Love Behind Lies

Chapter 15

When I woke up Tuesday morning, Sam and Brent were the first think on my mind and butterflies were in my stomach. Today is the last day I should be excited to go to school. This could be the worst morning of my life. Sam might tell Brent about everything and apparently there’s some big secret I’m not allowed to know about!
I got out of bed and walked to my bathroom down the hall. Margaret knocked on the door while I was getting ready.
“Hey!” Margaret sounded wide awake.
“Hi,” I replied, still half asleep.
“You excited for school?”
“Why would I be excited for school? I’m never excited for school.” I lied because I was a little bit excited this morning, but I didn’t want her to ask why.
“Yeah, good point. I guess I don’t know why I’m excited. The last time I was there I was kidnaped 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 a while because of what happened?
“Hey, we are going to talk to that guy who drove us home, right? You coming,” Margaret asked.
I paused and thought for a second. “Shoot! I forgot we have to be there earlier than normal.” How could I forget that? I guess I was more nervous than I thought.
“Kate, Margaret! We have to go in five minutes!” William sounded impatient.
“Okay,” I yelled back. Now I was really nervous.

I got ready in five minutes and was in the car driving only a few minutes late, but I knew Brent wouldn’t mind. We pulled into the parking lot of my school and my mom dropped us off at the main 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, but it wasn’t long before I heard my name.
“Cat!” Brent must have come up behind me. He gave me huge hug, lifting me off the ground. Evan was behind him and Margaret looked confused.
“Hi, Brent!” I was actually happy to see him. I felt safer now and all my thoughts and nerves having to do with Sam disappeared for a split second.
“Hey Margaret. I’m glad you came this morning, because I actually wanted to talk to you face to face about something.” Brent paused and looked at Margaret and me before continuing. “I was talking to the school board this morning and I lied to them. I told them that you are going on a trip and won’t be going to school for a week or so. I think after this meeting we can sit down with your mom and talk to her about everything and she will understand why skipping school will be a good thing. Obviously, you will have to talk to your teachers when you go back to school about what you missed and everything, but other than that, you should be good to go!”
“Really,” Margaret asked, her smile finally showing.
“Yup! So you can actually walk home and go back to bed if you want, but I still have to talk to Catherine,” Brent said and he squeezed my hand.
“I think sleep sounds like a wonderful idea. Bye Katie and Will. 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, but you can’t be out here either.”
“Okay.” William paused, as if he were contemplating on leaving me completely or not. “I’m just going to go inside,” William finished, making his way to the door.
“That’s fine. Thank you.”
“No problem.” William turned around and left. Not it was just me, Brent and Evan.
“Cat, we are going to tell you some more information about your dad. I just want to warn you.”
“Yeah, okay.” That’s all I could get out at the moment.
“Cat, look at me.”
I turned my head to face Brent. He grabbed my chin, gently, in his hand. “I am never going to let go of you. You heard what I just promised to 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 me closer to him and gently kissed my lips, bringing me out of my head finally. The kiss ended too short, but it reminded 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 perfectly safe and secure standing next to Brent.
I was thinking about what was going to happen with my dad, when someone tapped my shoulder. I jumped and Brent looked my way, and then narrowed his eyes at someone behind me. I turned around and found Sam standing behind me. I never heard him come up behind me. I must have been really lost in my thoughts.
