The Confidence of a Nerd

Chapter 16 (EDITED)

I wake up in the back of some kind of vehicle and I scream. The sound is muffled, it doesn't even make its way back to my ears. I can feel bumps in the road as we continue on. The bumps push my back against something sharp and I groan. The stinging sensation in my back gets so painful eventually it numbs. The cloth stuffed in my mouth is tearing my lips and I think I'm bleeding. My whole body is aching and the jostling just makes it so much worse. I hope instead of tracking my phone that she contacts the police because this is a lot more serious then I thought it would be and I don't want her to get hurt.

We pull up to something and we stop and at this point I'm terrified. I've never been in a position like this before. My dad was rich but we were always protected and now that we're getting our income in a different way people know not to bother trying. I can hear footsteps making their way to the trunk of the car. I'm wiggling around trying to push myself onto the sharp part so that I can rip the binds off of my hands. If I get my hands freed then I can get myself out of this horrible situation. I don't care that I'm weak or that escape is probably impossible, I can't stay here. The trunk opens and I try to hurry and break the ropes despite the guy being able to see me.

"Stop that!"

My hands are bleeding at this point but I don't care. All I can think to do right now is get the ropes off of me so I can escape. The person who opened the trunk comes close to me and tries to move me and I kick him square in the face. I hear him groan and I try to get as far away from him as possible but it doesn't work. He grabs my blindfold and pulls it off me and I immediately see an angry looking man holding his nose.

"Come and help me guys, he's struggling."

Three other men start coming closer to me and despite my kicking and punching they haul me off into some sort of storage garage. I spit at one of the guys' faces and he punches me in the stomach so hard I cough up a little bit of blood. I ignore the pain and continue to punch but none of them lands and I end up so dizzy. As we got closer to the entrance I heard a woman and a man arguing.

"Are you saying that my plan isn't going to work?" The lady's voice says.

"No Ma'am, I'm just saying we should be cautious. How do you even know that Rose is even going to come because of this stupid kid?"

"I don't know how many times I have to repeat myself. I raised this kid myself so I think I would know her a bit more than you random thugs. Do your job, that's why I'm paying you."

They're trying to lure her here? I immediately stop moving and one of the people carrying me laughs.

"All it took to get you to calm the fuck down was hearing your girlfriend's in trouble, huh?"

I scowl and glare at the ugly man with the broken nose. So he thinks that this is funny? Taking me captive and then threatening my girlfriend's life is something to smirk about. I try punching him again but another man holds my fists hostage.

"I think it's funny all three of you weak bitches had to hold me down to get the results you wanted but I would fucking murder all three of you if you came at me alone and you know it."

I force myself to laugh and I kick at the guy's stomach using all of the strength I had left to emphasize my point. He drops to the ground and the other two drop me by accident. I try to run away but I don't have enough strength to last long, they grab me back immediately. My fists shake as I resign myself to the pain that's going to come.

"What are you three idiots doing? Bring him in here!"

I've never seen Lia's mom but I guess I'm about to. I guess this is one of the reasons Lia wasn't really comfortable talking to me about her or anything about her past, because her mom's fucking crazy. I've never felt so furious in my entire life, it's like my whole body is boiling and I can't escape from the never ending burns. The garage swings open and I see a face that's scarily similar to my girlfriend's. She smiles and I flinch, how can somebody with a face like that make such a scary expression. As soon as the smile is there it disappears and she's just staring blankly at me. Those brown eyes aren't fair... Lia almost always has that look like nothing matters when she's sad and I always end up hugging her to comfort her. This woman shouldn't get to look so much like Lia if she's such an awful person. I start to struggle in their hold again as they force me in a chair next to her. They chain my feet up and I grimace as it cuts into my skin.

"She must get her taste in men from me, you're not bad looking. I'm almost happy they didn't ruin your pretty face."

"Can you not? You're twice as old as I am and it's actually disgusting."

"Ahhhh, and you ruined it. I knew that there would be something wrong with you, you're dating my daughter after all. As soon as you opened your mouth everything just made sense."

She laughs and I scowl, her just standing there looking happy makes my skin crawl. The men around her just stare at her like she said something amusing and I glare at every single one of them. What could she possibly want from us anyway? It's not like we both have a lot of money or anything, at least for now.

"You're not her mom so you can stop pretending you are. Neglect and abuse doesn't make you a parent."

"Boys, I'm going to need you to leave until I call you back in."

She starts walking around me like a shark while she looks me up and down. She smiles, and I look away from her. She grabs my chin and makes me look at her in her face, all I can do is glare. I hate this situation and I hate this woman.

"Now, back to business." She continues to stare me down like I'm prey. "You're going to get me the money that I need to leave this town and start over with. Ever since Tyler divorced me, it got so hard to pay for anything. Tyler was someone that I was lucky to have and everyone knew that but that doesn't mean I loved him. I cheated because I deserved more than that man and then he left and took all of his money with him. I took the kid as revenge but it's hard to raise a kid on your own so I just gave up. Fortunately, not only does she bring another bank home she also ends up working at a place where I can leech off of her too." Her eyes start watering and she smiles. I try to look in any other direction so that I don't have to look at her but she grabs my face and makes me stare at her anyway. "I started drinking and selling drugs just so that I could stay in the same stupid house and yet I still couldn't do what I wanted. Do you know how hard it is to have sex when you live with a child? Eventually, I just started to bring them to the house anyway and made her stay in her room whenever I wanted to have fun. I saw her fighting one day under some stupid fake name and then I realized just how I was going to get the money I need to leave this town without the brat. If I kill her then I get the money automatically since I'm her only family. Isn't that nice?"

She smiles at me and then she lets go of my face. Will I ever break free from here? Is this what Lia had to deal with all this time?

"Which is exactly why I'm going to need you to stay put and look like you're in a lot of pain... shouldn't be hard since the boys were a bit rough with. Ah, and don't think I've forgotten just how much you're worth, honey. I'm going to need you to give me your bank information too."