AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Those three words turn my heart into glass and then smash it into razor-sharp shards that cut me up inside.
I can’t lose her.
I refuse to.
“I love you too. So fucking much.” God, I want to hold her. Kiss her. Touch her perfect skin the way I did only once before, in the piano room. I know it’s not safe for the two of us to meet up, but sometimes…
Sometimes I’m tempted to skirt the rules.
Only thoughts of Ellie’s safety keep my needs leashed.
When the two of us finally hang up, I spend ten minutes simply staring at the picture of her. I trace the outline of her heart-shaped face with the tip of my finger as Frodo whines and whimpers.
“I know, bud. I miss her too,” I whisper.
“It won’t be forever,” a strident voice assures me.
I don’t jump at the sudden intrusion, mainly because I heard him arrive.
Raymond.
Ellie’s uncle.
He stands in the doorway of my room, his flannel unbuttoned over a gray shirt and his hands shoved into his jean pockets.
I don’t know how I feel about this man, mainly because he’s an enigma, a puzzle I can’t quite figure out.
And I don’t like not knowing things.
He claims to be trying to destroy POP and The Divine One after they murdered Ellie’s parents—his brother and sister-in-law. He has been Landon’s connection to the organization for years now, unbeknownst to us.
Yet there’s so much about his story that doesn’t make sense.
Why has Ellie never heard of him, even when her parents were alive?
Why didn’t Raymond introduce himself to Ellie earlier?
How does he know about POP in the first place?
Who are these “contacts” he has that are capable of taking down the cult?
Raymond ventures a step farther into the room, his hands still in the front pockets of his pants.
Trying to look unthreatening, perhaps?
“You’re good for my niece,” Raymond continues, his voice nonchalant despite the sudden tension in his posture. “I know you’ll look after her, no matter what.”
I don’t bother responding. The fewer words exchanged with Raymond, the better.
But I have to admit, I like hearing him say that I’m good for Ellie. She’s the sun embodied, and I spent so long in the dark, I’m practically desperate for just a single second in her heat.
I’m afraid that I’ll corrupt her, destroy her, banish everything good inside of her, replace her inner light with darkness… Yet I still can’t stay away. I'm too damn selfish.
Raymond looks as if he wants to say more—his mouth opening and closing like a fish plucked from the sea and now flopping around on dry land—before he clamps his lips together. He surveys me yet again with that unyielding intensity before turning away.
He pauses just before he leaves, however, to say, “Dinner will be downstairs in an hour.”
Once again, I don’t bother to respond. I simply watch his retreating back until the door slams shut behind him.
