The Least Favorite Cameron

Chapter 13

 We had fallen asleep almost instantly after laying down for the night on the roof of the pretty hotel. John B. had returned the phone to the maid who he had borrowed it from so once again it was just the two of us. He was sound asleep next to me in the chair and I sat up to look at the coastline and the few people that sat on the beach in the moonlight. It looked like a painting, the way the moon was reflecting off the ocean and the small lights in the town that were glowing. I felt peaceful for the first time since the day we hit that boat in the bay. At least I was at peace until I heard footsteps over by the small stairwell. I turned to get up but was forced back down into my chair and someone's hand covered my mouth to muffle my scream. When I looked up I saw Rafe.

"You just had to choose the pogues huh Gracie?" He said in an evil tone that ended in a small laugh. He looked high and out of it. I pushed his hand off of me and quickly got up.

"Rafe what the fuck!" I shouted at him.

"I'm sorry Gracie, but you chose the wrong side," He said as he held up a gun and aimed it at me.

"Rafe please no! I'm your sister! I'm your little sister!" I screamed at him but the expression on his face didn't change and his finger moved toward the trigger not away from it. I felt the pain in my stomach before I heard the sound and fell to the ground.

I woke up with a gasp and quickly checked myself for any gunshot wounds but of course there were none. My nightmares had grown more and more vivid over the past few weeks and it was hard to get a good night's sleep most nights. I looked over to wake John B. but he's gone.

"What the-" I was saying to myself but then it clicked. He broke his promise and was probably halfway to my family's house, halfway to the gold, halfway to getting caught.

He left me. Hours prior he asked me to marry him and promised he wouldn't leave me but he left. He left me asleep on a rooftop alone in a town where we're being hunted by the police and a very angry captain and his crew. I walked out of the hotel and down the small roads toward the house. I've never been out in this town this late and on my own before. I've noticed several people, particularly men staring at me as I go by and I suddenly wish for a sweatshirt. John B. and I have been wearing the same clothes since the day before we escaped on the boat, a white t-shirt and shorts for John B, and I've been in jean shorts and a blue knit tank top. John B. did have a pink zip up sweatshirt but we forgot it on Terrance's boat.

I think I am about halfway to the house and then I notice a truck passing me and stop a few feet in front of me. I see in the side mirror, it's Terrance. I turn to run but a big man grabs me and throws me into the back of the truck.

"What the hell do you want?" I yell as the big man who grabbed me gets into the truck next to me wedging me between him and a girl.

"Well you and your boyfriend left without saying goodbye," Terrance starts with a laugh "and as a thank you, we want that bounty that's out for him. So where is he?" He asks as his tone drops from amusing to serious.

"He left, I don't know where he is, that's why I'm out looking for him," I say in hopes they'll let me go if they think I won't be able to help them.

"Well Prince Charming has to come back for the princess so when he sees you're gone he'll come looking then we'll strike up a plan." Terrance says as he drives back in the direction of the hotel.

"Just drop me off now. Don't want her making a scene at the hotel and getting us all looked at by coppers," The woman says in a thick accent as she hops out of the truck.

"Please just let me go, you don't understand what's going on. John B. is innocent!" I was pleading with them now. I didn't know what these people were capable of and being locked in the truck in a foreign place without John B. was terrifying.

"I don't care what he did or didn't do, I just care about the 50,000 they're offering for him," Terrance replied and the man next to laughed.

"Hell yeah man, we're gonna be rich," He said and was so excited he shook the passenger seat in front of him making me jump.

"Damn girl, you're skittish," He said to me with a small laugh.

"I'm not skittish asshole, I just don't like being kidnapped by two gold diggers while my boyfriend and I are running for our lives," I say and move into the woman's empty seat and stare out at the fields we've been passing for a few miles now.

The sun was rising now and I wondered where John B. was. For all I knew he was in police custody already after getting caught breaking in. Meaning, I would be stuck with these fools until they turned me in and I'd have to go back to my father and Rafe and John B. would be put in jail. I push those horrible thoughts out of my mind and focus on where I am. I've seen dozens of action movies where people escape from being kidnapped by jumping out of a moving car but actually trying that now seemed like a death wish. I have no clue where we are and even if I got away I wouldn't know where to go. So I just sit in the truck, praying that John B. was okay but also praying that he's okay so that I could punch him for having left me and broken his promise.

It's been two hours since we got to Terrance's tiny house and we've been sitting on his porch waiting for the woman, whose name is Cleo, to return with John B. Finally, we hear a truck pull up to the house and I see John B. rush in looking for me. Every cell in my body wants to run to him and hug him but I resist because of how hurt I am by his disappearing act.

"Gracie!" He shouts as he sees me but is pushed over the couch and shoved by Stubs who is the man who grabbed me back on the road.

"Hey there, we've been chatting with your girlfriend over here all night waiting for you," Terrance says as he walks over to John B. I stay seated where I am battling the fighting emotions within me.

"Are you okay Gracie?" John B. says as he keeps switching his attention from me to the others.

"I think your lady is mad at you," Stubs says to him laughing.

They go back and forth between John B. begging them not to turn him in to Terrance explaining that he needs money, until I can't take it anymore.

"Just stop! Okay? We can give you way more than 50,000" I begin to say as I grab John B's backpack and search for the gold nugget inside.

"This is just a small piece of what I have at my family's house, let us go and we'll give you millions," I say and everyone freezes as they stare at the chunk of gold in my hand.

"Is that a deal then?" I ask as a small smirk appears on my face.