Page 93 of Conquering Oz

“When I was about eight years old, my father was murdered.” She cleared her throat. “It was a break in. My father was home at the time. They shot him in our living room.”

His hand stilled on the back of her neck. “That’s tragic.”

“Yeah.” Elodie snorted. “They beat him with a bat until he couldn’t even stand. There was so much blood everywhere. He was on the floor in a ball, and they stomped on him. When he stopped moving, one of them kicked him again, and he made a faint gurgling sound.” She drew in a deep breath. “Then they shot him.”

“How do you know all this?”

Her heart pounded and an anxious energy raced through her body.

“Elodie?” He whispered.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and licked her lips. “Because I was there.”

“You witnessed his murder?”

Elodie nodded, sinking deeper into the couch. “I wasn’t supposed to be home. I was waiting for the bus when I saw this group of boys coming toward me. Jason,their leader, loved nothing more than picking on me. He was pretty nasty. He neverrode the bus, but that day he did. The thought of being harassed for twenty minutes with no escape scared me so I left and walked home. I knew my mom had already gone to work, and my dad was rarely home in the mornings, so I figured I would just skip the day. If the school called, I would just say I was sick and feed my mom the same story. I walked in through the back door and didn’t sense a thing.” Elodie drew in a breath and shook her head. “I dropped my backpack on the floor, and walked into the kitchen. I could see them through the doorway. I was paralyzed with fear. It felt like hours watching them beat him. Then two of them pulled out guns and shot him.”

“They didn’t see you?” Oz’s tone was soft.

“One did. As they were leaving, he looked over. Stared at me, like he was memorizing my face.” Elodie shrugged. “And then they were gone.”

Oz shifted his body but kept his hand on her. “Then what?”

“After I stood there for what felt like hours, the sound of sirens knocked me out of my haze. I ran to my neighbor’s back porch. Donna was good friends with my mom and had babysat me a few times. I started to tell her what happened but she stopped me. She took me in her house, brought me upstairs to one of the bedrooms and called my mom. I remember the police coming to Donna’s door, but she never told them I was there. In fact, she said that my mom was at work, and I was in school.”

“You never told the police you saw who did it?”

“I never spoke to the police. When I told my mom what happened, she said we couldn’t tell anyone. If the men who killed my dad found out, they’d come back for her and me.”

His jaw squared, and his gaze darkened.

“The next week we moved across town. That was it. We never talked about it. Eventually I just blocked it out, I guess.”

Oz cupped his mouth. “What changed?”

“I saw him.” A shiver ran down his spine. “I was in a restaurant downtown and ran into a customer. I went over to say hi to her, and he was there.”

“How could you be sure it was him?”

“A few months ago, I finally started going through my mom’s things. Mostly pictures, keepsakes, and paperwork. I was going to shred it all but wanted to look through them first. I noticed monthly cash deposits. Her bank statements were pretty nondescript, so no way to track it other than the name she wrote in parentheses. I don’t know why she wrote it down. Maybe for our security if something were to happen to her or me.” Elodie sipped her drink. “I looked up his name and when I saw his face, I knew it was the man who killed my father.”

“And you went looking for him?”

Elodie knitted her brows, shook her head and snorted. “No. Running into him was just happenstance. But I knew it was him, and it was confirmed when Quinn introduced us.”

His brows furrowed. “Quinn?”

“She was my customer at the restaurant.”

Oz’s jaw squared, and he slowly nodded.

“I saw him again a few days ago at the market. It freaked me out a little, triggered memories I want nothing more than to forget.” Her voice trailed off.

Oz reached out, looped her hair behind her ear, and cupped her cheek. She immediately curled into his palm and smiled. It felt good to open up to him and release the weight she’d carried for so long.

“You’re going to keep my secret, right?”

He arched his brow. “Shouldn’t you have asked that before you told me?”

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