The Lies We Tell: An Enemy to Lovers Young Adult Romance (Pushed Aside Book 3)

by Cassandra Hallman

  Back in the car, he tells me, “wear this for now,” and hands me his jacket from the back seat. I eagerly pull my arms through, trying to get warm and stop my never-ending shaking.

  6

  Colt

  By the time I pull up to the abandoned office building, the sun is just coming up and the street is completely empty. Josie is sitting next to me with her eyes wide open. She is wrapped up in my jacket and has finally stopped shaking. I cut the engine and look at her. “Don’t try to run again.” I leave the threat unspoken, mostly because I don’t want to say it out loud and a little bit because it would be a lie. I wouldn’t hurt her even if she’d try to run.

  I let her get out on her side and she doesn’t make a move to run. I grab my duffel bag from the back seat and lead her to the building. I keep my hand on her upper arm the whole way in and through the building. We pass the room I have Mindy locked in and I hope that I am able to keep that fact from Josie. I stop in the room I have been sleeping in and tell Josie to sit down on the mattress. I can see her chest rise and fall rapidly. She is scared and I hate it.

  I take out the first aid kit from my bag and sit down next to her. “Let me see your arms.”

  She hesitantly pulls off my jacket and shows me her arms. I clean the scratches with some sterile wipes before I put some ointment on each one. I try to be as gentle as I can so I don’t cause her any more pain. Surprisingly, she hasn’t flinched once. “You’re not what I expected,” I tell her.

  “Sorry I disappointed you,” she mumbles sarcastically.

  “I meant that as a compliment. I thought you would be a rich, self-righteous brat.”

  She laughs a humorless laugh. “I used to be.”

  “What changed?”

  “Jenna.” Her lips turn up a little just saying her sister name. “When I was younger I thought I was better than everyone and that I should act accordingly. That’s what my parents taught me and because they were my parents and I was a child, I believed them. Until Jenna came into my life, I never had a reason not to. Jenna was the kindest, most loving and selfless person that I had ever met, but my parents still treated her like she was worthless. That’s when I knew that my mom and dad were the ones who were less.”

  “I’m sorry.” Her head snaps up at my words. Her eyebrows are raised like she can’t believe I just said that.

  “You are not what I expected either, Colt.” I don’t need to ask her what she thought of me before.

  I finish taking care of all her scratches and get up. I close the door and sit down on the floor with my back leaning against it. “Go to sleep.” Josie was not part of the plan and I only installed locks on the room I’m keeping Mindy in. I was going to throw Josie in the same room. The plan has changed.

  Instead of lying down she just sits there, staring at me. “Are you just going to watch me sleep?”

  “Yup.”

  “Don’t you have a mattress to sleep on, in your hideaway office building?”

  “I do. You are sitting on it. I didn’t plan on kidnapping you until yesterday.”

  “How spontaneous of you.”

  “Yes, that’s me. The spontaneous kidnapper.” I lean my head back against the smooth wooden surface. “Just try to go to sleep.” I hear her move around the makeshift bed and when I open my eyes to glance at her, she is lying down with her eyes closed. I watch her face for a while and I know it takes her a long time to finally go to sleep. When she is awake she has a constant little frown on her face. Now, her face is relaxed, making her look even younger. Her lips are parted just a centimeter and her breathing has evened out.

  I get up as quietly as I can, grab my bag, and walk out into the hallway. Unlocking and opening the room Mindy is in, I must have startled her because she jumps up from her bed like she is ready to fight me. I hold up my free hand, palm up. “Calm down tiger.”

  Her still sleepy eyes scan the room, and when she realizes that it’s me she actually relaxes a little.

  “Who was the guy from last night? Is he coming back?” She asks me with a shaky voice.

  “Frank? I just asked him to check on you because I had to leave town. He won’t be coming back.”

  Mindy relaxes even further. “Good.”

  “Did he do something to you?” I told him not to touch her. He better not have.

