“How can you be?” He smiles when I toss his question back at him because he knows. He’s sure because he loves me. I’m sure for the same reason.
“I suppose this story is best told from my father’s prospective. It was a different experience for me. I heard him telling my mom about it later, after the cops had gone. He thought Abel and I had gone to bed, so he explained to her what he had seen.”
Eli’s dad passed away several years ago, but I saw a picture of him downstairs. As he tells me the story, I can see it. I can see his mom and dad sitting on their bed as his dad recounts the events of that night.
Chapter 28
Vaughn
As Elijah retells the events of that night from his father’s perspective, I hear it in Elijah’s deep, confident tone, only now it’s older. I suppose this is what my subconscious thinks his dad would’ve sounded like.
‘I was in the kitchen getting a glass of water to take back up to bed when I heard something in the den. It sounded like something hit the floor. I thought one of the boys might be in there, so I went to check, but before I made it, a man stepped out into the living room. He was wearing a mask, but I could still tell he wasn’t surprised to see me. He had a gun, and I had an empty glass. I just knew that was it. I took in a heavy breath as he raised the gun. I was going to yell to hopefully give you all a chance to defend yourselves. Just then, something separated from a shadow next to the man. It was as though he came from the shadow. Like he was made of it. He didn’t make a sound. He moved with such ease and conviction. Eli wasn’t there, and then he was. He moved so quietly and came up behind the man. In one swift, graceful movement, he pinned the man’s arm to his side with his bicep. Then he put his palm over the man’s mouth, pinching his nose with his thumb and forefinger. At the same time that his left arm was doing this, his right hand closed around the man’s hand on the gun. He brought it straight up under the man’s jaw.
He couldn’t breathe, and he couldn’t break free. He could barely even move. He was obviously struggling, but he couldn’t make a sound. His eyes were wide and terrified and all I could do was watch. My boy...my fifteen-year-old son was giving this man two options. He could either suffocate under his hand, or he could blow out his own brains.
The only parts of his body Eli didn’t have pinned down were his legs and his trigger finger. You know what he chose to do. I’ve only ever seen something like that one other time in my life. There was this guy in basic training. He excelled at everything. When we did the gas chamber, he just took it. He never passed out. He drug guys to the exit each time someone would fall but he never quit. Something happened, and he was gone. Three weeks in, and I never saw him again until six years later in the field. We were getting slaughtered on the ground. Outnumbered and outgunned, and there he was. He came in like a shadow. Everywhere he went, bodies fell. Two and three at a time. He threw knives and grenades. Shot more weapons than one man can hold.
The look in his eyes. Until tonight, I’d never seen another man look like that.’
Only one question immediately comes to mind, so I ask it. “What did he choose?”
Eli’s mouth quirks up a bit at the side. He’s a little relieved. Maybe that I’m not running. Maybe that I want to know more.
“He shot himself. Not sure if he thought he might survive it or if he just didn’t want to suffocate, but, in the end, he took his own life. Cops decided he must have been mentally ill and just broke into our home and shot himself. They never knew I had seen him while he was alive. Dad told them the guy was standing there with the gun under his chin when he came out of the kitchen. Said he pulled the trigger without saying a word. Dad asked me what was going through my head when I chose to do what I did instead of just subduing him. He wasn’t upset with me. He was just curious. I told him the man had to die the moment he stepped into our home. The mercy was letting him choose how.”
Eli looks into my eyes the entire time he speaks. He’s watching for everything. Any hint of fear or disgust. He won’t find it. I’m here. Completely in this. Wholly his.
“I didn’t realize what I had done was strange until I heard dad telling mom what had happened. They sat me down and spoke to me the next day. My future was pretty much set after that. That man. The one he told my mom about. He became a Navy SEAL and then something like a solo enforcer. Dad spoke to him once after their time together in basic training. Apparently, he was just like his grandpa, only his grandpa didn’t have the guidance of the Navy. He did some pretty bad things in his life. Killed a lot of people. The guy’s dad realized that he was going to be like his grandpa when he was pretty young. He didn’t want him to take that same path, so he pushed him into the Navy, and it turned out to be a good thing. A great thing, even. The guy was made for it.”
“And you?”
Eli gives me a small, dimple-less smile and nods in answer. “Not sure where I’d be without the Navy. That night. That man. That’s just what had to happen. For me, there was no second option. He came into my home. Endangered my family. There was no way out for him. I laid my head down that night and never thought of him again. I don’t know why. This is just how I am.”
He heaves a deep sigh, scratching at his short beard and looking away from me for the first time. “And Abel. Well, my big brother wasn’t about to let me join the military without his protection, so...here we are. He’s gone, and I’m here. Some piece of shit human traffickers sent a kid strapped with a bomb into a shitty, busted up building to blow us to pieces and I hesitated. I hesitated because he was a fucking child, and now Abel’s dead. The kid’s dead, and half my team is dead. The other half will never see another deployment. I’m all that’s left because I hesitated just long enough for him to push that button.”
Tears are streaming down my face. There’s nothing to say.Nothing that I can say would take this pain, this regret away from him? Nothing.
My fingers comb through his wet hair, pulling it back from his face and off his shoulders. As I lean into him, our lips meet. The kiss is somehow tender and passionate at the same time.
“We’re going to get through this. All of it. Together.”
Eli peers back at me as though he can see straight through to my soul.
“Yeah. One day at a time. Close your eyes, Little Devil.”
Without knowing the why or what will come next, I close my eyes.This is trust. Eli shifts slightly beneath me just before soft, smooth fabric is placed over my eyes. The fabric swishes and rustles as he ties the ends together. It’s a blindfold. He’s tied a blindfold over my eyes.
Chapter 29
Vaughn
My heart picks up speed, and my core comes alive as my other senses take over. He takes both my hands in his, tying them together in front of me with that soft leather strap I’ve become so familiar with. Now, being completely at his mercy is a thrilling feeling. Knowing all his secrets only makes me trust him more. My mouth falls open, and I can do nothing to quiet the heavy breaths that are escaping me.
“Little Devil?” The deep, gritty sound of his voice surprises me in the silence, causing my breaths to hitch.
“Mmhhhmm.”
Eli lifts the hem of my shirt up with one hand and holds onto my waist with the other as he stands, spinning us to face the opposite direction. He’s still lifting the shirt, careful not to remove the blindfold, when I feel my now naked back meet the soft quilt covering his bed. My hands are tangled up in the shirt, and he’s tugging them above my head.
