Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
DIORA
Being back in Litchfort, Michigan is like walking through the door of your home after a long day at work. Whether it’s a good or bad day, nothing beats getting home.
I walk through my apartment door with my luggage, passing by a deep cleaning Juliet as I head right back out the door. I don’t bother unpacking anything more than the black dress Elliot bought me. We have a plan, Elliot and I, and we didn’t have any time to waste.
All we needed was an opening, a chance to attack Mrs. Jay’s ring, and we finally got one. Today. Right now.
We didn’t know where Mrs. Jay was holding the Strays; she had them deeply hidden amongst systems that Elliot couldn’t break yet. What he did find, though, was tonight’s exchange. An event for the rich and dirty to view the Strays they wish to purchase.
“Dee, uh, where are you going? You just got back. How was your trip?” I hear Juliet’s voice meekly come out as she pauses, mid wipe over the coffee table. She has yellow gloves up to her elbows and a headband covering her hairline.
I stop in my tracks as our eyes meet. It’s weird when you start having a life outside of your siblings.
Juliet is still my world, but looking at her, seeing her manically clean while fighting demons I can’t see, and I just…
I just walked past her. Solely focused on the ring, when I should be focused on the politician and all those involved in her injustice.
I haven’t forgotten, but I can’t pretend I haven’t been distracted.
An unsuspecting knock clears my mental fog, and I scrunch my face as I walk to open the door.
“What are you doing here?” Has Elliot been to my apartment before? How did he know I lived here? I look at the man in question, scrunching my eyebrows.
“Dee, don’t be rude! Who is at the door?” Juliet comes to the door, ensuring her gloved hands don’t touch anything, the door and me included.
I give the grinning man a pointed glare. I’ve worked hard to keep these two worlds separate and here he is stomping on all my efforts. What is he doing mixing what shouldn’t be mixed? Good and bad shouldn’t mix.
“We work together,” Elliot says, sliding past me and following an all too welcoming Juliet inside.
“You work at Sadie’s Flowers? Are you a florist, too?” Juliet asks, leading him to the kitchen, where he sits too comfortably on a barstool at the kitchen island.
“No, I do the books,” Elliot answers, smiling.
“Oh, nice,” she says, then offers the serial killer a glass of water. Juliet excuses herself to freshen up in the bathrooms, and I turn to Elliot with a glare.
“Do you even know accounting?” I snip.
“More than you, Little Crane,” he scoffs, twirling in his chair to face me.
His hands wrap around me, and next thing I know, I’m between his legs and his lips are right next to my ear.
His hair grazes my cheek, and I flush as the reminder of the last time we were this close.
I tilt my head up, my lips hovering over his ear, but not touching.
I breathe in his scent. Dark chocolate and the freshness of oranges. I wanna take a bite.
“You can back out, you know,” he mutters. I can barely see his eyes as the words drop from his lips. I try to move back, away from his alluring scent and skin, but he holds me tight against him. Back out? Do I look like a quitter to him?
“And why would I do that?”
“Going up against Mother isn’t… We aren’t fighting a fair fight, and you could get hurt.” His voice is… pleading. Begging. But that’s not… This is not what we do. How could he ask me that?
“So could you,” I argue back. I’m not na?ve to the fact that I’m new to the game.
But he’d have to be stupid to think I wouldn’t worry about him.
He’s at more risk than I am. Mrs. Jay hardly knows me.
The betrayal wouldn’t go as deep but she looks at Elliot like a Son, despite the outs they are on.
She would feel scorned, and a woman scorned… is a whole lot more dangerous.
“It’s not me I’m worried about,” he says and finally pulls away far enough so I could see his face. I watch his brown eyes and I can see the fear. Elliot is scared… he’s scared for me.
“That’s fine. I’ll worry about you,” I say with a meaningless shrug. It was obvious to me; I guess it wasn’t obvious to him. “You’re mine, Elliot. We’re a team. I worry about you, you worry about me. That’s normal. Just like when working with the Strays or the Top Dogs—it’s normal. ”
“A team I don’t want to put you at risk for.” He rests his head on my forehead, and as much as I love this closeness, his words stab me.
“Elliot,” I say in a breath, my lips trembling. “Are you asking me to back out?”
“Yes,” he says simply. He doesn’t look at me as he makes this request. He leans back against the counter, facing the living room. As if we are having a normal conversation, but it is anything but.
“You don’t think I can do it? That I can’t handle it?” I spit, trying to get these waves of emotions under control. My brows are scrunched and I’m… I’m frustrated. My skin is cold and he won’t look at me. He won’t fucking look at me.
“No, Little Crane.”
