Page 41 of Undying Resilience
I do. It smells like him, vanilla with a hint of woodiness. Despite our situation, it helps me to relax.
“C’mere, princess.” Oliver opens his arms to me, and I step into them immediately, burying my face in his neck. He holds me so tightly I’m afraid he might squeeze the life right out of me, but I don’t mind. All I want is to be as close to him as possible.
“How did they kidnap you?” I ask.
“I let them on purpose,” he says quietly.
“What?!” I try to pull away, but he refuses to let me out of his arms.
“Shh, keep your voice down, princess. Is the room bugged?”
“I—I don’t know.”
Looking around, he says, “I highly doubt it is, but just in case...” He takes my hand and pulls me into the bathroom. After he turns on the shower, he raises his wrist. “See this bracelet?”
I nod.
“It has a GPS tracker in it. Rhett and Elliot should be on their way to us right now. They’re going to get us out. And then we’ll get you home.”
“They let you do that?”
Oliver grimaces. “I may have told them my plan when I was already far enough away that they couldn’t stop me.”
“Oh my god. Oliver, they’re going to be so upset.”
“They are. But once we’re all safe, they’ll understand. It was the quickest way we could get to you. Jordan was refusing to tell us anything.”
I shake my head. “Oliver, he could kill you.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“No! Oliver, why? Why would you do this? If you die—”
He places a finger over my lips to quiet me. And once I’ve stopped talking, he rests his forehead against mine. “Because I love you, Wren. Maybe it’s too fast, but I don’t care. I love you, and I’d die a thousand deaths if it meant you got out of here alive.”
He loves me. The thought makes my head spin, even as my heart beats a little stronger and my breaths come a little easier. But I shake my head. “No, you can’t die. What about Elliot? What about Rhett? Oliver, you can’t do that to them!”
“I’m not,” he says gently. “We’re going to make it out of this alive, princess. All of us. Now tell me, how did you get away?”
The abrupt change of subject is mildly disorienting, but if he doesn’t want to talk about this, fine. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to later.
“My elbows and knees.”
“What?”
“Elbows and knees. They’re my best assets.”
With a smirk, Oliver pulls away, his gaze running down my body. “Oh, I don’t know about that, princess.”
I roll my eyes. “You know what I mean. I surprised him, and then I hit him in the head with the top of the toilet, but I didn’t use enough force and he knocked it out of my hands. So I used a knee here, an elbow there, knocked him out, and then ran.”
Oliver snorts. “Remind me to stay on your good side.”
I laugh. It’s not wholehearted, but I think it’s the first time I’ve smiled since I opened the gift they got me.
How was that only yesterday?
Oliver must sense my lingering distress. He wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me into him. “We’re going to be okay, princess. They’ll come for us. And between Elliot’s planning skills and Rhett’s anger, there’s no way they won’t succeed.”