Chapter 8

Mordechai

In only a few days, I had noticed a great many things about Ellie Locke. First off, the drinking. Second, how carefully she stepped. Third, how she touched things. With nothing to do but be with this girl, I could do nothing but notice things. She flipped the switch in every single room she entered that didn’t have her father or mother in it. Three times, every single time. She carefully chose where she stepped on the patterns on the ground, unless she had shoes on. When she read, she would turn the page, then rub either side of each of her fingers against her thumb, every single time. Her nose also twitched when she got irritated. Finally, and my very favorite thing, she’d get pissed off when she thought I ignored her. By necessity, every moment of my life had become dedicated to her. To think that a single second went by where I didn’t pay attention made me laugh. I had fun with it. Her saying something that she thought would upset me, me pretending to ignore her, and then watching all the little ways she gave herself away.

At the moment, Ellie had sprawled out on a chair in a library in her house. As far as I knew, she had three, though she preferred this one with more windows. I stood at the door, staring at the carpet instead of Ellie. Every time I caught sight of her glancing my way in my peripheral vision, I would hear a little huff. The pure delight of that threw me off. I wanted more.

I cleared my throat, making it loud and staring at the floor. Sure enough, I caught her looking. Her greenish-brown eyes narrowed at me. I wanted to look at her head on so badly, but I stopped myself.

Then she growled and I threw caution to the wind.

When I looked up at her, she still glared at me. That glare faded. My own empty, blank expression faded too. I turned into a creep staring a girl, both hungry for attention. When her lips parted, I didn’t hesitate in watching that too. I could feel trouble on the horizon like a sickly green colored sky warning of a tornado. I should have looked away.

Ellie did it first, and then I understood what made her so angry with me. I was angry at me.

“I think it’s time to leave for lunch,” Ellie decided, standing up and setting her book down. She smoothed out her skirt, which I didn’t watch her do, even for a moment. Instead, I focused on how to stop her from being stupid.

“Here?” I asked.

“Nope. Jordan is meeting me in an hour.”

I stood in front of the door, blocking her when she tried to get out. “We’re not going anywhere. You keep playing with fire and you’re going to get yourself burned.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “You don’t get to choose where I go.”

“I was hired to keep you safe, so I actually do choose.”

When she folded her arms and cocked her hip, it felt like loading bullets into a chamber. “You think that?”

“I know that,” I said, straight faced and with a growl in my voice.

“All I have to do is go get my dad—”

“And tell him what? That you’re meeting with the daughter of a rival family? That you’ve been doing it for a week. You could lie to him. You can say you were trying to make bridges, but you still lied. If you thought you could get away with knowing, I think he would.”

Her eyes narrowed at me again. I was getting use to the sight, growing accustom. “You think you’re clever?”

“Not in the slightest, Miss Locke. Just reminding you that you might think you have the upper hand here, but I’m only trying to keep you alive.”

“Right, because Jordan is going to shoot me in the head over brunch.”

“You know better than to be so flippant, Miss. I can see you’re clever. You’re at least cleverer than this.”

Her jaw set and I knew she understood I was right. Willfully looking away from the things you wanted to pretend didn’t exist would be bad enough, but to walk into danger and pretend it wouldn’t touch you… She knew better.

“I have things to do,” she said to me. “No one wants to tell me what’s going on, so I have to figure it out myself. This seems like the best way. I’m also making friends with someone it would be good to make friends with. People underestimate that family. You know what happens when you underestimate someone one too many times?”

“It’s dangerous.”

“I’m going no matter what you think. Either you can go with me, or you can stay and get fired for not doing your job.”

She pushed me aside and entered the hallway, leaving me with no choice but to follow her. She didn’t turn down the way of the garage this time, choosing instead to go the way of the courtyard outside. It took nothing to keep up with her, and I spent the walk wondering if throwing her over my shoulder would have been a step too far.

“Miss Locke,” I said as she headed to a car I hadn’t seen before. A little black Bug. She pulled keys out of her pocket and looked over her shoulder at me before moving on. “Miss Locke, you can’t go.”