“Good morning Catherine,” Sam sounded so pleased with himself and I could tell right away that he was not going to be nice to me this morning. I liked the Sam that was sweet to be way 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 sarcastic.
“I am not excited at all. I am pretty sure you are the only one, Sam,” Brent sounded tired.
“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. I didn’t want Brent to pick up on something he wasn’t supposed to.
Brent didn’t say anything else as Sam stood in front of us. Loren and Nate had shown up and were standing behind Sam. Nick was missing, but I could really care less. Now, it looked like Sam was the leader. Even came and stood next to me, opposite Brent.
“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 longer 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. This man was assigned to kidnap your dad and possibly kill him. We think that this kidnapper brought your dad to Rome.”
It was hard for me to take this in. When my mom was telling about my Dad staying in Italy longer, I immediately thought that something was wrong. Now, I know for sure something is wrong and I’m pretty sure no one in my family knows about it. I suddenly remembered that Nick’s dad was the one that wanted him dead and Nick was still missing from this meeting. Coincidence?
“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 and Evan thinks that it is too dangerous for the two of you to go together. So he proposed that you should bring someone else with you, who is more your age and experienced is this kind of work. So, Evan called us.” Loren stopped talking and took a step forward, now standing 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 patted Sam’s shoulder and took a step back.
“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 and let my head fall back onto Brent’s shoulder.
Sam and Brent exchanged words but I had stopped listening. I had noticed silence a few seconds later and come to the conclusion that the meeting had ended officially. Evan walked over to Loren and Nate after saying a few words to Brent and then all three walked away.
Now, it was just me, Brent, and Sam.
“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.
William came out of the school once he saw that we were leaving.
“Hey! Everything okay?” William ran to catch up with me.
“Yeah!” I lied. “I’ll tell you more later, okay? I’m going to go and talk with Brent and Sam more about it.”
“Okay, sounds good. Have a good rest of your day then Kate.”
“Thanks, you too!” I waved at William and then ran to catch up with Brent and Sam.
I climbed into Brent’s car and we left my school.
“Are you okay, Cat?” Brent looked concerned.
“Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry Brent, there’s 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 soon, but I don’t want to wait for him. Sam broke into my house last night and forced me to kiss him. He scared the crap out of me,” I told Brent.
“Wow. Okay, I didn’t know 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. I trust you.”
I looked over at him and he just smiled at me. Brent reached over with his hand and softly stroked my cheek and then grabbed my hand until we arrived at the restaurant downtown.
Sam had taken a different was so he hadn’t arrived yet.
“Sorry.” Brent broke the silence.
“For what,” I asked.
“Everything.”
“I thought we made a deal.” I kept my eyes forward.
“I can’t take it anymore.”
“Okay.”
“Are you okay,” Brent asked me.
“Yeah, are you?”
“Cat, I can’t explain to you how bad I feel.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
I leaned over the arm rest and kissed Brent gently on the lips and took a deep breath.
“Cat, I never want to lose you,” Brent said to me, resting a hand on my back.
“You won’t lose me. I’m not going anywhere,” I said, but Brent never responded.

