by Morris, Kate
“Yeah, then we can learn how to use them,” Roman said as Gyles entered the living room.
“It’s not hard,” her father added. “I’ll be able to explain them pretty quick. I drove a semi for a while before fracking.” Gyles looked at Tristan and Alex and asked, “Stay for dinner? Whipped up a quick venison stew.”
Tristan shook his head. “Nah, I need to get home to Avery and the kids. She has dinner waiting for us. Glad to see you’re feeling better, though.”
Spencer walked in with Stephanie behind him as Gyles gave a thumbs-up.
“You sure would do anything to get out of work,” Tristan razzed his friend, who chuckled.
“You know it,” he agreed and raised his arm to show him, then winced with pain. “I like watching you work a lot better than me doing it.”
“We should head out,” Tristan said. “We’ll give you guys a lift home.”
“Let me get you three a container of the stew to take with you,” Gyles offered Elijah and hurried from the room.
“He’s doing a lot better,” Alex commented.
“Yeah, thanks so much, everyone,” Jane said with unshed tears brimming. She was a pretty girl and seemed really nice. Elijah was sure he’d seen Roman at a party or two at some mutual friend of a friend sort of thing, but he was positive he never met her at a party. She didn’t exactly seem like the kind of girl who went to parties. She was shy, avoided a lot of eye contact, and kept her head down. That was probably a barb aimed at her earlier when Stephanie made that remark. He sensed bad blood between the two girls but sure as heck didn’t have time to delve into it. They all had their own problems to deal with now.
“No problem,” Tristan said. “Glad we could help. That’s how it’s gonna go now. We help each other out. Nobody takes on more than they can handle alone. We’re a team.”
“Hell, yeah,” Alex agreed and bumped fists with Tristan.
A few minutes later, they were loading into the truck, Dixie at Wren’s feet next to him in the backseat while Tristan drove and his brother sat next to him. Spencer took the last seat next to Wren.
“Man, that stew smells hella’ good,” Alex remarked.
“Glad you guys got out of there safely,” Tristan said as he navigated the snow-covered roads carefully toward their farm.
“Yeah, we need to get that four-wheeler out of the ravine, though,” Alex said. “Don’t want anyone driving by there and getting any ideas.”
“We’ll wench it out tomorrow morning before we leave. Think it still runs?”
Spencer answered, “Guess we’ll find out.”
“Not you,” Wren said. “You’ll be laid up for a while.”
Spencer just groaned and got teased by Tristan again.
He dropped them off with a plan for tomorrow and drove away again, the night and the snowfall engulfing the truck. Tristan didn’t seem to be the kind of man who was too worried about the weather or the night crawlers if he were out after dark with his injured friend or even alone. Elijah was just glad he was on their side in this and figured there was a plethora of knowledge that the former soldier had that he needed to learn. He hoped Tristan could teach them what he knew about survival.
“Let’s eat while that’s still hot,” Alex said and lit a candle on the small old dining room table. “You guys serve it up. I’ll check the fire.”
His brother went to the basement. Wren fetched plates while Elijah got the silverware and a few cans of soda. They didn’t have a lot of it left, but what did it matter anyway if they drank it?
“Heard you guys got into some trouble of your own today,” Alex said to her when they began eating their food a few minutes later. Elijah was thankful that the old farmhouse was so warm when they’d come in. Roman’s place was chilly. They needed a wood-burner in their basement, too.
She just nodded at Alex.
His brother added, “Stay safe out there.”
“I know,” Wren said quietly.
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you two,” Alex began. “I think you should split up your sleeping arrangements. We don’t need any unplanned pregnancies right now.”
“Wait, what?” Elijah screeched. “We aren’t…we don’t… it’s not like that, man. Geeze, bro! We’re eating dinner here.”
Alex just shrugged. “Whatever. Could turn into that, though.”
“I sleep in Elijah’s room because I feel safer,” she told his brother quietly, but firmly. “I’m not changing that.”
