Treacherous (13 page)

“
I don’t know.
Frankie’s taking me away, romantic getaway. You know how it
is.”

“
Frankie? Are you
still seeing him? What about Nathan?”

Oh, why did she have to bring up
Nathan!

“
Mum, it’s
complicated.”

“
Charlotte, be
careful. You’re playing with his heart. I think he really likes
you.”

“
Well, if he really
likes me then he should call me. I have to go.” I cut her protests
off short and went back to packing my bag. Frankie would be here
soon, and I knew I was playing with Nathan’s heart. But what could
I do? Frankie was here and Nathan was not.

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Nathan

On my way back to the campus, my phone
rang. I hit answer and adjusted my Bluetooth earpiece.

“
Hello?”

“
Nathan, you have to
get back to campus right away. You have to get to
Charlotte.”

“
What? Susan, slow
down. Is Charli okay?” My heart began pounding. Shit. What if that
prick had already hurt her?

“
She’s leaving town
with him.”

“
With who?
Levi?”

“
Yes.”

“
When?”

“
Right now.
Today.”

“
Shit.” I didn’t
normally swear in front of women, but right now, I couldn’t help
it. I was in a conundrum. Legally, Susan couldn’t testify against
her husband, but I was confused. Was she working against Stephen,
or with him? I had to question her. But that would be for later.
Right now, my main concern was for Charli’s safety.

“
I’m on my
way.”

* * * *

I pulled up in front of the campus ten
minutes later. Not bothering to park my car properly, I ripped the
earpiece out of my ear and ran towards the doors to Charli’s
building. When I reached the door to her apartment raising my hand
to knock, the door opened and Charli stepped out, walking into
me.

“
What the… Nathan?
What are you doing here?”

“
Are you okay?” I
looked her over for physical signs Levi had hurt her but couldn’t
see any. There were no emotional scars either. Not yet
anyway.

“
I’m fine.” She
crossed her arms across her breasts and leaned against the
doorframe. She was pissed at me. I was a fool for not calling her.
I pushed my hand back through my unkempt hair in
frustration.

“
Look, I can explain.
I’m sorry I haven’t called you.”

“
What’s the deal? I
thought you cared. You acted all loving on Sunday then you totally
blow me off. Don’t you know common courtesy?”

What was I going to
tell her? “I had to work.” Lame excuse, Nathan.

“
Yeah, sure.” She
pushed off the doorframe and walked back into her room, leaving the
door ajar. I caught it with my boot before it closed and followed
her. Upon seeing her overnight bag, I hesitated.

“
Going somewhere?” So
it was true. She was going away with him.

“
Uh… yeah. Just for a
few days.”

“
Oh, who with?” She
stopped playing with the zipper on her bag and spun around to
confront me.

“
What’s it to you? You
didn’t seem to care about me the past few days. Why do you care
now?”

“
Because… because,
Charli, I’ve come to my senses.” It was now or never. I had to stop
her from making the worst mistake of her life, and possibly the
last. I stepped towards her and pushed a stray piece of hair out of
her face. She held her breath. “I’ve been an idiot. A complete and
utter fool for not calling you this week, and I regret it. However,
I don’t regret you and I don’t regret what happened between us. The
truth is, I do care about you, Charli. I… I love you.”

Charli

I couldn’t believe
the nerve of him. Coming back, unexpectedly, after not calling me,
after no contact at all, leaving me to think he didn’t care. And
now this. This confession… what was he doing to me? I couldn’t
breathe. Had he really just said what I thought he just
said?

“
Nathan…”

He took my face in
his hands and kissed me. I really was playing with fire, and I was
the one getting burned. Right now, in this moment, I came to the
realisation I was not invincible. I was a mere mortal with a
conscience and a heart—a fragile heart that had been fractured into
a million different pieces in a very short time.

Unfortunately, I had
to do the same thing to him. He had to become just as broken as I
was. It was only fair. I pushed Nathan away and stepped out of his
embrace.

“
Charli? I’m sorry,
please. I’m sorry.”

“
No, Nathan. It’s too
late.” I hadn’t realised I was crying until I felt a tear run into
my mouth making my lips salty. I wiped them away.

“
No, its not,” he
whispered. A text came through on my phone. I glanced at it quickly
then slid my phone back into my pocket. “I have to go.”

“
Please, Charli.
Stay.” Oh, crap, now I had made him cry, too. I wanted to wipe away
his tears just as badly as I was sure he wanted to wipe away mine,
but I couldn’t. The damage was done.

“
Nathan. I’m sorry. I
have to go.”

“
No, you can’t go. Not
with him.”

That stalled me. I
stopped in the process of picking up my bag, my back still turned,
so I turned to look at him.

“
What?”

“
You can’t go with
him. He’s dangerous.”

“
How do you know? What
are you talking about?”

He stepped closer and
pulled me to him once more. This time, his hold was possessive as
if he knew his time with me was precious and rare.

“
Charli,” he breathed
into my hair. He smelled of aftershave, sweat, and something else
that I couldn’t place. “There’s so much I have to tell you. I want
to tell you more than anything. But now you’re going to have to
trust me when I say please don’t go with him.”

“
Nathan. As I said,
it’s too late. He’s here.” I pulled out of his arms and grabbed my
bag. I didn’t turn back to look at his face as I walked out the
door. I knew I’d stay if I did.

“
Charli!” I listened
to him calling after me as I left him behind.

* * * *

Tears streamed down
my face as I hurried from the dorm and to Frankie’s waiting
car.

“
Are you okay? What’s
wrong?” He pulled me into his arms when he saw me and kissed my
head.