  “No, he just gave me the creeps.”

  I nod. “Come on.” I walk her to the bathroom and wait outside.

  As soon as she comes back out she starts asking me her normal questions. “How long are you going to keep me here? Can I please just call home? I just want to make sure my baby is okay.” She is on the brink of crying and I do my best to calm her down.

  “I’ll let you go soon and your baby is fine. He is with your sister. This will all be over s…” I come to a sudden halt when I see Josie standing in the door of the room I left her in. Her face is ghostly white and shock is written all over it. When I take a step towards her, she takes a step back into the room. She keeps walking backward until she stumbles over the mattress falling backward on top of it.

  “Stay in this room,” I warn her, trying my hardest to keep my voice even. I shut the door louder than I meant to and even I can’t help but cringe at the sound. The terror I just saw in her eyes hurts me more than I like to admit. Now she is even more than scared of me. She is terrified and disgusted by what I am doing.

  “I thought I was crazy, hearing a girl’s voice this morning,” Mindy says as I walk her back to her room. “Who is she?” I just ignore her question. No reason for her to know. I give her some water bottles and snacks from my bag, before locking her back into the room.

  I stop in front of the door, knowing that Josie is sitting on the other side. I wish I could take the fear away from her and erase everything she knows about me. That would be the only way she would ever see me as anything other than a bad guy. I shouldn’t care what she thinks about me. I shouldn’t care about her at all. But I would be lying if I said that I didn’t care. It would probably be better if just stay out here and sleep in the hallway. I guess that she would rather be alone, especially if the alternative is having me in the room.

  I know all of these things I should do. Yet, I find myself reaching for the doorknob and turning it. I push the door open and step in the room. Why? Because I’m selfish. Because I know that this whole thing will be over soon. Josie will go back to her family and I will never see her again. I know it doesn’t make sense nor is it rational in any way, but I just want to be near her. Just being in the same room is enough for me. There is just something about her that makes me want to be close to her.

  She is on the mattress rolled up into a ball. The blanket is covering her whole body including her head. I want to see her face and talk to her but I’m not going to push her. If it makes her feel better to ignore me, then so be it. I slide down and lean back against the door as I had before. I close my eyes in hopes I could get at least a few hours of sleep.

  “Is she one of your other spontaneous kidnappings?” She sounds strained like she is trying not to cry.

  “No,” I sigh. “Mindy was a planned kidnapping.” No reason to lie about it. Honesty is the only thing I can give her right now.

  The blanket flies away from Josie's head. “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you care about anybody else besides yourself?”

  The anger in her voice takes me by such surprise that I need a few seconds to answer. “I used to care about people. All of them left me one way or the other. No one cares about me, not really anyways. So, why would I care about anyone?”

  “Did you ever think that your actions might be the reason no one cares about you anymore?”

  Her honesty hits me like a slap in the face. Of course, I know that my own actions have gotten me here. Still, hearing someone else say it out loud is hard. It is so much easier blaming other people. But in the end, I know that everything is my own fault.

  When I was on drugs, I didn’t care about anything. I didn’t care about
what I was doing to myself or to the people around me. My mind was barely my own and by the time I returned to what was left of my former self, it was already too late. I blamed the drugs for a long time. It was so addictive, I didn’t think that I could ever stop. I didn’t even care about being high, I just wanted the pain to go away. The drugs just messed with my head so much. It made the line between good and bad shift until it faded away completely. I couldn’t stop on my own. I needed help, but help never came.

  “I am not stupid Josie. I know that it's my own fault I ended up where I am. That doesn’t change the fact that I am here now and that I am on my own. I need to take care of myself.”

  7

  Josephine

  I look into Colt eyes, stunned by the confession he just made. He admits to having kidnapped yet another girl that he is apparently keeping locked up somewhere down the hall. He says that he doesn’t care about anything or anyone besides himself, but I don’t believe him.

