Chapter 14 Wren #2
I bite my lips to hold in my laugh as Elias yells back, “That’s not for you to decide!”
Pete grumbles something back about annoying FBI agents as we start to move out of the yard. I glance outside, seeing a handful of dead men all over the place, and my eyebrows raise in surprise.
“Did… Did you kill him?” I ask in hope. Maybe I shouldn’t hope for someone to be dead, but if anyone deserved it, it was him, not to mention the fact that it would solve a handful of our problems.
“Ivan? No, sorry. He got away,” Elias tells me as he places his hand on mine and squeezes it.
I look at him, and we just stare at each other for a second as the tension builds.
“Can I hug you?” he whispers, probably trying to keep his voice away from Pete’s ears.
I pull my sore arm against me as I lean into his chest and wrap my good arm around his waist. He hugs me back, and after a few seconds, someone claps loudly, and we jump apart, turning to see Dex’s narrowed eyes as he points between us. “No touching!”
Suddenly, I feel incredibly guilty. My boyfriends were nice enough to let me sit with Elias, even though they’re probably dying to hold me right now, and I’m practically cuddling him.
I open my mouth to apologize, but Dex gives me a quick wink before turning back to face the front.
My shoulders drop as a bit of tension leaves me.
That’s all I need to know he’s not upset with me.
I should have known better. Dex isn’t one to get jealous or hold things like that over me. He’s perfect.
“Wren?”
“Hmm?”
I turn to Elias in question, and he watches me carefully before asking, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Better now.” I give him a tight smile, but I know he can see through my practiced response.
Jagger snaps his fingers to get our attention, then signs to Elias, “There’s a first aid kit under your seat. Maybe you could actually help your best friend instead of trying to feel her up.”
“Jagger!” I gasp. “He wasn’t… doing that.”
Of course, he doesn’t say anything; he just gives Elias a warning glare as he pulls out the med kit.
“Okay, let’s use this as a sling.” He does something with a piece of fabric he finds, looping it over my head and supporting my arm in front of me. “Is that better?”
“Yeah, it’s not pulling on my shoulder so much anymore.”
“How bad is the pain, really?”
“I dunno, it hurts, but it’s tolerable.”
“Out of ten, one being no pain, what is it at?”
“A three or four, I guess.”
“Why are you asking her that?” Dex asks, watching us from his seat.
“I’m trying to gauge what sort of damage is done.
Without going to a hospital, it’s hard to tell, but it sounds like maybe just a strain.
It should feel better in a couple of days, but anti-inflammatories will help.
Here, Wren, take these.” He hands me two pills, and a bottle of water is passed back from the front for me.
“Now let’s see to this head wound. While I clean it, can you tell me where else you’re injured?”
He pulls out something that looks like an anti-bacterial wipe and gently dabs at my forehead. “I think it’s just my hands and knees from crawling on the gravel to get into that hiding spot.”
“That was smart, hiding like that,” he says with a nod of approval.
“I didn’t know who was there. If I knew it was you guys, I would have come out.”
He shakes his head as he places a bandaid on my wound. “No, hiding is best, even if it were us there, you could easily have been hit with a stray bullet.”
He asks me to turn, then lifts my legs to lie across his lap so he can assess my knees. “These aren’t too bad. I’ll use some anti-bacterial wipes and make sure there are no rocks stuck in there.”
I watch him work as his eyes keep darting up to my face. “What?” I ask when he does it for the tenth time. “Is there something wrong with my face?”
He frowns a little, looking at my knees as he finishes cleaning them and avoids looking at me. “That must have been really difficult for you. Climbing into that small space? Especially after being in the trunk.”
I don’t reply because he’s right, it was hard, and he didn’t actually ask a question. “Do you still—” His lips twist as he reconsiders his question. “Are you still claustrophobic?”
The side of my face burns where I know multiple sets of eyes have turned to look at me, seemingly very interested in this new piece of information, though they stay quiet.
Elias finally looks up at me and sees my red cheeks.
He must see the tension, because he looks around the SUV and finds everyone watching me.
