by Kate Morris
“Oh, I forgot to ask,” she said, turning back to look at him from the hallway. “What happened with my car?”
“It’s been taken care of,” he answered. “You’ll have a new one tomorrow.”
“’Kay,” she said with a yawn that hurt from the bruising around her face.
“Maybe I’ll get you a cool, classic muscle car like that kid’s.”
She chuckled. “Or maybe a tank.”
“Or that,” he agreed and offered a smile.
Wren turned to go but looked back one more time when she was sure he wasn’t watching her. She felt terrible. Jamie looked completely stressed out. He ran a hand through his hair and down over his face. Then he got out his silver, military-grade Toughbook and opened it. The computer screen immediately glowed green and waited with the usual prompts.
When she got to her room, Wren replaced the spent cartridges in her magazine, ran the short, oiled cleaning rod down the barrel, slammed the mag home again, and crawled into bed with her clothing on. The outfit was basically what she would’ve worn to bed anyways. She made sure to set her boots right beside her bed on the floor in case she needed them. It was how she slept most nights. She wondered if there would ever be a time in her life when she didn’t do that.
She plugged in her phone, and the screen lit with text message alerts. The fact that Elijah had her phone number was also not something that she shared with her uncle.
Are you okay?
The next series of questions and comments had also gone unanswered by her because she’d been talking to Jamie for the last hour and a half.
Text me before you go to sleep. I won’t sleep tonight until I hear from you.
Are you there?
How pissed off is your uncle? He is a seriously intense person.
There is something I need to talk to you about, Wren. This is serious. It’s about yesterday.
The next few messages came twenty minutes later.
My brother is awake. He looks like crap. He’s complaining already and wants to leave the hospital. Nurse Nancy is with us.
She was so glad for Elijah that his brother was going to be one of the lucky ones. She knew how close they were.
I’m sorry about what happened to you today. I feel so damn guilty. I was waiting on the front steps outside for you like an idiot. I shouldn’t have left you in there with him alone. I just never thought…I’m so sorry, Wren.
This comment broke her heart a little. It was certainly not Elijah’s fault. It was her own. She had shut down her inner voice, and it had cost her.
Alex is coming home in the morning. I want to see you tomorrow. We need to talk.
That was his last message around one a.m. Wren wasn’t sure if she should text him or wait until morning or never text him again. He might’ve gone to bed by now anyway. No text. That was the right decision. She jumped when her phone vibrated in her hand.
I miss you. I can’t explain it, either. Don’t ask me to. I also don’t know how you got it in your head that I’m screwing around with other girls. I’m not. I was serious when I said I only want you. It’s true. You irritate me and piss me off a lot, and I know you have a lot of secrets, but I like you, Wren Foster.
This made her think about what Uncle Jamie just warned her. He was right. She had no business getting into any kind of a relationship right now. Every time she told herself she was going to avoid Elijah, he found a way back into her life. It was so confusing, and so were her feelings for him. She needed to get him out of her life. Not text him ever again. Her fingers had other ideas.
I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. That stuff at the school wasn’t your fault. You should just forget about me, Elijah. Sorry. That’s just the truth.
It didn’t take a long time to get a reply to this.
Not gonna happen, Foster. And I know you feel something, too. We have some sort of weird connection. Don’t bother denying it. Admit it.
Where did he get that kind of confidence? Was he just used to getting his way when it came to girls? He was annoying. And a lot of other things, too.
I can’t see you tomorrow or any other day. I need to go to bed now. If Uncle Jamie finds me on my phone, he’ll be angry. Thank you for everything you did today for me, but I am not allowed to see you ever again, not outside of school. Goodbye, Elijah Brannon.
Typing those words stung her heart. They apparently didn’t stick, though.
Goodnight, not goodbye. And I’ll find a way for us to see each other tomorrow. Till then, xx Elijah, the hot guy from school with the great abs.
