“You are an idiot. So if Zoe beats you today, then what does she get?”
“We didn’t really discuss what that would be.” Charlie looks over at me and shrugs.
“The last bet, we had dibs on the quilt. Although I conveniently didn’t get to enjoy winning that at all.”
“You were kind enough to let me have it, too.” Charlie smiles cheekily at me.
“Boring. A bet isn’t a bet if there isn’t at least one threat of nudity.” Rose speaks as if what she says should be obvious.
“What?” I gasp. Why is a discussion of nudity coming into this?
“Yeah, how about if you win, then Charlie has to streak naked during dinner in front of Martha one night?” Rose smirks at me.
“What?” Charlie drops the basketball in shock.
“And if Charlie wins, then he gets a proper kiss; no grandma kiss or peck, an actual kiss from you.”
“So my punishment would involve having to be naked in front of everyone and Zoe gets to give me a kiss?” Charlie repeats back slowly.
“I guess Zoe can be naked at the time…?” Rose shrugs nonchalantly.
“What?” A cold sweat envelopes my entire body.
“Rose, how about you stay out of this.” Charlie picks up the ball and throws it at her hard; and she just manages to catch it in time before it hits her.
“Fine, if you want to be boring, then be boring.” Rose shrugs and takes the ball as well as herself over to where Will is standing by the basketball ring.
Charlie sits down next to me and I try to calm myself down. I will not be getting naked for a bet.
“I’m sorry I said anything in front of her. We don’t have to do a best out of five or at least not like Rose was saying.”
“I’m two up, so it’s a bit silly for me to not want to continue.”
“Okay, so how about we each give each other the consequence for losing,” Charlie suggests.
“All right.” Charlie remains quiet and I assume he wants me to go first. “So if I win, you have to go a full day without having one single argument with Rose,” I say the first thing that comes to mind that sounds easy enough.
“Tough one, the nudie run might be easier, but okay. Deal. Now my turn.” He looks away from me and I watch a small smile come over his mouth. “If I win, I get that kiss Rose mentioned from you, however you may, in fact, be fully clothed and I will give you the option of a grandma kiss. I’m not overly sure what that would be, but I assume you will have to remove your teeth first,” Charlie jokes.
“Seriously? You want a kiss?” I feel unsure about this.
“Yep. So do we have a deal?” Charlie holds out his hand and I look down at it.
A kiss isn’t that big of a deal; I mean, technically, we’ve already kissed twice. However, I get the feeling this will change things. The other two were because we had to do them, regardless of what Rose thinks. This kiss will feel more thought out. It’ll feel more important. It could start something that I might not be ready for.
“You’re leaving me hanging here, Zoe.” He smiles nervously at me and my breath catches in my throat seeing it. I’ve never seen a more perfect smile, not even Joel ever compared to this.
“Deal.” I shake Charlie’s hand, assuming being two up are good odds for me winning this anyway. Why overthink a kiss that isn’t likely to happen?
“Good, now our next round is going to be here and now, two-on-two.”
“I suck at basketball.”
“Yes, and you sucked at fighting and you’re two up. I’ll take Will who clearly also has no skills and you can have Rose, who doesn’t appear to be that bad.”
I look over to Rose who shoots the ball into the basket that very second.
“Who will umpire?” I ask.
“We’ll play the honesty system. If you foul, own up to it, and we’ll all keep an eye on dribbling and traveling.”
“Now you’re just making words up, but fine, how do we know when a team has won?”
Charlie laughs, shaking his head and I’m not sure why.
“How about we just try and score a shot each. The first team who has two people on their team that have scored a shot, wins. I’m not sure how long we have out here and Rose will need to work her magic soon.”
“You expect me to throw the ball and it actually go in the hoop? This could take all week.”
“Then I guess I’ll be winning this round.” He smiles at me cheekily and I bite my lip to stop myself responding.