My phone vibrated.

U ready? Or r u staying in the car?

Sam texted me.
“Where is he,” Brent asked. He must have been looking over my shoulder.
“I have no idea,” I replied to Brent.
“Well, we should probably get out then.”
“Probably.” I opened the car door and got out of the car. Brent followed me and we walked into the restaurant together.
Sam was already sitting at a table.
“How did you get here so fast? I thought you were behind us,” I asked.
“I sped here. I wanted to see you.” Sam smiled and then laughed.
“Stop talking,” Brent snapped. He pulled me closer to him and we sat down opposite of Sam.
We told our waiter what we wanted to drink and then waited patiently for her to come back. After she brought us our drinks, we began to get serious.
“So, what is our goal,” Sam asked.
“Before we do all this, I think you should fill me in on what’s going on,” I said.
Brent took a deep breath. He was choosing his words wisely again. “Cat, it’s going to take a while. I don’t even know where to begin. Loren told you most of it. What do you want to know?” Brent sounded really concerned.
“I guess I don’t know. I just feel really lost and I want to know more about what’s going on. I’m still flustered by the whole situation,” I replied. Brent shook his head. He didn’t know what to say.
“That makes sense, Catherine, but the circumstances are hard to understand, even for us. This is just something we are going to have to roll with and take as it comes.” Sam paused and looked at me with the same eyes he looked at me with last night. “Don’t worry about it though. We will figure it out. It’ll be fun!” Sam exclaimed, looking away from me.
“Yeah, I’m sure it’s going to be a ton of fun…” Brent said sarcastically. “So anyways,
Sam and I just stared at Brent. “We are going to be leaving on Wednesday, tomorrow, by plane.”
“Are you sure that will be enough time to get ready,” I asked the boys.
“We have to find your dad soon. Something could happen to him if we don’t Cat.” Brent reached over and grabbed my hand.
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” I replied. It was silent for a moment. “How long are we out of school,” I asked.
“A week, or until we are ready to come back,” Brent said.
There didn’t seem to me much more to talk about. Everyone acted like there was something missing, something that everyone didn’t know about. I think that was what was bothering me. I could tell for sure that Brent was keeping something from me, but I knew for sure that he wasn’t going to tell me anytime soon.
“Are we done then? I have no other questions.” I was really bored and we were really getting nowhere.
“Yeah, I think so.” Brent sounded bored too.
“Cat, can I talk to you for a moment.” Sam was serious. “Privately?” Sam looked at Brent.
I looked at Brent too, who nodded back at me. He got up and left, leaving Sam and me sitting in the booth.
“I wouldn’t try anything. He is probably watching you,” I told Sam as soon as Brent was out of the restaurant.
“I wasn’t going to try anything. Trust me,” Sam replied. He stood up and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of my seat before I answered.
“Why would I want to trust you?”
“You should trust someone you will be working with for the next week.”
I groaned. “I don’t want anything to do with you.” I took a step away from Sam, taking my hand from his.
“I don’t believe that. I know that you love kissing me more than Brent. I could tell by your reactions.” I looked away from Sam’s stare. “Have you told him that you kissed me?”
“Yes.”
“I told you not to tell him unless I was around!” Sam’s voice was almost whiney.
“I am not listening to you, in case you didn’t notice.”
“Why not?”
“Why should I?”
“Cat, you are going to have to like me at some point. Like I said, we are going to be working together for a long time.”
“Don’t call me Cat! You don’t deserve it!” I was quickly making my way towards the door.
Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him. The restaurant was almost empty. Thank God. He wrapped his arms around me and I could barely move.
“Let me go!” I struggled against him.
“There’s no point in trying to get away. I thought you said Brent would be watching.”
“He is. He’s just waiting.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“What in the world do you think you are doing!” Brent’s voice was so loud.
Sam let go of me quickly. I couldn’t even feel Sam’s presence anymore. He must have taken some steps backwards too. I walked over to Brent who then grabbed my arm. I winced, but made no effort to make Brent let go. I still felt safe, even if my arm was going numb.
“Let go. You’re hurting her,” Sam said, looking at me, with those eyes again.
“You should stop talking. You don’t have to go on this trip with us if we don’t want you to.” Brent let go of my arm and I began to rub it.
“I am coming with you,” Sam said.
“Only if we want you to,” I said.
“Catherine, you know you want me to go.” Sam looked right into my eyes. I twisted under his gaze and looked away.
“Stop it! We are going home right now and we will see you at the airport on Wednesday morning. If you have any questions call me. Don’t text Cat.” Brent’s voice was stern.
“Yeah, I got it.” Sam laughed and we walked out of the restaurant, leaving Sam to himself.
What Sam had said about me wanting him to go with us, really hit me. I realized that part of me did want him to go. I wanted him to be there with me, even if that meant danger for me. I liked Sam, but I loved Brent. I just wish that Brent would have waited a bit longer before he kissed me. That night seemed too rushed and I wasn’t sure of what I was getting myself into. Sam has taken the time to get to know me, a little bit. Now, whether it was in a good way or in a bad way, I have still gotten to know Sam pretty well.
Sam was also right about the kiss we shared. I did enjoy it. I enjoyed it more than Brent’s kiss, but I don’t know why, unless it was because it was forced and that made it more exciting.
I couldn’t organize my thoughts at all. What did all of this mean? Between Brent, Sam and my dad, I am about to explode. The worst thing is that I can’t do anything to help my dad without Brent and Sam.
I took a deep breath and tried to control my mind. I had gotten into Brent’s car and we were on our way home. I couldn’t let Brent see my confusion over everything. He would start to question the relationship between me and Sam and I couldn’t let that happen.