Chapter 24
FINLEY
They were off.
The whole game I waited for them to click, for their magic to fire up the game, but it wasn’t there. Elijah was distracted and Jayden appeared lost without him.
I watch the play the pundits are dissecting while I wipe down the kitchen island, making sure all the paint is cleaned up from the last few hours I’ve spent painting the mural sketches for Summer.
I’m completely zoned into what is being said when the door to the apartment clicks and a few seconds later Elijah walks in with a box in his hands and Jayden following behind him.
Both Elijah and Jayden look exhausted, and there’s a loaded aura about them that closes the air in the room.
Elijah’s eyes cut down my body—down his paint-stained, crisp white shirt and black boxer briefs—with a crooked grin when he places the box down on the kitchen side and grabs two bottles of coconut water. It’s his go to electrolyte replenishment after a game.
“This is for you,” he says by way of greeting me with a tender caress to my shoulder as he throws Jayden one of the bottles.
“For me?” I give the box a shake on the counter trying to determine what it might be while mouthing to Jayden a silent “hello”.
“Hey, Lucky,” he mouths back with a sigh that wrenches my heart into my throat when he plops down onto one of the barstools in front of the painting drying on the breakfast bar. “These are amazing.”
Eli leans in so that they’re both pouring themselves over my watercolor mockups. “So amazing, right?”
Oh God, the look they exchange is brimming with loaded playfulness that thickens the air some more.
“Yeah,” Jayden says, glancing back down at the woodland illustrations. “I love the wintery feel of this one. Reminds me of my family’s place in Aspen. It’s always so quiet and still when it snows there. Sometimes it’s like the silence has an echo of its own.”
Elijah’s stare lifts to mine. “This one—” He points at the first sketch I did. The one that resembles the woods behind his father’s church. “—is beautiful. The spectrum of greens is peaceful.”
“The badger is cute as fuck,” Jayden adds.
Oh no. Elijah’s eyes light up. “This one time, Fin chased a skunk thinking it was a badger.”
“Aren’t badgers super aggressive in real life?”
“Yeah, and skunks really do stink in real life,” he chuckles.
“And I was single digits years old when it happened. It was the worst. My grandma had me soak in a baking soda bath for ages and then she scrubbed me with dish soap. I smelled lemon Joy fresh for days.”
“A little goes a long way,” Elijah croons the slogan for the brand with a grin.
Something’s off about it though. About Jayden too. Like there’s something unfinished between them, and after tonight’s game, I want to give them a little more space to get back in sync. It’s how I like them. How they’re meant to be.
Besides, my curiosity is piqued by the parcel.
After our video conversation yesterday where I told Christina about dinner with Elijah and Jayden, Elijah’s kiss, and afterwards.
.. When I was too worked up and my head was obviously a mess because I couldn’t think about Elijah without thinking about Jayden.
It felt good. Touching myself, thinking about them. Better than fighting it in the moment and even though I felt guilty afterwards, Christina assured me it’s normal and healthy.
Obviously, not before she teased me and promised to send me something to help with selfcare. Taking the box, I head towards the bedroom with an “I’ll be right back.”
“What do you want for dinner?” Elijah calls after me, knowing that I’ve waited to eat with him.
“Whatever you’re having.”
I’m traipsing down the corridor to my room when I hear Jayden tell him, “I found something more to say other than amazing, I get to pick dinner.”
“You said ‘these are amazing’.”
“And then I added, ‘I love the wintery feel’ and ‘the badger is cute as fuck’.” Eli huffs at Jayden’s retort. “Also, you made fun of her skunk ordeal.”
“Actually, that skunk disaster got me a lot of time with her. None of the girls wanted to hang out with her for a long while, so we got to hang out together instead. We would sneak to the woods behind the church, and we’d spend hours talking and just being.”
We did. And Elijah would always bring me a flower to put in my hair. That’s when he became my best friend. From then on, day by day, he became more until he was my everything. My love.
I drop the box on my bed before I go to the bathroom and grab the nail scissors. I’m still lost in my memories when I spot the small, dark stain on the lilac duvet and the corner of the box.
Odd.
I check my hands and arms, but there’s nothing on them. Not a cut or paint.
My chest wrings a tad, twisting that peculiar sensation deeper.
Something feels off when I move the parcel to the vanity desk and start slicing through the tape. There are so many layers of it that it takes me a while to get through it. I open the flaps to find swathes of shredded newspapers.
“What in the…” I groan as I dig through it to the bubble wrapped bundle inside.
There’s a strange smell when I pierce the bubble wrap layer with the tip of the scissors. It’s loose, allowing me to run the blades with—
“Oh my God.” I heave. The odor is putrid. Flies waft up into my face with the stench of rotting flesh. “What...? What…?”
I drop the scissors to catch my vomit. Only for the box to tumble to the floor.
Shock stifles my breath. My scream.
I’m frozen, staring at the mound of flesh. Milky eyes. Blue tongue.
Oh my God.
“Elijah… Elijah!”
Everything around me spins with the uncontrollable retches twisting my stomach. My pulse is hammering a million miles a second.
