Lost In Lies (17 page)

              “That’s Star,” the tan, bearded man points. “Bright as the ones you find in the sky.”

              “I like you already,” I look the horse deep in the eyes and stroke it softly.

              “I’ll take this one,” Nick reaches for a light-colored brown horse.

              “That’s Wish,” he answers as he unties my horse.

              “Beautiful names.”

              The man asks, “Ever been riding before?”

              “Yeah, but never on the beach,” I scoot back as the gorgeous creature comes out of the stall. “Should I be worried?”

              “Nope. Just take your time, ride her slow, and your natural instincts will kick in if she goes too fast.” He winks at me in a way that sparks concern, the same way Justin used to before we faced danger.

              The man helps me on, giving me a glimpse of a series of clouds wrapped around his wrist, with a small red open door lingering in the middle. In a way it reminds me of the nebula, Justin showed me the day we started talking about Neverland. The doorway to get there was all he would say. Doing my best not to be distracted by it, I place my hands on the reigns and get ready to ride.

              Nick mounts his horse, and before I know it, we are slowly treading down a beach path surrounded by beautiful palm trees, dangling coconuts, bananas, and even grapes. The ride is a bit bumpy but in a fun way. I admire the glistening surroundings and the enchanting melody of the water.

              “Are you close with your parents?” Nick’s attention diverts to me.

              An unexpected pause occurs. I haven’t done as much thinking about them as I figured I would have by now. After all, it’s not like I’ve had that much time to just stop and think about anything other than my next calculated move, but now that he brings it up, I do miss them. It’s not like I gave up crappy parents. I gave up some of the best ones out there, I’m sure, but they lied to me. My father looked me in the face and lied. I know, I know Justin did the same thing, but he fessed up, he told the truth eventually, and he laid out the information he could and let me do with it what I could. Did my father ever give me that opportunity? No. He tried to live my life for me, make me deliver on the choices he chose, and for that, I may never trust him again.

              “For the most part.”

              “What’s that like?”

              “It’s not too shabby. We don’t spend an insane amount of time away from each other. I mean, they travel often for business, and when they do, we Skype—”

              “Me and my parents live on Skype.”

              “Really?”

              “Yeah, it’s gotten so bad that I had to get it on my phone.”

              “Wow. I can’t imagine living like that, you know. My parents and I are close. I mean, we used to be closer but—”

              “What happened?”

              My voice stumbles around as I realize my word vomit has complicated a very simple question, “Difference of opinion.”

              “On?”

              With the last conversation I had with my father playing back in my ear, ringing like an alarm clock to wake up and realize I may never really know who to believe in life, I sigh, “Life.”

              Sensing my vexatious temperament, he merely smiles, reaches his hand out to link with mine, which I do, and then looks off into the distance. Pleased with his simple gesture to soothe my aching self, I let my shoulders slump, relieved. You know, Justin feels the need to say everything he can think of under the sun to make the situation better, but it’s nice that Nick doesn’t. It’s nice that he knows not everything requires wise words, especially when a simple physical sentiment would do the same.

              To my surprise, I hear the sound of horses that aren’t ours but don’t see anything. My stomach begins to twist into knots, knowing danger is close but unsure from where. I swallow nervously and continue to search around, slowing my horse down.

              I turn to Nick to tell him we should probably head back when I see an arrow hit him right in the side, causing me to squeak as he falls flat on his horse. Glancing over my shoulder, I see Lola fast approaching on a black horse. Unsure of what exactly to do, I hop down, grab a hold of Wish’s reigns and tie him to the closest tree.

              With a soft rub on his hair and kiss on the forehead, I whisper to Nick, “Sorry, I wish I could explain.”

              Without hesitation, knowing it’s me Alex wants for leverage, knowing I’m always the bargaining chip to make my team squirm, I hop back onto my horse just as Lola sends another arrow flying after me. Ducking, hardly missing the arrow, I kick my heels into the side of Star and take off.

              Galloping down the path, I avoid arrows as best as I can, knowing that, if I look back to see where they are coming from, I’ll never know what’s up ahead. I veer the horse to the right, getting off path, and weave in between brushwork, hoping to lose my tail. I like that riding a horse is indeed like riding a bike; once you get in the groove, everything else will work itself out. Finally gaining some distance from Lola, I relax my shoulders prematurely because Alex drops down on the back of my horse.

              His arms wrap around me as his head lands on my shoulder, “You know, I really enjoy being this close to you.”

              After mentally thanking him for testing my gag reflexes, which are working fine thank you, I shove my elbow into his stomach in hopes of knocking him off.

              Alex merely chuckles, shakes his head, and places his hands on my hips in a position that makes me feel even more uncomfortable. Feeling around, he grumbles, “Could you please get still? Just need a little something out of your purse.”

              “No!” I pull Star to an abrupt stop, causing him to neigh loudly and bring his front two feet in the air, just like you see in the movies. Clutching onto the horse leaves me no chance to clutch onto my bag, which Alex has managed to snatch.

              “Thank you for this,” his face leans around, winks, and plants a kiss on my cheek. He flashes me the box that contains the imprint I stole for Justin.

              Before I realize it, Alex shoves me off the horse and rides back the way I came, leaving me stranded. Upset, disappointed, and confused on how he knew where I was, I stand up just in time to have an arrow fly right at my head. My body spins out of the line of fire and right into the arms that are always going to be there for me.

              “That was close,” I whisper in his embrace.

              “A danger foreseen is half avoided,” Justin beams down at me proudly.

