Misplaced Trust (Misjudged) (15 page)

Dipping his hand underneath my lace bra, he cup
s my breast in his hand, and I let out another moan as I feel the sweet sensations inside of me build, making me climb higher and higher towards my peak.

Screaming out his name as the delicious
orgasm begins to take over all of my senses, he moves both of his hands south, gripping onto my waist on both sides, never once slowing or stopping his movements as I explode around him.

“Fuck Alexis!” he growl
s loudly. I rest my head and arms on the countertop as I come down from my almighty high, and feel his movements slowing down as his body collapses over me.

Both of us panting and out of breath, he trails soft kisses along my shoulder and over my neck, forcing me to close my eyes as I enjoy the closeness we’re both sharing.

Once I have enough composure to speak, I lift my head, and turn to the side as I go to speak, stilling and feeling mortified when I see a figure lurking on the outside of the window.

“Brandon!
” I shout out, trying to wriggle out from underneath him so I can grab my clothes, “Brandon there’s someone out there!”

“What?” he lifts his head, looking slightly dazed as his eyebrows furrow
a little.

“There’s someone out there!” I say again, reaching for my dress and watching as Brandon’s expression turns to anger as the realization of what I just said hits him.

Pulling his pants back up hastily, I watch as he runs right out of the room, and in the next moment, I hear the front door slamming closed. Pulling my dress back on as quickly as I possibly can, I’m unsure of what I should do.

Glancing around the room a few times,
I grab my cell and follow him outside, feeling as though my stomachs now where my heart should be, with my heart now high up in my throat.

My heart is thrashing and my pulse rate
is pounding hard. I’m struggling to breathe from the thought of someone being there, watching us, and seeing everything we just did.

***

Holding something out to me, he draws my attention back to the here and now. “Here,” Brandon says, offering me a glass of wine as he comes to sit beside me. “Alexis, I looked everywhere.”

“Brandon, I saw someone out there!” I insist, because I did, I’m damned sure I did. “When I turned around, I saw someone standing by the window and looking right in!”

Studying me, he rakes his hand through his hair and doesn’t say anything for another minute or so.

Lifting the wine glass, I try my hardest not to spill any of the contents, but it’s quite difficult when your hands are shaking as badly as mine are.

“I just don’t understand why someone would be out there, I mean, yes, our sex is fucking hot, no one needs to tell me that, I experience it first hand, trust me, I know! But they have this kinda thing on cable, or at a rental store, why don’t they just go and buy a copy?”

Un – fucking - believable.

“Why can’t you take this more seriously?” I scold him and slam my glass down on the table beside me, before standing and leaving the room. “You do understand why we’re even here, don’t you?”

“
But nobody knows we’re here, Alexis!” he follows me and chuckles, although I really don’t and can’t understand why he isn’t more worried. Surely after everything that has happened, he should be feeling, I don’t know … scared, afraid?

“Where did you put my case?” my voice is flat as I turn around to face him.

“It’s in our room,” he answers, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and directing me down the hallway. “Alexis, come on, please?”

Stopping by the door, I turn to look at him again and
let out a sigh, “I was scared, Brandon … What if it was the one who’s after you?”

Giving me one of his sympathetic smiles, he kisses me softly on the
forehead as he opens the door. Leading me inside, he picks up my case from the corner of the room and places it down on the bed.

“Beautiful, we’re safer here than anywhere else, just trust me, alright?” his voice is softer
now, and the amused grin he was wearing has disappeared. “Come on, let’s get some sleep.”

I was hardly able to get any sleep at all last night.

I know Brandon thinks
that I’m being overly cautious about the whole thing, but I know what I saw and I haven’t been able to shift it from my mind ever since.

“
Hey,” Brandon greets me as he walks in the room, and although he’s yawning, his eyes are a bright shade of blue and he looks unbelievably sexy with his ‘just out of bed’ hair.

Walking over to the refrigerator,
stretching his arms out and only wearing a pair of boxer briefs, I feel my own eyes burning as I take in his bronzed and highly toned body. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at him.

“Waking up without you beside me sucks, Alexis,” he tells me, his voice hoarse from where he’s
only just woken up. “Why are you even out of bed so early?”

Grabbing himself a coffee from the jug, he walks over and
nuzzles his face into my neck, kissing me softly, before taking a seat on the opposite side of the kitchen table.

“I couldn’t sleep,” I answer, still feeling somewhat distracted at the thought of what happened last night.

“You’re seriously getting yourself all worked up for nothing,” he tells me, resting his elbows on the table while staring into my eyes. “We’re safe here, I wouldn’t let you stay if I thought you were in any kind of danger, beautiful.”

