“You shot him!” she screams as she, rather adorably, hammers her fist into the back of his shoulder, something he clearly doesn’t feel.
“He was going to stab me!” He exclaims, as if his actions were justified.
“I’ll kill you!” she screams again, and myeyes widen at the venom in her voice. I didn’t think I could love her any more than I do, but watching her try to avenge me makes my heart swell with love for the little banshee.
As I watch him struggle to get her off his back, I realize he’s trying not to hurt her. He could have slammed his back into the fridge or counter, but he’s just been taking her assault and trying to talk her down.
“He’ll be fine, Wren! I just tased him!” Wren suddenly ceases her assault, a frown pinching her brow as she looks over at me. My arm twitches, but I try to give her a little nod to let her know I’ll live.
“Who the fuck are you?” Pete finally asks the question I’m desperate to know.
“I’m Elias.”
From where she’s still perched on his back, arm wrapped around his neck, I watch her eyes widen in shock as she stops trying to hurt him. “Elias?”
“Hi, sweetheart. Miss me?” He gently rubs the arm still wrapped around his throat, and she slowly lets go and slides down his back to the ground.
Wait…Elias?Isn’t that the name of her best friend who ghosted her? I always knew there must have been more to that story.
“You’re the asshole that left her!” Dex accuses, voicing the words I can’t.
Ignoring Dex, he turns to face Wren and smiles gently as he reaches out and cups her face. I bare my teeth and fight through the remainder of the twitching to push to my feet.
I can see the others inching closer, unsure what to make of him, but ready to swoop in and grab her any second.
“How are you here right now? Where have you been?” she asks, sounding half angry and half in disbelief as shegrabs his forearms and stares up at him with so many questions swirling in those blue eyes.
“We can chat later, right now, we need to get you all out of here before the feds arrive,” he says, grabbing Wren’s hand and marching her down the hall before anyone can stop him.
The feds? Shit.
We scramble to follow them as Sly seethes, “You led the feds to us?”
Elias sighs, as if answering is a nuisance, oblivious to the fact that a wrong answer could end him. He stops at the very end of the hall, where a painting of a deer hangs on the wall. He grabs the side and swings it open, revealing a digital pad.
What the fuck is that?
“I didn’t lead them here,” he says, pressing his hand to the pad. “You did.”
“What does that mean?” Pete asks right before we hear a loud beep, then the entire wall starts to swing toward us, revealing it’s a hidden room.
“This is an FBI safe house; they knew about your presence the second you opened the door. The only reason they haven’t stormed the place yet is that I sent out a fake signal, indicating it’d been checked.”
Asafe house?That explains the lack of anything personal and all the different-sized clothing.
He pulls Wren behind him as he steps into the room, and all our eyes widen as we take it in. The space is covered with supplies and weapons.
Pete lets out a long whistle, muttering, “Holy shit balls.”
The fact that Elias has had his back to us this whole time and has led us to a room filled with weapons tells me he might not actually want to kill us. A tiny bit of tension leavesme as I watch him grab a few duffel bags from a bin and toss them up on the small table in the middle of the room.
“But any minute now, they’re going to realize that signal’s a fake, and trust me when I say, they won’t care what you have to say. You four will be back behind bars before you can blink, and they’ll arrest Wren for harboring fugitives."
“Like fuck they will!” Pete hisses angrily as he grabs a gun off the wall and looks it over.
“Help me fill these bags; we need to move quickly,” Elias instructs us, gesturing to all the weapons and bags.
I’m not sure why we follow his instructions; maybe the fact that he was Wren’s best friend gives him a little bit of credibility. Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s led us into a room filled with weapons without so much as a warning not to use them on him.
