Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
WREN
Ikeep up my internal pep talk as the cart starts moving. I’m not sure if nobody is talking or if I’m just too distracted to hear, but I start to worry that I’m going to be stuck in here forever when the cart suddenly jolts and clangs, as if going over a bump.
I feel the tiniest bit of cool air slip into the bag as hope fills me. Am I outside? Then, just as quickly as I felt it, there’s the sound of a rolling door, and all the light is taken from me.
Shit, shit, shit. Don’t panic. It’s okay. I can survive this.
The bumpy motion and rumble of an engine tells me I’m in a vehicle, and I let that thought try to calm me. If I’m in a truck, I’m leaving that place. This is good. This. Is. Good.
It feels like way more than twenty minutes when the truck finally comes to a stop. The rolling door sounds, and a small bit of light reaches me. But the best part? Are the voices I hear all talking over each other.
“Where is she?” Dex yells.
“Calm down, I’m sure she’s here.” Is that Harry’s voice I hear?
“She must be in here somewhere,” Elias mumbles, his voice getting closer. “Please be in here.”
“I’m here,” I try to yell, but even to my own ears, my voice is weak.
“Wren!” I release a breath when Elias calls my name. He heard me.
I jab my hand against where the light is coming through, and Dex yells. “There!”
I feel the other bags lift, then the top of mine starts moving, and suddenly, it's yanked open. Light pours in as three of my favorite faces in the entire world stare down at me. Dex, Elias, and Jagger.
I try to stand, but my legs are weak, and Jagger reaches in to lift me out. Somehow, I manage to wrap my legs and arms around him as he cradles my ass.
“Thank god,” Elias breathes out in relief, touching my hand and placing a kiss on my temple. I turn my face toward him, and he gives me a quick kiss on the lips.
His eyes scan mine, and I give him a tight-lipped smile, as if to tell him I’m here and I’m okay.
I feel a large hand on my back as Dex speaks. “Let me hold her.” I lift my head and find Dex on Jagger’s other side. I take a second to kiss Jagger, planning to make it quick, but his hand holds the back of my head, keeping me close as he deepens the kiss.
Finally, I pull back, gasping for breath as I tell him, “I missed you all so much.”
“My turn,” Dex demands, holding out his arms to me with an impatient frown. This time, Jagger lets me go as I’m passed into Dex's arms, my legs hugging his waist as he pulls me in for a tight hug.
He gently rocks me back and forth, stroking the back of my head as he starts rambling. “Baby, I can’t believe you’re finally here. You have no idea how hard it’s been—Shit, sorry. Of course you do. It’s probably been way harder for you in there. Did they at least treat you okay? Did they hurt you?”
He finally pulls back as he tries to take a good look at my face. “Is this a bruise?” he asks, his finger lightly grazing over my cheekbone. I shrug. It’s possible; it’s hard to keep track of every time part of me hit a wall or the bars of my cell.
He starts to move, and I finally take the chance to look around. We’re in the back of a truck filled with laundry carts. So that’s how they got me out, disguised as dirty laundry.
Harry is standing on the ground outside the truck, and Elias jumps down beside him, reaching up for me. I unhook my legs so I can stand, then turn to face him. As I squat down and place my hands on his shoulders, he easily lifts me out and sets me on my feet.
He cups my face and takes a moment to study me as I hear the other two jump down. “You’re okay,” he says. I know it’s a statement, not a question; he can see I’m not broken.
“I’m okay. Better than okay now,” I whisper, placing my hands over his.
“I’m sorry it took us so long.” At the mention of the others, I glance around, looking for them, and see we’re parked outside the back of a warehouse I don’t recognize. It looks abandoned, but I start to panic when I realize Pete and Sly aren’t there.
“Where are the others?” I ask in panic, turning in a circle to make sure I didn't miss them.
“It’s okay,” Elias says, placing his hands on my shoulders and bringing me in for a hug. “They are on their way. They couldn’t leave in the laundry truck, so they are just walking out the front door.”
“They’ll be caught!” I exclaim. “And why didn’t you go in? Their Russian is terrible!”
He chuckles, making me shake with his laughter.
“Yeah, they definitely haven’t picked up much of the language.
But I couldn’t go because they knew my face.
I was there every day trying to get in to see you.
They refused to let me. I even had papers forged to prove you’re my wife, and they wouldn’t buy it. ”
“Really?” I ask in surprise, pulling my head back to look up at him. “I tried that, too. Without the forged papers, of course.”