Smiling at his words, I nod and then stand, deciding another coffee would be the right way to go right now.

“Is there anything you want to do today?” I ask, pouring the remaining drops of coffee into my mug and glancing back over at him.

“I’m waiting on a call from Zach,” he
answers, taking his cell phone from the side and appearing to be checking for any missed calls or messages. “You wanna maybe go for a walk or something?”

Gazing out of the window, I
notice that the suns already shining brightly in the sky, and it’s still pretty early, “A walk and a picnic maybe?” I propose, glancing back over towards him and seeing his face light up at my suggestion.

“Get making some sandwiches
then woman!” he laughs, “I’m gonna go grab a quick shower.”

Winking and displaying
a devilish grin, he leaves the room while I go in search for some sandwich items, drinks, and fruit for our picnic.

***

We left the cabin at close to eleven o’clock, and while I’m carrying the basket that’s filled to the brim with food and drinks, Brandon’s holding onto my free hand, while carrying his guitar in his other.

“Over there looks like a nice place
to stop,” he says, pointing over to a small space underneath a large oak tree, for which appears to have just the right amount of shade from the beaming bright sun.

As we draw closer, I realize we’ll be
sitting right by the water, “We must have a thing for lakes, huh?” he muses, squeezing my hand and smiling while leading the way over.

That we must, I think to myself as we kneel down on the warm, dry grass
and set out all of the food, “Have you been writing any more music while you’ve been gone?” I ask, when I see him placing his guitar gently down on the ground.

“Not as much as I would have liked,” he answers, “When you’re no longer near the things you need, want, care about, and love, it’s hard to get any form of inspiration
to enable you to put your heart and soul into it.”

Watching him, I
notice the sadness that is overcoming his entire face.

I am so in love this with guy that I don’t actually think there
are strong enough or powerful enough words to describe how I feel about him.

His feelings run so deep, and he
would do absolutely anything and everything for those he cares about. I’m so lucky to be able to call him mine.

“You’re
not spacing out on me again are you?” he asks, concern etching over his features. “What are you thinking about? Please don’t tell me you’re still brooding over what happened last—“

“I’m thinking about h
ow lucky I am to have someone so special like you in my life, sappy I know, but I am a woman,” I interrupt him, trying to shift all of the negative thoughts out of my mind and concentrate on spending as much time alone with him as I possibly can.

“I’m the lucky one,” he smiles, keeping his warm eyes on me as we stare into one another for a little while.

Reaching over, I grab his guitar and pass it to him, “Play something for me?”

Nodding
, he throws the guitar strap over his shoulder and positions himself more comfortably, sitting cross legged and resting the base of the guitar on his lap. I move over to sit beside him, resting my head on his shoulder as he begins to play.

After a little while of him playing, he stops and places his guitar back on the ground,
before laying back and pulling me back with him, so that we’re both gazing up at the sky.

“When did you start p
laying guitar?” I ask, as I thread my fingers through his.

Stroking the back of my hand with his thumb, I realize just how peaceful it is out here with him, and I only hope the weather holds up so we can stay out here for a while longer.

“When I was ten,” he answers, “I used to go around to my friend’s house a lot, and although we didn’t have a clue what we were doing, we thought we sounded good at the time, like rock stars!” he chuckles, lifting his arm and pulling me into him, so I’m resting my head on his chest. He wraps his arm around me, and begins to lightly trace his fingers up and down my arm as we continue to hold each other.

“Your first band?” I sit up and lean over him, noticing his eyes are closed. I watch his lips move as he speaks.

“First band, or first
real
band?” he counters my question with one of his own.

“Technicalities!” I say, noticing a wide smile spreading over his mouth at my small outburst.

Playfully digging me in the ribs, he laughs, “You love me for my technicalities!”

“And you love me for my wit,” I state firmly, crossing my arms across my chest as I refuse for him to even deny it.

“No, I love you for your beautiful boobies,” he jokes, earning him a light slap on his chest for being cheeky.

Clearing his throat
when our fooling around finally stops, he reopens his eyes and sits up. Turning onto his side, so that we’re both facing each other, he lifts his hand up to my face and cups my chin.

“The first band
I joined when I was in high school was one called ‘The Jackoffs’, “ he grins, “the more serious one, the better one … the one that was most likely to have headed somewhere, was The Vultures.”

“The Vultures?” I repeat, knowing I recognize the name from somewhere.
“I think I remember seeing something about them …”

“I doubt it,
that was the band who lost their lead vocalist when he got thrown in a cell around nineteen months ago,” he sounds defeated, turns away, and then lays back down as he watches the clouds passing by.

I wouldn’
t say I knew them if I didn’t. My memory is so freaking bad these days.

The Vultures? Come on, Alexis, think!

