Haunting Ellie (32 page)

Eric laughed, twisting halfway out of Jon’s grasp. Their height was nearly the same, but Jon out-weighed Eric by a good forty pounds of muscle, muscle he could very easily exert right now.

But Eric twisted again, doubled his fist, and connected with Jon’s chin.

Jon stumbled back a few feet, taken by surprise by Eric’s strength. The blow didn’t stop him, though, it merely fueled his rage. In a matter of seconds, Jon’s knuckles smashed into Eric’s jaw, knocking him into the table.

Beer bottles and plates crashed to the floor. Floyd rushed to get out of the fray; Matt shoved out of his chair and casually leaned against the wall to watch.

Eric regained his footing. Jon tightened his fist for another swing ... and the cafe door burst open.

“What’s going on in here?” Elizabeth yelled. She ran across the room, grabbing Eric’s arm just as Jack restrained Jon.

Tugging out of Jack’s grasp, Jon slowly rubbed his chin. “I’ve just had the pleasure of meeting your brother,” he said sarcastically, and suffered Elizabeth’s glaring frown.

“Who provoked the fight?” she asked, her eyes blazing.

“He
did,” Eric stated, jerking away from his sister.

“I didn’t like the company he was keeping,” Jon told her. He hated the anger in her eyes, the way she directed it right at him. But Eric’s companions weren’t the real reason for the fight... it stemmed mostly from Eric’s treatment of his sister. It didn’t appear to matter to Eric that she’d raised him, sent him to college, and catered to his every whim. Eric Fitzgerald was no damn good; but Jon couldn’t hurt Elizabeth by telling her so.

Elizabeth sank down in a chair and Jon watched tears well in the corners of her eyes as she looked from Eric to Jon and on to Libby and Jack. “Thanks for calling me, Lib,” she said.

“I’m sorry I had to, hon.” Libby grabbed her husband’s arm and drew him out of the room, as if she knew they’d done all they could for now.

“Floyd and I are going to my place,” Matt said, slapping Eric on the shoulder. “Join us when you get through here.”

“Shouldn’t take long,” Eric tossed back, then leaned down, grabbed an unbroken beer bottle from the floor, and drank the remains.

Elizabeth looked dazed by all that had happened, and Jon touched her shoulder, wanting to talk, needing to explain, but she shrugged away and didn’t look even once in his eyes. Instead she looked at her brother, who was lightly rubbing the knuckles of his right hand. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming to Sapphire?” she asked him.

“I’ve been busy.”

“With Matt and Floyd?”

“I told you a long time ago that Matt was my friend. We had some business to take care of and then I planned to stop by.” Eric put a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder and Jon could see her tense, but she didn’t push him away, not the way she had when he had touched her.

“Do you have any idea what those two friends of yours are like?”

“I’ve never questioned you about your friends,” Eric said, glaring at Jon. “I haven’t always approved of them, either.”

A tear fell down Elizabeth’s cheek, and Eric gently brushed it away, surprising Jon by his tenderness. “I haven’t meant to hurt you,” Eric whispered. “I had every intention of visiting you before going home.”

“I don’t even care about that anymore,” she said, grabbing his hand and holding it tightly. “Please, Eric. I don’t trust Matt or Floyd. Stay away from them—please.”

Eric grinned. “We have a partnership with Matt, remember?” All the love he’d shown a moment before had disappeared.

“I don’t have a partnership with him any longer,” Elizabeth said. “You’d be wise to forget all about your agreement
too. Besides, it isn’t anything legal or binding.”

“You might go back on your word, but I won’t.”

“Please, Eric,” she implored, but he only laughed.

“I’m not a seventeen-year-old kid anymore. You can’t tell me how to run my life.”

“No,” Elizabeth said, wiping away her tears.
“You’re twenty-six and I always hoped you’d become a little more responsible, but you haven’t. I’m not going to beg you. I’m just going to ask you one more time. Go back to the hotel with me. Forget about your friendship with Matt.”

Eric shook his head. “Sorry, sis. A deal’s a deal, and what I’ve got going with Matt is something I aim to follow through on.” He crossed the room, grabbed his coat
, and headed out the door.

Elizabeth rushed after him but stopped in the doorway. She didn’t move for the longest time. Then she slowly turned around and looked at Jon.

“Are you happy now? You wanted to know if he was involved with Matt. Well, I think you just got your answer.” She didn’t say anything more, just walked out of the cafe.

Rushing after her, Jon caught her arm and stopped her in the middle of the road. He tilted her face toward him. “I’m sorry you had to see what happened in there. I’m sorry about your brother.”

“But you’re not sorry you hit him, are you?”

“He had it coming.”

“So you settled it with your fists.” She twisted away. “Seems to be the way you handle all your problems. You’ve been close to hitting Matt every time I’ve seen you together.”

“I should have punched him last night for what he did to you. I should have hit him tonight, too.”

“I don’t think it has anything to do with me. I think it all goes back to the day you shot that deer. You can’t forget. You just want to get even.”

“You think that’s what all this is about?” Jon asked, taking hold of her shoulders and keeping
her from turning to walk away. “What about what he did to you?”

“I had things well under control.”

“Yeah, right. Would you really have stuck that glass into his neck? Could you have pushed it deep enough into his skin to make him stop? What if he’d grabbed you? What if he’d wrestled the glass out of your hand?”

“Stop it, Jon.”