“What’s wron—fuck!” He pulls me back, thrusting me into a wall of muscle at my back.
“What the fuck?” Jayden barks, his arms wrapping around me. Tight and strong, lifting me up into his chest and taking me away while Elijah follows, slamming the door to the bedroom shut. “Is that…?”
“A lamb’s head,” Elijah growls, his hands gripping my face so tight that the pain grounds me.
His chest presses into my side, pushing me deeper into Jayden’s hold. I’m wrapped in their warmth, encapsulated in their safety. It’s everything I need to stop me from drowning in fear.
“You’re okay, sweet girl.” I nod at Elijah’s words as he continues promising me that, “No one can touch you. No one will ever hurt you again.”
Jayden stiffens around me at his statements. When his arms curl tighter around me, sandwiching me airtight between him and Elijah, I know that the promises made are true. I’m the safest I’ve ever been with them. The safest I’ll ever be.
“Take her to your place,” Elijah tells Jayden. “I’m going to clean this up.”
“Let me help,” I say, only for Jayden to hold me hostage in his arms when I attempt to get down.
Meanwhile, Elijah gives me a stern, “No. You’re going to let Jayden take you to his apartment and you’re going to let him look after you. I got this.”
The hard clench of his jaw says no arguments as he yanks his phone from the pocket of his slacks and stabs at his screen. It’s barely reached his ear when he bites out a curse and dials again. He does this a few times before Jayden takes me away.
We’re both looking over his shoulder when Elijah storms back into my bedroom and a loud crash follows the echoing slam of the door.
“Jayden… I can’t… we can’t leave him…”
“Yeah, we can,” he says, continuing with his long strides towards his apartment when I try to get down again.
“No!” I push at his chest as we leave Elijah’s apartment, and the door closes behind us. “If you truly love him, you can’t abandon him right now...”
Jayden says nothing. He leaves me to stew in the aftermath of my remark. Still holding me as he opens his door awkwardly and takes me inside. My words have hit him where it hurts most.
His heart.
Where all his affection for Elijah is locked away. Except I see it, and I can’t ignore it. We can’t ignore it forever. At some point it needs to be acknowledged. Even if it’s just between us.
That point isn’t right now, though.
My heart is jackhammering into my ribs as Jayden crouches, placing me on my feet with the kind of gentleness that chokes.
“Eli needs to handle this on his own,” he says as though he knows something I don’t. “To prove to himself that he can protect you.”
He pulls his shoulders back and walks towards the living area, not giving me room to argue that Elijah has nothing to prove. Not to himself or anyone. He’s always done everything he can to protect me. He took beatings for me. Was punished in my place when I broke the rules.
Elijah has nothing to prove.
“Fin,” Jayden calls down the hallway at me. His voice is soft, beckoning. “Come on. I’m making coffee.”
His hands are in the pockets of his slacks, and his sleeves are rolled up to his elbows while he waits for me to join him. Even though he’s not smiling there’s still that all-encompassing Jayden ease about him that draws me to him.
A light at the end of a pitch-dark tunnel.
The aromatic, woodsy scent of Jayden’s blanket fills my lungs every time I fidget on his couch.
Elijah hasn’t come for me yet, and even though Jayden keeps telling me to relax and go to sleep, I can’t. I can’t do anything except worry. I know he’s feeling the same as he flips through the channels endlessly, checking the time on his watch whenever he thinks I’m not looking.
I still feel guilty enough about my comment earlier that I shuffle closer to him.
We’re sitting side-by-side when he turns off the TV and wraps his arm around my shoulders.
The instant I’m curled into his side, Jayden drops his head back onto the couch cushion and dims the lights on the portable home panel.
We sit in silent, near-darkness, holding each other. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting…
My eyes are heavy, and Jayden’s breaths are evening out when Elijah’s tall shadow sinks down beside me.
“My father said it’s not them.”
“You spoke to your father?”
“It took me a while to get through to him.”
“How did you…?”
“Evelyn.” His grandmother?
Thinking of her makes my thighs throb, the ghost of her lashes burns in my flesh—an invisible wound that’ll never heal.
“I told her I was going to the cops and she had him call me.”
“Do you believe that it isn’t them?”
“Fuck no.”
“What happens now?” I ask, and Jayden’s arm tightens around me while I lace my fingers with Elijah’s on the couch, between us.
“They leave us alone for good, or I’ll lead the cops to their way.” Oh. “The Fellowship doesn’t want that, Fin. My father doesn’t want it. Your father doesn’t want it.”
Jayden remains silent on my other side. If it wasn’t for the rampant hammering of his heart into my shoulder, I’d think he was asleep. When I burrow deeper into him, Elijah’s hand squeezes mine.
“Clean break, Fin. No more bullshit,” he says with a long exhale.
The smell of bleach and lemon dish soap clinging to him takes me back to our conversation earlier.
That damn skunk brought us together, and the irony that another stench has brought him to me again isn’t lost on me. Not one bit as he shifts closer until his side is pressed to mine and I’m sandwiched between him and Jayden again.
For the first time in… ever… I know that I’m exactly where I belong.
I’m home.