Chapter 26
Briggs
I’m fucking pissed. Wren is not answering any of my messages or calls, and she didn’t show up for class this morning. Ready to confront her, I jog over to the dorms.
When I get to her door, I pull the key from my pocket and unlock it. I push inside ready to give her a piece of my mind for daring to ignore me again, when I come to a sudden halt.
Her room is a fucking mess. Someone has gone through the little stuff she has and destroyed it all. Her paintings and drawings ripped apart and scattered across the floor.
Fuck! A dark pit forms in my stomach. Someone broke in here and did this. What if she was here? What if someone took her? My heart beats a million miles per minute at the thought.
“Wren?” I call out for her, hoping she might be in the bathroom, but when I poke my head inside, I realize she is really not here. That’s when I spot something on her desk. A note. Scribbled in the same handwriting as the other.
LAST CHANCE, ROACH. LEAVE OR DIE!
Losing control, I crumble the note up and throw it across the room. My breathing comes heavy, my chest rising and falling rapidly. At least this means they didn’t take her. She must have seen the note and left.
I run my fingers through my hair and rake my brain on where to look for her next. Would she go back to Buck’s place? Or maybe Maya?
I end up trying both. First, I drive to her old apartment and knock on the door like I’m about to kick it down. Buck answers right away.
“Is Wren here?” I ask as soon as he opens the door with a beer in his hand.
“No, man, I haven’t seen her since she moved out.” Lucky for him, I believe him.
I try Maya next. I call around until I get her number through friends. She answers on the third ring.
“Hello?”
I get straight to the point. “It’s Briggs, is Wren with you?”
“Even if she was, I wouldn’t tell you,” she snaps at me. I ignore her salty attitude.
“Someone destroyed her dorm room, trashed the place, broke her shit and left a threatening note.”
“What? No! If you had anything to do with it—”
“If I did, why would I try to find her now?”
“I don’t know what goes on in your fucked up mind but if I find out you hurt my friend again, I’m coming after you, asshole.”
“Save your threats for someone else. Help me find Wren so I can make sure she is okay.”
“And why do you care all of a sudden if she is okay or not?”
That’s a good question. Why do I care? I don’t fucking know.
“I just do okay.” It’s all I can tell her.
“She is not with me, and I don’t know where else she would be. She hasn’t messaged or called me, but I will try to call her as soon as I get off the phone with you.”
“Okay, call me back if you reach her.”
“We’ll see,” Maya answers before hanging up on me.
“Fuck!” I yell, throwing my phone onto the passenger seat.
Where else could she be?
Then it dawns on me… her mother. Grabbing my phone from the seat, I call the only person I can.
I have to call four times before my dad’s slurred voice finally comes through the receiver. “What do you want?”
“I need something, and you are not going to like it, but you will give it to me, anyway.”
“Like I said, what do you want?”
“I need Vicky Delaney’s address, and I need it now.”
“Why the fuck do you need to know where she lives and why do you think I would give that to you?”
“Because you fucking owe me!”
“Owe you?” Dad scoffs.
“Yes, you owe me for all the shit I do for you, for keeping things going at home while you are drunk of your ass all fucking day. For taking care of your daughter! You do remember that we are your kids and not the other way around or did you fry your brain enough to forget?”
“Who the fuck do you think you are talking to, boy?”
“A deadbeat dad who is going to give me Vicky’s address, or I’m going to ask the council to go ahead and offer me your seat.”
“You wouldn’t fucking dare!” My dad is seething. “They would never!”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you are going to pay for this!” And then the line goes dead.
I sigh heavily, wiping my palms down my face while I wait for my dad to send me the address. My phone bings with a text message a few minutes later. I unlock my phone and quickly type the address into my GPS and put the car in drive.
I arrive at the address my father gave me and immediately spot Wren’s car.
My blood boils when I take in the condition of the beat-up vehicle.
All the windows are smashed in, and all four tires are slashed.
This must have happened here, which means whoever is behind this knows where Wren is staying right now. The thought enrages me.
Getting out of my truck, I lock the door behind me and make my way to the apartment.
Impatiently, I push my finger onto the doorbell a few times and wait for someone to open.
A few seconds later, the lock disengages and the door flies open.
Wren appears on the other side. Her hair is uncombed, dark circles rest under her eyes, and she is wearing her pajamas. She looks tired and beaten down.
I open my mouth to say something but before I can form the words, she speaks. “You won, Briggs. I’m dropping out of school. You can call off your friends. You finally broke me. You won,” she repeats.
Instead of answering her right away, I shove her out of the way and walk into the small apartment. “I didn’t send the notes, and I didn’t do that to your car,” I say once inside.
