Free Given by Lauren Barnholdt, Aaron Gorvine

Chapter One

    Natalia
    Reed’s voice sends cold shivers of fear down my spine. I don’t want to turn around, don’t want to look at him, but I know that showing any kind of weakness will not be good for me.
    So I force myself to meet his gaze. “Yes, I’m Natalia,” I say, moving my lips into a friendly smile. “You must be the guy who found the car.”
    He nods. “I’m Reed.” He holds his hand out to me, and it’s subtle, but I can see the look on his face – he’s daring me to take it, waiting to see what I’m going to do. I let him touch me, even though every nerve in my body wants to recoil. His hand is cold but firm, and he grips my fingers longer and harder than is really necessary.
    “Thanks for bringing the car back,” I say.
    “Wasn’t that so nice of him?” My mom looks at Reed adoringly. “He just took it upon himself to drive it all the way back here.”
    Reed looks at the ground, like he’s being bashful. “I told you, ma’am, I’m moving to Santa Anna. So I need to come to the area anyway.”
    My stomach turns, but I keep the smile on my face. “Well,” I say. “Let me know if you need someone to show you around.”
    “Thanks,” he says. “I just might take you up on that.”
    “So I guess we’re done here,” Office Peabody says. He rips a page off his notebook and hands it to my mom. “Here’s a copy of the report,” he says. “We’ll call you if we get any leads, but I have to be honest when I say that most of these cases go unsolved.” He shakes his head. “And this one is pretty strange, since nothing was stolen from the car.”
    He looks at me for a moment when he says this last part, like he wants to accuse me of something. But what could he accuse me of? Leaving my car in Maine, and it being recovered a little while later, totally unmarked? It’s completely ridiculous. More likely he thinks I’m covering up for Cam.
    “Thank you, Officer,” my mom says.
    We watch as the policeman heads toward his cruiser, gets inside, and pulls away.
    As soon as he’s gone, my mom turns to Reed.
    “Reed,” she says, “you can’t go back to Maine without letting me feed you lunch.
    I have some chicken salad that’s to die for, let me make you a sandwich.”
    “Don’t you have to get back to work?” I ask her quickly. It’s bad enough she let Reed in our house to use the bathroom, if that’s what he was even doing. He was probably going through my stuff, looking for something that could aid him in hurting Cam. I say a quick prayer of thanks that the iPad was with me the whole time. I pat my bag, feeling the comforting, heavy weight.
    “I took the rest of the day off,” my mom says, like it’s nothing, like she’s always taking the rest of the day off, when in reality, I can’t remember the last time my mom even took part of a day off.
    “I’m sure Reed has to leave,” I say coolly.
    “I’d like to talk to you for a little bit, actually,” he says to me. His face is like a statue, his eyes cold, a smile playing on his lips.
    “I don’t have anything to say to you.”
    “What’s going on?” my mom asks. She frowns, and the wrinkle on her forehead deepens. “What are you talking about?”
    “Mom – ” I start, but before I can tell her to go inside, Reed takes care of it.
    “You’re very tired,” he tells her. “You need to take a nap, you need to get some sleep, don’t you?”
    “I’m not – ” she starts. But then her face goes slack, and she beings to walk toward the house listlessly, like some kind of zombie. The fact that he’s using mind control on my mom makes me want to scream. But what can I do about it? What choice do I have?
    Once she’s inside and the door shuts behind her, I turn and start to follow her.
    “I’m not talking to you,” I call over my shoulder to Reed. “So whatever it is you came here to say, you can forget it. I’m done with all of you.”
    He lets me walk up the path until I’m almost at the front door.