She chuckled, then clamped her mouth shut so as not to alert Jamie. Something in those stupid little ‘x’s’ made Wren’s heart speed up a tad. That was so ridiculous. She turned off her phone and rolled over, smarting at her sore ribs.
She couldn’t sleep. All her mind kept wandering to was Russo’s hands on her body. When she thought of how he’d touched her, it made Wren want to get up and go to the bathroom to puke. He’d touched her like nobody else ever had, she knew Russo would haunt her dreams for a long time to come.
Her usual distrust of people just jumped off the scales. Trust was an impossibility for her, but now she’d never fully trust anyone other than Jamie. Maybe Elijah Brannon. But maybe not completely. She wasn’t sure how she felt about him, really. Avoidance was probably best.
She rolled back over and uncapped the lid to her bottle of sleeping pills. It wasn’t a prescription, not one filled by a pharmacy, but they were the same popular, commonly prescribed sleep aids. They were just in an unmarked prescription bottle given to Jamie to give to her for nights just like this. Sometimes her nightmares plagued her. Today’s events with that man would only add more fuel to the already violent, horrific nightmares she had on a weekly basis. She was not new to people wanting to murder her. Principal Russo was just the most recent.
Chapter Twenty-one
Sleeping in the hospital chair next to his brother last night had given him a crick in the neck. Nurse Nancy had told him that most of the other flu patients who fell into a coma didn’t wake after only four short days, that Alex was lucky. They’d departed the hospital for hopefully the last time this morning around nine. Then he’d gotten Alex home to his own bed where he could rest and recoup. He seemed weak, but he kept denying it. Elijah had insisted he sleep. Then he’d gotten in a workout at home with burpees, sit-ups, chin-ups, and push-ups followed by a three-mile run.
As he ran past homes in his neighborhood, it seemed like things were subtly starting to change in their town. More of the homes were boarded up like he’d done to a few of the windows in his house, only they were completely boarded up. He noticed the same thing when he ran through the business district. Some signs on the doors indicated they were closed due to illness. He took a wide berth and came out on the running trail near their school. It looked open for business, as usual. As far as he knew, school was still in session.
Something he couldn’t understand, however, was how her uncle had the authority to call him off school for the day. And what the heck did Wren mean when she’d mentioned someone was going to ‘clean’ the school? He assumed she meant clean up their mess, as in literally. Russo had bled like a stuck pig and left a trail down the hallway. His own blood was probably all over, too. It was a crime scene full of evidence and DNA, but the cops weren’t called. He wasn’t aware of cleaning companies that would agree to cleaning up bodily waste like that, and it made him wonder yet again what was going on with Wren and her overbearing, intimidating uncle.
By noon, he hit the shower and crashed for four hours in his bed. He woke feeling groggy and disoriented. His sleep patterns were screwed up. But he rose and made an early dinner for Alex of homemade chicken noodle soup and a sub sandwich. The aroma of the simmering pot of hearty soup must’ve awakened his brother because Elijah turned to find him in the doorway. He still couldn’t believe the hospital released him so quickly. Nurse Nancy said it was because the hospital needed the bed, and his brother was
stronger than most. As he looked at him now, Elijah wasn’t so sure about her statement.
“Here, A,” he said and quickly pulled out a chair at the kitchen table. “Sit.”
Alex shuffled over and sank slowly into the chair as if he were sore and achy. Sometimes they’d hit the gym together, and he’d move like that the next day. Then, of course, being brothers they’d ride each other for being wimps, which was the cause of being sore as a result of pushing each other too hard. Showing weakness meant you were a sissy-boy.
They sat and ate together, and Alex questioned him about the current state of the country, as well as his football practices. He also wanted to know why some of their windows had plywood on them. Slowly, he let the story unfold of what had been happening between himself and Wren because Alex had a right to know. He was his guardian, his mentor, his friend, but most importantly, his brother.
