and he yanked him backward, but Elliot’s anger was far stronger than Karl’s hold. Elliot shook him off easily, but as he drew back his arm, the detectives wrestled him into a headlock.
“You bastard,” Elliot spat, fighting against the two men restraining him. “I’ll fucking kill you.”
As I stood there with blood dripping down my chin and my cheek throbbing, I watched my best friend shatter. The betrayal and hurt he felt on the inside smeared all over his face as he glared at me with hatred in his eyes. Real, vitriolic hatred.
“Let me go,” he said dully, launching his shoulder upward.
“Only if you act in a civilized manner,” Detective Peterson said. “Otherwise we’ll have no option but to arrest you, and I’m sure you’d rather we were out on the streets searching for your sister than in a police station completing needless paperwork.”
Elliot nodded curtly. “Fine.”
Detective Peterson released him then looked over at me. “Do you want to press charges, Mr. Stone?”
Elliot snorted while I shook my head. Judy dashed over to the sink, returning with a damp cloth which she handed to me.
I gave her a wan smile and dabbed the cloth to my lip, winced, then wiped the blood from my chin.
Judy rubbed the space between her eyebrows, confusion warring in the depths of her amber irises. They were so like Athena’s I almost lost it.
“Will someone please tell me what is going on so we can all get back to finding out what has happened to my daughter?”
Elliot shot a fierce stare in my direction. “You’d better keep your fucking comments PG, you lying son of a bitch.”
I cut my gaze to Judy, then Karl. “I’m in love with your daughter, and this weekend I asked her to marry me.”
Shock registered on Elliot’s face, and he took two steps backward. “What?”
Judy clasped a hand to her chest. “You’re the mystery man?”
I nodded. “Not such a mystery now.” I turned to Elliot. “I promise you we didn’t want you to find out like this. We were going to tell you tonight.”
He pulled a face. “Don’t bullshit me, Ryker.”
“I’m not. I swear on my mother’s life, something you know I’d never do lightly. We didn’t want to heap even more stress on you with the Addison’s deal so close to fruition, so we agreed she’d go to my place tonight, and when you arrived with Brie, we’d tell you. It’s all there in the texts if you read them.”
Hope flickered in Elliot’s eyes. “Your place? Maybe that’s where she is?”
I shook my head. “I already checked with my housekeeper. She’s not there.”
His face crumpled. He gripped the back of one of the kitchen chairs, yanked it from under the table, and almost fell onto it.
“Could we take a look at the phone, sir?” Detective Peterson asked.
Elliot tossed it across the table, but instead of aiming it toward the detective, he shot it in my direction. “You know what to do. Then he can have it.”
I picked it up and went to the text app, my heart clenching as I read through our texts from that morning. God, was it only a few hours ago when we were joking about her giving me a blow job underneath the boardroom table?
I deleted the private conversations between me and Athena, then handed the device to the detective.
He passed it off to his partner. “Get tech on this. There could be something to glean that’ll help us identify where she might be.”
The other detective left the room. I pulled out the chair next to Elliot and sat down. “I really am sorry, buddy, but I love her. I love her so damned much.”
“For what it’s worth,” Karl said, joining us. “It’s about goddamn time. It’s obvious you two have been in love for years.”
“It’s not fucking obvious to me,” Elliot gritted out.
Karl glared at his son. “That’s five ‘fuckings’ I’ve counted from you, young man. Show some restraint in front of your mother. And some respect.”
Elliot blushed a bright red. “Sorry, Mom. I’m just so worried about Athena.”
Judy squeezed his hand. “We’ll find her. I know we will. A mother knows these things in here.” She pressed a fist to her chest. “If my baby was hurting, I’d know.”
I bumped Elliot’s shoulder to get his attention. “When this is over, we’ll talk. Can we please put aside our differences for now, and concentrate on finding Athena?”
Elliot nodded, but a steeliness in his eyes told me I had a long road to walk