He didn't know how long he stood there holding her, but after a while her sobs eventually quieted into soft hitched breaths before dying away completely. Then they both just stood there for a good couple of minutes until, abruptly, Violet pulled away.
He almost reached to haul her back but sensed she needed a moment, so he let her go, watching as she turned away from him, dragging an arm over her eyes.
If anyone had come into the room right at this moment, he would have killed them.
Violet's arm dropped, her cheeks shiny with tears, her eyes red. "All I wanted was to find my brother," she said in a thick voice. "That's all that mattered to me. But now? Fuck. After hearing about everything my father has done? It's selfish. Theo's probably really dead and I've been wasting years-fucking years-chasing a ghost." She took a small, ragged breath. "But you know who's not dead? Jericho. And he should be, Elijah. He fucking should be. So if you want to use me to take him down, then from now on I'm all yours."
She had thought she'd be the one to comfort him. She hadn't realized that the moment she put her arms around him, she'd be the one needing comfort. Absorbing his strength like a flower deprived of sun absorbs light. She even half expected him to pull away the way he'd done a number of times before, but he didn't. He just stood there, so hot and strong and immovable. Like granite. And then he'd put his arms around her in turn, and because it had been so long since someone had just held her while she cried, she didn't question it. She just took it.
It was kind of a relief to cry, because she hadn't done so since the apartment and there had been so much building up inside her. Grief and shock and the terrible bleakness that had settled on her soul as Honor had named her father's crimes.
A bleakness she'd never be able to escape.
But she could have this, a moment or two to cry and to take some comfort. God knew, she didn't deserve it, not after what her father had done to her friend, to all these other people too, but she'd allowed herself to take a couple of minutes.
And then she'd forced herself away, because for two days she'd managed to bear the fear and the uncertainty of being held captive and hadn't broken. She wouldn't break now. Especially not now that she had a new purpose.
She would make things right. She would help Elijah take down Jericho if it was the last thing she did.
Elijah didn't say anything, which was unexpected. She'd hoped he'd look at least a little bit pleased, but he didn't. If anything he looked more … concerned. Except that wasn't an expression she associated with him, so it couldn't be, right?
He was standing in front of her, still in his exercise shorts; and someone must have given him a T-shirt because last time she remembered, he hadn't been wearing one. In fact, last time she remembered, he'd been on the ground having been hit in the face by Gabriel. Who'd also gone for the wound on his shoulder.
Oh shit. She'd been so lost in the horror of what Honor had told her about her father, she hadn't even stopped to think about what had happened to Elijah. What Gabriel and his friends had done to him. Perhaps they'd hurt him. Perhaps that was why he was looking at her like that.
Wiping her face to get rid of the last of her tears, she scanned his scarred, brutal face. There had already been bruises on it when he'd kidnapped her, now there were more. One darkening on his cheekbone and around his eye socket, making the scar that ran across his face seem like a stark white line. His lower lip was bloody too.
"Are you okay?" She took a step toward him, closing the distance once more. "What did they do to you? I saw Gabriel punch you in your shoulder-"
The words died in her throat as Elijah's big, warm hands suddenly reached out, cupping her face. She stared at him in surprise. Because the touch was gentle, and the look in his eyes …
"You had a lead," he said. "You said you had a lead on your brother."
She blinked, not understanding where he was going with this. "Well, yeah, but that's not important anymore-"
"It's important to you?"
Violet stared at him. There was a fierce gleam in his eyes now and although the words had sounded like a question, she got the impression that they weren't. Like he knew already. "It was important before," she said slowly. "But now … "
"Why not?"
"Why do you think? God, after everything Dad did, me trying to find a dead man seems a little dumb. Especially when I can help you take Jericho down."
But he was frowning now, his gaze moving over her face as if she was a difficult book he was trying to read. "Why are you doing this, Violet? This … concern over me. Binding up my gunshot wound. Throwing yourself between me and Woolf. Telling them not to hurt me. And now … " His thumbs moved almost absently along the line of her jaw, a soft caress that seem to wake every single nerve ending into full awareness of him. Of the heat of his palms cupping her cheeks, the hard warmth of his body inches from hers. "You're giving up what's important to you in order to help me kill a man. Why?"
Good question. And one she had yet to come to a decision about. Because fundamentally, she had no idea why. Oh, she knew the answer with regard to Jericho, that was clear to her at least. But the rest?
You're falling for him, dickhead.
No. No way. Falling for him would be … all kinds of wrong. Really, what kind of idiot would she be to fall for her kidnapper? Yeah, she'd had sex with him, but she wasn't one of those girls who fell for the first man she had sex with.
How would you know? You've never had sex or fallen for anyone before.
Violet swallowed. "I'm helping you because I need to fix what my dad did. Not for any other reason."
He didn't let her go, those thumbs moving back and forth along her jawline, making her shiver. "And throwing yourself between me and Woolf's gun?"
"I'd do that for anyone." And that wasn't a lie. She would. That's not the whole truth though, is it? "Anyway," she went on, trying to drown the voice in her head because it felt too raw and exposing, "what's it to you?"
He didn't reply, staring at her in that intense, sharp way he had. As if he could see the secrets of her soul, the secrets she didn't even know she had. And then just as suddenly as he'd held her, he released her, turning toward the door. "If you want to help me then we need to get out of here." His voice had turned cold. "There are some people I need to contact, things that need to get set up."
The imprint of his palms still burned like fire against her cheeks, the gentle motion of his thumbs on her jaw a featherlight, ghostly memory. He'd always been hard and rough with her, never gentle. Never … tender.
Something that felt awfully like disappointment twisted in her chest, as if she'd said the wrong thing or made a mistake in some way. Except she couldn't think of what mistake she'd made. Or why it even mattered to her.
No, that was another lie. She knew why it mattered.
"Elijah," she said before she could second-guess herself.
He turned back, the look on his face impenetrable. "What?"
"I lied. I wouldn't put myself in front of Gabriel's gun for anyone."
"But you did for me?"
"Yes. I did for you."
His dark brows drew down, and for a long moment he only looked at her, black eyes enigmatic. But all he said was, "Come on. We have to go."
What she was expecting she didn't know, but that wasn't quite it.
You hurt him.
The words echoed in her brain. Unbelievable. Ridiculous. How could she hurt a man like him? He was so strong, like a mountain-he didn't bend and he didn't break. Besides, in order to hurt him, he'd have to care about what she'd said, and he didn't. Did he?
He'd turned back, striding to the door. Honor had warned her that Gabriel and the others were clear that they'd wanted Elijah to stay at Zac's place while they decided what the hell to do with him. And she didn't think that Elijah just walking out of here was going to work.
Then again, he wasn't a man who let people stop him when he wanted to do something.
Pushing away all the other disturbing thoughts, Violet followed him to the door. "I'm not sure they're going to let us go," she said as he reached for the handle. Because together they were "us" now, right? "Honor told me they didn't want you getting out."
"Then they should have put a better guard on the door." Elijah didn't even hesitate, pulling open the door.
Honor was waiting outside in the hallway, talking to someone on the phone. But as soon as the door opened and she noticed them, she ended the call, sliding the phone into the pocket of her tailored, black suit jacket. Her blue eyes went straight to Violet, as if checking to make sure she was okay.