Chapter 24 #3
The sinister joy in his words slithered beneath my skin. “I want to see Josh.”
“Quite demanding, aren’t we?”
I glowered at him and did my best to keep how intimidated I was by Josh's eerie dragon-lawyer in check.
The fire in his eyes glinted wickedly. “I’m surprised you haven’t asked about Beatrice Harker.”
I blinked, taken aback. Truthfully, I’d forgotten all about the vile woman. “How did you catch her?”
He shrugged as he gathered his things. “Simple really. She is a predictable creature. Catching her with the Mein Zeke formula was a little tricky. However, her attempting to sell out her own son was quite the bonus.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know the detective won’t be pleased to find that she will be lumped into this investigation, but it fits your own criteria for her punishment quite nicely. I had my doubts about being able to draw the connection to him in a believable way, but then she went and condemned herself.”
“You’re getting off on all of this.”
“I do rather enjoy burning things to the ground.”
I shook off my unease about Lombardi’s motivations. “How soon can we see him?”
“Considering I submitted the request before the proceedings began? I’d say as soon as we finish going through security.”
Josh
I took all of ten seconds to ensure that Lombardi had invoked lawyer-client confidentiality before laying into Elijah.
“You tricked me into signing a marriage license? You couldn’t even have asked first?”
His mouth pulled down in a frown at the unexpected attack. “I was afraid if I asked, you’d say no.”
“You’re damn right I would have said no.
” I pointed at his chest. “Do you have any idea the position you’ve put us in?
Put yourself in? This trial is being publicly broadcast. Everyone now knows your connection to me.
” I’d thought about it practically nonstop since I’d been hauled out of the courtroom.
Any angle I looked at the situation, it was a problem.
“You said we had to keep—”
I shot him a warning glare.
“…the other thing secret. You never mentioned anything about legal bindings.” His face was unapologetic and set with determination. His words from earlier came back to taunt me: I did what I had to do. “They wouldn’t let me be here any other way,” he insisted.
I pulled at my hair at a total loss for how to handle this latest wrinkle.
Elijah had always been in danger, but he was more so now.
If my mother even suspected what I had done to cut her out of her own family legacy, she’d skin Elijah alive for sport and, assuming I wasn’t already dead, make me watch.
It didn’t matter that she was supposedly already in custody; she’d find a way to see it done.
I clawed at my throat as I struggled to breathe.
I’d let the world burn before I let her harm so much as a hair on his head.
“Josh, are you really that upset? We can always get it annulled when this is over.”
My head shot up, and air flooded my lungs in a sudden rush.
“What? No.” I finally noted the wariness around his eyes and the uncertainty dampening his scent as if someone had dropped him in a river.
“No, baby. I’m not upset that we're married.” My heart skipped a beat just saying the word. “I just… I guess…”
I don’t want the world to hurt you just so it can hurt me.
He took a step closer. “What is it, moonbeam?”
I shrugged and refused to give voice to my fears. “I guess I just thought if it was ever going to happen for me it would be… I don’t know, grander?” Elijah’s soft smile touched his eyes, and he cupped the side of my face. I leaned into the caress and let out a sigh.
Maybe this all could’ve been avoided if I’d been honest with him from the start.
He pressed a light kiss to my forehead. “I promise, we can have the grandest celebration you can imagine, wherever you want, with whoever you want. But first, we have to get through this.”
“If only it were that easy.” I glanced behind Elijah to see Lombardi tapping his wrist where his bio-ware was embedded. “Can we have another minute?”
Lombardi held up a finger and stepped back once more.
“Why didn’t you tell me about all of this before?” The hurt in Elijah’s voice was too much to bear on top of everything else.
“I was afraid you’d try to stop me.”
“You’re damn right I would have,” he responded, echoing my words from earlier.
I laughed into his shoulder as he pulled me close. I held onto him tightly, hating that our time together would once again be brief. “I love you.”
He squeezed my waist. “Josh,” he whispered in my ear.
“Hmm?” I hummed against his neck.
“Will you marry me?”
Conflicting emotions rushed through me. Fear, hope, doubt, joy. The bond burned them all away. “Yes.” I pulled back enough to look into his eyes. “Elijah—”
He leaned forward and brushed his lips against mine.
I lost myself to the gentleness of the kiss. My fingers dug into his shoulder as fear threatened to steal this precious moment.
“Sh, moonbeam. Everything is going to be okay. We’ll get through this.”
If only I could believe that.
My gaze drifted past him to the alabaster statues standing in judgment. If the myths that Gorgon victims weren’t actually dead and could be revived held even a shred of truth, then it was possible at least one of us could walk away from this.