Deceived (Free Indeed Book 2), page 8
Chapter 8
The door to the cabin flew open and crashed against the wall with a thunderous bang. Cara jerked awake from her restless sleep with a yelp of surprise. Jake’s head swung around in the direction of the door with his hand darting to the gun at his hip. His hand froze when they realized it was Gideon standing in the doorway with Paul closely behind as normal.
Sleep jumbled Cara’s thoughts, and the only thing she could think of was that she had fallen asleep with her head resting against Jake’s chest. The imprint of his shirt was still on her cheek. Well, that was something that shouldn’t have happened, she chastised herself as she rubbed her cheek. Granted, his hard chest and abs surprisingly made a wonderfully comfortable pillow, but she should not have cuddled up to the enemy even if it was in sleep. Cara jerked away from him as far as the small couch would allow and turned her attention to their intruder.
Gideon barrelled into the room and up to the couch where they were sitting. Without warning or a word, his arm flashed out grabbing hold of her hair at the back of her head and jerked her roughly forward until she was barely inches from his face.
Cara gasped from the pain his grip caused and tried to regain her footing underneath her. A task difficult to do considering he was swinging her back and forth by her hair. Her stepdad’s grip twisted in her hair making her cry out as several strands broke loose.
“What the hell, Gideon?” Jake yelled as he jumped to his feet. He reached out and grabbed Gideon’s hand to try and stop him from hurting Cara any further.
Gideon used his free hand to slap Jake’s grip away. “You fucking whore!” he screamed into Cara’s face. Spit flew from his lips as he continued his tirade, “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” His hand flew forward, and a sharp crack echoed through the small space as he slapped his fist across her cheek.
Dazed from the blow and still groggy from sleep, Cara wasn’t sure how to respond to his anger. A small whimper escaped her lips as she tried to push herself away from the man and loosen his vice-like grip on her hair. She could literally feel the fury radiating off of him as his dark eyes bore down into hers. Fear clenched her heart as she trembled before him. Gideon looked angry enough to murder her right here, right now. That realization caused her to struggle and fight even more as she squirmed and kicked out at his legs trying to break free.
“For God’s sake, Gideon! Let her go and tell me what happened!” Jake shouted as he reached out to grasp Gideon’s wrist and break his iron hold on her hair. Cara fell to the floor with a thud and scampered backward across the floor until she hit a wall. She huddled up, clenching her legs tightly to her chest and stared up at the two men arguing in front of her.
“It’s gone!” Gideon screamed, “That data is everything! And now it’s gone!”
“It wasn’t in the locket?” Jake tried to make sense of his violent outburst.
“The locket’s gone,” the patriarch seethed.
Paul finally stepped forward into the action to explain, “It seems Gideon took the locket from Allie as punishment, and earlier today she decided to steal it back.”
“Well, then it should be safe right around her neck,” Jake interrupted.
“And it most likely is,” Paul continued dryly, “except she also decided to pack her bags and run away. The locket is gone, and we have no idea where it or she is right now.”
“What?” Jake’s eyes widened with genuine surprise, “But Allie loves her brothers and sisters more than anything, why would she leave them?” Gideon’s body flinched at his comment causing Jake’s eyes to narrow in his direction. “What did you do?” No response. “Did you hurt her?”
Silence spread throughout the room as Gideon and Paul exchanged a look. Jake raised an eyebrow in their direction as he crossed his arms against his chest. The deputy wanted an answer and was going to wait until he got one.
Finally, Gideon broke the silence, “Her belligerence against the man of God deserved punishment.”
“So your daughter did something to piss you off.” Jake summarized. “I repeat, what did you do?”
“The Lord revealed to me it was her time to marry Paul. In her stubbornness, she decided to rebel against God’s will for her life, and in turn, she deserved the fallout for that decision.”
