Chapter 10 Wren
CHAPTER TEN
WREN
Pete leans back against a side wall as he holds me carefully. We all stay quiet as the truck moves through Moscow, which Elias told us is where we are. He also confirmed that Sly and Dex are up front and are currently finding a safe place for us to stop.
Knowing they are all here is a relief and keeps me from asking more questions for now. Elias said we could share stories once we’ve stopped and are all together. I cling to Pete tightly, using him as an anchor to help ground my worries and fears and remind myself of our reality.
They’re all here, and they came for us. I can’t believe I doubted them, but this is Russia! I still can’t imagine how hard it must have been for them to get here unnoticed by Ivan and the feds.
After what feels like a very long drive, the truck rolls to a stop, and the engine switches off.
“We’re here,” Elias says as I pull back from Pete, placing my hands on his chest while we wait. The loud noise of the door rolling up is accompanied by a stream of light, making me squint at the sudden brightness.
I blink quickly, and as my eyes adjust, I find Sly and Dex standing on the ground right outside the door. Tears of relief annoyingly break free as I quickly run to them.
“Don’t touch her back, she’s injured!” Pete yells, as I all but jump into Dex’s outstretched arms. He grips me under my arms and gently lowers me to the ground, and cups my face.
I sink my fingers into his chest, making sure he’s real. “You're here,” I whisper as a few more tears of happiness break free.
“So are you,” he whispers before dipping his head and kissing me. It’s too brief for my liking, but I know I have more people to greet properly.
He moves aside as Sly steps in, his eyes traveling up and down my body as if taking note of every part of me.
“I missed you,” I tell him as I tilt my head up, hoping for a kiss.
He doesn’t make me wait. He cups my jaw with one hand, the other moving to the back of my head as he holds me in place.
His kiss is filled with passion and longing, and when he pulls back, I give him a small smile that I hope conveys that I’m okay.
“Wren?” I turn around and see Elias’s wide, horrified eyes.
“What the fuck did he do to you?” Sly barks out. And as I glance at him over my shoulder, I realize they’re looking at my back.
“He did it to Jagger, too,” I say, pointing in his direction as he watches me with a clenched jaw and fists. They all turn to him before Dex finally moves around behind him to take a look.
“Fuck. We need to get you two cleaned up.”
I take a look around us, as I rub my arms, finally noticing the cold. We’re in some sort of empty warehouse. “I guess no safe houses here, huh?” I ask, wondering where we can even use a bathroom, let alone clean up or sleep.
“No, but we can go to a hotel, the feds gave us some currency, and we’ve been living as cheaply as possible so far,” Elias says. Jagger and I turn to frown at him.
“Did you just say the feds gave you money?”
He nods, a small smile tugging at his lips as he tells me, “Yeah. I guess we have a lot to catch up on.”
“First, we need to see to their backs,” Sly says as he grips my shoulders from behind. I can tell he’s staring at the wounds and not wanting him to worry, I reach up and place one of my hands over his.
“I’m okay, Sly.”
“You are most definitely not okay,” he replies sternly, and I just purse my lips, knowing I can’t say anything else to him right now.
“Okay, the Feds gave me a list of hotels that they don’t believe have surveillance, so it should be safer for us to stay,” Elias says as he pulls out his phone. “Let me find one that we can walk to.”
Dex steps up to me, pulls off his jacket, and holds it open. “I know it might hurt your back, but you must be freezing, plus you can’t walk in there with a bloody back.”
“What about Jagger?”
“He can have mine,” Pete says, shrugging off his own jacket.
Dex snorts at that. “His shoulders won’t fit in yours. He can have mine, you give yours to Wren,” he tells him as he turns to Jagger and holds it open for him, the same way he would for me.
It makes me smile to see him being so kind to him, and I think Jagger appreciates it too because he turns around and slips his arms in as Dex gently pulls it up and sets it on his shoulders.
Pete shakes his open jacket at me, and I do the same, giving him my back so he can help me put it on. Both of them are wearing hoodies, so hopefully they don’t get too cold without their jackets.
Jagger snaps his fingers to get attention, then signs, “Wren needs pants as soon as possible, too. She’s just wearing tights.”
“My legs are actually the warmest part of me right now. They are lined with fleece, see,” I say, flipping down the front edge to show them the fuzzy interior.
“We’ll get both of you clothes after we get settled in a hotel room and have tended to everyone's injuries,” Elias tells us.
My eyes fly to Pete, remembering he said he was shot, and find blood along the outside of his left arm. “You’ve been shot!” I cry out as I grip his wrist so I can get a better look.
“It’s not bad,” Pete says with an amused smile.
