I move my arm around her shoulders and pull her tight into my side. She still hasn’t said a single word since I arrived. I start tracing shapes on her arm as I hold my lips to her forehead. She lays her head on my shoulder, moving one of her legs across mine as her heat cloaks me.
This is where I’m meant to be.
Where I hope Elle wants me to stay.
I open my eyes and see beams of sunlight creeping through the gap in my blinds. I’m in my bed even though I can’t remember how I ended up here. I do remember Shay leaving and Brax finding me on the shower floor.
He knew exactly what to do with me. He didn’t push me to talk; he just sat on the floor with me, pulled me into his lap, and held me while I cried into his chest. It wasn’t soft tears, either. It was big ugly sobs as everything I’ve held in for the past four years finally broke free. When Shay told me that I needed protection from Harry Brimstone, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I’d tried to be strong and asked the first questions that came to mind. Who did they work for? Who was the man they paid to protect me? Then, the big question that had been plaguing me since Brax’s admission last night, who exactly are they supposed to be protecting me from?
Granted, Uncle Harry and I have had our issues, but I never thought for one moment that he’d want to hurt me. Rolling over onto my back, I look up and stare at the plain white ceiling. That’s when it hit me; I remember Harry threatening me after New Years when I refused to sell the company to him. He was so angry, and in a split second he’d gone from being charming and chatty to snarling abuse at me, saying my father would roll over in his grave.
After drying me off and dressing me, I didn’t really comprehend what Brax was doing until he crawled into the bed and pulled me into his side, holding me close to his chest until I’d finally found the elusive sleep I’d been seeking all night.
Where was he now, though? At the very least, I thought he’d still be here when I woke up. The only reason he left last night was because I told him to go. In the heat of the moment, my first instinct was to protect myself. I thought I needed space, but right now all I need is him. When he’s with me, I feel safe and protected. I feel loved. I feel whole.
With nothing else to do but think, my mind drifts back to Harry. What am I going to do now that I know my father’s best friend and business partner, hell, my godfather wants to hurt me. He’s the CEO of my damn company; definitely not the best place for him to be.
Then it hits me. I sit bolt upright in bed, the shock of the realization hitting me like a wrecking ball.
It’s those damn company rules. That is why I’m in danger. Suddenly it makes all the sense in the world. The moment I refused to sell, it left him with only one other option to acquire Brightlight. If something was to happen to me, Harry gets first option to buy my stake. Oh my god!
I pick up my phone, wracking my brain who to call. If I can’t deal with Brax right now, there is only one other person in the world I can trust.
“Hello?”
“Aunt Sylvie, I think I need to see you,” I sob, losing control and crying down the phone when I hear her voice.
“Elle? What’s wrong, dear?”
“You were right about Harry. I think I need your help,” I try to explain between sobs.
She gasps and I can hear sudden movement down the phone.
“You’re okay right now, though?”
“I think so. I’m just numb. Everything I thought I knew has been turned on its head in the past twelve hours. Why does this always happen to me?” I whimper.
“It’s okay, dear. I’m going to check on a few things here, then I’ll be in touch and will come out to see you as soon as I can make the arrangements. But if you need anything, anything at all, you call me, okay?”
“Thank you,” I stutter before hanging up the phone and lying back down. This is going to be a long couple of days; I can just feel it.
I left Elle’s place before the sun came up. I wanted to respect her wishes and give her the space she wants. I don’t have a clue where I stand with her, and it has my mind scattered all over the place. Once I was sure that she had calmed down and would be okay, I got out of the bed and left.
It was the coward’s way out, I knew that, but seeing her so distraught last night, I couldn’t bring myself to stay and wear her down again. I’m still determined to tell her everything, but only when she’s ready to handle it. Finding out that her dead father, who she still idolizes, was involved in shady, back room poker deals with well-known criminals whom he had no business associating with, will tear her apart.
After making sure her alarm was set, and the building’s front door was locked, I headed back to Shay’s apartment. It’s where Devon is staying and where I knew Shay would go after he’d knocked off from his surveillance for the night. I let myself in and find Devon sound asleep on the pull out couch in Shay’s small living room. Shay is sitting at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, reading the newspaper with a fresh cup of coffee.
“Yo,” he says without turning around.
“Hey,” I reply despondently, walking straight for the coffee maker on the counter and pouring myself a cup.
“How did it go? Not well I take it?” he replies, effectively answering his own question.
I let out an exasperated sigh. I’m truly at a loss as to what to do now. “She was a mess, dude. I found her curled up on the shower floor, fully clothed.”
“Shit, bro. I knew she wasn’t handling it, but I didn’t think she’d fall that far.”
“Neither did I to be honest. She didn’t say a word. Just let me hold her until the water went cold, then I crawled into bed and held her all night.” I’m now seriously reconsidering my decision to leave her alone this morning instead of staying and facing the music.
“Did you say anything to her?” he asks, looking up at me with a frown.
“Apart from comforting her so she’d stop freaking out on me, no.”
He clears his throat, like he’s not sure whether to say what he’s thinking. “You need to be there for her, Brax. When she’s ready to talk, she will. She wasn’t holding back any punches when she was asking me about it last night. She wouldn’t look at me, though. She just kept staring out the window.”
“That was when she locked eyes with me and neither of us could tear ourselves away” I say solemnly.
“So where to from here?” he asks, sounding concerned.