“You wish.” I walk past him and take Rose to the side to tell her what we decided.
“So he did go with a kiss. I knew it.”
“Shut it. So are you in?”
“Sure,” Rose says with a shrug.
“Ready?” Charlie calls out to us.
“Where are the boundaries?” Rose thinks to ask, something I hadn’t even considered.
“We’ll just go to the end of this line here.” Charlie points at one of the parking spaces several feet away. “Anything past the ring is out. The sides don’t really matter.
“How do we decide who goes first?”
“I think I should go first since I’m two behind.”
Rose nods to me and I decide that means I should agree, so I do.
“Ready?” Charlie asks me and since Rose stands over by Will, I stand in front of Charlie.
I know I’m not ready, but I nod that I am anyway. He instantly spins away from me and after only a few steps, he jumps in the air and throws the ball, which lands directly into the basket. I can’t believe it. How can anyone make a shot like that?
“Three pointer!” Charlie calls out and gives Will a high five. I notice Will is also looking a bit shocked that Charlie made the shot. I have no idea what a “three pointer” means, but I know it doesn’t matter. Charlie only needs Will to score now and I’ll have lost.
Rose takes the ball and winks at me as she walks to the spot Charlie had been standing in. Charlie moves in front of her and Will stands next to me, looking lost. I move around, feeling like Rose is taking her time to move and, the next second, Charlie has managed to get the ball off of her. He bounces it around her and throws the ball over my head. I turn around, realizing too late that Will is no longer by my side and has run over next to the hoop. He doesn’t exactly catch the ball, it’s more like he stops it with his outstretched hands and then grabs it from the ground. He throws it at the basket and misses. He has two more shots before I make it over there and another two misses when he gets the ball instead of me. I jump fruitlessly, trying to block him, but eventually he shoots and scores.
He and Charlie run a victory lap and I narrow my eyes at Rose.
“What happened back there?”
“I lost the ball.” She shrugs at me looking innocent—too innocent—and I see through her.
“Why are you helping Charlie? I thought you hated him?”
“One, I don’t hate him; two, he deserves to win since he was gutsy enough to actually asks for what he wants and three, I don’t want to go a whole day where he doesn’t fight with me. The day is boring enough without having anyone to argue with.” Rose rolls her eyes at me like that should be obvious. “Now excuse me while I go to the john.”
I nervously watch her walk over to one of the guards to ask permission to leave. He pulls out a walkie-talkie briefly before he turns around and walks with her back into The Windmill.
“I’m catching up.” Charlie runs circles around me, laughing until I push him lightly to get him to stop.
“She’s gone in,” I worry and glance back over at the guards.
“Then don’t act suspiciously.” Charlie takes my hand and pulls me so my back turns to the guards.
“What if she gets caught?” I try to resist turning around to look back.
“She won’t. Come on, I’ll teach you how to shoot.” Charlie drags me over to the ring and places the ball in my hands. He talks about hand position on the ball and aiming before you shoot, but I’m too distracted to follow. I miss every sho
t.
My eyes widen when I notice the guards grouping together and talking. Is something wrong? Did something happen?
“Zoe?” Charlie watches me carefully.
Two guards break off from the group and head back towards The Windmill. They’re heading back for Rose.
“Something’s wrong.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine – The New Information
“We don’t know something’s wrong.” Charlie looks over at the guards with concern on his face.
“Just go along with me.” I push Charlie in the chest, forcing him to take a step back to catch himself. I start yelling at him as loudly as I can, hoping the guards take notice. “You totally dribbled before. You guys didn’t win!”
Charlie rolls his eyes and laughs. That isn’t the type of reaction I’m hoping for.
“Charlie! Stop laughing. We need to get their attention.” I push him again, hard, hoping it will remind him that a fight would draw more attention than someone rolling their eyes and laughing.
