Taking Shots (Assassins) (46 page)

“
I was thinking I would have another beer or two.”

He shook his head, before bringing his lips to her ear, “I thought you wanted to go somewhere to be alone, I was thinking my bed.”

There was no way he was having sex with Elli when she was plastered, but if he had to say that to get her out of the bar, he would say it. She probably wouldn’t make it home awake.

A slow grin went across her face and she looked over at Harper, who was making out with the man that was apparently driving her bat shit crazy.

“
I’m leaving!”

Harper looked over at her, and glared, “No, no, no, no, you ain’t. You’re my ride!” she said moving her head from side to side. Shea raised an eyebrow as Jakob just chuckled.

“
Baby, I’ll drive you home,” Jakob said, “Shea, can I take your truck home? You can drive Elli’s home.”

“
Sure. Thanks,” he said digging out his keys and handing them to Jakob, “We’ll come and get it tomorrow.”

“
Sure, dude, thanks.”

Jakob put his arm around Harper and started to lead her out. Shea did the same to Elli, but they only made it halfway before Elli tripped. Shea caught her before she hit the ground as she started laughing uncontrollably. Shea basically had to carry her out of the bar. How did they think they were going to get home if he hadn’t of showed up?

When they got outside and the cold hit Elli, she let out a cry and basically climbed into Shea’s jacket as he tried to walk. It had gotten colder in Nashville since he left. Two weeks ago it was in the lower 50s, but now he was convinced it was only 20 degrees outside. When he reached the truck, Elli had her keys out and unlocked the doors. He helped her up into the jacked up truck, shutting the door before going around getting in himself. She had already started the truck and some country singer was singing about drinking.

What else was new in the country world?

They were either singing about being drunk, crying about their women leaving, or about their tractors. But Shea would admit, country boys wrote wicked mean love songs.

Elli sat cross leg, singing louder than necessary as he carefully backed her monster of a truck out of the parking spot she was in. How she drove this truck on a daily basis, he couldn’t fathom. The thing was huge!

“
Well, if I have one, I'll have thirteen, Naw, there ain't no in-between,” she sang before stopping, jumping up and down in the seat beside him, “Oh, my god! This is my theme song!”

Shea just shook his head as he laughed at his beautifully, drunken girlfriend, “It sure is, baby.”

Elli threw herself into him, causing him to swerve before breaking down in a fit of giggles. He couldn’t be mad at her, she was harmless, but he would monitor her drinking for now on.

“
Shea, I’ve missed you sooooo much,” she slurred against his neck, “So much.”

“
I’ve missed you, too, baby.”

She grinned up at him and he returned it before turning off Broadway, heading towards his condo. After a few minutes of silence she asked, “You know what?” as she turned the drinking song down.

“
What, baby?”

“
Sometimes I think I love you.”

He looked over at her and she was looking down at her hands, he could see that her eyes were filling with tears.

Aw shit, she was one of those drunks?

“
But every time I think I do, Justin comes along and he gets in my head telling me I’m no damn good and that I don’t know how to love a man. He was so mean to me, so mean,” she said as she shook her head. He didn’t know what to say so he didn’t say anything, but he did wish he would have at least gone over to the guy and push him into the wall. “You wouldn’t believe half the shit that asshole did to me, and I thought it was normal. I was so naive.”

“
You were young,” Shea stated, hating the guy more and more with each passing second.

“
I know, but I should have known better, especially when we had been dating for years, and he never told me he loved me. The day he chose to tell me he loved me was the day my grandparents died and I got my inherence.”

Shea looked over at her, “You’re kidding.”

“
No,” she said, taking a deep breath, “When we would have sex after I gained all my weight, he would put a blanket over me or turn off the lights, so he wouldn’t be able to see anything.”

Okay, that was just crazy. “Elli, why did you stay with him?”

“
Because he said he loved me,” she started to hiccup and he thought she was done talking, but she went on, “before when we were just dating, I didn’t care that he didn’t love me, but after my grandparents died and he said that, I said it back because I was so sad and I felt so alone. We moved in together in New York, and everything was fine, until I got fat. We had moved back home; and my family had turned on me, he turned on me, and shit was bad. I craved the ‘I love yous.’ They were slim to none, but I tried to do everything to make him happy, but nothing worked. At least once a month, I would come home from school and my shit would be outside the house that he owned. Harper would take me in and then three days later he would show up begging me to come home.”

The tears started to fall and Shea reached for her hand. She took it, using her other hand to wipe her face. “And I did.” Shea noticed she was starting to look green when he looked over at her, but she just went on, so he assumed she was fine.

“
Finally, I started to notice something wasn’t right. I was in school, something he said was a waste of time because when we got married I wouldn’t need to work since I would be taking care of the babies, which how we were gonna make those babies was beyond me since he never wanted to have sex with me, but whatever-” She stopped suddenly and Shea looked over. “Pull over,” he did as she asked, and she opened the door, puking her brains out. Her body shook violently as she threw up on the side of West End Ave. He ran his hand up and down her back, trying to move her hair out of the way as she expelled some of the beer and tequila she had consumed.

Shea had thought Grace was a talented drunk, nope, she had nothing on Elli. Right after she got done, she sat up, grabbed the bottle of water that sat in her consul, washed her mouth out and went on with her story.

He was amazed once more by her.

“
So anyways, we weren’t having sex, and he had made me go to one of them stupid dinners through his daddy’s firm, when I stepped into that place in my plus size dress without him because he went earlier then me, no one looked at me, that’s when I knew that I was nothing.” Shea sat listening to her, not moving the truck, he wanted to hear her. Plus, in case she needed to puke, he was already pulled over. “The night went on, when he would introduce me to the women of the firm; they couldn’t even look me in the eye. That’s when I knew he was cheating on me.”