“Yeah, that place is super shady,” Dex adds from our side.
Elias nods. “There is definitely something corrupt happening there.”
The sound of car tires crunching in the snow has my arms tightening around Elias as I start to tense up.
He holds me more firmly until a black SUV comes into view, then he lets out a breath of relief.
I don’t release my own tension until the doors open and Sly and Pete jump out.
Pete runs straight for me, and I quickly turn, taking a few steps to meet him in a crushing hug, one that’s not happening when we’re in the middle of a prison, scared of being caught.
“Never do that to us again.”
“I’m sorry,” I mumble against him.
I hear Sly growl, and I release Pete and turn to face him.
I can’t quite pin down the expression on his face, like it’s a mix of anger and relief. “Sly?” I ask warily, taking a nervous step toward him. “Are you upset with me?”
His face flickers with pain, as if he’s been hit and is trying to hold it in. “Sly?” I ask, growing more worried as I reach up and grab his forearms that are banded over his chest. “I’m sorry, I—”
“No,” he snaps, cutting me off. He uncrosses his arms, then gently cups my neck. “Don’t you dare apologize to me, Wren. I’m the one who failed you.”
“What?” I ask in shock. “Of course you didn’t. Why would you think that?”
“I told you to watch my back, on your own. I sent you straight to them.”
Remembering back to that day, I let out a deep breath and let my face relax, showing him how I really feel.
“Sly, not once did that thought ever cross my mind. But I do think our plans need to always make sure we have someone watching our shooters’ backs.
” I glance at Jagger as I add, “That’s why I left the warehouse.
I saw two of them entering the one Jagger was in, and I didn’t want them to sneak up on him.
When they came after me, I had to run the other way and, well, I ran right into another guard. ”
“You were trying to save me?” Jagger signs, looking a little guilty himself now.
“Can we just all agree that it was none of our fault and move past this?” I ask, not wanting to rehash that day anymore.
“Good idea,” Harry suddenly pipes up, reminding me that he’s here. “We need to deal with the laundry guy, too.”
I frown, not knowing what he’s talking about, but Sly turns my face back to him as he tells me. “I love you, little bird. No more leaving us, okay?”
The corner of my mouth lifts in a smile as I nod. “Agreed.”
I hear a door open, and an unfamiliar man steps out, followed by Pete and Elias, as he rubs his wrists.
Harry tosses the keys to Elias, who speaks to the man in Russian.
“As promised, you are free to go.” He holds out the keys, eyeing him with caution before he snatches them up and runs to the front of the laundry truck.
He jumps in and takes off so quickly that gravel flies up from the wheels.
They must have cuffed him and taken his truck. It was a good plan.
“We gotta go before he reports where we are,” Elias says. Sly scoops me up bridal style, making me squeak in surprise, as everyone piles into our vehicle.
Sly sits me sideways on his lap, clearly not ready to let me go, and I am totally here for it. I feel touch-starved after going three weeks without them.
We’re all silent as Jagger drives us through the dark, snowy streets of Moscow. Much more snow has fallen since I was at the detention centre, but I’m no longer eager to go out and enjoy it. Instead, I find myself wanting to get out of this country as soon as possible.
We drop Harry off with a quick thanks for driving the laundry truck. Sly tells me it’s because the other three had been seen with Elias, and they didn’t want to risk being recognized.
We’re soon back on the road, and I sigh, not really wanting to discuss another plan when we’ve just gotten through the last one, but knowing it needs to be done. “I guess we should talk about how we’re going to get Ivan’s list of accomplices,” I say in the silence.
“No need,” Pete says, leaning forward from the seats behind us to look at me. “We already got it.”
It feels like my brain momentarily short-circuits as I register what he said. “What? What do you mean? How?”
“We got it the day after you were arrested,” Elias explains, turning from where he’s sitting in the passenger seat to look at me. “We thought if we had that, we could use it as leverage with the FBI to help get you out of there.”
“Guess that didn’t work,” I say angrily. Those FBI agents were becoming extremely annoying.
Elias shakes his head, looking not so pleased himself. “No, they said they don’t have jurisdiction here. Even if some of the names on the list were men running the very detention centre you were in, they wouldn’t act on anything outside the U.S.”
“Bullshit,” Pete says angrily. “Total bullshit.”
“That’s why what we plan to do in the future will be so important,” Sly says, his hand rubbing my arm soothingly. “We can take out the criminals the authorities can’t touch.”