Forgotten Truths (The Forgotten Truths Series) Read online

  As soon as we were out of the building, I took a chance. I made a run for it, but wasn’t watching where I was going. I ran too close to a pack of men. I silently cursed when one reached out and caught me. He grabbed me from behind and held me still just as someone came running up to us.

  “Brian don’t- “

  I felt a crack on the back of my head and then everything went black.

  Chapter II

  I woke to a horrible pain in my head. I also realized that I was lying on something very soft. Though my eyelids were shut, I could tell that it was I was in a very bright area. I put my hand on my forehead and tried to sit up, only to find some sort of pressure that pushed me back down. I tried again, but the resistance was still there.

  “Don’t try to sit up,” a male voice spoke.

  I thought I recognized that voice, but I wasn’t sure from where. I felt my hand being moved and being replaced by something soft, wet, and cold. I pulled my hand out of his grip and placed it lower on my face, while I tried to figure out what had happened. I had tried to run, but I was caught. Then everything went black. They must have gotten a hold of me, and I was with them and not my father.

  I sprang up from whatever it was that was so soft and immediately started to fall. I felt the man catch me and then push me back to a bench with a plush cushion on it that I must have been on before. My head pounded painfully. I moaned as I lay back down and covered my eyes with my hands.

  “I told you not to sit up,” the voice said again. It wasn’t deep exactly, but still low and soothing. I liked it and wanted him to talk more. He did. “Now, springing up off the cushion; that’s much worse than sitting up, as you now know.”

  “Where am I?” I asked quietly.

  “You’re on a ship from the Royal Navy. Your head got a pretty good thump on it yesterday. Sorry about that. They weren’t supposed to hurt you.”

  I slowly opened my eyes and removed my hands. The first thing I saw was a hand with a bandage on it moving away from the cloth that had been replaced on my forehead. I groaned. This wasn’t happening. This man, whom I’d attacked not just once, but three times and also had bitten, was taking care of me. It made me feel sick. It was bad enough to be kidnapped, but then to have to be taken care of by someone I didn’t know, who I’d hurt, didn’t make sense to me.

  “How long have I been out?” I closed my eyes again before I could see anything else.

  “Several hours. But you need to stay resting, or your head will be worse. Please trust me on this, if nothing else.”

  I carefully turned my head toward the sound of his voice. I wanted to see who this man was. My eyes landed on a young man with reddish-brown hair, more brown than red, which was just long enough to catch in his eyelashes when he blinked. His eyes were a deep, dark brown, and very beautiful. It took me a minute to pull my own eyes away from his to notice that he had a very friendly and open face. He had a strong chin and a straight nose. He seemed to be one of the best-looking men I’d ever seen. He didn’t have a black eye from where I had hit him yesterday. He smiled at me, a smile I didn’t deserve.

  “Why’d you kidnap me?” Now that it was out there, it sounded so weak. I hated feeling weak, let alone sounding it. I didn’t like people taking care of me or treating me nicely, especially when I’d been so mean to them. But the way he was looking at me, I couldn’t feel the anger.

  “We had to.”

  “’We’?” I fought off the fuzziness in my head.

  “The Royal Navy. We find girls who have been taken into piracy and try to get them back to their families or at least back into society. Well, that’s what I do anyway.”

  That would explain the uniform that he was wearing at least. “You don’t know anything about me. You just took me from the only family I have.”

  He bit his lip. “What do you mean?”

  “My father is the captain of that ship you attacked. You didn’t know that?”

  He slowly shook his head. “No, I did not. I only knew that there was a female on the ship and it was our duty to get her off at all costs.”

  I wanted to scream at him, punch him again, but the pain in my head was too much. My eyelids started to close, but I fought against it still.

  He noticed. “Don’t resist. Your body knows what it needs to heal. Get some rest.”

  “No. No. You kidnapped me. I need to get out of here.” I wanted to sit up but my body wouldn’t obey me.

  “You won’t make it far, I promise you. Get some sleep and when you wake up we’ll plan your next move.” He lowered his head a little closer to mine, but my eyelids couldn’t stay open any longer. The last thing I heard was, “I’m right here.”

  The next time I woke, the room wasn’t as bright and by the look of how the light hit the walls, it seemed as if the sun was setting. I turned my head, but the guy wasn’t within view. I slowly sat up and leaned back against the wall. I rested my head on my knees and moaned. My head still hurt, but not nearly as much.

  “You’re up.”

  I jerked back and cracked my head against the wall with a loud thud. I sucked in a quick breath and brought my head forward to rest it against my knees again, but this time in pain.

  “I’m sorry. I hadn’t meant to startle you.” He placed his hand on the back of my head very softly, and then removed it just as quickly. “How are you feeling?”

  I glanced at him. I didn’t try to hide the anger displayed clearly on my face. I shouldn’t have thought he wasn’t in the room. He said he was going to stay. He had pulled a chair closer to where my head had been, out of my sight when I sat up.

  “Is your head any better? Well, at least was it before you hit it?”

  I closed my eyes and sighed. I didn’t want to talk to him.

