“Elodie?” Someone touched my arm, and I jerked, my heart pounding in my chest. “Sorry,” the small female voice said. I turned my head and recognized her as the girl who hung around with Knox. I waited, knowing whatever she was going to say wasn’t going to be good. If there was one person who didn’t believe me, it would have been her. “I…” She glanced around at her friends, all of them having wide eyes and mouths open in shock. “I believe you.”
“You…what?” I reeled back, not having expected that from her.
“I believe you.” She looked down, shuffled closer, then stared back at me. “I know he hurt you. I…I saw him hitting you once. I just wanted to say…erm…I wanted to say…if you need anything…” She trailed off.
“I…” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to react to what she had said, so I simply responded, “Thanks.”
She nodded, her fully made-up face pale. I wondered if he’d ever hurt her, and for the first time, I realized I may not have been the only person Knox had done this to. I’d been on the outside looking in, making judgements about the people surrounding Knox, but what if he’d led me to believe something that wasn’t there.
I inhaled a sharp breath as realization set in. He’d fooled me, just like he’d fooled everyone else. The truth had been set free now though, and there was nothing more powerful than that.
ASHER
My leg bounced up and down as I waited outside my lawyer’s office. Soft music played throughout the floor mixed in with murmurs and heels clacking on the marble floors. I didn’t know where to look as people milled about, moving from office to office in their pristine pressed suits. I was on edge, unsure what would come from this meeting. The last I’d heard from Mr. Bennet was when Elodie and I were back at the lake house, but that had been a couple of months ago. I was holding out hope that it was a good sign it had taken this long for my lawyer to call me into his office, but my gut told me it wasn’t. I only had three months until my court date, and if something wasn’t worked out by then, I’d be going to trial. A trial where the evidence was stacked against me.
But I didn’t regret what I did. Not even for a single second.
My gaze slid to the large dark wood double doors and to the woman sitting behind a desk beside them. She clacked away at her keyboard, her attention solely focused on her computer screen. She paused, tilted her head to the side, and pressed on the device attached to her ear. Her gaze snapped to me, her lips in a straight line as she said, “You can go in now.”
“Thanks,” I murmured as I stood. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to wear smart clothes to this meeting or not, but I’d figured it wouldn’t hurt, so although I was in a pair of black jeans, I had a shirt and tie on just in case. It was the first time I was seeing my lawyer face-to-face, and I needed him to know what happened that night wasn’t who I was. I’d worked damn hard my entire life to become a person I was proud of. I’d trained longer hours than anyone else I knew. I was top of my class, I’d risen through the military ranks, and I’d put my all into growing my own business, but I was afraid one act would define the rest of my life.
My body was stiff as I stepped toward the doors. I took a couple of breaths to try and calm myself down, then pulled them open. A man in a suit stood from behind his desk, a smile on his face. “Asher, so nice to finally meet you.”
I closed the door behind me and shook his hand, not knowing what to say other than, “You too, Mr. Bennet.”
“Take a seat.” He pointed at one of the chairs around a small round table in the corner of his office. His huge desk sat in the middle of the room surrounded by boxes marked with names and numbers, and his twentieth-floor office windows looked out on the rest of the city. “Let me grab your file.” He moved back to his desk as I sat down. He shuffled several files and finally produced one that he held up in the air as he walked back over to me. “I’ve been in touch with the DA,” he started, flipping the file open. He read over something, then glanced up at me. “Are you still sure we can’t get a statement from your girlfriend?”
I gritted my teeth and clenched my hands on my thighs. I hadn’t expected him to start out like that, but I supposed there was no way around it. Maybe he’d thought time would have changed my mind, but he was wrong. “No. She’s not making a statement.”
Mr. Bennet leaned back in his seat, keeping his attention solely on me. “I have to tell you, Asher, without her statement, there’s not much I can do.” He huffed out a breath, looking both tired and frustrated. “I have the statements from the arresting officers, the statement from the victim—”
I huffed out a laugh. “That piece of shit isn’t a victim.” I needed to keep my cool. It wasn’t my lawyer’s fault, but fuck, just hearing him calling Knox a victim was making my blood boil.
“In the eyes of the law, Asher, he is.” He raised a brow. “It doesn’t matter what he did for you to have…done what you did. Regarding your case, without the statement from your girlfriend, all we have is the evidence that you assaulted this man and put him in the hospital.” He shuffled the papers again, producing what looked like medical bills. “I have the itemized treatments and expenses here.”
I picked it up and rolled my eyes. I didn’t give a shit how many stitches he had or that he was in a medically induced coma for a few days. He deserved it, and more.
I pushed the paper back over to him. “So, what happens now?”
Mr. Bennet looked at me for a beat, but when all I did was stare back, he finally told me, “The DA has offered you a plea deal.” He inhaled a breath and leaned forward on the table. “Twenty years with the possibility of parole after eighteen.”
“Twenty years?” My chest felt heavy, each of my breaths harder to come by. Twenty years. I’d be gone for twenty years. I’d be in my fifties before I was a free man again, and Elodie…Elodie would be nearly forty. My fingers started to tingle, a sure sign I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. “I can’t do twenty years,” I croaked out.