“Oh, I can’t go? Is that what you’re telling me? That you’re going to keep me from going?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”

She spun her keychain around her finger. “I’d like to see you try and stop me.”

I took that as a declaration of war.

I reached forward and took the keys from her hand. Her returning gasp made me smile, holding those keys in the air. She paused, watching me for a moment before diving for them. I backed up, holding them too high for her to reach.

“Give them back!” she demanded.

“Is that an order, Miss?”

“Fuck you, buckaroo. I’ll bite your face.”

God, I wanted her to try it. I jangled her keys above her head, letting her jump for them. She couldn’t reach, then I backed up again before she started to chase me around the rocky driveway. And I ran. I ran when I thought of a hundred ways to end this fast and well.

“Do you think I won’t tackle you!” Ellie shouted at me. Four of her guards watched us, not saying a word. They looked the least bit interested.

“You’ve tried!” I called back at her. “Remember last time!”

Suddenly, the force of a cannon hit my back as arms reached around me like vines. Ellie had impressive leg strength, since nothing else kept her attached to me.

“I swear to god!” she screamed in my ear.

I chucked the keys into the grass right off the driveway. When she jumped off me, she made a sound between a shriek of anger and a huff. Ellie stomped off to find her keys, calling me all kinds of names as I sauntered over to the Bug. I leaned against the door, waiting for her.

“You are an ass face!” she yelled at me.

I shrugged. It made her growl at me again.

“You’re still not going,” I said as she approached the car with her keys.

“You think that?”

“I do.”

She kept her eyes on me, starting to walk around the car to get to the other side. I went to block her off, leaving us standing on opposite sides of the car. When she tried to open the door, I began to chase her again. She squealed and I could have sworn it almost sounded like a laugh.

Ellie landed on the drivers’ side of the car, staring at me and sporting the smuggest smile I had ever seen. As she went to get in, I laid on the hood, my eye son the sky.

“Are you kidding me?” I heard Ellie shout from inside the car. She honked and while it destroyed my ears, I didn’t let it show. “Mordechai!” She even pronounced the guttural H sound when she yelled at me. If anything, it only made it better.

“I told you you’re not going anywhere,” I said. “How about you walk in the house like a good girl and go get yourself some ice cream?”

She said not a word, but I could feel her outrage. Nothing happened for a few seconds, making me think I would hear a door slam as she stormed back into the house. Instead, I ended up falling onto rocks as the car zipped backward on the driveway. She turned, then drove past me while I struggled to get to my feet.

I started running again, chasing the car as if I had a chance in hell of catching up with it. I would kill that girl myself if I got the chance to. The second Jonathan gave me the call to bring her in, I would haul her into his house and ask to be the one to… Eh, the thought didn’t even finish itself. I managed to get halfway down the street before I couldn’t take it anymore, sinking to the ground and laughing as I caught my breath.

I took my jacket off as I wondered how Locke would kill me. Maybe I would get something quick. He could write me off as a moron and get on with his day, finding someone new for Ellie to torture.

Sitting there, I loosened my tie and rolled my sleeves up. I might as well die comfortable. I could have used better shoes. Maybe a sweater. Would Ellie be there when I died?

I looked up when I heard gravel crunching. The car had swung around and the door opened toward me. I saw Ellie leaning my way, still smiling.

“Do you want lunch or not?” she asked me.

This time, I narrowed my eyes. “You’re a real pain in the ass.”

“You too, baby. Get in.”

I stood up and tossed my jacket in the back, unwilling to put it on again. Ellie looked me up and down, not commenting on the dirt on my pants or the way I looked like I rolled out of a prom at two in the morning. I slammed the door behind me, buckling up before she sped off.

“You are a danger to yourself and others,” I said.

“Well, it’s just my style. Don’t pretend that wasn’t fun. Or are you opposed to fun? Not much to do back in Kansas, farm boy?”

Sitting back, I said, “I didn’t grow up on a farm. I was in an apartment.” Lies, but true for the person I had to be.

