“Remember our deal, Ethan,” she cut me off, “I have to know everything or I can’t trust you.”
The tone of her voice was very hard and scared the shit out of me. Oh, I remembered our deal very well and I hated what I knew. But I also knew what I’d agreed to with Brynne. And if keeping the information from her broke us apart, then it wasn’t worth the cost to me.
“Yeah, I remember our deal.” I reached into my pocket for her mobile. “A message came through on your mobile while I was out the back having a smoke. That’s why I didn’t know where you were. I’d left to go outside and the bomb threat happened about simultaneous with that text message on your phone.”
She reached a shaky hand and took it from me. “Ethan? What’s on it?”
“A music video first and then a text message from someone calling themselves ArmyOps.” I put my hand on her arm. “You don’t have to listen. You really don’t—”
Her face looked absolutely stricken with fear but she asked the question anyway. “Is it—is it the video of…me?”
“No! It’s just the music video of the song by Nine Inch Nails—look, you don’t have to do this, Brynne!”
“Yes I do! It’s to me, this message! Isn’t it?”
I nodded.
“And if we weren’t together it would have still been sent to me, right?”
“I suppose. But we are together and I want to keep you from having to worry about shit like that. It kills me, Brynne. It fucking kills me to see you like this!”
She started to cry. It was the silent kind of crying. The way she usually did it and somehow the silence of her tears seemed to be screaming loud in the car between us.
“That’s one of the reasons why I love you, Ethan,” she sniffed. “You want to protect me because you really care.”
“I do, baby. I love you so much. I don’t want you to have to see that piece of sh—”
She pressed start and the song rang out as she played the video. I watched her and held my breath.
Brynne held it together for the whole thing, watching it through to the bitter end, in all its mad-scientist themed fetish crap. I had no indication from her as to how she felt from seeing it though. At least not outwardly. I couldn’t possibly know.
I knew how I felt from watching her though. Utterly helpless.
Then she got to the text message part.
“He was there? Watching you smoke?! Oh shit!” She clamped her hand over her mouth again and gagged. “Pull over!”
Fuck! I defied the laws of physics and the road and somehow got us off to the side. She was out and heaving in the bushes the instant the tires stopped. I held her hair away and rubbed her back. Could this night get any worse?
“What the hell is wrong with me?” she gasped. “Can you get me a napkin or something?”
I pulled some towels from the glove box and got a bottle of water so she could rinse her mouth. And kept my trap shut, positively sure I was having an out-of-body experience. This just couldn’t be happening right now.
“I feel better,” she panted. “Whatever that was tonight seems to have passed.” She slowly straightened up and lifted her head up to the night sky. “Gawd!”
“I’m so sorry, baby. You’re ill and I’m dragging you on a road trip and everything’s so royally fucked up—”
“But you’re here with me,” she blurted, “and you’re going to help me through whatever that shit was on my phone, aren’t you?” She stared at me, her eyes still wet, her chest still heaving from being sick in the bushes, and utterly amazing to me because of her bravery.
“I will, Brynne.” I took the couple steps that separated us and drew her close. She folded into my arms and rested her cheek on my chest. “I’m going to
be here every step of the way to keep you safe. I’m all in, remember?”
She nodded. “I’m all in too, Ethan.”
“Good. It’s gonna be okay, baby.” I rubbed up and down her back and felt her relax a little.
“I do feel better…even if I smell like puke,” she said. “Sorry about that.”