Chapter 13 Wren
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
WREN
I’ve decided that cuddling might be my new favorite activity. It sure beats ballet and definitely beats playing the piano or doing cross-stitch.
The way Dex held me through the night is something I’m afraid to get used to. I already know that sleeping alone again would feel incredibly lonely.
Jagger had held me during the car ride and again after I freaked out yesterday. Sly had carried me out of the biker’s den. But I hadn’t really cuddled with Pete yet.
Noticing warm breath on the back of my shoulder, I tilt my head back and realize Pete’s now cuddled up to my back. A smile pulls at my lips. The warm morning sun peeks through the curtains, so I know I’ve been asleep for well over twelve hours.
Since they’re all still asleep, they must be even more tired than I am. Had they even slept since they escaped? Did they drive all the way to Colorado? I frown, realizing there’s still a lot I don’t know about how they escaped and found me.
But that can wait.
Not wanting to wake either of them, but desperate to be closer to Pete, I slowly roll toward him and shimmy down an inch so I can fit in under his chin, my cheek pressed to his shirt-covered chest. We all fell asleep in our clothes, but it wasn’t like any of us had pajamas, anyway.
He lets out the tiniest groan as he lifts his arm and wraps it around me. His hand twitches, then I feel his palm flatten against my back before his head slowly pulls back. I tilt my head up and watch as he slowly blinks his eyes open, looking down at me in confusion.
“Angel cake?”
“Peter?”
He groans a little louder this time, his eyes closing as he pulls me into a tight hug. “I love when you say my full name like that.”
“Then that’s the way I’ll always say it.”
He’s quiet for a minute before whispering, “You’re still here.”
“So are you.”
“You weren’t a dream.”
“Neither were you.”
We lie there quietly, and I think I must have drifted back to sleep, only waking when I feel Pete’s hand roaming up and down my back. I hum in approval. It feels soothing and relaxes me even more, making me feel safe in his arms. Something I’ve never felt before meeting these guys.
His hand starts to move lower and lower on each pass until his palm moves over my butt. It stills for a few seconds before he gives it a slight squeeze. I inhale sharply; the action sends butterflies zooming through my stomach, and a strange ache forms in my lower abdomen.
Suddenly, he yelps as his hands fly away, and I glance up, seeing Jagger staring down at Pete in aggravation, clearly having swatted his hand off me.
“What?” Pete asks, replacing his hand on my back.
Jagger just gives a single shake of his head, and Pete scoffs, pulling me back against him. “Fine, whatever.”
“If everyone is awake, we should discuss our plans,” Sly says. I reluctantly pull myself from Pete’s embrace to sit up, and he and Dex follow suit. Pete climbs out of bed and stumbles sleepily over to the bathroom. I take advantage of the space to climb out of the bed and stretch my limbs and back.
“Can those plans include new clothes? Mine are dirty, and you guys are covered in blood,” I say, eyeing their dirty shirts.
“Good idea. But we can’t exactly go into a store with blood on our shirts.”
“I can,” I tell him proudly. “There’s no blood on my dress.”
“Yes, there is,” he says, pointing to my side. I frown down and see the speckling of blood along the side of my skirt.
“Darn it! Well, I have a spare. It’s dirty, but no blood.”
“You can’t go into the store alone; one of us needs to go with you.” I blink at him, my head tilting in confusion.
“Why not?”
“Have you ever been in a store before?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.
“I’m sure I can figure it out.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he says, climbing out of bed and stalking toward me. “We’re not letting you go anywhere alone. Not anymore.”
“Nowhere?” I ask nervously as he stops right in front of me, staring down at me from his towering height, his black hair falling into his intense eyes as he watches me.
I know I should be scared of these guys, but I just can’t convince myself they’re dangerous, at least not to me.
I saw what they did to those bikers. I should probably be running in the other direction after seeing that unrestrained violence.
But instead, it makes me feel safe, protected.
I’ve never felt this way before, and it isn’t something I want to run from.
It’s new and exciting, and I’m desperate for more.
“Nowhere,” Sly answers, unblinking.
Pete steps out of the bathroom, and I take a step back from Sly as I gesture toward the open door.
“Not even the bathroom?” I ask, taking another slow step back, as if any fast movement will make him pounce.
His eyes narrow when he catches the movement. “Be careful, little bird,” he says, a dark warning lacing his deep voice as he takes a step toward me. “Don’t taunt me.”
“Why not?” I ask, feeling bold as I lift my chin and halt my retreat, wondering what he’ll do if I push him. He doesn’t scare me. Not much. At least not in a “oh no he’s gonna hurt me” sort of way. More like a “what will he do to me if I push him too far” sort of way.
“Because you’re not ready to see what happens when I lose control.”
“You’d never hurt me.” I know deep inside my heart that it’s true, that Sly would never harm me.
“Never,” he says, his eyes raking over me. “But there are other ways to lose control. Especially where you are concerned.”
I’m unsure what he means, but I feel my cheeks heat and quickly turn, grab my spare dress, and step into the bathroom, practically slamming the door closed behind me before he follows me in.
I’m not sure if he’s being serious about the whole not going anywhere alone thing, but some things a girl just has to do on her own. And this was one of them.
“Tell me again,” Sly says from the front seat of the SUV, as I try not to roll my eyes. We’ve already been through this three times.
“I go inside, find men’s T-shirts and grab four large and four extra-large, take them to the cash desk, wait for them to tell me the amount, then pass them the cash and wait for the change. They’ll put the shirts in a bag and pass them back to me, and I come straight back out here.”
“Good girl,” he says with a nod, making my insides warm from the praise.
