EUNOIA ━ diego hargreeves

51

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
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AS UNCOMFORTABLE as sleeping in a car went, Freya was at complete ease next to Diego. She'd insisted that they stop at any gas station or any shop they passed. One, to clean the vomit, two, for food, and three, she was freezing. The convenience store he ended up pulling into had everything—a microwave for warm food, blankets, and plenty of napkins.

She made sure to purchase two blankets despite Diego claiming he didn't need one, and the last thing she remembered before she fell asleep against his forearm was him subtly pulling it over his lap.

Freya was the first to wake out of the group, with the early morning sun peeking through the clouds and making her eyes crack open. Silently, she stretched, lifting her head from his shoulder. Diego looked exhausted, and her heart squeezed. "Hey," she murmured.

"Hey," Diego replied, smiling tiredly.

"Do you want me to drive?"

"You know nobody-"

"Drives your van, yes," she finished, rolling her eyes. "But I'm not nobody. I'm your concerned wife."

Briefly, he squeezed her thigh. "Yeah, I know. But we're only an hour out, anyway."

She perked up a bit at that. "Really?"

"Yeah," Diego nodded. "I told you we were making good time. If everyone kept their puke in place we would've got here sooner."

Instead of answering, she moved to turn the knob up for the heat, but the entire thing fell off at her gentlest touch. Diego shot her a look, Freya scrambled to put it on like nothing happened. "You need a new van, princess."

"Oh, shut up."

"Mm," she decided not to argue further, not until she could brush her teeth and eat some real food. She settled against him once more, and this time, he wrapped his arm around her and kept it there until they arrived to Grumpson.

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"No Sy Grossman listed," Five told them, exiting the booth. "No Jennifer Grossman listed, either."

"Yeah, well we'll just have a look around," Allison shrugged. "If she's here, we'll find her."

"This is why you do recon, assholes," Ben sneered, Freya returned from her short phone call between Grace and overly thanked Thalia for letting her stay an extra day.

"Recon?" Viktor echoed. "Why are you saying recon? We're not the A team."

"Oh, really? Shit, you could've fooled me."

"At least we still have a team," Diego said.

Ben narrowed his gaze. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Freya watched Diego seize Ben by the front of his shirt, her brows raising at him. Diego caught her expression, and dropped his hands after a moment's hesitation.

"Hey, everyone!" Luther grinned, holding up a camera. "Over here."

Lila immediately covered her face, Diego and Ben half-hugged each other instead of looking violent, Freya scrunched her nose next to Viktor, who was standing awkwardly, and the flash went off a second later.

"You know what?" Ben snapped. "Screw this. One or two of you is fine, but all of you together? You're just a bunch of drooling, stunted toddlers."