“Then what is it?” I ask, my anger bleeding in my voice. I’m not, I don’t do this. I don’t have uncontrollable emotions. I don’t spit, I don’t yell. I’m turning into someone I don’t know.
He sighs and turns on his barstool to face me. Fucking finally. He lifts a hand and traces my cheek as he sighs.
“I don’t want a single mark on this skin,” he says. “I don’t want to see a cut, bruise, or tear on this soft skin or on your delicate soul, unless it’s from me. Nothing matters more to me than your being, Diora. I need you.”
“We’re being good. We are saving those Strays.” Convincing him seems impossible by the look on his face; he isn’t backing down.
“That’s the thing, Little Crane, I don’t want you to. You don’t have to be good, you don’t need to be good. You are good as you are. And more importantly, I need you alive.”
“I’m not good, Elliot. I need this. I’m not staying back.”
“Please,” he begs. I can hear the need in his voice, but I’m not backing out. This is my chance to be good, and I get to do it with him.
“No.” He stares into my eyes. He doesn’t get to do this.
“Diora Rose Moss, I didn’t know you had a boyfriend?” Juliet’s voice snaps me out of Elliot’s bubble. The daze is so confusing and completely consuming. I turn in shock to Juliet, but Elliot only places his chin on my head and gasps.
“She didn’t tell you?”
“No,” Juliet says with wide eyes and a joyous smile. She sparkles, like she never thought she’d see the day I had a boyfriend.
Granted, I’ve never brought one home, before Elliot.
Wait, well, I didn’t technically bring Elliot home. He came here uninvited.
“She’s so secretive. I’m sorry, what was your name again?” Juliet asks, leaning against the counter opposite to us. Juliet does most of the talking as Elliot eggs her on. I stay frozen in his hold. Uneasy at the too easy atmosphere with a new addition.
I’m so close I can feel his body heat. I can almost feel his skin, and instead of an urge to see it turn gray and cold, I want to see him sweat.
I want to see his skin so alive that it creates beads of sweat and pants to the rhythm of his heart.
No, I’m supposed to be mad at him. I swallow and turn my head away from Elliot. Scrunching my brows, I try to erase my mind and get back to the present.
“I’m taking Diora out tonight,” he tells Juliet, and it’s my head snapping up to look at his face. I raise my brows, and I can see the resignation in his face.
“Is that why you were in such a rush to get out the door? I’m sorry to keep you up! Please,” Juliet says, looking around like a madwoman and gesturing to the door.
“No, no, I was just dropping her dress off. It won’t be for another few hours,” he informs the both of us. A few hours?
I stare at this man in amazement. How many more tricks does he have? If I whack his head, will he disappear like a whack-a-mole, too?
“We’re going dancing,” he says.
“Dancing, huh?” I say, surprise coloring me.
“Dancing all night,” he says with a smile I’ve gotten to see a lot lately. It’s different to see him in this way, and I want to keep him here just to keep it this way.
“So, Juliet, may I have Diora tonight?”
“Hmmm,” Juliet playfully says. Hand under her chin as she giggles. “I guess I can watch the news by myself.”
I watch her deep brown eyes sparkle with amusement. Her hair is pulled tightly into a bun tonight and her light brown skin has a warmth to it that’s been missing for a while. Not just in tone, but in… aliveness. The blood under her skin is warm and cozy and fuels her with happiness.
“I’ll be back in two hours ladies, lock this door behind me,” Elliot says, plopping a kiss on the top of my head as he strides back out the door.
“He came all the way to say that?” Juliet asks, tilting her head in question.
I wordlessly nod my head and grab the dress hanging over the couch.
Walking in the hall I shout his name and he stops. Turning around, I catch up to him, pulling his arm so he’ll face me.
“Hours? Isn’t it now?”
“That’s what I came over to tell you: our timeline got pushed to tonight. Meet me at my place at nine,” he says. He pulls me in, giving me a proper kiss this time, and I can’t help but bite at his lip for pissing me off.
“You’re not going without me,” I mumble through our kiss. I consume his scent through my nose and fist his t-shirt.
He sighs into my mouth and pushes me backward with the force of his body, like he can’t get enough.
“No, I can’t do this by myself. I need you. But my need to keep safe will win every time, Diora. You say the words and I’ll figure something else out. We don’t have to do this tonight.”
“We’re doing this. First, we save those kids,” I say breathlessly as he releases my lips. Then we’ll deal with Mrs. Jay later.
I can’t get the words to pass my lips, but we can only save so many Strays without killing the root of the problem. You have to kill the root to stop the plant from growing again.
Mrs. Jay has to die.