Wren:This conversation makes me uncomfortable
Dorian:Your body is mine. I like it better when you resist. When you make me prove who that cunt belongs to. I like it when you make me rape you.
Wren just looks down at their hands, rubbing them together, over and over. “He’s not going to stop. The whole setup. He hired me and then incriminated me to make me need him. But none of it is official, because the last thing he really wants is for me to be in prison where he can’t get to me. That’s a long game. He’s toying with me. But because he’s unhinged, he hasn’t really thought through all the ways this could go wrong for him. There’s a journal, if you just go one tab to the left.”
Wraith does as Wren instructs, and Atom leans over his shoulder.
“Subject, Wren, has demonstrated unparalleled talent in network penetrations and cryptographic reconstruction,” Atom reads. “Their moral ambiguity makes Wren uniquely positioned to be a leveraged asset. I’m going to need controlled proximity to ensure compliance. Direct supervision is necessary. Preferablypersonal, and on-going. Suspect they’ll respond better to protection narratives than threats.” Atom looks to Wren. “What is this?”
Wren shrugs. “He has folder after folder of ideas of how to set the two of us up. That one is about how to onboard me as an FBI asset. There’s one where he engineers meetings in an attempt to find out where I am geographically, then requests a transfer to the nearest station. Then, there was the one setting me up so I would need him. The hacking of the cartel was to set him up financially so I would want to be with him, and he could afford to impress me.”
The laptop makes its way around the table to Smoke. “Wren doesn’t know it yet, but they need me,” he reads. “They keep running, thinking distance will save them. But the world eats people like them alive. I’ll be there when it happens. I’ll be the only safe thing left. Then, they’ll understand. With the funds transferred, we can disappear. I’ll fake my death. Wren can create new identities for us both. The Bureau will call it an op gone wrong. For me, it will be freedom.”
All the texts misgender Wren, so I’m glad my brothers didn’t when they read the excerpts out loud.
“What kind of freak is he?” Taco asks. “The guy’s not mentally stable. It’s obsessive. But also, so fucking inconsistent. It’s like, does he love Wren, hate them, or just want to own them?”
“In a weird way,” Wren says, “I think he thinks I’m his salvation. Or his reward for the years of sacrifice.”
“I need a vote to make Wren mine,” I say. “And then, I want a vote to kill the man who’d threaten them, because all of this says he’s not going to stop coming for them.”
Grudge looks to Wren. “We don’t normally ask, but in this case, I’m making an exception. You came here without anychoice. But do you want to stay? Do you want to be here, with Catfish?”
Wren looks at me, and for a moment, I feel the warmth coming back into their features. “I do.”
It’s probably wrong that I flash forward to the two of us saying wedding vows. There’s no fancy outfits or a church. Just a quiet spot by the river. My brothers. Lots of denim and too much whiskey.
“And I promise I haven’t forgotten about the balance of the missing money,” Wren continues. “In case you were worried about that.”
“Easy vote for me,” Jackal says.
“Same,” Shade says, raising his hand, but winking at Wren.
The rest of the hands go up around the room.
Each of them acknowledging that Wren is mine to protect and love.
When Wraith declares the motion carried, I kiss Wren softly.
“You’re mine now,” I murmur against their lips.
They smile for the first time since they found Chase’s files. “And you’re mine.”
I look over to Atom. “Think about how much you want for the ranch house, ‘cos we want to buy it.”
“I like the idea of being neighbors. Sure we can work something out with a long lease on the land that keeps it in my family.”
The room falls quiet, because everyone knows what the second part of my ask means.
“We can’t just kill a federal agent,” Grudge says, finally.
His words hit the tiny kernel of fear in my gut. Not about killing Chase. I’d do that in a heartbeat. But that we might get caught, and I’d have to spend what’s left of my life without Wren. Not that my life would be too long. It would be an automatic death penalty.
“I think we can,” Wren says.
Grudge looks at them. “No offense, Wren, but you have no idea what kind of decision this would be for the club.”
Wren takes a deep breath. “I know, but we have an idea.”
