“It’s over,” she announced when she hung up.
Elijah was confused, “What is?”
“This. Our friendship or whatever.”
Elijah felt a moment of pure panic pound against his chest wall. “No. That’s unacceptable, Wren. Why?”
“There was a ping,” she told him.
Elijah shot her a speculative look. “A ping? What’s that even mean?”
She stood and walked over to the windows where she closed the blinds and then the drapes. Then she drew her gun and held it down at her side.
“What the heck are you doing?” Elijah asked and rose slowly.
“Take off your clothes,” she said.
“Um…what?” he asked with a nervous chuckle.
This was getting strange. Those were probably the last words he ever expected to come out of her mouth. Did she want some sort of kinky at-gunpoint sex right now?
“I need to make sure you aren’t bugged.”
“Bugged?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Bugged. Listening device, whatever you call them here in the states.”
“Oh, like I’m wearing a wire? Why…”
“We only have forty-eight hours, maybe less together,” she said, to which he felt buoyed to move. She said it like she meant they’d be together the whole time in those forty-eight hours. “Do you want to stand here arguing? Take off your clothing, Elijah.”
She was making no attempt to hide her Australian accent now. It was clear as a bell. Maybe that was one of her walls coming down. He slowly removed his clothing and set them on the coffee table. Elijah felt a little self-conscience. He’d never had a girl order him to strip in front of him while holding a gun.
When he was down to his boxers, he paused. “I’m not removing these.”
“Fine,” she said and set the gun on the table beside her.
Wren approached and rested her hand on the center of his chest. He tried not to flinch from her cool fingers as they slid around, exploring the concaves of his pectorals and abdominals. He was reasonably sure this had nothing to do with checking to see if he was wearing a wire. And why would she want to know that? At the moment, he didn’t care. She walked around, keeping one of her hands on him until she was standing behind him. Then she circled back around, ducking under his arm.
“Satisfied?” he asked with a cocky smirk. Her aqua eyes narrowed up at him. “Are you taking yours off or was this just so you could cop a feel?”
“A ping is an alert,” she said in a matter of fact tone and took a step back.
“What kind of alert?” he asked, wishing she would’ve answered with something different, maybe that she actually was going to remove her clothing. No such luck.
“It’s when someone starts pulling up information on me or my family anywhere in the world. It means we’ve made a mistake, information leaked. Someone has been snooping.”
“Because of your uncle?”
Elijah was confused. None of what she was saying made sense. She shook her head.
“Jamie thinks Russo was snooping on me.”
“Obviously he had some sort of fascination with you,” he said.
She scowled. “Maybe. He knew about my gun, and that pissed him off.”
“Is that why I saw you arguing with him in the parking lot that day?”
“Yeah, he didn’t think I should be allowed to carry it at school, but he doesn’t get a say in that.”
“So, the school knew about your gun?”
“Just Russo.”
“Why would that be okay for a young girl to carry a gun inside a school? We go through metal detectors. It’s not exactly something that would be normal.”
“Not for most students. And I get exemption from the metal detector. That’s why those two cops never stopped me.”
“What makes you so special then?”
Wren frowned, “Special. That would indicate something good. I need my pistol for protection.”
“Protection from who?”
“Bad people,” she answered without actually answering.
“Tell me what the hell is going on,” he demanded in a more authoritative tone. If someone wanted to hurt her, he wanted to know.
“Someone in this region was digging up information on the interweb on me. They hit on something, and it sent out a ping. It alerted the authorities…”
“Wait, are you wanted by the law?”
She looked hurt. “What? No.”
“Then why…”
“Sit,” she indicated the sofa. She sat on the wide, padded ottoman in front of it. He pulled his jeans back on and sat across from her. “I’m not a criminal, Elijah.”
“Sorry. I don’t know why I said that. It’s…”
“My father was,” she said.
Whoa. He held his judgment and encouraged her to keep going with a nod.
“He worked for the biggest drug dealing, organized crime family in Greece who was shipping their product all over Europe and Australia.”
“Whoa,” he said it out loud this time. “Your dad was a drug dealer?”
