*
And then the door opened. The force of it knocked her back off her feet. She fell to the ground and when she looked up, there was Gris, standing above her, his jaw set in a cruel snarl. It was exactly the look he always had before he laid into her. She rose her arms in front of her face to protect herself from the barrage of abuse she knew was coming, but it didn’t come. Gris just laughed. He made sure to shut and lock the door carefully behind him. He saw that the microphone was turned on and that just made him even more amused.
“So,” he said, “you just heard all that?”
Elle nodded.
“You see, Elle. I tried to warn you. I knew once your lover boy heard the truth, he wouldn’t feel the same way about you anymore. You saw it with your own eyes. When I told him what you really were, it just took all the wind out of his sails. It took the love out of his heart. He feels nothing for you now.”
“That’s not true,” Elle said, but even as she said it she could hear the doubt, the fear, in her own voice. She was already beginning to doubt herself. She was beginning to doubt Forrester’s love. She’d held fast through so much. She’d refused to give up on him. But now she could feel all her certainty, all her confidence, evaporate.
How could Forrester ever love her? She was worthless. She’d been sold as a slave by her own mother. She was nothing more than a whore, and the daughter of a whore.
“And besides,” Gris went on. “You saw him. I’ve beaten the shit out of him. If you don’t let him go, he’ll be dead soon. I’ve got the whole police of this town on my side. If you don’t come home with me, I’ll tell them never to let him out.”
“You can’t do that,” Elle gasped.
“I can do that, and I can do a lot worse. I can get him killed, Elle.”
“The police would never let you do that.”
Gris bent down to her and pulled her to her feet. Then he shoved her up against the door and pressed her face to the window.
“Look at him, Elle. He’s almost dead already. They let me do all that, you think they’re going to stop me now.”
Elle shook her head. She couldn’t bear to look. Forrester looked like he’d been attacked by a pack of wolves and left for dead. She knew he wouldn’t be able to survive too much more abuse at the hands of Gris and his friends.
“How about this?” Gris said. “Either you get in my car right now, and come home with me where you belong, or I go back into that cell and kill lover boy.”
“Gris,” Elle cried.
“I’m not kidding, you little slut. I should kill him just for what he did. He touched you. And you’re mine.”
Elle couldn’t believe what was happening. She couldn’t believe what she was about to do, but she had no choice. Forrester was in no position to be able to defend himself. If Gris went back into that cell, it could mean the end for Forrester.
Even still, something inside her resisted Gris. She couldn’t bear the thought of going home with him. She couldn’t bear the thought of being dragged back to the life she’d struggled so hard to escape. Going back with Gris would mean death for her heart. Could she really do that? Could she allow herself to give up her own future to protect Forrester?
And she knew the answer.
A hundred times, yes.
Of course she could. She loved Forrester, more now than ever. If Gris went back in there and killed him, she’d be dead anyway. The body can’t live without its heart.
Gris shoved her aside. “Need time to think?” he barked. “Let me go stomp on lover boy’s face while you make up your mind.”
“No,” Elle said, her voice strong and clear. “I don’t need time to think. I’ll come with you. Just don’t hurt Forrester any more.”
Chapter 36
Elle
GRIS DRAGGED ELLE BY THE wrist out of the police station. They crossed the snowy parking lot and he pushed her into the passenger seat of his car.
“I don’t have to tie you up, do I?” Gris said, menacingly.
Elle shook her head.
“I mean, I’ll go back into the jail and kill Forrester if you try anything. You know that, right?”
“I know it,” Elle said.
“Okay, good,” Gris said.
He went round to the driver’s side and got in. Elle took a deep breath.
This isn’t over, she promised herself. This isn’t the end.
Whatever Gris thought he was going to do to her, whatever he had planned for her life, she wasn’t going to let him get away with it. She’d come too far to give up everything to a brute like him. She’d escaped Los Lobos. She’d escaped him. She could do it again.
She watched as he turned the key and started the car. She remembered the night she’d gotten into the pickup next to Forrester. She remembered the way his arm had looked with the pit bull tattoos. She remembered the way his eyes sparkled in the light.