“They wanted thirty, but I got them down to twenty,” Mr. Bennet said, tilting his head to the side. “But if we had your girlfriend’s statement.” He paused. “They’d have no choice but to lower the charges, which would mean there would be a real possibility of no prison time.”
I didn’t even have to think about it. It wasn’t a choice. “No.” I shook my head and pushed my chair back. “I’m not putting her through that.”
“Asher—”
“You heard what I said.” I stood, feeling like I was trapped inside a tiny room. I needed to get out of here. I needed to escape all of this. “She’s got her own trial to go through. I won’t make her do it twice.” I swallowed. “I won’t make her relive it over and over again.”
“She won’t necessarily have to get on the stand—”
“Can you guarantee that?” I whipped out, my nostrils flared as I glared at him.
“I can’t,” he said, his voice low. “We need her statement though, Asher. Without it, you’re…”
“Fucked?” I laughed and took a step toward the wooden doors. “If it means she’s protected from the interrogation that would happen on the stand, then I’ll do the twenty years. I’d stay locked inside a room for the rest of my life if it meant she was okay.”
“Asher—”
“Are we done now?” I asked, walking past him. I had no intention of staying here any longer than I needed to. If I only had three months until I had to be in court and sign this plea deal, then I was going to live every single second of that time. I was going to soak in each minute that passed by.
“If you change your mind…”
“I won’t.” I pulled the door open, walked through it, and left Mr. Bennet standing in the middle of his office. He didn’t understand the need to protect the person who meant the most to you. He didn’t understand how putting her on that stand could break her all over again. She was only now just putting the pieces back together again, and I wouldn’t destroy the progress she’d made.
I was doing it for her. It was all for her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
ELODIE
I wasn’t sure how long I stood under the spray of the water coming out of the showerhead, but my fingers had started to wrinkle at some stage, indicating I’d been under the water for too long. My muscles ached in places I’d forgotten they could ache, but it was a good kind of feeling—one that told me I’d danced my ass off.
I was slowly getting back into my routine, or at least, my new routine. I’d been back at school for a couple of weeks, and with each day that passed, the whispers and echoes in the hallways faded to silence. My classes whizzed by every day with Leo always waiting to escort me to my next class and to eat lunch with. He never failed to be there for me during the day, and although I didn’t need him to stick to me like glue, it added a safety net I hadn’t realized I’d needed.
But when I was in the dance studio, I was truly alone. It was then that I could let it all out. I unlocked my heart, freed every emotion I pushed down each day, and exposed it for the walls of the studio to see. And today wasn’t any different. I’d danced harder than I had in months, years even, and it had been worth it, both physically and mentally.
My weekends were a combination of dancing, homework, and spending time with Lola. She’d taken to coming over on a Saturday afternoon after my dance session. Sometimes Brody came with her, sometimes Belle, but most of the time she came on her own. It hadn’t been planned, just something that kind of evolved over time. I was able to be open with Lola. I could tell her when I was having a bad day. I could tell her when I’d been plagued with nightmares the previous night. I could confide in her the same way I could with Asher.
And Asher.
Asher was still sleeping on the sofa. Time and time again I’d sat in the middle of his bed, trying to work myself up to walk down the stairs to tell him to come and get into bed with me…but I just couldn’t. I could never get my feet to work. I could never get my body to listen to what I thought I should have done. On the outside I may have looked okay—like I had all of my control back—but both Asher and I knew it wasn’t the truth. It was a facade I’d learned to put in place, but around him, I never had to have my guard up. And he was okay with it. At least, I thought he was.
I stepped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around my body, then headed into the bedroom. I didn’t have plans to go out today, so I brushed my hair and decided to let it air dry, then pulled on a pair of leggings and one of Asher’s T-shirts. They provided security but were also the comfiest things I’d ever worn.
I was just hanging the towel over the towel warmer in the bathroom when several knocks rang out. My heart raced for a second before I realized it was Lola. It was always my first reaction to panic, but I was starting to get better about it. I’d only wanted to hide for a split second instead of a couple of hours.
“Coming!” I shouted, then darted down the stairs. I leaned down and pushed the deadbolt on the bottom of the door aside, then the one at the top, and finally the two locks in the middle of the door. Asher had added extra security to his house, and although I knew it was to make me feel safer, neither he nor I mentioned it. It was simply something he did without us outwardly acknowledging it.
I pulled the door open with a smile on my face, but it soon dropped when I saw the two people standing in front of me. It wasn’t Lola, but it was a face I recognized. A face I would never forget from the night that haunted me.
“Hi, Elodie,” she greeted. “I don’t know if you remember me—”
“Jenette,” I croaked out. “You’re Jenette.”
“I am.” She held her hand out. “Also known as Officer Dellwater.” I glanced down at her hand, but my body was frozen in place. I hadn’t expected her to be on the other side of the door, and I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to react. Was I meant to ask her inside? Did I ask her why she was here? How did I do this? “This is a colleague of mine, Detective Oslo.” She waved her hand toward the plain-clothed detective. “Could we come in and talk?”
