Page 19 of Home Free

The door closed and Elise stood, turning to face Finn as he walked into the room.

She almost flinched at the sight of him. She didn’t know what she’d expected. Signs of distress? Guilt? Even resolve had entered her mind. Maybe Finn would have reconciled what he’d done by the time they arrived home.

Anything except for the blankness of his expression, the hollowness in his eyes that made her feel like she was looking down a long empty hallway.

“Hey,” Julia said, walking to meet Ronan.

Elise assumed Nick had gone straight to the new house — he and Alexa had started moving in a couple days before — and Declan had gone home to Kate in Marblehead.

Ronan folded Julia into his arms. “Hey, baby.”

He looked bone tired, no surprise given the fact that he’d left the city the night before, tended to what was one hell of a crisis, and then driven back less than twenty-four hours later.

Finn met Elise’s eyes and she walked toward him, slipping her arms around his waist and resting her cheek against his chest.

“I’m glad you’re back.” It was the only thing she could think to say, the only thing that was both true and not potentially a landmine for Finn.

She hoped.

“Me too.” His voice was flat, and he gently extricated himself from her arms. “I need a shower.”

She nodded. “Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?”

He shook his head and started for the hall leading to the rest of the house.

Elise watched him go and waited for the sound of the door closing to turn to Ronan. “How is he?”

Ronan ran a hand over his head. “You tell me. He’s… like that. Quiet.”

“What can I do?” Elise asked.

Ronan shook his head. “Just be there. There’s nothing else to be done.”

She nodded. “Thanks for taking care of him and… everything.”

She wasn’t ready to talk about what they’d done at the mountain house. She knew it must have involved disposing of Eudorus’ body, cleaning up what had become a crime scene in the garage.

It made Elise feel dirty, like a criminal herself, which she was, she guessed, for standing by while all of this happened.

The ridiculousness of it wasn’t lost on her. She’d been complicit in MIS’ crimes for a long time, since they’d rescued her from the boat in Greece. Men had died then too, but they’d been the men who had kept her prisoner, the men who had hurt her, who had tried to sell her.

There had been other cases since then. Other people dead at the hands of the Murphys. But those deaths had felt distant somehow, unrelated to her.

This felt different. She just didn’t know why. Eudorus was every bit as evil as anyone that MIS had been contracted to kill, and there was no doubt in Elise’s mind that he would have evaded justice forever given the power behind him.

She shook her head. There would be time to think about all of that later.

Right now, Finn was all that mattered. He’d been there for her as she healed from her trauma. She would do the same for him, even if he isn’t willing to acknowledge what had happened as trauma.

“I’m going to check on him,” Elise said.

“Let us know if you need anything,” Julia said.

Elise headed for the hall, using the time to brace herself for whatever came next.

Finn was still in the shower when she got back to their suite of rooms. She sat on the sofa and waited, dread constricting her chest like a vise.

She’d spent two years learning — with varying degrees of success — to manage her own trauma. Now Finn’s trauma was dovetailing with her own. She hoped she was strong enough to truly help him.

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