Page 41 of Trapped: Between Sky And Wind

He stops abruptly.

I keep talking. “They were looking for me. He says you lied to him and Liam.”

“Yes.” Darkness surrounds us.

Then it’s true. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He continues toward the back exit of the park. Before he steps through the gate, he stops again. Cars pass in front of us on the road.

“Bren?”

He takes a deep breath. “It was bad…mean. I was ashamed, does that suffice as an answer?”

“Yes.” Yes, of course. How could I even ask him about it? Clearly, he must feel ashamed. Besides, the question of whether he is a good person has long since been answered. Of course he lied to my brothers.

I cling to him tighter and nestle my cheek against his hair. He smells of damp leaves, resin, and cigarettes. A bit of melancholy even if that has no actual smell. I inhale this mixture deeply, but despite or because of my decision, I’m still scared. I tell myself it’s because of the fight with Ethan and Avery, but the truth is, I’m scared of Bren, too. At least during moments like in the park. He predicted it right from the start when I was standing in front of the RV—and I assured him I could handle it. Now, however, I just feel overwhelmed. Maybe I’m simply exhausted.

Chapter

Nine

We spend the next twenty-four hours at the Best Western Hotel, which Brendan says is a perfectly normal mid-range hotel. He makes some calls and finds a service center that will tow the RV from the Seattle Plaza parking lot and then change the tires. That way he doesn’t have to show up in person and avoids the risk of running into Ethan. He also tells the man on the phone not to give anyone any information about him or his motorhome. Then he goes to the pharmacy for bandages and disinfectant, and proceeds to treat my foot.

I’m sitting on the hotel bed with my legs dangling and he’s kneeling in front of me shirtless because of the heat in the room, only wearing cargo pants. “You’re completely insane, Lou. Jumping from the second floor—you could have broken your bones. I should put you over my knee for that alone.”

I watch him as he wraps the bandage around my ankle with nimble fingers. The gentleness of his movements touches me. “I should—well—you better do it, then. Or does that fall into the dirty and inappropriate category?”

He laughs harshly. “Guess the injury is punishment enough. Your ankle will hurt even longer, especially since it was sprained before. Six weeks, maybe ten. It’ll remind you not to do anything stupid.”

“I did that stupid thing because of you, but that wasn’t an actual answer to my question.”

Bren gets up and puts the sanitizing spray and the rest of the gauze bandages back into the first-aid kit.

“Hey, answer me.”

He comes toward me, a dark gleam in his eyes that makes my chest crackle. He stops in front of me, takes my head in his hands, and kisses me like it’s the first and last time. I feel a tingle like midnight-blue frost flowers on my skin, the longing for him that seems unquenchable even when he’s with me. I want more of his kisses, to hold him tight, but he pulls away and packs up the other bandages with stoic composure.

“The cut looks good. If you’re lucky, it won’t get infected,” he says without interrupting his work.

“Yeah, wouldn’t that be something if I got blood poisoning because of some thoughtless brute.” I guess Bren will never tell me what he considers dirty and inappropriate. I sigh while the kiss still hangs like sweet balm on my lips. “Avy had blood poisoning once, I remember that,” I say as my gaze falls on the Band-Aid sticking out slightly from under the bandage on the sole of my foot. “He cut himself on Mr. Goodman’s fence. I’ll never forget the red line crawling up his calf. Looks like a big red tapeworm under the skin, Jay joked at the time.” Only after Avy got better, of course.

“You should be glad I keep antibiotics in the RV. If left untreated, the risk of death from blood poisoning increases by one percent per hour.”

I grimace and wrap my hand around my bandaged ankle. “How do you always know everything? No one knows the percentage that the risk of death from blood poisoning increases per hour. Surely, not even a doctor knows off the top of their head! It’s creepy, Bren.”

“You find me creepy?” He raises an eyebrow and a smile flashes in his eyes.

“Sometimes, but never when you kiss me,” I answer honestly. “In any case, you’re something of a nerd when it comes to the outdoors.”

“Never when you kiss me?” Bren repeats as if that’s all I said. “I guess I should do that more often.” He approaches me again, his dark shimmering gaze crawling over my skin like a sweet warning. A pleasant forewarning that he’s about to make me tremble, completely possessing me, making me forget everything.

But instead of kissing me, Bren sits on the edge of the bed next to me and takes my hand. “Lou, we wanted to talk about how to proceed.”

Suddenly, the magic of his gaze sinks into me like a stone, allowing old trepidation to escape through a crack inside me. “Okay,” I say. I would prefer to avoid the topic altogether, but at some point, we have to decide where we want to go.

“What do you think of Faro?” Bren asks, not taking his eyes off me.

I think I misheard. “Faro?” I echo in disbelief, my heart skipping a beat. “The place where you did your therapy? Are you being serious?”

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