For God’s sake what kind of a monster was this guy? She knew he’d never make father of the year based off of the way he had always treated her. But she just figured it was because she was only the stepchild and he wasn’t dad material. To find out he actually hurt his own flesh and blood not only physically, but to arrange an unwanted marriage for her...what a narcissistic, chauvinist pig! And to do it to the point that his own child would run away, that was just cold and cruel on so many levels. It made Cara want to punch the man in the face on behalf of the stepsister she never even knew she had. Even though she never met her, Cara already had a measure of respect and appreciation for who was obviously the smartest child of the bunch. If Allie had the guts to leave this hellhole and go out on her own, then she was all right in Cara’s book. Figuring she was better off keeping her thoughts to herself, Cara just remained silent and let the men argue in front of her.
A look of disgust spread across Jake’s face as he stared down the two men in front of him. “What the hell, Gideon? You seriously couldn’t just let Allie live out the rest of her miserable days as your maid and housekeeper? You had to make it worse and pimp her out to marry someone who anyone can see she can’t stand.”
Gideon bristled at his insolent words. “That’s not the issue here. I need the data on that card to pay off very important people, and now it’s gone! And it’s all her fault!” As the words burst from his mouth, her stepdad reached his hand into his coat and pulled out a gun. Cara froze as he leveled it directly at her face, blatant hate and rage dripping from his features.
“Gideon, whoa man, slow down, ok?” Jake lifted both hands up palms outward in an effort to calm the man down. Slowly he took one cautious step closer to Gideon. “Let’s not do something crazy that you’ll regret later.”
“I’ll never regret killing this bitch!” The words spat from his mouth. “She’s been nothing but problems and trouble since the day I met her. Always trying to turn her mother against me and taking what should rightfully be mine.”
Cara watched the exchange too afraid to say something that would set the man off and cause him to pull the trigger. Besides, Jake seemed to be doing his best to handle it on her behalf. As he assured her earlier, he didn’t seem to want her to die, which brought her some level of comfort. As much as she could have anyway with a gun pointed at her face.
Moving slowly as not to surprise Gideon, Jake casually slid to the side until his body came between the gun and Cara. “Gideon, don’t do this. She did what you asked and told you where the information was. There was no way for her to know that Allie was going to take it and run.”
“That doesn’t help me!” Gideon screamed. His eyes darted back and forth rapidly like a crazy man. “I need those files! And now they’re gone because of her,” his lip curled as he sneered the last word in her direction. “I’m due to pay my investors back. If I don’t give them their money with interest, I’ll—” his voice broke off, and Cara could only imagine the horrible things they would do to him which she fully supported at this point. “It’s her fault. And if I’m going down, then I’m sure as hell going to take her down with me.”
“I can help you,” Cara whispered from where she sat huddled on the floor. The attention of all three of the men swung in her direction at her words. Despite her terror, she forced her chin up to meet Gideon’s gaze dead on. “She’ll need money...employment, since I’m assuming she probably doesn’t have credit or atm cards that I can track.” As her words became stronger and more confident, she straightened while directing her words at Gideon, “You know I’m good at this type of thing. Top of my class actually. I can track her and get the card back for you.”
She needed to make herself relevant to the man. It might be the only way that he could be convinced to keep her alive.
The men were silent as Gideon seemed to ponder her statement. He knew anything computer related was her specialty. Despite the fact that everything she had done wasn’t always necessarily legal or ethical, her mom always bragged about her talents to him. It may take some time depending on how hard Allie was trying to hide, but at some point, everyone screwed up and left a trail. Cara could find her and Gideon knew it.
“Fine,” he hissed in reluctant agreement, his eyes boring holes into Cara’s. “If you fail or try to contact anyone for help, I’ll kill you before anyone can come for you. But if you find Allie, I’ll let you live.”
She wasn’t sure if she believed the last part of his declaration, but at least she was alive for another day. And that was all that mattered.
