Rebel With A Cause (25 page)

She slipped her bag onto her back and grinned at De, who was standing in the doorway of his house, looking worse for wear.

“Hey,” she called, waving at him.

He eyed her suspiciously, and as she got closer, he glared.

“What do you want?” he growled.

As she got closer, she noticed how beat up he looked. He had bruises visible on his face.

“You look like shit,” she commented.

He clenched his fists. “You can thank your boyfriend for that. By the way, what’s he done with Aria?”

She shrugged. “No idea. I’ve left him. He’s a giant pain in my ass. He’s always trying to control me, and I’m sick of it,” she lied.

He pursed his lips, but held the door open for her to enter. She walked inside, her heart beating like mad. She was terrified of being alone in his house with him, but
she didn’t show it on her face. She was scared that he could hear her heartbeat though.

“Do you want me to put some cream or something on your bruises?” she asked softly. “Or
an
ice-pack?”

De shrugged and shut the door. He flipped the lock and sighed. “What are you doing here, Kaitlyn?”

She sat down on his sofa and looked at him.

“I came to see you,” she replied. It wasn’t a lie. She wanted to see De. She just didn’t anticipate seeing De in person.

He flopped down on the smaller two-seater. “Yeah, but why?”

She bit her lip. She couldn’t tell him the truth – which was that she wanted him dead – so she had to think on her feet.

“Last time I was here…you were rough,” she said cryptically.

He groaned.
“So what?
You want an apology?”

She shook her head. Even though it would be nice, it wouldn’t make up for what he had done. It also wouldn’t help her now.

“I was actually wanting to know…” she couldn’t believe she was about to say this, “
can
we do it again?”

His brows shot up.
“Seriously?
You were desperate to get away. Why would you want to do it again?”

She went red. She couldn’t believe she was embarrassing herself like this. “I didn’t like it at first, but then I started having these fantasies…”

He laughed, wincing as the muscles he used hurt his bruises.

“My god, Katie,” he chortled. “You are
hilarious
.”

She frowned. What was going on? “Excuse me?”

He laughed at her confused face. “Katie, I know girls don’t like me. You know it, I know it, hell,
everybody
knows it!
So come on, what’s the real reason that you’re here?”

She scowled. “Ok, you got me!” she yelled. “I want an apology!”

He smirked. “I’m not sorry that I did it Katie, I’m only sorry that you didn’t enjoy it.”

She growled. “You’re an ass!”

He laughed.
“Yeah?
So what if I am?”

This was not going how she planned it. She planned on seducing him, tricking him into hurting her. But, as she’d suspected, De was smarter than that. He knew what she was up to – at least she thought so.

She launched herself at him, desperate, and as a last resort. She didn’t want to hurt him; he was supposed to hurt her.

He grabbed her by her shoulders and knocked her to the ground. She fell on her back and was winded. She had trouble catching her breath, and De just stood over her, smirking.

“You shouldn’t mess with me, little Katie,” he said cockily. “I’m too smart for you.”

He helped her up, only to knock her to the ground again, but she hit her head on the corner of the coffee table
.

The last thing she saw was De’s arrogant grin, before everything went black.

Carter was freaking out. After Kaitlyn’s little outburst, she’d locked herself in their bedroom, and everyone else just kept on going with the planning.

But it was now after lunchtime, and she hadn’t come out.

He walked into the hallway and knocked on the bedroom door. “Katie?”

No answer.

“Katie?” he tried again. “Come on baby,
it’s
lunchtime.”

Again, no answer.
Was she asleep? His gut told him that something was wrong, and after Kaitlyn’s logical outburst, he decided to follow his instincts.

He expected the door to be locked, but when he attempted to twist the doorknob, the door opened.

He pushed it open wider and looked around, but there was no sign of Kaitlyn.

“Katie?” he called.
“Kaitlyn!”

He scanned the room in desperation, and that was when he noticed the open window.

“Crap!” he yelled angrily. He ran towards the open window and looked out. His car was gone.

“FUCK!” he screamed.

He ran back out into the living area.

“
Marcus, give me your keys,” he ordered. He held out his hand.

Marcus looked at him, wondering what the hell had gotten into Carter.

“Keys, dammit!”
Carter yelled. “I need your keys!”

Marcus frowned. “Why?”

Carter screamed wordlessly. He dropped his hand, not expecting Marcus to give the keys to him, and stormed around the room in circles.

“Kaitlyn’s missing, dammit!” he screamed. “She’s gone! And she’s taken my car!”

Bekah grabbed her cousin and sat him down at the table.

“Don’t stress, Carter,” she said calmly. “She’ll have gone to De’s and ignored the plan. It’s her own fault she’s gone. No one took her. She’ll come back when she’s ready.”

Aria piped up for the first time that day. “I wouldn’t count on it. If she really has gone to De’s, he’ll have figured out why she’s there, and he’ll hurt her worse than any of you can imagine. We need to go after her.”

The guys prepared for a fight, and it was like pandemonium at the dining room table.

Bekah waved her arms around in a
stop
motion. “Stop, stop,
stop
!” she screamed. Everybody paused so she took a deep breath “We need to calm down and be rational about this. Kaitlyn got herself into this mess, and as she preached this morning, she can get herself out. I say, we need to stick to the plan.”

Carter wanted to hit his cousin. It was the first time he’d wanted to hit a girl in his life, and it was only because of Bekah’s insane selfishness.
She wanted to gamble with Katie’s life. It just wasn’t on.