Jagger shoves the cellphone under Sly’s face, and he reads the message aloud, “I don’t like this.” He sighs before telling him, “Me neither, but we’re lucky the clerk at the motel didn’t notice us; not everybody will be as oblivious. Besides, we're parking right outside the front door.”
“And if anyone is dumb enough to come near here, I’ll kill ‘em,” Pete says with a shrug, as he twirls a small homemade knife through his fingers.
“Where did you get that?” I ask curiously.
“You like it?” he asks, offering me a big smile as he holds it up to show me. “I made it in prison.”
I take a second to admire his craftsmanship. I think it’s made from a toothbrush and a piece of glass. They’ve been bound together in a way that it won’t harm him. “You’re very talented,” I tell him honestly. Dex snorts at my comment.
“Okay, Wren. Time to go, the store looks empty. Remember, in and out as fast as you can,” Sly instructs.
“But don’t run,” Pete rushes to add on.
“I’ve got this,” I tell them as Pete opens the door and lets me out. I straighten my dress, lift my chin, adjust my bag on my hip, which no longer contains hundreds of thousands of dollars since the guys said that was dangerous for me to carry, and walk into the store.
A glance at the name above the door, right before I enter—Bonnie’s Clothing Boutique. I wasn’t exactly sure what a boutique was, but the guys assured me this was safer than a large store, which would have cameras and lots of people.
As soon as I’m inside, my eyes scan the clothing. There’s so much to look at.
“Welcome, can I help you find something?” A woman asks as she moves toward me. The guys never said anything about someone offering to help. But as I scan the store again, I realize I can’t even see where the men’s section is.
“Yes, I need men's T-shirts, please.” I notice she’s wearing a purple blouse with black dress pants.
Because women can wear pants.
I shouldn’t be surprised that Robert lied to me about that, too. But it makes me angry, knowing that he’s kept so much from me. I always thought he was taking good care of me, but he was actually just controlling me.
“They're right over here,” she says, beckoning me to follow her. As we move through the store, my fingers reach out to touch the fabrics, wishing I could try something on. I’ve only ever worn a dress. What would it feel like to wear pants?
A pair of ripped black jeans catches my attention. New jeans with rips in them? That seems strange, but also… I kind of loved it. It was so far from the usual polished appearance that I suddenly wanted nothing more than to buy them.
“We just got those in, they’d look great on you,” the woman says, noticing what had distracted me.
“Hmm,” I hum with a nod before removing my hand. “Next time, I just need the shirts today.” I follow her, resisting the urge to look around anymore. I promised I would just get the shirts and get out.
“Here we go. The large ones are on this shelf, and the extra-large ones are below. Did you have a style or color in mind?”
“Something plain. Black if you have it,” I tell her, imagining how it will look pulled across Jagger’s muscular chest or Dex’s thick biceps.
“How about this?” She holds up a black shirt made of a stretchy material.
“Perfect.” I grab four of each size, which gives each of them a spare, and she takes them from me.
“Do you need anything else?”
“Not today, thank you,” I tell her as I follow her to the cash register. I’m able to cash out easily, and a couple of minutes later, I’m walking out of the store with a proud smile on my face.
Pete opens the door as I approach, his big grin matching my own. “Everything go okay?” Sly asks as I climb in, and they close the door.
I hand him the bag and nod. “Yep.”
He looks in the bag and then looks up at me. He doesn’t smile, but I can tell by the tightness in his eyes that he’s pleased. “You did well, little bird.”
I warm at his praise, my legs pressing together to try and get rid of the feeling there as I clear my throat and ask, “Are you going to change and go back in with me?” I ask hopefully.
But he shakes his head as Jagger pulls out of the parking lot and onto the road. “Not here. We’ll stop a few towns over, where we can go shopping for real clothes.”
“Can’t you just buy the stuff online?” I ask, thinking about how Robert seemed to order stuff through his phone all the time.
“We don’t have an address.”
“Couldn’t we just use a motel address and stay there for a couple of nights?” I ask, not understanding how this online stuff works. “Or does it take weeks to arrive?”
“That might actually work,” Sly says after thinking about it for a moment.
Jagger flips open the phone, types something, then passes it to Sly, who reads it aloud. “We can buy gift cards at a gas station and load them, so we don’t need a credit card. We should buy food that way, too.”
I hadn’t thought about needing a credit card to make the purchases. But if we can use our cash for gift cards, then that could work.
“That’s a great idea. It’ll reduce the chance of us all being seen or caught,” Pete adds excitedly as he grabs my hand and squeezes it. “You’re beautiful and brilliant!”
I squeeze back, my cheeks warming from the praise. It makes me happy to help make them safer. I didn’t want my friends to leave me.
“We just need to find another motel that won’t require ID, then we can hunker down for a few nights and stock up on clothing and essentials.”
“Do you think sells knives?” Pete asks, pulling me into his side and wrapping his arm around me. I had noticed how easily they all seemed to touch me, as if we’d known each other for a while. I guess through the letters we had.
Although, it’s still kind of hard to believe that the men I’ve been writing to for nine months are really right here with me. I never thought this would happen. And they escaped… for me.
“Yeah, they sell almost everything. I think we could get a few hunting knives for sure,” Sly says with a nod.
“Can I have one?” I ask, making everyone turn to me. “What?” I ask, scanning their surprised faces. “I want to be able to defend myself, too.”
“You don’t need to, you have us now,” Dex says, crossing his arms over his chest.
“But in case you’re busy or distracted. Just in case of an emergency?”
“I think it’s a great idea,” Pete says, pulling me tighter to his side. “I’ll show you how to use it first, though, so you don’t hurt yourself.”
“Deal,” I say happily as I rest my head against his chest and settle in for the drive.