East, page 12
I pulled my cell from my pocket. Called my future brother-in-law. I had a fight on my hands and this time it wasn’t in the ring. “Jed, I need your help.”
18
ELLA
* * *
The school had found out about us. I pushed East away, and it still happened. Exactly as I worried it might. I felt sick and anxious, as if I needed to climb out of my own skin. I couldn’t sit still, but I had nowhere to go.
When the dean called, I was between classes in the lobby of the sociology building, eating a sandwich I’d packed. There were tables and chairs for studying and more comfortable spots to sit and read. I was surrounded by other students, and yet the dean was loud in my ear, telling me I was up for an ethics violation, of a relationship with my professor in order to receive an improved grade.
I tossed my sandwich in the trash. What I’d eaten was lodged in my throat. Three years at the university and it came down to a math elective. It didn’t matter that I’d been above reproach for every other class. This was the one they cared about.
East wouldn’t have called me out. He was more into there being an us than I was. Did he do it as retaliation for turning him down the night before? That made no sense. He said he’d protect me. No, he wouldn’t have done this. He only had to wait… less than two weeks. All he was doing was drawing potential disaster on himself as well.
I thought of the others in my class, if someone had it in for me. I wasn’t close with anyone since it was a semester elective not in my major. The only time I’d connected with East outside of class had been that first day and we hadn’t done anything. Only talked with the door open.
The car battery couldn’t be an issue. Nothing could have been construed from that. I’d had a dead battery. He didn’t push me over the engine and fuck me in the student lot!
I grabbed my bag so someone else could have my seat and paced. One wall was glass and it let in the sunshine, the snow reflecting brightly and I had to squint. Maybe it was someone in the math department? Someone who’d seen us in the copy room that day. Valerie? Again, why now?
I’d slept with my professor. That was true. But I’d never once considered asking him for a better grade in trade. East had never offered. We’d never even talked about the possibility. He knew how much my education meant and he wasn’t a dick, or unethical. In fact, he was too nice. Sure, I’d surprised him with being a virgin, but he’d pointed out the door and my ability to walk away not only then but in the copy room too. I’d consented to everything we’d done. He’d been the one to push for it. Provided the condoms. He’d helped me with the car battery. Picked me up from work when I needed a ride. Protected me from–
Oh. My. God.
There, sitting on a bench on the concrete path toward the administration building was RJ. Watching me.
I stumbled back.
Fuck. It was him. He’d done this. It was obvious now. But why? I had to find out, so I dashed outside, my adrenaline pumping. The air was biting cold, but the sun helped. I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel anything but anger.
“Why?” I said, pushing my bag up on my shoulder.
Slowly, he stood. “Hell Ellbell.”
“Why?” I asked again.
He cocked his head. “I told you I’d never let you go.”
“So you put in a complaint?” I hissed.
He shrugged. He looked like the typical student in his jeans and leather boots. Canvas jacket and ball cap. Except he wasn’t. There was something wrong with him. Very wrong.
He looked normal, cool enough to get in Sarah’s bed, but he was far from it. I’d spent the night at the apartment since my roommates were all back from the holiday weekend. RJ hadn’t been there, thankfully. Now I knew why.
“You belong with me. You always did. I love you.”
My mouth fell open as I stared at him, wide eyed. “What are you talking about? I haven’t seen you in years!”
I wasn’t shouting because everyone on campus didn’t need to hear.
“I saw you,” he said. “When you lived with us. You were so beautiful. Still are. You were meant to be mine. That’s why I found you again at the fight.”
He found me again because of a complete and horrible coincidence.
I frowned. “Then why are you lodging a complaint? It’s a lie.”
He smiled, but it was cold. “You sure about that? That professor of yours is a loose cannon. He shoved me, then tossed you over his shoulder.”
“You’re doing this because your ego got pushed around?”
“Everyone at the fight saw how crazy he was for you. Then you left with him.”
“There were creepy people there,” I said, hoping he’d catch my drift that I was referring to him. “He was protecting me.”
“Right. What about last weekend? Where did you spend it? I thought you were staying and studying?”
I shivered and not from the cold. “I went home with a friend.”
“Dr. Wainright.”
Arguing with him wasn’t going to work. Obviously, he knew I’d been with East. I’d gone to his house and taken a helicopter. While it wasn’t subtle, it hadn’t been anywhere near campus. Had he followed me to East’s house? He definitely couldn’t have followed to Billionaire Ranch.
“Why have me kicked out of school? It solves nothing.” That was what was going to happen. The dean had outlined the best and worst outcomes of a disciplinary hearing of this kind.
“Because you’re mine.” He stared at me with single minded focus. “School’s keeping you from me. We’ll leave here. Be together.”
I backed away, retreated while I kept my eyes on him. He was scary as fuck.
“I’ll tell him,” he said. “About that night.”
I froze. I knew exactly what he was talking about.
He closed the distance between us again and I refused to move. He brushed a finger down my cheek and I couldn’t help but wince.
“How you didn’t save my father from the fire.”