Chapter 9
Cara had been tracking Allie for the last week, and now it looked like all her hard work had finally paid off. Fortunately for her, Allie’s naiveté for the real world was playing in Cara’s favor. Allie didn’t have a lot (or any) experience trying to cover her tracks, so she wound up leaving them all over the place.
Initially, she had tracked Allie to a bus station in Morgantown, and from there she purchased a four-day long bus ticket to Denver. Once she had been able to confirm that Allie arrived in Denver, Gideon decided that they would start driving after her. Even though they knew Allie most likely wouldn’t stop there, at least they would be headed in the right direction to be able to catch up with her.
That meant...cross country road trip with two men who wanted to kill her and one man who constantly pissed her off...yay, what fun! Not. But Gideon, untrusting man that he is, wasn’t about to let Cara get in an airport around security guards and other people who she could try and get to help her. So road trip it was. At least they were making good time since the three men split the driving between them.
Also Gideon’s fancy (most likely paid for with the offerings of his followers) SUV was all tricked out with the high-tech add-ons including wifi, which meant she could keep searching for Allie the entire time they were driving. That definitely came in handy considering they had temporarily lost Allie’s trail once she had arrived in Denver. She didn’t purchase any other bus passes, train or airline tickets, or anything else she could track. That probably meant she had purchased some type of second-hand car. Gideon was able to confirm she had stolen approximately ten thousand dollars of his funds before she left, so Allie didn’t have unlimited funds by far. She’d definitely have to conserve the money where she could. And that was another fact that was good for them. It meant she’d have to replenish them quicker than they’d thought. Which meant employment applications...another great way to track her. It was just a matter of time and they’d find her, Cara was sure of it. Then Gideon would have his data back, and God knows what would happen to Allie and her. But for now, she was alive. Slowly dying a little each day trapped in a car constantly with her three companions, but whatever.
Oh Gideon, the more time she spent with that pious, pompous douchebag, the more she hated him. And that’s saying something since she didn’t believe she could hate him any more than she already did.
Then there was Paul. The man was as cold and plastic as they came. He never smiled, never found enjoyment or pleasure in anything, the man barely even talked. He just sat there like his entire existence centered around serving his patriarch, Gideon. Seriously, he was like the terminator. And not the Arnold Schwarzenegger one who actually started cracking jokes by the end of the franchise. No, Paul was the T-1000 model from Terminator 2. A cold, heartless bastard with no emotions, just blindly and unquestionably following the orders of his master.
To be honest, that’s what made the man so scary. When he leveled his flat, unflinching gaze on her, it sent shivers down her spine. He seemed to do it a lot too, which didn’t make any sense. Cara would be typing away on the computer, and suddenly goose bumps would break out across her arms. She’d look up, and sure enough, the creeper was there staring at her with that empty gaze of his. She didn’t like him. At all. When it came to Gideon, she knew what to expect because the man wanted to flat out murder her and didn’t try to hide it. But with Paul, his face was like a plastic mask giving nothing away, and sometimes that would scare her even more.
And then there was Jake. Deputy Badass was her personal keeper on this quest of theirs. He was in charge of making sure she stayed out of trouble. Which included making sure she didn’t do anything on the internet that she shouldn’t be doing, and ensuring she didn’t speak or make contact with anyone on their bathroom-slash-food stops while they traveled across the country.
The deputy also was in charge of the everyday little things in regards to her like picking up a couple changes of clothes, so she didn’t have to wear the same outfit every single day. Despite how grateful she was every time he picked her up a new shirt, his fashion sense sucked monkey balls. The I Love Kentucky shirt was bad enough, but when he followed that shit up with the I Love Missouri and I Love Kansas ones, she knew he was deliberately picking those fugly things just to piss her off. So unfortunately for him, the Kansas shirt got wadded up and pitched directly in his too hot for his own good face, which then bounced off and landed in his extra large sized bowl of homemade Kansas chili. Served him right too, the dick.
