Chapter 72
FINLEY
Every time I look at Salem, my heart breaks. Her bruises are all but faded. The new haircut that evened out the shanked mess Presley made gives her dainty features an overwhelmingly fragile appearance. If I didn’t know she’s twenty-one, I’d assume she was a teenager.
When she squeezes my hand, I squeeze in return. I know Eli said she didn’t have to come forward as a witness, but we need her if the DA is going to move forward with charges on Presley. Without Salem’s testimony, we don’t have much now that Ryker has gone AWOL.
Besides, nailing him for what he did to Eli also means nailing him for all the heinous ways he hurt Salem. It’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt her baby.
So here we are—meeting the district attorney in secret so Salem’s whereabouts stay hidden.
The elevator doors open. Instead of following the dim safety lights, I guide Salem around the perimeter of the garage to the car parked in Eli’s spot.
The black sedan looks out of place sandwiched between mine and Jayden’s vehicles and the other cars around us.
Before I open the back door, I peer in to make doubly sure it is Ms. Donnelly.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I ask Salem one more time.
In reply, she opens the door and slips inside.
Okay—no turning back now.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Tomes,” the DA starts, only to pause when Salem shakes her head.
“Please call me Salem,” is all she says as her hand finds mine again. When I glance at her, she gives me an apologetic smile.
Girl, you’re not the only one done with that name. I slide into the center of the bench and wrap my arm around her waist.
“Good afternoon, Salem,” the DA tries again, pivoting in her seat to give us both a smile. “I’m Natasha Donnelly, Los Angeles District Attorney.”
“I know who you are,” Salem tells her, sitting taller. Her voice is as level as her stare when she leans forward and adds, “I also know you have a reputation for locking up rapists and woman beaters. I looked you up, Mrs. Donnelly.”
“It’s Ms.”
“I’ll give you everything I have... pictures of what he did to me. Videos that he sent to my child’s father. I’ll give you anything I can to help your case...”
Natasha’s brow cocks. “And in return, you want?”
“I want to remain anonymous. Like Eli. Presley threatened my baby; he beat me... If he knows I’m helping you—if he finds me—he’ll kill me.” Tears flood Salem’s light-brown stare; when she blinks, they skitter down her pixie-like face. “I’m not endangering my son.”
“As a witness, you couldn’t remain anonymous in court. However, until then, I can ask the court to withhold your name from the defense until you testify. Given your relationship to the defendant and your history, it shouldn’t be an issue.”
“But you can’t guarantee it.”
“No, Salem, I can’t.” Salem pulls back at Natasha’s retort. “We don’t have enough evidence to press charges against Mr. Tomes. Without your testimony, there isn’t a concrete case.”
It feels like forever we sit in silence while Salem chews on her lip and Natasha waits. I’m tempted to say something just to cut the tension. To ease the simmering pressure in my chest.
“He’s going to get away with it,” Salem says, a quiet sob cracking my heart wide open.
“Not if you press charges. I can keep you anonymous on the grounds of victim harassment and intimidation.”
“Like Eli.”
“Yes. And, like you pointed out earlier, I have a reputation for locking up rapists and woman beaters.”
Salem nods; her eyes flash to mine in warning before she says, “Okay.”
Natasha exhales, controlling her apparent relief as she pulls out a voice recorder from her purse on the front passenger seat and places it on the armrest between the seats.
Nausea roils in my gut when Salem shifts away from me. She’s too sweet-looking and too tiny. I wish I’d been better to her in Havenview. I wish I’d been a sister to her, protected her… in some way.
“I know you hate him, too, but you don’t have to stay and listen to this,” she tells me.
“That monster is not my brother. If it weren’t for Eli, he would’ve drowned me.” Lacing our hands together, I give her a gentle tug closer to me. “Unless you want me to go, I’m staying.”
Even if I know the things she’s about to say are going to give me nightmares. This is the moment to set the should-haves, could-haves right. I can be better to her now.
***
A warm plume of ginger and honey fogs my vision as I squeeze fresh lemon into Salem’s tea. I grab Saltines and take both to the couch where she’s curled up with Blanca.