She shook her head, sending black waves over her shoulder artfully. “No, not my dad. He was their accountant. He was laundering it, cleaning it, making it look like a legitimate shipping business. He was an investment counselor. That’s how it started. He had a degree in accounting and specialized in investment portfolio management. Had a lot of big clients. Made a good name for himself. At first, I don’t think he knew what the…Greeks were doing. He just thought they were a normal family in the shipping business looking to invest their wealth. Or, at least, that’s what the officials told me. They told me that the mob forced my father to do their dirty laundry, so to speak.”
Wren sighed and ran her hands through her hair, brushing it back away from her, twisting it into a long tail, and pulling it back over her shoulder to rest like that.
“I’ve never told anyone about any of this, but I feel like I can trust you not to say anything…”
“If you trust me, why’d you make me strip to look for a wire?”
“Sorry. I had to be sure. I’ve been trained on being careful for four years. That’s all my life has been for the last four years. Every day. Every week. Every month at a new school. Never associating with anyone other than Jamie. Trust is hard for me, Elijah.”
His pride at being made to strip was hurt, but her admission of what her life had been like for the past for years made his shallow feelings seem silly.
“Where’s your dad now? Why are you with just your uncle?” Elijah had about another ten thousand questions running through his brain.
She took a deep, shaky breath and reached for his hand. Elijah obliged and squeezed hers gently. She was shaking like a leaf.
“My family’s dead, Elijah,” she confessed, her eyes welling with tears. “My father turned against the mob from Greece. He turned over evidence to the government in exchange for safety. Safety for myself, my mother, and my two siblings.”
“Shit,” he whispered, feeling the pain oozing from her.
“They found out. These people…” she paused and pulled her hand free. He guessed that contact was probably hard for her. “These people have connections in every government in the world, in every city, in every country. Even some of your top-level government people here in your country, Elijah. And someone told on my father for the deal he made. The government was getting ready to move us to a new country when it happened.”
“And they killed him for it?”
She nodded. “Yes. But they killed my whole family. I saw the ones who did it, too. It was the head of the crime family’s son and two of his friends who came to our house that night.”
Her eyes darkened and glassed over as memories assailed her.
“I was asleep. We all were. I woke up first. I heard someone in the house or something. I’ve always been a light sleeper, a bad sleeper, really. I knew it wasn’t a normal sound I heard that night, though, more than just the wind or the waves crashing. I sneaked out of my room and down the stairs. That’s when I saw one of the agents guarding our house dead on the floor of the entryway. We lived in a mansion, you see, right on the beach. My old life was nothing like this life I am forced to live now. I surfed, had friends, went to a private school. We had a maid and a chef. We lived in the lap of luxury only crime could provide a person, only I was too young to understand that. I was only fourteen when it happened, when my world fell apart.”
“Jesus,” he swore. “Wren, I-I’m so sorry.”
“I sneaked back upstairs to get to my younger brother and sister. I was the oldest. My parents slept on the first floor, so I knew I couldn’t get to them. I didn’t make it to Maggie or Dylan’s rooms, though. The son spotted me and shot me in the back. Then I remember trying to crawl away. It was painful, too. He stepped over me and shot me again.”
She removed her hoodie and folded it. Setting that aside, Wren also pulled her long-sleeved tee over her head and folded it, as well. She was wearing a lot of layers. Last was her tank top. When she took it off, Elijah felt a swell of lust at the sight of her standing in front of him in a white lace bra but pushed those feelings down.
“Here,” she said, taking his hand in hers and extending his index finger only. Wren pressed it against the top of her ribs under her left breast where a small tattoo of a black sun was inked on her skin. “That’s where the first one came out. Tattoos help cover the scars. And here.” She turned slightly and showed him up higher on her actual shoulder blade another tattoo probably four inches long of a surfboard covering the ridge of a small scar. “That’s the second one.”
“Jesus. Son-of-a-bitch. Who could shoot a kid?”
“My brother was twelve, and our little sister was nine.”
“Did they…”
She nodded. “They shot them, too.”
“Man,” he said and left it at that because words were unable to express his outrage. “What’s the tattoo on your wrist? The compass with the weird letters?”