  “So what were you doing taking me to dinner as if you cared? Was that all pretend or just part of your plan? Some sick game you like to play?”

  He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Just go to sleep, Josie.”

  “No!” I jump up from the bed. With his eyebrows raised, his eyes open in surprise. I’m not going to sit and do nothing any longer, not when I know he has someone else here. Someone who as a baby at home that needs her. I prop my hands on my hips and position myself in front of him with my head held high. He is still sitting on the floor, in front of the door, looking up at me.

  “Let her go! Let the other girl go!”

  He stares at me in disbelief, still not making a move. “I can’t.”

  “You can’t or you won’t?”

  “Both.” He pushes himself up to stand and I am starting to regret my little outburst. He is twice my size and I am not sure what I was thinking provoking him. It’s not like I could do anything to overpower him. I swallow loudly and I let my hands fall to my sides in defeat. I really need to work on thinking before I act.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” Colt sighs.

  “Like what?”

  “Like you are scared that I am about to hit you or something. I already told you, I am not going to hurt you.” He sounds annoyed with a hint of anger. “I promise, you are going to be safe.”

  I know he has been saying that he wasn’t going to hurt me and he has kept his promise so far, but I know he has hurt people in the past and I can’t forget that.

  “What about the other girl, is she going to be safe as well?”

  “Yes, she’s fine, and her baby is with her sister.”

  “And what about my sister?” He said all he wants is for her to sign some paper. That sounds way too simple to be true. As if a signature could solve everything.

  “Jenna will be fine too.” He steps closer to me and puts his hands on my shoulders, sending electric sparks down my back. I know I probably shouldn’t, but I believe him. I let him guide me to the mattress and I lie back down on it while enjoying him touching my shoulders more than I should. He covers me up with the blanket before returning back to sit in front of the door. It takes me some time to go back to sleep but once I am out I don’t wake up until its night again.

  I try to rub the sleep out of my eyes with the back on my fingers. There is a little crust on my eyelashes, probably form the dusty air in this room. I don’t know what time it is, I only know that it is night because it is dark outside. I can’t believe I slept like a baby all day with Colt watching me like a creep. He is still sitting in front of the door when I look over. His eyes are closed but he doesn’t look like he is sleeping. His head is leaning back but it's perfectly straight. I sit up to stretch my arms and my back. Getting up to do the same for my legs and walk to the window. When I glance back at Colt his eyes are open and he is watching me intently. “You slept all day.” He points out the obvious.

  “Sorry if I messed up your schedule with my tiredness,” I snap back at him.

  “I wasn’t complaining. Just making an observation,” he smirks.

  “Is there a bathroom up here?”

  He nods and takes me to a bathroom down the hall. All the doors we pass are wide open and I am glad to see that he doesn’t have any more people locked up. When I look in the bathroom mirror I see that even the shirt I was wearing under my sweater has blood stains on it. The scratches on my arms are healing well and look good. My hair is uncombed and laying wildly across my head. Other than that, I actually appear okay. I would go as far as saying I look well rested and content. What the heck is wrong with me? Who gets a good night of sleep when they get kidnaped and watched sleeping by their kidnapper?

  I shake my head to myself and walk out in the hall, where Colt is waiting for me. When we get back to the room, Colt pushes the mattress all the way to the window and tells me to sit down on it. When I do, he takes out something made out of a shiny metal from his pocket. As soon as I realize that he is holding handcuffs, I scramble to stand up but Cold already snatched my arm, keeping me down. “What are you doing?” I shriek.

  “I’m just going to get something to eat. I’ll be back in half an hour.”

  He already attached the handcuffs to a pipe from the wall and is now pulling my arm towards it, about to cuff me to it. I try my best to wiggle out of his hold but I am no match to his strength.

