Someone knocked on the door, and my stomach dropped at the sight of Eliot. I hated when he came unannounced, but The Director had likely known and chosen not to tell me.
“Am I interrupting?” Eliot asked as if he cared.
“Jonah was just showing me how much he still has to improve in chess. I thought you’d be arriving tomorrow.”
Eliot shut the door and sat on the couch. “Another night in your company sounded better than another night in my empty house.”
“You should arrive in the mornings. I don’t like it when you drive all this way in the dark.”
“I’ll try to do better, big brother. Hello, Jonah.”
I asked The Director if I might be excused.
“Not yet, and you know how I feel about a lack of manners.”
I drew a breath and turned to look at Eliot. “Hi.”
He smiled, as handsome as always. “I brought you something.”
I knew better than to refuse, so I silently took the box he handed me and opened it. Inside were three strawberry almond rusks from what I assumed was my favorite bakery in LA. I hated how well he knew what I liked. “Thank you.”
The Director leaned forward and took a rusk.
“Since when do you eat sweets?” Eliot asked.
“Mr. White was here.”
Eliot sighed. “Then sweets and alcohol are indeed in order.”
“Why?” I asked. “He gave you your freedom, didn’t he?”
Eliot crossed his arms. “Please keep in mind that my ‘freedom’ came with limitations and that Mr. White doesn’t do anything without a motive.”
Like befriending someone so you could gift him to your brother?It took all I had not to say that out loud.
“He had dinner with Jonah,” The Director said.
Eliot watched me with concern. “Oh dear. Are you okay?”
Hearing that shattered my self-control. “Am I okay? Are youreallyasking me that?”
“Jonah.”
I ignored the warning in The Director’s voice and threw the two remaining rusks into the fire. “I don’t want your dirty gifts!”
“Okay.” Eliot raised his hands. “I understand. Please calm down.”
He was giving me a way out of punishment, and I knew better than to refuse it. “I don’t feel well. Can I go?”
The Director shook his head. “You feel fine, now zip your lips and listen. Nathan is proving to be a more difficult case than I expected, and now I have Mr. White who’ll undoubtedly be checking up on his progress.”
“Then why did you bring him here in the first place?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking. “He has a family.”
“It wasn’t my decision. Nathan used to work for a company owned by one of our most successful members. He saw Nathan and decided he wanted him here, logic be damned.”
It rattled me how easily a man’s life could be destroyed by someone more powerful, but all around me were living proof of such behavior, and hadn’t what happened to me been the same?
Noticing my bleak expression, The Director said, “It’s too late to change what happened, Jonah, and I would like for you to speak with Nathan.”
