Page 67 of Forsaken

The tears fell and Eli dashed angrily at them. “I’m sorry, Dom,” he whispered. “I wanted…” Eli shook his head and fell silent.

“Dom-” Jack implored.

“Shut the fuck up!” Dom ground out. As harsh as his voice was, his hold on Eli was gentle and his hand moved to the back of Eli’s neck so he could force Eli to look at him. “What’s on the flash drive?”

“Proof,” Eli finally whispered.

“Proof of what?”

Eli looked at Dom almost pleadingly and I knew he didn’t want to voice the words. I wanted like hell to tell him he didn’t have to, but in my heart I knew he needed to do this.

“Proof that he raped me,” Eli finally admitted, his voice low. “Caleb and Nick too,” Eli added.

Dom held Eli’s gaze for a long moment even as Jack yelled, “He’s lying!”

The man didn’t get anything else out because Dom’s big fist slammed into his jaw in the same exact place I’d hit him. Jack hit the floor again, but Dom remained standing above him, fists clenched. “You raped my kid?” he asked, his voice deadly.

“He’s lying!”

Dom bent down and punched him again, this time breaking the man’s nose. Blood sprayed all over Jack’s face and the floor, but Dom didn’t even pause when he loomed over him and snarled, “I trusted you to watch out for him!”

Jack put his hand up to ward off the blow he sensed coming. “He…he seduced me, Dom!” Jack stammered and I felt Ronan grab me as I strode forward.

“What the fuck did you just say?” Dom whispered.

“You know what he was, Dom! He used his body to-”

The man didn’t get even another syllable out because Dom slammed his fist into Jack’s face yet again and this time he didn’t stop. Eli finally turned away when more blood slicked Dom’s fists and the floor, but it wasn’t until Jack stopped moving that the cop stepped in to stop Dom from killing the man. As big as the police officer was, he was no match for an enraged Dom and it took Memphis’s help to push Dom back.

“All right, Declan!” Dom bit out and then he pushed away from the two men and turned his attention to Eli, whose shoulders were shuddering as sobs tore through him. I barely noticed as Ronan checked Jack’s pulse and seemingly satisfied that he was still alive, stepped away from him. The police officer, who I now realized was Declan Barretti, one of Eli’s uncles and also a Captain in the Seattle Police Department, knelt down and unceremoniously turned Jack over and yanked his arms behind him and slapped cuffs on him. A small crowd of doctors and nurses had surrounded us, but none made a move to help Jack. Several more men I could only assume were Barrettis arrived and began talking to Zane and Declan, but I ignored them and focused on Eli.

When Dom carefully put his hand on Eli’s shoulder, Eli let out a ragged sob and turned into the man. Dom’s arms went around him and he whispered, “It’s okay,” in his ear. “You’re home now,” he added and Eli nodded.

Long after the crowd started to disperse and Declan yanked a groggy Jack to his feet and dragged him to a room to be treated for the damage to his face, I stayed and watched Eli cling to the man who’d been his father all along. He just hadn’t known it.

It was like some surreal game show.

Me, Ronan and Memphis on one side, Dom, Declan and a big dark haired guy named Cade who turned out to be yet another Barretti, but by marriage, on the other side. I hadn’t understood the reasoning for his attendance in the small hospital conference room Declan had commandeered, but I had figured out that he was there because of a special connection he seemed to share with Eli. Because the second he’d strode into the room, he’d gathered Eli into his arms and had held him for a long time. If the man hadn’t been happily married, I would have been struggling with the green-eyed monster.

Fuck, I’d struggled with it anyway, but my jealousy had dissolved when Eli had chosen to sit next to me rather than on his family’s side.

It had been nearly an hour since the showdown with Jack in the ER waiting room, and while I’d been able to get Eli back in my arms after Dom had held him and murmured softly to him for a while, he’d been pulled away from me time and time again as Barrettis had started showing up one right after the other. And while I’d lost track of who was who after a while, I’d watched some of the tension ease out of Eli as each person had held him. But it hadn’t completely dissipated until we’d gotten the news that Brennan had survived the surgery and was expected to make a full recovery. Eli was itching to go see his friend for himself, but Declan had insisted on this meeting first so that he could get all the facts he needed to deal with the two dead bodies in Eli’s apartment. He’d already had a patrol car take Jack down to the precinct to be booked for sexual assault. At some point, Declan would need to talk to Caleb, but he’d already agreed to hold off until the following day to give Caleb some time to recover from the events of the afternoon. I knew it would be difficult for the young man since he would not only need to recount the details of his own sexual abuse, but he’d also have to share the details of his brother’s death and their father’s role in it.

“Mr. Wheland,” Declan said as he glanced at his note pad. “I understand you were the first one to arrive at Eli’s apartment?”

Memphis nodded, but didn’t say anything. I had to hide a smile when Ronan kicked him under the table. Memphis sent him a dark look, but then turned his attention back to Declan. “Yes, I was the first one to arrive at Eli’s apartment.”

When he didn’t say anything else, Declan said, “Would you care to expand on that?”

“No-”

“Yes,” Ronan interrupted. “Yes, he would.”

Memphis leaned back in his seat like he didn’t have a care in the world and that he hadn’t just been involved in a double killing.

“When Ronan told me Jack Cortano was possibly on his way to Seattle, I decided to sit on Eli’s place to see if he showed up there.”

“What were you planning to do if he did?”

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