“It doesn’t matter,” I said, but to my surprise, Eli moved between me and the door, grabbing the handle from me, but not pushing the door any farther open.
“I don’t believe you,” Eli whispered. “I think it matters more than you want to admit.”
I didn’t respond as I studied Eli, but he never took his eyes off of me. I braced my hand against the door and added enough pressure to force Eli to release his hold on the handle. I leaned down just enough so I could keep my voice low as I said, “Make sure you understand what happens if you walk through this door…what you’re agreeing to.”
I nearly groaned when Eli parted his lips just a little bit so his tongue could dart out and wet them. “You’ll want answers,” he finally said.
“For starters.”
Eli’s breathing ticked up a notch before he turned and walked into the room. I felt my cock swell with anticipation as I followed him inside and closed the door. He jumped a little when the door locked, but then he turned to face me.
“Sit,” I murmured as I motioned to the couch.
Eli did as I told him which had my body ratcheting up with need so I went to the fridge and got him a bottle of water. Because I didn’t trust myself to sit next to him on the couch, I sat in the armchair after handing him the water. Since my warning to him about other things besides just talk happening between us had been an empty threat meant to scare him off, I willed my body to settle down. I’d get the answers I needed, pass the information on to Ronan and get the hell out of this place.
“Tell me about your stepfather,” I said.
Eli dropped his eyes and remained quiet for several seconds before finally speaking. “His name is Jack Cortano. Colonel Jack Cortano.”
“He’s in the military?” I asked, more to keep Eli talking than anything else since I already knew the basics about the man.
Eli nodded. “He used to be the base commander at JBLM before he took a job in DC.”
I knew that JBLM stood for Joint Base Lewis-McChord, a joint Army and Air Force base south of the city. “How did he and your mom meet?” I asked since Eli had fallen silent again.
“My mom worked in the accounting department at Dom’s company. He was meeting Dom for lunch one day when he met my mom.”
“He and Dom are friends?”
Another nod. “They were in the army together. He stayed in after Dom got out to start his business but they stayed friends.”
“How old were you when he and your mom started seeing each other?”
“Fifteen. He proposed to her a few months after they met.”
“Did you two get along?” I asked.
A pained expression crossed Eli’s features before it slipped away and he nodded. “I’d never had a dad before and he reminded me so much of Dom.” Eli rubbed at his eyes and although I didn’t see any tears falling, I had no doubt the move was meant to deter them. “Even though he had kids from a previous marriage, he treated me like his own, you know?” Eli whispered. “He took me to ball games, fishing trips, all of the same stuff he did with his real sons. I even started calling him Dad. And my mom…”
Eli shook his head.
“He made her so happy. He encouraged her to get her GED, helped her learn English. She got to quit her job so she could go to school full time and get a degree in psychology. She works with veterans and their families now.”
“In D.C.?” I asked.
“Yeah. She and my stepfather moved there after he got a job at the Department of Defense.”
“Was that when you were enrolled in Johns Hopkins?”
Eli nodded. “They moved down there my sophomore year.”
“You mentioned other kids?”
“I have two stepbrothers. Nick and Caleb.”
“Do they live with their mother?”
“No,” Eli said as he shook his head. “She died in a car accident about a year after Jack married my mom. Caleb and Nick came to live with us after that.”
“Did you get along with them?”
“They never seemed to like me much. I think they knew about my past because Nick used to call me a cocksucker whenever our parents weren’t around.”
I stemmed the anger that went through me. “Did your stepfather know about your childhood?”
Eli swallowed hard and nodded. “He used to always tell me it didn’t matter. That no one would ever touch me like that again. Dom…Dom used to say those exact words to me.”
I nodded in understanding. Jack Cortano had clearly become the father Eli had wanted Dom to be…had needed him to be. “Had your stepfather ever hurt you before?”
“No,” Eli whispered, his eyes downcast. “He never raised a hand against me, never yelled at me, nothing. What happened in the stairwell…”