Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Cannon
I know she doesn’t mean what she’s suggesting. She’s scared. Afraid to let her guard down. I get it, but I intend to prove to her that she deserves nice things.
She deserves to be safe and loved. She deserves to have all the food she can eat, clean clothes, and a roof over her head.
Eloise deserves to have toys and bubble bath. She deserves to have all the books she can read.
She deserves snuggles and pigtails, dolls and cartoons, coloring books and crayons. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let her walk out the door.
“I know you’re scared, Little one. I get it.
I’m probably not helping things with all my talk of wanting you here permanently when we only met yesterday.
But here’s the thing, angel. I can’t explain why I know I was meant to find you yesterday, but I know it in my heart.
I knew as soon as I had you in my arms. I felt the connection immediately. ”
She furrows her brow.
“I don’t mean to imply I practice some sort of woo-woo nonsense. I just feel connected to you. I think you feel it, too.”
She inhales slowly, but tears escape to run down her cheeks. I’m not surprised. She’s fucking terrified. I suspect what she’s most afraid of is trusting me only to have me turn on her.
“Let me tell you something, Eloise. I don’t expect you to feel the same magnetic connection I feel this fast. That’s okay.
I won’t rush you. But let me make you a deal.
No matter what happens between us in the coming days and weeks, I will not turn you away.
If for some reason you never feel how I do, I’ll learn to live with it.
I will still be your friend until the day I die.
I will help you get back on your feet no matter what it takes. Please stay. Please let me help you.”
She lifts her hands to swipe away her tears. After a sniffle, she says, “No one’s ever been kind to me.”
“Well then, I guess you’re due for a giant dose of kindness, aren’t you? Maybe I can be so kind that I make up for all the assholes who’ve hurt you. All you have to do is take a chance. What do you have to lose?”
She hesitates. “Ignorance is bliss.”
I nod. “That’s true. I understand why it’s scary to let someone else carry the burden. What if they stop carrying it? What if you find out how nice it is to have bubble baths and a warm bed, and then it’s taken away?”
“Yes,” she whispers. “That’s exactly it.”
“I will never take it away,” I promise.
“I can’t know that, though, Cannon.”
I inhale deeply, thinking of ways I can help her feel safe. “Do you have a bank account, Eloise?”
She smirks. “I’ve never had a bank account. I don’t think you fully grasp how poor I am. I don’t even have an ID. I’m lucky I have a birth certificate.”
I grasp onto that. “In your backpack?”
She nods. “I have all my worldly possessions in that bag. My life. The only things that tether me to Earth.”
“Well, we can use your birth certificate to get you everything else you need, including an ID and a bank account.”
“What the hell would I do with a bank account? I have three dollars. You think I should open an IRA, too?” She rolls her eyes.
I stare at her, stepping closer to where she’s sitting and slide my hands around to her back.
I don’t know where this woman has been living for the past four years, but I’m going to assume she was totally off the grid.
Which means everything she knows she learned before that, before she was out of high school.
Eloise is fucking intelligent. She reads Moby Dick. She knows what an IRA is. She likes to learn, and she has a good memory. She’s never had the opportunity to be her best self.
I’m going to counter her in a way she’s not expecting. “Yes, I think you should open an IRA. I’ll get the paperwork started today.”
She gasps. “Cannon, what are you smoking?”
I shrug. “I don’t need to smoke anything to recognize that you’re brilliant, and the right opportunities will change your life.”
She smirks. “Well, not everyone has opportunities, Cannon. Some of us were born on the wrong side of the tracks, and we die there, too.”
“But not you, because yesterday I was there to pull you off the chair and carry you to the other side of the tracks. There’s no need to go back. Don’t let your pride or some idea that you don’t deserve the world get in your way and stop you from seizing this chance.”
After a few seconds, she says, “I can’t decide whether you’re delusional or cruel.”
“Neither.”
“Not many people get to cross the tracks, Cannon. It doesn’t work that way. Society is set up to keep the poor in their place.”
