Chapter 28 I’ll Be Here To Protect You
I’ll Be Here To Protect You
Eli's Search History: background check for Dr. Emily Morgan
Emily
It’s Friday evening, and Eli has been working for Karl on ways to take down the organ trafficking group.
I’m sitting crossed legged, watching the news, with Graham at my side, when Eli storms in, face red. Held tightly in his fist is my phone.
“Why is someone named ‘G’ texting you, saying they miss you?” he asks, his tone lethally calm despite the darkening of his eyes. “Who is he?”
This is awkward. He’s once again mistaking someone for another man. But this time instead of a cat… it’s my ex… girlfriend.
“Not a he,” I whisper.
Eli doesn’t know this part of me yet.
He looks at me, then down at the phone, face screwed up in confusion. “One of the texts says: ‘You can’t hide from me forever. You’re mine.’ You’re telling me that’s not from an ex-boyfriend?”
I shake my head. “Gia… she is an ex.”
Eli rears back. “She?”
“Yes. She is the reason I left Italy.”
Eli sits down on the couch beside me. “Tell me about her,” he says. There’s no question, but it’s not a demand either. Still, I obey. I haven’t opened up to anyone about what Gianna did to me. About how bad it became.
For some reason, there’s no hesitation in me.
I take a deep breath. Eli’s hand reaches out, interlacing our fingers. I hate the way it soothes me.
“She love-bombed me from the beginning and was obviously narcissistic. Instead of doing the rational thing, and running in the other direction, the therapist in me wanted to be the one to fix her.” Instead, she broke me.
Eli’s grip tightens momentarily before releasing. He nods for me to keep going.
“It started as small things—trying to control what I would eat, what I could wear. She’d become angry when I’d get home from work late, accusing me of cheating on her.
” Eventually I became a hollow shell of the girl I once was.
I wasn’t always this person who did nothing but work and eat.
I used to have friends, go to parties. But then I became isolated.
She got rid of anything that brought me joy in life.
Once the words start leaving my mouth, it’s like a dam has burst. It all comes pouring out.
“When Carina—who was my only friend for a long time, even if just by text—stopped answering me, Gianna noticed my agitation.” That was the beginning of the end.
“When I dropped everything, getting on a flight to England? Yeah, she was pissed. But I saw the press conference. Carina’s father was there, controlling her. I knew it. After everything she told me, all the trauma we unpacked together? How could I not make sure she was okay?
“When I got back to Italy, though, that was the breaking point. Gianna snapped. She pulled a knife on me. She started throwing out accusations left, right, and centre, just as she had before. But this was different. She said if she couldn’t have me no one could.”
Eli growls low in his throat. “She threatened you?”
All I can do is nod. “Yes.” The word is so quiet in the silence of the room. “I ran. Left Graham with my parents, hopped on a flight here, and never looked back. I didn’t think she’d—”
“That she’d want you back?” Eli interjects. He huffs a laugh. “Anyone who’s ever lost you is a fool. I’d be more surprised if she didn’t.”
“Can I see the texts?” I ask. He’s had my phone hostage this whole week. I didn’t even know she’d been texting.
There’s the text Eli read out to me.
G: You can’t hide from me forever. You’re mine.
Then others. Most are in Italian, but translated they say:
G: I miss you. I’m sorry about what happened, we can work things out.
G: You’re a fucking bitch. Answer me, or I swear to God…
G: Answer me, please, baby.
Why now? Why? After all this time?
The phone vibrates in my hands. Another text from Gianna. This one in English.
G: I’m in London. I will find you.
My fingers tremble around the device, my arms erupting with goosebumps. Eli takes the phone from me, scanning the latest message quickly before breaking the phone by crushing it in his palm.
It’s only when his thumbs swipe at my cheeks that I realise the tears falling down my face. I suck in a breath, trying—failing—to calm myself.
“Angel?”
Eli pulls me onto his lap, cradling me in his arms, stroking my hair and whispering that it’s going to be okay.
“I have to run,” I whimper, my voice small and hoarse. Eli’s arms tighten around me. “Eli, please. You have to let me go. She will find me here.”
I look up at him through blurry eyes to see him shaking his head. His voice is steady and sure as he speaks his next words. “You’re not leaving me, Angel.” His fingers absentmindedly trace my skin. “You’re right, though. She will find you. But I’ll be here to protect you when she does.”
Eli
Emily has an ex-girlfriend. That’s an interesting development. She’s not lesbian though. She’s attracted to me, I know she is.
She jostles in my lap as I hold her. “Eli?” she murmurs, her voice small and fragile. I hate it.
“Yes, Angel?”
“What do I do?”
I consider our options. It’s been five days since I brought her home with me. On Monday, she’ll have to go back to work, and her life, or people will become suspicious. But she doesn’t love me yet. Of that, I’m certain.
She would have been. But her seeing the remnants of my torture session with Kevin set us back.
Perhaps I can use this situation with her ex to keep her close. Keep her from running despite the freedom I’ll need to give her. It could work. It’s risky though. But she’s worth the risk.
“You’re going to go about life as normal,” I tell her.
She sniffles, then sucks in a breath. “You’re letting me go?”
I hold her tighter. I’m not letting her go. Not really. “I’m not going to keep you prisoner, no.” If I can make myself seem like the best option for her safety, then I can have more time to get her to give herself to me. “But you’ll live here, in our home, with me.”
She swallows, eyes searching mine. “I don’t understand.”
“Angel. This Gianna—she’s dangerous, isn’t she?”
She nods.
“Do you want to spend your life running from her forever?”
She hesitates. “No.”
“Then you need me. You need me to keep you safe from her. I’ll watch over you. And if she tries something? Then you know I won’t let her harm a single hair on your head.”
Emily nibbles on her lip, eyes wide with confusion. “You’re going to trust me not to run away from you?”
I huff a hollow laugh. “I think you’re more scared of Gianna than you are of me.”
Emily’s eyes close, as if she’s resigning herself to her fate. “You’re right.”