38. Thursday Week Fifteen (the tension.)
"Dad," Raven started but one stern look from Mikael abruptly shut her up.
No one moved for a moment but then I remembered the girls. I looked across the table, Aspen had tears running down her face and Ivy was covering her eyes with her hands; they were terrified. Debbie was between them, arms wrapped around them, acting as a shield to hide them from the sight of their father casually eating cake with a goddamn gun on the table.
Sick to the stomach at the sight I rose from my chair. Mikael's eyes flickered over to me with indifference but he said nothing, continued to eat his cake. It was Vincent who added fuel to the fire, of course.
He grabbed my wrist which made Eli bang his fist on the table and warn in a voice I had never heard him adopt before, a slow, calculated and utterly threatening voice, "get the fuck off her, Vincent."
Something in his tone must have shaken Vincent because he released me. Subsequently, I grabbed Riley's hand in my own before rounding the table and picking up Ivy. I then clasped Aspen's hand tightly in my own and made way to leave the room. Visually, it looked as though I was comforting them but having them in my arms gave me a sense of relief which I desperately needed. Debbie gave me a look of pure gratitude as I stumbled past her in my heels.
Ivy was crying into my shoulder and Aspen's hand was gripping mine so tight, I feared she would break it. I ushered them all up the stairs just as shouting broke out in the dining room. Riley's room was the furthest so I herded all the kids there. The door clicked behind me as I shut it firmly in place and all of them huddled close to each other as I placed them on the bed and turned the TV on to the loudest volume.
I handed Riley the remote, "I have to go back downstairs, okay?"
Ivy and Aspen both shook their heads vigorously and then Ivy whispered, "please stay with us, Rei."
Conflicted, I ran my hand through her hair before cupping her cheek in my hand, "baby, I have to make sure your brother's okay. Riley is going to stay here with you and nothing, I mean nothing, is going to hurt you, okay?"
They nodded their heads and I gave them both kisses on their foreheads before I turned to Riles, "just put a movie on for them, I won't be long okay?" Riley nodded but I could tell by his eyes that he was scared too so I pulled him into a hug, "everything is going to be okay." Riley squeezed his arms around me tighter before nodding into my shoulder, I pulled away and planted a kiss on his forehead before making my way downstairs.
My breathe was quivery as I descended the stairs and I tripped from how fiercely my legs were shaking beneath me. My hands clutched the banister as I sought out stability.
When I made it back into the dining room, everyone's heads turned to face me but I sought out the eyes of Debbie, she gave me a questioning look, 'are they okay?'
I gave a brief smile and nodded, 'they're okay.'
My eyes then sought out Eli who had his palms on the table, face down and his eyes firmly planted on his father. He didn't have to utter a word to deliver the message that he was pissed as hell right now.
I followed his eye line until my gaze landed on an arrogant looking Mikael who was still casually sitting in his dining chair, his arms casually strewn on the armrests as he overlooked his family. It looked as though he was sat on a throne before his lesser subjects.
"Wasn't that lovely of you to do, Reillyn?" Mikael admonished.
"Leave her out of this," Eli growled from across the table.
"You see, I would. But son, you lied to me," he reached out and grabbed me, pulling me to stand next to him, Eli stood straight at the movement but didn't dare move, "you told me that you were done with her," he jerked on my arm again and I let out an involuntary gasp as pain briefly shot through my shoulder. "You said she was out of your life for good," he spoke in a deathly calm voice but then yelled the next sentence, "so why the FUCK is she in my house?!"
Debbie tried to speak through her tears, "M-Mikael, that was m-me, I-I-I told her to stay for dinner, I didn't know, p-please."
"Dad, please let her go," Raven pleaded.
Mikael's eyes flickered between them and his head cocked to the side as he deliberated in his mind. He let me go but not in the direction I wanted, I was pushed straight into the arms of a smirking Vincent.
Vincent licked his lips before staring down at me, "I like the feel of you pushed up against me."
Eli lost it.
He leaped across the table and shoved Vincent away from me, firmly pinning him to the wall by his throat. Raven started yelling at Eli to let him go and Debbie's sobs grew louder over my shoulder. My head spun to face Mikael and my anger grew at the sight of him looking on with bored nonchalance as his younger son strangled his eldest against a wall.
Then Eli spoke in Romanian, "dacÄ o atingi, te omor." [If you touch her, I will kill you.]
Vincent just chuckled in response to whatever Eli said but Eli didn't like that reaction and so pressed his arm tighter against Vincent's neck. Vincent began to sputter as Eli violently cut off his airway.
Desperate, I sprang into action, placing my hand on Eli's arm which was holding Vincent, "Eli, stop!" I tried to move so that he could see me but his gaze was focused on a choking Vincent.
I rushed to speak again, "Look at me, Eli, look at me."
When that did nothing I manoeuvred myself so that I could physically cup Eli's face between my hands, "Baby, please, please, look at me, please."
Something in my voice caught his attention because his eyes flickered over to mine, they were blazing bright with anger, his nostrils flared but then he slowly released his hold on Vincent, shoving him against the wall roughly as he did it.
"You fucking bastard," he growled. Vincent lay on the ground, sucking in as much air as possible.
I released a breath of relief before wrapping my arms around Eli, seeking his warmth. He buried his head into my neck and tugged me impossibly close. I pulled away and held his head between my hands again, "baby, take me home please?"
He gave a stiff nod and then turned around to face Mikael, "get out, and take him with you before I finish the job."
Mikael looked almost proud of Eli. He turned to Vincent, telling him to get up before they both left the house.
Desperately, Debbie ran upstairs the second they left, seeking her children. Eli didn't say anything, just stared at the door his father and brother had left through, grasping my hand fiercely in his own.
I looked over at Raven, "I'm going to take him back to mine."
Raven nodded and then hugged me, "thank you, Rei, you've done more for this family than we can thank you for and our way of repaying you is by just dragging you into our mess, again and again."
I pulled away, "your mess is my mess, Rave, you should know that."
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The drive home was quiet, Eli just sat in the passenger seat, one elbow against the window with his head in his hand and his eyes closed, but I knew he wasn't sleeping.
When we reached my house, Eli wordlessly left the car and followed me into the house, all the way to my room. He stared at the single mattress on my floor but his face remained impassive.
Almost mechanically, he began to strip down to his boxers. Not wanting to be distracted by the sight of him, I went into the bathroom to change, I emerged wearing shorts and a tank top to find Eli already in my bed, fast asleep.
I smiled at his sleeping form before pulling black the duvet and cuddling up to him, my head on his chest. He wrapped his arm around me and I swung my leg over his. In his sleep, he placed a soft kiss on the top of my head.
That's how we fell asleep, wrapped up in each other's arms, and for the first time in weeks, I slept through the whole night without having a single nightmare.
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So that got heated quickly, but she calmed him so it's all good ð
Thank you for reading, lovely people!
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