Broken Trust(Devastation Duet #2) - Winter Paige Page 0,42
I motion to the water, whispering. “-are everything I try to be. What’s not to envy, Jonah? Their spirit? Their strength?” Wiping away another tear, I look into his eyes, my voice breaking. “The currents are winning, Jonah. They have pulled me under, and I am drowning.”
“Eliana.” He huffs out my name as if he’s been punched.
“I wanna be a wave, Jonah.”
“Then let’s be waves, beautiful.” He takes my hand.
“Things are different now.” We both look at my ring.
“A current?” he asks.
“No, he’s drowning, too. He just won’t admit it.”
“Are you in love with him?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I smile, stepping off the deck and wiggling my toes in the sand. “If I can’t be a wave, then at least we can dance with them.” I grin up at Jonah and then sprint down the sand into the water, screaming when the first wave rushes over my feet.
“It’s three a.m.! You’ll freeze.” Jonah sweeps me up, trying to carry me back to the dry sand when an unexpected surge of water knocks us over.
“Holy shit, that’s cold,” he yells out, and I laugh.
“You feel that, Jonah?”
“The cold? Yeah I feel it.” He scoops me into his arms and carries my shivering body up the shore, placing me on a lounge, and runs up to grab the blanket from the deck. Sitting behind me, he pulls my back to his chest and wraps the blanket around us both.
“That, Jonah, was a wave trying to remind me who I am.” I lean into him, shivering, slowly warming back up as my eyes begin to get heavy.
“And who is that, beautiful?”
“I am Eliana Annalise Jameson, and I am a hell of a lot stronger than the woman I have allowed myself to become.”
“Yeah, and what are you going to do about that?” I can hear the smile in his voice.
“I’m going to fight back.” I drift off but whisper, “Thank you for being my friend tonight, Jonah.”
“Thank you for letting me.” He rubs my arm.
“Will you sing for me?”
“Whatever you need, beautiful,” he replies, resting his head atop mine, softly singing a song I’ve never heard before as I fall asleep.
“When the shadows start to creep back in and the darkness haunts your dreams, you simply have to say my name. I would walk through hell to pull you back to me…”
Chapter Sixteen
Costin
“Well that was a fucking bust.” I sigh, dropping down onto the couch in the basement once the room has finally cleared. “I’m going to crash for an hour or so before we have to start getting ready.”
“Yeah, me too.” Jaxx runs his hand through his hair, sitting in the chair across from me. “I really thought Douglass would show, Cos. I don’t know how I am going to tell Abel. What will I say to Eliana? We are getting married today, and then I am immediately going to head out to search for the girl. Happy honeymoon, baby. No, I can’t tell you where I am going or when I will be back. Is it safe? Well…”
“Fuck you, Jaxx. Get the hell out!” I stand quickly, overwhelmed with jealousy, shoving him from the chair. “At least you get to be with her! You know what this is like for me? I get to watch her get married to a man she isn’t even in love with while I sit to the side, pretending to be the man-whore they expect me to be. Every time I have to touch another woman, I want to puke.”
“Fuck me, brother?” he chokes out. “You know what it’s like to be the man that loves her, knowing she doesn’t love you in return? Do you know what it’s like to look into the eyes of the girl that owns your entire heart and hear her call you her very best friend? To see your ring on her finger and know that it means nothing to her but everything to you. To hold her in your arms at night and then give her to the man you call your brother the very next day? Wrecking your own heart continuously because no matter what you feel, her heart comes first every time. So, brother, tell me more about your suffering. Because, no matter what else is going on, she loves you back.”
“It changes nothing. She isn’t with me. She is with you. At least, you have that.” I spit.
“It changes everything, Costin! Damn it!” He shoves me to the floor. “She loves you! What I wouldn’t give to