“We need to wrap it with something. Anyone have any spare cloth?” I ask, my eyes dancing around the empty space.
“Angel,” Pete says, gripping my face as he tries to get my attention. “It’s not bleeding anymore. I can feel it’s stopped. I will be okay until we get to the hotel.”
“Just make sure you keep that arm angled away from anyone so they don’t see the blood,” Sly warns.
“Okay, it’s only a ten-minute walk,” Elias says, pocketing his phone, his eyes connecting with mine. “Think you can make it?”
“Of course she can,” Pete says, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “Our girl is made of tough stuff.”
I smile up at him as Elias leads the way out of the building and into the cold night air.
The streets are pretty quiet, at least in this area of town, and I cling to Pete’s side as we walk in silence to the hotel.
This part of the town doesn’t look as foreign as I expected.
If it wasn’t for the Russian writing on the signs, I would have thought we were still in the States.
The light dusting of snow has turned to a murky slush with the traffic of people and cars, with only a few white spots remaining. It’s not the pretty white scenic picture I had imagined.
Eventually, Elias leads us into a hotel, and I’m pleasantly surprised when I recognize the chain, the Radisson. He has us wait back as he approaches the counter. “I guess he’s gotten pretty good at Russian?”
“He learned it when he worked for the FBI. It was apparently required for agents working Ivan’s case,” Pete tells me. After that, I watch silently as Elias passes them some form of ID and is eventually given a card key.
He waves it at us, then gestures to the elevator. The hotel is nicer than I expected, and I’m pleased it feels somewhat familiar. We stay silent as the elevator takes us to the fifth floor and down the hall until we reach our room at the end of the hall.
When Elias pushes the door open, I realize this is not a room. It’s a suite.
“This is the Presidential Suite,” Elias tells us as I look around in awe. It has a sitting area with a love seat and two large armchairs, a dining table that seats six, a full kitchen, and I can see several bathrooms and bedrooms off to the sides.
Dex grabs my hand and leads me into the bedroom to the left, letting out a long whistle when we step inside. “It’s massive!” I whisper.
“That’s what she said,” Dex says, grinning down at me.
I roll my eyes but quickly turn back to take in the room.
It has a king-sized bed and a sitting area that’s bigger than any room I’ve ever had.
We peek into the bathroom and find it has a shower and a sunken bathtub that looks big enough for several people.
I grin up at Dex, hoping we can make use of that while we’re here, and his eyes heat, as if he’s thinking about the same thing as me.
“Let’s get everyone cleaned up. Pete’s arm, Jagger and Wren’s backs. Is anybody else injured?” Elias asks as he scans Dex and Sly, who shake their heads. “Good.”
He moves to kneel below the sink, and we just watch him. He turns to us and frowns. “I’m looking for a first aid kit. The least you guys could do is help get them undressed.”
“With pleasure.” Dex grins as he helps slide the jacket off my shoulders. When he turns me around, he hisses. “Fuck, that actually looks really bad. I’m not sure how to get this shirt off you without it hurting.”
“You can’t,” I tell him. “Jagger and I already tried earlier, that’s why we left them on. We knew they’d start bleeding if we took them off.”
“Smart,” Sly says with a nod as he assesses Jagger’s back. “We’ll have to cut your shirts off of you.”
I watch as Pete pulls off his hoodie, leaving him in a T-shirt.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t need to remove that since the gunshot is low enough on his arm to be visible beneath the short sleeve.
Now I can see the wound, I realize he wasn’t playing it down; it really isn’t too bad. I don’t even think he’ll need stitches.
“We need to give them something for the pain,” Sly says as he watches Elias pull out a first aid kit they must have picked up.
He opens it up and starts rummaging through the contents. “There’s ibuprofen in here. It probably won’t do much, but it’s better than nothing.”
All three of us are given two pills and a glass of water as Elias continues to pull out supplies from the kit.
Finally, he turns to me with a pair of scissors. “We’re going to cut off your shirt, then we’ll have to peel it from your back.”
Jagger steps forward and signs, “Do me first, so you can figure out the best way to do it.” Elias frowns, as if he wants to disagree, but ends up nodding as he signals for him to turn around.
As I watch him cut the shirt away, giving us a better look at his back, I start to shake. It looks bad. Pulling the shirt free is going to be excruciating, and I’m not sure I’m strong enough to get through that pain.
I’m not sure if it’s the fear that overwhelms me or if I simply forgot to breathe, but suddenly I become extremely lightheaded, and when I try to speak, nothing comes out. The pressure in my head builds so fast that I have no hope in stopping it as unconsciousness takes me.