“Sorry,” Charlie speaks softly and then he clears his throat. “I won fair and square,” He yells back as I see another guard moving to catch up with the two guards over by the entrance. If Rose is still by the laptop, then the only thing keeping her safe is the glare from the overcast sky reflecting off the window and the tarp covering half the view. If those guards walk in, then they’ll catch her straight away.
Out of nowhere Will storms past me and shoves Charlie so hard that he loses his balance and falls to the ground. Blood covers Charlie’s left leg and arm as his skin grazes the ground.
“Will!” I gasp out and rush over to see if Charlie is okay.
Will moves me aside and leans down to Charlie, grabbing hold of his shirt roughly pulling Charlie inches off the ground. “Punch me in the face.”
“What?” Charlie looks shocked and I grab hold of Will’s hand, trying to pry him away from Charlie.
“We need to fight. They’ll break it up and Rose will have more time.”
I let go of Will’s hand then and watch Charlie quickly glance at me before he swings his fist out and hits Will in the face. I doubt it hurts Will much at all, however he exaggerates it and falls backwards. He then comes at Charlie again and I stand up to yell at the guards to hurry up. Three run up to us and the other two guards by the entrance stop to see what’s happening.
“Break it up, guys.” Two of the guards hold Will and one guard holds Charlie back while they both make plays to try and get past their captors to deliver that one last punch at each other.
“What’s going on?” Martha rushes out and my heartbeat quickens seeing her angry appearance. Rose must have been caught; if not by the guards, then by Martha since she came out the same door that is by the laptop.
“These two were fighting out here, ma’am.”
“What happened?” Martha asks me and I shrug. I have no answer for her.
“Where is Rose?” Martha asks the guards and they look behind to see Rose coming out of the building, walking towards us casually. I want to run over to her and give her a hug, but I restrain myself.
“Right, get the girls inside now and get Agent Goodings out here.” Martha speaks to the guard that walked out with her. He grabs me roughly around my arm and drags me over to Rose.
“I can walk on my own!” I pull against the unwanted touch, hoping to get his hand off me, yet he simply holds on tighter. I look back at Will and Charlie to see them both looking angry and Charlie is being held back by the guard, this time trying to go in my direction.
Rose and I are both taken back up the stairs and into our lounge area where we’re dumped and the door firmly locked behind us.
“Did you get anything?” I ask Rose immediately, wanting to cry if Charlie and Will are getting in trouble for nothing.
Rose nods her head, but holds her fingers up to her mouth to signal for us to be quiet.
I bite my lip to stop asking any further questions and instead pace the room. After a long time of doing this and getting no calmer, I sit on the couch and watch the door, waiting for it to open and the boys to walk in.
“This place seriously blows. What are we expected to do now?” Rose complains.
“I don’t know. Do you think the boys are okay?”
“Yeah, pretty neat fight between Will and Charlie.”
“I wouldn’t call it that.” I remember seeing Charlie’s grazed leg and arm and know that it had to be painful. At least Will’s injuries will heal quickly.
“It didn’t get your blood pumping, seeing Charlie flex his muscles a bit?” Rose teases.
“Rose, now is not the time,” I snap at her.
“They’re fine, Zoe. Probably just getting a fun therapy session from Martha. Actually, if that’s the case, then they’re being tortured with words like ‘feelings’ and ‘trust’.”
“Not funny.”
“I know it’s not funny. Charlie and I already had to go through that crap a couple of days ago.” Rose shivers.
“We don’t know what Stan is really capable of; he could be doing anything to them right now and you know what? He would get away with whatever it is,” I growl before standing up and storming off. I go into my room and close the door behind me. I know it’s not Rose’s fault and chances are she is probably right. I just hate feeling so helpless.
I grab clean clothes and move into my shower. I only hope that when I get out, Charlie and Will are back.
