“What the hell did you do?” Ellis growls, which only makes me feel worse, becauseof coursehe’d take his best friend’s side.
“Nothing—”
“Not you, Princess.” He glares at Atlas. “You.”
“I didn’t...” Atlas starts, only to trail off.
“We’re all done,” the short cop says.
“Okay,” I whisper. “What happens next?”
“Here’s my card,” the bald one says. “If you think of anything else or see anything suspicious, no matter how small, don’t hesitate to call.”
I glance down, noting his name. “Thanks, Officer Harrelson.”
He nods my way before shaking Ellis’s hand. The short one follows suit, and then both file out of my house, leaving me alone with two clearly frustrated men.
An oppressive silence settles around us, the weight of it stifling, until finally, Atlas breaks. “You're seriously gonna take her side right now?”
Ellis shakes his head. “It's not about sides, man. You know I love you like a fucking brother, but you're out of line.”
Atlas looks away, grunting his disagreement.
“It doesn’t need to be this way.”
My surly ex glares. “You’re right, it doesn’t.”
Ellis sighs. “You need to go, man. We'll catch up later.”
“Whatever,” Atlas scoffs. “Fuck this.” He turns around and stomps out of the house.
“Thank you,” I croak, my voice barely audible. “You didn’t have to do that. But, um, you... you can go, too.”
TWENTY
ELLIS
I stagger back,her words landing like a physical blow. “You think I'm leaving you here?”
“It's fine. I've already caused enough trouble for y'all.” She glances down at her feet as she twists her fingers together. “I’ll b-be fine. D-don't worry about me.”
“Something tells me that all I'm gonna do is worry about you.” I run a hand through my hair as I rack my brain to figure out how this all went to hell so fast. I thought we were making progress. One step forward, fucking ten back.
“You don’t need to.” She sniffles and then stiffens her upper lip. “I’ll get everything cleaned up, and it’ll be as g-good as new.”
“Pack a bag and let's go, Princess.”
She narrows her eyes, and I swear on all that’s holy, I canseeher erecting walls around her heart. “It's fine, Ellis.”
“Gonna go ahead and call bullshit,” I say plainly. She’s clearlynotfine. And no sane person would expect her to be. Her home—her safe space—was violated by that piece of shit.
I’m a six-foot-three grown-ass man with rigorous firearms training and I’d be on edge about sleeping here. Hell, I’m ready to leave right-fucking-now.
“Listen, we both know you’re only asking me to stay with you out of some misguided sense of nobility.” She runs her teeth over her lower lip. “Being a protector is ingrained in your DNA, but let’s be real, I’m sure you’d rather do just about anything than babysit me. Atlas is right. I’m nothing but trouble.”
“You really think that?” I ask, hurt leaking into my tone.
She shrugs, refusing to look me in the eye.
