20. Ellis
TWENTY
ELLIS
I stagger back, her words landing like a physical blow. “You think I'm leaving you here?”
“It's fine. I've already caused enough trouble for y'all.” She glances down at her feet as she twists her fingers together. “I’ll b-be fine. D-don't worry about me.”
“Something tells me that all I'm gonna do is worry about you.” I run a hand through my hair as I rack my brain to figure out how this all went to hell so fast. I thought we were making progress. One step forward, fucking ten back.
“You don’t need to.” She sniffles and then stiffens her upper lip. “I’ll get everything cleaned up, and it’ll be as g-good as new.”
“Pack a bag and let's go, Princess.”
She narrows her eyes, and I swear on all that’s holy, I can see her erecting walls around her heart. “It's fine, Ellis.”
“Gonna go ahead and call bullshit,” I say plainly. She’s clearly not fine. And no sane person would expect her to be. Her home—her safe space—was violated by that piece of shit.
I’m a six-foot-three grown-ass man with rigorous firearms training and I’d be on edge about sleeping here. Hell, I’m ready to leave right-fucking-now.
“Listen, we both know you’re only asking me to stay with you out of some misguided sense of nobility.
” She runs her teeth over her lower lip.
“Being a protector is ingrained in your DNA, but let’s be real, I’m sure you’d rather do just about anything than babysit me.
Atlas is right. I’m nothing but trouble. ”
“You really think that?” I ask, hurt leaking into my tone.
She shrugs, refusing to look me in the eye.
“Tell me something, Princess... Do I look like the kind of man who does any-damn-thing he doesn’t want to do?”
I drum my fingertips against my thighs as I wait for her to reply. But stubborn little thing that she is, Scarlet keeps her lips sealed shut and her eyes fixed firmly on her pink-painted toes.
After a few minutes, my patience runs out, and I crowd her.
I glide my index and middle fingers up the smooth column of her neck, all the way to her chin, stroking my thumb along her jaw before tilting her gaze up to mine. “Whatever the fuck you’re thinking—stop it. Right now.”
She jerks her chin out of my hold and steps back from me, but I follow, advancing until her back’s to the wall, and I’m invading every ounce of personal space she has. “You're coming with me, Scarlet Armstrong. You're gonna let me fucking protect you.”
“I don’t need—”
“We both know you’re too damn stubborn to ask for what you need.” I cup her cheek with a tenderness I didn’t know I possessed. “You’re also too smart and strong to let Atlas’s words get to you. He was out of line, and I plan on making sure he knows it.”
“I don’t need you to fight my battles for me, Ellis.”
“You’re goddamn right you don’t. You’re a force to be reckoned with. But I’m still gonna talk to him. Deep down, he knows he was out of line.”
She starts to argue, but I press my index finger to her lips, shushing her.
“That’s enough of that. You wanna argue?
Bet. Once we’re back at my place, we can argue until we’re both blue in the face.
But right now, I need you to buck up and pack a bag.
Like it or not, you’re stuck with me, and I’m gonna make sure we get through this. Together.”
She crosses her arms, glaring up at me like a petulant child. If I didn’t think she’d clock me, I’d take her over my knee.
“You know what? Forget it. I'll pack. Point me toward a bag.”
She gestures limply toward her bedroom. “In the closet.”
I pivot on my heel and head straight for her room, a man on a mission. I tiptoe around her closet door, which is barely hanging on the track. It takes a minute, but, eventually, I find a black duffel bag beneath all of the clothes piled on the floor.
“This work?” I ask, holding the bag triumphantly overhead.
“Sure.” She sounds thoroughly exhausted, but I’ll worry about that later, once we’re out of this hellhole. Hell, I’ll even run her a bath if she wants.
The fuck... where did that thought come from? Scarlet is a grown-ass woman and doesn’t need me to run her a bath. Although... given how her last shower went at my place, maybe supervision isn’t the worst idea in the world.
I start throwing things haphazardly into the bag, not even paying attention to what I’m grabbing—that is until I open her top drawer, only to find it empty.
“Uh, Scar...”
“What?” she snaps. “Surely you’re not scared of my panty drawer.”
“Definitely not.” I reach back and scratch the back of my neck. “But it’s, um, empty.”
Her hands fly to her mouth, as she sucks in a sharp breath. “What do you mean empty?”
“I mean empty.” I pull the drawer off the tracks and hold it upside down.
“You’re telling me that psycho stole my underwear?”
“It would appear so.”
I’m expecting her to shout, yell, something—anything other than cry. But big, fat tears roll down her cheeks as she collapses to the floor.
I rush to catch her, but it’s no use. She curls in on herself, drawing her knees to her chest and burying her face there.
“Hey, it’s okay.” I kneel down next to her, laying my palm against her shoulder while she sobs.
“Is it, though?” she rasps. “Because it really doesn’t feel like it.”
“I’m not gonna sit here and pretend to know how you feel right now.
I don’t want to placate or patronize you.
So, feel however you need to. But hear me when I say it will be okay.
” The urge to pull her onto my lap strikes, and instead of fighting it, I drop down the rest of the way to the floor and give in.
Even more surprising, she lets me. Hell, she clings to me as I cradle her to my chest, rocking her softly while she wets my shirt with her tears.
“How do you know?”
“How do I know what?”
“That it will be okay?” The hopelessness in her voice fucking guts me.
“Because I’m going to make damn sure it is.”
“You can’t promise that,” she scoffs, pushing away from my chest so she can look me in the eyes.
