Chapter 26 Chapter 26
Violet
I sighed and turned my attention back to the fields outside the window. I was going to watch that movie with mom first thing tomorrow.
While I made plans in my head, a voice dragged me out of my thoughts.
“Thank you” Elijah spoke to me and I blinked in confusion.
“For what?”
“For showing up for Cassie. Even when you didn’t have to”
I gave him a small smile.
“She is my friend. Of course, I had to.”
He nodded and kept driving. His stiff muscles were relaxed but I could still see the tension lines on his face, the way he kept glancing at Cassie every once in a while.
“Thank you for not driving like a maniac this time,” I muttered.
He huffed something that could’ve been a laugh. “You’re welcome.”
“When did this happen? Cassie’s mom I mean.” I asked.
Elijah sighed.
“A few years ago. Cassie was heartbroken and said she couldn’t live in this city because everything reminded her of her mother. So I let her be elsewhere for a while.”
“Oh” I managed.
“She had not visited the graveyard, wasn’t even there at the funeral. She couldn’t bear the loss and ran away. And I was so fucking blind to notice that she came back to the city right around the month of her mother’s birthday.”
Elijah was all business and arrogant with me. I had never heard him talk to me so softly, or open up about anything.
There were so many layers to this man and I could see him walk around as if all the weight of the world rested on his shoulders.
“Hey, she came back for you.” I felt like an even bigger idiot for not having enough words to console him.
“I should have fucking realized why she was suddenly returning. I should have remembered.”
Elijah was shaking his head, cursing himself while I fidgeted with my fingers, trying to say some comforting words but my mind was going blank.
A week ago, I didn’t even know him but somehow ended up in a graveyard in the dead of the night searching for his missing sister tonight.
Fate was playing really odd games with me.
“There are not many people who can drag me out of my warm blanket at 2 am, you know.”
The smile that tugged his mouth upward this time was subtle but real. “Is that so?”
“Mm-hm.” I nodded, pretending to sound casual. “But you should really stop getting so worked up about and worried about people.”
His eyes stayed on the road.
“Comes with the title, I guess.”
“I doubt many people in your pack can make you turn the city upside down in a single day.”
I was failing miserably at lightening the mood.
There were times when my brain would give me the most appropriate replies and then there were times like now where I was grasping for straws.
“Oh, you mean besides the people in this car? Not many.”
My sleep deprived brain took several moments to process what he had just said. I quickly stole a glance at him but there was no change in his expressions.
Had he included me in the list? That must be a mistake, a result of exhaustion and lack of sleep.
The heat rushed to my cheeks before I could form a coherent comeback, not that he was waiting for one. I doubted he had realized it himself.
Maybe we all needed to just sleep.
But that didn’t stop the heat from rushing my cheeks or my neck snapping to the other side fast so that he would not catch my expression.
Elijah cleared his throat then, like he was breaking his own silence. “There was someone once,” he said quietly. “Someone I used to worry about a lot.”
I looked back at him again, seeing the way the moonlight poured across his face, the way his voice grew just a tad softer.
My heart began to thud rapidly, feeling hundred percent certain that he was going to mention some old flame. A girl he loved passionately and still had feelings for.
Had she crushed his heart so bad, he wrote off marriage as a bad deal?
And then mentally scolded myself for getting all hot and bothered if there was any. I didn’t want to marry him so I had no reason to feel anything about who he had cared about.
“Well it's still past tense so there’s that”
Rain had a way of speaking up unexpectedly in my mind and disappearing while I grappled with his words all by myself.
“A friend. The kind you think you’ll grow old with.”
He was definitely talking about some ex.
And I had this odd feeling in my chest.
“Its called jealousy”
“Shut up, Rain!” I hissed and looked into the mirror to ensure I had a calm, curious expression on the outside.
“Oh, where is she now?” I asked automatically and then cursed myself for sounding so desperate.
“No idea. I haven’t spoken to him in years and I don't think he will ever forgive me.”
My heart almost dropped back from my mouth into the pits of my stomach when I realized he was talking about a ‘he’, a friend he lost.
“And that is called hope,” Rain whispered and I swore I would strangle her to death when we were alone.
Rain chuckled, sounding very pleased with herself and went back to sleep.
I wanted to ask more, wanted to hear him open up about his life when suddenly the car jolted violently, metal screeching against asphalt. My shoulder slammed into the door as Elijah cursed, fighting to keep control.
“What the hell!” Tyler’s shout was cut short as the car lurched sideways.
Something thudded into my side of the car and a shadow flashed past us, followed by a growl.
The car’s tires screeched against the road loudly as it started to spin out of control. The jolt was enough to wake all the sleepyheads and start shouting all of a sudden.
“This is not the time for another roller coaster” Gavin began to grumble but his eyes flew wide when a few shadows flew past us.
My hands gripped the door handle but it wasn’t enough as something collided with the car again, throwing it off the road.
“Hold on!” Elijah barked as he gripped the steering wheel tightly and I caught movement in the flash of headlights.
Somebody was deliberately trying to hurt us, to throw our car in a ditch.
The seatbelt felt painfully tight against my ribs as the airbag opened up and blocked my view of the surroundings.
“Elijah!”
I let out a scream that was muffled amid all the chaos. The car thudded against rocks or something else and careened sideways, tumbling into shrubs and dirt.
The silence following our crash was deafening as we all looked warily around, trying to spot any sudden movement.
“What was that?” Cassie groaned while holding her head with her hand.