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I wince and he drops his hand, blowing out a tense breath.
“Four?” I repeat in disbelief. Sure enough when I look out the window, I see the wispy orange glow of the late afternoon sky. “Why did you let me sleep so long?”
“You needed it.” He places his hand on my thigh and rubs it gently. “You hungry? I brought you a sandwich and some Ginger ale.”
I swallow and look down, shaking my head. My stomach is empty and my mouth is dry, but I don’t have an appetite.
“You should try to eat something,” he encourages.
I shake my head again and try to fight back tears, but it’s nouse. They roll down my cheeks slowly, as the memory of all that happened last night slams into me.
Wrapping both arms around me, he holds me closely, yet delicately. My bones feel brittle and the salt of my tears stings the cuts on my cheeks and lips. Everything hurts and yet, a part of me is numb.
“I feel like such a fool,” he whispers. “I should have been with you, protecting you. But I meant what I said last night. I’m never leaving you again, Ellie. I swear on my life. You are my everything.”
I draw in a shaky breath, his words chipping away at the hurt. “Say it again.”
He pulls back and cups my face, brushing my cheeks carefully with his thumbs. “I love you, Ellery Magnolia Butler. So much…you have no idea.”
“More than baseball?” I smile softly, ignoring the pain it sends down my jaw.
“Baby.” He flashes me a smile, the warmth of his eyes, matching that of his touch. “I love you with every breath in my body.”
His answer is everything. “I love you too,” I say with a shuddering breath. “Always have, always will.”
He pulls me to him again and I curl up against his chest. When the room falls quiet, and our breathing is the only thing I can hear, I place my hand on his chest and look up. “We need to talk about what happened last night.”
He brushes my hair out of my eyes carefully and shakes his head. “It can wait.”
I’m not sure how he spent the night, but clearly he didn’t sleep. He has bags under his eyes and looks exhausted.
“You don’t get to carry the burden alone.” I reach for his hand and pull it close. “I brought this on us, I too, need to carry the weight.”
“You didn’t do anything,” he says tightly. “You didn’t bring this on us. What those fuckers did is on them.”
I refuse to believe I wasn’t partly at fault for last night. Especially after what Royce said.I did it for you.
“No,” I swallow. The idea of those missing girls losing their life because of me makes me sick to my stomach. “I stuck my nose where it didn’t belong. I stirred up a hornet’s nest and got stung.”
“Now you listen to me,” Cruz says with ferocity. “You had every right to look into your father’s case and from what you told me last night, you were right. Elmhurst was trying to ruin his legacy. And what Royce did to those girls, what he tried to do to you, he has blood on his hands, not you.”
I close my eyes, as those very words—blood on his hands—sink in.
There was a moment last night when Royce had his hands around my throat, that I wondered if those would be my last seconds. If those hands that choked the life from those girls, would be the ones to choke it out of me.
I had no idea he was that sick and twisted. It wasn’t a crush Royce had on me. He was driven by delusions of grandeur, rooted in a promise my father made. A promise that had apparently been serious enough for Royce to kill and nearly rape me for.
“I need to know how it’s connected,” I say quietly. “How killing those girls could have possibly been for me.”
“We’ll get the answers,” Cruz cups my neck tenderly. “I promise you. And I promise what happened last night will stay buried. Jake and I worked hard to make sure it will.”
I run my thumb under his eyes, the dark circles making more sense. “How?”
“Jake’s dad is a detective, and he’s learned a thing or two over the years about how to cover your tracks. So all of them…yours,mine, Jenica’s, they’re covered. We made sure of it.”
I draw in a breath and look down, picking at the skin on my thumb with my forefinger.
Jenica. My best friend. The girl who had become like my sister, had my back when it mattered most, and now her actions will probably haunt her the rest of her life.
