Chapter 3
Maniac
“Cora and Wrecker are on the way here.”
She lifted her head from the book in her lap. “Why?”
It had been a week since our little field trip to the grocery store. I had hoped after I caught her laugh things would change. She would stop hiding away like a skittish doe in the woods.
I was wrong.
Nothing had changed.
If anything, she pushed me away even more. While she started cooking more, she was still running from life in general.
“Wreck has some shit he needs to catch me up on, and I’m assuming Cora hitched a ride because she threw a bitch fit ‘til Wrecker agreed.” There was no assuming about it. Wrecker had rambled on for five minutes about Cora constantly asking about Wren and demanding to come up here all of the time.
“I don’t feel like talking.”
I scoffed and grabbed the TV remote off the coffee table. That wasn’t anything new. I was lucky if she said more than fifty words to me each day. “She’s your best friend.”
“And?”
I turned and looked over the back of the couch. She was sitting on her bed with her legs tucked underneath her. Each morning, I pushed the screen to the wall because I knew if I didn’t, she would hide from me all day. “And you need to see people, Wren.”
“I see you right now.”
“Not what I’m talking about, darlin’.” I twisted back around and kicked my feet up on the coffee table. “Chicks love to talk.”
“I don’t have anything to talk about, Maniac, and I’m not like other chicks you’ve known.”
“Pretty sure you got a shit-ton to talk about, but you just don’t want to.” I wasn’t going to touch that chick comment, because she was right. Wren was unlike any chick I had ever meet before. I had no idea what Wren had been through, but I knew it had to be some bad shit if she thought the only way out was to die.
“She doesn’t need to know. No one does.”
I looked over my shoulder. “I’m not saying you need to talk to her about what happened, Wren. All I’m saying is, she’s still your best friend, and she’s worried about you.”
“I never asked her or anyone to worry about me.”
And right there was the bullshit in her head. “You don’t need to ask people to worry about you, Wren. They worry because they care.”
“I didn’t ask her—”
“Stop,” I growled. “You’re going through shit, Wren, and I get that more than you know, but you don’t get to tell people to stop caring.” God damn, she was about to piss me the hell off. I had been walking on eggshells around here, but that was about to change real quick.
She folded her arms over her chest. “Stop telling me what I need to do.”
“I will, as long as you start doing something more than sitting around all day.”
She threw her hands up in the air. “You dropped me into this town I had never heard of before. What exactly do you expect me to do?”
I stood up and stalked to the bed. My shins hit the mattress, and I loomed over her. “I dropped you in this town to get the damn heat off of you that is coming from the Hell Captains. Excuse me for trying to keep your ass safe and not at the mercy of those assholes.”
She sneered up at me. “I’m pretty sure they couldn’t hurt me any more than they already have.”
“You escaped hell, darlin’. You really want to go back there and live the rest of your life that way?”
Her face paled, and she leaned back.
Yeah, she didn’t think that shit through. “Drop the attitude, and try not to push away all of the people who actually care about you. Shit is hard for you right now, but if you let us help you, it’ll be a hell of a lot easier.”
“No one wanted to help me before. Why should I believe anyone will be there for me now?”
I scrubbed my hand down my face. “I can tell words aren’t going to do shit for you. All that is going to work for you is actions. I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere.”
She rolled her eyes. “Still words.”
A knock sounded on the door, and my eyes sliced across the room. “Reel in the attitude for an hour or so while Cora and Wrecker are here, and we’ll continue this conversation once they leave.”
I stalked to the door and heard her whisper, “That’s still just words.”
They were words, but they were fucking true.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
*