“My family’s initials. M for Maggie, my lil sis. D for Dylan, my brother. A for Annika, my mother, and E for Edward, my father. M.A.D.E. instead of north, south, east, west.”
“That’s really cool you did that to remember them by.”
She nodded. “That’s all I have left of them.”
“Really? They’re all…”
She pulled on her tank top and long-sleeved tee again. Elijah’s lust was gone like someone had dumped ice water over his head. All he felt now was concern and a deep sense of sadness for this pathetic, misunderstood new girl.
“They weren’t done yet. They had to make an example of my family. They torched our house.”
“How did you…”
“Jamie,” she explained and sat next to him on the sofa. “He was coming on duty to relieve one of the other guards.”
“Wait, your uncle was a guard?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head again and offering a sympathetic smile at his confusion. “He’s not really my uncle, Elijah. He’s my protector, assigned to our family like the other government agents. He managed to get into the house, found me, and carried me out.”
“Wow, that’s crazy,” he remarked. “Thank God, he found you.”
She nodded as if she didn’t quite agree with that statement and gave an indifferent shrug. “Yeah, I guess. My family was gone, though. All of them murdered. I was the only survivor. My father was an only child, and my mother’s family was distant, lived in South Africa, so we didn’t ever see them. She came from a wealthy family, but her parents had never even met me. She had a sister that lived in France, but I didn’t know her, either. It wouldn’t have been fair to dump me on people that didn’t care about me knowing they had to keep on the move. My mother didn’t like her family. It was in her will that we shouldn’t go to them should something happen to our parents. They would’ve been in grave danger, too. The government set me up in a witness protection program. Jamie insisted on being in charge of me. They were going to place me with a married couple, agents of course so that it looked like they were my parents, but he wouldn’t have it. After that night, he’s never left my side. When I woke up in the hospital, he was there. And every day since. He’s kept me safe.”
“What about the men who did that?”
“I testified against them, and they’re all in prison. That’s the other reason I’m still in witness protection. The family wants me dead so their son can get released on an appeal. The murder convictions didn’t stick. The evidence was too far burned to be a deciding factor and got pled down to an accident, basically. But he’s still in there on arson, racketeering, and other minor offenses. Oh, and for shooting me, of course. The government seized a lot of their money, too.”
“How much?”
“Two-hundred and twenty million,” she explained, to which he mouthed the word ‘whoa’ again. Wren nodded with understanding. “And my father had already put away thirty-two million in a trust fund for my brother, sister, and me. It’s untouchable by the government in an off-shore account. When I turn twenty-one, I’m signing off on witness protection, going to change my name, and collect my father’s money. Then I can live anywhere I want. I think I’m going to move to Texas. They have a lot of good medical research companies down there. Or Sweden. One or the other. Me and Jamie, of course. I think my father knew they were going to get to him. I don’t think he anticipated they would kill his whole family, though.”
“No, I’m sure he didn’t,” he agreed and thought about all the questions going through his mind. “And you and Jamie have just kept on the run for the last four years?”
She nodded. “Yes, if he feels the heat coming on or gets a bad feeling, we go. Or if the government catches a ping, we go. These people, Elijah, are not like other people. They’re…they’re more like the night crawlers.”
He frowned, “What do you mean?”
“They don’t have feelings for anyone or anything but themselves. They want their money back. They want their son out of prison. That’s why I carry a gun to school, why I’ve lived in five different countries and many of your states here in the United States. We don’t stay for more than a few months, usually.”
“God, Wren,” he said and squeezed her hands again. “That must’ve been so lonely.”
She offered a half-grin that contained no humor. “I’m still alive. At least I have that. At first, I didn’t want to be, but Jamie helped me. He told me not to disrespect them by throwing away my life.”
“I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.”
Her aqua eyes bore into his. “You can, though. You’re the only other person I know like me. Parentless, having lost a sibling, alone except for one person who cares about you. You’re surrounded by people who want to use you for their own advancement. I was, too. I still am. The government made me testify. All the football people around you want to use you. We’re so alike in so many ways.”
Elijah nodded and moved his hand to rest on her knee.