***
At dinner I barely eat a thing. It’s been hours and there is still no sign of Will or Charlie, not even Martha. Since we’ve been here we’ve had every dinner with her. This is the first one she has missed. Why? What is going on? Even Rose is getting worried. We both pick at our food and try to call for Stan, but to no avail. Rose offers to pick one of the locks so we can go out and investigate, but our fear of having more security added, which will only make our chances of getting out of here harder, make us drop that idea.
So we sit on the couch and wait anxiously for their return. We don’t bother putting the television on and, even with the lights on, the room feels darker.
I notice Rose drop her head an hour or so later and her soft, constant breathing tells me she’s fallen asleep. I feel my own eyes drooping, too, but I’m determined to keep them open. I let my mind drive me crazy with thoughts of Dana, Drew, Joel and finally what might be happening to Will and Charlie.
I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know, someone is leaning down in front of me softly saying my name. My eyes quickly adjust to the lights in the lounge and I see Charlie is the person in front of me.
“You’re okay.” I sigh, relieved, and quickly stand up to give Charlie a hug. I know he’s surprised by it, however his body quickly relaxes and he rests his hands behind me, pulling me close while I let my head lean against his chest. I feel like bursting into tears. I’ve been so worried something bad has happened because I can’t lose someone else in my life.
Will and Rose quietly move down the hallway, leaving us alone.
“You okay?” Charlie asks me carefully when I reluctantly move away from him and wipe at my eyes.
“Me? Are you okay? Where have you been?”
He rolls his eyes. “Martha wanted Will and me to ‘talk it out.’ After an hour or two of that, Stan thought we must have too much energy if we’re fighting, so he made us run that stupid circuit for ages and then fight in front of him. He wouldn’t let us leave until he was sure we wouldn’t try anything again.”
“What did you say your fight was about?”
He looks away from me and I worry what his answer is.
“Well, I had to think on the spot and you know how great I am at that. Since Will and I were on the same team during basketball I couldn’t say it was about the game. I just said I thought Will was trying to hit on you and I got jealous,” he whispers so no one else listening hears.
“What?”
“I said about how you guys went outside together and how Will carried you i
n here and, yeah.” Charlie shrugs.
“They can’t honestly believe that, can they?” I gape at how ludicrous that is.
“Of course they can. I know because they did believe me. Come on, let’s get to bed.” Charlie takes my hand and we walk into his room.
“You want to tell me why you looked so upset before?” Charlie asks, walking over to his wardrobe and pulling out some clean clothes.
“I was just relieved you were okay.” I feel uncomfortable. I don’t even want to admit to myself how much I’ve grown to care about Charlie, let alone admit it to him. He’ll think I’m some creepy clinger.
“They aren’t going to kill us, Zoe. They need us, remember?”
“I know, I just… I was just worried they might have hurt you. Or that we might all get separated.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Charlie stops what he’s doing to look me in the eyes. Lowering his voice, he says, “Well, unless Rose can tell me otherwise. Did she have any luck?”
“I think so; she wouldn’t say.”
“I sure hope she did. My legs and arm sting like crazy.” He refers to his grazed arm and leg from when he hit the ground. Now the blood has been cleaned off it doesn’t look as bad as earlier.
“What did Harold say?”
“Just to let the air get to it and it’ll heal on its own. Wish I had Will’s quick healing.”
He takes his clothes and goes into the bathroom, closing the door. I hear the water running soon after, telling me he’s having a shower.
I look around the room, trying to focus on something else. However, no matter where I look, I’m acutely aware that Charlie is naked and in very close proximity to me.
Feeling warm, even given the cool temperate, I pull the covers back on the bed and lie down. I turn the side light off, covering the room in darkness, and try to calm my breathing. Today I think I have displayed every emotion possible. I’ve been happy and laughing to sad and crying. So many thoughts and worries have entered my mind. The thought of having to leave this room and face it all again tomorrow really feels like too much.
I close my eyes, trying to think of something happy. Following Charlie’s advice, I think about Dana.
Taken By Surprise (Taken Trilogy Book 1) Page 30