Chapter 12 Dex
CHAPTER TWELVE
DEX
Ipace back and forth, my gaze continually darting to the rest stop doors.
“They’re taking too long,” I grumble in annoyance.
“I’m sure they’ll be out any second,” Elias says from the passenger side as Jagger climbs into the driver’s seat, getting ready to leave as soon as they come back.
“I hate not having my eyes on her,” I say in annoyance.
“Well, that’s the beauty of this app!” Pete says cheerfully, pulling out his phone and touching the screen. “With it connected to her smartwatch, we can see her wherever—Oh fuck!”
I stop pacing, my eyes shooting to him in alarm. “What?!”
“She’s gone!”
“What the fuck do you mean?” Elias growls out angrily.
“The signal shows her moving down the highway.”
“Get in!” Elias yells.
Pete jumps in, but I shake my head. “No, we have to make sure Sly’s not inside.”
“Who cares about him? We have to save Wren!” Elias growls.
“And how is she going to feel knowing we just left Sly here. He could be hurt! Don’t leave without me!” I yell as I run toward the building after getting a nod from Jagger.
Pete runs to catch up to me, and I offer him a quick, “Thanks,” as I yank open the door and run to the back, where the bathrooms are located.
“Shit!” Pete hisses when we see Sly’s feet propping open the bathroom door. I shove it open and find him passed out with a nasty bruise forming around his left eye.
I waste no time scooping him up as Pete pulls out his phone and lifts it to speak. “We got him, meet us around back.” He hangs up and holds the doors for me as we move down the hall and out the back exit.
A second later, Jagger comes speeding around the corner, braking hard in front of us. Pete yanks open the door and climbs in, placing Sly in the chair behind the driver and buckling him in.
“Go!” Pete yells as he slams the door shut. I climb into the back, giving him room to sit behind Elias.
“What happened?” Elias asks, turning to look at Sly and wincing when he sees the bruise. “Damn, looks like someone knocked him out.”
“Do we have any ice?” Pete asks.
“I have this cold bottle of water,” I say, leaning forward and trying to hold it against Sky’s eye as Jagger speeds out of the parking lot and onto the highway.
“I don’t have her smartwatch on my phone. Thanks for telling me about that, by the way,” Elias grumbles, reaching a hand back to Pete, clearly wanting his phone.
Pete passes his up, allowing Elias to direct Jagger after the vehicle she must be in.
“I hope the watch is still on her wrist and they didn’t throw it in a vehicle going in the opposite direction,” Pete says worriedly. I hadn’t thought about that, but he’s right. We could be moving further from her.
I try to stop myself from punching the back of Sly’s seat in aggravation. “I can’t believe she was taken from us again!”
It’s silent for a few seconds before Elias’s eerily quiet voice asks, “What do you mean, again?”
Jagger’s eyes connect with mine in the rearview mirror, and I can see my own shame reflected there.
It’s Pete who answers for us. “Robert’s men took her from our hotel room. I think it was like our third night with her. We managed to catch up to them pretty quickly, though.”
“Fuck, I thought you guys would take better care of her than that!” he yells angrily.
“From where I’m sitting, you haven’t done any better. You’re here now, and yet she was taken,” Pete says with disdain etching his voice. I don’t blame him. I feel bad enough about losing her twice. I don’t need Elias acting like he’s any better at protecting her than we are.
“If Sly had protected her better—”
“You know very well that could have been you laid out on the floor in the bathroom,” Pete throws back at him.
“I wouldn’t have let them get the drop on me.”
I snort in amusement. “Easy to say that now.”
“Besides, if it weren’t for us, we wouldn’t have a way to track her,” Pete tells him.
Elias grunts before mumbling something about rectifying that as soon as possible.
Jagger makes up some of the distance between us and the vehicle that has her, but there’s too much traffic to figure out which one it is yet.
I rotate the drink and move it a little, hoping it gives Sly a little relief, and he groans. Pete spins to him as I move to my knees between their seats. I’m too big to fit, but I wedge myself in sideways so I can see his face.
