The Chase - Amber Riel (books for 5 year olds to read themselves txt) 📗

pulled my face toward his to stare into my eyes.  “You are something, aren’t you?  Why don’t you give me a kiss?”

          I shook my head as tears filled my eyes.

          “No well then it looks like I’m going to have to force you.  One way or another I’m going to get what I want from you, sweetheart, and there’s nothing that you can do about it.”

          The tears began to fall from my eyes to my cheeks as I sat there.

          The man leaned forward and started kissing my left cheek and I felt as his hands moved down my arms and onto my legs.

          I tried to kick him away but he wouldn’t budge.  I didn’t like where it was leaning.

          I jerked up and looked around the moonlit room.  Lainie was sleeping in the middle of the bed with her right arm around my waist.

          I felt kind of bad as I moved her arm away from me as I stood up and lightly shook Louis with tears falling from my eyes.

          “Huh?” he asked as he looked up at me with sleepy eyes.  He slowly sat up on the bed.  “Sam?  What’s wrong?” he asked, whispering in a low sleepy voice.

          “I had a nightmare,” I replied, feeling like a hopeless small child wanting to climb into bed with my mommy and daddy from the horrible dream I had.

          Louis looked around for a moment then patted the empty space next to him on the bed.

          I sat down next to him and wrapped my arms around him.  My left arm hung around his back while my right arm hung around his chest.  They were locked together by my fingers.  I felt as he placed his right arm around my waist and locked eyes with him.

          “It’s okay,” he whispered to me, letting me rest my head against his shoulder.  “What was it about?”

          “I don’t want to talk about it right now…. Not with Lainie in the room at least.”

          Louis nodded and helped me lay back on the bed as he kept his arms around me.  “Look this is only because you had a nightmare…. Any other reason this wouldn’t be happening,” he told me with a small smile.

          I kind of smiled as well at his words.  “Understood.”

          He pulled me closer to him to where we were cuddling and I felt safe in his arms as he held me.  “Good night, honey.”  He kissed my left temple and we both drifted off to sleep.

 

          I woke up to the bright morning sun shining onto the bed through the curtain.  Louis was still asleep on the bed with his right arm under my waist.  I kind of smiled as I leaned over him and kissed him.

          “What are you doing up so early?” he asked with his eyes still closed.

          “I just woke up,” I replied.

          “And that was twelve.”  He sat up on the bed and looked over at Lainie who was still sleeping.  “Good we don’t to explain anything to her.”

          I shook my head as I watched him smile.  He pulled me up in a sitting position next to him on the bed.

          “Any other nightmares last night?”

          “No…. I was safe.”

          He nodded.  “Good.”  He climbed out of bed and walked over to the window and sat in the chair next to it.  “We should be there tonight or tomorrow morning…. I’m thinking that I can get us there tonight though…. It’ll be a few hours longer than it’s been but I can do it.”

          “That sounds good…. I’m kind of ready to see Annie and Ron again….”

          “I wonder why?” he asked with a laugh.

          I kind of made a playful face at his question as I kind of laughed as well.  “I’m sure that Lainie wants to see them as well.”

          “Yea…. If we hadn’t stopped at Carmen’s for a couple of days, we’d actually be there by now…. I’m not saying that was a bad thing just I wouldn’t have had to drive for as long.”

          “I know what you mean.”

          “I kind of want to go now so I’m probably just going to pick up Lainie and carry her out to the car…. Mind carrying her shoes for me?”

          “No I don’t mind.”

          “Good.”

 

          We were on the road again for about the seventh time already but this time Louis was certain that he was going make it to our destination in one day.  Of course we’d stop for food when it was time to eat but he wasn’t going to stop anywhere else for the night.  “Those nightmares you keep having,” Louis spoke softly.  “I don’t know if they’ll ever stop but if you continue to have them just tell me…. When we’re separated like when you go back to America, call me if you have them…. Most likely I’ll be up to talk to you seeing that our time frames are off unless I’m working but most of the time I don’t really have anything to do…. So I’ll be there and if I don’t answer the phone right away don’t panic I’ll get ahold of you…. We could even do video chatting as well…. Then when we are together, I’ll be there for you…. Believe it or not, I’m the kind of guy who might not date much but when it comes to a woman who I care about…. I’m devoted…. So I’m devoted to you and only you…. I’m going to miss you when you go back to America.”

          I grabbed his left hand and squeezed it tightly.  “I’m going to miss you too…. And thank you…. I’ve never had a man who’s been willing to do so much for me…. It really means a lot.”

          I watched as a smile grew on Louis’s face.  If it hadn’t been for the fact that he was driving then I would have kissed him.