“Excuse me?” Alex said in a pissed off tone.
“I’m not changing rooms. Unless Elijah comes with me, I guess. Dixie and I sleep where Elijah sleeps.”
“You don’t get…”
“Yeah, yeah we do, Alex,” Elijah broke in to say. He got sick of Alex constantly attacking her and wanted it to stop. Wren was always having to defend herself against him, and Elijah felt obligated to step in this time.
His brother looked really angry now. “I’m in charge around here. You two will do what I say. You’re just damn kids.”
“Jamie was in charge of me. Technically, or according to the law. He’s gone. I’m in charge of myself now. I know he told Elijah to look after me so that I’d go with what he says more than you anyway. But it doesn’t matter. I’m making my own decisions from here on out. If I wanna’ leave, I’ll leave. If I wanna’ stay, I’ll stay. And I’m keeping the dog.”
“Leave?” Elijah asked.
She nodded and took a bite as if it weren’t a big deal what she’d just dropped on him.
“Leave where?”
Wren shrugged casually and explained, “If things fall apart here. If this place gets overtaken. If you die. Any of those scenarios. If we run outta food or water. I don’t know, Elijah. I’m just not going to stay here forever. That much I know.”
“We stay together, though. The three of us.”
“Alex is your family. My family is gone, all of them…”
Completely ignoring his angry brother because this seemed to trump that discussion anyway, Elijah interrupted her again. “But you’re our family, too.”
She shook her head, which now pissed him off, as well. “No, I’m not. We’re just friends. If the situation gets too hot, I’m out. I learned that from Jamie. Never stay in one place too long. It’s basic survival. And you both know that they’ll still come. They’ll never stop.”
“But they don’t even know where you are.”
She chuffed and offered a lopsided grin. Then she rose, took her empty bowl to the sink, rinsed it, and left with the dog.
“Elijah,” Alex said, “be careful with her. I think Wren will leave us someday. Probably when the weather breaks in the spring. I don’t look for her to stick around.”
“Yeah? Well, being a dick isn’t helping that, is it, Alex? You had no right to come at us like that. You don’t know our relationship. What you and Lila had was not like what we have…”
“What do you have? Do you even know?”
He ground his teeth with frustration and finished his stew. “Just stay out of it. Wren and I are sticking together in this. I promised her uncle I’d take care of her.”
“He wasn’t her uncle.”
“He was all she had. Now, I’m all she has. Do you understand now?”
He rose to leave, but Alex grabbed his forearm.
“Just be careful. I see you’ve got feelings for her, but I don’t think she returns them. That’s all I’m getting at. If you two start foolin’ around, she could get pregnant, sure, but you’re going to get a broken heart out of the deal. She’s a runner, E. She’s not staying with us forever.”
He furrowed his brow and yanked his arm free, which hurt his sore ribs. Then he dumped his bowl in the sink and went upstairs to find her.
“Hey,” he said after a gentle rapping on their bedroom door. “Do you need to get washed up? I can heat some water in the basement.”
Wren shook her head, “I did at Jane’s place before the power went out. I’m good. I don’t
need a shower every day. You’ll just have to live with my b.o.”
He chuckled. “You’re fine. I’m probably the one getting rank. Speaking of, what the heck are we going to do when we all run out of deodorant?”
Wren shrugged and grinned. “One problem at a time, Brannon.”
He smiled. She was actually joking around, which was rare for Wren. Her life was difficult, burdened down by hardship and constant loss and grief. He only wished he could take away the pain he knew she was in.
“Hey, stank ain’t no joke, Foster,” he joked in return. “Gonna bring in the night crawlers by smell alone.”
She smirked. Wren was reading something by candlelight, so he approached. It was one of those medical books they’d taken from a neighbor’s home.
“Broken bones,” she said, indicating the manual.