“Didn’t answer my other question. I assume you’re not going to though. Nah, that would be too personal, and Mr. I Don’t Like to Talk wouldn’t throw me a bone.”

I snorted. “Throw you a bone? How about you throw me a bone? You haven’t let up on me even once since I showed up.”

“Because you even being here is nothing but one big, constant reminder that my dad thinks I’m a dumbass.”

I didn’t like the pang in my heart that gave me. “You’re clearly not a dumbass. You orchestrated this whole thing with Jordan Copole on your own. God knows what else you’ve done.”

“I didn’t get to go to college. My dad didn’t think I was worth getting an education. I’m basically waiting around for him to marry me off to the son of someone with power, like I’m a princess or something. I have my dad making sure I know I’m helpless, and then you. Why would I be nice to you?”

“I don’t need you to be nice to me. I need you to listen to me when I try and keep you out of danger.”

“Not going to happen.”

We fell into silence for a while. I knew she wanted me to say something. I shouldn’t have bothered trying to come up with a single word. Making her feel better about her cushy lot in life hadn’t been in the job description. She would never know true suffering or what it meant to struggle. She sat there thinking she had it bad, and that fact alone almost had me wishing I had stayed on the ground outside.

“I didn’t have friends when I was a kid,” I said, against my better judgement. “I went to public school, so I got to see all the other people going about their business. I felt like I was at a zoo watching everyone. I saw them make plans, talk about things they wanted to do, and all that shit. I didn’t engage. It didn’t feel like it was my place.”

“What? Why?”

I shrugged. “They didn’t like me.” I couldn’t tell her that they knew where I had come from. That I was barely above garbage and favored by a man that left them all afraid, causing them to hate me. “I didn’t think it was worth it to try and make friends when I knew they didn’t want me there.”

Ellie sat with that for a moment. “I know what you mean. All the people I was friends with, they stopped talking to me when they left for college. When I stopped buying them food and clothes. When they stopped having to be around my father, afraid what would happen if they upset me.”

I sighed. “We’re going to make this about you?”

“I’m not trying to make it about me,” she snapped. “I’m trying to connect with you, jerk. Can you stop assuming everything I do is selfish? I already know I’m a shitty person.”

I went to agree when I figured out I didn’t actually think that. “Sorry.”

“Cool, so stop assuming I’m trying to hurt you and I’ll stop thinking that you like upsetting me for fun.”

“Never said I didn’t.”

“I would glare at you if I wasn’t driving. You can go back to your story.”

“Thank you, princess. It’s not much of a story. I didn’t spend time with people, so I didn’t do all that fun stuff you probably think I should have. I didn’t go to parties. I worked. I was fine with that, but I missed out on a lot.”

Instead of being a teenager, I learned how to be a replacement to my father, and the other kids knew it. They could see something off. They would see the bruises on my face, the cuts on my knuckles, and they would just… know. It seemed better to keep my distance from them, deciding to reject before I could really and truly be rejected.

“You’re telling me you didn’t do anything fun, ever?” Ellie asked.

“Probably not by your standards.”

She went quiet for a few seconds. “Okay, so maybe I’ll fix that. Maybe I won’t. We’ll see.”

We arrived at yet another place that looked too expensive to let me into. When they stopped me at the door to let me know my clothes didn’t meet their code, Ellie slid in front of me and smiled. The manager paled, apologizing half a dozen times.

“I’ll give the two of you a complimentary bottle of our best wine,” the man promised.

“Thank you very much,” Ellie said. “That’s very kind of you. Our guest should be here soon, so can we be seated?”

He looked down at the monitor, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, I think they’re already here. This way, please.”

Ellie tapped his podium three times before she let herself walk away. I followed behind her, headed to the corner of the room. The place looked almost empty, and they had dimmed the lights in the area he led us to.. Ellie didn’t seem to notice.

I grabbed her arm, stopping her just a second too late. The person waiting for us at the table had already looked up. Five feet away, I saw Fred Copole staring at us. Staring at Ellie.