Page 29 of Trapped: Between Sky And Wind

No answer. Why aren’t they saying anything? Do they want to punish me with their silence? For a moment, I consider breaking free and running, but in the end, I don’t stand a chance against the three of them. Also, I don’t want the situation to escalate. If I fight back now, I’ll put them in a terrible position. It’s bad enough Ethan is gripping me so tightly.

They escort me down the plush corridor to a heavy steel door that looks utterly out of place between the green velvet carpet and the crystal chandeliers. Emergency exit. Avery opens it and Ethan pushes me through.

They know the hotel inside and out! How long have they been spying on me?

Sterile gray stairs lead downward. My feet are icy on the concrete. There are more doors in the basement, a laundry room, and another staircase that leads back upstairs. Eventually, we get to the parking lot where Bren’s RV is parked. In the dark, it looks like a monster between all the luxury cars.

As we pass it, I notice the tires are flat.

“Did you puncture the tires?” I blurt out angrily. Where were the pompous security guards? Suddenly, I realize how serious they are. Their grim faces, their silence, the tires. They are on a vigilante justice trip! They want to separate me and Bren forever! But since when do they act like tough guys?

They take me to a blue Nissan I don’t recognize. Of course, it’s not parked on the hotel grounds but one street over.

“What’s all this? Why won’t you talk to me?” I struggle as Ethan forces me in, but it’s no use. I end up sitting between him and Avery in the back seat, whereas Liam gets in up front and drives off.

I catch his gaze in the rearview mirror, his blue eyes clear and without anger, but he still won’t respond to my words. They won him over!

I curl up in the back of the car, squeezing my thighs together so I don’t touch Ethan and Avery, but there’s not enough room. Avery’s long legs touch mine, his jeans rubbing against the thin silk of the diaphanous dress and Ethan’s torso pins me against Avery like I’m a sardine in a can.

They still don’t seem to have noticed my nudity under the dress or they’re hiding it well.

I hunch my shoulders, forming an X with my arms to cover my chest and lap. At home, it was never a problem for me if one of them accidentally walked into the bathroom when I was in the shower and forgot to lock it. But this situation is different.

Ethan glances at me sideways, teeth clenched.

“Why aren’t you talking to me?” My voice sounds weak, not at all confident.

“Oh—we’ll talk soon enough, Louisa. Later. Not here!” Ethan still looks like he wants to beat me.

We drive along the city park near the hotel and I turn, searching for Bren and Grey, but of course it’s in vain. They usually stay for one and a half or even two hours at the duck pond in the middle of the park. The moment is over as soon as Liam turns onto the main thoroughfare.

I look ahead again. The heat builds in the car, which seems twice as oppressive due to my brothers’ anger. At a red light, Liam rolls down the window and an exhaust-laden night wind blows into the Nissan.

Limousines, convertibles, and family cars pass by, music blaring from the speakers in the open cars. Lights and more lights, laughter, billboards, hotel entrances with flags. Liam continues driving and I no longer remember the way. After a while, we leave the city center and the streets turn into wide suburban roads. Motels alternate with workshops and industrial buildings. From time to time, we pass low-income apartment blocks. I’ve given up trying to get my brothers to talk.

Are they going straight to Ash Springs? At some point, however, we’ll have to stop. There’s no way I’m going back home with them. Under no circumstances. Never!

Eventually, Liam pulls up to a seedy motel on the outskirts of Seattle. Ethan pulls me out of the car exactly the way he pushed me in, grabbing my upper arm. As soon as I stand on the dilapidated asphalt, I energetically tear myself free.

“You can stop it now, I’m not running away,” I hiss at him venomously. He scrutinizes me while keeping close to me. At least he spares me the vise grip.

“We’re going to talk here!” he says, sounding ominous, like I’m about to go to jail. I hope they don’t actually lock me up. But they wouldn’t go that far, would they?

I suddenly recall the blue-dyed mashed potatoes in the school cafeteria last year. Back then, Ethan would have grounded me for a summer. I glance at him sideways. Whole universes lie between last year and this one. So much has changed between us and I thought it was for the better. I stopped making trouble, I studied, and I rarely went out. I lived my life based on his rules and he saw that I had changed, matured. And I really have and I can lead my own life now, but apparently he doesn’t like it. Maybe he doesn’t want me to grow up! Why did they stop here instead of driving on immediately?

I glance around uneasily while my brothers surround me like a triangle and lead me across the parking lot. Baker’s Motel. Interstate 5. Maybe I can somehow get a message to Bren so he knows where I am. He could pick me up here and we could run away together. Knowing him, he will have solved the problem with the tires quickly. My hand goes to the bag with the cell phone, but then I suddenly remember that I don’t have it with me, of course. I have nothing with me, not even money or panties! How am I supposed to get out of here—half naked?

Shivering, I rub my arms and enter the motel behind Liam through a side entrance that leads to a desolate hallway. Cold concrete, nothing else. And it smells like a freshly emptied black-water tank.

When Ethan finally closes the door of the shabby motel room, I feel like a little animal in a cage, a bit like last year except these are my brothers. Oh, the irony!

I look around. The room contains only a ratty double bed with an old-fashioned floral quilt, a wooden table, and two chairs. The only window has a long crack in one pane and the curtains are faded and pulled to the side so that you can see outside into the parking lot.

“Now what?” I ask and notice, to my annoyance, that I sound intimidated.

Ethan, Avery, and Liam stand in the glow of a streetlamp that shines through the window. The dim light makes their faces appear even grimmer, and for the first time, I’m truly scared. My gaze wanders from one to the other. Ethan with the tight ponytail, the lumberjack shirt, and the angry face, someone who does physically hard work, which also shows; Avery, the tallest, with the gentle eyes and the soft lips, both narrowed now; and Liam, whose hair is just growing back and stands up wild and bristly. He’s the smallest of my brothers, but still over six feet tall, thin and wiry from years of ascetic practice and the many cigarettes he rolls himself.

Their intense stares force me into a defensive stance without them saying anything.

---