CHAPTER NINE
– ELODIE –
“We need to find out about this chick. Royce could have been planning this for fuck knows how long. His daughter could have been part of his plan from the start,” Ballard grits.
“Or we could give her a chance,” Jaxie signs.
Ballard and Murray are the only ones in the room who don’t know ASL.
I’m about to translate when Ballard replies, “No, we can’t give her a chance, Jaxie. Once we lay out all our cards they could hang us out to dry if Royce has any influence on Orson.”
“Motherfucker,” Murray grumbles. “You learned ASL these past few weeks? Fucking hell, why did you do that? Now I have to learn it too, because I can’t be the only one who doesn’t understand Jaxie.
Not when she’s Seamus’s wife, and my woman’s best friend.
Dammit, Ballard. I don’t have your brain skills to learn new shit in the blink of an eye like you do. ”
Ballard shrugs. “I had enough time on my hands these past few weeks when I was staking out this place in case Nolan showed up.” He turns to Jaxie. “Don’t expect me to sign to talk to you. I might be able to pick up on enough words when you’re talking, but using ASL myself is harder.”
Jaxie signs, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Ballard grumbles.
I step closer to Murray and whisper, “No worries, I’ll teach you.”
His gaze lands on me and I can see the shift in his eyes as they start to fill with lust. The place between my legs starts to tingle with anticipation. Murray has the ability to hit me with a load of desire with a mere look.
His voice is husky and filled with promise when he murmurs, “The way I’ve been teaching you.”
My breathing picks up and I step closer to hum, “Uh huh.”
“Fuck it,” Ballard snaps, breaking the heated desire between Murray and me.
Ballard throws his hands up and snaps, “If no one is doing anything I’ll take action. I’m going to stake out Royce’s place to see if Nolan is there while I dig into his daughter’s background. We need to know every single detail we can find about this chick.”
“Did you not hear me say he’s under investigation, asshole?” Seamus grits.
Murray stalks to Ballard who is now standing near the door. “He’s right. Give it at least a day to let Seamus talk to Orson. He will also do some more digging about Royce’s daughter, right?”
Seamus nods. “Definitely. But you need to stay put, Ballard.”
The defiant look on Ballard’s face tells me he won’t do what Seamus is suggesting. If anything, I think he’s going to do what he thinks should be done.
“Ballard will stay with us,” I state, earning all eyes to land on me.
Murray instantly backs me up. “Solid solution. If Royce is indeed under investigation, we can’t risk any vigilante shit, Ballard.
Having them come to us, the way both Burk and Nolan did, gives us the advantage of self-defense.
Besides, staying outside to stake out the place is an option at a later time, preferably when we have more details.
Both from Orson, and about Royce’s daughter.
Who knows, we might need you to talk to Royce as if you’re on that fucker’s side because you’re not linked to Jaxie in any way yet.
Not like Seamus is married to her while I’m protecting her best friend. ”
Tension fills the room while the guys stare at one another.
“Fine,” Ballard eventually grits. “Give me your laptop. I’m going to do some research about the cunt for myself.”
“Don’t call her a cunt, it’s degrading,” I snap.
Jaxie signs and I instantly reply, “Right, like Jaxie said, she could hate Royce and is working in her own way to get him behind bars. Why else would she come here and ask Orson to dig into stuff? If she’s part of it, she wouldn’t do such a thing because it draws unwanted attention to Royce, and the company. ”
“That’s what I’m going to find out. Though, sharing that backstabbing asshole’s DNA is enough for me to hate her ass. I’m telling you, the bitch can’t be trusted.” Ballard stalks to the dining room table where Murray’s laptop is.
I stare at his back when I grumble, “I do hope he’s wrong.”
“If he’s right then we’re all fucked,” Murray states.
“We’ll know soon enough. For now, keep a close eye on Ballard. We can’t have him stalking Royce, not until we know what Orson is working on,” Seamus tells Murray on a whisper.
I walk to Jaxie to give Seamus and Murray some privacy.
She pulls me close and whispers, “H-how are t-things between y-you and M-Murray?”
With a smile I tell her, “Not as good as you and Seamus, but we’re definitely enjoying each other and are no longer forced roommates who need to endure awkward tension on top of the danger hanging over our heads.”
