Page 27 of The Storms Between Us
twenty-two
Over the next few days,the police touch base a few times with nothing new to say other than they’re looking into every lead. I’m tired of hearing their bullshit excuses when I know how much is at risk here. I’ve been asking my buddy Breaker, the comms guys from our unit, to look into things for me and he should get back to me tonight. To the outside world, he seems like a respectable technical analyst and consultant. But in reality, he’s an expert hacker. I’m sure there’s a watch list somewhere around the world with several of his aliases on it, but they’ll never track him down. He’s an expert at covering his tracks.
Rory has taken the initiative on keeping Ember distracted and cheerful whenever she can, but I don’t know how long she plans on staying. I'm not sure Ember or I could take losing her support right now. Tonight, the girls are sitting out on the deck enjoying the humidity, I’m sure. Every few minutes I hear one of them laugh loudly so I know they’re a few bottles of wine into their night with no intention of slowing down. I’m perfectly ok with that. I’ve been busy for a few days working to complete a difficult design for a client who decided he wanted his first tattoo for his 70thbirthday. In my opinion, it's never too late, so I'm happy to do it for him. My phone buzzes on the table next to me and I see Breaker’s name flash across the screen.
“Hey man, what do you have for me?” I ask, not wasting any time with pleasantries.
“This guy is a fucking nightmare, man,” he says, his voice sounding disgusted. I know whatever he found can’t be good.
“Ok, spill,” I say.
“His first year at Duke, he had five sexual assault reports filed against him that all magically disappeared because daddy made several large charitable donations to the alumni fund. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, Elijah. I dug deeper and found his high school girlfriend. Apparently, she’s the daughter of his father’s business partner. She’s currently in rehab for the second time after OD’ing on fucking downers. Seems like that started after she filed a police report when she was fifteen, accusing sweet Justin of breaking her arm in two places. The charges were quickly dropped, and she became a fucking ghost. It’s like he leaves a trail of damage everywhere he goes,” he says, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. We’ve always agreed that there’s nothing worse on this planet than a man who takes advantage of those who are weaker than him. It seems my girl was just the next one in a long line of destruction for Justin.
“Did you find any accusations of stalking or any restraining orders? Anything that would imply he's done this to somebody else before?” I ask, clinging to the edge of my desk to keep from losing my shit.
“Nothing like that so far. It seems your girl is the first where that behavior is concerned. But there’s a problem there, too. The report you guys filed about her Jeep getting fucked up is gone. It’s like somebody erased everything. Why, I don’t know. I tapped into his phone’s text history and he’s fucking at least three different sorority chicks right now, one of which isbarelylegal,” he says in disgust.
“Any idea where he's hiding out?” I ask, barely keeping my composure.
“That’s the thing, man. As far as I can tell, he’s in Durham. He’s still making steady payments on his apartment there. His spending history has all been local around that area. I haven’t found much to suggest that he’s anywhere near Grovewood,” he says.
“What do you mean you haven’t found much? Not much sounds like more than nothing,” I reply.
“I pulled the security footage from the day Ember’s Jeep got hit and it’s just not clear enough to make out any details. Yeah, you can clearly tell it’s a guy fucking up her shit, but you can’t see his face or where he went after. He walks down a side street and disappears from any video footage,” he says.
“FUCK!” I yell loudly, slamming my fist on my drafting table and swiping everything into the floor. I take a few calming breaths and when I pick my head back up, I see Ember and Rory standing by the back door, both frozen in confusion over my outburst. “Just keep at it and keep me posted with anything new,” I snap at him and hang up the phone.
I stand up from my desk without a word and stomp upstairs into my room, slamming the door behind me. I don’t like anybody to see this side of me. Sometimes I just have trouble keeping my temper under control. It’s an attribute I always thought I inherited from my father. I pace back and forth across my bedroom, fury flooding through my veins at this helpless feeling. If I could just get my fucking hands on this guy, this would all be over. That’s a life I would never feel guilt for taking. The rage and bitterness build throughout my body until I can no longer contain it. I slam my fist into the wall next to the bathroom, my hand disappearing into the drywall. I stare at the hole surrounding my wrist for several seconds before I feel a light touch on my arm. I turn and see Ember with tears in her eyes next to me. I didn’t even hear the door open over the sound of the blood rushing in my ears.
“Eli, what have you done here?” She says, her face full of concern but her voice calm and soothing.
“I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you guys down there or do this. I just feel so fucking useless right now and all I want to do is protect you,” I tell her, pulling my bloodied knuckles out of the wall.
“Come on, let’s get this cleaned up.” She takes my hand in hers and leads me into the bathroom. She directs me to sit next to the sink and turns the hot water on. I hold my hand over the drain to keep blood from dripping everywhere.
“Don’t apologize to me, Eli. You did nothing wrong here,” she says quietly.
“But I can’t seem to track this fucker down, and I know you’re terrified. It's my responsibility to make sure you’re safe, Ember. To make sure you’re happy. And I can’t even do that,” I say, knowing I sound a little like a pathetic child. I'm not trying to throw a pity party here, but I'm just so fucking angry. She pulls a rag out of the bathroom closet, runs it under the hot water, and begins to wipe away the blood and drywall dust from my fist.
“Elijah, I know you’re doing everything you can to keep me safe. I love you so much for all you’ve already done to protect me. But I won’t let you become another one of Justin’s victims. I won’t let the kind, loving man I fell for disappear because of this monster,” she says, cradling my hand gently to her chest. She washes my hand clean and slowly kisses each of my knuckles. “He will not take what we have away from us. I won’t let him.” Her eyes are full of fire and determination. I smile up at her, loving the fierceness I see in her gaze.
“I love you, Sunshine,” I say, feeling her thumb rub lazy circles over my already swelling knuckles. She bends down to place a soft kiss on my lips. I let her have a few moments of control before pulling her onto my lap and taking what’s mine.