“They used me to testify. Then they seized all that money, everything except the trust fund. Jamie and Alex are the only people we can trust until we met each other. I’ve never trusted anyone until I met you, Elijah.”
This struck him straight to the core. His brow grew heavy, and the air felt thick in the den. An overwhelming feeling of anxiousness seeped into him.
“You can’t leave, Wren,” he stated. “I won’t let you.”
“I have to,” she said, her eyes taking on a certain desperation. “There was a signal. Someone was looking for me on the web. They’ll come, Elijah. You don’t understand. They’ll kill you, your brother, Jamie, and they’ll take me and torture me until I tell them where the money is. Then they’ll force me to redact my statements to get their son out of prison. And when they’re done with me, they will kill me, too.”
“I don’t think it was Russo,” he said quietly and stood. Elijah felt a huge burden on his shoulders. He ran a hand through his hair and walked over and took a suspicious peek out the window. If he was antsy before because of the people out there, the night crawlers, then he was a thousand times more on pins and needles because of Wren’s past and who was after her.
“It had to be,” she said. “He was the only one who was questioning things about me. He wouldn’t let it drop. Jamie said the bureau got a hit within a ten-mile radius of the school. It had to be him.”
“It was me, Wren,” he confessed softly and walked back to her. She stood and closed the distance.
“Wh-what do you mean, Elijah?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t think it was Russo. I mean, maybe it was him, too, but when I was with Alex in the hospital a few days ago, I started looking for information about you. That’s why I ignored your texts. I was angry. Angry and stupid, obviously. I thought you were just some sort of lying con artist or something. I knew you were hiding stuff from me. I felt like our relationship was crap because I knew you weren’t being honest.”
Her eyes widened. Then they narrowed.
“I tried searching for you. That’s why I didn’t answer your texts. I was so angry because of what I found. I realized you’d lied to me about everything about…you. I was mad, so I researched you. It was dumb luck. I saw that photo of you on the beach and started there. I figured your accent was Australian. Is your name Abigail Wren Fossey?” he asked and could tell he was right. Her chest rose and fell at an accelerated pace, and her eyes jumped to his. “From Bondi Beach, Australia?”
What she did next couldn’t have surprised him more. She slapped him. The sound was a loud crack in the quiet den. Elijah was shocked. He just stood there like an idiot gaping at her.
“I…” he got out before she attacked.
Wren pounded on his chest and pummeled with her fists.
“Elijah, what have you done?” she cried as real tears fell from her eyes. “You’ve killed Jamie, Elijah. You’ve killed me.”
“Wren,” he tried shouting over her and grabbed her wrists. She winced, which made him feel terrible because her wrists were still red and bruised from Russo. He moved his hands to her upper arms instead. “Wren, calm down.”
“Calm down? You did this days ago and didn’t tell me till now? They already have people on planes coming here. I guarantee it.”
“There isn’t a whole lot of air travel happening right now. Remember the press conference tonight? They’re slowing down public transportation to emergency use only.”
“These aren’t the kind of people who go to the airport and hop a plane. They have their own private planes, Elijah.”
“Oh,” he said stupidly. “Wren, listen. You and Jamie aren’t alone now. You’ve got me. You’ve got Alex, too.”
“He’s sick!”
“Yeah, but he’s still got experience. He was in the Army. Alex ain’t a punk. He can hold his own. He knows how to shoot.”
“No wonder they said we needed to move,” she said. “The ping came from so close. If they zero in on it, too, which they will, then they’ll find me.”
“I did it at the hospital. That’s not like it was here in my house or something.”
She chuffed loudly. “It’s only ten miles from here. They’ll come thousands of miles around the world for that. They’ll find you, too. That’s why I covered the computer camera with tape, remember? Now, they’ll see it was you.”
“No, they won’t. Think about it. The school’s shut down for cleaning. I used the computer at the hospital for most of the search anyway. I don’t even know if those had cameras. Most of the businesses are closed. Nobody even knows you. I’m the only one you talk to.”
“That’s not true,” she said. “There are cameras everywhere. As much as I try to avoid them, camera systems in cities have proven to be a problem in the past. Facial recognition software? Your face is all over this fucking town, Elijah! They almost caught up to us in London a year ago. It was from a street camera. These people have a lot of insiders in the government who work for them.”
