ChapterNineteen
Elden was no longerin front of me. No longer touching me. When the door crashed open and the angry man barreled through it, Elden created as much distance between me and him as possible. Colby moved quickly too, grabbing onto Sariah’s arm and dragging her out of the line of fire.
A low ringing had erupted in my ears the second the door smashed against the wall, and my stepfather entered the room, gun pointed at Elden.
Agunpointed at him.
My mother had rushed in behind him, grabbing onto me as we both watched in horror.
Hansen and Jagger entered after them, either having come from the garage area or having arrived at the same moment. They’d obviously seen Swiss storming across the parking lot holding a gun and hauling ass.
But when he strode across the living room and held it to Elden’s head, they didn’t do anything.
No one did anything.
I didn’t know what I expected everyone else here to do … something, like, I don’t know, tackle Swiss. Everyone just watched.
“I should blow your brains out right here, right now.” Swiss sounded nothing like the stepfather I had come to know and love.
My stomach dropped at the sincerity in Swiss’s tone. The lack of humanity.
Elden didn’t say anything. Didn’t do anything. I knew he had a gun because he had just been holding it to protect me from unknown intruders only a few minutes ago.
But him pulling a gun on Swiss would probably mean one of them would get shot. I didn’t wantanyoneto get shot.
“There was a time in my life when I might not have fought you,” Elden finally spoke, his voice even. “A time when I might’ve just let what happens happen. When I didn’t care if I lived or died. Because I didn’t have anything to live for.”
My mom clutched onto me when I started shaking from the force of my tears, remembering what he told me in the café. My sorrow for Elden and my terror that Swiss might actually do something mingled together.
“Now I’ve got something to live for.” Elden's eyes were no longer on Swiss but on me. “I’ve got everything to live for.”
My heart was beating in my throat.
“Not gonna argue with you that this got fucked-up,” he said to Swiss, still looking at me. “That I made some bad fucking choices in the midst of this. But you’re never gonna get me to wish away what I did. ’Cause I wouldn’t be standin’ right here.”
Still, he stared at me, despite the gun being pointed in his face.
It was sweet. Impossibly sweet. But sweet wasn’t going to penetrate Swiss’s fury right now. I couldn’t be sure that anything would penetrate Swiss right now. So I didn’t think. I just acted. Even though he wasn’t good at macho man declarations in the face of death, Elden was everything to me too.
My mother only let me go because she wasn’t expecting me to rush forward and stand between Elden and Swiss.
“Violet,” Elden growled the second I stepped in front of him, grabbing my shoulders. “Get the fuck behind me.”
I stepped out of his grasp.
“No,” I hissed, eyes on Swiss who had lowered the gun the second I stepped in front of it. “You’re not going to point a gun at him,” I snapped. “You are not going to threaten to kill him. You are not going to lay a hand on him.”
“You need to move aside right now, Violet,” Swiss said in a tone that cooled my blood. “This has nothing to do with you.”
I’d never heard him speak like that before. He didn’t sound like the man who doted on my mother, who cooed at my brother.
He sounded like a cold-blooded killer.
“Violet, get the fuck behind me,” Elden seethed from behind me.
But I didn’t move.
“I’m not moving.” I widened my stance, arms folded. “This haseverythingto do with me. And I swear to everything I hold dear in this world, including the man behind me, if you hurt him, I will never speak to you again. I will never stay under the same roof as you again. You will not meet this child.” My hand went to my flat stomach. “The one I intend on having, by the way.”