Chapter Eight
Kael
The familiar smell of Phillips’s ACU wouldn’t leave my mind as I quietly walked down the hallway to Karina’s bedroom. Flashes of bullets blasting from the barrel of an assault rifle, the screams of people on the street as guns and IEDs blasted around them, the sound of flesh being ripped apart nearly knocked me to my knees. A few more steps and I would see her face, and the memories would fade.
With a shaking hand I opened the bedroom door and the three of them stiffened, immediately locking their eyes on me. Fischer moved between the bed and the door, then relaxed as he realized it was me and not Phillips. Elodie lay back against the headboard, her face red and blotchy, her eyes nearly swollen shut.
“Can I come in?” I asked, still in the doorway. Elodie and Karina nodded in unison and Fischer sat down, notably still blocking Elodie from the doorway.
“I took Phillips to my place,” I explained. No one said anything, but the relief among them was palpable.
My mind quieted as I moved toward Karina. I sat next to her on the edge of the bed and she nearly collapsed into me, leaning her entire body against me. Her hand found mine and I squeezed it.
“You should sleep while he does,” Karina advised Elodie.
“We’re not ever leaving her alone with him,” Fischer said, his chest out and the most serious look I’d ever seen in his usually carefree eyes.
“What’s the plan? Technically, he doesn’t have anywhere to go. They’re still on the waiting list for housing. Is it possible for him to go to a barracks room for now even though he’s married?” Karina asked me.
I shook my head. “We would have to have a really good reason, one that would likely get him in trouble, for them to give him a barracks room alone. It’s complicated, and unless he did something that you want to report”—I looked at Elodie, who was clearly miserable beyond words—“then there’s nothing we can do unless he wants to go somewhere.”
“Whose side are you on?” Karina snapped at me, ripping her hand from mine. “He can’t stay at my house! I didn’t even invite him here, he showed up, basically tried to rape her—”
Fischer stood up and Elodie winced. “I think we should report him for attempted assault. Call the MPs and get him out of here.”
“It’s not that simple. Elodie, what do you want to do? Do you feel safe with him? If not, I will do whatever you need to protect you, but I also need to tell you guys that realistically the MPs might not do shit, and then he will be even more out of control and angry.”
Karina looked at me with a disgusted expression. I knew that she understood that I was being realistic, and the last thing she wanted right now was to deal with the reality of how fucked up the system was, so I tried not to even look at her. She could take her anger out on me after we found some sort of solution.
“I don’t know what I want,” Elodie said. “I can’t even think about it.”
“Phillips is at your place today and then what?” Karina urged. I knew her anxiety had to be through the roof right now.
“Then we take it a day at a time. Unless anyone else has a plan?” I tried not to take my frustration out on any of them, but that was easier said than done.
“But Austin lives with you. Can you handle them both there at the same time?” I wasn’t sure if Karina was asking me or her brother, but I answered first.
“I can handle it,” I assured her, slightly annoyed by her question.
“As long as he’s not with Elodie,” Fischer responded, his voice low but serious.
This situation was so beyond fucked. Elodie was Phillips’s wife. Whether Fischer was in love with her or not, he couldn’t really think he could keep them separated, right? Or did we all need to do that? If Phillips was as aggressive with Elodie as Karina had expressed, he was a danger to all of us, but most importantly, to Elodie and the baby. I ran through scenarios in my head about who in our chain of command I could call about this, but none of them were viable. If someone tried to put him in a barracks room, Phillips would either lose his shit and escalate the situation to a point of no return or, the most likely scenario, no one would give a shit and Elodie would still be stuck with him.
“Do you want him to be kept away from you?” I asked Elodie. This was her choice after all, and she hadn’t spoken much as we talked around her, about her. She looked at Karina, then at Fischer, and I tried to guide her eyes back to mine. “Don’t think about what they want, think about what you want and what’s best for your safety, physically and mentally.”
Karina made a noise and gave me a look that I could easily read as Fuck you, Kael .
“I don’t know. This all happened so fast. I haven’t had time to think about it,” Elodie said in a whisper. “We’re safe as long as he doesn’t drink. But where will everyone be? I don’t want you all worrying about me like this, but I’m afraid—”
“That’s all I needed to hear,” I told her. I almost reached for her hand to comfort her, but I wasn’t sure that being touched by anyone was what she wanted right now, so I put my hand on my own thigh.
“The other half of the duplex needs about a week before it’s livable, but if we bust our asses we can get it done. Then Phillips can stay there, and Elodie, you can take your time. Figure out what you want. Right, Fischer?”
He nodded. His cheeks were red with suppressed emotion and he was still pacing around the small bedroom. His phone vibrated on Karina’s bed, next to Elodie’s knee, and the letter M was on the screen. The area code wasn’t the same as Mendoza’s, whom I thought of first. Fischer grabbed the phone as if it was on fire and flipped it over. Elodie shot him a look that I couldn’t interpret. Karina didn’t notice, but the two of them glanced at her, then back at each other. Mentally, I filed it away for later. Just how many secrets were these two hiding?