“Maybe not, but I’m going to anyway.” And as I stare into her teary eyes, I know I fucking mean it. I’m willing to employ any and every tool Silas has available to find this fucker. One way or another, justice will be served.
Even if I have to mete it out with my own two hands.
“What else do you need?” I ask, trying my best to hurry this along.
“Aside from underwear?” she snarks. “My bathroom stuff.”
“Princess, I’ll buy you all the underwear your heart desires if we can get out of here.”
“Fine.” She heaves out a longsuffering sigh and hauls herself into a standing position. “Give me five minutes.”
I make myself useful while she finishes packing and clean up the food mess in the kitchen. Safe to say after scrubbing this shit out of her grout, it’s going to be a while before I want cheese dip again.
“You ready?” I ask when she rejoins me in the living area.
“Okay, let's go.”
“I can't leave Fefe.” She glances toward the big pink cage.
“You've got to be kidding me.”
“I'm absolutely not kidding you. If I’m coming with you, so is Fefe.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Goddamn it.”
“The choice is yours, Ellis. I'm just as happy to stay here.” She tries to sound strong, but I don’t miss the slight tremor in her voice. “Can you at least manage to pack her stuff while I figure out how to take this damn cage apart?”
“Thank you,” she whispers, and damn if I don’t hate how broken she sounds, because at the end of the day, the Scarlet I know is a fighter.
She grabs the ferret’s carrier from the hall closet and arranges a blanket inside along with a toy or two before bundling the fur covered noodle into her arms.
“It's okay, girl,” she murmurs as Fefe makes a weird little whimpering noise. “I know, Feefs. I’m sure last night was so scary. But it’s okay now. We’re gonna go on a little adventure.” She rubs her nose against the ferret’s head. “Somewhere safe.”
My heart thumps hard against my ribs when she calls my house safe. I can’t explain it, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to protect her.
She cuddles her for another minute before transferring her into her bright pink carrier, sighing as she secures the door. “Okay.”
“You ready?” I ask, glancing between her and the cage.
“Are you?” she volleys back, raising her right brow.
“Nope.” I stand and head for the door. “Pretty sure I have a screwdriver in my truck.”
Scarlet gives me one of her patented eye rolls. “Or you could use mine.”
“You have a screwdriver?” I sound like an asshole, but in my defense... well, I guess I don’t really have one. I’m being an asshole—guilty as charged.
“I have two actually. A Phillips and a flathead. Wild, right?” She shuffles into the kitchen and returns with a small toolbox and two Ziplock bags. “Here you go. And you can put the hardware in these.”
I can’t help but grin as I flip open her bejeweled toolbox, only to find it perfectly organized with hot pink tools. “This is the most you thing I’ve ever fucking seen.”
“Excuse me for being prepared and looking good while doing it.”
“No shade here, Princess. I dig it.” I slide open one of the bags and pass it to her before I start disassembling. “Hold this for me?”
She agrees, and I set to work, breaking down the cage in record time. Scarlet helps me load it into my truck. “Anything else you need before we head out?”
She darts back inside and returns with a charging cable in her hand. “I’m good now.”
“I’d say lock up, but...”
“Shit.” She looks up at me with big, pleading eyes. “What do we do about my door?”
I slide my phone out of my pocket and pull up Silas’s contact card. “Don’t worry. I’ll handle it. Follow me back to my place?”
“Pretty sure I know the way.” Her lips quirk up with a hint of a smile.
“Pretty sure I’ll feel better keeping you in my line of sight, Scar.” I tip my head to the side. “In fact, I’ll follow you.”
Scarlet pulls onto the road, and I follow behind, hugging her bumper like I’m her own personal bodyguard—which is fitting, since that’s exactly what I am.
I hit dial on Silas's number as soon as my car connects to my Bluetooth. “Wilder, what's good?” His deep voice fills the cab of my truck.
“Just left Scarlet's house.” My fingers flex on the wheel. “That motherfucker kicked her door down, trashed her shit, and left a note on her wall.”
He cusses under his breath. “That’s an escalation. Send me her address. I'll get Smoke and Silver on it.”
“Will do.”
“Guess this means she’s officially your—”
“Don't say my girl,” I warn him through gritted teeth. Though I don’t know if my frustration is because the notion’s absurd or because I like the sound of it a little too much.
He laughs. “I was gonna say your first job, but I mean...”
“Shut the fuck up,” I say, but there’s no real heat behind it. The fucker’s good at what he does. He doesn’t even have to see my face to read me like a book.
“Is that any way to talk to your boss?” I can practically see his stern face and raised brow. “Seriously though, keep her safe and keep me in the loop.”
“Will do.”
“Do you have a way to track her location?” he asks.
“I can put something on her phone?”
“Good, but it’s not enough. You need something discreet. Something her stalker won’t think to remove if he gets ahold of her.”
My mind flashes to the tracker necklace Atlas gave Nora. It was his saving grace in finding her when his piece of shit dad took her. “I’ll figure something out.”
“We can talk more later. I can show you some options we have. And Ellis, make sure to keep your phone on you.” The sound of shuffling pages filters through the line. “I’ll text you later about some small jobs for you to do throughout the week while she is at work.”
“Sounds good.” My voice comes out steady despite the jolt of fear spiking through me at the thought of her being out of my sight. A tracker is must. Maybe a few. Lucky me, Atlas already has the scoop on where I can buy something. Hell, Silas might, too.
“Everything’s gonna be okay, man,” he says, and suddenly I fully understand why me saying the same thing upset Scarlet so much...
There’s literally no way anyone can promise that.
Fuck.