Amnesia - The Matlock Pack: Book One
Chapter 23 - Nat

Monday 7 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

I turned my head towards the shrill voice yelling at me and Bells, utterly confused by what the issue was.

“I’m sorry?” I noticed Bells had taken a step back from me, dropping his hands from my waist, and letting mine drop from his shoulders. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the FindNʘᴠᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Bells raised his hands to each hip and looked annoyed, but I didn’t know why. Automatically, I wondered what I had done to make him feel that way.

“Oh, you will be.” The incredibly slim, yet still toned, woman standing in front of Bells and I took a step forward until she was right in front of me. Even though I had a good six inches on her, she exuded menace at me.

I blinked at her words. “Uh…” I scrambled for a response. This furious woman had thrown me for a complete loop.

“Uh? Is that all you can say?” She cocked her hip out to the side, and rested a hand on it, then pointed a finger at me with her other hand and went to poke me in the sternum with it. Her wide eyes narrowed at me. “What? Have you got a stutter or something?”

I frowned and took her in. Her hair was a rich chocolate brown that fell in waves to the top of her waist. Just like Zelda, it didn’t look like she was wearing any make-up, but her skin and brows were flawless, so it made me think she was simply very skilled at making it look invisible. Her plump lips looked like they were more used to a siren’s pout rather than the snarl she was directing my way.

She was wearing cut-off jean shorts and a loose, red paisley string singlet over a black sports bra. Her clothes radiated a casual feel, especially paired with her bronze skin, but her stance was screaming the exact opposite.

I put a hand up to stop her from poking me, but that didn’t deter her. She brought up her other hand and attempted to slap me. I dodged out of the way and grabbed her wrist. “Hey, will you stop that?”

“I’ll stop it when you know your place.” She went to poke me in the sternum again.

“Look, lady, I don’t know what you’re on about. Have I met you before or something?”

“Goddess, no! You’d be sure to steer clear of what’s mine if we’d met before, I can assure you of that.”

I furrowed my brow at her. “What’s yours? What on earth are you talking about?”

She went to slap me again, and again, I grabbed her wrist. I didn’t know why I kept letting her go.

“Bells! Bells is mine!” She launched at me, trying to grab my hair. This time, I caught hold of both of her wrists and twisted her around in front of me. I held onto her short form as she struggled to get out of my arms. The hopeful spark that had been in my heart only moments ago sputtered and began to die.

“What do you mean, ‘Bells is yours’?” I looked over her shoulder to Bells with sadness, who still stood there with his fists curled up on his hips, looking annoyed. I raised an eyebrow at him in question.

“Kadin,” he said, exasperated. “I haven’t been ‘yours’ in months. You dumped me, remember?”

“Is there a problem here?”

I looked past Bells to see Spence approaching us. Looking past him, I could tell that we had garnered the attention of many other campers still on the archery field. I loosened my grip on Kadin, and stepped back from her, my hands up in surrender.

She swivelled angrily and lunged at me aggressively.

I immediately put a hand up in front of me to stop her. “Okay… Kadin, was it?” I tried to reason with her, but I could tell that it was like talking to a brick wall. “Can you please quit it? I don’t know why you’re targeting me in all of this.” I moved my hands around in the space between Kadin, Bells, and myself.

“Guys, what’s going on?” Spence looked at each of us, taking a good long stare at me.

Ignoring Spence entirely, Kadin growled as she leaned her torso forward, like she was ready to hit me again. “You know exactly what you did.”

“Honestly, I have no idea what you’re on about.” I shook my head at her before glancing at Bells. He had his right hand to his forehead, while he was shaking his head. His fingers rubbed his temple like he was trying to stop a headache from forming.

“Kadin, what seems to be the problem here?”

Finally, Kadin seemed to hear Spence as her body language completely changed. She immediately straightened up and relaxed as she turned to face him. “No problem here at all, uncle,” she told him, sweetness in her voice. She turned back to me with a sneer on her face, as she looked me up and down with disdain. “Just reminding visitors of their place in the general hierarchy.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, but stayed quiet. All I knew about Spence was that he was Takeshi’s seemingly always-bored second in command, and now this Kadin person called him her uncle. Could I be in some sort of trouble here? Surely not, but better to stay quiet for now.

“Now, now, Kadin,” Spence began, beaming at his niece. “Let’s be nice to our guests.” He turned to face me, his warm smile morphing into an evil grin, leaving me with no doubt which way this was going to go if Kadin decided to take another swing at me. “We want them to leave with wonderful memories, don’t we?”

I glanced over Spence’s shoulder at Bells. Now that I took stock of where I was standing, I noticed I was the only one in front of Kadin and Spence; all the spectators, including Bells, were behind them. No-one could see the menace that these two were projecting at me, which meant that they could only judge them by what they were saying and how they were saying it.

And if you couldn’t see their faces, what they were saying sounded perfectly reasonable.

Spence patted his niece’s shoulders and left his hands there in an obvious display of support. Kadin crossed her arms and sneered at me, knowing that I couldn’t do or say anything to her. “Of course, uncle. Wonderful memories all round for everyone. Even if their stay is temporary.”

