Chapter 6 – “Fuck it I love you” - Lana Del Rey #2
Augustus.
A friend of her brother’s. As if I hadn’t known her first. Loved her first. Given her every fiber of my fucking being until there was nothing left of me at all.
“I didn’t realize you were closed,” she continues. “Elliot was just telling me how much he liked my arm piece, and I explained that I had it done here. Thought we’d pop in.”
She’s lying. Why the fuck is she lying? I painted her in violets in my parents’ garage, long before I owned this place.
She swallows, that lip trembling again, as Elliot—the fucking asshole—roughly spins her toward the door.
“It was good seeing you. Sorry to bother,” she offers quietly as Elliot pushes the door open.
I don’t know who the woman standing in front of me right now is, but I know it’s not the same one I spent my entire childhood loving.
Elena would take one look at a man touching her without consent and snap his wrist in half.
She’d never flinch beneath the weight of someone else’s presence, or lower her voice to a timid whisper as if she’s afraid of waking some sleeping beast.
I don’t know what happened, but she’s scared, and there is no fucking way I’m letting her walk out that door right now.
“Actually, while I have you,” I cut in, sighing in relief when they both stop at the threshold. “I’ve got some cash I owe Leo in my office and we’ve been working opposite schedules lately, so I’m not sure when I’ll see him next. Would you mind passing it along for me?”
I don’t know this Elliot guy, but the grip he has on Elena’s shoulder sure makes it easy to assume he’s a piece of shit.
It’s enough that he’s taken the outspoken, fierce, spitfire of a woman I used to know and turned her into some kind of trembling doe, so I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume he’s not above stealing.
If anything is going to make him pause and give me thirty seconds alone with Elena, it’s the potential to get some money in his pocket.
“Oh,” Elena breathes, her eyes closed with relief, tension dropping from her shoulders. “Yeah, sure. I can do that.”
“It’s in my office if you want to come grab it.” I nod my head toward the back.
Elliot stiffens, like he’s not willing to let her go, and I casually toss my hand in my pocket, gripping my phone, ready to call the police. Thankfully, he steps back inside the building and lets her slip out from under his arm.
“Be right back.” She smiles at him, offering a seductive flutter of her lashes like she’ll be rewarding him for the act of grace later.
My stomach hurts at the sight of it.
I let her pass me, putting myself between her and Elliot before following her into my office. I leave the door open, not wanting to raise suspicion. Elena walks to the farthest corner of the room behind my desk, and I step in close, just enough for her to hear me whisper, “Did he hurt you?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “I don’t think so.”
“What do you mean you don’t think so?” It’s my body trembling now, eyes desperately raking over her, searching for any sign of harm. “How long have you been dating him?”
“I just met him tonight.”
“Tonight?” I rub my face, far too tired to be dealing with this right now. “What the fuck is going on, Elena?”
Her eyes go wide, and we both freeze, realizing I raised my voice. We’re silent for a moment, listening for footsteps, but thankfully all remains quiet.
“I met him on a dating app,” she hisses through clenched teeth, grabbing my arm and tugging me closer as she lowers her voice. “Tonight was our first date, and he got…aggressive.”
“Aggressive how?” I ask, far too focused on the way her skin feels against mine.
It’s been over four years, down to the week, in fact, since I’ve last felt her touch. I abhor the way my body reacts to it. Like something dormant awakening again.
“We went on the Ferris Wheel and he…” She shivers. “Touched me. In a way I was not totally cool with.”
Red clouds my vision, and as if she can sense it, she tightens her grip on my wrist, bringing me back to her.
“When I asked him to stop, he…” She sighs. “He started yelling at me. He called me a tease for the shorts I was wearing and said I should’ve known what I was getting into when I signed up for the app.”
I could grind my molars into fucking dust right now.
“First of all, that’s not true. You don’t owe a goddamn man anything. Ever,” I growl. “Secondly, I know that you know that. Why didn’t you tell him you’d slit his throat?”
She loves threatening to slice a man’s neck open.
Her face falls, gaze dropping to the ground. Almost as if she’s disappointed in herself. I want to touch her, pull her against my chest and cradle her head like I’ve always done when comforting her.
But I don’t.
“I let him pick me up in front of the house.” She lifts her head, and I swear I can see the faintest veil of tears in her gaze. “He knows where I live”—her voice breaks in a near silent whisper—“where Lou lives.”
Fuck.