“Good idea,” he nodded and changed in front of her into sweatpants and grabbed a clean t-shirt. The old farmhouse got warm upstairs with that fire in the basement heating the whole house. Normally, he’d take turns with Alex keeping an eye on it at night, but he was mad at his brother. He could do it alone tonight for being rude to Wren.
“Your bruises are fading a little,” she remarked when he turned and found her staring.
He looked down. “Yeah, hope the ribs heal soon. I’m not so sure they were broken, maybe just bruised. Doesn’t hurt when I breathe in anymore.”
She frowned, her dark brows accentuating those aqua eyes. “I don’t know. Seemed broken to me.” Then she tapped her book with the highlighter she was using. “I better study harder.”
“What about you? How’s your leg?”
“Fine. Just achy. Nothing’s broken.”
He paused and thought carefully about his next words. Then Elijah knelt in front of her, shirtless and in his sweats. “Wren, you aren’t really going to leave, are you?”
She was sitting cross-legged on the bottom bunk, his bunk, the full-size mattress, which was where he slept since he was a lot bigger.
“Elijah… don’t,” she asked quietly. “You know who I am. You know what that means.”
“But don’t ever just leave,” he said, not caring if it sounded desperate. “Tell me first. Give me a chance to change your mind, at least. Or tell me so that I can go with you.”
“That sort of defeats the purpose.”
She shrugged next and looked down at her book, so Elijah placed both palms on her turned out thighs and squeezed gently to gain her attention again. This conversation wasn’t over, and he wanted to make her commit to not fleeing without warning. However, when he squeezed her leg, she jumped.
“Ow!” she yelped.
“What? Sorry,” he said in a rush. “What’d I do?”
“My bruised leg.”
“Right, sorry. Jane said you were pinned pretty good,” he remembered. “Hey, I should look at that. Check you out for injuries.”
“I’m fine.”
“Seriously, Wren,” he implored. “You could be hurt worse than you think.”
“I’m not taking my pants off in front of you.”
“I’ve seen you almost naked, remember?” That made her frown and pale slightly. It upset him, too, and he apologized again. “Sorry. I don’t like remembering that day, either. It’s just that I want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I am,” she told him and set her book on the nightstand.
Thinking about Principal Russo and his intentions and what he’d managed to do to her before Elijah got to her made him sick. Russo could’ve and would have killed her had Elijah not broken down the damn door.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said. “I’ll just be looking at your injuries. Are you cut?”
She shook her head. “Just bruised.”
“Show me where,” he requested gently so as not to scare her off.
She pointed to her left thigh and hip.
“Show me?”
Wren’s mouth turned down, but she lowered the waistband of her yoga pants to expose a bruise about the diameter of a plum on her hip bone.
“I swear,” she said when he nodded to indicate she show him the rest.
“I’ve been sleeping with or near you for months, Foster,” he reminded her. “I think I can control my raging teenage hormones.” Maybe.
She smirked and then scowled at him. But she did lower her pants to show him her bare thigh.
“Wow, you weren’t lying,” he said, moving the candle closer. Her bruise there was about the size of his fist and nasty looking. “Hurt?”
She nodded. “A little.”
“Want a pain pill?” he asked, knowing they had a few bottles of their own prescriptions. Surplus bottles, actually, from a dispensary size care of the train wreck. They’d finally been able to research what they found for pills and meds. Then they relabeled them. Now, most of them were labeled generically with explanations and dosages recommended from a website Wren had found. With their luck, they’d likely overdose the first time taking any of it.
“I don’t know if you’re supposed to take pain pills if you have a bad bruise. Thins the blood and all that.”
“Hm,” he said as she pulled her pants back up. “I’m not sure, either. God, I wish we had a doctor in our group.”
Wren just smiled patiently. “Maybe we should go up to the hospital and kidnap one.”
“No doubt.”
They turned in after he pulled on his t-shirt, and Dixie laid on the floor beside the bunkbeds.
“Wren?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t leave me, okay?”
