Deep Burn (Burned Duet 2)

My breath whooshed out of me, my face paling. I’d thought I’d kept what I did a secret, but if Knox’s lawyer knew, then so did Knox. Had he known all along?

“I…” I didn’t know what to say because the truth made me look a certain way; the truth meant people would made a judgement about me and what I was like. It wouldn’t matter if they were right or wrong.

“According to my records, you’d worked there for around nine months.” He held up a piece of paper. “Would an eighteen-year-old high school student take her clothes off and flaunt her naked body in front of men if she wasn’t experienced?” My breaths were ragged as I stared at him, not able to say a single word. I’d worked there because I didn’t have a choice. “I think you felt trapped and thought this was your only way out: to accuse an innocent young man of something so vile.”

“I—"

The lawyer swiped his hand through the air, keeping his gaze fixated to mine. “No further questions.”

I gasped. He hadn’t even let me explain. He’d portrayed me to be something I wasn’t and now there was nothing I could do about it. He’d left me hanging, knowing the last of his words would impact the jury.

“You may leave the stand now,” the judge said. “Let’s break for lunch and return at one thirty.” He stood and walked out of the courtroom through a back door, leaving me sitting here not knowing what to do or how to act.

I hadn’t told anyone how I’d earned my money, and I was hyperaware that Brody, Lola, Belle, and Leo were sitting in the same row as Asher. They’d heard what Knox’s lawyer had said. Would they look at me differently now? Would they see me the way the lawyer had made me out to be?

“Elodie.” I whipped my head up, my stare meeting Mylee’s. “You can come down from there now.”

“I…right.” I cleared my throat and stood on shaky legs. I kept my head down as I passed between the two tables and pushed through the swinging doors toward the row of seats.

“You did great up there.” Asher’s voice was the first I heard. I couldn’t bear to look at him, afraid of what I would see on his face. “Sweetheart,” he murmured, placing his finger under my chin and tilting my head back. “Don’t let it get to you.”

I sniffled, trying not to let the tears escape. “I didn’t expect it to be like that. I thought…I thought.” I paused. “Everyone knows what I was. They know and—”

“We won’t look at you any differently,” Lola stated. I turned my head to face her, preparing myself to see judgement on her face, but there wasn’t any, if anything, she only expressed understanding. “You’re our Elodie, and that’s all that matters.” She placed her hand on my shoulder. “You did what you had to do to survive. In my book, that makes you stronger than anyone.”

“Really?” I whispered.

“Yep.” She shuffled to the side. “Now, what do you want to do? Stay or leave? Because I’ve about had it with watching that piece of shit from back here.”

I pulled in a breath, knowing exactly what I wanted to do. I hadn’t looked at the defense table the entire time I’d been in this room, but now it was time for me to face my demon head-on.

I spun my body, knowing Asher was at my back, and stared Knox square in the eyes. He narrowed his eyes at me, his wrath clear for anyone to see, but in the blink of an eye it was gone. I’d had an entire speech built up in my head of what I’d say when I saw him again, but in that moment, I felt like I didn’t need to say a word. I wasn’t afraid of him anymore. I hadn’t been afraid of him for months. He was just a boy—a boy who thought the world owed him something. Life would teach him a hard lesson, one that I wasn’t sure he’d survive.

He leaned back in his seat, blew me a kiss, then laughed up a storm. The sound echoed around the room, but without the judge or jury in here to witness it, it would go by unseen. But it didn’t matter anymore.

He thought he’d come here and win, but he was losing. He’d lost the moment he’d walked into my apartment. He’d lost the second he’d laid his hands on me.

“That fucker,” Asher ground out from behind me. His chest met my back and I grabbed on to his arm, silently telling him not to say or do anything. It was what Knox wanted. He lived to rile people up and making them react to him because it was all a big game to him.

I spun around, turning my back on Knox. “Let’s go home,” I told Asher. “I just want to go home.” He glanced down at me, his dark eyes lit with burning rage. His chest moved rapidly, and I could see he was trying to calm himself down. “Ignore him.”

“It’s real fuckin’ hard, sweetheart.”

“I know, but he’s not worth it.” I placed my hands on either side of his face. “He’s never been worth it.”

Asher inhaled a deep breath, closed his eyes, then wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led me out of the room. It wasn’t until we were at the doors that I heard Belle say, “Oh, shit, Dad has gone over there.”

We all halted, our heads swiveling back to the front of the courtroom where Brody was standing in the middle of the tables talking to Mylee. We couldn’t hear what he was saying from here, but he smiled at her, nodded, then took a step away. At the last second, he darted to the side. His palms landed on the table Knox sat behind as he bent down, and my body jerked.

“What is he doing?” Leo asked.

“He’s making sure the dirty fucker doesn’t come anywhere near Elodie,” Lola answered, her voice neutral. Leo said something back to her, but I wasn’t paying attention because I was hyper focused on Brody. His lips moved rapidly, Knox’s face paled, and then his lawyer stood, but still Brody didn’t move. He stared him down, making sure he understood whatever he’d said, then stood, grinned, and walked toward us.

Brody winked at me as he got closer to us, and I remembered what he’d said to me the day after Asher’s court appearance. He’d told me I was part of this family, and I was guessing this is what he did to protect his family. He didn’t say a word to any of us as he walked out of the room, and everyone followed after him.

I couldn’t resist one final look at Knox. His head was down, his shoulders slumped. I’d finally done it. I’d finally confronted him. I’d faced the monster from my nightmares, but he didn’t look that scary anymore. And in that moment, I realized I wasn’t going to waste another second on him. I’d told Asher Knox wasn’t worth it, and it was the truth.

“Let’s go home,” I said to Asher, feeling like I could finally breathe again.