Page 207 of Those Who Are Bound

Elliott

ElliotteyedKillionwarilyas she approached her stairs carrying a bag of groceries and two Starbucks cups. Warily, because he was leaning against a support beam watching her quietly, an air of accusation hanging around him.

“What?” she asked. “What are you doing? What’s that look for?”

Killion gave her a lazy shrug. “How many times are you going to step on his balls? How many times do you need to do that to him?”

She froze, one foot on the bottom step. Cold as ice, she asked, “Excuse me?”

“I mean, we all saw what happened last night. That dude? That super cozy greeting? And to diss Pastor Jonah the way you did? You were all kinds of wrong.”

“And you are way out of line. Insubordination level.”

“Going to pull the boss card? I’m an employee when I say something you don’t like? It’s okay to be friends when you need someone to entertain you, or when you need a surrogate brother, but when the truth bombs hit? Hell, you threaten me with my job.”

He was hurling those explosives a little too close for comfort. “Some things don’t concern you, employee or not.”

“You threw it in our faces. We’re supposed to ignore it? And your boy up there, rubbing salt in the wound by seeking Jonah out again this morning. I mean, you’ve gutted the man. What more do you want from him? Actual blood?”

Elliott’s eyebrows shot up along with her pulse rate. “Becks talked to Jonah?”

Killion nodded, jerking his head toward the event center. “Yeah. Before the wedding.”

Sonofabitch!

Killion’s insolence fading to the level of mere annoyance compared to the fury now raging through her, Elliott raced up the stairs. She struggled only briefly with the screen door, considering her load, but she managed to get it open, dropping the bag on the floor. The coffee she sat on the table next to the door.

“Hey,” Becks greeted from the kitchen, a glass of water in his hand.

“What did you say to Jonah? You have no right speaking to him!” she yelled. She didn’t bother to modulate her tone, nor attempt to keep her cool. Because the minute Killion had relayed the news, she was propelled directly into damage control.

“Why can’t I talk to him?”

“Because… because you have no reason to.” The response fell flat compared to her angry reaction.

Becks narrowed his eyes.Walking around the counter toward her, he said, “I can think of a reason: you. We have you in common.”

Elliott’s jaw dropped. “You do not have me in common. What do you mean by that?” Her mind was whirling with scenarios. Had they been out there comparing notes? She honestly couldn’t have imagined it of either of them, yet here they were, having this conversation.

“What changed?” he asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“Between those first two weeks when you were happy, to now? What changed with him?” he demanded, encroaching on her space.

Elliott put up her hands, but he didn’t walk up on her. He was trying to rattle her, but she knew Becks’s tactics, and she stood her ground. “Nothing; I came to my senses.”

“He’sgood,” Becks taunted, flinging her word back at her.“That’swhen you found out he’s a pastor.”

Elliott lifted her chin defensively as she glared up at him.

“That’s when, in your head, he went from being a possibility to being a threat. Tell me I’m wrong.”

She scoffed. “I’m not afraid of his god.”

“No, I know you’re not. I meant a different kind of threat.”

She stilled, saying quietly, “You don’t get to come back to mess up my life. You don’t get to do that.”

---