Shit. Shit.
“I’ll tell your lover how you’re a murderer.”
“I didn’t set the fire,” I said, my voice hollow. I hadn’t spoken about that night with anyone. Not once. The social worker had come before dawn, before the house had stopped smoldering, and took me away.
“No, but I did. For you.”
Oh. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Oh. Holy. Fucking. Shit.
I glanced around. I could scream, but he’d only say I was crazy or something. I could run, but he’d find me. He’d slept with Sarah. God, he’d done it to get close to me. No question.
But this?
“You… what?”
“I saw the way he tried to touch you. Heard all the sick things he said he’d do. I knew what would happen if I didn’t stop him because you were to be mine. Not his. He was a drunk. An asshole. No one liked him, so I finished him. He made it easy. All I had to do was light a cigarette and get the recliner to catch.”
“You wanted your father dead?” I had to wonder what Ron had done to RJ.
Tears slid down my cheeks, the only outlet for my emotions.
“I wanted you and he stood in my way.”
“I won’t tell,” I said, although that was stupid. He’d gotten away with it five years ago. Nothing I could say to anyone would change that now.
“I’ll tell Dr. Wainright you didn’t save my father. That you walked right past him, unconscious and helpless, and let him die. The professor won’t want you then. No one will except someone who understands.”
I swallowed hard, swiped my hand over my face.
“Me.”
I turned and fled, sprinting past people on the path, trying to get away from RJ as fast as possible.
I wanted to go to East’s, to hide at his house. To feel his arms around me again, to know I wasn’t alone. Over the weekend, I’d felt like I belonged. A part of a family.
It had been real. Too real. But it could never happen.
I couldn’t give this problem to East. He had so much family shit of his own to deal with. Hell, he fought in underground fights to deal with his demons.
I couldn’t give him mine. I already had though. I’d been selfish and thought of this complaint only from my side. What kind of trouble was East in? Would he be fired? Certainly called out by his peers.
I’d started all this with my ridiculous jealousy. If I hadn’t gone to that fight, RJ never would have found me. I cared about East and this was what it gave me. A nightmare.
I got to my car, fumbled to get the key in the lock. Glancing over my shoulder, I looked for RJ. He wasn’t there, but no matter how quickly I fled, I knew he’d find me.
19
EAST
* * *
The one thing about the dean, she didn’t spread shit. In the math department, no one looked at me funny, commented on the hearing. Nothing. Clearly, they didn’t know.
I had to talk to Ella, but I didn’t dare text. Didn’t try calling. Wouldn’t show up at her apartment because I didn’t want to make it worse for her. So I went to her work all the way out by the airport and waited for her in the parking lot, just like I had before. I blocked her car in with my truck and leaned against it to wait. We were talking.
This time when she came out, she looked worn down. Broken. Fragile. Exhausted.
When she approached, she didn’t stay away. Instead, she walked right into me. I hadn’t expected that, but instinctively, I wrapped my arms around her, hugged her fiercely. She burst into tears.
I let her cry into my flannel as I stroked her hair, kissed the top of her head. Fuck. She was killing me. I didn’t know a stronger woman, one whose drive to succeed pushed her forward. One day at a time, she worked toward her goal with a single-minded focus that kept everything else secondary. Including me. Including her emotions.
“Tell me, doll,” I murmured when her sobs turned into sniffles.
She pulled back and I let her go, setting my hand on her shoulder.
“I can’t. You shouldn’t be here.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Someone’s watching.”
“No one here cares about you in college,” I said. Everyone heading for their cars had also finished a full shift. It was late and bitterly cold. All they wanted was to go home.
She shook her head and stepped back. Wiped her face with a mitten covered hand. “You can’t be here.”
“I’m going to take care of this,” I vowed. I hadn’t heard from Jed. Yet.
Instead of looking at me with hope, like I was her own personal superhero, she held up a hand, refused to even glance my way. As if she was blocking me out. “No. You need to stay away from me. You can’t fix this. It’s all my fault.”
All her fault? “You’ve done nothing wrong, doll.”
She shook her head, her eyes wide and almost pleading in the dark. “I have.”
“You didn’t come onto me for a better grade. Your virginity’s proof that’s not your M.O.”
The look she gave would have withered a lesser man. “This isn’t about that!”
“I know,” I shouted back. It didn’t matter how we met; it was that we were in this fuck-all situation together. She just didn’t see it that way. Well, she would. “I said I would protect you and I will. Why won’t you let me?”
“Because we can’t be together. We can’t be in a relationship.” She looked up at me with such sadness I wanted to grab her again. She held up her hand to ward me off. Like she was tainted or dirty. She’d let me hug and comfort her, which was a sign that this wasn’t over. She found safety in me. Her guard went down and she’d cried. I had to wonder when the last time was she’d done that.
Still, she was pushing me away.
“We can be in a relationship. I was wrong. I want one with you. I’ve never had one before because it had never been you.”
Yeah, that was one fucking huge admission. But it was the truth.
