“Impatient, aren’t we?” She ran her finger across my chest, and I recoiled at her touch before I could stop myself. I saw a flicker of hesitation as she continued to look around at where we were. Hating myself, I grabbed her hand so she didn’t think about pulling a runner, and thankfully, I felt her relax and smile up at me.
I tugged her toward the stairs. Ellie only lived on the second floor, and I wasn’t waiting for an elevator that might be on the tenth floor. It would take maybe a minute—shorter, if I didn’t have the dead weight of Tiffany tugging on my hand.Yuck.
“Where’s the fire?” she huffed. I didn’t answer her. Soon—sosoon—I could see Bonnie again. I all but dragged Tiff down the hall and shoved her into the apartment.That took forever.
“Jesus, Elijah, that was insane. What the hell was that?” She ran her hand down her jacket, trying to smooth out any imperfections and collect herself.
“Uh…what is this?” Bonnie’s voice rang out, and thankgodI was back in her presence.
“This is me bringing the truth to you,” I explained, and I turned toward a very confused Tiffany.
“What’s going on?” she demanded.
“You’re going to explain to Bonnie about how youliedto her and implied things that weren’t true. How I haven’t touched you in years, how we slept together thatone time, and I couldn’t even get hard at the end.”
Her face flamed red, and Ellie snorted so hard into her coffee cup that it went flying all over the counter.
“Sorry…sorry,”Ellie muttered, and made herself appear busy as she cleaned up her mess.
“You’re going to explain to Bonnie that Ibarelyspoke to you, that Ineverwent to your room without other people present, that I was always the first to leave. You’re going to tell the truth.”
She scoffed at me in disbelief, and I saw the menacing look she shot me, thinking she could lie and get away with it.
“I don’t know what he told you, Bonnie, but…” She tried to soften her voice and appear like she was the wronged party, like she wassorry.
“Don’t you dare lie,” I ground out, and she shot me a look that saidwhat are you going to do about it?
I smirked at her. “One of the best things about not giving two shits about you is I couldn’t have cared less when you texted me. Meaning I kept everything. Every message of a room number, every unanswered message. I’ll go to HR and tell them you’re sexually harassing me.”
She looked at me, shocked, and her mouth dropped open. “You know that’s not true!” She actually stomped her foot, and I grinned at her.
“Isn’t it?”
“No! There are witnesses! We were never alone together! It was a group of us! It’ll never stick!” The words flew out of her mouth, and she knew that she had given herself up. She knew that I had gotten what I needed from her. I didn’t give a shit about work or HR. All I cared about was Bonnie and showing her the truth.
“Get out.” Bonnie looked at her. “Or I’ll drag you out.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she screeched.
“If she doesn’t, I sure as hell will,” Ellie said, blowing on her newly replaced cup of coffee.
“You’re all fucking crazy. Screw you, Elijah.”
“Hard pass.” I opened the door. The sooner she made her exit, the better.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” Ellie told us, and started to slip by as Bonnie and I continued to stare at each other. But I still whispered, “Thanks for the assist,” to her as she went. I thought we were far enough away from Bonnie that she wouldn’t have heard it.
“What did you just say? You were in on this?” She shot her friend an accusatory glance.
Ellie just shrugged her shoulders. “I’m a hopeless romantic.”
“You literally had a plan to murder him and dispose of the body!”
“Everyone needs a backup plan.” Ellie’s tone held zero remorse for her actions, and Bonnie’s chin wavered a little bit. I wondered if she would let me pull her into my arms.
“Traitor,” she said to Ellie, but I knew she didn’t mean it.
“No. Team Bonnie, always.” She playfully punched her shoulder, and then did what she said she was going to do and gave us some space. Bonnie watched her go until she could no longer pretend that was what she was doing, and turned her attention to me.