“
Yeah. I will be soon.
Can we just go?”

“
Sure.” He kissed me
before taking my bag off my shoulder and placing in into the boot
before heading round to the driver’s side. I spared one last glance
at my window before hopping into Frankie’s car hoping to see
Nathan’s figure there. But the window was as dark and as empty as
my heart.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Charli

As Frankie’s car sped
out of the city, I turned to look at him. His five-o’clock shadow
and dark aviator sunglasses made him look especially handsome. My
stomach somersaulted inside of me. My heart would have joined in,
but it was far too broken, and I was uncertain that Frankie could
find all the pieces before it was too late. This was my punishment.
He caught me looking and smirked.

“
Are you sure you’re
okay?”

“
Yes. Is this a new
car?”

“
Yeah. I just picked
it up this morning. Like it?”

“
Yeah. It’s nice. And
expensive looking.” I didn’t know how Frankie made his money but I
felt it was time to ask. After all, we would be getting closer the
next few days. “You must have a good job.”

“
Yeah. I’m pretty good
at what I do.”

“
What was it you did,
again? I can’t remember.”

“
That’s because I
never told you. I inherited my father’s business.”

“
Oh, and what business
is that? Don’t worry if you don’t want to tell me. Sorry for
prying.”

“
That’s okay. Why do
you want to know anyway?”

“
I’m just trying to
get to know you. Isn’t that the purpose of this trip?”

“
You’re right. My
father was in investment.”

“
What kind of
investment?”

He chuckled. “Gee, you really do want
to get to know me, don’t you?”

“
Is that a
problem?”

“
No. But how about
this, if you tell me why you were crying earlier, I’ll tell you my
job.”

I turned to look out
the window and exhaled deeply. I pulled my ponytail forward over my
shoulder and fiddled with the end of it. It was something I did
when I was nervous, frustrated, or scared. “It was nothing
really.”

“
Come on, you were
balling and shaking. It must have been something pretty
bad.”

“
Okay, fine. It was
Nathan.”

“
Nathan?” Frankie’s
gaze switched between the road and me, and his jaw clenched. He
didn’t like this conversation, I could tell. “What was he doing
there?”

“
He… he told me he
loves me.”

“
What? And how do you
feel?”

“
If I loved him back,
I wouldn’t be here. Would I?” It was a lie. Deep down I knew it was
a lie, and I was betraying my conscience by running away from the
situation, which had broken my heart. But this was how I solved all
my problems. In school, my parents had been told I was tortured.
The psychologist had told them I covered my problems by running
away from them, torturing myself instead of facing them. I was also
told I would end up in a psych ward if I didn’t stop my reckless
behaviour. But like my problems, I ran away from those who were
trying to help me. My chosen torture methods were drugs and
self-harm. And now I had added sex and running away with strangers
I had met on a chat room to my list. Yes, this was Plan Rebellion
at its best.

Frankie smiled and
took my hand, placing it in his lap. As we drove north towards our
destination, I alternated from interlocking my fingers with his and
running my fingers dangerously close to his groin. He growled in
pleasure when I touched him there, never once taking his eyes from
the road.

Chapter
Twenty-Five

Nathan

I tried my hardest.
But it was no use. I failed my job. I failed her, but worst of all,
I had failed myself.

“
Charli!” I had tried
calling out to her, but it was too late, just as she had said. I
hadn’t wanted to believe her, but it was true. She was gone. As
soon as she stepped through the door, I hadn’t hesitated. I ran
after her, but I don’t think she heard me. The sound of her crying
overwhelmed both of our ears. I chased her out the front doors of
her dorm and halted when I saw whose arms she ran into. She had
gone from breaking my heart to crying wrapped in another man’s
arms. Why had she been crying? Did she really care about me? By
what I was witnessing in front of me, I wasn’t sure. She was
kissing him and hugging him. Each action made my heart break even
more. I clenched my fists. I was so jealous. I wanted to knock his
lights out more than anything right then, but I had to restrain
myself. Frankie kissed her once more, took her bag from her, and
got in the driver’s side of his brand new black jeep. I took a note
of the license plate in my phone for future reference.

I was torn.

Torn between running
after Charli and dragging her away from the con artist she was
running away with, and staying and doing what I was told. I was
trained to sit patiently and not screw up my cover… oh, screw that!
As soon as the Jeep’s tires spat gravel out behind them, I was en
route to my own car. I had to follow them.

Charli

“
So, where are we
going?”

“
It’s a surprise. But
you’ll like it. My family has a holiday house up north. Well, it’s
not a holiday house anymore since my parents are deceased. Its mine
now.”

“
Oh. I’m sorry about
your parents.”

He was silent for a
few minutes, his eyes trained on the road ahead. When he spoke
again, his voice came out cold. “It’s okay. My mother died when I
was a kid, and my father… lets just say the person who killed him
will get their justice.”

I stared at him. Now
I was a little afraid. What had he meant by that? I was scared to
push the topic even further as I could see it was hurting him, so I
decided to leave it for now. Maybe I’d get a chance to ask later. I
sank down into the heated leather seat and stared out the
window.

Nathan

I followed the Jeep
onto the freeway, heading north. Where were they heading? I knew by
reading Levi’s profile that his parents had a property near
Newcastle. Maybe they were heading there. I didn’t care how far I
had to drive, all I knew was I had to keep Charli safe. I cursed
myself for not physically stopping them from leaving. I realised
now, this is what the AFP would want me to do. They’d want me to
track Levi and Charli to see how far he was willing to go. After
all, I was pretty certain Levi was baiting me for revenge. I knew
this would not go down well.