Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
WREN
"Haven't you put it all together yet?” Elias asks, sounding both annoyed and a little hurt.
I may not have seen him in over seven years, but before that, I’d known him my whole life. I could always tell when he was upset or if something bothered him, even if he wouldn’t tell me what it was.
I’m seated in the back of our new SUV, and Elias is all the way in the front, but my eyes are glued to the back of his head, hoping to get another glimpse of his face whenever he turns around.
I can’t believe he’s actually here. I thought he had forgotten about me, that he’d graduated and moved on with his life, maybe even be married with kids by now.
“Why don’t you explain it to us?” Pete asks from in front of me.
Unlike our last SUV, which had two back rows of seats, this one has a bench at the far back where Dex and I are currently sitting, then, in front of that, two captain's chairs where Pete and Jagger are seated, with a small space between them.
“Where do I even start?” Elias says as he turns to look at the side window.
“At the beginning,” I say, loud enough that he’ll hear me. He quickly turns to face me, and when those deep brown eyes meet mine, it’s like a jolt to my senses, the same as it was when I first realized who he was at the safe house. Licking my lips, I add, “You stopped calling.”
His brows pinch in pain, and he shakes his head. “I’m so sorry, Wren. I begged them to let me call you, but they refused.”
“Who?” Pete voices my question.
He sighs, running a hand through his tousled brown hair to push it out of his face as he takes a moment to think.
“Do you remember what subject I was studying at University?”
“Of course,” I answer instantly. “Computer Science.”
He nods. “I chose that subject not just because I was good at it, but because I wanted to find out more about your brother.”
“Why would you want to look into him—” I cut myself off as realization hits. “You knew, didn’t you? That he was grooming me?” I can’t hold back the hurt as I ask, and Dex grabs my hand, squeezing it with reassurance.
“No, Wren, I didn’t know he was doing that.
But I knew he was lying to you, about a lot of things.
When we were young, my parents just said he was being overprotective because you both had lost your parents, that it was nothing to worry about.
In high school, other kids talked about him, spoke about him like this powerful, dangerous man.
I begged my parents to help me get you out of there, but they said he wasn’t doing anything illegal and you were perfectly safe there. ”
Pete lets out a grunt of disapproval, but I ignore it as I motion for Elias to continue. I haven’t been able to talk to Elias without my brother’s eyes on us since we were around eleven or twelve. I want to hear everything he has to say now. Everything he’s had to hold back for over a decade.
“That’s when I started learning more about computers and hacking.
When I was in my second year of University, I was approached at school one day by a couple of federal agents.
They took me back to their headquarters, where they told me they knew I was hacking into systems to find info on Robert.
I was terrified. I thought I was going to jail.
But instead, they offered me a job. Said they wanted my help taking Robert down.
The catch was, I wasn’t allowed to contact you, not even to say goodbye. ”
I can see in his face how much that hurt him.
It had devastated me. We’d been best friends our entire lives, and to suddenly stop talking was like losing a leg and learning to walk again.
Especially since he was my only support.
Without him to lean on, I had nothing. At least he knew the reason why we weren’t talking.
I’d thought the worst of him, that he had abandoned me.
My stomach tightens as a knot of guilt sits heavily in my gut.
“So you just abandoned her?” Sly asks, sounding angry on my behalf.
“What was I supposed to do, man? I wasn’t even allowed to speak to her without her brother listening in.”
“Couldn’t you have just told her you were going away for a while or something?” Dex asks, but Elias shakes his head.
“I guess they didn’t trust my acting skills. They thought I’d let something slip and blow their entire operation.”
“What happened next?” I ask, wanting to know the rest of the story.
“I started working for the FBI while I finished my degree. And when I graduated, they recruited me full-time. I spent all my time hacking into Robert’s cameras and making sure you weren’t being physically harmed.
I kept trying to get you out of there, but they said he wasn’t physically abusing you, so we couldn’t take the risk. ”
“Psychological abuse can be just as bad, if not worse, than physical,” Sly says, his hands tightening on the steering wheel in anger.
“I know that!” Elias barks back. “But it wasn’t my call to make. And even if I could somehow break into that house, and magically get her out… Then what? I had nowhere to take her. No money, no resources. We’d be caught within days.”
