Breathe Into Me (32 page)

“Eddie’s kids are sick. His wife couldn’t get out of work. So I said I would cover for him. Stop avoiding my question. What in the hell would make you do this to me? Of all people, you had to come here with Nate?”

I balled my hands into fists. He had no right to be asking me anything, so I ignored his question and made an attempt to step around him but he grabbed hold of my arm, stopping me.

“Let go of my arm, Kane!” I yelled and jerked my arm free from his grasp. “This is all your fault!” I screamed.

The rain began pouring down on us. His black shirt became soaked through and was sticking to every inch of him, making it easy for me to see the muscles in his arms and chest twitch. He closed the short distance between us and looked right down into my eyes.

“My fault? Really? That’s rich, Kelsey,” he sneered.

My blood was boiling at that point. It was his fault! He was the one who couldn’t keep his lips to himself! I was the fool who thought he could be true to me. “What are you trying to say? That’s it’s my fault?! I trusted you, Kane! I trusted you so much. You kissed Katie! You let me down … you broke my heart.” I hiccupped a sob.

“I’m done playing these games, Kelsey. You say you trust me but then won’t give me the chance to explain anything before you shut me out of your life and move on to the next person.” His voice was hollow. It held no emotion anymore. “I want you, Kelsey. I want you so damn bad, but it’s obvious I can’t change your mind. I can’t make you want me … or love me.” He turned and began walking away from me, straight to the stairs that led to his apartment.

I had nothing left to say. I could no longer feel anything. Not the chill from the rain, or my broken heart. So I just stood there in the rain and watched him go.

I finally decided standing there in the rain like an idiot would not help matters, plus I had the strangest feeling I was being watched, so I headed back in to Shot’s to find Jessi so we could leave. When I stepped inside, I began searching for Jessi, but I couldn’t find her anywhere. She wasn’t at the bar, I was searching the dance floor for her when someone stepped in my path.

“Nate. I really don’t have time to talk,” I said to him, still looking around the crowded dance floor for Jessi. “I’m trying to find Jessi so I can go home. Have you seen her?” I asked.

When he didn’t respond, I looked at up at him. He was staring at me with no expression on his face. His whole demeanor was beginning to scare me, so I made a step to go around him when he grabbed me and pulled me to his chest.

I automatically tried to push off his chest, but he held firm and I was beginning to panic. I didn’t like him holding me like. This wasn’t the Nate I was used to.

“Let me go, Nate,” I firmly said, hoping it would break through whatever haze was in.

“From day one I have been there for you, Kelsey. Day. One. Have I not? Why is it that you can’t see what is right in front of you? I would treat you so good. So damn good. You would want for nothing with me. Don’t you realize that?” I could see he was becoming agitated and I wildly scanned the room for Jessi. Where in the hell was she?!

“Nate, please, let me go and I promise you we’ll talk about this.” I tried to reason with him, but I could tell nothing I was saying was getting through. I couldn’t smell alcohol on his breath, so I didn’t know where this change was coming from. He had never even remotely acted interested in me as more than a friend.

“Do you know how much it kills me to watch you pine away after Kane?” He spat Kane’s name out as if it was a piece of garbage. I didn’t like where this was going, and I needed to get away—now.

“You’re too good for him, Kelsey. He will never amount to anything. He doesn’t even have parents. He would have been set if he hadn’t screwed up any relationship that he had with his grandparents. And you see that he couldn’t give up the women, even when he had something as good as you to call his. If you were mine, I swear, I wouldn’t even be looking at other girls. My whole world would revolve around you. I would treasure you, Kelsey.”

He obviously didn’t know about Kane and his grandparents reconciling, which now had me believing that he didn’t know anything at all about Kane now. And I was pretty sure I had not told him the reason Kane and I were no longer together.

“It should have been you and me from the start. I didn’t pursue you because I thought you would be smart enough not to fall for Kane’s shit, but you see now, don’t you? You see how he deceived you and how he could so easily forget about you when it came to Katie.

Now that you’re not burdened by him anymore, we can give us a shot, though. I can show you how it feels to be spoiled and pampered.” He smiled, but it had a disturbing edge to it now, and made my stomach turn.

“You are quick to forget, Nate, that you haven’t asked me what I want, and I don’t want those things. Not with you, not with anyone! I’m not the type of girl who can be bought into a relationship. You would have known that if you were really my friend,” I hissed at him, then something else he had said sank in and I glared at him, “I never told you that I caught Kane with Katie. I never told anyone besides Jessi, and I am pretty sure she never told anyone.” I jerked my body one last time, which broke the hold he had on me, and I turned to run and find Jessi.

I made my way toward the back where the bathrooms were, still glancing over my shoulder to see if Nate was following me. I didn’t see him, but I also didn’t see him standing where I had left him on the dance floor. All the hair on my body stood on end. I needed to find Jessi and I needed to get out of here and away from him.

I pulled out my phone and began typing out a text to Jess. I knew if I couldn’t find her, she would at least get my text.

Big trouble. Need you now. Nate is a psycho. Meet me at the bathroom.

There, now all I would need to do is wait by the bathrooms for her and then we could leave and I could forget about this whole mess.

What the hell was that?! Had I given Nate the impression somewhere along the way that I was interested in him as more than a friend? Looking back I didn’t think I had, so I didn’t know what tonight was all about.

I was looking down at my phone, willing it to chime with a text from Jessi, when someone grabbed me from behind. The person who had me placed one hand over my mouth, and knocked my phone out my hands with the other.

“Shh, we are just going to go talk,” Nate’s voice hissed in my ear. “You can’t just walk away from me, Kelsey. No one disrespects me like that. Now you’re going to keep real quiet. You’re not going to put up a fight and you’re going to come with me.”

