Page 95 of Love Finds Home

She takes a breath, motioning to Ginny.

“He was convinced Elle and him were meant to be together. He confessed to killing someone from Elle’s past and making it look like an accident. He also said his sister’s body is at the studio in the city.”

“How is that?” Joker asks. “We searched that place high and low.”

“You won’t find a body.” Elle looks at him. “At least not a whole body. If he fired the kiln up, it would have destroyed her.”

“That’s sick,” Davis whispers.

“It’s not pleasant,” she admits.

“How did he fall out of the window?” Sam asks.

“You mean how did the whole fucking wall fall off the building?” Tiny snorts, and I roll my eyes at him.

“I remembered Ranger telling me not to lean on the windowsill when I came to look at the room because it needed to be replaced. I hoped if nothing else we could break the window,” Elle offers as explanation.

“Smart girl.” I squeeze her and kiss the top of her head.

“Stupid girl,” Joker fires back, shooting a glare at me, then Ginny. “You could have gone out the window with him. You could have killed yourself!”

“I had to take the chance!” Ginny defends herself. “He had a gun, and the bottle didn’t knock him out. And what the fuck were we supposed to do?”

“Wait for me to save you!” Joker roars before leaving the area, muttering under his breath.

We all sit for a minute staring at each other with wide eyes.

“Well, that escalated quickly,” Ginny quips, a look of bewilderment on her face. “Anyone know anything about that?”

Lots of head shaking happens with her question before she turns to her brother.

“D, would you be alright if I stayed with you all tonight?”

“Yeah, G, you’re coming home with me.”

“Thank you,” she replies before turning to Sam. “What else do you need from us?”

“You’ll need to come down to the station tomorrow and give a formal statement, and we will probably help you set up a time to talk to someone about what you went through tonight, but I think you can go home.”

“I’m not sure I’ll ever go home again,” Elle mutters under her breath.

“You’ll find a new home, Tink. Promise,” I mutter back.

She leans into me before trying to stand up, but I can’t make my arms let her go. “I’m just standing right here, Ranger. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Thank you.” It’s like she knows I need to touch her to make sure she’s okay, but also realizes she needs to hug this group of people who showed up when she needed help.

One by one we say goodnight to people, Davis getting Ginny out first. Elle and Ginny share a hug, both in tears before they pull apart. I don’t blame them at all. What they went through tonight would be hard for even the strongest person trained for something like that. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long while before my Tink is able to stop thinking about it, and it’s now my job to make sure I’m there when she has a bad day.

When the only people left are Joker, Tiny, Sam, and the two of us, Elle turns to Joker.

“Stop being an ass to her or you’ll never have a chance. She’s been surrounded by men who treat her like shit for years, and you don’t need to be included in that number. Be her friend, Joker. First and foremost, be her friend. Show her she can depend on you, that you’d be there for her no matter what. And then be patient.”

“Aren’t you a little philosopher these days?” I squeeze her closer to me—again. “And correct.”

“We’ll see,” Joker grumbles, his jaw ticking, but I know he heard what she said. “I’m getting out of here.”

“Tell Davis we said hi.” I smirk at him. We all know he’s headed straight to where Ginny is.

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