He must have gotten the point because the next t-shirt he picked up for her was a nerdy, little number done in the style of the old 8-bit video games where you’d go on a quest and find an item to assist you on your mission. Except this one stated: Item> COFFEE, +4 Agility, +4 Stamina, +3 Endurance. And right in the center was a picture of a coffee cup done in the classic 8-bit style.
It. Was. Awesome.
So awesome in fact, that she forgot where she was for a moment and busted out laughing when she saw it. Both Gideon and Paul turned around to look at her confusion written all over their faces. Jake just shot her a grin along with an amused wink.
From there, anytime he saw more shirts that had to do with coffee he’d snap them up for her. There was another brown one that proudly displayed her as having OCD: Obsessive Coffee Disorder. And then a solid black shirt with a loading bar halfway full that stated Buffering, with big letters saying Caffeine Loading...Please Wait. Cara thought the shirts were very appropriate and wore them proudly.
If she had to admit it, Jake really did have his good points. He also tended to be her buffer between herself and Dickhead Gideon and the T-1000, which she was continually grateful for. Every time her stepdad’s eyes landed on her they looked like they wanted to commit bloody murder, so she tried to avoid him as much as she could in the small space of the SUV. She tried to not make eye contact, to not speak to him, to not even breathe too loudly if he was close by. Fortunately Jake helped with that too. If Gideon had any instructions for her, Jake would pass them on, and vice versa, if she found out anything about Allie, he would tell Gideon.
She hated that Jake seemed, it galled her just to say it, but he seemed nice sometimes. When he got out of that deputy uniform and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, sometimes she could forget he was a dirty cop doing Gideon’s bidding and imagine him as an everyday, ordinary guy. Feelings like that sucked though because they led to her actually liking the man, and that was something she couldn’t let herself do. He was the enemy, and she needed to keep him in that category. At the same time, though, if she lived through this, she was totally keeping her coffee t-shirt collection.
The back door to the SUV opened next to her pulling Cara from her musings. Jake jumped inside slamming the door closed behind him. “You better have my coffee, Deputy Badass, or you can take your ass right back in that store.”
He turned to Cara with that way sexier than it should be smile and handed her a twenty-ounce cup of heaven with steam wafting through the narrow slit on the top, along with a slice of pizza and a bottle of soda, “Here you go. Coffee with two cream, two sugar, pepperoni pizza, and Pepsi, right?”
“You got it,” Cara acknowledged reaching for the items. Jake was getting her likes and dislikes down pretty well over the course of this abduction. If he weren’t Gideon’s lackey and occasionally a first rate ass, she’d actually consider keeping him. After all, any man who could anticipate her coffee needs was a keeper in her book.
Jake opened up his own container and without preamble started to eat. “I thought you people believed God would make you choke on your food if you didn’t pray before eating,” Cara muttered as she took her own bite of pizza.
He chuckled as he took another bite. “Somehow I think God has bigger concerns than making me choke on my pizza. Like maybe trying to save your heathen, little ass.”
“I don’t think you should talk about God and my ass in the same breath. I’m pretty sure there’s some rule about that too.”
“Ok, I’ll just talk about your ass then,” Jake winked at her with a cheeky grin.
Cara deliberately smacked his chest with her pepperoni grease-covered hand, leaving stains on his shirt.
“Hey, that was uncalled for,” Jake tried to sound indignant, but wound up laughing at her instead. Cara smirked back at him and just as a laugh started to wiggle its way up her throat the two front doors of the SUV opened. Paul slid into the driver’s seat having finished pumping the gas from outside, and Gideon jumped in after getting his own lunch from inside the convenience store. Yuck, way to put a damper on any type of fun she may have possibly been having.
She gave Jake one last look before turning her attention back to her own food. It was weird. Jake had an almost magical presence that could make her feel like she wasn’t in an otherwise terrifying situation. She really needed to stop letting him distract her so she could stay focused on the ever-present danger that she was in. Forgetting that even for a second could be catastrophic for her, and if Jake distracted her from that, then she really should try harder to ignore him.
