Free Given by Lauren Barnholdt, Aaron Gorvine Page A

“You need to talk to me, Natalia. I have things to tell you. Things that are going to change your mind.”
    “Nothing will change my mind,” I say. But I’m slowing down. I turn around, and Reed’s sliding his hand over the front of my mom’s car, all the way down the hood and over the bumper.
    “Looks like new, doesn’t it?” he says when he sees me looking. “I even remembered the McDonald’s bags in the back.”
    “Yeah, congratulations,” I say sarcastically. “You brought my mom’s car back to life, good for you. You win…. oh yeah, that’s right, nothing.”
    He grins and shakes his head fondly, like he can’t believe he forgot how amusing I was. “That’s where you’re wrong, Natalia,” he says. “My prize was coming back here and getting to see you.”
    I cross my arms over my chest. “You’re moving to Santa Anna?”
    “It seems like it, yes.”
    “It seems like it or you are?”
    “It seems like I am. Of course, a lot of that depends on you.”
    “I told you, I’m out.”
    He shakes his head. “And I told you, that wouldn’t be wise.” He’s around to the other side of the car now, and he leans against the driver’s side door.
    Neither one of us say anything. I’m waiting for him to go away, he’s waiting to see if I mean what I say, if I’m going to go inside and refuse to talk to him. As much as I hate to do it, I blink first.
    “If I talk to you, will you leave?” I ask.
    “Leave your house, or Santa Anna in general?”
    “Both.”
    “I can’t leave Santa Anna. But if you talk to me, Natalia, things will be a lot easier. For both you and Cam. And your mom.”
    I take in a sharp breath. “My mom has nothing to do with this.”
    “That’s where you’re wrong.”
    I think about how Samara told me she was Raine’s mom, and my heart catches in my throat. Is my mom not who she says she is? Or, even worse, is Reed planning on using my mom to get closer to me, to threaten her in an effort to pull me back in?
    I walk back over toward the car. “So what do you want?”
    He cocks his head. “Go for a ride with me.”
    “Absolutely not.”
    He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the key to my mom’s car. The afternoon sun glints off the metal. “She never asked for it back,” he says, like it’s not his fault he still has it.
    “Give it to me.” I hold my hand out, but he ignores me.
    “It’s weird, keys,” he says thoughtfully. “I mean, when you really think about how much power they have.” He shakes his head. “Anyway, will you come with me, Natalia?”
    “No.” I’m not getting into a car with a psycho.
    He sighs and then moves his head back and forth slowly, stretching his neck.
    “Very well then,” he says. “We’ll have to do this the hard way.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    He mumbles something I can’t quite decipher, and then, before I know what’s happening, there’s a weird numbness flowing through my body. It feels almost like a warm liquid is being poured through my skin. Then there’s the sensation of pins and needles, like my whole body has fallen asleep.
    There’s a flash of light, then darkness, and when my vision illuminates again, I’m standing in front of my school.
    Reed is standing next to me.
    “What the fuck?” I ask. “Are you fucking kidding me? You had no right to do that.”
    “Do you know where we are, Natalia?” he asks calmly.
    “Of course I know where we are. We’re at my school.”
    He nods. “Yes, that’s true. But do you know what else this land represents, Natalia?”
    I shake my head. “No,” I say. “And I don’t want to know.” I hate the way he keeps saying my name, hate that he was able to bring me here without my consent. I want to walk away from him, but I’m not sure he would let me. He would probably just transport me back here again, and when he got sick of doing that, he might resort to doing something even worse.
    “This is the place where the past will become the