Truth or Lies? by A. Gomez (books to get back into reading TXT) 📕

but then I want you start again. And it can be as simple as you just having a conversation with God. You can even ask him questions.” I kissed the top of her head again. “Whatever you do, don’t stop praying and I promise you, I will help you get out of this horrible situation. I just need your help too and your prayers will do that for me.”

She nodded. I needed something for her to hold on to if and when she and I got separated. My mother would tell us something very similar when we were little. She was trying to help us help ourselves. She was trying to help us be brave. Did it work? Sort of, but we were never in a horrific situation such as this. I prayed that it worked for Betty Lou.

The two men seemed to have calmed down. The stocky man took out a photograph and stared at it. He showed it to the driver and then looked at it again. He shifted his body, turning to face me. Holding up the photo, he looked at me and then back again at the photo.

“Dr. Isabel Langley?” he asked in a thick Chinese accent.

“Yes,” I answered icily.

He laughed a sadistic laugh. “I told Tony it was you and not your double.” He turned around and sat back in his seat. “Ginger is very good with directions. She said your hair down and wavy today and bery preety.” He paused to say something in Chinese to the driver. “Ginger bery jealous.” They both laughed.

“So, Ginger knows where I was going tonight?” I asked in disbelief. “How did she know I’d be on the tarmac?”

“Your boyfriend told her,” the stocky man answered. “He tell her he love you and is going to your office to say good-bye before you leave.”

The driver was snickering like a weasel. “Ginger bery jealous.”

“My boyfriend?” I repeat, stupefied, “Dr. David Summers? He told her?”

They both nodded. My heart skipped a beat. Why would David tell her anything about me? Perhaps it was casually… just in passing in his rush to get out and get upstairs.

“If I your boyfriend,” the driver began, “I would run and hide. Ginger call us to burn your boyfriend car.” They fist bumped each other. “Wooh! Ginger bery jealous!”

I inhaled sharply. “Oh my God! You’re the two hooded men David told me about?”

“Not two. Three. One to drive and two to burn car,” he answered.

“Does Ginger work for you?” My eyes were wide and flickering between the pair of them.

“She work for our boss. Your boyfriend work for him a little too,” the stocky man added.

I was stunned. I didn’t want to believe it. Not David. He would never. My heart broke in two and I gripped Betty Lou a little tighter, laying my cheek on the top of her head. Tears pricked my eyes. “I don’t believe you,” I said, my voice cracking. “David would never work for an organization so heinous as yours,” I said with conviction.

Again, they laughed their weaselly, high-pitched laugh. “David make a lot of money helping Ginger and our boss.” The stocky man was rubbing his thumb and index finger together.

I didn’t want to hear any more. I didn’t want to believe what they were saying about David was true, but then again, they had no reason to lie to me. I blinked the tears away and took a deep breath before asking, “Where are we going?”

They didn’t answer. They were stone-faced and staring straight ahead. I asked again only louder this time but they still didn’t answer. The stocky man just slightly turned his head to look at me. I tried to look out the windows but it was too dark outside and the windows were too tinted. I still felt disoriented from the blow to my head. When I tried looking out the window, all I could see were lights, no street names. I felt helpless.

We’d been driving for at least an hour by my calculations. I looked at my watch and it was almost eleven at night. I had never called Josh so I knew he’d be calling any minute, wondering if I forgot about him. Betty Lou had fallen asleep in my arms, I gingerly laid her head on my lap so she could rest more comfortably and so I could move and shift around without the two men thinking I was up to something. This would afford me the opportunity to reach into my purse and take my phone out without them suspecting.

Right on cue, my phone started to vibrate—it was Josh. Thankfully, the loud hum and vibrating of their muscle car was nicely masking the vibration of my phone.

I touched the answer button and held it face down so they couldn’t see the light. “Where are you taking us?” I asked again, loud enough so Josh could hear. “I know your boss probably told you not to give me any information but I know we’re headed east out of the city and I know you’re taking us to a house. You could be a little courteous and tell me something, anything.” I really didn’t know we were going to a house or what direction we were headed. I just threw that out there to see what they would say.

“How do you know we take you to a house?” the driver asked.

“Lucky guess, I suppose,” I answered. “So, where is the house?”

They didn’t answer. They didn’t even glance back at me. I had to try something different. “Could you at least tell me your names?”

The stocky man said something to the driver in Chinese then quickly glanced back at me. “His name Tony and my name Frank.”

“Tony and Frank,” I said, “I can’t say it’s a pleasure to meet y’all because it’s not. Do y’all have last names