He was met with silence.
“You and Alex are all I got,” he said. “I don’t want you to leave without me. We agreed to stick together. Don’t renege on our pact.”
More silence.
“Whatever comes at us, we’ll be better together than apart.”
She sniffed once.
“You’re my best friend. I care as much about you as I do about my brother,” he said. It was kind of a lie. His feelings for her were more powerful in a different way, but he didn’t want to scare her off this very night. Wren needed a lot of time to adjust to things. And she was generally a closed-off person to begin with.
“You don’t need me, Elijah. You have your brother.”
“I need you. That’s not true at all. And you need me, too.”
He heard her sniff a few times, but she didn’t say anything else. Soon, she was asleep. Elijah had to figure out a way to make her want to stay. She meant more to him than just a friend, and he couldn’t imagine going on without her.
She didn’t really want to stay in an abandoned house, but this seemed as safe as anyplace else. He was scared. She didn’t blame him. She was, too, but not because the place was empty, cold, and dark. She was afraid they were still looking for them.
She’d made a daring escape after dark, which was daring just because it was dark. But she had to get them away from those losers. So, she’d waited until they were all sufficiently passed out from booze and dope and made her move. This boy did not belong to her. She was breaking the law by taking him, but there was no law anymore. She couldn’t just sit by and watch him be abused, neglected, or starved to death. Her plan was to leave a long time ago, months ago, but she couldn’t leave the little guy with them. She’d melted the moment his big, brown eyes had met hers. And he wanted to go. He knew, somehow, even at six years old, he knew his mother didn’t want or love him. His mother only loved what she could ram in her veins, snort, or smoke. Unfortunately, she knew the feeling well, that feeling of being inconsequential to the ones who were supposed to love you.
She found some food in the cupboards of the boarded-up house and made them cold tuna on stale crackers for a meal. There were candy bars in a drawer, so she let him have one for dessert.
Later after he was asleep, she kept watch at the window on the second-floor hallway. She was pretty sure she saw them drive by slowly looking for them. She couldn’t stay here past dawn. She had to find th
em somewhere safe to go, somewhere far away. She would do anything, give anything, even her life for this boy.
Chapter Twenty-two
Tristan
“How is she doing?” he asked Avery as he ate at the long table just the two of them. Spencer took his food to the apartment to be with Renee, and everyone else already ate.
“She’s with Kaia,” she answered. “Tristan…”
She didn’t speak but just sat there with tears brimming in her big blue eyes. He set down his spoon and covered her hand with his own.
“Pretty bad, huh?”
She nodded and explained what she knew.
“Shit,” he swore. “We gotta go find her sister. We can’t let those other two girls that were sold not be found, too.”
Avery nodded and wiped a tear that broke loose. “I was praying you’d feel the same way.”
“Of course, I would, Angel. They need to be stopped, or they will just keep doing this.”
“What kind of men would do this?”
“The kind I’m used to handling.”
He resumed eating as Avery filled his water again.
“I thought the monsters were the ones with the virus,” she said quietly.
“Roman told me about a man that attacked Jane and killed her grandmother. That’s why they’re together. He took her in or something.”
“I know. That’s terrible.”
“I think people that were evil before are still evil. You can never totally stamp out all the cockroaches in the world.”
“How would we ever find this girl, her sister, or the other girl that man sold?”
“We find him first, this Jeff asshole. I’ll put some others on the mission tomorrow to salvage supplies, but I think we need to redirect our efforts and find this girl’s sister.”
“And the other girl.”
“Right,” he agreed. “Nobody has the right to sell another human being, especially for what they’re doing with them. Sick bastards.”
“Oh, Tristan,” she cried softly. “This is so dangerous. These men, Remmie said they’re very violent, dangerous. What if…”
“Hey, violent, dangerous, that’s what I do. I guarantee they are not more of either than I am. They haven’t even met my level of violence yet. I guaran-goddamn-tee it.”