The General (Professionals 4)

“Peyton,” Autumn hissed.

“What? I’m trying to help make a sale here. What’s the problem? We’re all a bunch of pervs here. Are you not cock ring fans? Are you here for a solid spreader bar? Because Autumn has a good recommendation for that.”

“Oh, God,” Autumn said, shaking her head, making her blonde hair dance.

“Did somebody die or something?” Peyton asked, clearly not one for ‘reading a room.’

“Her husband actually,” Autumn said, giving the woman a hard look.

“And you’re up on some new strange already?” Peyton asked, eyeing up Noah appreciatively. “Good for you, girl. You do you. Or, more accurately, let him do you.”

I wasn’t sure, but I could have sworn I heard Autumn mutter something about manners.

“Peyton,” Eli said, clearly trying to hold back a smile. “This is Jennifer Ericsson.”

“Ericsson. Ericsson. Why do I know that… oh,” she said, pressing her lips together, looking entirely guilty, but amused at her own faux pas. “Whoops. So, yeah, I’m, Peyton. Autumn’s sister. Eli’s favorite sister-in-law. It’s okay,” she said to Eli, patting his arm. “I know you can’t say it out loud, but you tell me with your eyes all the time. So anyway. Congratulations on your husband’s death. I see you have upgraded fantastically.”

“I would apologize for her, but that would probably only encourage her, to be perfectly honest,” Autumn said, shaking her head.

“It’s okay,” I told her, feeling the last of the tears dry on my lashes. “I admire her candor,” I added. “I’m sorry. I’m being so rude. This is,” I started, half-turning so that Noah could move in beside me.

“Smith,” Eli supplied, making Noah’s brow raise. “Might not be in the game anymore, but my brothers are. Her man is,” he added, waving a hand toward Peyton. “So are Mark’s in-laws. So I am still kept pretty up-to-date on all the players in town. I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you finally realized you had some power after all. That’s why this particular man is standing here with you. I’m happy for you.”

“Eli…” I started, head shaking, feeling guilty all over again that he would be so gracious as to be happy for me and my freedom.

“I worried about you,” he cut me off. “Sitting inside. I worried about you just about every day. Knowing that fuck still had control over you. You could barely move your mouth in court,” he added, giving me a knowing look. “It was too long after the night I beat him. It wasn’t from that beating you took. He beat you again. To get you to testify, I always imagined.”

“Yes.” The sound was a whisper, but he heard me in the small space.

“I couldn’t figure out why they had to testify when I wasn’t exactly fighting the charges,” he admitted.

“Bertram didn’t want it hitting the news circuits that Teddy beat me.

“Fuck,” he growled, hands curling up into fists before he took a few deep breaths, seeming to try to calm himself back down. It was a fascinating sight. Like Bruce Banner trying to hold back the Hulk. “Guess it doesn’t look good for re-election that you raised a wife-beating bastard of a son.”

“Exactly,”I agreed even though something within me cringed. I wondered when I would be seen as something other than a battered woman, when people would stop looking at me with pity.

Time.

It would just take time.

As all things did.

“I’m glad you came here,” Eli said, reaching out to squeeze my wrist. “I wanted to reach out so many times, but I figured it would only be worse for you if I tried.”

It would have been.

“I’m sorry I cried all over you.”

He waved his hand at that. “I figure you have a lot on your plate now, but one day, we should catch up. I’d like to be in touch.”

“I’d like that too,” I admitted, knowing that this only assuaged a small bit of my guilt, that maybe if I saw him more, if I saw him happy, saw him with his people, I would feel better about the whole situation, would maybe even start to see it as he did. Fate. A horrible thing that led to other things we never could have foreseen.

Maybe there was a reason for everything.

Maybe there was a grander design.

And maybe, possibly, the man I had thought I had condemned to an unfair fate could be the one to show that to me.

“Take care of her,” Eli added, looking over at Noah, his tone fierce.

“Ooh, he’s getting good at that,” Peyton said, smiling. “The protective big brother thing,” she clarified to our blank looks. “It was nice meeting you guys too. And, hey, when the honeymoon phase of nonstop fuckery wears off, stop back in. We cater to all kinks. We even have stuff for vanilla people,” she added with just the slightest bit of confusion in her tone, as though being vanilla in her cotton candy world was something that made no sense whatsoever.