EUNOIA ━ diego hargreeves

50

CHAPTER FIFTY
──-ˋˏ☂︎ˎˊ-──

THEY MOVED Ben to the couch, Freya avoided making eye contact with the pool of vomit on the carpet. Ben seized on the cushions, resulting in the boys jumping back.

"Woah, what do we do? Call 911?"

"No, no. No cops."

"We need to go back to the dry cleaners to get more information," Five said. Freya turned away with a weak stomach to follow him.

"Agreed," Diego said. "I'll drive. Let's go, mofos."

"Get him out of here, quick," Klaus said, Freya was half-tempted to lift Ben into the air using wind frequencies, but she felt too weak herself to do so.

The ride to the dry-cleaners didn't take long, but Freya's nausea was only intensifying by the second, from the passenger seat, she kept her eyes closed as Diego drove, trying to play it off as motion sickness. The only reason she opened her eyes were when she felt his fingers graze her thigh, jerking her upright.

"Freya," he said, at a stoplight and peering at her. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Diego," she assured him. "You don't have to worry about me."

"Kind of my job."

Freya's stomach warmed, she knew it was true and she was grateful for all of him, so instead of arguing further, she took his hand and squeezed it until they arrived at the dry cleaners.

Diego insisted on bursting through the door first, though he did not drop their interlocked hands the entire time and ended up nearly dragging her into the building. Unlike their first time in the cleaners, every rack we empty and it seemed like Sy had just up and left.

"Well," Allison mused, glancing around along with the rest of them. "Looks like Sy fled the coop."

"Or somebody got to him," Five replied, pinching off the only thing that remained—a piece of paper.

"Yeah, he did say he was in danger."

"Look at this," Five nudged Freya, who elbowed Diego. She peered over his shoulder to see what the fuss was about. The paper was a map, and towards the bottom was a big red circle around a bold piece of text. "New Grumpson, Maine."

"What the hell is in New Grumpson, Maine?"

"Maybe Sy's daughter Jennifer," Lila suggested.

"Or maybe that's where our dry cleaner scampered off to."

"Yeah, or maybe this is all one big setup," Viktor stated.

"Well, there's only one way to find out."

"Hell yeah."

"Don't say road trip," Freya groaned.

Diego's smirk could have been lethal. "Road trip."

She grumbled in protest the entire walk back to the van, stumbling into him with squinted eyes. When had the sun become so bright? It felt like she was staring right fucking into it.

"I only have one spare pair of underwear!" Klaus complained.

"Diego," Freya caught him by the sleeve. "What about Grace?"

"She has gymnastics," Diego shrugged. "Thalia usually keeps her until dinner anyway. She won't mind. She's your friend."

"Thalia is hardly my friend. And you don't even like her daughter Maddie."