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Chapter Fourteen
Tyson
Mybackendfishtailedas I veered into the entrance of Ellie’s drive. I sped up the gravel path, impatient as it curved and bent, slowing my progress. It had been a while since Ellie had contacted me and when I answered her call late tonight, she sounded terrified. As the trailer finally came into view, I saw exactly why.
It was dark, but the one outside light was on, as well as some lights inside. I slowed and threw my Jeep into park, my teeth clenching at the sight of the shattered front window. Anger flared through me as I jumped out and ran toward the house, bounding up the few steps of the wooden porch landing and letting myself inside.
I skidded to a halt when I saw her. She was kneeling on the floor in the living room, a field of broken glass surrounding her as she tried to pick up the larger shards with her bare hands. My stomach dropped as I slammed the door shut.
She startled at the noise, her head snapping up as her gaze locked on mine. Her eyes were puffy and tears glistened on her cheeks.
Shit. “Ellie,” I said softly as I approached. The glass crunched under my shoes. I squatted in front of her. “What the hell are you doing?”
She breathed in, and her chest shuddered with a sob. “I need to clean this up.” She reached for another piece of glass, but I grabbed both her wrists.
“Not like this, you aren’t. El, you’re bleeding.”
She blinked and looked down at her hands. Her mouth opened in shock as if she just noticed the blood dripping from her fingers. “Oh, God,” she whispered.
I ground my back teeth. I was pissed that someone would do this to her window in the first place, and worried as hell with the way she was acting. Ellie was always strong, she didn’t often break in front of people and I’d seen it more than once in the last week. It wasn’t like her.
“Let me see it,” I said, turning her wrists to show her palms. But she closed her fists, shaking her head as she tried to pull out of my grasp.
“No, I’m fine.”
I wanted to keep my cool, but it was difficult. She was always so stubborn. “You don’t look fine.”
Her lips thinned, a few more tears slipped from her lashes. “Really, it’s okay. I just need to clean this up.”
My grip tightened around her wrists. “I can take care of the mess. Let me see where you’re hurt.”
She shook her head again, her fists clenching harder and forcing blood to drip on the floor. I let out a slow breath, thinking. “You’re making a bigger mess by bleeding everywhere,” I said. My eyes roamed her body. She wore jeans even though it was late, near the middle of the night. Glass was everywhere, surrounding her completely. It had to be all over her. “Why don’t you get in the shower and I’ll finish cleaning.”
She swallowed, her lips wobbling. She opened her mouth, and I thought she was going to argue more, but then she nodded. “Yeah,” she whispered, glancing down at the red smudges and drops all over the floor. “Okay.”
I waited for her to move, relieved, but she didn’t. She sat there, staring at the floor like she was lost. My heart sank.
Ellie was a small girl. It was easy for me to stand and lift her into my arms. She didn’t fight me as I walked her to the bathroom, and that alone had me considering taking her to the hospital.
I sat her on the closed toilet seat, looking her over again. She had her arms crossed tight over her chest, her hands tucked away under them. I turned the water on for the shower and squatted in front of her, taking her chin in my hand and staring into her eyes.
“I’m going to go clean up the mess. Everything’s gonna be all right. Get in the shower, okay?” She stared at me blankly before she nodded.
I stood up, the small room started to fill up with steam from the hot water. “I’ll check up on you when I’m done,” I said, leaving the room and closing the door. I hoped I wouldn’t find that she hadn’t moved when I came back.
It didn’t take long to sweep up all the glass and clean the blood. I worked quickly but efficiently, going over the area multiple times to be sure no glass was left behind. A big tarp outside sheltered a woodpile, so I took that and covered the broken window until it could be replaced.
When I walked back into the house, the water from the shower had stopped running. My pulse spiked as I hurried to the bathroom door, knocking softly. There was no answer from within. I reached for the doorknob. She hadn’t locked it. Cautiously, I opened the door, calling her name.
She was sitting on the toilet seat again, only this time she was wearing a white, fluffy robe. Her dark, thick hair was wet and dripping down her shoulders and back. She didn’t look at me as I entered. Her sad, exhausted gaze was trained on the floor. The robe was long, but the bottom half of her bare legs peeked out. Her skin was smooth and flawless. A feeling I wasn’t used to stirred in my blood and I looked away.
“You’re still bleeding, El,” I said, my voice thick as I eyed the stains of red on her white robe.
She didn’t acknowledge me and I sighed, opening up the medicine cabinet and grabbing the small first aid kit they kept there. I knelt down beside her, and she didn’t resist this time as I took her hands and inspected them. She didn’t flinch as I cleaned her cuts. They weren’t deep, but there were a lot of them. At least she wouldn’t need stitches. I checked her hands really well, tilting them back and forth and making absolutely sure there weren’t any shards left behind.
As I began wrapping one in gauze, I asked, “Did you see who did it?”
She wouldn’t look at me, but I was fairly certain I knew who was to blame for the damn brick through her window. If I saw that pathetic bar rat again, I was going to make him pay.
