Chapter 18 Sly
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
SLY
“She’s asleep,” Jagger signs, and I lean forward to see her closed eyes where she leans against Pete’s chest. A smile tugs at my lips. For a woman who claimed not to be tired, she fell asleep awfully fast. We haven’t even finished the episode of… whatever god-awful show this is.
I switch the TV off as Pete slowly stands, lifting her in his arms as he goes. I lead the way down the hall and pull back the covers so he can place her in the middle. Jagger quickly climbs in on the far side and gently guides her into his arms.
As Pete steps back, she moans a little and snuggles closer. I kneel on the bed just as her eyes slowly blink open. She looks at me in confusion, then her gaze moves across the room. Suddenly, she gasps, yanking away from Jagger and all but crashing into me.
“Hey, it’s okay, we’re here.” I place my hands on her shoulders, trying to get her to look at me, but her head is thrashing around like she doesn’t know where she is.
“I-I need to get out of here!”
“Out of where?” I ask as she tries to move around me, but I hold onto her, wanting to know what’s wrong and a little scared she’ll run right out the front door if I don’t keep hold of her.
“Please! Just let me go!”
“Go where?” Pete asks, moving to my side as he tries to rest a hand on her arm, but she keeps trying to pull away.
“What’s going on?” Dex asks, stepping up behind us.
“I don’t know,” Pete says as we continually try to stop her from running.
“Wren, it’s just us. You’re safe here,” I tell her calmly, but she just shakes her head.
“No, let me go!”
I take my hands off her and hold them up, palms facing her, and use my body to block her instead. She keeps glancing over her shoulder to the corner of the room, but there’s nothing there.
“Do you see someone else in here with us?” I ask in concern. Is she hallucinating?
She shakes her head, but her body starts to tremble. I’m really starting to worry about her. This wasn’t like the panic attacks she’s had before.
“Could she have been drugged?” I ask aloud.
“We’ve eaten and drank the same as her, I don’t see how,” Pete says as Dex moves to the part of the room she keeps looking at.
“There’s nothing here, see?” He raises his arms and turns in a circle to show her it's safe, but it doesn’t stop the trembling; if anything, it makes it worse. I reach around to rub a hand up and down her back, and she watches him with something akin to terror in her eyes.
“Please, I just want to go,” she whimpers, practically breaking my heart.
“Go where?” I ask again as Dex grabs the handle to the closet and pulls it open, gesturing to the empty space.
A scream that tears my heart out rips from her throat as she scrambles to move away from him, practically clawing at my body in her retreat. I don’t hesitate to pick her up and clutch her tightly to my chest.
Her arms and legs wrap around me tighter than I thought her capable of.
“What’s going on?!” Elias asks, as he barges into the room, clearly having heard her scream.
“Please, don’t make me go in there!” she begs as her tears soak into my shirt.
I frown at Dex as I ask her, “Go in where?”
“The closet?” Pete asks, and a sound that's half sob, half scream escapes her. My eyes widen in partial understanding. She’s afraid of the closet.
I quickly move us to the living room, sitting in the middle of the couch as Jagger and Pete sit on either side of us.
She cries into my chest as I gently sway her side to side, my hand rubbing up and down her back, and the others all do the same on an arm or leg. We let her cry, knowing it’s best not to try to talk her out of her current meltdown. She needs to get it out before we can talk to her.
And when, after a few minutes, she finally calms down, Dex is there with a wet cloth to wipe her face and a glass of water for her sore throat. She gives him a tight smile before settling her head against my chest and taking a few deep breaths.
Nobody says anything as we sit there quietly supporting her. If she doesn’t offer the information freely, I’m going to have to ask, but I’m hoping she’ll be forthcoming. This is clearly something we need to know, and I wonder how we’ve managed to go three weeks without knowing about it.
She lets out a sigh as her hand comes up to lightly trace over the front of my shirt. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.
I wrap both arms around her and squeeze her tight. “Never apologize for being upset, Wren.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it sooner. I had the perfect opportunity when you found out about my claustrophobia, but I was embarrassed.”
“Embarrassed?” Dex asks in confusion. “Of being scared?”
She lifts her head and looks around until her eyes land on Elias, who’s currently sitting in the other chair. His body freezes as her eyes lock on him. “I… I’m sorry I never told you about it,” she whispers to him. I frown, unsure what she means.
“Tell me now,” he encourages her, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees as he stares at her. He’s trying to remain calm for her, but I can see how tense he is beneath the surface.
She offers one small nod before her head drops back to my chest, as if I’m the one helping hold her together right now. A thought that warms my heart inexplicably.
“Growing up, if I argued with one of Robert’s lessons or went against his rules, he would lock me in a small closet.”
“He did what?!” Elias growls, his eyes filling with anger.
She shrugs. “It only happened when I didn’t listen.” Fuck. The way she still tries to defend her brother absolutely kills me. Luckily, Elias seems to feel the same way.
“Sweetheart, why didn’t you tell me? How long did this go on?”
“He hasn’t done it since I was like… fifteen. By then, I’d learned my lesson.”
“And before that? When did it start?” He presses.
She shrugs. “As far back as I can remember.”
