CHAPTER 61
WREN
∞
The elevator door closes between us, but her hand snaps out to stop it. She shifts herself into the cabin and turns to face the front as the door closes again. She’s such a stubborn little shit, and I just can’t deal with her right now. I can barely deal with myself. After all the tears I shed, I feel nothing except emptiness.
“Where are you going, Wren.”
“Out,” I snap.
“I’m going with you.”
“No, you’re fucking not.”
My jaw pops as I grind my teeth together.
“I am.”
“Frankie, stop. I can’t fucking deal with your insolence right now. I told you to leave me the fuck alone.”
“Why are you calling me Frankie?”
“That’s your name,”
I say simply.
“You always call me Chess.”
Her voice shakes slightly, and she peeks at me from the corner of her eye. She realizes I’m watching her and quickly darts her eyes back to the doors.
“I no longer care what you want to be called or not called or anything about you.”
Lies.
The words burn in my throat as I say them, but I need to say them. She needs to get as far away from me as she can. Everyone around me either leaves or dies, and I just can’t take it anymore.
“Why are you trying to hurt me?”
She grips the edge of her shirt…my shirt, and I catch her gnawing at her lip.
“The truth is meant to hurt.”
More fucking lies. It’s not the truth and I don’t want to hurt her, but I have to.
“You don’t mean it though. I know you, Wren. Don’t push me away.”
The elevator opens, and I stride through it quickly, moving towards one of my cars. “You hate me. Why pretend you don’t? I don’t fucking need your pity, and this feels like pity. You’re only here because Alex is dead. He was nothing to you, so why the fuck do you care?”
I tap the button on my key to unlock my car and rip the door open to my Lamborghini. It’s black paint gleaming in the harsh light of the parking structure.
“How dare you,”
she hisses. “I fucking care. Alex was nice to me right from the beginning. He was funny and caring, and I may not have known him for as long as you, but he fucking meant something to me, Wren.”
I glare at her over the roof of my car as she folds her arms across her chest and cocks her hip out. “Fine,”
I growl. “Get in and shut up. I don’t want to listen to you.”
Her frown deepens, but she opens the door and slides into the seat. She lets out a small gasp as I get in. Her fingers brush against the leather seats and interior softly. “This is a really nice car,”
she whispers.
“I said no fucking talking.”
She snaps her mouth closed and slips on her seatbelt. Not like she needs that anymore. A car accident won’t kill her. Very little can kill her now.
I drive out of the city, cruising along the winding roads out towards the dark forest on the outskirts. My mind wanders back to Alex. To the person that could have possibly done this to him. He went to see Adrian, but that was right away, and he was gone for hours. It took Chess seven excruciatingly long hours to wake, and he was gone for every single one of them.
My eyes begin to burn and new pain grips at my chest. He’s gone. I’m still reeling at the thought, and every time I try to lock those thoughts away, they pry their way to the forefront of my mind.
My foot presses down harder on the accelerator and the Lambo zips around the curves with a hastened need. My knuckles turn white as I grip the steering wheel harder and the air burns in my lungs. I can’t fucking breathe. The pain I feel, knowing he’s gone, is fucking crippling and I don’t know what to do. I want to end it. End my fucking life and join him in the great beyond. I need to avenge him first. Whoever did this will know pain. They will know my wrath and I will fucking enjoy every minute. Every fucking second of their pain.
“Wren?”
Chess’s voice sounds panicked, and I glance over at her to see the death grip she has on the edge of her seat.
“I thought I told you, no fucking talking.”
“You’re scaring me,”
she gasps. Her grip tightens further, and I hear the leather tear.
Surprise radiates through me. This scares her? She had no fear facing me head on when I threatened her life not once, but twice, but this…this fucking scares her.
“You won’t die that easily, Frankie.”
I fucking hate calling her that, and it seems to be irritating her more and more as well. If I call her Chess, it’ll be like nothing happened. But it did happen. She walked away from me, and she was never planning to come back. I can’t handle that heartache on top of everything else…so I shut her out, I need to shut her out.