Resting on Brandon’s chest once more, I close my eyes and enjoy the peaceful tranquility that surrounds us.

‘He loves music and since he started the band not so long back, he’s worked hard to try and get The Vultures some local gigs.’

“Oh fuck!” I blurt out uncontrollably, feeling the bile rising into my throat and the tightest knot twisting around in my stomach as I sit up.

“What the hell’s the matter?” Brandon asks, sitting straight back up and grabbing my face. “Alexis, you’ve gone fucking white! What the fucks going on?”

Feeling cold at knowing that I may have had the evidence he needed, and that it was sitting in my hands all along, I feel chills running through me at the thought.

I try to speak the words. I
try to explain to him how I knew the name.

I need to be sick.

Violently sick.

Closing my eyes and taking some breaths, I reopen them and see him watching me anxiously. Inhaling another deep breath, I look right into his eyes as I say the words out loud,
“Brandon, I think I know what they were looking for.”

“Who?”

I try to keep my voice steady and explain the best I can, while hurriedly throwing all of our picnic items back into the basket, “Alexis, will you please explain what the hell has gotten into you?”

Grasping at my hands, stopping me from being able to pick up the last bottle of soda, I look up and see worry filling his eyes, “The people who took Holly, the ones who threatened you!”
I almost scream at him as I pull out of the hold he has on me.

“How? I mean—“

“There was a diary, a small pink diary … Shit!” Why didn’t I look closer? It made me intrigued, but for some reason, as soon as I placed it back in the box, I’d forgotten all about it. “There was writing in there … it mentioned a boyfriend, his band, it mentioned the name of the band … it said that her boyfriend had spent a lot of time setting it up and—“

His mouth drops open and his eyes widen as he takes in my words, “Holly’s diary was at your father’s house?” his voice sounds weak, empty even
, as he sits back on the grass, appearing to be somewhat taken aback by what I just told him.

“I’m so sorry, I had no idea whose it was,” I whisper, “I need … I need to call my father.”

Standing up, finding it difficult to even tap the correct keys into my cell phone, I turn around so I can no longer see the torment that’s taking over his features.

***

“Are you okay?” I ask him, placing my hand onto his thigh to try and gain his attention. “You haven’t said a lot since before we left Seattle.”

Keeping his focus away from me, and away from everyone else in the car whenever they’ve tried to
make either general conversation with him, or ask more about what had happened, he finally brings his gaze around to meet mine.

“I don’t know,” he answers, both sounding and appearing completely withdrawn. “I kinda don’t wanna get my hopes up on this, but I also think that it might be a little late for that …”

Averting his gaze back out of the window, I turn and see my father watching us both through his mirrors.

Once I’d
explained to my father about finding a diary when we were sorting through my mom’s possessions, and that it was most likely something that my mom would have kept a hold of, if it had have had something to do with Brandon’s case, he decided to cut his trip here short.

He and Diana
came down pretty much straight away to the cabin to collect the both of us, offering to drive us all the way to Salem, so we could see if what I was both thinking and saying was accurate.

I’m fee
ling more than relieved that he and Diana were staying in the city for a little while longer, because now at least we’ve almost reached the outskirts of Salem, and that wouldn’t have been achievable if we’d have had to have made our own way here.

It co
uld be nothing, but I just have this feeling deep within my stomach and running over and over in the back of my mind, that it could be
everything.

As soon as my father pulls onto our driveway, I jump out of the car as fast as I possibly can and make my around to Brandon’s side door.
Opening it up when I don’t see him making any effort to do so, I put my hand out to him, gaining a sad and small smile in return.

“This could be it,” I try to reassure him, feeling
him placing his hand in mine as he takes a hold of my hand, and comes to join me on the outside.

“Alex, some of the boxes are still in the garage, the rest are up in the spare ro
om,” my father tells me as he hands me his set of keys.

I’m thankful, now more than ever
, that when he said he was having his neighbor, Diana, take her things away on the Monday morning after Neil and I had left, well, she wasn’t able to do it.

Unlocking the door, I grab Brandon’s hand again and lead him straight upstairs
and towards the spare room. I figure it would be best if we searched through them together, in case he finds anything that may upset him further.

***

After
having searched through all of the boxes in the spare room, with only one more to look through out in the garage, we find ourselves becoming desperate as we open the last one up.

Whispering a silent prayer up towards the sky, I
ask that it’s in here, for both Brandon’s sake and his sanity.

“Well I guess this is it,” Brandon shrugs and takes a breath, seemingly becoming increasingly nervous as he lifts a few of the items out. “I guess if it’s not in here, then we’ll know that it was definitely Holly’s, and like you said, what they’d been here looking for.”