Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 116220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Kyle wrinkles his face. “You’re doing what now?”
“It’s a lie, total bullshit, a cover.” Elias smiles. “I’m simply coming back to Nowhere with you and doing whatever the fuck I want.”
Kyle can’t believe this. “It’s that easy? It can’t be that easy. How is your mother okay with any of this?”
“I don’t know.” Elias thinks about it. “She seemed off when we talked it out before I left. But she hasn’t really been herself for a long time. Right before I headed out the door, she wanted a hug. A … long one.” Elias shakes his head. “So weird … like she was replaced with an alien who actually has a heart.”
Kyle stares ahead at the road and the countless vehicles.
Send Rosemarie my regards.
And a warning.
Those were Lord Markadian’s words before sending Elias back to his mother with George.
“Sorry you didn’t even get to meet her,” says Elias. “I know I’ve said many things about her. Our relationship isn’t perfect. We’ve both said and done things. But she’s still my mom. I still love her. I just …” He lets out a sigh all over the steering wheel. “I just hope she’s actually okay and … and those fiends aren’t threatening her or something.”
That is exactly what Kyle believes.
They threatened her. They run her. They control her. She doesn’t even need to know what they really are. In the business world, money is power, and money bends the world to its will.
But whatever they said to his mother, it freed him from his imprisonment under her scarlet thumb. Now Elias has gotten exactly what he always wanted: the freedom to go to Nowhere, to live the way he wants, to have an actual life. He won’t even have to hide anymore. He can get to know everyone in town, make friends, live like a normal human being.
As normal as he can, considering the circumstances.
“I was also caught up about the, uh, court thing.”
Kyle glances at Elias. “You were?”
“Yeah. How you were almost destroyed. Then almost eaten alive by that Markadian bastard. I’m telling you, if I was there, oh no, sir, he wouldn’t have even been able to get within an inch of you. I don’t care if I’d have to defy physics or lose a few bones in defending you. No one puts a hand on you. Boils my blood, just thinking about it.” Elias’s eyes avert. “Also … heard you were saved in the nick of time by an old flame.”
Kyle blankly stares ahead at the traffic.
He can still feel the bite Tristan left on his lips.
“So …” Elias’s tone turns sensitive. “How was it? To … see him again? To see Tristan?”
Kyle isn’t sure how to answer at first. “Strange.”
“Good strange? Bad strange?”
“Just strange.”
Each of Elias’s questions come with a note of hesitation. “So how did it go?”
Kyle measures his words. “I expressed my anger to him. He expressed remorse. Then I kissed him.”
Someone honks at them from behind. Elias gently eases the car forward, stops half a foot later. “Okay. And how did it feel?”
“Strange.”
“An awful lot seems to be strange concerning him.”
“Because it was,” says Kyle. “Until now, I thought he was dead. Never thought I’d get the chance to get answers. Or tell him off. Or get …” Kyle’s throat tightens. “… closure.”
Elias takes Kyle’s hand suddenly, startling him. The two look at one another.
“Is that what that was?” asks Elias gently. “The kiss? Was it closure?”
When Kyle stared into Tristan’s eyes earlier, he felt the sting of chaos, of his past, of regret and confusion.
He also felt love.
When he gets lost in Elias’s eyes, Kyle feels like he’s home. He sees the future. Hope. Warmth and life and possibility.
And also love.
“It was a kiss goodbye,” answers Kyle.
The emotion inside Elias right now is like a calm ocean. But the skies over that ocean are overcast and troubled. It is a seascape of uncertainty. Will it storm? Will it remain calm?
“You know …” starts Elias, then pauses. “You know, if it wasn’t a kiss goodbye … if it was a kiss of see-you-later, or even a kiss of passion … I would understand.”
“Elias …”
“I’m not a jealous guy.” That sea inside of him is rippling, rocking. “I understand emotions can be, well, complicated. You weren’t expecting to see him ever again. I own the things I buy, Kyle. My clothes, my watch, a pack of Twizzlers to chow down on. I don’t own you. I don’t own your heart.” Waves toss and crash around, the wind picking up. “But if someone hurts you, if someone tries to hurt you, comes after you, anything at all, I will defend you, Kyle, I will stand up for you.” The seas shatter within Elias, roaring. “Even if it’s Tristan hurting it.”
The ocean settles nearly at once.
The Sea of Elias growing as calm as a pool.