Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Eli (Handlebar)
“I take it she still isn’t answering.” I don’t bother looking over my shoulder when Mace comes stomping back into the kitchen.
“She’s acting like a brat.”
“It’s understandable,” I reply, stirring the sauce on the burner.
“Do you have to be so fucking reasonable all the time?”
“Do you have to get so worked up? She has good reason to be pissed at us. Let her cool down in her own time.”
“It’s not like we’re doing this for fun.”
I side-eye him, then go back to the sauce. I pretend I don’t hear the snort.
Cassie did not take it well when we informed her she would be living in Mace’s friend’s house for the next few weeks.
Or that one or both of us would be here with her while she was.
It was always going to end with her being angry.
Getting mad and threatening to call the cops, I didn’t expect.
We all knew she wouldn’t go through with that.
Trying to call a cab to come get her ended with Mace taking her phone which enraged her even more. Then she did something neither of us expected. She went silent, excused herself and calmly walked out of the room.
“There is no way she can get out of the house is there?” I’d asked him as we watched her go.
“You think she’s going to jump from a second-story window?” Mace shook his head.
“Wouldn’t put it past her.”
Now here we are, two hours later and she still hasn’t come out of the room. She won’t talk to us either. Mace has been trying the whole two hours. I’ve decided to let her sit with it. She’ll come around, eventually. Or she’ll get hungry. Either way, she will come out of the room on her terms.
“That smells good,” Mace says, his tone somewhat begrudging. “Didn’t know you cooked.”
“Learned to fend for myself from a young age,” I tell him, adding some more herbs to the sauce and checking on the pasta.
“I could burn water.”
“When it’s a necessity, you learn how to do it.”
Mace frowns but he’s interrupted when his phone rings. He walks out of the kitchen to answer but as this house is fully open plan, he can’t get away from me hearing without him stepping outside. Instead of eaves dropping, I gather up dishes and cutlery.
“Yeah, I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Mace hangs up and walks over, looking at the food. “I have to go. I don’t know how I managed to forget that I have a thing tonight.” He shakes his head. “You gonna be okay?”
“Did you really just ask me that?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck that was,” he glances toward the stairs. “Good luck.”
I go back to the food and Mace leaves. The motorcycle isn’t quiet as he rides away and for a while I stand still, waiting to see what she’ll do. When there is still no movement, I set out three plates of food and cover and store two in the fridge.
After eating and cleaning everything up, I set myself up on the couch and wait.
I’ve always been a light sleeper, the creak of a floorboard wakes me. I’m laying down with the lights off. The room lights up for a moment when the fridge door is pulled back.
“Huh,” Cassie mutters.
I grin, figuring she’s looking at the food. Some cupboards open and close and a bottle cap drops onto the counter then onto the floor making her curse.
“You wouldn’t make a very good burglar.”
“Jesus Christ,” she shrieks and drops the bottle in her hand. “What the fuck, Eli? Why are you hiding in the dark? Damn it,” she looks down at the beer all over the floor when I flick on the light.
“I was sleeping,” I go where I found cleaning products earlier when I was looking through the kitchen and eye her bare feet. “Watch the glass.”
“There wouldn’t be any glass if you didn’t scare the ever loving shit out of me.”
“Sorry.”
“That is the least sorry sounding sorry I ever heard.”
“Sit down, sweetheart, let me clean this up then I’ll get you some food.”
“I’m not hungry. I just want a beer.”
I grab her another then clean up the glass and beer while she sits and watches me. I figure that’s a good thing that she hasn’t run back upstairs. Once I’ve put everything away, I grab myself a drink too.
“Shall we,” I nod toward the living room.
“Only because I want answers.”
“I’ll tell you what I can.”
“Where’s Dominic?”
My brow arches at her calling him by his real name. She hasn’t called me Handlebar for a long time, I guess it’s only natural she doesn’t want to use his road name.
“He had business tonight. He’ll be back tomorrow.”
“This is ridiculous. I’m not hiding.”
“Maybe when we explain things you’ll be glad of it. You ran out of here before we got a chance to tell you what we know.”
“Can you blame me?” She huffs out and drops down onto the couch.
She has found an old T-shirt to wear instead of her skirt suit. It falls down to her knees. Who the fuck does it belong to? This is Talon’s sisters’ house, and she lives alone. Did Mace leave it for her?