 

          It was late when we pulled up to a little house which was surrounded by woods.  A light was still on in one of the rooms on the left which had indicated that someone was still up.  Louis sighed as he placed the car in park and looked at me with a smile.  “We’re finally here.”

          “This is it?” I asked, relieved that we didn’t have to stay in the car any longer.

          Louis nodded as he looked at Lainie who was out cold.  He kind of laughed.  “Go ahead up to the door and I’ll get Lainie…. We’ll bring out clothes in tomorrow…. Right now…. We need time for rest.”

          I nodded as I unbuckled myself and opened the door.  I climbed out of the car and closed the door then turned my attention toward the house.  I couldn’t believe we had finally made it.  I started walking toward the house and worked my way up the small steps of the porch and found my way to the door.  I noticed that there was a screen door in front of the main door so I moved it and knocked, trying to be quiet enough to where if anyone was sleeping I wouldn’t wake them up but loud enough for the person who was up could actually hear the knock.  

          The door opened and I saw Annie standing in front of me.  Her eyes were dark and seemed to have bags under them.  As she looked at me her worried and tearful face brightened as she smiled.  “Sam,” she said as she hugged me and we both started crying with tears of joy.  “Oh my gosh…. You’re okay…. I’m so glad to see you…. Elaina?”

          “She’s sleeping…. Louis is getting her out of the car right now…. She’s fine.”

          “Good good good…. I knew that you two were going to be alright with Louis around but I was still so worried….”

          “I was worried about you and Ron too.”

          “We’re both fine…. Just shaking from the scene…. These masked men just came into the mansion…. It was terrifying….”

          I nodded as tears crawled down my face.  I didn’t know if she knew about the mansion catching on fire or even if she had heard about Kathleen but I figured that it would probably be best for Louis to inform her and Ron just in case.

          “So was Louis a jerk to you the whole time?” she asked.  Her tone wasn’t hopeful the way it had been before everything had happened just telling me that she didn’t want to talk about the tragedy which had occurred recently.

          I kind of smiled as I bit my lip.  “At first he was but then he turned out to be a real gentleman,” I replied as my smile grew.

          I think Annie could tell from just my words and smile that things had changed during the past week.  I watched as her frown turned into a smile.  “Did you two finally hit it off?”

          I kind of laughed at her words and shook my head.  “Yes we did and well…. We’re kind of dating.”

          “Awe…. Yay,” she spoke softly as she clapped her hands.  “That’s good.”

          “Delivery,” Louis said as he carried Lainie over to us, “the unharmed child along with your sister…. I got them both here safely even though there were a few bumps in the road but that’s another story.”

          Annie smiled as she looked at Lainie and tears began falling from her eyes again.  “Thank you, Louis.”

          “No problem…. Is Ron up or is he in bed already too?”

          “He’s still up…. He’s in the living room, sitting on the couch…. Worried but once he knows that everyone’s here and unharmed he’ll be relieved.”  Annie worked her arms around Lainie as she took the child away from Louis.  “Thank you again.”  She started carried Lainie down the hall as Louis had me walk into the house before him and then he closed the door and locked it.  “Louis, you know where the living room is why don’t you take Sam in there while I bring Lainie to her room?”

          “Alright.”

          The hallway was long with about five doors on each of the side walls.  Pictures hung on the wall and I had a feeling that they were in their own little safe house.

          Louis grabbed my hand and led me into a room on our left.  The small lamp which sat on the small little table was on and Ron sat on the couch next to the little table and looked up at us.  His sad worried sleepless filled eyes had looked so much worse than Annie’s had when I first seen her.

          “Elaina?” he asked almost whispering with a worried tone.

          “She’s fine,” Louis replied as we sat on the small dark brown soft love seat which had sat off to the side of the couch.  “Annie brought her to her room.”

          Ron closed his eyes and I watched as he took a deep breath and released it.  “Good…. We were so worried.”  Ron looked at me.  “I’m sorry about your vacation, Sam…. It was ruined.”

          I looked at Louis and then back to Ron.  Louis kept my hand in his as we kept our attention on Ron.  “Actually it wasn’t all that bad,” I admitted.  “It was horrifying but Louis was a real gentleman,” I spoke with a smile.

          Ron looked at us and noticed that our hands were locked together and he smiled.  “Annie’s going to be happy.”

          Louis nodded.

          “Well I guess your vacation was completely ruined…. So I guessed this means that Lainie didn’t have to hear you two arguing then?”

          “Not really,” I agreed.

          “Good.”

          “We stopped at Carmen’s for a couple of days on the way up here.”

          “That’s good…. I kind of had a feeling you would stop by her house anyways.”

          Louis nodded.  He leaned back as he moved his hand away from mine and placed his arm