Page 94 of City of Wind and Lies

"I-I'm… no, I'm not."

"Change of plans, take us to the airstrip," he says to someone in the background. "Wren, where are you? What happened?"

Fresh tears blur my vision, burning my eyes. "Tell me you didn't know. They said you didn't but I… I just need to hear it from you."

"Tell you what? Passerotta, I don't know what you're talking about?" "I don't know, something's wrong and I need to get home. Call my old man, see what's going on."

I wrap my other arm around my torso as if that will comfort me, and tilt my head up at the stars trying to find the words. "Frankie Fracassi is my father."

A string of Italian curses follow after a moment of silence, then Bowie’s voice fills my ears with a level of conviction I really want to believe. "Frankie didn't have kids. Who told you this?"

"Your dad. He said he saved me that night. That someone killed my mother by accident… I don't know, I just overheard it and-"

"And you could have heard wrong, Passerotta."

"I know what I heard, Bowie!" My throat feels like sandpaper as I shout. "He said the DNA test proved it."

"Wren, baby. Where are my parents? Let me talk to them."

"I couldn't be there. I needed the space to breathe again and I couldn't do it in that house."

"Where are you?" he grits out sharply.

Looking around, I realize I'm only a couple houses over. The lanterns on either side of the driveway still visible. "I'm just down the block."

"Can you go back?" his voice softens, pleading. "I swear I didn't know, but I'm coming home and we'll sort this all out, together."

The voice in the back of my head tries to convince me he's lying, throwing doubts at me like a spike strip during a high speed chase. My knee-jerk reaction is to hang up and run in the opposite direction. But for once- for fucking once- even under a cloud of distress, I think before acting. Focusing on the sincerity in his words and the confusion in his tone is all it takes for me to believe him.

He’s already laid his cards all out on the table, telling me anything I want to know, answering my questions without hiding his true self, promising me anything if I vowed to always stay and talk through it. Why would he go back on that now? The adrenaline starts to ebb away and I shiver, holding myself tighter as I reluctantly walk back towards his parents house.

"Wren?"

"Sorry, yeah. I'm here, I'm heading back. Who would be delivering something at this-"

I hear the sound of metal crunching a split second before the ground ripples beneath my feet. The rock wall in front of me erupts before high-pitched ringing fills my ears. Suddenly, I'm thrown backwards, my back slamming onto the concrete. Bright orange flames surging toward the sky is the last thing I see, before it all goes black.

28

"Wren!" I yell as the line cuts out, a deafening silence taking its place.

A war of emotions rages inside my chest where my heart should be, but for the last couple of months it’s been living outside my body in the form of a feisty blue-eyed blonde.

I realize now, that before I met Wren, I’d never truly felt pain.

29

Pain rips through my skull with every beat of my heart. I groan, cracking my eyes open as smoke clouds the air, the strong, bitter scent of burning wood filling my nostrils as everything rocks into focus.

What the fuck happened? The last thing I remember is the van and Bowie. Shit, where's my phone?

Gritting my teeth through the throbbing sensation, I swivel my head to the side and spot my phone on the sidewalk beside me. I move to reach for it, but large hands grab my wrists. I yelp as someone squeezes them, jerking them above my head. The skin pinches and pulls as I‘m bound with something sharp and stiff.

"What the hel-"

"Shut up!" A vaguely familiar voice growls as his palm flies at me, snapping my head to the other side, cheek burning from where he made contact. "I've got a call to make. Tape her mouth shut and get her in the trunk."

Everything is off-kilter as my vision spins from the impact and a dark figure looms over me. It can't be- "Trey?"

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