threw my bag
on the couch, turned to sit on my bed…and screamed.

“Sarah, are you okay?” my parents yelled,
rushing into my room. I pointed to the wall above my bed. There were large bold
letters written in bright red marker that read “You belong to me,” the same
words from the rock that was thrown through my window.

“How did this
happen? Who did this?” my mother asked, an incredulous look on her face.

“I don’t know.
I wasn’t here, remember?”

I was worried
for my family, and I realized it was finally time to come clean, hold nothing
back, now that whoever was doing this had nerve enough to come into my home.

I stalked to my
closet, took out the rock, and handed it to my dad. “The night my window broke,
I found this on my floor. It was thrown through it. I didn’t tell you because I
didn’t want you to worry.”

My father’s
face turned bright red with anger. Like a boiling hot kettle, I thought he
might blow. “How could you keep this from us? Sarah, we need to know when
you’re in danger,” my dad yelled, something he never did. He was the softy,
while my mother was the designated voice of authority.

I turned my
head away from him, feeling guilty for the constant lies and drama I’d been
causing, even though it wasn’t entirely my fault. My parents were worried about
me because they loved me, and I had lied to them continuously. I only hoped
they’d be able to forgive me someday.

While my father
ranted, something on my nightstand caught my eye. I picked up the framed
picture of Lucas and me in front of the waterfall. Someone had scribbled over
Lucas’ face with red marker; all you could see were a few strands of his
coffee-colored hair. I handed it to my dad.

His eyes turned
hard. “I’m calling Detective Franklin,” he said after he took the picture from
me.

A few hours later, I was sitting on the
couch in my living room, with a dozen police officers wandering around my
house. My family was gathered beside me, while Detectives Franklin and Markus
sat across from us, asking questions. “So you say you were in Renford, with
Lucas?” Franklin asked me.

“Yes, we
thought the person doing this might live there. So we were looking through
yearbooks to see if I recognized anyone.”

“Do you think
you know him?”

I couldn’t tell
him about our theory of reincarnation; he’d lock me in a padded cell. “You said
it was likely I did, right?”

“Yes. Did you
find anything?”

“No.”

“Where is the
rock?” he asked, leaning forward in the dining room chair we had moved into the
living room.

My dad reached
over to the end table, where he had placed the rock in a clear plastic baggie,
and handed it to him.

Franklin
took it and looked at me with disapproval all over his face. “You
know you should have told me about this before.”

My eyes shifted
down to my knees as I traced squiggly lines on my jeans with my fingertip in an
attempt to avoid looking at him. He made me nervous. “I know, I’m sorry.”

He turned to my
parents. “Did you see anyone around your house this weekend?”

“No,” my dad
answered.

“Anyone come to
the door? It doesn’t matter how small the detail, if you can think of anything,
it could help,” Detective Markus asked.

“Well, Sarah’s
friend came over.” Alex spoke for the first time all night. All eyes turned to
stare at him where he sat slouched in the corner of our plush couch with his
oversize sneaker propped up on the coffee table.

“When?” my mom
asked him.

“While you two
were shopping this morning. He knocked on the door and asked for Sarah. I told
him that she was away for the weekend.”

Detective Franklin started to take notes. “Is that all? Can you tell us anything that was said? Did
he tell you his name?”

“No, he just
said that he was her friend and that he stopped by to see her. When I told him
she was away, he asked if he could use the bathroom before he left. I said yes,
and he was gone maybe five to ten minutes. Oh…he did seem angry when I told him
that she was with Lucas.”

“That would
explain why Lucas’ face was marked out of the picture,” Detective Franklin
remarked, giving Markus a meaningful look.

I glanced
between the two men. “What?” I asked.

“Well, rubbing
out Lucas’ face seems a bit aggressive. Lucas may be in danger. If he’s angry
that you two were together, and he thinks you’re his, he may want to remove his
competition,” Detective Markus told me from where he was sitting at the end of
the couch.

It wasn’t just
his theory that was disturbing; it was also that it was so familiar. The
thought of history repeating itself made the hairs on the back of my neck stand
on end.

“Alex, can you
describe him?” Detective Markus asked.

“Sure. He was
around Sarah’s age, maybe older. He had dark blond hair, a little darker than
mine, blue eyes, cleft chin, about my height, five eleven.” That sounded like
Tony.

“Well, Sarah, I
don’t want you to go anywhere without a parent or friend. But not Lucas, he may
also be in danger.”

I swallowed the
lump that suddenly formed in my throat. “Okay,” I mumbled, no longer able to
speak clearly.

“Get a friend
that you trust. I don’t want you alone. I’ll have some men patrol here, and at
Lucas’ house. We’ve planned to try and lure him out Saturday afternoon. I
talked to your parents about it, and they know that you will be safe. I’ll pick
you up at noon.”

“There’s one
more thing.” I sighed. I should have told my parents this when I got home from
Renford, but I didn’t want to ruin my good mood. “On our way home today, while
Lucas was driving, a car drove in our lane heading toward us. Lucas swerved to
avoid him, but lost control and went over a hill.” My mother started to panic,
so I put my hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Lucas and I are both fine. We had
someone pull the car out with a tow truck, and even his car was untouched. But
Luke said that the other car was gray, the same color as the one that tried to
hit me.” My mother gasped, and my father cursed, which was rare for him.

Detective Franklin shook his head and sighed. He started taking notes again. “Sarah, you should have
called me when this happened.”

