Page 22 of Dauntless

Fight this now.

I can’t.

My body kept shaking and shaking. “Gia. You’re a fighter. A survivor, sweetheart.”

Light blue eyes shone through the fog—Elliott.

Where did he come from? So, absorbed in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed the car had stopped moving or that we were across town. But it didn’t matter now. Elliott held me.

“I asked Tove to bring you here,” he said. His thumbs stroking my cheeks.

“You’ll survive this. You have me, Dane, your family, and real friends right by you. You can count on that.”

The lump lodged in my throat robbed me of speech.

“They will pay for this. I can’t stay…we found a maid that worked for Vincent. She tried to leave the country out of Las Vegas. She’s giving names, which means we don’t need him. They know we have her, so that’s why…”

The video was released to discredit me. “I need to…speak to her.”

“Okay. I’ll find a way,” he replied. “I’ll see about making that happen…. I’m going to make it right. It takes time, and it’s a process to get justice, but I trust it. We will win.”

I swallowed. “We will.” We had to.

We were outside a building in the emergency parking spot. We would have to move on.

Elliott leaned close. “How about you come in and we can have an early dinner together?”

I flinched. Be out in public? No way, not yet. “I’m too upset. I just need to be alone right now.”

“I know that,” he rubbed my shoulders. “But I don’t think that’s a good idea. Tove, go on and take Gia back to my place. I don’t know when I’ll be able to return tonight, but as soon as I can, I’ll be with you. You’re a fighter, Gia. You amaze me every fucking day.” He kissed me hard on the lips and climbed out of the car.

My insides warmed at his sentiment. I didn’t want him to go, but I needed him to be out there fishing out whoever did this. “Thank you.”

I’d needed to find my way out of this mess, not fall apart now, but how?

My phone buzzed, and I let it go to voicemail. When it went off a third time, I checked the phone. It was Dane. “Hello?”

“I’ve been trying to reach you. I know what happened—”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said and sighed deeply.

“Okay,” Dane replied calmly. “I know it’s hard, but you did the right thing. Trust me, this will pass. I’m here to listen when you’re ready…I left a ticket for you at the airport. I know you’re going through a lot right now, but I wish you would come. Elliott and I spoke about it last night. He must work on the case; he can’t be around as much as he wants to. He will have to come over here anyway soon with Angel—”

I wanted to stay, but I also wanted to get away.

“Yes. I’ll come.”

He gave me the details, and I went back to Elliott’s home. Caving under the impact of the day, I went straight to his bed and slept.

Later, when I thought more on my reason for leaving Seattle, it wasn’t solely to escape. I wanted to be there to support Dane and to have a chance to see Angel again. She may have been incoherent in her speech, but in the end, she’d been right.

I was becoming her.

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