“They didn’t know?” he asks, turning back to me.
“It hadn’t come up,” I admit with a shrug of my good shoulder.
“You’re claustrophobic?” Sly asks from the front.
Feeling weird admitting it, I nod quickly. “Yeah.”
“What’s claustro…” Dex asks, trying to pronounce the word.
“Claustrophobic,” Pete tells him. “It means she’s terrified of small spaces.”
“Or enclosed spaces,” Elias adds.
“Like a trunk?” Dex asks, looking at me with worry. I nod. “Oh, baby,” he coos, undoing his seatbelt and wedging himself on his knees between Jagger and his seat so he can grab both my hands. “That must have been terrible. Did you have a panic attack?”
I hadn’t really planned on telling them that, as it didn’t change anything, but I won’t lie to him.
I nod, and his face scrunches with pain.
I can’t help leaning forward to stroke his cheek.
His care and concern mean so much to me.
I’ve never had that before I met them. And knowing it comes from a place of love and he expects nothing in return, it just makes me love him that much more.
I’m tempted to tell him as much, but with an audience so close, I decide to wait until we have a moment alone together. I have a feeling his reaction will be larger than life.
I lean forward and wrap my good arm around his neck. He hugs me back, although our positions make it a little awkward.
“Did you pass out?” Sly asks from the front as we pull apart.
“Does it matter?” I ask, not rudely, but I genuinely am not sure that it would help them to know the details.
“Yes.” Four voices echo at once, including Elias.
I drop my hand from Dex’s shoulder as I huff out in defeat, “Fine, yes. I passed out. At least once. Is that what you want to hear? That I can’t control my fear even when I’m in a life-threatening situation?”
My eyes grow glassy as I sniffle. I try to take a deep breath, to push the tears back as Dex squeezes my hands. “Baby, it’s okay to be upset. What happened was not okay. It must have been terrifying.”
I shake my head. “I hate that I always seem to be crying around you guys. I swear I barely ever cried before, and things are so much better with you guys. Why am I always crying now?” A wipe at my cheeks as a few stray tears fall.
“Wren,” Elias says my name softly, and I turn my teary gaze to him.
“I’m not sure if you realize the extent of what you’ve been through with Robert.
” I open my mouth to respond, but he holds his palm up to me, stopping me.
“I know these guys explained that he was psychologically abusing you, but it’s more than that.
He was treating you as a slave, sweetheart. ”
My head reels back in shock. A slave? I shake my head. “Tell me, Wren,” Elias presses, “What do you think a slave is?”
I think about it for a minute before describing the picture in my head. “Someone who’s kept in chains, who’s forced to do what their owner tells them to do. They are barely given any food and kept in terrible living conditions. Their owner wouldn’t see them as a person, merely as property.”
He nods along with each word as if I’m proving his point.
“The chains Robert had on you may not have been visible, but they were still there. You literally couldn’t leave the property,” he says, ticking a point off on his finger.
“You were forced to do everything Robert asked.
He just convinced you that it was your choice, which we both know wasn't true.” He ticks off another finger.
“He restricted your diet and forced you to wear what he wanted, and he saw you only as a commodity he could trade.”
His words hang heavy in the air as my brain tries to piece it all together. Elias just proved that everything I knew about a slave could be applied to my life growing up with Robert.
Over the past few weeks, I had slowly come around to the fact that he never cared about me. But to be considered his slave? It just takes everything to a new level of evil.
“Why does he hate me so much?” I ask, my pained eyes flicking from Elias to Dex.
“I don’t think you’ll ever get an answer to that, Wren,” Elias says gently as he places a hand on my thigh.
Dex instantly slaps it away with a frown, and I let out a strained laugh, surprising myself. Both of them smile at me, and just like that, my shoulders relax as my eyes grow clear.
Robert may have treated me like a slave, but I am free of that life now, thanks to all five of these men. And they had just proved that even if someone else tries to drag me back to that life, they would never stop searching for me.
Even with the head of the Russian mob after us, plus Robert and the FBI, they aren’t going to back down.
They’re fearless, and they’re mine.