10. StayGo? – Aurora
10
STAY OR GO?
AURORA
T he distant sounds of Elijah trashing his studio chase me through the house.
Fuck.
What should I do?
“Atticus?” I call out in a voice that’s pitched too high when I make it to the entryway. “Seven?”
There’s another loud crash from way down the hall and I flinch, rushing for the door.
Nope.
I slip into my sandals and notice a metal bat in the corner by the front door. Biting my lip, I consider grabbing it in case I need protection, but the next loud crash sends me straight out the door instead. I pull it closed behind me and bolt down the steps, turning to watch the door as if it could burst open any second.
It doesn’t, and I swallow hard, pushing a hand to the heavy beating in my chest as I bend down to catch my breath.
“What the fuck was that?”
Ellie barks, racing over to me from the trees with a worried whine in her throat. She barrels into my legs, rubbing her wet nose into my belly until I finally bend lower so she can put her chin over my shoulder in her version of a hug.
“It’s okay, Ellie. I’m okay.”
I can’t seem to tear my gaze away from the door as I wrap my arms around her and give her a good scratch. If he comes out here in that rage, with Ellie in his blast radius, I will deck a motherfucker and I won’t even be sorry about it.
When I left Jesse and his goons, I promised myself never again and I fucking meant it.
The shittiest part of it is that I thought Elijah was the nice one. The one I might be able to trust.
God, I have the worst damn judgement skills known to man.
Ellie pulls back enough to give my cheek a lick and I snort as I wipe off her drool. I don’t know how she does it, but every time I’m upset, one of Ellie’s ‘hugs’ always makes me feel better. She’s pure magic. Which is why I need to do a better job of protecting her.
It means this is over.
So much for me and Ellie having that beautiful fresh start.
We’ll have to find our own way. I scratch either side of her head, giving her a look. “I’m sorry, Ellie. We’re going to have to find a new place to crash.”
She barks at me, backing away.
“Don’t look at me like that. We can’t stay here. These guys are crazy.”
She barks again, and I sigh.
My gaze flicks back up to the door one last time, trying to imagine staying, but I can’t. Even when I consider the pain I saw in Elijah’s eyes.
It wasn’t like the cruel fury I often found in Jesse’s stare. It was this…profound sadness. A rage that felt familiar in a way I didn’t want to admit. Elijah didn’t want to hurt me, that much I felt pretty sure of, but it doesn’t matter if he’s a loose cannon. People could still get hurt—intentional or not. Ellie could get hurt.
Then there’s the possibility that I’m just making excuses for him. Like I did for Jesse in the beginning.
My jaw tightens.
“Come on, Ellie. Let’s go get our things.”
She darts in front of me, blocking my path with another bark.
“Okay, stay out here then.”
When I move to walk past her, she catches the hem of my shirt in her teeth and gives me a tug in the opposite direction. I gently pull the material loose, but she only nips at it again, tugging hard enough to rip.
“Ellie!”
She backs up a few steps and barks again, turning her head in the direction of the trees she just ran from, before barking again and stamping her paw.
I squint to see into the trees.
“What is it, girl?”
She jumps, turning to the trees with another bark that might as well be a command to follow her.
I rub a hand over my forehead, where a tension headache starts to form behind my eyes. “Ellie, we really need to just?—”
She barks again, more insistent.
“You know what, fine.”
It’s not like I want to go back inside right now, anyway. For all I know, Elijah might’ve finished with his studio and moved on to other parts of the house. “Go on, then. Lead the way, you stubborn little shit.”
I swear she grins at me before bounding into the trees, staying just close enough that I can see her enough to follow.
I kick at the leaves and sticks carpeting the woods on this ridiculous property. Like, who even needs this much land? They aren’t even using it. If I had my own personal forest, you can bet your ass I’d be building myself a little fairy cottage complete with a witchy herb garden and squirrel friends.
What a waste.
Up ahead, Ellie trots through a break in the trees with a yap. I know her little sounds well enough to know it’s a greeting and wonder who else is out here or if I’m going to have to destinkify her again because she decided the skunk family living under the neighbor’s shed were definitely her friends.
Please, I send the plea to any higher power that will hear me, anything but a skunk.
That nasty smell lingered in her coat for weeks.
I lift a hand to shield my eyes from the sun as I step through and find a wide clearing carpeted with long grass and clusters of spindly wildflowers. Ellie lets out another yap as she rushes to the little structures in the middle of the space, and the man standing with his back to me as he pulls something out of a tiny house.
My throat constricts. Who the fuck is that?
The man turns to look at Ellie and I see that it’s Seven.
I’m relieved at first, but given how the one I thought was the nicest of the three just reacted to me trying to help him tidy up his art room, maybe I shouldn’t be relieved at all.
I squint to try to see what he’s doing.
There are at least four of those tiny houses that I can see. They’re really nothing more than little white boxes atop raised cement platforms with peaked roofs. They match the larger structure that’s about the size of a big shed set off to one side.
A buzzing drone fills my ears and I realize what it is with a flinch.