Doesn’t matter I guess, not when her legs are on display and she crosses them, so the hem line glides up showing more of her gorgeous thigh. Cassie waits for me to take my seat.
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“Talon found someone who knew what happened to Marshall.”
“Who is Talon?”
“Mace’s VP.” She waves at me to go on. “He is some lowlife junkie I’m not a hundred percent sure we can trust, but he said it was to do with the sister, and the guy who did it is bad news.”
“In what way? It has something to do with the person who was hurting her?”
“He thinks so. The strange thing is, when we looked up who he thought the guy was, turns out he’s something of a ghost.”
“What does that mean?”
“A contract killer.”
She blinks at me. “Everyone keeps saying that the Veil Line help women who are in dire situations. If the man she ran from has connections like that… Jesus, you don’t think he’ll find her do you? Is that why Liz wouldn’t tell you anything?”
“Liz doesn’t know anything more than the Veil Line want her to. Kansas is looking into the man who did it. King wants us to be careful. He doesn’t want to bring anything down on the club.”
“You spoke to him about it?”
“Mace did.”
“Right,” she chews on her fingernail as she thinks it through. “He’ll be back here tomorrow?”
“Should be, I’m not sure what he’s into tonight but he wants to make sure you’re safe.”
“Eli, Vance is a prick, he hurts women, but I don’t think I’m in any danger from him. And now that Cara has a better attorney, we don’t stand a chance of beating them.”
“It’s not only about him, sweetheart. Whatever Mace’s club has inadvertently got caught up in, it’s more dangerous than we thought. Part of me wants to stop looking for the Veil. These people are willing to torture and kill to find out where she went.”
“Do you think Marshall told them?”
“No.” I witnessed firsthand how desperate Marshall was. “I don’t think he would have given her up. The way he was killed tells us that. And now I’m…”
“What?” she uncrosses her legs and turns to face me, shifting a little closer.
I set my beer down on the side table and lean forward, clasping my hands between my knees.
“What is it, Eli?”
“I never should have gone to see Liz.”
Cassie sits with that a moment. “This… killer,” she says quietly. “Do you think he was watching us?”
My shoulders rise and fall. “It’s not likely but if I’ve put them in danger… We can’t keep an eye on them too,” I turn to look at her.
“You’re probably right, why would he think to follow us, to see where we went. And they seem like the kind of people who can take care of themselves. I mean haven’t they already left the area?”
“Yeah, I made sure.”
“But you’re still worried?”
“The Veil knows what they’re doing. They’ve taken Marshall’s sister and disappeared but if whoever is backing the man that killed Marshall is determined enough,” I sigh heavily.
“I don’t want to compromise them. And I sure as shit don’t want them calling us, drawing attention to us,” I sit back and look at her again. “To you.”
“I’ll be fine, Eli.”
“Yeah. Forgive me if I want to make sure.”
“They mean a lot to you, don’t they?”
Typical of her to take the focus off herself.
Cassie thinks she is invincible, but no one is, not even me, or Mace.
Hell, even the club landed itself in dangerous territory a year ago.
We fought hard to protect our own. I’d do it even harder to make sure Cassie isn’t hurt. Or my friends at the carnival.
Cassie’s hand touches my knee, the warmth of her palm seeping through the fabric of my jeans. “How did you end up with them?” she asks.
She waits as I grapple with the idea of telling someone about my life before Devil’s Chaos.
It’s been almost two decades since I ran from the boy I was. When Elias Adelman ceased to exist. He became the boy who was lost, to parents who made a show of caring, but were probably glad I was gone, because there was less chance people would find out what a monster my mother truly is.
I’ve held that secret for so long, I’m not sure I’ll be able to tell it.
Cassie shifts a little closer, so our thighs are touching. She doesn’t say anything but her silent encouragement and the understanding in her eyes as she stares at me, helps me see if there is anyone I can tell, it’s her.
“Sanderson’s was the first place that made me stop running.” I can’t look at her, choosing to focus on the fireplace. “I spent three years moving from place to place, after I ran away from home when I was fourteen. At first, I was scared and had no idea where to go. I couldn’t go back.”
Her hand starts stroking up and down my thigh.
“I grew up in Talladega, Alabama,” I say, knowing if she was going to talk, she’d ask where I was from. “I made my way out of the state, sleeping where I could find a relatively safe place. I had some money, clothes and a knife.”
“Eli,” she whispers.