Page 28 of Trapped: Between Sky And Wind

When Bren returns, I briefly mention the conversation, but he doesn’t say much about it. As always. On the other hand, a lot is going on in his mind that he’ll let me in on, at the latest, when he has finalized new plans. Maybe he doesn’t want to come between me and my brothers.

Later, to help Ethan pull himself together, I take a selfie of Bren and myself in front of the picture windows—in the background the brightly lit Space Needle against a starless evening sky. I’ll send the photo to Jay on WhatsApp so he can show it to Ethan.

We’re staying in the suite for the next few days. Once, we go to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, but I can sense Bren’s tension when the young waiter openly flirts with me. He clenches his hand under the table and I’m afraid he is going to slam it in his face right there in the pompous breakfast room. So, I suggest we don’t leave the suite for the next few meals, after all, we don’t have a designer kitchen for nothing.

We shut out the world in a different way than we did in the Yukon and I find Bren more exuberant during the day than ever before. We play tag and even hide-and-seek like kids, kiss and make love, watch TV together, and eat late-night delicacies that Bren orders.

It’s only the nights that are reminders of what has passed. While my nightmares have stopped all of a sudden since arriving at the Seattle Plaza, Brendan’s are getting increasingly worse. I asked him if it was because he stopped going to therapy, but he didn’t know.

When he wakes up next to me in front of the window bathed in sweat, trembling and disoriented, I hold him in my arms and talk to him like during his flashbacks in the Yukon. Sometimes, when he’s barely cognizant, I give him the chili peppers, and when that’s not enough, he stands in the freezing shower for ten minutes. Luckily, he hasn’t experienced a real flash like I witnessed before and I’m becoming ever more hopeful that we will actually manage to conquer the past.

Today, we got some supplies from the RV and made a hearty vegetable stew so we won’t have to throw so much away. Bren is in the park across the street with Grey and I’m taking a shower. We feel guilty that Grey is not getting enough exercise and we urgently need to discuss how we’re going to move forward.

I hear him knocking on the door and slip into the white dress Bren loves to see me in sans underwear and glance in the mirror. My hair shines, my skin shimmers, and my eyes sparkle like stars as Bren says. I’ve never looked happier than I do these days.

I open the door with a flourish. “You’re back early…” The rest of the sentence gets stuck in my throat.

Ethan stands in the doorway glaring at me. Anger, horror, and indignation are reflected in his oval face, but he says nothing.

“What…?” …are you doing here? I want to ask, but I have a lump in my throat that holds back the words. I’ve never seen Ethan like this! His hands are tense down to his little fingers and it looks as if he’s trying to keep himself from beating the crap out of me. I instinctively take a step back, but he follows me and grabs my upper arm. Now I also discover Avery. He’s right behind him, the look on his face a reflection of Ethan’s.

“The party is over. You’re coming with us!” Ethan’s voice sounds terribly controlled. He is really scaring me. He drags me rudely into the hallway. I stumble hard, but his grip keeps me from falling.

“Ethan, I can’t… I don’t want to… I have to close the door…you’re hurting me…” Fragments of sentences slip from my lips. I’m still too perplexed to react. I just let him drag me away.

How did they even find me? How did they get this address?

I have no time to think as Ethan ruthlessly drags me down the hallway with Avery following like a bodyguard.

“Ethan, what are you doing? Talk to me!”

My brother gives me a look that makes my blood run cold. His eyes are like blue ice. I get that he’s angry, but more than angry, he looks like he can’t even think straight. Almost like Bren, a small voice inside me whispers.

As we arrive at the golden elevator area, I spot Liam. He is holding an elevator open with his body.

“Liam!” So he’s here, too! My brothers almost seem like traitors to me!

Liam looks at me, a hint of a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth, but then he wipes his face, leaving a battle-ready expression I can’t quite place.

Suddenly, everything happens quickly. Ethan pushes me into the elevator and Liam presses the second-floor button of the thirty floors. It’s only at this moment that I fully understand the plot against me.

“You were waiting for Bren to leave!” I say, completely stunned, feeling anger rising inside me. “Why don’t you want to talk to him? What are you doing here anyway?”

The door closes. None of my brothers say anything. Their expressions are as opaque as blocks of granite, even Avy’s soft features are as hard as iron. The uneasy feeling inside me grows. I have no idea what they’re up to, but Bren might believe I ran away. He might even get a flash!

I reluctantly wipe my forehead. “You can’t just take me with you!” Besides, I’m half naked! I’m not even wearing panties! a fact that none of them seem to notice in their rage. Are they going to drag me through the lobby like this? But Liam didn’t press the button for the first floor. Did they reserve a room on the second floor?

I look straight ahead. In the mirror, I see my breasts flashing under the thin fabric. Everything underneath is flashing! Even if I covered one spot with my hands, the others would remain exposed.

My cheeks start to burn. I don’t want them to see me like this! Maybe that’s why they aren’t saying anything? Maybe that’s why they’re avoiding my gaze because they don’t want to embarrass me. I carefully glance up. I see my brothers reflected a hundred times in the elevator mirrors. It’s creepy, they look like that Chinese terracotta army. Several Ethans, Averys, and Liams with stone features.

A strange feeling washes through me. “Where’s Jay?” I ask, unable to keep my voice steady.

Over my head, I see them exchanging looks in the mirror. Ethan’s fingers tighten around my arm, but I don’t make a sound—I’m not going to give him that pleasure.

I glance at Liam furtively through the glass, but he desperately avoids my gaze, instead pressing his thumb against his ring finger, something Tibetan that he only does when he’s tense. He may be as uncomfortable in this situation as I am. And maybe he understands me a little too, after all, he went to India when he was eighteen to find himself in limitless nirvana.

The elevator stops at the second floor and Ethan steers me into the hallway behind Avery with Liam bringing up the rear. “Do you have a room here?” I try again to get them to talk.

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