“No,” he growled furiously. “NO! We are NOT gambling with Katie's life. De could
kill
her, Bekah. What about that don’t you understand?”

Bekah frowned stubbornly at him. “She screwed up the plan, Carter. Besides, if we save Kaitlyn, De could get away, he could hurt more girls. It’s either Kaitlyn, or tons of other girls that are possible victims.”

Aria pushed Carter out of the way and backhanded Bekah.

“You’re so selfish!” Aria screamed. “You don’t know what it’s like!”

Everyone stared at her, dumbfounded. This was the most she’d said since they’d met her.

“You just don’t get it! You don’t know what it’s like to be wondering if you’ll still be alive the next day! You don’t know what it’s like to be alone, hurt, scared and wanting to die, but unable to give up hoping! I was lucky, Carter saved me. But you,” Aria looked disgusted. “
You
want to
leave Kaitlyn there! She could be dead!”

Marcus looked at Bekah, who was puffing up her chest, getting ready to yell at Aria. He suddenly realised that Bekah wasn’t a nice girl. She didn’t care about anyone but herself.

“You disgust me,” he spat. “I can’t be with you anymore. We’re done.”

T-Man scowled. “You’re no longer welcome in the circuit. As of today, you are no longer a street racer. You’re just a nuisance.”

Bekah burst into hot, angry tears. “I can’t believe you guys!” she screamed. “You want to doom heaps of other girls, just for one! How crazy are you?!”

Carter picked up his cousin and locked her in her room. He then snatched her keys out of the bowl by the table and ran down to her car. He started the engine, reversed out of the driveway, and headed for De’s house.

T-Man, Marcus, Brady and Aria followed suit.

He sped to De’s, and arrived in no time. Kaitlyn’s car was parked out front and he ran towards it,
panicking when he saw her stuff still on the passenger seat. He tried the door, and found the car unlocked.

“No!” he yelled.

He couldn’t breathe. His girlfriend, the love of his life, was inside, possibly dead, and certainly hurt. He turned his head to the side and vomited in the gutter.

“Hey,” T-Man called. “Are they in there?”

Carter stood up and wiped the vomit off his face. He looked around and noticed that De’s car was still in the carport.

“Yeah,” Carter said quietly. “They’re still here.”

Inside, Kaitlyn was handcuffed with her hands behind her back, and De had tied rope around her ankles. He was really good at it, too,
because she couldn’t get the rope off, not matter how hard
she tried
. Her shoes prevented her from being able to manoeuvre properly.

“You can’t keep me here forever, you know,” she said venomously. “Carter
will
come looking for me.”

De shrugged. “And when he does, I’ll be ready.”

De had blacked out the windows, but the room’s light was on, and she could see the gun –
her
gun, which had been concealed in her backpack’s secret pocket – in his hands. He was twisting it round and round, admiring it from all angles.”

“You know,” he said conversationally, as if he wasn’t holding her hostage and tied up against her will. “I quite like this gun. It’s quite
…convenient.”

He swung his arm around and pointed it at her. He cocked the end of the gun and laughed.

“And look!” he cried manically. “It’s loaded, too!”

For the first time in her life, she felt real terror. This wasn’t like the time when Bekah had lost control of the car. This wasn’t like when he had attacked her. Right now, De was sane, and he was
willing to murder her in cold blood.

“De, please,” she begged. “Don’t do this.”

Tears began to stream down her cheeks.
“De, please?”

He laughed. “Don’t beg, Katie. I don’t like people who beg.”

She stared down t
he barrel of the gun. She gulped, beyond terrified. She couldn’t move, paralysed in fear. Wasn’t her life supposed to flash before her eyes right now? All she could think about was Carter, her mother, her father, and her brother Jordy. She missed her family.

De lowered the gun
and laughed. “You’re such a chicken.”

She couldn’t believe it. He’d lowered the gun. She swallowed slowly.

She couldn’t relax, not completely. She was still tense, and she was right to be. Someone began banging on the front door, and De pointed the gun at her again.

“Katie!” she heard a male scream. Her heart leaped. Carter! She wanted to scream back, but she was afraid that De would shoot her if she did.

“Katie, can you hear me?”

De crouched down by Kaitlyn. “Don’t make a sound,” he hissed in her ear. “You make a sound, and you’re dead.”

When De opened the door, he had Kaitlyn handcuff
ed, and was gripping her by her hair. Her face was contorted in pain, but her eyes were frozen open in terror.

The reason?
There was a gun pressed to her head, and De’s finger hovered over the trigger.

Carter gulped. He needed to save Kaitlyn, but if he made any sudden movements, she was dead.

“Well, hello there, Carter!” De greeted brightly. “How are you, my dear friend?”

Carter gulped. “De, don’t do this.”

De laughed. “Do what, Carter? Kill your girlfriend?”

Carter moved achingly slowly into a defensive stance. “Come on, De, you don’t want to do this.”

De grinned. “You’re right; I don’t particularly want to kill Katie. It’d be such a waste; she’s so pretty. But
you
…”

Carter had to stop himself from attacking De.

“Come on, De,” he said casually. “We’re friends, aren’t we? You know how much Katie means to me. Why don’t you give me her, and I’ll give you something in return?”

De laughed. “Carter, we’re not friends. You and I
can’t
be friends. You
kidnapped
my girlfriend.”

Carter gulped. “No, De, I didn’t steal your girlfriend. She came to me. I told her to go home, but she refused. You can have her back if you want.”