  I’m in full on panic mode now and I beg him, “Please, just take me with you. I promise I won’t try to run.” The thought of being alone and cuffed terrifies me. He must see how scared I am because he releases my arm and gets up while cursing under his breath. I get up hastily to stand in front of him. “Please, I swear I won’t try to run or do anything else stupid.”

  He looks down in the space between us and only when I follow his gaze do I realize that I am holding on to his arm. My fingers are wrapped around his forearm, digging into his skin. I release my hand and let it fall next to me.

  “Okay, come on. Wear my jacket again.” I quickly put on the jacket before he can change his mind. I follow him closely walking out and through the hallway. All the doors we pass are open except one. I try to inspect it without obviously turning my head and I notice that there is only a deadbolt from the outside and not a handle with a keyhole. I promised that I wasn’t going to run, and I meant it. But I never said anything about letting the other girl go.

  Right before he opens the door to the outside he reaches for my hand. Giving it to him comes easier than I expected. His large warm hand engulfs my much smaller one and holds on tightly as we walk out onto the sidewalk. As we pass a storefront, I catch our reflection in the sales window and almost start laughing. Holding hands like this, we look like a couple out on a morning stroll. No one would ever suspect that he is only griping on to my hand to make sure that I can’t run away from him.

  We get in the car and drive a few minutes to a fast food place with a drive-thru. I’m on my best behavior when he orders and when we get to the window. I even smile at the lady handing us our food. “Could I get some ketchup, please?”

  “Sure thing sweetie.” She hands me a few small red and white packets and I thank her before we drive back.

  “You are unnaturally polite,” Colt tells me while eating some loose fries out of the bag. “She works there, you don’t have to ask nicely if you could have something. You just tell her that you need some ketchup.”

  “Maybe you are just unnaturally rude.”

  “Maybe we need to meet in the middle then.” I know we are not saying anything that is particularly flirty, but I can’t help but feel like we are flirting. Guilt washes over me and settles deep in my stomach. I should hate Colt. It’s the natural order of things. He is a bad guy who hurt people, including my sister.

  I have to hate him, right? Why is it so hard to do?

  I constantly have to remind myself that I’m here against my will because if I don’t, I’ll keep thinking this is some kind of prolonged date night.

  Back at the
deserted building, he tells me to go to the room we’ve been in, while he brings the other girl something to eat and takes her to the bathroom. I do what he wants without questioning it. I need him to trust me.

  I sit on the mattress cross-legged, nibbling on some chicken nuggets when Colt comes back in. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “You act like you’re not going to try to run so that I’ll trust you and give you the opportunity to get away.”

  “I promised you that I wouldn’t run.” I look him in the eyes so he knows I am serious when I say, “I don’t make promises lightly, because I don’t intend to break one once I’ve made it. And I hate liars.” I don’t know if I have completely convinced him, but he nods and doesn’t push the subject.

  Grabbing one of the brown paper bags he takes his spot in front of the door. “You know you can sit over here with me. On the mattress,” I offer, even though I know he blocks the door on purpose since he can’t lock it.

  “I’m good over here,” he says, before biting into his sandwich.

  “Fine.” I lie back down and turn away from him so he can’t see my face.

  “There is no way you are tired again,” Colt mumbles with his mouth full.

  “Sorry, was there anything else on the itinerary for today? A movie and popcorn? Play some board games maybe? Oh, I know, we could play charades. Kidnapper versus hostages?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Josie, how are we going to play charades if I don’t have a second kidnapper on my team?”

  I’m glad all he sees is the back of my head right now because I can’t help but smile at his stupid joke.

  Ugh, stop it! I am here against my will. I am not supposed to smile and have a good time.

  I keep my eyes wide open, looking out the window and at the wall. I don’t move my body though, so Colt thinks it’s okay to go to sleep. I am bored out of my mind by the time I hear his breathing even out and I am sure that he is asleep. I peek around my shoulder into the room that is only lit by a battery operated lantern. Colt’s eyes are closed, his head is laying on his shoulder and his face is relaxed. He is definitely out.