Page 41 of Fighting Conviction
Devil shook his head. They’d finally reached his truck and he balanced Ellie against his chest to open the passenger door with the hand under her legs.
“Dev, this isn’t necessary. I’m sore but I can—”
Devil raised her up into the truck and plopped her into the seat, making her grunt again.
“Really, Dev? You’re being—”
Devil slammed the door on whatever she was going to say. On some deep level, he knew there had to be a logical explanation as to why he’d had to save her from the park in the middle of the night. But in that moment, when sweat was still fresh on his skin from the fear and anxiety threatening to boil past his defenses, he couldn’t help but wonder how she could’ve been so careless.
When he slid into his truck and pulled out of the parking lot, he sure as fuck didn’t expect the attitude radiating from her side of the cab.
“Mean.”
He whipped his head in her direction. “What?”
“That’s what I said. You’re being mean.”
Devil tightened his grip on the steering wheel and ground his teeth, trying to keep his cool. “Mean, huh? Well, I think you’re being a bratty idiot. What the fuck were you thinking, Ellie?”
Ellie gasped and crossed her arms. “I know I said you could curse in front of me, but you can’t curse at me, Dev. There’s a difference. Try again without being a jerk.”
He tried to focus on the road, and not on her tantrum. They were both reeling with adrenaline and he still didn’t know what had happened. Ellie kept her face turned toward her window and absentmindedly picked bristles from her clothes with her still crossed arms.
“And I can smell your truck, by the way, even though I’m covered in pine needles. It smells like a sweaty homeless man chewing Big Red.” She turned to face him, and her nose scrunched in his peripheral vision. “And wearing bad perfume.” Before he could stop her, she leaned in to sniff him and wiped at his sleeve until he swatted her hand away.
“What’re you doing?”
“Is that glitter?” She peered closer. “Oh, God, what happened to your lip? It’s swollen!”
Devil growled. Hell—the fuck—no, they weren’t talking about where he’d just left. “Stop trying to change the subject.”
Ellie eyed him, and he could practically see her gears turning. He sat stock-still until she stared back out the front windshield. She huffed out a breath. “Right. Let’s go back to you apologizing for calling me a ‘bratty idiot’.”
“I’ll apologize as soon as you explain to me how you’re notbeinga bratty idiot. What the hell are you doing in a park in the middle of the night? This park, no less. It’s dangerous, Ellie.”
The cab fell into a pressurized silence, as if they were both about to blow up, but neither of them wanted to cause damage. They fidgeted against the stillness until Devil couldn’t take her quiet insubordination anymore. “Answer the question, Ellie.”
“I had a reason, okay? But then I fell asleep—” Devil scoffed. “—onaccident, and when I woke up there was some type of drug deal going on or something.”
Devil’s hands started to sweat on the steering wheel. “Was that who had the flashlight when I got there? Were you able to see them? Did they have any identifiable characteristics?”
Ellie nodded and looked out the window. “Yeah, that guy was the one buying I think. I wasn’t able to see them or anything. I don’t know much about those things but like I said, it seemed like a deal or something. The other guy—the dealer, I think—took off before you got there, but my donut fell—”
“Your donut?”
Ellie held up her hand. “I’ll explain, I promise. My donut fell and I guess he noticed it. He stayed there and he, um… he threatened me.”
Devil paused mid-scrub of his chin unable to keep from interrupting again in a low voice. “He fucking threatened you?” He tried to remain still and calm by channeling his breaths to keep from exploding. But her words were detonating in his mind and they made him physically itch to shield her from danger. “What’d he say?”
Ellie squirmed in her seat. “He… he made me… made me show my face, or else he’d shoot me.”
The truck halted as Devil reflexively tapped the brake, almost as if his entire body was trying to keep the conversation from heading where he was afraid it would go.
“Did you do it? Did you see his face?”
Ellie nodded in the moonlight. “Yeah, I showed him. I didn’t think I had any other choice. I didn’t see his face though… the flashlight made it too bright. I thought about trying to ignore him, but then he shot the tree and—”
“He fuckingshotat you? That’s it. You’re coming back to BlackStone, your brother’s gonna want to hear about this. And you’re never going back to that damn park again, you hear me? Especially not at night.”