I started to shake my head
no
when I felt a sharp poke in my side. I wasn’t stupid, I knew what it was. It was a knife.
The bastard pulled a knife on me.

“Please don’t make me hurt you, Kelsey. I don’t want to hurt you. I just need to talk to you. To make you understand, but know this, if you cause a scene I will hurt you and if I can’t hurt you … I will hurt the people you care about. Do you understand?”

I began to panic. Where was Jessi? Had he already gotten to her? There was nothing else I could do. I couldn’t take a chance on him hurting anyone else, so I nodded to let him know I would do whatever he wanted.

“Good. Now we are going to slip right out this door over here. Come on.”

He began pulled me to the back exit of Shot’s. I heard the door open and I felt a rush of wind. I looked around at the bar full of people, and no one seemed to notice what was going on. At the last minute I spotted Kane. He was standing tall above the other as if he was looking for something. I was praying he would glance my way and see what was happening but he never did and the door to Shot’s slammed shut along with any hope I had that someone would save me.

He dragged me around the corner to where his car was. The rain had finally stopped, but there was now a fog drifting along the ground. I could still feel the knife poking at my side so I tried not to put up too much of a fight. I obviously didn’t know Nate as well as I thought I did, so it was hard to say what he was capable of and I didn’t want to chance pushing him too far, so I went willingly.

He opened the driver’s side door and leaned down to my ear. “Climb in this side. I’m going to take my hand off your mouth to let you do this. Please don’t make me do something we both will regret.”

I nodded and he released the hold he had on my mouth. I crawled my way across the driver’s seat and into the passenger’s seat. This wasn’t an easy feat to do, because he drove a small sports car. The thought had crossed my mind to make a run for it while he climbed in, but I was already so cramped in the tiny car that I knew I would get tripped up in my attempts, and he would end up catching me and then there was no telling what he might do. So I thought to myself, maybe if I played along long enough, he would finally let me go. We had been friends—or so I thought—maybe if I could get him to remember the friendship, he would be less likely to hurt me in the end.

Nate climbed in and started the car. “Where are you taking me?” I asked him.

He turned his head and smiled. “Just somewhere to talk, Kelsey. We need to talk about this. I need you to understand where I’m coming from.” He put the car in drive and pulled out of Shot’s onto the main road.

He headed in the opposite direction of the college, toward a part of town I had never been to. The street lights became fewer and farther in between, as did the houses and businesses. He was taking me somewhere where no one would be able to bother us … or find me, and I began to panic.

“Nate, really we can talk about this back at school, or maybe over a cup of coffee tomorrow morning when you’re not so worked up.” I was pleading with him. I didn’t want to get to the destination we were headed, because I wasn’t sure I would make it back.

“No. We are going to talk about this tonight and I have to get you away from all the noise and people that might cloud your judgment,” he said as he turned on his signal light and took a left onto a dark street. Through the darkness I could see a large mass, and as we got closer, I saw that I was an old abandoned building.

“What is this place?” I asked as he slowly pulled the car to a stop.

“Just an old building my father owns. It’s been closed for years and sometimes the frat comes here to party when we don’t want to get in trouble with the university.” He popped open his door and stepped out. With the help of the security lights, I could see him motioning for me to get out when he stepped in front of the car. I guess he figured there was no way I would run now, and he was right. Where would I even go? The last house we had passed was a good ten minutes back the other way. I was going to have to ride this out and hope for the best.

I slowly opened my door and stepped out, and took in the big dark building. Some of the windows were busted out, and it had the obvious graffiti that abandoned buildings seemed to accumulate over time.

“Don’t worry. It’s a lot better than it looks. We have lights and old couches inside. I told you, the frat uses this pace to party sometimes.” He smiled. He obviously had no clue that I didn’t want to be here, that I didn’t want to be out here alone, with him.

He began walking to the doors of the building, but turned to glare at me when I made no attempt to follow. He said nothing as he pulled the knife from his pocket, the blade glinting in the light from the headlights of the car.

I gulped as I took a step closer to him. He reached out and grabbed my hand, roughly pulling me closer to him.

“We are just going to talk, Kelsey.” He smiled, but I couldn’t fake a smile back.

Nate pulled me inside the dark building. He let go of my hand long enough to plug in some security lights. The room flooded with the harsh lighting, and I could see that the walls were splattered with paint and more graffiti. There were a couple of old, worn couches and chairs spaced sparsely throughout the room, and huge sets of speakers in each corner. This place screamed squatter party house.

I wrapped my arms around my torso, hugging my body. “Nate, please take me home,” I begged him. I didn’t want to be here. I wasn’t sure what Nate was capable of anymore.

Nate crossed the room to stand before me, he wrapped his hands around my upper arms. “Kelsey, I told you. We have to talk first. Then I will take you home.”

A door slammed and both our heads turned to see who it was. I was elated at first because I thought finally someone had come to rescue me. But the person I found in the doorway was anything but a rescuer. It had been six years since I had come face to face with him, but I would remember those cold eyes anywhere.

“Who the fuck are you?” Nate let go of my arms and turned toward the person standing in the doorway.

“I would be that pretty little thing you have there’s father.” My dad’s deep voice echoed throughout the room chilling me to the bone.

His face was hollow. He was much thinner than the last time I had seen him in the courtroom, but he still held this aura about him that screamed dangerous.

“Oh, Sir, we were just out here talking.” Nate began to stutter. He didn’t know anything about my past and what my dad had done. He probably thought my dad was here to save me. But now, more than ever, I knew I was never going to make it out of this old, dirty building alive.