I’m not sure why, exactly, but I sort of care about the prickly prude. Well, I guess I couldn’t call him a prude anymore. Just an ass then. A prickly ass.
Wren would be devastated if something bad happened to him, and my need to make her happy has me caring about him, I suppose. But I think I’m also starting to get used to him, to almost enjoy his company.
“Why is the neanderthal staring at me like that?”
Annnnd there he goes, ruining it.
I move back to my seat, and Pete ignores his question to ask, “How’s your face?”
“What happened? I feel like I’ve been punched in the face.”
“You were,” Pete says. From behind them, I see Sly’s head turn toward Pete, a frown marring his features until a look of sheer panic covers his face. He spins around, looking everywhere in the SUV.
“Where is she?! Where’s Wren?!”
Feeling bad for the guy, I lean forward and show him the app with her dot. “Right there, we’re not far behind.”
“Did you get a good look at them?” Elias asks.
Sly shakes his head. “I… I was looking at Wren, then I saw a fist coming at me, and that was it.” He’s quiet for a moment as he tries to calm his anger, and probably a whole pile of self-loathing. “They took her. I was supposed to protect her, and they… took her.”
I lean forward and squeeze his shoulder, offering him my silent support. He turns his head to me, his face covered with confusion as he searches my face. “Why aren’t you yelling at me?”
“Would it change the situation?” I ask with a shrug. He thinks for a second, then shakes his head. “I know they got the drop on you, man. We should have sent two of us in with her. It’s not just on you.”
“Why are you touching me?” he asks, looking at my hand in absolute confusion, making Pete laugh.
“I’m trying to be a supportive friend. You’re making it a little difficult,” I say, giving him another squeeze before pulling my hand back.
“Friend?”
“Oh dear lord!” Elias groans out in exasperation. “You’re like children!”
“You’re just jealous Dex didn’t call you his friend,” Pete says with a grin.
Elias huffs out an unamused laugh. “I didn’t hear him call you his friend, either.”
“Pete’s my friend,” I tell him quickly in defense. Of all my former cellmates, Pete is the easiest to get along with since he doesn’t take everything so seriously, like the other two do.
“Aw, thanks, big guy!” Pete gives me a mischievous grin, telling me he’s more amused by Elias’ reaction than by the actual declaration.
“I suppose you have become slightly more tolerable since we left prison,” Sly admits to me, although it sounds like it costs him something to admit that.
“Nice friend you are,” Elias says, eyeing Sly over his shoulder.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask in my new friend's defense.
“What kind of friend spends twenty minutes railing your shared girlfriend behind a tree while you’re forced to stay away and pretend you don’t know what they’re doing?”
I blink once, then suddenly Pete has his chest against the back of Elias’ chair, a knife to his throat, and his other hand fisted in his hair, pulling his head back to give him the perfect angle to slit his throat.
“Don’t you dare talk about her like that,” Pete hisses in his ear.
“Are you denying that’s what happened?” Elias grits out, trying to hide his fear.
Ah, I know what this is. He’s trying to find out what actually happened between Sly and Wren.
He doesn’t know if she’s actually had sex with us yet.
Let him think she has, it will make him more inclined to accept that she’s ours, not his.
“Don’t concern yourself about what happens between the four of us and Wren. That’s none of your business,” Sly tells him.
“I’m her—” Elias starts, but he hisses when Pete knicks his neck.
“Her what?” Pete asks.
“Her best friend! I’m just trying to protect her!”
“They’ve taken the next exit,” Sly announces, still holding my phone, and just like that, Pete releases Elias, sitting back in his seat as he flicks his knife closed. “I can’t wait to get my hands on the fuckers that took her,” he seethes. His anger instantly transferring to the real threat.
Elias rubs his neck but stays silent, other than to start directing Jagger again. Sly passes me back my phone as he pulls out his own.
Other than Elias’ directions, the SUV remains silent as our eyes bounce from the apps to the busy road, trying to figure out which vehicle she’s in.
I keep my fingers crossed, hoping we’re following her and not just her watch’s signal. That when the vehicle finally stops, we’ll find Wren, unharmed.
And that she forgives us for letting her get taken… again.