I couldn’t stop a small, wry grin from appearing on my face as I shook my head in disbelief. Still, I remained quiet. There was no point in arguing with anyone, especially not in the current setting.

“Right then,” Spence said, patting Kadin’s shoulders one last time. “Let’s get back to what we were doing. Whose turn next was it?” He sauntered back to his spot at the end of the line; the other campers scrambling to get back to their own positions.

I crossed my arms, standing still as I stared down Kadin. She smirked at me, turning on her heel, and headed over to Bells. She drew a hand down his torso, drifting from his chest to his waist before he grabbed her wrist and pushed her away. “Cut it out, Kadin.” I rolled my eyes at her in response to her blatant attempt to establish ownership over Bells. Murph started on his way over to them, shaking his head.

Cody hurried across to me, skidding to a stop just before she barrelled into me. “Are you okay?” She stood next to me, before facing the same way I was. She mimicked me, folding her arms in front of herself too, as we both watched the interplay between Bells and Kadin.

“Yeah. Just wondering what the hell is going on,” I murmured to her. Kadin was still trying to flirt with Bells, but he was having none of it, stepping away each time she tried to touch him.

“Bells dated Kadin for about a year, but she dumped him about nine months ago…?” Cody paused as she thought about it, then nodded to confirm the timeline to herself. “Something about them ‘needing space for their final year of high school’? I don’t know, but Bells was absolutely devastated about it. He hasn’t been himself since.” She stopped and looked up at me, contemplating. “Last week after he met you was actually the first time I’d heard him laugh since they broke up.”

I turned to her in surprise. “Really?” The small spark of hope that had died only moments ago sputtered back to life. Maybe there really was something between us after all.

“Mm-hmm,” she nodded with a sly grin. “Looks like he may finally be starting to accept that he can move on.”

A small smile spread across my face, but faded as I turned back to face Kadin and Bells. Kadin was arguing with Bells now, her hands flying everywhere as she accosted him. Bells was arguing back, pointing at her to drive his point home; Murph trying desperately to get in between the two of them to settle them both down. I idly wondered where Spence was during this argument and why he was choosing not to get involved here when he had earlier.

“Looks like she might have something to say about that.” I tilted my head in their direction.

“Oh, don’t worry about the Wicked Witch of Matlock,” Cody laughed. “Her friends are coming to get her.” She pointed with her chin at the two girls that were approaching Kadin, Bells, and Murph from the courts.

Both girls wore similar clothing to Kadin — cut-off jean shorts and camisole-style tops. That was where their similarities ended, though. Where Kadin was tanned and incredibly slim, the other girls were very pale and curvy in different ways. The slimmer of the two had curly, light brown hair that was flying everywhere. She reminded me of the Greek goddess statues that I had seen in one of the history books in the library. The curvier of the two had long, fiery-red ringlets trailing to the middle of her back. She reminded me a little of Cody, but where Cody exuded friendliness, this red-headed beauty radiated nothing but suspicion.

I watched as they went up to Kadin and started murmuring to her. The red-headed woman kept glaring at me but tugged on Kadin’s arms to drag her back to the courts with them. Murph left them to it and wandered over to Bells, tilting his head towards Cody and me as he walked. Bells nodded and turned to follow him.

“Stay away from him, you bitch,” Kadin snarled at me, venom still in her eyes. The two women dragged her away from us as she wrestled with them to let her go.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. As much as Bells attracted me, I wasn’t the one that had started anything between us. If she had an issue with me and Bells, she needed to take it up with him. It wasn’t my fault if he wanted nothing to do with her.

“Lucky Briar and Rowan showed up when they did, huh?” Cody asked Bells and Murph as they approached us. She unfolded her arms and placed her hands on her hips.

“Would have been luckier if they’d kept a tighter leash on her to begin with,” Bells grumbled. He was in a foul mood now compared to the happy-go-lucky mood that he’d been in earlier.

“Yeah,” Murph agreed. “Kadin’s always been over-bearing about you, but what the hell was that? She was like a crazed loon.”

Bells stared at the ground as he stumped the toe of his shoe into the ground in front of him. “She was happy when I was miserable. She can tell that I’ve begun moving on and she’s pissed.” He glanced up at me shyly, then shifted his focus back to the ground. He pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shrugged. “She needs to get over it.”

“I think we’ve worn out our welcome here,” said Cody, looking around. It was obvious that she was trying to change the subject to a happier topic. “Do you want to do something else?”

“If you’re suggesting another round of volleyball, I’d say not at the moment, Cody,” I responded. “You saw which way they were headed, yeah?”

“Yeah, yeah. Maybe we could go abseiling instead?” Cody fluttered her eyelids at us. She brought her hands up and clasped them in front of her in a pleading stance.

“I’m game if you are,” Murph shrugged.

Bells sighed. “Yeah, okay. Just get me out of here and away from Kadin.”

I shrugged at Cody. “Looks like we have a winner.”

Cody let out a whoop of joy. I shook my head in exasperation at her. Was there anything that she couldn’t find happiness in?

We picked up all our archery gear and dumped it back with the rest of the unused equipment, then headed over towards the abseiling wall.

Auden caught us when we were halfway there. “Nat, got a sec?”

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