Page 113 of Broken Butterfly
I turn my head, arching my eyebrow, unable to hide the half-smirk that curves my mouth. “Talking?”
“Yeah. I opened ‘the door,’” Trevor finger quotes, using the phrase I said to him at the café.
“Did he walk through?”
Trevor barks out a quiet laugh. “Very reluctantly. But it’s a start.”
“Thank you, Trevor. I will consider it a Christmas miracle. He needs you. I think you need him too.”
“Elizabeth, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Okay.”
“Not tonight, though.”
“Then why bring it up?”
“Because I seem to have a big fucking mouth and no filter.”
“Trevor—” My phone rings and vibrates in my back pocket. Taking it out, the screen shows that it’s Jayson. “Hold that thought,” I tell Trevor and swipe to answer.
“Jayson?” My ears are met with heavy breathing, then the sounds of something smashing in the background. “Jayson?” I repeat and hear another crashing sound like the shattering of glass. “Jayson! Can you hear me? What’s going on?” Trevor frowns down at me and I turn my back to him.
“I remember the first time I saw you. Crooked tiara in your hair and that blue dress you wore, your hair braided in pigtails.” When he speaks, his words are slurred and thick.
“Jayson, are you drunk?”
Another crash and a low groan. “Yes, I’m fucking drunk!” he shouts, and I almost drop the phone. “Why is my goddamn hand bleeding?” he says then starts laughing. Not a happy laugh, but one filled with a bit of mania.
“Jayson! Are you injured? What the hell is going on? Where are you?”
Heavy breaths punctuate his already garbled words making it difficult to understand. “Shit. I think I broke your window.”
My window?“Are you in my house? Jayson, please tell me what’s going on. Is Julien with you?”
“Waiting. Waiting. All I’ve done is wait. My whole life. It doesn’t matter anymore. Fuck!”
I’m already grabbing my coat and heading out the door with Trevor hot on my heels. An ominous feeling deep inside of me spirals up. Something’s terribly wrong. I break out into a run as soon as my feet hit the front porch.
“Kitten, what the hell?” I hear Fallon shout as I run down the walkway to the street. “Trevor, where’s she going?”
“I don’t know what’s going on. Jayson called her.”
“Get Ryder!” I yell back at them, not breaking my fast sprint down the street.
All the morning runs with Julien have paid off and I’m in front of my old childhood home in less than a minute. I’ve kept the phone connection with Jayson open, but other than mumbled words and crashing sounds, he hasn’t said anything else to me. The Christmas lights on the oak tree are still lit and I look up to notice my bedroom window is smashed. A few jagged pieces of glass remain and reflect the colored lights from the tree.Shit! I don’t have the keys to the house that Fallon gave me earlier. Without hesitation, I jump up and catch a low branch, allowing the memories of the hundreds of times Jayson, Julien, and I climbed this tree to guide me. Once I’m high enough, I step out onto the small ledge under my window and climb in carefully, avoiding the broken glass still attached to the frame and the broken pieces littered across the floor.
My bedroom is steeped in darkness, but the light from the tree outside is enough for me to see Jayson hunched on the floor. His knees are raised and his gaze is fixed on the blood that is dripping down his fisted hand. I rush over and kneel beside him, taking off my jacket and pressing it to his fist.
“Jayson, what happened? What are you doing in here?”
As if under a trance, Jayson looks dazedly at me, a wane smile touching his lips. He reaches out and slides the knuckles of his uninjured hand down the side of my face. “Liz?” His lips quiver, but before I can react, his silver eyes blacken with rage and his hand clasps the back of my neck, jerking my head forward. Pain radiates down from the base of my neck and I yelp.
“Jayson! Stop it! Let go!”
Standing up abruptly, taking me with him, he shoves me away with a sudden push and I fall backward on my ass. He sways a few times before steadying himself, using my jacket to wipe his bloody hand.
Fury like I’ve never felt before rushes through me, singeing every synapse in my body. This house is where my family was murdered, where I was stabbed and almost died. I will not allow anyone else to hurt me here. I rise up slowly from the floor with a strength I never knew I possessed.