She shook her head. “Go, East. You need to go.”
She wasn’t going to be swayed and I was only making it worse. No matter how much I hated it, I got in my truck and pulled away. I’d finally found the person I wanted to be with. My other half. The person who soothed my demons. Hell, made me forget I even had them because life wasn’t so dark when I had Ella, pure brightness. I watched from the back of the lot as she pulled out, followed her at a distance until she got to her apartment. I’d take care of this. I’d take care of her. Then I’d make her mine.
20
EAST
* * *
“I emailed you,” Jed said the second I answered his call. It was early and I hadn’t gone to campus yet. I’d had a shower and was drinking my coffee, but this was more of a wakeup than caffeine.
I went into my home office and opened my laptop. “What’s in there?” I asked, dropping into my chair and waiting for the screen to turn on.
“Ella Taynor, twenty-two, born in Missoula. Mom’s listed as Eleanor Taynor. No father. Mom was called by social services several times before they ultimately took Ella away. Mom died two years later. Overdose. Ella stayed in foster care until she was eighteen.”
“That’s it?” I asked, entering my password.
“She was in eight foster care homes. It took time to look at all of the families. None of them are going to win any awards, but they provided stable and safe homes.”
“But…” I could hear it in his voice there was more coming. I probably wasn’t going to like it.
“Her last place, she was only there a few months before she turned eighteen. It had me looking into the one prior, why she left so close to aging out.”
I found his email, opened the report. There were so many pages, I wasn’t sure what to look at first.
“That place… well, shit. I can see why she said she wants to be a social worker.”
“Jesus, Jed. Just tell me.”
“Ron Silvers, the man of the house. In and out of prison for petty crimes. Including aggravated assault.”
I set my coffee mug down, ran my hand through my damp hair.
“They had seventeen kids through their house over the years. All but one were female.” Jed’s voice tipped toward grim. He was a cool customer to begin with, but he sounded extra calm. Not good.
“It’s all in there, but I’ll give the highlights. Complaints to social workers came in about Ron touching them. Nothing sexual, but handsy. Verbal comments about what he was going to do with the kid. Nothing substantiated by any of them because they recanted when pressed.”
“And that wasn’t a red flag?”
“A fire destroyed the house. Killed Ron Silvers. Report says he was a drunk and passed out with a cigarette in his hand.”
“He set his own house on fire?” I asked.
“Yes. His wife, who had to have had the shit kicked out of her to turn a blind eye to a handsy asshole for a husband, got out. So did everyone else. Ella, a younger foster girl, and the Silvers’ son, RJ.”
I kept scrolling through the pages. Saw a clipping of the house fire from the local newspaper.
There were more pictures. A mug shot of Ron Silvers, his wife, who looked a decade older than she should, and then–
I sat bolt upright. Stared.
“I know that guy.”
“Who?” Jed asked.
“Holy shit. RJ Silvers. He was at the fight last month. The one Ella came to. He was with her. Had his arm around her shoulders. She wasn’t thrilled about it. I saw it all from the ring and had to finish off my opponent to get to her. I knocked him down and carried Ella off.”
“This changes things. Hang on.”
I heard the shuffling of papers, silence, which I assumed was him reading either the printouts or off his computer.
“RJ stands for Ron Junior. Looking at the photos I shared, they definitely share DNA. He was eighteen at the time of the fire. Only… six months older than Ella. After the fire–Ella was immediately sent to that last foster home–he and his mom moved into a trailer on the edge of town. Bank account data in his name shows less than two hundred dollars. Tax records list minimum wage jobs, barely making enough to pay Uncle Sam.”
I definitely didn’t like the kid.
“Hang on,” he said again.
I was impatient, trying to figure out why he was with Ella at the fights. Was it a coincidence they met there after all those years apart? She had only gone because of the conversation I’d had with Callie.
“His mother died in a trailer park fire last year. A windstorm blew an electrical line down. It arced against the wood steps.”
“Let me guess, RJ was there.”
“He was. Told the police that the trailer had engulfed so quickly he had to jump out his bedroom window at the back.”
“It doesn’t take a math genius–or two decades with the FBI–to see that one plus one might just equal a psychopath.”
“Yeah. This is bad.”
I didn’t blame Jed. He had no involvement in any of this police work we were working through. Not the first crime, nor the second. He had the big picture here and it was easy to see.
“I doubt a fire inspector would even know to look at previous family history if all indicators of ignition were accidental,” he said.
“Which means Ella lived with a murderer,” I said, narrowing all the data down to one sentence.
“Tell me about your relationship,” he said. We weren’t giving each other pedicures while watching a Jane Austen movie. He was thinking like an investigator.
“She picked me randomly at the bar,” I began. “I was only there for a quick beer after a fight. I’d decided to stop in at the last minute.”
“So she didn’t target you.”
“No. I didn’t know anything about her. She ghosted me, until the next day when I showed up to teach her stats class.”
“Planned? She knew this and followed you?”
I didn’t like him painting Ella to be diabolical, but I understood.
