Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Elijah walked passed his doormen and nodded.
They knew better than to talk to him when he had his angry face on.
By the time Elijah had left Lilly’s apartment and had arrived at Blue’s he was fuming mad.
More at himself, than at Lilly’s questions.
He had no reason to be angry with her, she was only asking questions and was right; if they were going to get married, he should tell her everything, but he wasn’t ready. It was that simple.
Shouldering his way through the crowd, he politely smiled at his regulars and chatted to a few along the way.
He needed a drink, and he needed to calm down.
What he would really like to do is let off some steam, and that usually included a drinking session with Mickey.
Now that he was going to talk with Lilly, that was out of the question.
He needed to be sober when he spoke to her later.
He eventually passed through the crowded bar and pushed his way through to the door leading to his office.
He needed to hide and think. He needed to work out how to tell Lilly his story now that he had made an arse of himself.
Dropping down into his chair, he swung from side to side staring at the back of his office door.
It was blank, and he pictured him pressing Lilly up against it not so long ago.
It was a fond memory that made him smile, he would go back to Lilly after the shift was over and explain.
He would beg her forgiveness for walking out on her and his cruel words.
Elijah’s thoughts were interrupted when he heard the corridor door open and then a knock at his door. So much for his quiet contemplation, it was about to end.
“What is it?” Elijah answered the knock at the door.
Pete walked in and looked nervous, he had news to tell that Elijah wouldn’t like. Pete knew to get to the point straight away.
“Steve and Simon are in the bar.” Pete moved to the side to let Elijah pass him.
Elijah was back at anger mode, he couldn’t believe that those two men would enter his bar after what they’d done to Lilly.
He left the dark corridor that housed his office and entered the busy bar.
It didn’t take more than a minute to locate them and he pushed his way through the crowd not caring if he had spilt any of their drinks along the way.
He muttered to get another at the bar on the house.
The locals knew Elijah well and just muttered their unhappiness and went back to their conversations.
Elijah kept going until he spotted Simon, then he punched him once.
An uppercut to his chin had knocked him out cold.
Steve started yelling blue murder but didn’t fight Elijah.
He stood there shouting at him. Elijah looked at Steve and raised his fists in preparation for round two.
Steve raised his hands in defence and backed away.
The police had entered the crowd within minutes.
They were at his premises far too fast to be called straight from the punch.
They must have been waiting and Elijah smelt a setup and he had fallen straight into it.
He placed his hands behind his back in readiness for the cuffs.
Elijah knew what was going to happen next and didn’t protest. He knew there was no use pleading his case.
Simon and Steve had obviously set this scene up so Elijah wouldn’t make it any worse for himself.
He looked down a second time in a week to see if he had killed a man and was relieved that he saw Simon come round from being knocked out. Steve leaned into Elijah and whispered.
“Payback for getting us arrested, think twice before you do it again.”
Elijah struggled against the cuffs and head butted Steve for good measure.
“You don’t scare me, you piece of shit,” Elijah yelled back, loud enough for all to hear.
Satisfied that he was ok, he turned and waited to be led out of the bar. The customers’ murmuring voices were to be expected, their usually jovial bar owner had struck another man and to them this was out of character.
He didn’t look any of them in the eye to see their disapproval, he could feel it in the air.
He couldn’t change what was done and left the bar.
Elijah whispered a few words to Gareth, and he nodded and watched as they shoved his boss into the waiting police car.
The car was neatly parked outside the bar, further sign that they were waiting.
The drive was quick to the police station, and he was processed and escorted to a waiting cell.
The police officer that closed the door invited him to cool off and when they decided he was calm enough, they would let him go.
Elijah declined to make any calls, entered the cell and sat on a stone bench to lie down.
He would finally get some contemplation time and figure out how to sort all of this mess out.