The Chase by Amber Riel (story reading txt) 📖

man, terrified from what I had just seen.  “J---J---” I couldn’t speak.

          The man seemed to catch on and nodded.  “Can I get you two anything?” he asked.

          “W-water pl-please,” I whispered as I tried to catch my breath.

          The man nodded and left the room for a moment.  When he came back into the room, he had two small paper cups filled with water.  He walked over to the couch and handed a cup to Lainie then handed the other cup to me.

          “Thank you,” I barely got out.

          “No problem, anything else I could help you two with?”

          I shook my head.

          “Okay, well I’ll be behind the desk if you need anything.”

          I nodded as the man walked away from us.  When Lainie was done with her water, she placed the cup on the table and fell against my shoulder.  The tears were still crawling down her cheeks.  I wrapped my right arm around her and wiped her tears with my left hand.  “It’s okay,” I told her.  “Don’t cry…. You’re okay…. Don’t cry….”  Dear Lord, this is all my fault why didn’t I just listen? I prayed as I tightened my grip around Lainie.  Why did I have to be so stubborn?  Lainie could have been hurt by that man and it would have been my fault for not listening to Louis.

          Louis walked into the room.  He had bruises and his lip was blooding.  I could look at him knowing it all was because of.  He was sweating from the fight as well.  He walked over and to and held out his hand.  “Key?” he said.

          I reached into my pocket of my sweat pants and pulled out the key to the room and handed it to him.

          He took it and walked over to the desk.  “We’re going to check out.”

          “Okay.”  The man didn’t ask any questions.  He just took both keys to the room.  “Do you want your money back, sir?”

          Louis shook his head as if he were tired.  “No keep it….” He was all out of breath from the fight but still managed to say more than I could seem to spit out.  “Look can we take the back way trouble seemed to fall us tonight and I believe that going out the front would be a bad idea…. I’m leaving my car behind do you know of any car dealerships around here?”

          “Yea…. Let me write down the address for you but you’ll have to wait till morning cause they’re closed now….”

          Louis nodded.  “We just need to leave as soon as possible.”

          “There’s another hotel a few miles away from here…. I could drive you three there and even pay for you three to stay there seeing that your stay here wasn’t exactly the best stay here.”

          Louis took a moment to think then shook his head.  “No I don’t think staying at any hotels would be the best choice to do right now.”

          “Okay well have a safe trip wherever you’re going then.”

          Louis nodded then turned his attention toward us.  I didn’t want to look at him, feeling that he was most likely angry at me for convincing him to leave Lainie and me alone.  He walked over to us and picked up Lainie then lightly touched my shoulder.  “Are you okay, Sam?  Did he hurt you?  Did he touch any places that a man shouldn’t touch without permission?”

          “No…. He was going to try when you came in.”

          “Good…. Now come on.  Thanks to you, we can’t stay at any hotels for a while.”  His tone was rude with a tad of anger but I didn’t reply knowing that he had a reason to have an attitude with me.

 

          I followed Louis in silence.  He carried Lainie as we walked out into the city.  I knew he had to have been tired but I believed that he was too angry to care.  I felt the guilt take over as my conscience spoke to me, tears filled my eyes.

          “I can’t believe I listened to you,” Louis replied.  “I had a feeling something like this would happen but I let you convince me otherwise.”

          I didn’t respond as we watched a few cars drive past along the dark pavement which was lit up with a few streetlights along the path.

          “Do you realize the danger you put Lainie into tonight?”

          I really didn’t want to answer that.  The question broke my heart.

          “You’re lucky that I was there to save you….” I heard the hurt and fear in his voice as he spoke.  It was a different tone then from earlier.  It hurt worse than anything he could have said out of rudeness.  “You could defended the both of you?  Yea right…. He broke in and could have hurt you and Lainie…. You’re arrogance could have cost you and Lainie’s lives…. Do you even realize that?” he asked, shaking his head.  “If I didn’t come in when I did, he could have had the both of you killed.  That’s what I get…. Next time you do as I say and no arguing…. No disagreeing with me.”

          I kind of nodded, understanding that I made a very horrible mistake.

          “You said that guy was the taxicab driver who drove you two back to the mansion yesterday?”

          “Yea,” I said, weakly.

          “Did he give you an eerie feeling then too?”

          “Yea but I had no choice then…. He didn’t do anything.”

          Louis looked at me with a look of shock.  “And you still got into the taxi then?”

          “Yes….”

          “What if he had done something then?  Do you realize how stupid that is?  If you have a feeling about someone don’t be stupid enough to climb into a car with them…. Taxi driver or not…. That’s peer stupidity…. You should know better than that…. You’re about twenty-two right?”

          “Yea,” I replied, kind of nodding.

