Family Matters

Chapter 15

Despite Bastian's order to sleep Ellie never once even closed her eyes. He had taken her phone and her gun when they left the restaurant and there was an armed guard outside Bastian's bedroom. All she could do in that moment was obsess over what he had revealed to her. It wasn't until the sun seeped in between the blinds that Bastian finally stirred; he was always a heavy sleeper.

"Morning love," he beamed. "Did you sleep well?"

"Not particularly," she whimpered. "Can we stop playing?"

"I'm not playing," he sneered. "I've never been playing. You are the one that turned this into a chess match, Ellie. I wanted nothing more than to spoil you but you lied, you kept secrets, and you pushed me into this."

There was a portion of that she believed to be true. Bastian had always been fairly open about his business, the trafficking aside, and she had no reason to suspect he'd hurt her. That was all until she got pregnant, of course.

"You are not innocent," she snapped. "And I never knew who you really are, what you really do. You weren't honest from the beginning. I never would have started this if I knew about the girls."

"What's done is done," he said as he got out of bed. "I have a meeting, I guess you could say, this afternoon. Dinner is at six and I expect you to be there."

"Wait," she jumped out of bed after him. "Does that mean I can leave?"

Turning on his heel, away from the closet full of crisp, dry cleaned dress shirts, he laughed in her face. "You're not stupid, love, so don't act it. There's plenty to do here and, if you truly need to leave the house, you'll have Karl with you at all time."

"I hate Karl," she said petulantly.

Bastian smirked, "I know."

--

"Jesus, he is good with her." Rory laughed as she and Happy watched Juice and Poe during their afternoon at the playground. It was small and under a heavy canopy of trees, they liked the privacy. "You wouldn't be able to handle this if it weren't for him."

"No shit," Happy grumbled. "Elle knows it too."

"You think she can do it?" Rory asked quietly, almost scared of how he'd react to her questioning his sister.

"I don't know," he said sadly. "She's done it before," Happy's voice betrayed him as it lowered and grew weak. "But she loves this piece of shit and he's got a crew. She's my baby sister, I'm supposed to be the one protecting her."

"Hey," Rory grabbed his hand and held it tight in hers. "Ellie's gonna be okay," she tried to reassure him. "After all the shit he lied about and how he fucked with her she's gonna love it. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, Hap."

His dark eyes looked at their intertwined fingers, hands resting on his thigh, and smiled ever so slightly at the comfort she provided him. "Yeah, I hope," he said sadly.

"You did the right thing, hiding this from her," she squeezed his hand in hers. "If she knew you were worried or doubtful I think it would have gotten in her head. It would have psyched her out."

"Rory!" Poe belted out as she raced from the swing set toward the benches. "I gotta pee!"

"Oh, what," Rory gasped. "Me?"

"You're the chick," Happy elbowed her playfully.

"I mean I know ya gotta go when ya gotta go but public bathrooms are awful." Rory whispered as Poe and Juice reached them. "Can't she just pop a squat behind some bushes?" Rory asked.

"We're at a playground," Juice interjected. "That's gross."

"You peed in a cemetery, dude," Happy reminded him.