The team is set to land from New York in a couple of hours, which gives me time to comfort her and make sure she’s okay after the interview with Natasha. That’s what it felt like. So many questions with answers that asked more and more. Details upon details that made my blood run subzero.
“You don’t have to look after me, Finley. I’m okay,” Salem says when I sit beside her, rubbing Blanca’s back legs the way she likes.
I nod, pushing down the questions brewing for hours. Right now, she needs to not think about all the vile, god-awful things Presley did over the past four years.
“Can I ask you something personal?” Salem sinks deeper into the chaise corner.
She has one of Eli’s fleece blankets draped over her lap, Blanca’s head nuzzled into the slight swell of her belly.
“You can ask me anything.” Her brows furrow at my remark—a look I’m too familiar with, because I’ve been where she is now. Alone. “We’re friends, Salem.”
“I’ve never had a friend before.” Warm eyes glisten as her mouth twists. “Not a real one.”
“I know.”
“Presley didn’t allow me to mingle with the other wives and girlfriends. I never got to know any of them for real. He always kept me at his side.”
“How did you and Casey... you know...?”
Salem’s hands cover her jaw, half-hiding the blush on her cheeks.
“Umm, well, I joined a women’s-only gym class at the country club, and Casey played golf there.
I guess we bumped into each other a few times, and then we started having coffee after my workout.
One day, he started teaching me to golf, and the more time we spent together.
.. one thing led to another.” The suffocated tone wrings my chest.
“Casey was good to you,” is all I can say before her tears burst free like a dam giving way.
“He treated me like a person. With him, I wasn’t an object or a pet to own; I was a woman. Casey wanted me. He loved me like doing so brought him joy.”
“Why didn’t you leave Presley sooner? Why not be with Casey?” I don’t understand how Casey didn’t take her away. How he could let her go back to Presley over and over. How she could do it.
“I tried to leave him once,” she says, tear-bludgeoned eyes locked on mine.
“That’s when he tied me up in the basement and starved me until I couldn’t move.
I didn’t have the energy to think or talk, let alone crawl out when he finally cut me loose.
I thought he was going to leave me to die in the dark. ”
Fuck.
All this time, I’ve called Presley a monster. A grotesquerie. I’ve been wrong all along. He’s everything that is awful. A devil. THE devil. And he deserves to be thrown back into the deepest, darkest pit of hell he came from.
“I’m sorry,” is all I manage through the haze of disgust.
It isn’t enough. Nothing I could say would be.
“You shouldn’t apologize for Presley’s actions.
They’re all him. They’re all on him. I lived so long believing I was the problem that I let him convince me I couldn’t have babies.
I let him convince me that all relationships between men and women were like ours.
.. except we never had a relationship. It was a situation where he had the power to control me and manipulate my mind. ”
I don’t know what else to do but apologize for the ways my family failed her. The ways our church failed us both.
“What did you want to ask me?” I say, trying to gather my thoughts.
“I see the way you and Eli are together, and I overheard some conversations with Presley and your father about the two of you after you left the Fellowship. If you loved him from so young, why not marry him?”
“The elders didn’t allow it.” And in my gut, I knew something was wrong.
Never did I think it was that Presley hurt Eli. I assumed Eli felt obligated to me, and I didn’t want to be the tie to Havenview he’d grow to despise.
“It seems sinful to waste something as pure and good as love,” she whispers, fussing with the chin-length waves framing her face. “I know the scriptures say our souls should belong to the Lord alone, but I don’t know... I think... I...”
“You can say it, Salem. The scriptures are antiquated.”
“Yes.” Sitting taller, she rubs the curve of her belly with a wistful sigh. “I see that now. I saw it when Casey loved and cherished me when my husband didn’t. I obeyed and honored him like the scriptures told me to, and all I got were beatings and... and... hurt.”
“He’s going to pay for all of it. You know that, don’t you?”
I, for one, cannot wait.
I grab the cooled tea and crackers from the coffee table and hand them to her before settling next to her and Blanca. It takes me forever to put something on the TV.