“I won’t stop. Your brother just might get himself thrown in jail if he keeps on hanging around with Matt and Floyd. I was trying to talk some sense into him.”

“I don’t like Matt, I don’t like Floyd, and I don’t want Eric running around with them. But you don’t have proof they’re doing anything wrong, and neither does anyone else.”

“That could change at any time.”

Elizabeth looked away. “Eric’s never been in trouble before. He’s not the type.”

“I got a real good look at his character tonight.”

“That wasn’t my brother in that room,” she fired back. “I don’t know what’s going on, but Eric’s never acted like that before.”

“Maybe you just never saw this side of him. Maybe he’s always put on too good a show.”

She jerked away and Jon realized he’d said too much. “He’s my brother, but that doesn’t seem to make any difference to you.” She laughed. “Why would it, though? You’ve got a vendetta against your own cousin. I sometimes have the feeling you’re looking for a fight. You’re bigger than e
veryone else, and if you can’t intimidate them with your size, you use your fists.”

“Your brother deserved it.”

“Guilt by association, right?” she asked. “My brother doesn’t deserve to be on your enemy list any more than I did, but you’ve put him there. I guess that means you might as well put me back on that list, too.”

“I told you I was sorry. I told you I trusted you.”

“Yeah, so you did. But I had to prove I was innocent. What if you hadn’t seen me with that glass to Matt’s neck? Would I still be trying to make you believe in me?”

Jon shook his head. No amount of words would calm her, would make her understand that everything he’d done today was for her.

“If you’ll take your hands off me, Jon, I’d like to go home now.”

“Don’t go, Ellie,” he asked softly, but her eyes glared into his.

Slowly he released his grip, and without hesitating a moment, she walked up the hotel steps and through the door.

There was nothing more he could do now, nothing more he could say. But Jon swore as he watched that door close that he wasn’t about to let her walk out of his life for good.

Elizabeth rocked back and forth while Alex paced her bedroom floor. It had taken her ten minutes to stop crying and nearly half an hour of pacing along with Alex to calm her anger. The problem was she didn’t know who she was mad at—Jon, her brother, or herself.

Eric was irresponsible and his association with Matt just proved it even more. Jon had a temper, just like most artists she’d ever known. Being big and powerful on top of that made him all the more passionate. She leaned her head against the high-backed wooden chair and closed her eyes. Lord, but she loved his passion. There was nothing meek or timid about him and he stood up to her at every turn. Other men had never tried.

Thinking about him made her smile for the first time in an hour. She’d been so wrong to yell, to take her frustrations out on the man who’d attempted to tell her he was only trying to help. Knowing Jon, that’s what he was doing. Helping.

He’d helped her again and again. He sculpted and gave all the money to wildlife charities. He organized work crews to take care of things in
town, bounced children on his knees, and told them stories of long, long ago.

Jon Winchester was, by far, the best man she’d ever known, and she loved him with all her heart.

“You going to sit there all night mooning away over that big galoot or are you going to finish reading that diary?”

Alex was standing right in front of her when she opened her eyes. “I’m sorry, Alex. I forgot.” Libby’s phone call had interrupted her not even halfway through the revealing details of Phoebe’s diary. She’d run to the cafe, seen Jon smash her brother in the face, and exploded. Oh, she was still angry about the fight; she was still angry about her brother showing up in town without saying a word, and she was more than angry with herself for losing her temper.

But right now she had to finish that diary. She could deal with all the other problems when she was through. The most important thing at the moment was taking care of Alex.

She picked up the diary he’d set beside her chair and once again began to read.

oOo

Elizabeth turned over the last page and set Phoebe’s journal in her lap, folding her hands over the top. “Everything we need to prove your innocence and Lu
ke’s guilt is right inside here.”

“But will anyone believe it?” Alex asked. He’d been leaning over her shoulder, listening to every word she read, adding his own truths to Phoebe’s.

“She was a madwoman,” Alex stated. “She said
so herself. Why would anyone believe an ounce of that drivel?”

“Because it’s the only proof we’ve got.”

“It proves only that Luke killed me. It doesn’t say anything about me being the rightful owner of all the Dalton assets. That’s important.” He prowled the room for a moment, then knelt down before her. “Once you prove that Jedediah deeded everything to me, the Winchesters will lose everything. They’ll be out on the street with nothing, and I’ll have my revenge.”

“I don’t really think that
will happen, Alex. Not a hundred years after the fact. Not when too many generations of Winchesters have lived on Dalton property, invested the money, and built a completely different empire from the one that existed all those years ago.”

“It has to happen. They need to suffer.”

Elizabeth put her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her folded hands. “Is that what you really want? Do you think two men who had nothing at all to do with your death should suffer for the sins of their great-grandfather?”

“Of course I do!” Alex thundered. “You’d want it, too.”

She shook her head. “I don’t care all that much about what happens to Matt, but I care very much about Jon. I was under the impression you were starting to like him, too.”

“Liking him and getting out of here and back to Amanda are two different things. I swore I’d get rid of the Winchesters, and I will.”

“Will getting revenge take away your pain? You
don’t even know if getting revenge will get you out of here.”

Alexander’s shoulders drooped as if all the fight had been knocked out of him. He paced the floor again, back and forth, back and forth, and finally he stopped. “Take the diary to Jon. Read it to him, and tell him about me. Maybe he can help us.”