          He shook his head.  “You are the most arrogant person I have ever met…. I can’t wait till you go back to America that’s where you belong.”

          “I made a mistake okay,” I shot back.  He was kind of starting to aggravate me with his complaining.  I knew he was angry and he had a right to be angry but he was making me feel worse than I had before.  “I know what could have happened…. I wasn’t thinking okay…. People make mistakes…. I’m only human,” I began crying as I spoke.  “You can leave me alone because right now I don’t care…. I know that I have put Lainie in danger unknowingly…. I’m sorry…. I made a mistake and I don’t need you to keep pointing it out to me…. Telling me that I’m stupid that just makes me feel so much worse right…. I don’t need that right now.”

          Louis sighed and shook his head.  “I’m sorry but if you had listened to me instead of tried to convince me that you two were safe then that wouldn’t have happened.”

          “And I understand that but with you practically yelling at me doesn’t help what I’m feeling…. That guy was going to try to do something very bad to me before you came and I knew that I was wrong that I didn’t listen to you.  I thought that I had that under control but I didn’t…. At least, Lainie’s okay right?  Isn’t her who you really care about?  Because if it had been just me you probably wouldn’t have even come in there---”

          “You don’t know that,” he spoke harshly.  “You don’t know me so don’t act like you do…. You don’t know what I’ve been through…. You don’t know what I would do just to make sure that you stay out of danger…. What I’d do to keep you safe as much as Lainie.”  There was something in his tone that was hinting that he cared for me in some way.  Something that meant that he’d do anything for me but it was strange coming from him.  “I wasn’t just worried about her…. I was worried about you too but you don’t seem to notice that.”

          I was surprised by his words.  All that time I hadn’t believed that he would have felt a thing if I were in danger.  I thought that he’d be glad and just leave me to die but for him to have worried about me was so far beyond what I had believed.

 

          I woke and realized that we had found our way to some kind of park.  I looked over at Louis and Lainie who had been cuddled up together and smiled.  It was a sweet little sight to see.  The birds were out singing the sky was light blue with no clouds.  The only thing sailing in the sky was the bright yellow sun indicating that it was morning most likely ten or eleven.

          “What time is it?” Louis asked as he slowly woke, keeping Lainie in his arm as he leaned forward trying to keep her from waking up.

          “I’m guessing morning.  If I had a watch, I’d check the time but I don’t,” I replied.

          “Oh well.  Man, I have to get a new car now.” He looked at me almost as if he were surprised or something.

          “What?”

          “Nothing,” he replied, shaking his head.  “Let’s get breakfast and some coffee then see if I could get a new car.”

          “Okay.”

          I watched Louis stand up as he scoped Lainie up in his arms and carried her.

          I followed him and we manage to find a little coffee shop.  We entered and walked over to the front desk.

          “How may I help you today?” the young man about eighteen asked with a pleasant smile.  He had somewhat long brown hair and seemed to be a collage freshmen.  He had brown out that stood out and wore a green apron over black shirt and pants.

          “We’re here for food and coffee,” Louis replied, kind of laughing.

          I shook my head at his little joke.

          “Of course,” the teenager replied, laughing as well.  “What would you like to order?”

          I looked up at the menu and was surprised by the meals.  Everything that I recognized from America was listed which made me happy because I didn’t have to try and figure out what they were.  “Can I get a bagel and some bacon?”

          “Of course, of course,” the boy replied, politely.  “Too drink?”

          “French vanilla coffee please.”

          “Sure.  For you, sir?”

          “An omelet with everything in it with black coffee.”

          “Okay and what about the child for when she wakes up?”

          Louis smiled as he looked down at Lainie.  “Waffles and chocolate milk.”

          “Okay.  You’re total will be….” The guy typed the prices of everything into the cash register and then checked to see what everything was.  “Twenty pounds please.”

          “Okay can you hold on for a moment?  I need to place the child in a seat before I can reach for my wallet.”

          “Oh of course.”

          I followed Louis over to a booth which was next to the window and sat Lainie down then turned his attention toward me.  “Can you sit with her while I pay for the food and drinks?”

          “Yea,” I replied, nodding.

          Louis walked away and I sat down next to Lainie.  Time hadn’t seem to past when Lainie’s eyes finally opened.  She rubbed them and looked around, blinking a few times.  “Where are we?” she asked.

          “At a coffee shop.”

          “Oh.”  She looked around with confusion.  “Where’s Uncle Louis?”

          “He went to go pay for our food…. He’ll be back though.”

 

          About thirty minutes had gone by when Louis arrived at the table carrying a tray with food on it.  “Who’s hungry?”

          “I am,” Lainie replied.

          Louis and I both smiled at Lainie’s answer.  We both figured she would say that.  Louis sat the tray down and handed out the food and drinks to us.  None