"Pick up the chair, Saige. Stop disrespecting my things," Elias says, his tone bored as he shovels eggs into his mouth.
"You areliterallythe bane of my fucking existence! I loathe you! I abhor every fucking minute I'm forced to be in your presence. I'm only in this situation because someone hatedyou!I should have known better than to go along with this—you can't help anyone. You're not some mafia boss;you can't cover up a fucking murder. You're a washed-up, has-been high school athlete with daddy issues and a chip on his shoulder! You can't help anyone. You can't even help yourself!"
Elias slams his fork down on the table and stomps over to Saige, grabbing her by her arm and hauling her into the kitchen.
"What are you doing!?" She struggles against his hold, but it's pointless. Elias has a couple of inches on me—probably about twenty pounds of muscle, too—he can handle Saige like a rag doll.
It creates an intriguing image in my head before she yells at him again and pulls me back out. "Get off me!"
"Hey! Leave her alone!"
But he doesn't listen, shoulder-checking me as he drags her along behind him.
"Elias!"
He stops at the sink, grabbing her by her hair near the scalp, and when she opens her mouth to disparage him again, he shoves a bar of soap into her mouth, holding it in place with his hand while she struggles against him, choking.
"I warned you, didn't I?" he growls. "I told you that if I had to put you back in your place, you wouldn't fucking like it."
Porcelain shatters against the cabinets not far from Elias's head, and we all freeze, looking at Nolan.
"I'm not going to watch this," he says. "You need to stop right fucking now."
Elias releases Saige, who spits the soap onto the floor before I pull her, sobbing, into my arms. "It's okay," I say, stroking her hair. "You're okay, baby."
"Well, three days in, and you've already ruined family breakfast, Saige. Good job."
I shake my head. "Elias…just stop."
"What?" he asks, chuckling a little. "You can take it, can't you, Saige? I can't hurt you, remember?"
She ignores him, wrapping her arms around my back.
"The next time you need shutting up, I'll fill your mouth with something else. And Dax is right—I won't be as gentle as he was."
Elias storms upstairs, slamming his bedroom door behind him.
"Sorry about that, guys," Nolan says, grabbing a broom and dustpan from the closet. "Watch your feet."
"I'll talk to him," I tell Saige. "It'll be okay."
She sniffles. "It's not fucking okay. I'm leaving; I'm done with all of this. Whatever happens to me can't be worse than this."
She storms off toward the back bedroom, grabbing her suitcase from the ground and opening it on the bed.
"Saige, you can't go, baby."
"Yes, I can. Watch me."
"No, you can't. You're already in this.We'realready in this—we don't know who is doing this or what they know; I told you that. Until we find them and take care of it, this isn't just about you."
"He's right, Saige," Nolan says, leaning against the doorframe.
"I'm having a security system installed today. That'll make you feel better, right?"
"Not really," she says. "I don't want to stay here."
"No one asked what you want," Elias says. His voice causes Saige to freeze up. "And youarestaying here. You need to be back here before dark, or I'm coming to find you."