“Hold on,” I say, seeing Jagger signing frantically. I rest my hand on his shoulder as I lean forward. “Sign that again.”
“He said he was watching you on the cameras. Explain.”
Everyone turns to Elias, the guys glaring at him as my brows pinch in confusion. “What cameras?”
He winces before rubbing the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable all of a sudden. His eyes meet mine as he explains, “Your house was covered in cameras. Robert had eyes everywhere.”
My eyes widen in shock. “Even in my room? What about the bathrooms?”
“Not the bathrooms, but there was one in your room, yes.”
“Chyort poberi!” I curse angrily in Russian.
Elias’s lip twitches as something akin to pride shines in his eyes. “Still cussing in other languages, huh?”
Jagger signs so quickly I’m only able to pick up a few words, but Elias watches him with brows pinched until he’s done. Then he lets out a deep breath and nods.
“Wait… Can you read sign language?” I ask in surprise.
“You aren’t the only one who likes to study other languages.”
“But why ASL?”
“When I knew that I needed their help with your rescue, I figured I'd better learn how to communicate with him. Writing something down when we’re in the middle of a high-speed chase or fighting off enemies isn't exactly ideal.”
My heart warms in surprise. He might not have been doing it because he cared about Jagger, but it was because he wanted to communicate with him. The thought makes me smile at him in appreciation.
Jagger signs, “Explain.” Elias rolls his eyes before continuing his story.
“Okay, yes. I hacked into the cameras and have been watching Wren for years.” His beseeching eyes dart to me. “I swear I never watched you undress or anything like that.”
“But someone else did,” I guess, my gut clenching with unease.
“I can’t be sure. From what I gathered, nobody was sitting watching your feed. I think it was more of a precaution, to know you were in there and make sure you weren’t doing anything he’d object to, like talking on a hidden cell.”
The thought of my privacy being invaded like that, for my whole life, makes me want to hurl. I lean against Dex, and he immediately encircles his arms around me, kissing the top of my head.
“You’re not there anymore,” Dex whispers against my head. He’s right. Thank goodness I escaped when I did.
“Okay,” I say as I try to push those thoughts behind me. “What happened next? You still haven’t explained how you’re here right now.”
He nods, his eyebrows pinch as he glances between Dex and me in confusion.
“I saw you writing letters. It took me a little while to figure out who you were writing to. But I saw how your face would light up when you received one. The only time you ever smiled anymore was when you were reading or writing those letters. I knew how important they were to you. Can’t say I wasn’t shocked when I found out it was four men in prison, all convicted of murder. ”
“They’re all innocent,” I blurt out, needing to defend them.
Dex squeezes me a little tighter as Pete laughs. “I’d hardly call us innocent.”
“Neither would I,” Elias agrees, his eyes cutting to Pete. “I did my research. I wasn’t about to send Wren off with anyone who would be a threat to her.”
“And what made you think we weren’t?” Sly asks.
“I dug into your backgrounds. I even found evidence of the men you killed, the ones you weren’t convicted for.
But I know every person you hurt was either one of Robert’s men, or were let off from serious crimes on technicalities.
” The SUV suddenly fills with tension, and I feel Dex stiffen.
If Elias found evidence on them, they could be in even more danger.
Wouldn’t they all be considered serial killers?
“What evidence?” Sly asks, sounding like he’s wound so tight he might explode at any second.
“I’ll keep that under my hat for now, considering you don’t trust me yet,” Elias tells him before turning back to me.
“I happened to be watching you when you found the note about being sold. I had no idea Robert was going that far.”
“Couldn’t you guys put him away for buying weapons? That note had all the details,” Pete asks.
“First of all, I didn’t have the note. I was just able to get a snapshot of it over Wren’s shoulder through the camera.
That couldn’t be used to get the warrant.
Second of all, the feds aren’t just after Robert anymore.
Ivan is the big fish they’re going after now.
They want to take them both down, but news of Ivan surfaced a few years ago, which made taking Robert down a low priority.
They kept refusing to move on usable evidence in hopes of him leading us to Ivan later. ”
“Fuck, this is all such bullshit. They’re buying and selling guns,” Pete says angrily.
