Page 188 of Never Tell Lies

With as professional a manner as ever I saw, he turned to the man pouting like a child who’d just had his favourite toy confiscated, took hold of his right wrist. I turned away,instinctively knowing what was coming next. I didn’t see how Elliot did it but the sound of bone breaking was unmistakable.

I looked back as Adam began his screaming. I stared at his bent wrist, at the hand that had struck me, which now hung limp and broken.

Elliot took me by the elbow and began guiding me away to a black car waiting nearby. I had so many questions that I couldn’t pick which one to deal with first.

“Where’s the Rolls?” I think I was in shock. Adam’s screaming had muffled to low groans, and as Elliot steered me away I turned to watch as Adam stumbled to his car.

What just happened?

We reached the car and I turned again at the screech of tires. Somehow, Adam was driving away, his dark blue car veering all over the road. We should stop him. He was going to have an accident.

I stopped in the middle of the road. I was sure I was going to throw up. The world was spinning and I needed to just stop for a moment.

“Elliot, what are you doing here? Have you been following me?”

“Yes. I got cut off at the last light change though. That’s why I was delayed. It won’t happen again.” Through the shock and adrenaline, anger spiked in my belly. This whole day I’d been ordered and bossed about and Alfie having me followed had just pushed me past my limit. It was irrational. Him having me followed had just saved me, after all, but goddammit I hated this! A GPS tracking system wasn’t enough?

He opened the car door and gestured for me to get in.

“Oh no, no way am I jumping at his lordship’s beck and call. Elliot, I’m tired and everyone’s acting crazy, and my shirt is ripped and I just want to go to bed.” I sounded like a two-year-old having a tantrum, but after this long and shitty day, Ino longer cared what anyone thought of me. I could taste blood and I tried not to swallow it. Elliot’s eyes softened slightly. He placed his hands on my shoulders, the same hands that minutes ago had broken the wrist of a man that had just tried to rape me. Adam had tried torapeme. It felt surreal.

“I understand, Miss. But if I don’t take you to him then he will come to you. I understand there’s a young lad in the house…”

I sighed, defeated. He was right. Of course he was. Whatever shit was going on in my own life, I could never let it land on my family.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to think clearly, but all I could see was Adam’s face. All I could feel was his breath on my neck, his hands on my body.

Alfie.

I just wanted Alfie.

He was going to be so angry.

Elliot’s phone must have been on vibrate because I didn’t hear a sound, only watched as he pulled it from his pocket and answered it.

“We’re on our way,” he said and hung up. This time, instead of a polite invitation to get into the car, he took my elbow and steered me to it. I allowed him. I was tired of fighting with the world. I just wanted Alfie…but I dreaded what he was going to say. I tried to think of how I was going to fix this so he wouldn’t be upset, but I couldn’t.

Elliot drove away and I watched my safe, cosy home disappear behind us.

“You broke his wrist.” I caught Elliot’s gaze in the mirror. His eyes, which had always been impenetrable, now showed the cold-blooded man he hid underneath.

“I should have broken his neck,” he said, without a hint of remorse. I looked away. No one was who I thought they were. Including me.

Tears began to roll down my face but Elliot said nothing. He just allowed me the privacy of crying in silence.

Sixty-Seven

Elliot dropped me off at The Carlton, and once again I was the subject of stares as I half ran through the lobby with a torn shirt and a tear-stained face.

In the lift, I cocooned myself in my own arms, my ears ringing, my face burning where Adam had hit me. He’dhitme. I wanted to crumple but I couldn’t because Alfie was waiting on the other side of the lift doors and he would need me to show him I was okay. From the few words Elliot had uttered in the car, I knew that Alfie already knew what had happened. At least that saved me the pain of seeing the look in his eyes when he learned that yet another man had had his hands on me. Would he be angry? Adam’s mouth had been on me, his hands…Yeah, Alfie was going to be pissed.

The lift shuddered to a stop and I took a trembling breath, pulling a final shred of composure out of nowhere. I stepped out and he was there, waiting by the foyer table. The rage pouring out of him took my breath away. My steps faltered.

“Please don’t shout—” But his arms were around me before I could finish. My composure crumbled as he held me. He didn’t shout, he didn’t demand answers or retribution, he just held me, giving me the silence I had craved all day. For once he wasmy quiet. He was my safety, and the rest of the world was my wretched enemy.

“I couldn’t stop him touching me. I can feel him everywhere, Alfie. Do I smell of him? I can smell him.” My voice came out broken, my throat thick with tears. I felt as if Adam had wormed his way inside me and was trying to burst his way out. I felt dirty and poisoned.

He pulled back and looked down at me, tilting my chin up when I didn’t want to meet his gaze.

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