“The government is busy right now trying to fight a world-wide pandemic,” he said and stepped closer. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep you safe.”
“I’m more worried about you. They’ll link you to me…”
“Then it’s a good thing we didn’t go to homecoming and get our picture together and post it on the internet.”
“They’ll find us,” she reiterated.
“If they do, they’ll be sorry. They won’t be coming after a family asleep.”
She looked up at him with skepticism.
“I’ll keep you safe,” he said. “I’m not letting you go, Wren.” She just seemed so small and fragile.
She walked over and retrieved her pistol again and set it on the ottoman. He slipped behind her and wrapped her in a solid embrace. Her thumb swept back and forth over his forearm.
“I don’t want to leave, either,” she said, giving him hope.
Her body felt weak and fatigued in his arms, so he led her to the long leather sofa.
“Sit,” he said. “You should rest. You look exhausted.”
She nodded. Elijah went to the entertainment center and took out some throw blankets and pillows and made her a makeshift bed.
“I’ll sleep over there in the chair by the window. We don’t have a security system, so I’ll stay up tonight and keep watch.”
She stretched out on the sofa and fluffed her pillow. Elijah perched on the arm of the chair.
“I’m going to go check on Alex again and make sure everything’s locked down. It’s getting late.”
“’Kay,” she said. “You can take my gun.”
“Nah, I’m going up to get my dad’s shotgun. I’ll be right back. Go to sleep.”
He left the lamp on in case she had to get up to use the restroom since she was in a strange house. Then he retrieved the shotgun, checked that Alex was still asleep, and made sure all the windows and doors were locked. Again. He knew he’d be doing that a few more times throughout the night. Then he went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face. This was all overwhelming, a lot to digest. He’d gone from staying away from her, to trying to be her friend, to finding out that besides her fake uncle that he was the only other person she had in her life. What did that make him? Elijah blinked at his reflection in the mirror. Did he even have what it took to take care of her? He didn’t know, but Elijah felt that being close to her would lessen her chance of being killed.
He flipped off the light and returned to the den to find her awake.
“Can’t sleep?”
“No, I sometimes have to take sleeping pills,” she answered. “I don’t sleep well.”
He couldn’t blame her with what she’d been through. He shut the door and locked it. Elijah was glad the old house had such solid, heavy oak doors.
“Jamie texted to say that he was still out looking for Russo. He thinks he might be gone for good. His house is emptied out. His wife and two kids are gone, too.”
“Weird,” he commented then offered, “Hey, I can see if my parents had anything in their medicine cabinet for sleep.”
“No, I’ll be fine,” she said and paused as if she had something more to say.
“What is it?”
“W-will you lay by me?”
He hesitated only a moment before sitting on the sofa in front of her. Then he laid down and slid his arm over her waist.
“Are you okay?” he asked, worried about her injuries from Russo. She nodded, but Elijah could tell there was still something she wasn’t telling him.
Eventually, her body melded and softened against his rigid planes and contours.
“I don’t want to get this sickness,” she said quietly.
“I won’t let you,” he promised, wishing vehemently that he could make that true. Wishing something into truth didn’t usually work. If it did, his mom would still be here.
“You can’t stop it from happening,” she said. “Nobody knows if they’re going to get it.”
“We’ll keep wearing masks and gloves if we go out in the public,” he told her and felt her hand slide over his and bring them both up to rest under her chin.
“I don’t want to die,” she added. “There’s so much I want to do still. I’ve been a prisoner for four years in this life I’ve been forced to lead. It just isn’t fair. There are so many things I’ve never been allowed to do that other people my age do.”
“You’ll get to do those things,” he said, not even sure if either of them would live another week. “I’ll make sure you do.”
She fell asleep a few minutes later, and Elijah eventually slipped away to go and walk around the house again. He wanted so badly to be able to keep those promises to her. He just had to keep her alive. Outside, the nightly call of birds, coyotes, and neighborhood dogs started up, which made him unsure of his ability to keep Wren safe. He knew what those sounds meant.