“We did!” he emphatically agreed. “But then you ruined it, Eloise. Why? Why did you do that? Why?”
Jesus, the man sounds like a toddler on Prozac.
“I’ve told you before, Neil. I’m not a long-term relationship kind of gal. I’m no good for you.That’swhy I ended things between us,” she continued with the lies. Remembering the fire extinguisher hanging loosely from her hand, she stopped retreating and began purposefully moving toward him. “I care too much about you to string you along or, God forbid, watch you get hurt. I couldn’t bear that, Neil.” Ellie wanted to vomit from her own words. “You’re too good and kind. Knowing I did anything to hurt you—”
“You wouldn’t, Eloise.” Neil shook his head as if he truly believed she wouldn’t. “I know you, too. I’ve seen that big heart of yours, and I’m—”
She swung the metal cannister up toward his head with as much force as she could muster. The echoing thud it created when it met with Neil’s skull was even worse on her stomach than the lies she’d been spewing seconds before.
The man stared back at her for just a moment, the stunned look on his face damn near comical. And then…
Neil stumbled to the side and fell.
Yes!
Without thinking, Ellie tossed the extinguisher into the water and ran. She pushed her sneakered feet as fast as they would physically go, her leg muscles burning from their efforts to carry her to safety.
She hit the grass and didn’t look back. Her frantic steps slowed as the ground began a gradual incline. Looking around, she realized she was at someone’s house.
No, not a house. A freakingmansion.
Neil.
He’d told her once about his parent’s vacation estate here in the city. Looking at it now, she instinctively knew this was that place.
My parents rarely ever go there. I sometimes go there because I know I can be alone with my own thoughts.
If that statement was true, then the likelihood of anyone else being around was slim to none. Ellie was on her own, and no matter how badly she wished for Lucky’s strong, handsome face to appear—
Gunshot blasted from somewhere behind her. Ellie ducked on reflex, screaming when the bullet struck the ground feet from where she’d been running.
“Next one goes in your spine!” Neil shouted after her.
With no other choice, she remained frozen. Her entire body went into lockdown. All except for the twin tears streaming down her cheeks.
“P-please don’t do this, Neil.” She started to turn around but stopped when he barked the order to do so. “We can start over, you and I.” Ellie began grasping at straws.
“How stupid do you think I am, Eloise?” His voice was right behind her now. “Turn around!”
Uh…wasn’t that what I tried to do a second ago?
Biting back the sarcastic retort, she followed his instructions and slowly turned around. Ellie gasped when she saw the gun in his hand. Or rather, the gun’s barrel. It was kind of hard not to notice it, seeing as how the damn thing was pointed straight at her head.
“I don’t think you’re stupid.”
“I said…don’t…lie!”
He rushed her then, his fist filling with the hair at the back of her head. Ellie’s scalp burned from the man’s angry hold, butshe was more concerned about the gun Neil was now pressing against her forehead.
“P-please. D-don’t.”
“I could have given you the world.” He pressed the barrel’s tip even harder into her skin. “You could have had this house. Money. Prestige. But instead, you threw me away as if I was nothing.”
Ellie opened her mouth, to say what, she had no idea. But before she could utter a single sound, she heard another voice. A beautiful, deep, furious voice…
“Let her go, Peterson!”
Lucky!