Again.
Wren’s full lips are moving, but my fight or flight response finally kicks in when his gentle touch shocks my cold skin. I scream, my weak legs take me no more than two steps before arms tightly wrap around my middle, and I’m suddenly hauled up. Somewhere in my conscience I know it's him, I know I should calm down but I still start kicking out wildly. His grip doesn't ease but it doesn't tighten, all he does is lift me higher to slide his other arm under my thighs.
“Let me go! I don’t want to be here. Please, please, I don’t want to be here.” I blindly beg.
He secures his grip under me, and I bury my face into his neck, still begging him to let me go but now my voice is muffled.Despite my words I cling to him, the fight in my muscles leaving me exhausted as he carries me.
“It’s going to be ok. I promise you’re safe, Baby.”
“It’s happening again.” I whisper.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” He promises, but my mind has already taken me back to being five years old, looking down at blood soaked pebbles.
“He’s alone.” I find myself saying, listening to my best friend’s anguished cries get further away. “I can't let him be alone.”
Chapter twelve
Robin
OVERWROUGHTvoices from outside the room jolt me awake. I feel disoriented and groggy, but a comforting calmness soothes me thanks to the few lamps casting low shadows and the drawn curtains. I'm in the small lounge off to the side of the lobby, tucked cosily under a blanket in the nook of the long sofa. I don't remember getting here, but sandalwood and mint linger on my skin, as well as the feeling it was Wren who took care of me.
Always being able to sense his presence somehow, I know it’s Phin pressed against me without looking down. His head is heavy on my shoulder, and his chest is bare under the towel wrapped around him. I quietly slipped my entire body off the sofa, replacing my spot with a giant cushion, covering him with the blanket.
He starts to grumble, but stays asleep. “Stop fussing Wren.” He sighs, shoving his face into the cushion. “I’ll drink it later.”
I look down to see two untouched mugs of what looks like hot chocolate at our feet, so I swiftly move them onto the side table.That confirms he was definitely the one to put us both in here, and I probably crashed before laying down.
Standing on weak legs, I move to the window to let in a little light, when movement causes me to scramble back. Someone in white plastic scrubs and a mask walks past, causing reality to hit me.
They’re here for the body. Corbin is dead.
My numb brain seems to process the information better than it did a couple of hours ago, or was it a lot of hours? I feel so out of it, it could have been days for all I know. I don’t feel good, but instead of blind panic, now I just feel drained. The last time I saw Corbin, he had me pinned against the wall and I couldn’t have wished harder to be rid of him. How ironic. Now when I think of his swollen flesh and wax like skin, I want to throw up all over again.
Walking over to the closed door, I hear the voices again from the other side, Bran–I think, who sounds like he's completely freaking out.
“This has to be a joke. Seriously? A real murder at a murder mystery party? Wren, you can’t write it.”
“Don’t fucking say shit like that in front of either of them!” I hear Wren whisper hiss, and just knowing he's outside makes me feel safe.
“Mate I’m sorry! I’m just freaking out, you know? This entire weekend is weird and I just feel like we shouldn’t be here. I can't find my Brother and Jay thinks we need to get in touch with Theo now, before the media gets a whiff we're here.”
Wren sighs heavily and I think he slumps against the door I’m leaning into. He told me Theo was their band manager and he's right, the hotel will be swamped with people soon and that will attract the press if word gets out they're here. Hell, they'll turn up the moment it's known that there has been a death at a business owned by a Claythorne.
They speak lower and I can't make out what's being said, but a gruff voice silences the whispers; It’s Cardinal. “I can’t find Aya anywhere. Some of her things are gone, but she never mentioned leaving early.” He sounds exasperated, and I can tell even without seeing him, he’s probably scowling.
“Maybe she got into a fight with him and left?” Jay asks him, so he must be out there too with his friends. It’s a good assumption, because he was in a foal mood last night when he did what he did to me. “Does she normally just take off? Are you both close?” He also asks him.
I debate opening the door after his reply doesn’t come through, but then he answers after a long exhale. “We haven’t been close in a long time. Family shit. She would take off, yes. It wouldn’t be out of character for her to not tell me.”
“That's why you're at the party, to meet her fiancé?” Wren asks him.
“It’s none of your business, mate. My Sister told me to be here, and here I am.” Cardinal sounds annoyed, his voice a low growl.
“It kind of is, none of us know you.”
Frantic footsteps slap against the tiled floor. “Oh behave Wren, let's not start arguing, it'll upset Lily or wake them up.” Merle sounds freaked, but I assume he's referring to myself and Phin, put aside to rest. “Since Maggie hadn’t arrived for work yet, the detective said she's not to come here, so we're on our own. We all need to keep the curtains closed and stay away from the back of the house,” his voice lowers, but he's close enough to the door I can hear him. “Don't let Lily see them taking away the body, she's a mess. DS–DC, whatever–the detectives will be in shortly. They're outside with a team.”
“Wren, what the fuck happened to your hand?” Bran interrupts his brother, and I take this as my cue to come out of the lounge, but I hear shuffling feet and all the voices become quieter as they leave the lobby.