This guy really shook her up. She’s afraid of him following her home. I don’t know why her concern for Dahlia’s daughter humanizes her in my eyes. She’s always been human. Empathetic to a flaw…almost. I spent four years turning her into a heartless succubus inside my head.
“Stay in my office and lock the door behind me.”
Her brows furrow as I step back toward the door. She shoots out, grabbing my arm before I can reach it. “What? No–”
I pull myself from her hold, unable to fathom the heat of her touch. “For once in your goddamn life, just listen to me, Elena. Lock the fucking door.”
I leave my office, shutting the door behind me, letting out a breath when I hear the lock click into place. My steps echo down the hallway. Elliot mutters, “Took you long enough,” before he halts, cocking his head with a furrowed brow when he sees I’ve returned without her.
He stands by the front door, arms crossed at his chest. I quickly walk behind the front counter, putting it between us. He frowns beneath his porn-stache. “Where’s Elena?”
“She’ll be going home with me tonight.”
He scoffs. “The fuck did you just say to me?”
“You need to leave.” He doesn’t move. I lean against the counter like I’m bored.
“There’s a panic button beneath this desk.
I’ve already pressed it. Police will be here in two minutes.
You can walk out that front door right now, and I’ll conveniently forget what you look like by the time they get here,” I say, feigning calm, though I know damn well I don’t have a panic button.
“Or you can stay, and you can speak to them about touching your date without her consent tonight.”
He rears back, genuinely shocked. “What the fuck are you talking about? She’s a fucking liar, dude. I didn’t do a goddamn thing!”
He steps toward me, which I think is intended to be menacing, but it only makes me laugh.
“My best guess is that you’re so used to copping a feel without permission that making women uncomfortable is second nature.
You don’t even realize what you’re doing.
” I shake my head, chuckling again. He stiffens, unsure how to react to my lack of fear.
“I know it may be a struggle to get this through your dull fucking head—past that fragile ego and sense of entitlement—but she’s not interested.
” I nod toward the door. “Now get the fuck out.”
He leans around me, eyes scanning for Elena, before shaking his head and turning away. “That bitch isn’t worth this shit, anyway.”
My hands curl into fists at my side, wanting to pummel him for those words. It takes all my composure to keep my feet planted on the ground. I watch him walk to the door, waiting until he’s pressing against the handle before I call out, “Elliot.”
He glances back, dark eyes narrowed to slits.
“Elena doesn’t live alone. She lives with her six-foot-four, three-times-your-size brother, and the only thing he hates more than creeps fucking around his sister is creeps fucking around his wife and kid.
” He rolls his eyes at me. “Her other brother owns this boardwalk and would happily trespass your ass for the rest of time if he knew the way you scared her tonight. Do not ever contact Elena again.”
He smiles at me. “What? You’re not going to threaten me yourself?”
“It’s not my place to make threats for her,” I respond. “But if it were, I wouldn’t bother. I’d just hunt you down and split your skull open for calling her a bitch like that.”
He looks me up and down, a smirk accenting his lips. “Whatever. Good luck to you, man.” He shoves open the door open and strides out.
I need it, honestly.
I follow, locking the door behind him, shutting off the lights, and stumbling through the dark back to my office. I knock on the door lightly. “It’s me. He’s gone.”
Only a second later, the knob clicks, and she’s swinging it open, revealing the endless brown eyes I spent my whole life lost inside. They’re bloodshot and hooded, a faraway look on her face. “He left?”
“Yep.” I nod. “Do you need me to drive you home?”
Her gaze drops. “No, it’s fine. I’ll order a ride.”
“Sorry, let me rephrase that,” I say. “You’re going to let me take you home. Do you have all your things?”
She lifts her head, brows pinched, eyes blazing. Of course, she has no problem getting a fucking attitude with me. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
I swear to God, this woman.
She ghosts me after the worst tragedy of my fucking life, breaks my heart and destroys my soul, disappears for literal years, and then shows up to my business on a Saturday night with another guy, expecting me to rescue her from her creepy fucking date?
“You’re not in a position to argue with me right now,” I snap. “And I won’t have your brothers on my ass for abandoning you late at night after whatever disaster that just was.”
She scoffs, rolling her eyes as her arms cross at her chest. “That’s why you’re insisting? Because you’re scared of my brothers?”
“Yes,” I lie. “And I’m not scared of them. I’m easily annoyed by them.”