Deep Burn (Burned Duet 2)

“Milkshake with breakfast?” I fake gagged. “That’s—”

“Genius,” she interrupted, flashing a smile over her shoulder as she skipped toward the door. “Strawberry with whipped cream on top.” She licked her lips. “I need it, Asher. Need it.”

“Well then, guess we’re going to get waffles and…milkshakes.”

“Yes!” She fist-bumped the air, her smile turning into a grin, and my stomach dipped at the sight of her. She didn’t want expensive things and to be lavished with compliments. Elodie was a simple girl at heart. A simple girl who’d wrapped herself so tightly around every single part of me that I wasn’t sure where she ended and where I began. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

ELODIE

I kept my attention on anything but the table to the right. I tried to imagine it was a random person sitting behind it, but I knew it wasn’t. It was evil personified. Evil that I could feel staring me down.

He wanted me to break.

He always had.

But today wasn’t about him. Today, I severed the last grip he held on me. Today was the day I looked him directly in the eye and told him I was done.

“Please place your right hand on the Bible and your left hand in the air,” the man in a police uniform told me. “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

“I do.”

“Please take a seat.”

I pulled my hand off the Bible, then sat down on the bland gray chair inside the wooden box attached to the bench the judge sat behind. I tried not to focus on all of the gazes directed toward me, but it was harder than I’d realized. The rows were packed with people, most of whom I didn’t recognize, but I knew exactly where Asher and everyone else from the family sat: directly behind the prosecutor’s desk. Only last month we had sat on the opposite side.

“Good morning, Elodie,” the woman from the prosecutor’s office—Mylee—greeted. I’d met her once last week when she’d prepared me for what was going to happen today. She’d been brutally honest with me and told me the hardest part wouldn’t be answering her questions but answering the defense.

“Morning,” I replied, trying to keep my voice even, but it was more difficult than I’d realized.

“I know this is difficult for you.” She halted in front of me and placed her hand on the wooden lip of the stand. “So, if at any time you need to take a break, you just say and we’ll do that, okay?”

“Okay.”

She smiled, the kind of smile that said I had no idea what was about to happen, and she was right. This was completely new to me, and no matter how much I’d researched, nothing compared to the feelings I was having right then. My stomach churned, my hands shook, and my neck ached from trying to look anywhere but at him.

“Let’s start at the beginning of the day in question, shall we?” Mylee took a few steps backward to the desk she was sitting behind and picked up a folder. “You attended your boyfriend’s parents’ house for a gathering, is that correct?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And you stayed there until after it got dark? Do you remember the approximate time?”

I clasped my hands tighter together in my lap. “Around ten p.m.”

Mylee crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the edge of the desk, her eyes focused only on me now. “Can you walk me through what happened when you left their house?”

“I…” I cleared my throat and took a calming breath. “Me and Asher—my boyfriend—drove to the apartment I was renting above his tattoo shop.” I paused, not sure if I needed to continue, but when Mylee simply stared back, I carried on. “We…erm, we pulled around the back of the shop because that was the entrance to the apartment. But Asher got a call from his friend who needed his help, so I went into the apartment before he left.”

“You went inside alone?” Mylee asked.

“Yes.”

“And when you entered the building, was there anyone else inside?”

“Not that I recall.” I frowned, wondering if Knox had already been inside. I hadn’t thought about it, but he had to have been, right? I hadn’t heard anything until the point he walked up the stairs, so did that mean he’d been waiting for me? Part of me had wondered if he’d let his rage consume him, but I was doubting that now. Maybe he’d planned to do what he did. Maybe he thought it would put me under his control again.

“Then what happened?”

I shook my head to try and dispel my thoughts. I had to concentrate on what was happening right now. “I went up to my apartment and…I’m not sure what I did when I got inside.” I rolled my lips and tried to find Asher in the crowd of people attending. I needed him to anchor myself. I needed one simple look from him to know I wasn’t getting lost inside my own head.