Page 46 of Falling for Lucifer
She shrugged. “Your dad was at my parents’ house. I didn’t want you to think I ever knew who he was to you or anything like that. I also don’t want you to worry about having to see him around my family again. It won’t happen as long as I have anything to do with it.”
“It’s all good, my love. I ain’t worried about that at all, but I did want to ask you something.”
Ellodie sat up and stretched, and Lucifer looked like he lost his train of thought for a moment as he looked at her. She laughed. “You good?”
“Huh?” His eyes snapped to hers. “Girl, stop playin’ with me.” He reached out and pinched one of her nipples. Milk oozed out, and she squealed.
“Lucifer!”
“That’s what you get for being so fine.” He took another bite of food and chewed slowly before saying, “And don’t call me Lucifer.”
She rolled her eyes and pulled the sheet up to her chest. “What did you want to ask me, bae?”
She grabbed a warm croissant from the plate of food and gave him her full attention.
“You heard my pops yesterday? When he offered to handle Wes?”
Ellodie stilled and gazed at him. “Yeah . . .”
He nodded. “How you feel about it?”
Ellodie thought about it. She squirmed slightly before she asked, “Handle him how?”
Lucifer shrugged. “He helped Hades out with Harley’s a few years back. It was shit he had coming and all crimes he actually did that put him in prison. Didn’t you tell me not long ago that Wes had some warrants?”
Her eyes grew wide as she nodded. “Yeah.”
“You think they can put him away for some time?”
Ellodie’s mind spun. “I don’t really know.”
“Do you want him to go away for a long time?”
She thought about it. The answer came to her pretty quickly. “I honestly don’t care what happens to him. I just don’t want him around me and Etta.”
He nodded, and they ate in silence for a moment before Lucifer said, “You know if you come forward about what he did to you last month, that could add a significant amount of time to his sentence.”
Ellodie peered at him. She hadn’t thought to go to the police about Wes. From the time they met, he instilled in her that snitches got stitches. She wondered now if that was a grooming tactic. She glanced at Etta’s bassinet, and guilt tried to claw at her, but she shoved it back down. Wes was not the kind of man she wanted around her daughter, so there was no room for guilt there.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Only if you’ll be there with me.”
Lucifer moved the food aside and pulled her into his lap. He cradled her to his chest. “You think I would ever let you do somethin’ like that alone, love?”
She breathed him in and shook her head. Nothing else needed to be said. Ellodie knew as long as Lucifer lived, she wouldn’t have to do anything alone ever again. She found a great deal of peace in that.
“You look so nervous.” Harley giggled as she bumped her hip against Ellodie’s. They stood at the bar in the underworld, The Obsidian Rider’s headquarters. “I remember my first time in the underworld. The Obsidian Riders are cool, I promise.”
Lucifer had said the same thing to Ellodie. She wasn’t really nervous about meeting them though. She was nervous about seeing her father and meeting his girlfriend.
It was Ellodie’s birthday, and though she didn’t want to make a big fuss about it this year, Lucifer insisted she needed to be celebrated. When Harley doubled down on that, Ellodie decided to go with the flow. It had been three weeks since her father’s birthday, and she would be lying if she said she didn’t have a bit of trauma surrounding big birthday celebrations. That was the reason she was so back and forth on if she wanted to invite her father. Just last night, she decided that life was too short andthat father/daughter relationship she always craved wouldn’t happen if she kept shying away from it out of fear.
When she called him, he was happy to hear from her and asked if he could bring Alandria, his girlfriend. That almost pulled her back into her shell, but she shook it off and told him it was okay. Now, she almost wished she hadn’t. It was her damn birthday, for goodness’ sake, and she had to juggle meeting the important people in Lucifer’s life too. She felt overwhelmed, but Harley’s calming presence definitely helped. When Yasmine got there, she would really feel at ease.
“I’m more nervous about meeting my dad’s mistress.” Ellodie snorted before taking a long sip from the drink Hades passed to her when she walked into the room. He grumbled happy birthday and told her to drink up. Ellodie had eyed the concoction suspiciously for the past thirty minutes, but she figured Hades would gain nothing from poisoning her, even though he was scary as hell.
She coughed after swallowing, and Harley giggled as she patted her on the back. “I was wondering when you were going to drink that.”
“What’s in this?” Ellodie sputtered as she tried to catch her breath. Whatever it was, it was strong as hell.
