After setting the donuts on the table, she walks over to me. I’m unsure what she’ll do or think of me now, but she embraces me quickly. I close my eyes. I hold her, too, my arms around her backpack. I know exactly what's inside it. As we hold each other, I hear Konnor moving across the apartment.
Elise whispers in my ear, “Wanna go?”
I open my eyes and find Konnor in the kitchen; the sight of him makes my belly flutter. “No, we can talk here.”
Elise releases me. “Donuts?”
“Do you want a drink, Elise?” Konnor asks as he collects a glass and a bottle of liquor from the cabinet.
Elise frowns at him. “It’s nine, Konnor.”
“Yep, it sure is,” he says, his tone taking on the edge of someone who hears her disapproval, maybe even feels it himself, but submits to the vice anyway. Gesturing towards the living space, he adds, “Take a seat.”
Elise moves to the sofa and sits down, glaring at Konnor as he tilts the glass to his lips. She stares at him. Waits. And there is a tightness to her energy, like a held breath.
“What the hell happened yesterday?” Elise finally asks, eyes on Konnor not me.
Konnor necks his drink, then murmurs something too low to hear before saying, “I’m so sorry you had to see that, Elise.” His brows furrow as he looks at her. “I have... I don’t know what else to say.”
“Say what happened,” she presses. “I had to take two showers last night. I was completely covered in blood. I deserve to know.” Her voice is relatively steady, given the situation, and I’m reminded she is stronger than she looks.
Konnor grips the nape of his neck, then drags his fingers through his hair with a low groan. “Elise... I’m not a dangerous guy. You don’t have to be worried.”
“Really?” she says dubiously. “Yep, okay. It’s just, you weren’t the one holding Erik’s face together.”
Konnor cringes.
My breath catches in my throat. I sink onto the couch near her. “Elise...”Erik… Erik was…The words twist on my tongue, not moving the way they should.
“Erik was hurting Blesk,” Konnor says, curt.
Her eyes widen. “Hurting you how?”
I don’t want to say it.
God, no, I don’t want to hear it.
“Blesk,” Konnor says. “You don’t have to say anything.”
I nod, but Elise is right. She was there. She was part of it, and she deserves to know why… Or what happened? My lips won’t form the words.
“What’s going on?” Elise says again.
Konnor spits it out. “Erik raped Blesk.”
Is that what happened?
She exhales hard, shaking her head. "I was really hoping there was some other kind of explanation for what I saw." She twists to hug me. Then pulls away and frowns at Konnor, but there is affection in her eyes now. "You're a psycho, Konnor. And the SUVs? The ones that followed the ambulance?”
That’s just The District.Something violent happens; the police have less than honest company. I just shrug. “Said he was Erik’s boss. I didn’t even know he had a job.”
Elise shifts and pulls the backpack to her lap. “I brought that thing. You know. While the psycho was being handcuffed and then unhandcuffed. You asked me to grab it.”
I chew my lip. Yeah. “Konnor.” I whisper his name. His lovely green eyes settle on mine as if there is nowhere else in the world. "I have something for you,” I say.
“I hid it under the stairs thirteen years ago.” While Jaxon spoke to police and Konnor was pinned to the grass being handcuffed, I begged Elise to grab it. I told her that Konnor and I share a past. That we've known each other since we were five. That's all I told her.
Elise pulls out an old fishing tackle box and places it on the coffee table between Konnor and us.