“Good. Y-you deserve h-happiness too. A-and s-sex.” Jaxie grins. “L-lots...”
I smack her shoulder. “Shush,” I demand before she can mention sex again.
A soft chuckle flows from her before her face turns serious. “Seamus t-told Royce t-that I hired M-Murray to b-be y-your bodyguard. An o-official a-assignment. S-sticking to c-company rules. Royce is on a w-war path to g-get the c-company.”
“Fucking asshole. I wish I could shoot him the way I handled Burk.”
Jaxie reaches out to touch my arm. “No, you d-don’t.” She switches to signing when she adds, “You’ve been through enough, Elodie. I will forever regret the fact that you’re pulled into this. Goat...along with another human life you had no choice but to take.”
We fall silent. There’s no need for her to say more. We’ve been friends for years and bonded through the trauma we both lived through. She knows what happened to me, and how the nightmares still come and go, no matter how long it’s been.
Though, there’s a huge difference between the two situations.
“There wasn’t really a choice the first time I killed a man.
It was a split second, life or death situation.
I might not have had a lot of time to react the second time, but I’m sure it would have given me some extra mental damage if I did nothing and watched the man who protected me die in front of my eyes.
Both are moments I’d love to erase from my memory.
I could definitely do without the nightmares.
” In an effort to make a heavy topic lighter I add, “Besides, having someone impale himself on the knife I was holding felt way harder than pulling a trigger.”
“What the fuck?” Murray snaps right beside me.
Shit. I close my eyes and take a deep breath before I face Murray. My mind is still trying to come up with what I’ll say, but I’m roughly grabbed and pulled against his hard chest. His strong arms wrap around me, momentarily stunning me into silence.
“No wonder you reacted the way you did when it happened,” he rumbles. “I knew there was something rooted in your past, but I didn’t want to pry.”
I wrap my arms around his waist and let him hold me.
“We’re leaving. I’ll give an update as soon as we have one,” I hear Seamus mention and right after a door falls shut.
Murray pulls back and tells Ballard, “Stay put. Don’t make me track your ass down and bring you back here.”
Ballard doesn’t get a chance to reply before Murray quickly ushers me into the bedroom.
He kicks the door shut behind us and says, “A better man would respect your privacy, but I want to know what haunts your nightmares. I’m aware of the recent trauma, triggering the shit in your past with the present, and I simply need to know.
My mind can’t handle the worry and deep need to protect you.
It feels like facing an invisible wall that could potentially block me out in case I want to be there for you. ..when you need me to.”
His words hit me hard, and yet the look of utter despair in his eyes is what makes me rattle out the words, “My stepfather. I killed my stepfather. They were always fighting and one day he just snapped. We just ate dinner and were still in the kitchen when he wrapped his hands around my mother’s throat until she stopped fighting him. He...”
I swallow hard and push down the memory. So. Much. Blood. I can still taste the metallic smell in the back of my throat while it burns my nose. It’s something I will never forget. Murray takes my hand and leads me to the bed. We sit down, side-by-side.
The images of what happened that day caused deep scars inside, and out.
Murray is still holding my hand, and I stare at the white lines marring my skin.
He brings our joined hands to his mouth and places a kiss on my knuckles.
The soft gesture and his silence warm my heart, letting me know I’m not stuck in the horrors of my past.
“His bloodshot eyes were filled with so much rage,” I croak.
“Strangling my mother wasn’t enough to calm his blind rage.
He took a knife and kept stabbing her. I made a noise which reminded him I was there.
..he turned to face me and I knew...I knew deep down I was next.
He slipped on my mother’s blood when he lunged for me, and he lost the knife, making it slide across the floor. It stopped right in front of me.”
A chill runs up my spine at the reminder. Of looking at my stepfather’s rage-filled eyes, down to the knife, and back to see his intention to finish what he started.
“I had no choice. He came at me and I grabbed the knife, holding it with both hands and I jerked it upward while dropping my head. He fell on the knife, making it lodge under his chin. He was so heavy...the silence deafening...the smell...I could taste the blood. It was...everything was...horrible.”
I turn and bury my face against Murray’s strong, muscled chest. Inhaling his scent to keep me in the present instead of allowing the horrid memories to flood back.