“Wow. Russo,” Alex repeated the principal’s name. He also graduated from the same school. Russo had been the principal at their high school for about a decade. “Man, I always got a vibe from that prick. Sometimes I’d see him checking out girls, but I figured he was just a horny old, middle-aged limp dick, balding asshole. No wonder I got that vibe. Is she okay? Did you take her to the hospital?”
He lied and nodded and felt guilt punch him in the stomach. He tried to reason it out that she’d stayed at the hospital when Elijah had his game. Not telling his brother the truth about Wren made them even. Then he told his brother about Russo stabbing him. It was imperative. He couldn’t not tell him. He would be expected to start Friday night with the team, which was only three days away. There was no way he could do that with fresh stitches holding his stab wound closed. First, Alex was shocked. Then he was concerned. Then Alex tried to hide his disappointment that he wouldn’t be able to play.
“It’s fine. I’m sure we can spin this. Local football star saves girl from perv principal but gets stabbed in the process,” he said, sliding his hands through the air as if it were going to be a bold type headline in a newspaper.
“Um, no,” Elijah said hesitantly. “That can’t happen, man.”
“We have to. The coach will wonder why you can’t play Friday. Why wouldn’t we release that?”
“We’ll need to make something up,” he said. Elijah proceeded to explain the situation but left out the finer details like her uncle sewing him up and him leaving again to hunt down and kill Russo. He wasn’t even sure why he felt like her uncle tracking down Russo like some sort of special ops dude was a normal reaction, so he knew Alex wouldn’t understand. However, he did include the information Russo told Wren about the sheriff covering up a lot of current crimes taking place.
“We’ll need to tell them something, E,” Alex said. “This isn’t gonna stand. You are expected to start Friday.”
“Fine, I’ll call the coach. I’ll tell him I got stabbed helping someone like I did that day at the pharmacy.”
Alex nodded. “Fine, but let me do it. I’ll tell him. He trusts me. He’ll know if it’s coming from me, then it’s legit.”
Elijah nodded and lifted his shirt when his brother asked to see the wound.
“They did a good job,” he said. “Whatever nurse you got at the hospital. You won’t have much of a scar. Of course, what’s it matter? We’ve got enough of those to look like a patchwork quilt if they put us side by side.”
Elijah chuckled and then winced at the tugging stitches. “Remember the time I threw a rock at you when we lived at the other house?”
“Yeah, but in your defense, it was supposed to be a grenade.”
He smiled. “Six stitches above your eyebrow.”
“Chicks dig scars, right?”
“And when you nailed me in the knee with your bike? Twelve that time.”
Alex smiled fondly. “Yeah, but we weren’t riding bikes. Those were our joisting horses, remember?”
“And we used sticks for jousting poles,” Elijah remembered with a smile.
“Jousting lances,” his brother corrected, to which Elijah nodded with a smile. “And we made little Stevie be our squire,” Alex said with a sigh, thinking of their younger brother.
“Yeah, he was a cool kid,” he said with a lump of emotion. He tried to lock that down, those memories of his deceased family members. It was usually how he got through the day. “He never complained. He was just always happy to be hanging out with us.”
“Well, it’s ‘cuz we were so cool. Obviously,” Alex said, trying to cover his own welling emotions.
“Hey, Alex,” he said, changing the subject. “Um, Russo’s on the run. He got away.”
“Serious?”
He nodded, “Yeah, man. He’s gone. Cops are lookin’ for him.”
That was a lie, but any other way of explaining the whole thing just didn’t fit nicely.
“Wow, guess you’d better be careful then. Russo’s a loose cannon. Obviously. Watch your six, E.”
“Got it. I will,” he answered and felt terrible for so many lies. “Hey, I’m gonna run out today,” he announced, changing the subject as fast as possible. “I think I’m going to try and get some more stuff to stock up our pantry.”
“More? I noticed there’s a lot of crap in there.”
Elijah nodded. “Yeah, I’m nervous about this shit, A. You haven’t seen all the stuff me and Wren have.”
“You and Wren, huh?”
