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My point with all that being, my smile should affect her in the same way. Put her at ease, make her feel more comfortable around me.
Charlie’s eyes fell to my smile, and then those eyes lifted to mine. She didn’t say anything right away, but I didn’t appreciate how intently she gazed at me, like she could see past the smile to the truth: I was a monster in plain sight, and I’d used it to my advantage all these years.
“No,” she eventually told me. “I think I’m going to leave you tied up, at least until I get back.” She reached for a bottle of water sitting on the nightstand, and then she got me two pills, dropping them into her palm and bringing that hand to my mouth. “For the pain and the swelling.”Something obviously over-the-counter.
I didn’t accept the pills right away. All I said was, “Why?” I didn’t have to specify I didn’t mean the pills. She knew. For some God forsaken reason, she knew.
“Your smile doesn’t reach your eyes,” Charlie told me. “I think if I let you go right now, you’d try to kill me… and I don’t think I’d try to stop you.” The sheer truth of her words was evident, along with the vulnerability, and it caught me so off-guard that I could do nothing else but open my mouth and accept the damned pills.
Charlie tipped them into my mouth, and then she unscrewed the cap to the water bottle, bringing it to my lips as well. I swallowed a mouthful of water with the pills, watching as she capped it and set it on the small nightstand.
“I’ll be back in the morning,” she said. “I’ll bring more food and I’ll talk to my sister about something for you.” She turned to leave, but I called out for her.
“Wait. Can you at least turn on the TV before you go?”
“Oh, sure.” She went for the remote, an old-looking, crusty thing that she had to hit against her palm before it worked and the TV came to life. She flipped channels until I told her to stop, and then she set down the remote. She started to leave again, but I had one more request, seeing as how she refused to untie me right now.
“Could you pull down my shirt? It’s a little chilly in here.”
It wasn’t the first time her gaze fell to the terrible stitch work on my stomach—this time, however, her gaze lingered a bit too long. She turned away from me, and instead of pulling down my shirt like I’d asked, she wandered over to the small heating and cooling unit under the window and tried to get it going to heat up the room.
And what would you know? She couldn’t get the damned thing to work.
Charlie sighed, and I watched as she turned back toward me. Ironic that she didn’t want to touch me now, after helping me to her car, and dragging me in here. After stitching me up. She’d done a whole lot of touching, but maybe things were different now because I was awake and alert, more alert than I’d been earlier.
I had an intimidating figure, sure. I was pretty tall, built strong. Around the wound on my stomach, you could see my abs. Had to be in shape when you were a hunter. Maybe that’s what got her panties in a twist: she was attracted to me.
Or she was repulsed.
She swallowed as she reached for my shirt and carefully pulled it down, covering my wound as much as the bloodied, torn shirt could.
I didn’t thank her. I didn’t say a single word. The only thing I did was continue to watch her, and once she was gone and I was alone, I sat there, unable to move, with the TV’s volume low in the background, and I replayed that whole interaction.
Charlie wanted me to find out who her stalker was and kill him for her. I was better suited to a job like that than most people would be, and yet, even though Charlie had told me she wasn’t afraid to die, she still refused to untie me and let me go—and that, in itself, proved she was, in fact, afraid to die.
Charlie, my savior, my kidnapper, the person who might be my only hope to survive this ordeal, was a little liar.
Chapter Four – Charlie
“You need what?” My sister appeared shocked and concerned, her face on my phone as we facetimed each other. “Charlie, why on earth do you need me to get antibiotics for you? Be specific, because this is so unlike you.”
My sister, Claire, was a lot like me. She had the same color brown hair, although she had layers and highlights in hers, which gave it a bit more depth than mine. Her eyes were more of an amber color, less brown and more honeyed, something I’d always been jealous of.
“Um.” Time to tell her the rehearsed story I’d been preparing for the last few hours. I’d left the motel six hours ago; it was time to go back to check on Brett and make sure he didn’t, you know, escape and run away.
I didn’t know what I’d do if I went back there and he was gone.
“A friend of a friend got into a fight last night. He got stabbed, but he doesn’t have health insurance to cover a hospital visit,” I rattled off, praying I looked normal, like I was telling the truth.
Claire blinked. “What about his parents?”
“His mom’s out of a job and his dad left when he was young. He’s got nothing. They know I have a sister who works at a hospital, and they asked me if I could try to get something for him.” I sighed and acted repentant. “I’m sorry. I know it’s a lot to ask—”
“It is. You know I could get fired over something like this.” My sister got quiet—a good sign. When she got quiet, it meant she was thinking. It looked like she was sitting in her car in a parking lot, and she was wearing smocks, which told me she was about to go in for a shift. “I’ll see what I can do. No promises, though.”
“Thank you so much, Claire.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I don’t have anything for you.” Her eyebrows came together, as if she remembered something. “Didn’t dad stab himself with a tree branch a few years ago?”