Fuck, she has a strong understanding of economics and social issues, too. I need to stop being shocked by her education. Time to prove her wrong. “I did.”
Her eyes widen, and then her gaze narrows.
“Yep. I was born poor, Eloise. My mother was seventeen when she had me. Her parents kicked her out of the house, and my father skipped town when he found out she was pregnant. I never met him. My mother did the best she could, but we were fucking poor. Sometimes we lived in her car. Sometimes she rented a mobile home or a tiny apartment. I’m not saying this to compare myself to you because I’m certain you’ve been through things I cannot ever imagine.
I might not have had nice things. I never met my grandparents. My father was long gone.
“But my mother loved me. She didn’t abuse me.
She sent me to school with clean clothes, even if they were from a thrift store.
But I wanted out of that poverty, so I joined the Army right out of high school.
I worked hard. I climbed the ranks. When I got out, I took night classes and got my degree.
I just finished it two years ago. I met Blade along the way.
He hired me, and here I am.” I glance around at my nice apartment.
She’s staring at me with wide eyes. “Where’s your mother now?”
I wince. “Sadly, she died while I was still in the Army. Hit by a drunk driver. Pissed me the fuck off because she deserved a leg up, and I had intended to make her life better as soon as I could. I didn’t get that chance.”
Eloise leans into me and wraps her arms around me. “I’m so sorry.”
I kiss the top of her head. “Thank you.” For a while, we stay like this, her sitting on the stool, me holding her and inhaling her scent. It’s soothing.
When I pull back, I say, “Let me help you. Stop running. You can have the world. You can even go to college if you want.”
Her brows shoot up to her hairline. “College?” She smirks again.
“Definitely.”
“I don’t even have a high school diploma.”
“Then you’ll take your GED. I know you’re fucking smart, Eloise. I bet you could pass the GED test this afternoon.”
She swallows. “You’re serious about this.”
“Very.”
“Okay. It would be stupid for me to be stubborn and turn you down.”
“Exactly. You have nothing to lose because it’s already too late to worry about getting comfortable with having nice things. If you left right now, would you ever forget that bubble bath?”
She gives me one of her stunning smiles. “No. Never. I can’t wait to use your tub.”
“You may do that after I feed you. Oh, and June would like to meet you if you’re up to it.”
“June wants to meet me?” Her voice squeaks.
“Yep. I was talking to Blade when you came into my office. I told him I would ask you first.”
“You said she lives in this building, right?”
“Yes. Top floor. She can come here, or we can go up there. When you’re ready. If you’d rather not see anyone yet, that’s fine, too. No pressure.”
“I think that would be nice. I can thank her for coming after me. That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.
I’m a stranger, yet she would have traded her life for mine.
I still can’t wrap my head around her actions.
The whole time I was tied to that chair, I kept praying she wouldn’t come. ”
I frown. “Why were you praying she wouldn’t come, Little one?”
“Because I knew Pete intended to kill her. He was probably going to kill me no matter what. After all, it’s not like he could have let me live.
I’d seen him. If she hadn’t come, at least I would have been the only one to die.
If she’d come, we’d have both died. But the thought that someone would put themselves in that dangerous situation for me is mindboggling.
I can’t imagine what she went through when she was living with him. ”
“You are a smart woman, Eloise. I’m so damn glad my team was able to figure out June had gone after you so quickly so we could stop her. Because I suspect you’re right. He would have killed both of you.”
Eloise sniffles. “I was so tired. I spent half of that time wishing he would shoot a bullet into my head to put me out of my misery. I kept waffling between wanting to live and wanting to die. But I’m glad you saved me.” She hugs me tightly again.
“I’m so fucking glad I did, too, Little one. Now, let me feed you before you starve. What good will it do for me to have freed you from that monster if you die of starvation in my apartment?” I tease.
She rolls her pretty eyes when I step back. “I had toaster pastries and juice. That’s more than I’ve eaten lately.”
“Well, you need better nutrition and more food. We’re going to put some meat on you.” I tickle under her chin and turn toward the fridge. My girl needs to eat.