              “What’s the other half?”

              This time, a bullet smacks into the tree beside him, barely missing his shoulder, “Realizing there’s more.”

              Lola rides steadily at us, reloading in the process. Justin hits his elbow against the tree trunk, and a coconut falls at my feet. With a smile, he nods, alerting me that obviously I’m going to have to do it because, well, he’s not. With no hesitation, I pick up the object and nail Lola in the ribs, not only knocking the weapon out of her hand but freeing the horse from her control. She rolls across the ground, sand covering her like a golden blanket.

              Justin immediately locates the weapon and makes a dash for it as Lola struggles to get up. As he hops over her, he yells at me, “You know my rule!”

              “Yeah, yeah,” I grumble as Lola struggles to get up.

              My foot goes to kick her in the ribs in a hope to keep her down when she grabs me by the foot and yanks me to the ground. Doing my best not to wince in pain, I struggle to free myself before her fist lands in my face with the force of a brick. God, what does she eat for breakfast? Wheaties doesn’t have this effect on me. I force myself free and on top of her, where I pin her with all my weight.

              “Have I told you just how much I hate you?” she glares as my body continues forcing her down.

              “Today?” I raise an eyebrow and think. “Not yet.”

              Lola spits in my face, which releases enough of the pressure to allow her to get free. Without a second thought, she nails me across the face, knocking me off. Disgusted by the moisture on my face and the throbbing pain, I lay in the warm sand for a moment.

              “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I hear Justin’s voice say slowly.

              Propping myself on my elbows, I see the crossbow she was using against us aimed right at her head. “Thought you couldn’t hit a girl.” She spits at Justin

              “Rules are meant to be broken, but you can’t make broken rules, especially when it comes to almost killing my girlfriend.”

Lola raises her hands in the air like the prisoner she is.

“All this is over, almost,” she sticks her bottom lip out at him.

              “You have something that belongs to Peyton.”

              “Your heart.” I jostle Lola as I join Justin’s side.

              Dusting off sand from my bottom as well as my top, Justin tries to stop from smiling, “Her purse.”

              “I don’t have her purse,” Lola wiggles her empty hands before wiggling her short shorts that are hiding a pair of purple bikini bottoms underneath. “Wanna frisk me?”

              His tongue grazes his lips as if struggling with his inner attraction for her versus his vengeance for my life. It really feels like the age-old idea—which body part is he doing the thinking with. Gaining his composure, he smiles, “Thank you for the offer, but I’ll pass—”

              “This time?”

              “You are coming with us.”

              “Hostage? Because I’ll go anywhere you ask,” her continuous single entendres make me wish he’d stop wasting time and just pull the trigger already.

              “Alex will come back for her, and when he does, we’ll make a trade, her for the purse,” Justin explains, sliding the crossbow into my hands before lowering himself to the ground, where he removes the laces from both of his shoes.

              “Sounds like Alex is getting the shaft in that deal,” I toss Lola a dirty look.

              She rolls her eyes as Justin takes her hands and places them behind her back. Snuggling against his body, she glances over at him, “If it were up to me, I’d let you keep me.”

              “Then you should’ve never tried to kill Peyton.”             

              “Still upset about that?”  The words sound like she’s unbothered by the situation. “You really should learn to let things in the past go.”

              I snap, “It was yesterday!”

              “It wasn’t really that bad.”

              “Easy for you to say! I wasn’t the one making it so you couldn’t breathe—”

              “Jealous you can’t fight that well? Look, if I wanted you dead, you’d be dead. Let’s be clear about that.” Justin stops the backtalk with a tug. Under her breath, she begins muttering to herself, “If we would have just gone with my idea of kidnapping the stupid Nick guy, this right here could have been avoided. But no! ‘No Lola, we don’t want the entire wrath of the Precious Society to reign down on us. That’s not a situation we want.’ But oh, getting me held for leverage is one he can settle on?”

              He leads her forward like a prisoner as we begin to go back the way we came. Treading through the forest, Lola walks without a fight but can’t seem to stop trying to seduce my boyfriend. Should I call him that? I mean, he does keep calling me, well, the other half.

              “I’ll never understand it, Justin. I mean, Alex not only offered you a deal, but he offered you a better one! I mean, what, you play lackey to Peter, yet you do all the work, get none of the credit, and are punished for essentially being better. What could he have possibly had to offer you that we didn’t?” she whines as I keep the crossbow pointed at her.

              “Family,” the response brings a crooked grin to my face. “You let your own die without blinking, leave them behind, and don’t think twice about anyone else. Peter’s not perfect, but at least I know that, if there’s an arrow in my back, he didn’t put it there.” After a pause, he mumbles, “Most likely didn’t put it there.”

              Lola rolls her eyes and sighs as her red shirt falls, exposing her swimsuit top. “You know, you were really sexy on the Jones job.”

              I glance back to see Justin trying to hide a smile, which prompts me to ask, “What was the Jones job?”

              “You don’t know?” she sounds disgusted. “And you want to call yourself his girlfriend.” She shakes her head and sighs, “The Jones job was a jewel heist from a set of pirates passing through Neverland. Justin conned his way in and out within two days, and no one saw it coming.”

              “No one ever does,” the words fall out of his mouth and cause my shoulders to slouch.

              My eyes meet his, and I nod, “You’re right. No one ever does.”

              “Peyton, I…”

              “Sh, do you hear that?” I cut him off, not allowing him a chance to respond. Quickly, I toss the weapon in his hands, which is a great idea because, sure as day, Alex lands behind us.