  “You don’t have to be scared of me. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  My eyes flashed open in disbelief. “You think I’m scared of you?”

  He tilted his head. “I don’t know.”

  “I. Am. Not. Scared. Of. You.” I sat up straighter. My head throbbed and I winced. “You kidnapped me. I got hurt so I can’t do to you what I want to do, and now you’re thinking I’m scared of you? What kind of life do you think I’ve lived? I get into fights on a daily basis. Where do you think I got this black eye from?” I pointed to my left eye. “I am not scared of you. I can take care of myself.”

  “Which is why you were left on that island alone, right?” He leaned forward. “And why nobody came back for you? If your father treated you like a father should, you would not be here right now. Instead, you would be under his watchful eye.”

  I stood up, though I staggered slightly. He stood up as well. “I do what I want, when I want. Nobody is the boss of me. The only reason I’m putting up with being here is because I’m on a ship in the middle of the ocean and I can’t exactly get off and make a run for it.”

  “It’s interesting that you say being in the middle of the ocean on a ship would stop you from trying to run when being on an island that was also in the middle of the ocean was such a better option.” He folded his arms across his chest but kept his expression calm.

  I continued to glare at him. He should have been infuriating me, but he wasn’t. I was frustrated, yes, but there was something about him that made me unable to feel any real anger toward him. That didn’t mean I had to like him though. “What’s your name?”

  He leaned back, not expecting a subject change. “Why?”

  “So I know the name of the man that I need to hate right now.”

  The corner of his mouth twitched and pulled up slightly. “My name is James Cony.”

  I considered this. James Cony, the man who kidnapped me. “I hate you, James Cony.”

  His smile grew and his front teeth were visible. “I think you will get over that.”

  I folded my arms across my chest, determined not to let the pain in my head overrun my irritation at that statement. “You’re pretty sure of yourself.”

  Before he could resp
ond, there was a knock at the door, which distracted his attention. I stepped back and sat down on the seat. I gently placed my head in my hands. I closed my eyes as if trying to shut out all the emotions running through me. I could feel him stare at me and hesitate before he went over to the door. I wanted to lie down, but I wasn’t sure if I’d sleep or just lie there and have to pretend to sleep to avoid any more conversation. Was staying here really better than trying to swim for it?

  I leaned back against the wall instead and looked around the room. It must have been just like the one my father had done for me. I’d never seen any other ship with a room like mine, and this had far more expensive furniture in it, and it was very, very nice. I felt out of place. I pulled my knees up to my chest and turned my head to look out the window. How long was it going to be before we docked somewhere and I could run? Then again, how would my father know where to find me? How was I to know where we were even going? Maybe if I just held out here, with this guy, then I’d be better set to find my father. He would find out whose ship this was. I just had to deal with this guy for a little longer before I could run.

  James came back and sat back on his chair. I dragged my eyes up to find him watching me. We stared at each other for a long time before I finally decided to ask my questions.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Somewhere”

  “For how long.”

  He shrugged.

  “I’m assuming, since I don’t know where I’m going and for how long, I’ll be staying somewhere.”

  He nodded. “You’ll come with me and stay with my family.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Your family?”

  “Well, who I call family.” He stood up. “My real parents are dead, and I am an only child.”

  This confused me, but I didn’t say anything as he walked across the room. I wasn’t sure what to say. Most of the men on the ship had no family. But the look on his face was so sad that I felt I needed to say something. “I don’t have a mother.”

  He turned around. “I’m sorry.”

  I shrugged as I closed my eyes. “I didn’t know her. My father refuses to talk about her. Then again, I’ve never really asked about her either.”

  “Why?”

  I looked at him, surprised by his question. “Why what?”

  He shook his head. “Forget it. It’s not important.”

  I lay down on the cushion, and the pain in my head lessened considerably. “So who do you live with?”

  “I live with Captain Brown. He’s a retired captain of a ship. He lives a couple miles out of town along the coast.”

  “Isn’t it awkward to live with someone who isn’t family?”

  “My parents died when I was very young, so I’ve been living with Captain Brown for many years. I tend to overlook the fact that we aren’t, in fact, related.”

  “So that’s where I have to go?”

  “I don’t think you’d like the other options.” He came back across the room and sat down in the chair again. “You’re better off with me.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “I want to know why you aren’t having a problem with any of this,” he stated instead. Then after the weird look I gave him, he went on. “I mean, you aren’t screaming or throwing a fit or anything. You’re very calm, and it’s kind of strange with you just being kidnapped by someone you don’t know. I mean, I’ve dealt with girls like you before, but they only acted like this because they were just relieved to be going home. The ones who didn’t want to go back or had been gone for so long are the ones who put up the fights. That’s where I pegged you.”

  I turned my head away from him. I wasn’t about to tell him that I had decided it was in my best interest to stay with him, since hopefully my father had seen him and would find out who he was. Staying with him was my best chance of being found, and unless I heard anything about my father elsewhere, I had to stick around. I wasn’t happy in the least bit, but I could never tell him this for obvious reasons. I just had to wait it out and be patient, something I had gotten better at within the last few years. My temper, on the other hand, was less stable.