“I…” My gaze slide between the two of them. I trusted Jenette, but I had no idea who Detective Oslo was. And I hated to admit it but having a man I’d never met before in a confined space with me had my nerves on edge. He may have worked for the good guys, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t being irrational about things.
“We just want to update you on the case,” Detective Oslo said, his voice soft. “You can call someone to come and be with you if you’d prefer?” His kind brown eyes reminded me of Asher. “We can wait in the car until they turn up—”
“No.” I shook my head and pushed my shoulders back. I couldn’t shy away from this. I had to be able to be inside the house with someone without feeling like I was cornered. “It’s fine.” I stepped back. “Come in.” They both walked inside, and I closed the door behind me, hesitating to lock it like I normally did. If I needed to make a quick escape, I wouldn’t be able to, so for the sake of feeling like I could get out if I needed to, I only turned the middle two locks and not the top and bottom. “It’s just through there,” I told them both, pointing toward the door to the living room.
They moved through the doorway, and I halted for a second, needing to prepare myself for what they were going to say. I’d been given bits and pieces of information from Brody and the contacts he still had, but since making my statement, I hadn’t had any direct contact with the police.
I glanced at the front door one final time, closed my eyes briefly, then followed into the living room. They both stood in front of the sofa and I stepped behind the armchair, needing something between them and me. “Would you like a drink?”
“We’re good, thank you,” Detective Oslo said. “Can we sit?” I nodded, not sure I could get any more words out until they told me what they’d come to say. “We wanted to explain to you the process from here on out.”
“Brody said there’d be a trial?” I blurted out, thinking back to what he’d told me. The rape kit they’d taken at the hospital was the main portion of evidence, as well as the pictures and my statement. He also said the nurse who conducted it would most likely give a statement as well as the officers who had turned up that night. Would that include Jenette? Was she here because she’d been the one to take me to the hospital in the first place?
“Brody?” Detective Oslo asked, frowning at me and then Jenette.
“Brody Easton,” Jenette supplied for him. She smiled at me, then turned to face Detective Oslo. “Former head of the DEA office here.”
“Oh.” Detective Olso’s eyes widened and he slowly turned to face me. “Is Brody a friend of the family, or…?”
“He’s my boyfriend’s dad.” I felt my shoulders loosen the more I spoke. It was easier to talk about anything but what they were really here to tell me.
Detective Oslo blinked several times, almost as if I’d just told him he’d won a million dollars. Was he in shock? I frowned as I waited for him to say something else, and finally Jenette nudged him with her elbow. “Sorry.” He shook his head and cleared his throat. “I just…he was the reason I joined the force.” He chuckled as if he was reliving a memory. “My dad was one of his informants.” I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so kept my mouth shut, waiting for what else he was going to say. “Anyway.” He pushed his shoulders back, morphing into the detective who’d been standing at the front door moments ago. “We’re here to tell you about the case. The DA is taking it to trial. It’s set for May tenth.”
I mentally did the math in my head. We were already toward the end of January, so that meant it was only four months away. Four months until I’d have to confront Knox. Four months until all of this would be over—hopefully. “Okay.” I gripped on to the back of the armchair, digging my fingers into the soft leather. “Do I need to do anything?”
“The DA wants you to testify. She thinks the jury needs to hear what happened directly from you—”
“But,” Jenette interrupted, narrowing her eyes at the detective. “If you
don’t think you can do it, they think they have enough evidence for a conviction.”
“I’ll do it,” I said without hesitation. I didn’t even need to think about it. If I was going to confront Knox, I was going to do it like this, in a controlled environment, where I’d be the one in control and not him.
“You can think it over,” Jenette said. “You don’t have to make the decision right now.”
“Will the case be stronger if I testify?”
“Yes,” Detective Oslo replied right away.
“Then I’ll do it.” I pulled in a sharp breath and placed my hand on my chest, trying to calm my racing heart. It’d be the final step I’d need to take. The last thing I’d need to do so this would all be over. “What happens now?”
“The DA will be in touch with you to set up a meeting. She’ll want to prepare you for what will happen on the day.” They both stood from the sofa and Detective Oslo continued, “In the meantime, the conditions of Knox’s bail remain in place. If he comes near you, you can call me directly.” Detective Oslo passed me his card. “Save that number in your cell so you can reach me anytime. I’m in charge of your case, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call me.”
I stared down at the card, reading the number several times, then nodded. “Okay.” There was a second of awkward silence, then they walked out of the living room and to the front door. Jenette stared at the locks, reached out and undid them, then smiled back at me. She didn’t need to say anything to know why there were so many, and I didn’t need to explain. It was an unspoken understanding not many people comprehended.
“Take care of yourself, Elodie,” Jenette said as she exited the house.
“I will,” I murmured, following behind them. As soon as they were both outside, I closed the door, put all the locks back in place, and pressed my back against the door. I felt like I was exhausted but also full of energy all at the same time. I hadn’t expected that to happen, but I should have known they’d turn up. No matter how much I tried to take the steps to move forward, there would always be the final one: seeing Knox in court.
Burned Duet: Asher & Elodie: Fast Burn & Deep Burn (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 4) Page 37