Page 113 of Those Who Are Bound

“Jonah.”

He moved quickly, bounding to his feet, causing her to tilt her head back to look up at him as he leaned over her, his hands still on her. “A relationship. Right? That’s what we’re doing here. It means you’re supposed to be able to share things.”

Elliott frowned; they were thoughts from this morning.

“Talkto me.”

How could she tell him? What it did to her? What she saw? Her whole complicated history? That it went beyond the obvious of a death and an obsession?

However, he deserved something from her. How could she take her tentative steps forward if she didn’t let him see pieces of herself? So she nodded. A snippet of the truth was still true.

“Gage, my brother.” She didn’t know why she was compelled to clarify. “He committed suicide.” Not a secret, yet a secret. It wasn’t something she advertised.

Jonah kept his gaze steady on her.

“He hung himself.”

Jonah didn’t blink.

Elliott bit her lower lip, watching him watch her, waiting. She broke eye contact as she finished quietly, “With my rope.”

“Yourrope.”

“Mine. I brought it here. It was mine.” It was the closest to the truth he’d get from her. It was true, after all. Gage had hung himself with her rope. Taking a deep breath, she elaborated, “It was winter; it was in the last storage facility, where we keep the ice melt.” Her gaze flicked in the direction of the building, as though she could see it from here. “I walked in, and he was… hanging. Waiting for me. All night, waiting for me.”

Jonah rested his forehead on hers.

Elliott appreciated the contact; his silence. Nothing he could say would have helped anyway. She continued, “We’d had a fight. We’d had a fight, and then he was hanging in a building he’d built, with rope I’d brought onto the property, and then I was putting him in the ground. In the cold, in winter.” No drama, no tears, but torture in every syllable.

Jonah adjusted his hold on her, bringing her to her feet with him and wrapping her in his arms. She didn’t resist; her arms slipped around his waist, and she hid her face against his neck.

She mumbled quietly against his flesh, “I don’t talk about it. I don’t want to remember it.”

Jonah rubbed his cheek against her hair as he asked gently, “Do you ever forget it?”

After the span of two breaths, she shook her head.

He caressed her back, moving his lips to her temple for a soft kiss.

“I had all the rope burned afterward,” she informed him. “Banned it from the property. I know it’s too late. I know it won’t bring him back. I know, I know.” She knew it wouldn’t prevent him from finding out what she’d done with it in the first place. But she couldn’t explain to Jonah what the symbolism meant, why the continued banning was necessary.

“So I lost it on the crew this afternoon, on Lucy.” Elliott pulled back and looked at him. “But I’m the one who needs to make that right. And she still shouldn’t have called you. I’m irritated that she did.”

Jonah’s jaw tensed briefly. “So am I. I’m irritated that it wasn’t you.”

Elliott didn’t want to go back to that conversation, and she was pretty certain he didn’t either. So she gave a little nod of acknowledgment. “I hear you, but it’s my demon.”Truth!“It’s mine, and calling you wouldn’t have changed anything. It doesn’t change anything. It made you leave whatever you were doing to check on Lucy.”

He admonished, “I didn’t come out here for Lucy. I’m here for you.”

“Fine. Whatever.” She was over the conversation.

“You are one stubborn woman.”

“Independent,” she countered with a touch of playfulness.

He teased, “Except in thunderstorms.”

She grinned, relieved to have the dark mood lightened. “You can always assume that I will need and want a fearless protector during thunderstorms.”

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