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Ell tries to shake his head to wake himself up. “Is something wrong? Is he in danger?”
“No, I just needed to . . . blow off some steam.”
It takes longer than normal for Elliot to get what I’m implying. His gaze turns sharp. “You were going alone?”
“Just to meet him at a safe house. He can’t break the guy.”
“And you need to blow off some steam,” he mumbles.
“Break the guy?” Wren asks. “Like . . . torture?”
We nod.
“You think it’ll help you?” Elliot asks tiredly.
It shouldn’t, but it will. “Yeah.”
“Then go. Just be careful.”
“Ell . . .”
“Go,Rhett. Do what you need to do. I don’t want it eating at you.” He stands. “Text me when you get there. I’ll probably be asleep, but in case I’m not, I’d appreciate it.”
“Of course.” I tug on his arm until he steps into my embrace.
He groans into my shoulder, still half asleep, before wrapping his arms around my waist. “And make sure you come home to me.”
“Always,” I murmur in his ear.
After a kiss, Elliot heads upstairs. Wren follows me through the house to the door that leads to the garage. I’m about to tell her goodnight when I realize she’s slipping on her coat and shoving her feet into her boots.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m coming with you.”
“Wren, this isn’t going to be a fun trip.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I’m not expecting it to be fun.” She straightens and gives me a determined look. “Ready when you are.”
I stare at her in silence while trying to figure out what I need to say to convince her to stay home. Ultimately, I come up short, because telling her that I’m worried she’ll be afraid of me after this feels too cowardly.
“What?” she asks when I don’t move.
“There’ll . . .” I clear my throat. “You understand that I’m going to be torturing some guy, right? And probably killing him?”
She gulps, but she nods. “Yeah. I got that.”
“And you want to watch me.”
“No. But the future has the potential to get pretty messy from here on out. Messy and violent. Right?”
“Right,” I say slowly, unsure where she’s going with this.
“I . . .” Her gaze drops, and she rubs at the back of her neck. “I’d like to not get traumatized again.”
Ah.“You’re hoping that if you’re exposed to some level of violence in a controlled environment, it’ll make it less horrifying when you encounter it in real life?”
Of course she’d think that. She’s been through hell in the past month, so it only makes sense that she’s trying to protect herself.
