Page 70 of In Her Shadow

“Just get in the car, Eloise, I’m gonna take care of it,” he assures me, kissing my forehead before marching toward the door of the cabin. I step back toward his car, scared at what I’ve done. I never meant to hurt my friend; she’s not evil, she’s mentally ill, and who can blame her after what my dad did to her? What if I go to jail for this? What if the doctors can’t save her? It’s all too much to think about.

I get in the passenger seat and wait for them to come out, and when I hear a loud bang that scares the birds from the trees, I close my eyes and start to sob.

Ren comes out of the cabin a few minutes later, steadily walking toward the car and getting behind the wheel. He says nothing as he leans over me, pulling at my seatbelt to strap me in, before he starts the engine. Reaching his hand behind my headrest, he looks back over his shoulder and reverses up the track back to the road.

“Ren?” I eventually turn my head to look at him. Noticing how focused he is on the road. “Ren, what happened?” I yell at him when he stays silent. “What did you do?”

“The same I did to everyone else who thought they could hurt you.” He looks across at me sadly, and when I break down and start crying, he tenses his jaw, grips the steering wheel firmly, and focuses his attention back to the road.

REN

Ipace the floor outside the bedroom, waiting to hear if they’re both okay. Eloise refused to let me take her to hospital. She won’t let me touch her, and it’s driving me in-fuckin’-sane.

The door eventually opens, and I look straight at Hugo for some answers.

“Relax. Both of them are fine. I checked the baby's heartbeat and took some bloods, just to be sure that whatever she was drugged with wasn’t harmful. But from what I can see, everything is normal.” He taps me on the shoulder.

“Nothing about this is fucking normal.” I shake my head, “Her best friend kidnapped her with a plan to steal her baby.” I can’t believe I let that happen; I’ve spent years scrutinizing every aspect of Eloise’s life, why did I never scrutinize her? “Has she calmed down?” I ask, hating how much stress all this must have put on her. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do to make it better, cause she won’t let me comfort her.

“She’s still mad at you. She doesn’t want to see you, and Ren, if I were you, I’d respect that. The girl needs rest. Just give her time to calm down.”

“How much time?” I ask, desperate to be with her.

“As long as she needs.” He taps my shoulder again and starts making his way down the stairs, and when my phone continues to vibrate against my leg, I take it out of my pocket and see that it’s Lance.

I’ve ignored all his calls up to now, and I guess the least I can do is let him know Eloise is safe.

“Hey.”

“Hey? Ren, I’ve been trying to get hold of you for hours. I went to Eloise’s apartment, but you weren’t there. What's going on?”

“I got her. She’s safe,” I assure him, resting my head back against the wall and closing my eyes.

“And her friend?”

“Her friend didn’t make it.” I close my eyes and swallow thickly.

“Did you find out who took them?”

“Look, Lance, I appreciate all the effort you put in to help me find her, but this is a closed case now. Eloise is safe, that's all you need to know.” I hang up on him and head downstairs to my uncle's office. Staring at her door isn’t going to stop her from hating me.

Stefan already has a scotch poured for me, and he hands it over his desk when I take the seat opposite him.

“Still not talking to you, huh?” He smiles sadly.

“How’dya guess?” I knock the drink back.

“If she was, you wouldn’t be down here talking to my sorry ass,” he sniggers. “The important thing is, she’s safe and she’s home. She’ll come around,” he assures me, but I don’t have much faith. He didn’t see the way she looked at me when I came out of that cabin and got in the car.

“I need to get a clean-up team over to the cabin,” I explain.

“I can make that happen.” He smiles at me sadly and pours himself another.

“We need to send a team to Katelyn's place, too. There's a whole lot of Eloise’s DNA there.” I realize that I still don’t know where all that blood came from. All I noticed was a bandage on her hand, and I assume Hugo’s taken care of it.

“Not a problem. Your real problem’s gonna be the cop.”

“Lance is nothing to worry about.” I shake my head back at him.

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