Shea’s heart hurt for her and it seemed with every word that came out of her mouth, it made him want to kill Justin Yates more and more. When her face turned green again, he was glad he was already pulled over so she could continue to throw up on the side of the street again. She repeated the rinsing of the mouth routine and then went on like she hadn’t been throwing her guts up on the side of the road. “So that night,” she let out an empty laugh, “he actually had the gall to climb on top of me. I got so mad that I pushed him off me. Oh, Shea, he got so mad. Called me everything in the book, smacked me up against the wall, telling me I was nothing and that no one would love me. I don’t know what got into me, it must have been him hitting me, but I swung back and hit him as hard as I could. He fell to the ground and I threw my ring at him, telling him I did not love him and I was leaving. And I finally did and he never came after me.”

Shea wanted to beat the living hell out of Justin. No man lays a hand on a woman. It was disgusting and Shea couldn’t believe that he let that man stand beside the bar with that smug look on his face. Let him see him out in the streets, Shea would beat him to a pulp.

“
Why aren’t you driving?” Shea looked over at her, relaxing his hands from the steering wheel that he was squeezing so tightly his hands hurt.

“
Oh, I thought you needed to throw up some more,” he said pulling the truck back onto the road when it was clear.

“
No, I’m good. I’m tired now,” she said, before crossing her arms across her legs and laying down.

She was out before they even made it a mile. Her loud snores filled the truck and even though he was so pissed he could scream, he cracked a smile as he drove. Elli was the most beautiful, strongest, amazing woman he had ever met and he couldn’t love her more than he did at that moment.

When they got home, Shea carried Elli over his shoulder up the steps and into the condo as Adler bounced up and down around Shea’s legs.

“
Adler, bud, sit,” Shea said as he tried to move by him. Adler listened and Shea made it to the bedroom with Elli drooling down his back.

He just prayed she didn’t throw up.

Shea laid her down on the bed and proceeded to take her clothes off. He thought about throwing her in the shower since she had makeup on and smelt like a bar, but she couldn’t even stand, so he discarded that thought and continued to pull her shirt off. It took a lot more force than he thought it would to get her cowboy boots off, but he finally got them off before pulling her pants off. He shook his head at her drunkenness, as he pulled her up in the bed, tucking her into the bed.

He loved learning new things about Elli, but he could have went on without knowing that Justin Yates was a asshole with a death wish and that Elli was the worst drunk ever, but even with knowing those things about her, he still loved her, probably always would.

Shea undressed before going into the bathroom to wash up and take out his contacts. When he came back into the bedroom, Elli was laying face first in her pillow with the blankets kicked off her. He laughed as he shut off the lights and crawled into bed with her. He looked over at her and smiled. How was she breathing with her face in the pillow like that?

“
Baby, can you breathe?” She nodded and he laughed before saying, “Alright baby, goodnight,” he leaned over kissing her naked shoulder before saying, “I love you.”

When she didn’t say anything, like he knew she wouldn’t, he closed his eyes. But he opened them again when she said, “Good, because I need you.”

A grin cracked across his face and he closed his eyes.

She needed him.

That had to be one step closer to loving him.

Shea learned another thing about Elli the next morning, and that was that she was very angry when she was hung over.

When she sat up as he came out the bathroom, her hair was sticking straight up, her makeup smeared across her face, also all over her pillow, and drool was dripping from her chin. He still thought she was beautiful, though, even when she started cussing him out.

“
Why the hell is that window open! For the love of God, Shea! My fucking head is pounding and that damn sun is beaming on me! Ahhh!” she screamed and curled up in a ball, covering her body with the blankets. He couldn’t help but laugh as he walked over to the window, shutting the curtains. He came around the bed, looking down at the ball that was his Elli.

“
Better, sunshine?”

“
Fuck off!” she yelled, but not even a second later she threw the blankets back and looked up at him, “I didn’t mean that, I’m sorry.”

He smiled, leaning down to kiss her cheek, “Its fine, you’re an angry day after kind of chick. Grace is the same way.”

She tried to smile, but shot up, running to the bathroom. When he heard her puking, he went in there to see her hugging the toilet. He went up behind her, moving her hair back. He looked over at the counter and saw a hair tie, so he grabbed it and pulled her hair up in a messy ponytail on the top of her head. When she started crying, he sat down beside her, rubbing her back.

“
Oh, my god, what man does this?” she cried as she continued to puke. He smiled, running his hand up and down her back. When she stopped throwing up, he stood up to get her some water from the sink. She washed her mouth out, but went right back to throwing up. “Ugh, just leave me here to die, Shea.”

He laughed as he went to the bathtub, filling it up. “Maybe a bath would help?”

“
Maybe,” she said, lying down so that her face was on the cold tile. “I need to call Harper, what time is it? I have a nine o’clock appointment.”

“
I already called her; she’s fine, apparently. She going to go in with Alice.”

“
Thank you so much. Yeah, she always is, it makes me sick, cause I never am.”

“
I see that.” She opened her eyes, glaring at him but closed them quickly because he guessed it hurt. “Wanna jump in?”

“
I will not be jumping, but climbing might happen,” she said as she started crawling over towards the bath, he helped her take her bra off, then she slid out of her panties before falling into the water, splashing water onto the floor. He shook his head as he went to get towels to clean up as she apologized. After cleaning up, he made sure she was okay and left her to soak as he went into the bedroom to wash the bedding.

He had an amused grin on his face as he moved through the condo, picking up her mess. Yeah, she drove him crazy, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. After last night, he knew why she wouldn’t move in with him. It wasn’t because she didn’t care for him, but because that asshole didn’t treat her right.