Chapter 27
Eli was worried about their girl.
She looked exhausted, but she didn’t want to sleep. She also had to be hungry, but she didn’t want to eat any of the food they’d ordered.
Food that he’d grilled the chef about to ensure there were no peanuts in it.
She simply sat in the bed and stared at the wall. Since Jake left, she grown very quiet and reserved.
Polite.
Too polite.
And he didn’t like it.
He walked out of the bedroom carrying the full tray of food and setting it down on the counter.
“She’s holding back,” he said to Kellan. “Won’t let me in. She’s wound up too tight.”
“Like I said, she needs to yell. To get it out. Life has been shit for her lately.” Kellan turned and walked into the bedroom. Eli followed, curious about what he was going to do.
Drawing back the blankets, Kellan lifted her out and stood in front of her with his hands on her shoulders.
“Yell.”
“What?” she asked, blinking up at him in surprise.
Was Kellan scaring her? Eli was about to step in when Kellan bent down to make his eyes level with hers.
“Yell. Scream. Let it out, Butterfly. Let it all out. Your anger, your fear, your disappointment.”
“I can’t yell or scream.”
Eli realized then that she wasn’t intimidated by Kellan. She simply looked confused and a bit lost.
“Why not?” Eli asked.
“It wouldn’t be nice or dignified.”
“Screw dignified,” Kellan told her. “Who cares about that? If you need to let it out, let it out. Aren’t you angry at what was done to you? Aren’t you upset?”
Again, he almost told Kellan that he was taking things too far, pushing too much, but then her face twisted, her hands forming fists.
“Yes!” she snapped. “Yes, I’m angry! I’m furious! Do you know what it’s like to have your father control your life!”
“Tell us,” Eli said.
Horse poked his head into the room, but didn’t come in. As though he sensed something was happening.
“It’s . . . it’s awful!”
“You can do better than that,” Kellan prodded. “Tell us how you really feel.”
“I feel angry . . . why me? Why did I end up with such a terrible father? Why didn’t he love me? What sort of father doesn’t even tell their own daughter when her mom dies? A complete asshole, that’s who!”
“Give it to us, baby. Lay it all on us,” Eli said, moving closer to her. Now they were both in front of her.
“We can take it,” Kellan said.
“But I feel terrible because he never hit me like your father.”
“Our father was a monster,” Kellan admitted. “He hit me, hurt me, I’ve got the scars to show for it.” He stripped off his shirt and pointed to each scar. “All from him.”
“Kellan,” she sobbed, reaching out to trace each scar.
“But now I fight monsters. I punish people like him. So they can’t hurt others. That’s how I fight back at him.”
“And what do I do? Nothing,” she said bitterly.
“That’s not true,” Eli told her fiercely.
“You take care of others. Look at what you’ve done for Shaw.
How you look after your neighbor. You found a dirty dog on the side of the road and chose to sleep in your car rather than put him back out into the cold.
That’s who you are. Kind, sweet and caring. ”
“But you have to let all of the anger go or it will eat you up inside,” Kellan told her. “Yell.”
She let out a small scream. It was pathetic but it was a start.
“Louder,” Kellan told her.
“I don’t want to scare our neighbors.”
“Who cares about them,” Eli said. “I’ll explain it if they have a problem. Yell. Tell us what you’re upset about.”
“I came here to be safe! This was meant to be my safe place and now it’s been wrecked! Now it’s not safe! And I’m so fucking mad!”
“That’s it, baby,” Eli told her. “Let it all go.”
“It’s been taken from me and it’s not fair!
Everyone always takes from me. My father, my so-called friends, that asshole at school.
Nobody ever takes care of me, except for Pop-Pop.
My father took my freedom, that asshole in high school took my trust in men, even Cole took my ticket to freedom.
I thought coming here would make everything better and then some fucking asshole breaks into my house and destroys everything. It’s. Not. Fair.”
Holy moly.
She was actually surprised that she could make that much noise. And she was pretty sure she’d actually sworn too.
Breathing heavily, she stared at both men and waited for them to say something. Would they be shocked? Would they try to silence her?
“Good girl,” Kellan said, shocking her.
“We’re so proud of you.” Eli moved in behind her, hugging her tight as Kellan cupped her face between his hands.
She sagged in their embrace, exhausted.
“I’m sorry.”
“Do not apologize,” Kellan told her fiercely. “The last thing you need to do is apologize. You have a right to be mad, to be upset.”
“But just know this, from now on, we’re going to take care of you,” Eli told her. “We will never just take.”
“I know,” she whispered. “I know you won’t.”
“Come on, baby,” Eli said, lifting her. “Let’s get you into bed.”
They laid her down in the middle of the bed, climbing in on either side of her to hug her between them.
She quickly drifted off to sleep, safe in their embrace.
Kellan stepped into the house where his girl had been living.
The place was still a disaster. She wouldn’t be returning until it was cleaned
In fact, he didn’t think she would be coming back here at all. They’d need to find a different place to live. This one wasn’t safe and he wouldn’t risk her by bringing her back to this house.
Besides, they’d need somewhere bigger.
There was something going on here. He hadn’t seen anything suspicious yet. But he could feel it in the air. And it was more than just the fact that her house had been broken into.
This wasn’t a simple break-in. And if it was this Lee guy then why come after Arabella now?
He’d been right in thinking that Arabella was going to change his life. But he was willing to admit he’d been incorrect in thinking that it would be a bad change.
Kellan sighed. He wanted to be back in the hotel room with his girl. They’d finally gotten her off to sleep earlier. He hated seeing her upset but it had been healthy to get all of that out.
And the irony of that thought wasn’t lost on him considering he was fairly emotionally repressed.
But that was his personality. He wasn’t like Arabella.
Eli was the better choice to be there if she woke up. If she needed something. And she had Horse too. That dog seemed to be able to read her moods and know what she needed.
It wouldn’t be hard to have him around. It also helped that Horse didn’t like Eli as much as he did Kellan. He smirked as he remembered Horse walking around with Eli’s shoe in his mouth.
Arabella had been horrified.
Kellan was just amused.
Finally, as the sun was close to rising, he gave up and left the house. He took a walk around outside first.
What the fuck was going on here?
It didn’t make a lot of sense.
But he was determined to get to the bottom of it. No one messed with Kellan Jones’s girl.
No one.