Flames

Chapter 18: Where will we go?

"What is she doing here?" Lucy asks, panic sensible in her voice when Marcus and I walk past her. "Does Sam know she's here?" Marcus ignores her and keeps walking, dragging me along with him. "HEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU."

"SHUT YA' PILE HOLE. THIS IS NONE OF YA' BUSINESS," Marcus shouts back. Lucy is taken aback. She stays in the living room, looking worried as Marcus keeps walking, taking me along with him. He leads me down some weird stairs. Even though it still looks kind of fancy like the rest of the house, it looks shady.

"He's expectin' us," Marcus informs a big, muscular man guarding a door. The big guy moves aside and lets us in. Inside the room, Samuel is sitting behind a white marble desk. 

Marcus finally lets go of my arm when we stop in front of Samuel's desk.

"A pleasure seeing you again," Samuel says to me, standing up from his chair and coming to kiss my hand. 

I pull my hand back brusquely. "Wish I could say the same," I retort.

"Feisty, huh? No wonder my boy likes you," Samuel points out.

"What the hell am I here for?" I ask bitterly.

"Straight to the point. I like you kid," Samuel tells me. "Marcus, you may go now." What? I can't stand Marcus but I don't want to be left alone with Samuel. Please God let this be quick. Marcus leaves without questioning and Samuel sits down again. "You may sit."

My legs tremble like jelly, but I manage to walk up to the chair and sit down. "What do you want from me?"

"I want to make a deal," he answers.

"A DEAL?" I scoff. "You're a criminal. There's no way I'm negotiating anything with you." I stand up from the chair ready to leave, but Samuel gets ahold of my hand.

"Calm down," he tells me. "You're not going anywhere until we talk, understood?"

"No, I already told you I don't want anything to do with you," I tell him furiously. "Now let me go." 

He grabs my arm even harder. "Listen, kid..." he starts speaking but is interrupted when Sam barges in.

"LET HER GO!" Sam orders him enraged. He walks up to us and yanks my arm away from his father's grip. "What the hell are you doing? You promised me you weren't going to touch her."

"Son, just walk away, we'll talk about this later," Samuel tells his son calmly. 

"I'm not going anywhere," Sam states angrily. "I have friends ready to call the police if you don't let Amanda and me go."

"You know better than anyone that the police won't do anything to me," Samuel reminds his son.

"Well, how about the FBI? who's been looking for you for years. They'd be thrilled to receive information about your whereabouts, your contacts, your warehouses, and your money, " Sam threatens him. "My friends have files with all that information too, ready to be sent; it's up to you." Samuel looks like he's about to kill Sam, but he doesn't do anything. Sam grabs my hand and leads me outside. Marcus who's outside the door looks at us shocked when we walk past him.

Sam walks up to his sister's bedroom and without knocking, he opens the door. Lola's face goes pale when she sees me, already knowing there's something wrong. "Get whatever you can quickly, we're leaving," Sam tells his sister. Then, heads towards his bedroom, still holding my hand. When we get to his room, he lets go of my hand and starts shoving his clothes and other personal stuff inside a bag. He hasn't looked or said anything to me.

"Sam," I call his name softly, but he still doesn't look at me. He's enraged. I walk up to him and grab his arm, making him face me. 

"Not now, please... I just need to get you out of here," he tells me, clearly hurt by all of this, and continues packing. I sit on the bed and wait for him to finish; I feel calm because I'm with him, but I can't say the same about him. He's scared, hurt, and angry. When he's finished, he grabs my hand and we head towards Lola's bedroom again.

"Let's go," he tells her. She zips her bag quickly, throws it over her shoulder and walks out with us.

We get inside Sam's car, Lola in the back and me in the passenger's seat. Sam starts the engine and drives away. 

"You're staying with us tonight, let your parents know," Sam tells me.

"I need to go home," I say.

"Don't fight me on this," he pleads. "You can't go home."

"But... my parents and my sister...."

"They'll be okay," Sam assures me.

I hesitate but I end up giving in, "where are we going?"

"I don't know yet," he answers. "But I'll come up with something. Just give me a minute."

"Can someone please tell me what the fuck happened?" Lola asks confused.

"Dad kidnapped Amanda and I threatened to give him up to the FBI," Sam answers. "You weren't safe with him anymore."

"Oh My God!" Lola sighs. "What are we going to do now? We don't have anywhere to go."

"I have no idea," Sam admits, his anger lightening.

"You know he will not stop until he gets us back, right?" Lola tells him.

"I know," Sam replies.

"I may know someone who might let us stay at her house, but you have to let me do the talking," I tell him.

"Fine," he agrees.

------------------ FLAMES ------------------

"Turn here," I tell him. 

"Oh, hell no!" he exclaims when he realizes where we're going.

"You got any other idea?" I ask him and he doesn't say anything. "That's what I thought. Now pull over."

"Where are we?" Lola asks when we get out of the car.

"They will never agree to this," Sam says pessimistically.

I ignore him and walk up to the door and knock. "Good evening, Miss Amanda," Greta, the maid greets me.

"Hi, Greta," I greet her back.

"Come in," she tells us kindly. "I'll inform Miss Ross you're here."

"Thank you, Greta," I thank her.

Not a minute later, Luke and Sarah come down.

"I thought you were sick," Sarah says as she approaches me, but stops abruptly when she spots Sam and Lola.

"What the....?" Luke is shocked too to see Sam and Lola in his house with me.

"Told you it wasn't a good idea," Sam whispers.