Everyone is silent while we absorb that information. This explains so much. Not just her claustrophobia and fear of closets, but why she did everything he asked without question.
Because the truth was, she was questioning it even when she was young; she just kept it all internal and never acted on it for fear of punishment.
“You didn’t follow his rules to make him happy,” Elias finally says, thinking along the same lines as me. “You did it to avoid punishment.”
“Does it matter why I went along with it for so long?” she asks with a shrug.
“Yeah, it does,” he says with a nod, some of the anger leaving him as he gives her a tight smile. “It means that you weren’t blinded by your love for him as your brother. You weren’t just doing things to make him happy. You had just correlated him being happy to equal no punishment.”
“I still don’t know what that distinction matters,” she says, her fingers digging into the front of my shirt as she yawns.
“It means that deep down inside, you knew what he was doing was wrong, you had just learned to block out that part of you.”
She doesn’t respond, so I speak. “Can you see it now? How messed up that was, locking you in a closet, and for how long? Hours?”
She mumbles, “Sometimes longer.”
Longer? As in… days?
“Angel,” Pete cuts in as I try to wrap my head around Wren as a child, being locked in a closet for such a long time.
“He locked you in a closet, and you were just a kid. A kid who’d lost her parents.
He forced you to do everything he wanted, grooming you and enslaving you, then sold you off to the highest bidder when he was done with you.
Not to mention, he told his men to harm you when they caught you. ”
I tilt her chin up so she’s looking me in the eyes, as I ask, “Can you truly say you still care about him? Because I don’t believe he’s ever cared about you as anything other than his property.
” She flinches a little at my harsh words, and a single tear rolls down her cheek, one I’m quick to wipe away.
“No, whatever love I thought I had for him is gone now,” she admits, making me exhale a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “But it’s not just because of what he did to me.”
“Why then?” I ask, my hand moving to cup her soft cheek.
“It’s because of what he didn’t do.” I frown, and she points between us all.
“This. I never knew caring for someone could feel like this. Being able to get upset without fear of your reaction. Of being able to just let go and react however I want, knowing you won’t be disappointed in me for it…
it’s... freeing. Not to mention the physical contact is something I’ve never had. ”
She snuggles a little more into me as my arm around her tightens. It explains why she loves cuddling so much, why she’s much more likely to climb into someone’s lap than take an empty seat. She’s been touch-starved her whole life.
“Wren?” Elias asks, getting her attention. “Why didn’t you tell me about the closets when we were younger?”
“I was embarrassed. I didn’t want you to know that I was doing something wrong. I wanted you to think I was… good.”
He sighs and shakes his head. “You understand how misguided that is now, though, right?”
She nods. “Yes. Nobody should be locked in a closet because they refused to eat their broccoli or slouched at the dinner table.”
“Fucking shit,” Pete mumbles as I try not to show my anger externally. Locked in a closet for slouching?
“I’ll kill him,” I accidentally say out loud.
“Me first,” Jagger signs.
“Alright,” Elias says, pushing to his feet. “You just relax there, I’ll take care of the closets.” Jagger follows him, and the rest of us sit quietly as we hear some banging and grunting. It grows quiet for a minute, then the noises repeat.
After about ten minutes, the two of them come back as Elias wipes his hands and gestures to the bedrooms. “There, problem solved,” he says, his voice calm but with an undercurrent of seriousness.
Curious, I stand, carrying Wren as we head back to the bedroom. We all look straight to the closet and see that he’s completely removed the door.
“No doors on any of the closets,” he says with a nod of his head, looking straight at Wren.
“Does this help?” I ask, watching her carefully.
She wiggles, so I place her on her feet, and she carefully steps up in front of the closet, staring at it in silence for a full minute before she spins around, a huge smile on her face.
“It worked! I’m not scared!” she exclaims excitedly before throwing her arms around Elias in a hug. “Thank you so much!”
His shoulders relax as he hugs her back. I can tell he was worried that it wouldn’t help. I hate to admit it, but removing the doors was a brilliant idea. I only wish I had thought of it so she’d be hugging me instead.
I might actually like the guy if he didn’t look at my girl like I did, like he was obsessed with her.
She has a long history with Elias, and if she ever realizes how much he cares for her, she might decide to leave us to be with him.
They could have the perfect life together, free from us fugitives.
She yawns against his chest, and I take that as my cue to step in.
“Alright, Wren, it’s really late, time to get to sleep. Hop in.” I gesture toward the bed, and she steps back from Elias, telling him goodnight before she obediently climbs up the center of the bed, giving us a perfect view of her ass hanging out below the hem of her T-shirt.
Jagger smacks Elias in the back of the head when he sees him staring.
“Ow!” They have a little stare-off before Elias concedes and leaves the room in a huff.
I give Jagger a nod of approval. Can’t have Elias thinking he can look at her like that.
If it were someone else, outside of this group, I probably would have done a lot worse than that if I caught them looking at her like that.
I’m not sure when I started not wanting to maim Elias altogether, but he is beginning to show his value. Besides, Wren is fond of him, and I have a feeling she’d be devastated if he were to get seriously injured.
I wonder how she’d feel if he had fewer fingers? Although I suppose all that tech stuff he does on his computer would be more complicated to do.
Pity.