“No, you didn’t, but your friends did,” she accuses, and I know she is probably right.
Wren crosses her arms in front of her chest, looking at the open door like she expects me to leave. I kick the door shut with my foot and take a step toward her. “I don’t know who is threatening you, but I will find out.”
Wren shakes her head. “I just can’t do this anymore. I just want this to stop so I’m dropping out of school,” she says, her voice sounding as defeated as she looks.
“You don’t have to drop out.”
She looks at me confused. “Isn’t that what you wanted? Wasn’t that the whole reason for you tormenting me? So I would leave school?”
“Yes,” I admit. “But that was before.”
“Before what?”
“Before I didn’t want you to leave anymore.” I don’t even know where these words are coming from. All I know is that they are true. I don’t want her going anywhere.
“What do you want me to say to that? After everything you have done to me.”
“Say that you believe me. That you trust me to protect you.”
She scoffs. “I don’t believe you. I can’t.” Her head slowly moves from side to side. “You are the only one who has a key to my dorm,” she points out.
“And I was with you that night.”
“You could have snuck out or got someone else to do it for you.” I don’t know why her accusation and mistrust annoys me so much. I brought this on myself. I hurt her in more than one way and now I’m dealing with the repercussions.
I take a deep breath before eating up the distance between us.
I lift my hands to cradle her face in my palms, forcing her to look at me when I speak.
“I didn’t have anything to do with the notes, but I promise we’ll find out who left them.
Until then, you are not safe here. I want you to come and stay with me at my house. ”
She shakes me away, taking a step backward. “I can’t come with you. Your dad doesn’t want me there.”
“I don’t give a shit about my dad. He is not going to touch you. Now pack your stuff,” I order, but Wren doesn’t move, so I continue. “They know you are here; they trashed your car in front of the door, you are not safe here and as long as you stay here, neither is your mom.”
“And if I come with you, how are you safe? What if we put Tia in danger?”
“No one would dare try to do anything to you at my house. Do you really think I would make you come if I wasn’t absolutely sure Tia was safe?” My words seem to assure her a little.
She unfolds her arms and lets them hang next to her body. “I don’t know what to do. I’m just scared. Not just for myself.” Her eyes fill with tears.
She looks so small, so helpless, and all I can do is go to her and wrap my arms around her tiny frame. She stiffens at first, not anticipating a hug from me. It takes her a moment to relax in my hold. I rub small circles around her back, and she finally calms enough to melt into my chest.
A warm fuzzy feeling spreads through my body as Wren buries her face into my shirt. The same sensation I felt when she was in my bed, cuddling against me. I feel… whole.
That feeling lasts about a minute, and then my world comes crashing down around me.
The front door unlocks and a woman who looks like an older version of Wren enters the apartment.
Vicky Delaney. The homewrecker who slept with my dad.
The woman who destroyed mine and my sister’s lives.
I hated her for months, blamed her for everything bad that has happened, and now she is here, standing in front of me with her big blue eyes, looking at me holding her daughter.
“Who are you?” she asks, her voice flat.
I release Wren, who turns to face her mother.
“Mom,” Wren says before I can get my throat to work. “This is Briggs Weston,” she introduces me hesitantly.
Recognition flickers over Vicky’s face. “Oh,” is all she says, at first.
For months I’d imagine what I would do if I would ever run into her. Yelling was at the top of that list, wrapping my hands around her throat crossed my mind as well. Now that the moment has come, I can’t do anything but stand in awkward silence.
“I’m so sorry about your mom,” Vicky finally says, her voice filled with compassion and guilt while tears fill her eyes.
My throat clogs up at the mention of my mom. All I can muster up is a nod.
“Briggs wants me to stay at his house until we find out who is sending me notes,” Wren explains, changing the subject.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Vicky questions.
“Yes, she’ll be safe there, and you will be safer as well.”
“I just want what’s best for my daughter.”
I nod again. “Believe it or not, so do I.” Both Wren and Vicky stare at me like I just grew horns. “I know that wasn’t the case in the past, but it is now. I want to make sure Wren is protected, and I can do that best at my house.”
“You are not like your father,” Vicky states, surprising me.
“I’m nothing like him,” I agree.
“Good… and I believe you.” Vicky turns to her daughter. “I think you would be safer with him too. No one is going to mess with the Westons. I can’t protect you here. Look at what they did to your car.”
Wren sighs deeply before looking from her mom up at me. “Okay, I’ll come with you.”
Relief seeps into my skin, calming my nerves. Now I just have to keep my promise and make sure Wren is safe.