I can see he’s debating with himself on what to tell me, but then that hard mask slides over his face and he sits taller as he nods at the door for me to get out.
“I’ll tell you later,” he mutters, then turns to the front of the car. “Go help Bryce. You heard what I said. I want no one to touch the car that hit them. I’m sure by now the police know it, so they won’t give you any trouble, but call me if they do. I want that car somewhere safe where I can inspect it.”
“You got it.” Austin nods, and I’m truly surprised by how unflinchingly he follows Eli’s orders.
No hesitation whatsoever.
We walk to the emergency room doors and into chaos. Eli grips my hand again, tighter, and for some reason the minimal show of emotion is enough to help me breathe more normally.
The feeling in my face comes back and I realize my cheeks are still wet with tears, tears I don’t remember shedding.
Despite how hard he’s holding my hand, he looks steady and doesn’t miss a step as he walks us to the nurses desk, and some-fucking-how he has a smile, genuine but small, ready for the older woman sitting behind it.
“Eli Ellsworth and Alexei Jankowski.” His voice comes out clear but obviously quieter. There are a lot of people around and there’s no reason to attract any more attention than my simple presence already does. “Our parents were brought in?—”
“Yes, dear.” The nurse interrupts him and stands, walks around the desk. “They were taken upstairs at the insistence of their bodyguards. After a lot of grumbling the two tough idiots finally accepted help too, so let me take you up to where you can wait for their doctor.”
“Thank you,” Eli says, nodding once and pulling me with him to follow her. We wait a few seconds by the elevator and I see Eli’s eyes trail down to the name tag on her scrubs. “Thank you, Alysha.”
She only nods, but she’s clearly charmed by Eli. I don’t blame her, I can’t seem to look away from him.
His face is the only thing that makes sense, his hand is the only thing I want to feel, his voice the only thing I want to hear.
Eli straightens again, like he’s about to go into battle, or a courtroom, when the doors of the elevator open on the third floor.
“Right through here,” Alysha directs us, and when we’re through the frosted glass doors, she offers us a kind smile. “I’ll let Dr. Kully know you’re here waiting for an update.”
“Thank you.” I manage to speak up though my voice comes out rough. I stare at the closing door for a few seconds only, but when I turn to see Eli I find him on the phone, fucking again.
“Hello, Daniel. Yes it’s Eli. My Dad and Lyla were in a car accident. We’re at the hospital. No—please don’t interrupt me, I don’t have a lot of time. I need you to make sure no one in this fucking city prints a single word about it, okay? Not until I give you the wording we’re going to use and not until I’ve approved an article for us.”
Does the “us” mean their newspaper? Network? Who the fuck is Daniel?
It hits me like a dagger—I barely know Eli’s world.
He doesn’t realize of course. He’s figuring out so much shit I don’t understand.
“Anyone else better stay off this if they want to keep working in New York.” The way he’s speaking it’s like he’s someone completely different.
He’s not my angel right now. No, he’s...
“Bye.”
I can’t stop myself from speaking up now.
“Eli, what the fuck is going on?” My voice shakes, maybe because of the image I have in my head of Mom and Michael bleeding on the ground next to their car, or maybe it’s because this change in Eli is something I never imagined could exist.
I’m supposed to know him better than anyone, so how the hell didn’t I know this side of him?
His blue eyes are hard as steel when he looks at me this time. The soft sky-blue is gone and it took my angel with it.
“My father is unreachable, Lex, and he will be unreachable for fuck knows how long. That means, as of right now, I am the head of the largest media conglomerate in the world. That means I need to get shit done, I need to protect everything my family has built because I am literally the only one left standing.”
What almost makes my heart stop is the unyielding resolve, how matter-of-fact he is about it all.
But maybe... maybe this is how he deals with the fear.
It sure is a lot more useful than my way—freezing—and it also seems, from how he just said it, like he knows he doesn’t have a choice in how he reacts.
