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The fingers Eli had been using to draw circles on my chest stilled, but when he didn’t respond otherwise, all my old fears came rushing back. But I forced them down and said, “I know the timing’s not great and that the pain I’ve caused you is unforgivable, but I can’t lose you. If there’s even a chance that you want to be with me-”
That was as far as I got because Eli leaned up at the same time that his hand snagged the back of my neck. His mouth closed over mine and when I let out the pent up air I’d been holding on to, his tongue slipped past my lips. The kiss was over too soon, but when Eli whispered, “I love you, Mav. So much,” against my lips, I felt the relief in every cell in my body. I rolled Eli until he was flat on his back and he instantly wound his arms around my neck.
“You refused to leave me,” I murmured.
Eli tucked my hair behind my ear before trailing his finger over my jaw. “You make me a little less broken.”
I kissed him long and deep before saying, “I’m going to make you whole again, Eli. I’m going to show you how perfect you are and I’m going to love you for the rest of my life.”
Tears slipped down Eli’s face even as he smiled tremulously and said, “You’re never going to be alone again, Mav. I’m never going to let anyone hurt you ever again and I’m going to love you for the rest of my life.”
I couldn’t help but feel a rush of joy go through me at Eli’s last words…in a crazy way it felt like we’d just said our own private version of vows to one another.
I kissed Eli again and then sat up, pulling him with me. I teased his mouth with mine as I dried his tears. “We’ll go wherever you want when this is all over. We’ll be each other’s family.”
Eli nodded and then pressed his head against my chest. “I can’t keep running from this,” he said softly. “I…I know now I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said and my heart swelled with pride. But my stomach bottomed out when he said, “I need to watch the video, Mav.”
I understood his need, but I wished there was a way I could give him what he needed without putting him through more pain. “You sure?” I asked even as I reached for the laptop since I already knew what his answer would be.
“I want to put it behind me.”
I booted up the laptop, but Eli didn’t stiffen against me until I put the flash drive in. There were at least a dozen files that appeared on the drive. It took only seconds to realize how they’d been named and I sorted them alphabetically so all the ones that started with the letter “E” were together. There were seven files in total so I knew either Nick hadn’t managed to copy them all, or Eli’s stepfather hadn’t saved all the recordings. My guess was that it was the former, because the fact that he’d saved even any evidence that could put him in prison for the rest of his life was proof of how confident the man was that he would get away with everything he’d done to all three boys. As I selected the earliest file based on the date, I wondered if the man had more victims somewhere.
I didn’t ask Eli if he was ready because I knew there was no way he truly could be. The video started with the image of Eli and Jack sitting on the couch in front of a flat screen TV, a big bowl of popcorn between them. They laughed and joked about whatever was happening on the screen, but when Jack asked Eli if he wanted a beer, I felt Eli tense up against my chest. Just like Jace had said, the security camera got a clear shot of Jack spiking one of the beers and I felt my chest nearly implode when I saw a very young looking Eli take the drugged drink. By the time the first beer had started to make Eli groggy, Jack’s frequent touches had started to linger and grow longer. And when Eli asked for another beer, Jack had smiled widely, ruffled his hair and gotten up to get the drink. He again put something in it and then sat back and waited as Eli drank it and began to look like he was about to fall asleep. What followed was a series of inappropriate touches that were meant to test how heavily drugged Eli was and even though Eli tried to push Jack’s roaming hands away, he was completely helpless to do anything but say no as Jack began taking his shirt off.
