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Recognition hit with all the subtlety of an atomic bomb.
Oh, God.
Wow.
Fiona Mallick.
She was, in some way, related to Eli.
And since I only ever knew him to talk about brothers, and had just confirmed that all his brothers were taken (because Peyton was serious about the scary clown mask), then Fee must have been with one of his brothers.
"Sorry to burst in here like this," Dusty said into the silence that followed Fee's admission.
"Ah, no. It's, ah, okay."
"I bet you're wondering how we knew about you," Lea said, giving me a small smile.
"Sort of."
"The day Eli got released, everyone was out on the town looking for him, wanting to see that he was okay. Shane was on his way home to me and the kids when he stopped at a sign, and something in his peripheral caught his eye."
Oh, God.
I had a feeling I knew what caught his eye.
His brother practically fucking me against a building.
Jesus.
This was more than a little embarrassing, and totally not how I would have liked to meet his family.
"Coop," she clarified, but the way her eyes were dancing gave me the impression that she knew what I was thinking.
"We've been looking for him for six years," Scotti added. "Shelters and the vets. Nothing. Not a word." She paused there, shrugging. "Because you had him."
"But we can't figure out why you had him," Lea added.
The silence after demanded a response, even though they hadn't asked a direct question.
"The day Eli was arrested, I was outside the coffeeshop. He had been trying to make Coop sit for a treat when the cops showed up. They took him away. And Coop started freaking out. I, well, I figured he was too ugly to end up in the pound. So I took him home with me."
"You've had him this whole time?" Scotti clarified.
"Yeah. Me and my sister work opposite shifts a lot of the time, so he always has someone around."
"So he's with her now," Lea concluded.
"No, ah, he's with..." Shit. I didn't want to give anything about Eli away when he was so determined to cut off ties with his family. I already felt like I had said too much.
"He's with Eli," Lea finished for me. "Shane saw Coop that night, but he also saw you and Eli. As in, together."
Ugh.
There was literally no way out of this situation.
And I had no clue how Eli would have wanted me to maneuver it.
"We're not here to make you uncomfortable," Dusty said, holding up her hands, looking apologetic. "You just have to understand that we need to know that he's okay. Everyone has been sick for years."
I imagined that was true.
And my heart truly did go out to them.
But my loyalty needed to be with Eli.
"Look," Fee said, voice more serious than I had ever heard it before. When I did look, her eyes were full of feeling. "Hunt came home yesterday to tell me he had seen Eli. He had confronted him. You know what Eli told him to tell my girls?"
"No." But I knew it wasn't good.
"That he was dead," she said, swallowing hard. "He said it was true enough."
That hurt.
It felt like a knife in the gut.
Because I knew he did feel that way.
"Autumn," she said, voice even more grave. And when I looked up, her lip was trembling. "I've seen my husband tear up exactly three times in our entire time together. The first time we found out we were having a baby, the day he realized Eli was going away, and last night when he told me his brother said he was as good as dead. Now, I know you don't know these Mallick men, but they are not the kind of men who cry. Not even one glistening tear. So seeing my man like that, yeah, it was the push I needed to way overstep my bounds and come in here to talk to you."
Even as she finished speaking she had to reach up and swipe a tear away, shaking her head, and blinking hard, trying to get it together.
I would have to be made of stone not to have my heart go out to her right then. My heart ached in my chest for the pain they must have been feeling, the loss their family must have endured. It wasn't just Eli who had done time; they had done time in their own way as well.
"Eli had a rough afternoon yesterday too," I admitted, the act of sitting down all day reminding me with a small sting.
"See!" Scotti said, shoving her hip into Fee's. "I told you it was an act."
"I don't think it's an act," I corrected before I thought better of it. But then all their eyes were on me and pleading for more. "Eli is terrified that any links to his old life will make him rage-out again. He doesn't want that. So he tries to disconnect. Key word there being try. It's not an act. He's not pretending. He is putting every ounce of energy he has to attempt to kill the man you all once knew."