“Yeah,” he said, not denying it. Whatever ‘it’ was. Alex, although still weak and clearly fatigued, was worried about him messing up his future.
“And what’s the situation with that? First, I come home and find her here wearing just your shirt, and you’re half-naked, as well. Now, you’ve saved her life. You’ve obviously been hanging out a lot more than you let on, bro’. What’s the deal with this girl, Elijah? Are you having sex?”
“What? No!” he exclaimed vehemently. He wished they were, but the answer was still no. Where the hell did that thought come from?
“Then what’s going on?”
Elijah shrugged as he finished his third bowl of soup. Soup really wasn’t that filling, even with the extra chicken he’d added. It was mostly liquid. “I just like her. It’s hard to explain. I don’t think you’d understand.”
“I understand women a lot better than you think, little brother.”
“I don’t mean like that,” Elijah corrected him.
“Sure looked like it. Are you using condoms, at least?”
“Hey, I said it’s not like that,” he said, getting upset. Although if he was being honest, he kind of wished it was.
“Get real, E,” his brother said. “It’s always like that. She’s a girl; you’re a guy, it’s always like that. Although I must say, I figured it would be a cheerleader or an athlete, not…well, someone like Wren.”
He frowned and went on the offensive, “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. She’s just different than the girls you used to bring home.”
“So? I still like her.”
“Fine. I just pegged you for a different type is all.”
He raised his chin an inch.
“I still don’t want you getting involved with someone right now,” he reiterated. “Even if she is hot.”
“You think she’s hot?”
Alex smiled. “I’m only twenty-two, E. I’m not seventy-two. Yes, Wren’s gorgeous. I’m surprised a loser like you even nailed that down.”
He chuffed. “It’s not like that. I’m telling you. We’re mostly just friends or…I don’t know. Maybe not even that. It’s complicated.” His brother laughed at him.
“So, you haven’t quite locked it down,” Alex teased.
Elijah shot him an annoyed expression. “Not really. She’s…I don’t know. Like I said, it’s complicated. You wouldn’t understand. Hell, I don’t, either.”
“Just don’t get serious about anyone, Elijah,” Alex lectured further. “You don’t need complications like girls in your life right now.
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br /> “You sound just like her uncle,” he mumbled.
“Well, good. Sounds like he’s got her best interests at heart, too.”
“You two would get along splendidly,” he remarked crassly and stood. “Look, Alex, I know you’ve also got my best interests in mind, but I like her. I’m also eighteen. You aren’t going to step in like some Shakespearean patriarch and tell me who I can and can’t date.”
“Now, it’s dating?”
“Don’t be an ass,” he said. “You know what I mean.”
Alex stood, as well, and took his plate to the sink. “And don’t you screw up your future. Be careful. If you’re gonna have sex, use protection. You knock her up, your future’s pretty much done.”
“It’s not like that. It’s…” he stopped. It seemed pointless to argue. His feelings for Wren were more than just having sex with her. Alex had never had a serious girlfriend or relationship with a woman before. Lila was just a friends-with-benefits kind of thing. She’d made it very clear from the start that she just wanted companionship from Alex. And if that’s what worked for him, Elijah wasn’t judging. He just didn’t feel the same way about Wren.
“Look, I gotta get going,” he told his brother. “Want me to help you upstairs to lay down?”
“No, I’m gonna hit the den, watch some ball,” Alex said and walked away slowly and stiffly.
“I’ll lock up,” he called after him. “Hey, keep the shotgun with you.”
He sent a wave over his head to Elijah and turned the corner into the family room.
He changed into jeans and a flannel shirt that he topped with a black leather jacket. He didn’t want to go around advertising his football number today with his letterman’s jacket. Elijah sent a quick text to Wren but got no reply. He went to the den and told Alex he was borrowing his truck, but his brother was already asleep.
He locked up and drove toward her house. Her uncle’s car was not in the driveway. Now Elijah knew he drove a black, older model SUV. He parked on the street and went to her door and knocked.