“My cell phone
didn’t work; we had to walk to get a tow truck. I would have called when I got
home, but I noticed my wall before I had a chance.”

“How did he
know where you would be? It sounds like he was here this morning. Did you leave
anything in your room that might tell him where you were?”

I thought about
it, and remembered writing down information on a sticky note; it was stuck to
the top of my computer. “Yes, I wrote down the name of the high school on a
piece of paper. I left it on my desk.”

“That’s how he
found you then,” he said, shaking his head. “Well, the plan remains the same. I
want you to be very careful,” Detective Franklin said with a stern tone.

He asked me the
exact location of where we were run off the road. He wanted to take a look to
see if they could find any clues. I was glad Molly had said the name of the
road and the name the locals called the hill; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been
able to remember where it was.

The police
stayed about an hour longer. My room was now a crime scene. I was able to get
things out of it, but I couldn’t sleep there. I was okay with that; the idea of
him being in my room, going through my belongings, was disturbing on so many
levels.

I slept in the
spare room with the door open. It was bare, with only a bed and a dresser, but
I asked my dad to carry in my TV and DVD player, in case I needed a
distraction. I climbed in bed and called Lucas.

“Hello?”

“Hi.”

“I wasn’t
expecting to hear from you so soon.” The sound of his voice was like a warm
blanket that enveloped my heightened emotions, soothing me from the inside out.

“Do you
remember when you told me that I had to be honest from now on?”

“Yes,” he
replied suspiciously.

I took a deep
breath and began. “When I got home, I went up to my room and found the words
‘You belong to me’ written in red marker on the wall above my bed, the same as
on the rock.”

He was silent.
I waited for him to say something. But all I heard was heavy breathing.

“Lucas, are you
all right?”

“Did you call
the police?”

“My dad did.” I
played with the TV remote, needing to keep my hands occupied.

“What did they
say?” His voice was strained.

“They’re going
to try and get him with my plan on Saturday, but until then I can never be
alone. But it can’t be you that’s with me because you could be in danger too.
The person that did this rubbed out your face with the marker, on the picture
of us in front of the waterfall. The police said that was a sign of aggression.
They think you might be in danger.”

“I’m not
worried about myself. You need to be more careful, okay? Listen to what they
say.”

“Did you tell
your parents what happened today?” I asked as I pushed the power button on the
remote, turning the TV on. A reality show popped up, and I quickly flicked it
to a game show. I needed background noise; it was too quiet in the house.

“Yes, they’re
worried about you.”

I groaned
inwardly. “Isn’t everyone? But you were there too.”

“Yeah, but I
don’t think I’m the target.”

I wanted to
tell him about Detective Markus’ theory, but for some reason, I couldn’t get
the words to come out. So instead, I asked him about his family.

We talked a bit
longer until my eyes started to droop. Finally I said good night.

The rest of the week went by fast,  likely
due to the fact that even though it was my idea, I was terrified, and dreaded
Saturday. What if something went wrong?

My bodyguards
were with me at all times. At school, it was Derrick, until Lucas enlisted Kyle
and Andy for duty, as well. At home, I couldn’t even go to the store without
one of my parents.

I got paid on
Thursdays, but since I was under house arrest, I had to wait and pick it up on
Friday afternoon. School was finished at noon today, so after my last class,
Alex and I were waiting at the office for my mom. She was going to drop him off
at a friend’s house and then take me to pick up my paycheck.

“I’ll be glad
when I can drive again,” I said to Alex, leaning my head back against my
uncomfortable plastic chair. We were sitting against the wall of her office.

“You think you
have it bad, at least you have your license and a car. I can’t wait until July
when I turn sixteen and I can drive myself.” He spread his lanky arms up behind
his head, his sandy hair curling over his shirt, and crossed his feet against
the white tiled floor. His long legs were stretched in front of him, taking up
most of the aisle in front of us.

I understood
his impatience. I’d only been relying on people for about a month, and I was
going crazy.

My mom finally
came out of her office, her arms loaded with files, and we took Alex to his
friend’s. A few minutes later she pulled up in front of the multiplex, telling
me that she would be back to pick me up in about ten minutes after she dropped
off some dry cleaning.

Fifteen minutes
later, I sat on a bench along the front doors of the theater, waiting.

One of the
clear glass doors opened, and in walked Zack. “Are you here to pick up your
check?” he asked me, and I nodded. “Me too, see you later,” he said as he
continued to the office.

While I was
waiting, my phone rang. “Hello,” I answered.

“Oh Sarah, can
you wait a little longer? I have to run back to the school, I forgot some
important papers.” My mom’s voice sounded rushed.

I really didn’t
want to. I’d been waiting long enough, but what was I supposed to say? This was
what happened when you had to rely on others to get around. “Sure, Mom, no
problem.”

“Thank you,
honey, I’ll be as fast as I can.”

When Zack came
back with his check, he stopped in front of me. “Is your mom running late?” he
asked.

“Yes.”

“I can wait
with you, if you want.”

“No, that’s
okay. You shouldn’t be here any more than you have to be. Why should both of us
suffer?”

He smiled and
continued to the doors. Before he pushed them open, he turned to ask if I
wanted a ride home.

I jumped at the
chance; I was tired of waiting. “Thank you, I’ll just text my mom and tell
her.”

After I sent
the message, I walked out the doors with Zack. I let him walk along the edge of
the sidewalk as a shield. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be alone, and I wasn’t,
not really. Zack just didn’t know he was guarding me.