My gaze keeps drifting to the armchair, and my thoughts spiral back to Eli sitting there, watching Jayden fuck me.
Whether I knew it or not, that’s where we changed. Where our lives shifted. Not only mine and Eli’s, but JJ’s too. Our strings tangled together into one messy rope that has become stronger with every knot.
My wrist vibrates at the same time my insides buzz at the heated memory. I swear I can still hear JJ’s gruff voice in my ear. The deep gravel rasping with his raw need as he pounded into me.
I tap my bracelet a few times in return. Like I’m peppering kisses all over them. It’s exactly what I plan on doing when they get home. Making sure they know how grateful I am for their love and all the ways they regale me with it.
“That’s my favorite chair in the apartment,” Salem croaks, her voice still hoarse.
“Sometimes when I can’t sleep, I curl up in it and watch the ocean.
If I get the angle right and pull a blanket tight around me, it kinda feels like someone is holding me.
Most of the time, I imagine it’s Casey. That the come-and-go of the waves is his steady breath. It’s stupid, I know.”
Oh, my heart. “No, it’s no—” I pause at the loud knock on the door.
Blanca bolts up with a high whine, sprinting toward the sound.
Following, I try to slow my hammering pulse with shallow breaths.
I know we’re safe because, after Salem showed up, Eli and Jayden spoke to the doormen to make sure they don’t let anyone upstairs, even if they share our last names, unless they’re on the list they gave them.
Still, after this morning, I’m on edge. Natasha can protect Salem’s and Eli’s identities from the public, but Presley will know it’s them pressing charges.
He’s evil enough to remember every way he hurt them; part of me wonders if he’ll get a kick out of this.
Of knowing how much pain he’s caused them.
“Fin, are you in there?” Eli’s voice calls from the other side of the door with a heavier pound.
How are they back so early? I throw open the door and launch myself at my… man. “Where’s Jayden?”
My stomach drops as I cling to him, using his shoulders to hoist myself higher to see behind him.
“Management called him to give his statement for the inquiry the league is launching. They called Rio and Dylan, too.” His arms coil around my thighs; he buries his face in my neck and nips at my pulse.
“Figured I’d come pick you up, and we can take you for dinner.
Rest day tomorrow, so we can go watch that new Disney movie you and Jayden have been fawning over. ”
Shoot. “That sounds good, but—”
“What’s wrong?” He pulls back to read my face; his stare flicks past me. “Is Salem okay? The baby?”
Eli sets me down as I nod. His hand holds mine, leading me inside with attention-hungry Blanca hopping and circling. After a quick fuss over her, he turns to Salem at the end of the hallway.
With purposeful steps, he takes us to her. “I have some good news for you,” he says just as I rush out, “We met with Natasha today.”
“Why?” Eli asks Salem, voice soft as his hand cradles her shoulder lightly. “I told you that you didn’t have to do that.”
“I wanted to,” she says, offering a faint smile. “And I have to do everything I can to protect myself and my baby. Presley can’t touch us if he’s locked away.”
“He wouldn’t be able to touch you in Chicago.” Salem’s eyes go big and round, and my heart squeezes tight for her. “Brett called Lex this morning. He spoke to the Cavanaughs, and they invited you to the funeral.”
“The funeral? Casey’s?” Tears stream as Eli hauls her into a hug.
“Yes,” he murmurs, lifting his obsidian stare to mine with a tender smile. “If you’re not ready, you have a home here for as long as you need. However, I thought you might want to say goodbye properly.”
“Thank you,” is all she says between wet sniffles before pulling away and shuffling back to the couch.
Blanca takes the opportunity to jump Eli again when I cuddle into his side. Holding on to him as hard as I can. Because, as I watch Salem sit in the armchair, curled into the plush cushions with the fleece blanket wrapped around her tightly, all I can think of is her words.
How she pretends the cushions wrapped around her are Casey’s arms. The sound of the ocean is his breath.
I can’t imagine how lonely she is without him, and I never want to know what that’s like.
I never want to miss Eli or Jayden the way she’s longing for the man she loves. For his touch and his scent and his warmth.
I wouldn’t survive it.