Love Behind Lies (10 page)

Chapter 21

When I woke up Tuesday morning, Sam and Brent were the first thing on my mind. I also had butterflies in my stomach. I shouldn’t be excited to go to school. Not today at least. This could be the worst morning of my life. Sam might make me tell Brent about everything, and there is some big secret that I am not allowed to know!
I got out of bed and went to the bathroom. I was getting ready and then Margaret knocked on the door to the bathroom.
“Hey!”Margaret sounded wide awake.
“Hi.” I replied, still half asleep.
“You excited for school?”
“Why would I be excited for school? I am never excited for school.”
“Yeah, good point. I guess I don’t know why I’m excited. The last time I was there I was kidnapped 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 awhile because of what happened?
“Hey, we are going to talk to that guy who drove us home. You coming right?” Margaret asked.
I paused and thought for a second. “Shoot! I forgot we have to be there 30 minutes before school starts!”
“Kate, Margaret! We have to go in five minutes!” William even sounded excited.
“Okay,” I yelled back.“I have to get ready!” Now I was really nervous.
I got ready in five minutes and was in the car driving to school, basically on time. Brent wouldn’t mind. We were only going to be a few minutes late. We would have been even later if we would have had to walk. Thank god my mom was able to drive us today.
We pulled into the parking lot of my school and my mom, who we encouraged to drive us, dropped us off at the 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. It wasn’t long before I heard my name.
“Cat!” Brent must have come up behind me. He gave me a huge hug and lifted me off the ground. Evan was behind him. Margaret looked confused.
“Hi, Brent!” I was actually happy to see him. I felt safer now. The butterflies and all my thoughts about Sam vanished for the time being.
“Hey Margaret. I am glad you came this morning, because I actually had to talk to you about something.” Brent paused and looked and Margaret and me before continuing. “I was talking to the school board this morning and I lied to them. I told them that you guys are going on a trip and won’t be going to school for a week or so. I also had them call your mom and they told her that you were allowed to skip school. They have agreed to let you stay home for the rest of this
week. I couldn’t get them to excuse you from all of your homework from this week. But other than that, you are all good to go.”
“Really?” Margaret asked her smile coming out.
“Yeah! So, you can actually walk home and go back to bed if you want,” Brent said. He squeezed my hand. He was pleased with himself.
“I think that I might actually do that! Bye Katie and William. 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.”
“Okay.” William paused, as if he was contemplating on leaving me or not. “I’m just going to go inside though,” William finished, making his way to the door.
“That’s fine. Thank you.”
“No problem.” William turned around and left. Now it was just me, Brent and Evan.
“Cat, we are going to tell you some things that are probably going to tell you more about the issue with your dad. I just wanted to warn you.”
“Yeah, okay.” That’s all that I could get out at the moment.
“Cat, look at me.” I turned my head to face him. He grabbed my chin in his hand. “I am never going to let go of you. You heard what I just promised 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 my towards him and gently kissed me on my lips. The kiss ended too short, but it was reminding 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 very safe standing next to Brent.
I was thinking about what was going to happened next, when someone tapped my shoulder. I jumped and Brent looked my way and then narrowed his eyes. I turned around. Sam was standing right behind me. I didn’t hear him come up behind me at all. I must have been lost in my thoughts again. I seemed to be doing that I lot more lately.
“Good morning, Catherine,” Sam sounded so excited. Sam was going to be mean to me again. I liked the Sam that was sweet to me 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 serious now.
“I am not excited at all. I am pretty sure that you are the only one, Sam,” Brent sounded tired as he talked.
“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. Scared that if I did, Brent would catch something that he wasn’t supposed to know yet. Suddenly, I was not happy to be here.
Brent didn’t say anything else as Sam stood in front of us. Loren and Nate had showed up and were standing behind Sam. Nick was missing, but I could really care less. Now, it looked like Sam was the leader. Evan came and stood next to me, opposite Brent. It was quiet for awhile.
“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 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. He was assigned to kidnap him. We think that the kidnapper brought your dad to Rome.”
It was hard for me to take this. I would have probably been more concerned about my dad if he had been at home more lately. When my mom was telling us about my Dad staying in Italy longer, I immediately thought that something was wrong. Now, there is for sure something wrong, and I am pretty sure that no one in my family knows about it. I remembered that Nick’s dad was the one that wanted him dead and Nick was still missing from this meeting. I wonder where he was.
“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. Evan decided that it was too dangerous for just the two of you to go. He thinks you need someone who is more your age, strong and who is experienced in this kind of work. Evan decided to call us.” Loren stopped talking and took a step forward. He was now 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 stepped back again.
“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. I relaxed my head, letting it fall backward. It landed on Brent’s arm and he seemed to let out a laugh. I rolled me head to my left, letting it rest on Brent’s chest.
Sam and Brent both said something to each other, but I wasn’t listening. It was silent for awhile and it seemed that the meeting had ended.
Evan walked over to Loren and Nate, after saying a few words to Brent. Now, Evan walked away with Loren and Nate.
It was just me, Sam, and Brent now.
“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.
School had started, so I never got to talk to William, but there was nothing really to say. I texted him quickly, telling him that I was okay and that I would see him later. Hopefully he would understand.
I climbed into Brent’s car and we left my school.
“Are you ok Cat?” Brent looked concerned.
“Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry Brent, there is 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 today, but I don’t want to wait for him. Sam came into my house last night and made me kiss him. He scared the crap out of me.” I told Brent.
“Wow. Okay, I didn’t know that 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 at all. I trust you.”
I looked over at him. Brent just smiled at me.
Brent reached over with his hand and softly stroked my cheek. He let his hand slide down to my shoulder, where it rested until we got to the restaurant.