Chapter 9 #2
He shut the passenger door, leaning over the center console.
My favorite part. I smiled into the kiss, thinking for the hundredth time this month that summer couldn’t get here fast enough.
Kain pulled back, doing that thing he did where he lingered a while to remember my face, my cheeks held between his palms.
I honestly wasn’t sure what we were. Sometimes he was ‘just a friend’ whenever my parents lost their patience with my inability to look up from my phone.
On the occasion that I’d get approached by men looking to get to know me, suddenly it was ‘I have a boyfriend’.
Without there ever being a formal establishment of titles, it was safe to just assume we were somewhere in between.
“Two weeks, huh?” Kain mentioned, indicating that he was going to listen to my recommendation. My heart warmed at the observation that he didn’t even try to hide the hesitance in his voice. “You think you could last that long?”
Grimacing, I hit back, “You’re clearly talking about yourself.”
“I might be,” he conceded, knowing that was precisely the answer that would make me smile. With my face still in his hands, he changed the subject. “So, about earlier this week…”
My smile faded. I came back down from my cloud, reminded of the close call I had with one of Silas’ cronies on Tuesday.
Someone had grabbed me at gunpoint in a parking lot on campus and tried to force me into dark tinted car.
If it hadn’t been for Marlon, I could be dead.
For the past few days, I’d been having nightmares about it.
The nightmares usually comprised of an alternate version of the events, a version where Marlon never showed up to help.
Noting the change in my mood, Kain breathed out a sigh. His hands slipped from my cheeks, but he still held my gaze.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” I almost hated the uncharacteristic gentleness of his voice then.
Of course, there were parts of me that simply melted at the tenderness of his words, but they made me feel…
weak. After a month of being on Silas Montgomery’s radar, it quickly became clear to me that being weak was the absolute worst thing I could be.
I shook Kain loose, looking ahead as I pulled my car out of park. We were fifteen minutes away from the airport, sitting under a red light when I finally found my words again.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Even though I wasn’t looking at him, I could feel his eyes on me, watching me carefully, scanning for cracks in my armor. To my relief, he didn’t try to convince me to change my mind.
“We’ll talk about it when you’re ready,” he replied. I took issue with his use of the word ‘when’. It was as if he expected me to open up about my trauma sooner or later. My trauma. Ugh… “Pull over and switch seats with me. I wanna take you somewhere.”
***
My Tuesday morning class was cancelled. A note from the professor was posted just outside the lecture hall doors, explaining some sort of last-minute personal emergency.
I looked down at the phone in my hands and debated whether or not I should tell Kain’s friends that I wasn’t going to be where they thought I would be.
Sighing, I shoved the phone into my pocket. They didn’t need to know everything all the time. Was one moment of privacy really life or death? It was a bright and shining morning. Nobody goes around snatching people in broad daylight, I thought.
So I bought myself a chicken wrap from the university food court, and I decided to use my unforeseen free time enjoying a light lunch.
The sun felt great on my skin as I lounged around on a campus bench.
Since it was early, the grounds weren’t so crowded, but there were people sprinkled throughout sporadically.
I was mid-bite into my wrap when the seat beside me on the bench was unexpectedly filled. Looking over my shoulder, I noted the appearance of a young man. His features, although young, were slightly a little older than the average college student’s. Hm, what are the odds that this guy is here to—
I shook my head, dismayed at how paranoid I had become these days. Despite what Kain would have me believe, not everyone is out to get me. Chill, I told myself.
“It’s a nice day,” the stranger made conversation. Some people do that, I thought to myself. Some people talk to strangers all the time. Chill.
“Yeah, I guess it is,” I replied, tossing a look his way. He was most likely flirting. I was already gearing up to tell him I had a boyfriend—a half-lie. I had a boy, who was my friend.
“You’re really pretty—”
“Thanks, but I have a boyfr—”
“No,” he put a hand up, stopping me. Aggressive, aren’t we? “Let me finish. I was gonna say, you’re really pretty, and so I’m sorry for what I’m about to do.”
My eyebrows came together with confusion, at first, but just as my brain was beginning to process what he was saying, the nozzle of a gun poked out from under his hoodie. My body went cold.
“Don’t scream,” he whispered calmly, his free hand circling around my arm tightly. “Stand up when I stand up.”