I prayed for no skunks, so the universe gave me fucking bees.
It’s a hive, or a colony, or whatever the hell they call it.
Great.
Seven lowers the thing he was checking back into the box with the bees and puts the roof-shaped lid back into place before turning to properly greet Ellie with some pats.
“You’re back,” I think he says, bending to a knee to give her a good rubdown that she is definitely taking advantage of.
As if he senses me, his head jerks up, eyes latching on to mine with ice in them that melts as soon as he recognizes my face.
“There you are. Eli was looking for you,” he calls.
I snort, unable to conceal the still lingering agitation.
“Well, he found me,” I say, walking over to them, unsure if I want Ellie near any of these guys anymore, even if she’s definitely taken a shine to this one.
We aren’t always attracted to what’s good for us and I am the painful evidence of that fact. If I never let Jesse take me home that night all those months ago, none of this would’ve even happened.
I would still be in Charlotte trying to get into that music program at UNC. Still trying to be the good girl my adoptive parents expected me to be.
“Everything okay?” Seven asks as I approach.
I stop when a bee flies right past my face and recoil.
Yeah, actually, this is far enough.
I hate bugs, especially the kind that bite and sting. I can’t help but notice how Seven has several of the little fuckers crawling on his black T-shirt, and grimace. He seems entirely unbothered by them, and I realize that I literally just watched him pull one of those thingies covered in bees from one of their hives with his bare freaking hands.
It’s official: they’re all insane.
“Define okay,” I reply, making a hand motion at Ellie. “Come.”
She sits down next to Seven defiantly and he pats her head with a smirk, cocking his head at me. “Did something happen?”
Another bee buzzes right by my nose and I reel back, swatting it away just as another one comes for me.
“Ah. Fuck.”
Seven catches my hand on the next swat and I didn’t even see him come over here.
His rough fingers trap mine with a little squeeze before I can jerk my hand free and he raises his in surrender.
“They’re harmless,” he says. “If you ignore them, they won’t bother you.”
“Tell that to the one trying to get in my mouth.”
He laughs, and something about it disarms me.
When I lift my hand to shoo another one away, he catches it again. “Ignore them,” he repeats. “They won’t sting unless you provoke them or threaten their queen.”
This time, I’m slower to pull my hand away. How are his eyes so freaking blue?
Damn.
I blink, realizing I’m staring, and swallow, hating that I can’t seem to just make myself turn around and leave. It should be easy. Pivot. Step. Keep fucking walking.
“Well, too bad the same can’t be said for your friend,” I mutter and almost wish I could stuff the words back in, but this is it. I might’ve lost touch with the girl I was before Jesse bulldozed into my life and decided I was his , the girl who didn’t take shit from anyone. But I’m starting to remember.
This is what it looks like when you don’t just lay down and take it and I am done doing that, no matter the consequences. If Jesse makes good on his promise and uploads his disgusting videos to the internet, so be it. At least I’ll be fucking free.
Seven lifts a brow, so I lift my chin. He damn well heard me.
His brows lower. “Do you mean Atticus?”
I shake my head. “No. Not him, the other one.”
He blinks. “Eli?”
“He totally freaked out on me,” I blurt, wanting an explanation I shouldn’t even need. “Atticus asked me to clean his studio and when he walked in, he just…” I throw my hands up.
Seven’s jaw tightens. “Atticus shouldn’t have done that.”
I scoff. “It wasn’t Atticus who was smashing easels and kicking holes through paintings.”
He flinches.
“Look, all I’ll say is that Eli is the best of us, and he’ll probably be beating himself up about losing it in front of you for weeks. No, probably months.”
“Care to share why he might’ve felt the need to completely lose his shit?”
Seven runs a hand over the dark hair on the back of his head with a sigh. “It’s really not my story to tell, Aurora.”
I hate how he says my name.
I’m a shitty liar.
“Fine,” I decide, but he makes my choice easy. “Come on, Ellie, we’re leaving.”
“Wait,” Seven says, catching my wrist when I turn to go.
Why does he keep touching me like that?
He drops my wrist when I glare at him. “Just wait.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want you to leave,” he says like it’s the most simple thing in the world when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I shrug. “I really didn’t want to either until twenty minutes ago.”
I need that money.
“Look, I can’t tell you why Elijah just did what he did, but I can promise you it wasn’t without a valid reason. There are things you don’t know. Seeing you in there, touching those things, it would’ve triggered him, and Atticus knew exactly what would happen if Eli found you in there and still sent you in blind anyway. If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at him. Fuck knows I am.”
He’s telling the truth. I can hear it in his tone. If that’s true then fuck Atticus. Why the hell would he send me in there if he knew that was how Elijah would react?
What a dick move.
I hesitate and it’s like he can sense it.
“Stay,” he says. “Stay and talk with me for fifteen minutes. You can ask me anything you want and if it’s my answer to give you, I will. Just fifteen minutes and if you still want to leave, I’ll drive you to the bus station in Wilkesboro myself.”
My teeth grind behind my lips. “Fuck. Fine. Fifteen minutes.”