“And people,” Dex adds, hugging me a little tighter.
“And people,” Pete nods in agreement. “What else do they need?”
“It’s not that simple. Evidence needs to be obtained without breaching their privacy. They are hoping to catch them in the act. But they need to make sure that they are actually there when the shipment changes hands, or else they’d never be able to tie it back to them and make it stick.”
He turns to me as he explains. “That’s why I had to get you out of there.
After seeing that note, there was no way I was going to let Ivan get his disgusting hands on you.
Thank god, you immediately started packing.
I had no idea how I was going to get you out of there if you weren’t willing to leave. ”
I try to process everything he’s telling me.
It’s like viewing my entire life through a different lens, one I didn’t even know existed.
The FBI had been watching me for over seven years, and not once did they ever think I was worthy of help.
My fists clench in anger. What right do they have to choose to sacrifice my life like that?
“I knew if I left right then, that my colleagues would figure out I’d taken you.
I wasn’t exactly quiet about my need to get you out of there over the years.
” He pauses, taking a second to consider something, his eyes looking at Dex’s arm around me again.
“In hindsight, that’s probably what I should have done. ”
“Why didn’t you?” I ask, needing to understand.
“I needed to erase any footage of you. I didn’t want Robert following. Not just from your home, but from the bus terminal, too, and any other security cameras that you were caught on. Otherwise, Robert would have used his own hacker to track you within hours.”
He scratches his fingers along his sharp jawline, one that has hardened since I last saw him.
“I didn’t have a plan in place yet. But I knew I couldn’t wait around for the Feds anymore.
They’d already taken seven years from us.
” His eyes bore into mine, and I could see the pain and anger there.
“I wanted to take down Robert… permanently, and trying to do that while taking care of you wasn’t something I’d be able to do. I needed help.”
He looks around at the other four before he continues. “Who better to help than the four criminals who seemed to already care about you. It sounds crazy when I say it out loud, but at the time, it was the best option I had.”
“You helped us escape,” Sly says, sounding like he’s piecing something together in his head.
“Yeah, my hacking skills and FBI clearance really helped me with that one. I wasn’t sure you would even know I’d unlocked your cell.”
Suddenly, realization sets in. The guys had explained how every door they tried seemed magically open.
“Dex didn’t know the passcode, did he?” Sly asks.
Elias chuckles. “No, it just took me a little longer to hack into those exterior locks. I enjoyed the looks of disbelief when you thought he did, though.”
“Wait—” I say, leaning forward. “You were controlling the locks at my house, too? Weren’t you? You kept relocking the front door.”
A small smile pulls at the corner of his lips as he nods. “Yeah, the guards would have seen you right away.”
“It was smart to use the light to guide me to the other exit.”
“You were smart to follow it.”
“And the car?” Dex asks. “That was you, too.”
“Yeah, I was able to stash my car for you overnight, but being away any longer, they would have been suspicious. Besides, I had to erase all traces of Wren and you guys from any camera feeds. I saw her board the bus for Colorado, deleted the footage then stashed my SUV for you. I’d hoped you’d follow the clues I left to find her.
” He looks at me and smiles. “And you did.”
“A note explaining all of this would have been helpful,” Dex mutters.
“And what if someone came across the car and found it? It would have basically been a written confession of my treachery.”
“Why are you here now?” Sly asks the final question we all want to know to complete the story.
“I knew the team looking into your prison escape was narrowing in. They’d figured out someone had remotely unlocked the doors, and it was only a matter of time before they traced it back to my console. I had to get away before they traced it back to me.”
“You sacrificed your job at the FBI to save me?” I ask, realizing everything he’s running from. He was one of them, and by aiding the guy's escape, he not only put himself in danger but also labeled himself a traitor.
“Sweetheart, don’t you get it?” he asks, his warm brown eyes softening as he looks at me. “I joined the FBI because of you. I knew something wasn’t right with your brother, and when I started looking into him, the FBI found me.”
That was seven years ago. He’s been watching and trying to get me out this whole time? Meanwhile, I had been thinking the worst.
“I thought you had left me, that you’d forgotten about me.”
“I could never forget you, Wren.”