Slowly he raised, gun still pointed at me, and as I followed suit, anxiety began to rise in the pit of my stomach. Regrets flooded through my mind instantaneously. I should have been smarter; I shouldn’t have been alone. I did this to myself.
The metal of the gun pressed into my lower back, cold even through the fabric of my shirt.
“Walk,” the stranger ordered behind me. “And if you do anything fast, I’ll pull the trigger and make sure your ass don’t never walk again.”
I swallowed the lump I felt forming in my throat, keeping my steps as slow as I could get away with. Would it be any use to beg? Behind me I could hear the stranger pull out a phone and dial a number.
“Yeah, I got her. Pull up the car.”
I forced out a breath, my heartbeat speeding up, my breath growing shallow. I was having a panic attack.
Noting my breathing, the stranger chuckled. His breath brushed against the back of my neck as he leaned in to say, “Don’t worry, ma. You play nice, and I play nice, too. We ‘bouta go for a drive.”
Another voice cut into the silence.
“No. Y’all ain’t going nowhere.”
Something in my chest swelled with hope because this voice sounded familiar. I turned my head, anticipation heavy, and when I saw him, I breathed out a sigh, relieved.
Marlon.
***
“Whose house is this?”
We’d been driving for almost a half an hour when Kain finally started to park. Outside I watched us pull into the empty driveway of a modest, upper-middle class cottage-style home. Kain turned off the engine.
“No one’s right now,” he replied, explaining a little more when I looked at him questioningly. “I have an uncle gettin’ outta prison in a few weeks. A brother of Silas’. The house is a welcome home gift. With no one being here for at least a month or so, I thought why not?”
I made a face. My tone was a little coy when I observed, “You trying to get me all alone in a new neighborhood so you can seduce me?”
Kain gave a slight smile before replying, “Maybe. Come on.”
“So your uncle,” I said as I shut the passenger’s side door behind me. “How long was he away? What was he in prison for?”
Kain tilted his head to the side, and I watched his thoughtful expression as he mulled over whether it would be wise to have this conversation with me.
After talking to him every day for the past four weeks, I could sense him being a little more relaxed with what he withheld.
It was somewhat exciting to feel like I was beginning to gain his trust.
“Twelve years. And he got locked up after he took the fall for someone,” Kain told me, digging in his pocket before pulling out a set of keys. Before I could ask my next question, he met my eyes above the hood of the car and simply said, “That’s all I can tell you, Lauren.”
“If I guess, will you tell me if I’m right?”
“No.” He nodded toward the house, motioning for me to follow him as he walked up onto the porch.
The house, from the outside, smelled like a new coat of paint and fresh soil which lined the front yard garden.
Kain looked at my pout, and laughed a little as he fingered through the keys for the right one.
“I can’t tell if you’re nosy, or if you’ve just been building a case against me. ”
“You know I wouldn’t betray your trust like that, don’t you?”
He looked up from the keys in his hands. “I know.”
“So…” I drawled out gradually. Kain unlocked the front door, and held it open for me to go inside. “You can tell me things,” I encouraged as I stepped in.
“Yeah, I know… But for your sake, I won’t,” he responded. “The less you know, the better. As if I need to give people another reason to kill you.”
I frowned, scanning the inside of the house wordlessly.
The place wasn’t furnished yet, but it looked like it had gone through a very fresh remodel.
Pale wood flooring stretched throughout the dwelling, complementing the off-white colored walls.
I walked through the open floorplan that took in tons of light from gigantic windows that faced a large backyard.
The inside of the house was bright and inviting.
I couldn’t help but smile in response to the cheery ambiance it gave off as I stepped into a modernly designed white kitchen accented with white granite countertops and stainless steel.
I thought the house was beautiful.
“Your father really went all out,” I marveled, as I jumped onto the counter for a seat. Kain didn’t respond right away, walking into the kitchen a step behind me.
“Hmm, he really didn’t,” Kain replied boredly. Of course he would feel that way growing up in a beach mansion.
“Well, I think it’s nice.”
Kain seemed like he would rather talk about anything else right now. Clearly, he’d decided on what when he said, “Tell me what happened on Tuesday.”
Kain was referring to my near-kidnapping earlier in the week.
I grimaced, my shoulders slouching in my seat on the kitchen counter.