  I closed my eyes. “My head is hurting still.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry. I guess I shouldn’t have kept talking. Just sleep.”

  “How much longer do we have before we dock?” I asked as I started to drift off.

  “Don’t worry about it. Rest.”

  The next time I woke, it was dark. There wasn’t any light in the room, which must have meant the sky was cloudy since the night before last the moon had been full. Hopefully James was asleep so I could get up and leave the room unnoticed. I sat up and as my eyes adjusted, I saw him leaning sideways in his chair. I couldn’t tell if he was asleep, but he didn’t move when I stood. I headed over to the door and tried the handle, but it was locked. I felt around for the latch but couldn’t find it. Were they serious? I had to be locked in a room with him? I started to get angry until I felt a hand cover mine and before I could stop it, he moved it up the door to where the latch was. I noticed that his hand was soft against mine, not rough like I had thought it would have been. As soon as the door was open, I was out and away from James before he could touch me again.

  “I thought you were asleep.” I felt almost ashamed at being caught, but I figured it was just trying to cover how I was feeling about him touching me, which confused me. Everything about him seemed to confuse me. I couldn’t tell if it was because of my head injury or if it was just him in general.

  “I don’t sleep much. I usually just doze a bit. I heard you get up and figured you wouldn’t be able to figure out the door. It’s pretty old.”

  There it was again. He was being considerate toward me. I didn’t get it. There had to be something else he wanted from me. Nobody I knew treated people nicely unless they wanted something or were planning to do something to that person.

  “So do you want a tour or did you just want to be out on the deck?”

  I looked down. “I just wanted to get out of the room. I like being out in the open.”

  He nodded. “I don’t like being cramped up myself.”

  I went to the railing and leaned over to feel the spray against my face. I felt my body relax quickly. It was as if nothing had changed and I was still on my father’s ship.

  “What is your name?” he asked softly from behind me.

  I turned my head toward him. “What?”

  “What is your name?” he repeated a little louder as if he thought I hadn’t heard him when I had actually spoken out of surprise.

  “Are you serious?” I stood up straight and stared at him.

  He put his hands in his pockets. “Yes.”

  I’d been kidnapped and they didn’t even know my name? Who did they think I was? Why was I kidnapped if they didn’t know who I was? What kind of people did this? I could understand if they had some sort of grudge against my father and were using my kidnapping as some sort of ransom. But they didn’t even know who I was!

  “If you don’t know who I am, then why did you kidnap me?” I spoke through my teeth. I clenched my hands into fists to try to hide how badly I was shaking from anger.

  “I told you that we rescue girls from piracy. And I was acting under orders.” He shrugged. “We do it all the time.”

  “You steal girls from their pirate fathers because females shouldn’t be pirates? You took me from the only family I have! What kind of person are you?” My voice broke on the end, but I kept my eyes on him. I couldn’t lose it yet.

  “Are you going to answer my question at all?”

  I couldn’t arrange my thoughts in an order that would make any sense.

  He was distracted by a noise from behind him. He turned his head to see what it was, and I made my move. I took this opportunity to climb quickly up on the railing and held onto a loose rope that hung above my head. I stared out at the sea and wondered if I should just swim for it and take my chances.

  I felt arms wrap around my wa
ist and found myself being pulled off the railing. I held onto the rope and started to kick. James got a good pull in and we immediately tumbled backwards. We fell to the deck, me slightly on top of him. I tried to get free, but his arms were still around my waist. The more I struggled, the tighter his hold became. I started to panic and fought more, finally getting one of my arms free. I flung my fist back and made contact with his face, but I was still stuck. I was able to shift just enough so that I was able to jerk my head back, and aimed for his face yet again. He must have anticipated it because he quickly dodged and still didn’t let go. I was about to start screaming when I pulled my arm forward and slammed my elbow into him. That was when he finally let me go.

  I was immediately up and away from him. I leaned over the railing to throw up. I hadn’t eaten in at least a day, but there must have been something in my stomach because it came out quickly. When I finally stopped, I stayed bent over the railing, breathing heavily. It took a few more minutes, but I was able to straighten up again. I wiped my mouth as I turned around. I froze when I saw the skin around his eye turning darker, but that’s not what really caught my attention. It was the expression on his face. It was so helpless and confused and something that I couldn’t begin to describe or understand.

  My knees started to shake, and I slid down the railing until I hit the deck. I looked down at my hands and saw they were trembling.

  “Are you okay?”

  I took my time to look back at him. Why was he so concerned about me? He didn’t even know who I was. I leaned my head back and rested it against the wood. I felt too lightheaded and tired. I knew I’d been sleeping a good portion of the day, but it had seemed to be a very long day.

  “Please answer me.”

  “I just punched you in the stomach and face, and you’re wondering if I’m okay?” I shook my head but finally felt my heart calm down. It was always so much worse when I was held from behind and couldn’t get free. I really couldn’t control what I did in that sort of situation. I just did what I had to do to get free.