AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ella
The relief is overwhelming, but I will have to park it because one look at Adam told me he is the priority right now. Lucas is safe, I am safe, but Adam is broken and once he discovers the truth, he may not recover.
It was instinctive to go to him; to help him though what will be his darkest hour because Lucas and me, we’re the lucky ones. We have each other and a life that’s ours for the taking if we lower our guards enough to make that happen. However, that’s for another day because what happens now takes precedence over that and so I hold Adam’s hand as Ryder fills him in on what happened in the room.
Lucas exhales sharply when Ryder finishes and looks at Adam with so much compassion, I struggle to breathe as he says gruffly, “I’m sorry, bro.”
His voice breaks and he moves across and slings his arm around Adam’s shoulders, but I’m not sure he is registering anything but the pain inside him right now.
“She’s really gone.”
He stares at the floor and Ryder says softly, “It was the only way, I’m sorry. She had a gun to Ella’s head and was intent on shooting Lucas, ending his life for reasons we still don’t know about.”
“Couldn’t you have disarmed her, captured her, anything but that?”
“No.”
Ryder offers no apologies, no words of comfort, just the cold hard facts which Adam doesn’t realize he really needs right now.
He sighs heavily and says in his no-nonsense voice, “Charlie is waiting to take you back to the Casino. Leave us to deal with things here.”
I don’t miss the look Lucas and Ryder share as we walk from the room. This isn’t finished and from the looks of things, it’s only just started.
* * *
We siteither side of Adam in the car. It was a strange exit from a house that was previously filled with guests and loud conversation. As we walked outside everyone had gone and there was only the discarded champagne glasses, bottles and silver trays piled with food that gave any indication anyone had been there at all. Adam has shut down; retreated to a dark place in his mind and there is no conversation, no reaction from any of us. It’s as if time has stood still all around us and the ghosts of the past are waving us off to an uncertain future.
We make the ride home in silence and head to Lucas’s apartment by way of his private elevator. I know we can’t leave Adam; he will have many questions and needs to be among people who care and I know Lucas does, it’s obvious from the emotion in his eyes as he looks at his unofficial brother with concern.
Occasionally, he looks at me and I see the emotion breaking that is hard to deal with right now. There is a lot to say and yet nothing to say and we both know we have all the time in the world to talk and so an easy acceptance of the situation settles on us as we do our best for his best friend.
We reach the apartment and Lucas says gruffly, “Adam, you can stay here. Your room is ready and don’t even think about telling me no.”
Adam nods but looks so grateful it brings tears to my eyes. “Thanks man.” Lucas nods and I see his throat bob as he struggles to keep his shit together. Slipping my hand in his, I say softly, “I’m going to clean up, will you be ok?”
He nods and I feel his eyes burn into my back as I leave them to it and swallow the sob that is threatening to be my undoing. I’m trying so hard to be brave, to help them through this, but I can’t shake what just happened. Things like that don’t happen to girls like me. I have a safe life, an ordinary life; one with no drama and certainly not murderous bitches out to end it.
Thinking of Penelope and her sticky end should make me feel compassion for a woman who was caught up in something she didn’t understand. But how can I, how can I have any compassion for a woman who made her own choices even when she was questioned on them? What she has done to Adam will take years to forgive, if he ever will. He will be damaged, and I only hope he finds a way to overcome it.
I head to the shower and can’t wait to feel the water wash away the evidence of a brutal slaying. Whoever pulled that trigger wasn’t messing around, and I doubt Penelope even registered what happened. I hope so anyway because knowing that was your final breath would have been scary as hell, but it all happened so quickly, I doubt she even knew about it.
As I soap my body, I scrub hard to remove any trace of her from it and I don’t hear the door open and the first thing I know is when Lucas enters the shower and pulls me against him. Just feeling his strong arms holding me so tenderly is enough to unlock the floodgates and as I sob in his arms, I let the emotion have its day. He stands holding me hard against him as the water washes away the horror and nothing else matters but him, me and the fact we’re alive to tell the tale.
