Desperado

part 14

"just breathe" ethan holds my hand in his

i wipe my tear and muzzle in his chest, "i'm sorry"

he squeezes my shoulder, "don't apologize elle"

mads walks in the living room with a bowl of pomegranates, "isnt this a good thing though?" she turns the tv on sitting down on the other couch

"how is this a good thing?" i look at her as she pulls the spoon out of her mouth

"because now the inner bad bitch in you can come out, you can get with anyone and not worry about anything" she says

i look at ethan and roll my eyes, ethan chuckles and pulls me back down on his chest

"it was a 8 year old relationship" i remind her

she looks at me then at ethan, "you shouldn't be sad if he moved on so fast"

gosh i wish i could tell her that me and joey arent just dating, we're married and have kids. we had a life before all this happened

ethan covers my mouth before i could say anything, "shh" he says

i sigh and play with his hands. he pulls his hand away from my mouth, "can we go to your room. i need to talk to you, privately"

"i won't listen" mads says clearing hearing what ethan said

i stand from the couch and walk past mads giving her the finger before i go up the stairs and into my room

ethans eyes go straight to the beautiful view, i lay down on the bed and laugh, "it's beautiful isn't it"

"yea" he closes the door

i sit up and cross my legs, "so what do you wanna talk about"

"i got a lot of information on the kids" he says making my eyes widen

"well what? tell me" my heart starts racing

he lays down on the bed with his elbow propped up, "well i found out that giovanni is gabes brother. the kids are safe and will be but they have are put in separate rooms"

"how do you know all this?" i ask

"i got this today" he takes a paper out of his pocket handing me in

i open the letter and furrow my brows

"it's pretty much saying they are safe and how they are doing. they still won't tell us what they have of joeys but apparently it's so important to him that they think joey would give you up for it"

my eyes widen, i look away from the paper and stare at ethan, "wait what"

he nods slowly, "they are willing to trade you for something of joeys and they know he'll turn you in for it"

thoughts start running through my mind, what could be so important that joey would give me up for? the kids? what do they have that is so important and valuable

" do you know what it is? i cant read cursive so well" i admit

he shakes his head, "i unfortunately don't" he takes the paper from my hand and turns it, "there's an event in a few days, a masquerade ball and we're invited"

"a masquerade ball?" my eyes scan the address, "isnt that really dangerous?"

"yes, very dangerous. but the person who gave us this is on our side" he informs me and i furrow my brows

"w-what do you mean on our side?"

"he's helping us get the kids he just doesn't know where they are hidden. he invited us to this ball because some important stuff will be said by giovanni"

i bite my bottom lip, "what if we get caught?"

"that's why we are wearing mask" his hand lays on my thigh

i ignore his hand and take a deep breath, "does joey know about the ball?"

"no, no one knows except us and everyone else who was invited" ethan tells me

i narrow my eyes to the paper again, squinting my eyes at the cursive words. i can read cursive but this a whole different type of writing

"okay then, do we just wait for the ball now?"

he nods, "yes it's in a week i think" he looks at the paper again, "it's better if we go to the ball first before we go looking for the kids. we need information, we can't start with nothing"

"thank you ethan. you seriously have helped me so much and i'm so glad you are helping me right now" i breathe, "it's just it's been so tough lately and i'm just so thankful for you"

"of course elena, it's the kids we are talking about here-"

the door opens and mads looks at us with wide eyes, "what's going on here?"

"nothing?" i furrow my brows, she's so desperate for ethan and i too be something

"okay..." she looks at the paper and ethan folds it, "well i'm just going to make some more fruit. if you want any i'll be downstairs"

ethan and i look at each other then at her. she's acting strange, her eyes are on ethan who's hand is still on my thigh

ethan removes his hand and scratches the back of his head, "bye madison"

she smirks, "don't mind me, you guys can get freaky i won't listen"

my jaw drops and i throw a pillow at her, "mads get out!"

she starts laughing and i get up and close the door on her

"i thought you locked the door" ethan sits up

"so did i" i sit back on the bed

i look at the door and wait for madison to open it again but once i hear her footsteps fade away i know she's gone

i look at ethan and his eyes were already on me, "what?" i smile

"nothing i just, missed you so much" he smiles back

i blush, "it has been a really long time hasnt it?"

"4 years" he whispers

i look in his eyes feeling nothing but guilt, i wish i could tell him that i love him like a friend but it would be too weird. it would make things awkward and i don't want to hurt him again or make him think we are something again

"it's crazy right? who would've thought we would just randomly see each other in the streets of new york" i admit

he chuckles, "same. i actually thought you never wanted to see me again"

i furrow my brows at his response, "why would you think that?"

he shrugs his shoulders and looks away from me, pressing his lips together, "nevermind"

———-

Y'all like ethan again?

Cause joey is out the picture for a while