Chapter Four

This was it.

Everything that he had accomplished. All his novels. His popularity. Everything that he had done in the past few years. It boiled down to this moment. An irate, abusive husband. Knocking on the door of his apartment, looking for the wife that had just cheated on him.

The wife that he was still in love with.

If there was anything that he could remember about last night, that was the one thing that both his head and his heart told him. The years apart had not dulled his feelings for Clare Edwards. His past thoughts of Clare being a cheater slowly evaporated. She was not happy with Jake Martin and didn't have the strength or the courage to leave him. She needed a hero. Like the one he had created off of her.

"Call the police." Eli ordered quietly. Clare's eyes widened and she opened her mouth like she was about to protest. "Now is not the time to question things, Clare." He said, grabbing a white button down shirt. "Here." He said, putting it on and holding her phone out. "Now go into the bedroom and hide until they arrive."

She stood rooted to the ground. Her bottom lip trembled and fresh tears spilled from her eyes down her bruise. She looked down at the phone and back up. "Eli..."

He forced a smile. "I love you, Clare. I did back then." He looked away as she began to sob. "And I still do now."

She finally moved, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his lips gently. "I love you too, Eli..."

She managed to get out of sight just as the door crashed open.

"Goldsworthy." A much older Jake Martin sneered. He walked past the threshold and over the fallen door. "Ya know. I knew you were crazy back in school. But I never took you for a man who would be stupid enough to have sex with a married woman."

Neither did I. Eli thought to himself as he took two steps forward. He needed to keep Jake away from Clare long enough for the police to arrive. "I'll make sure you buy me a new door."

"Where is the cheating slut?" Jake persisted, taking yet another step forward. "Come on out, Clare. I'm not going to hurt Eli here."

Eli cast a glace over his shoulder to make sure that Clare wasn't coming out. When she didn't show up, he looked back at Jake.

He didn't even see it coming.

Jake's fist connected with his lower jaw and sent him downwards. As he collapsed to the ground, he thought that he might have bitten his tongue. Or shattered a few teeth.

The blood that he tasted confirmed something was hurt.

When his vision cleared, he looked up. Doing his best not to let Jake see the blood. But Jake wasn't going to land anymore punches. He had reached behind him and had pulled the gun out from his jeans.

I'm going to die. Eli thought to himself. Jake had finally been snapped and he was going to kill him. He didn't want to think what he would do to Clare if he got his hands on her. She would surely wish she had died with him today. Jake was manic enough to do that.

"Come out, you little slut." Jake ordered, his voice complete ice. "Or I'll come in there myself."

"Okay, okay." Clare sobbed from the bedroom. "Just please... stop."

Eli was going to protest her exit. He knew that she was afraid for his safety. He should have explained that if he died protecting her, it would have been worth it. He was trying to protect her. She shouldn't jeopardize what he was trying to do.

Over time, the sound of Jake's stern voice had always brought Clare whimpering to him. Like a trained dog.

He felt his fists tighten just as a trembling Clare finally exited the bedroom. She kept her head lowered as she made her way into the living room. As soon as she saw Eli on the floor, she sprinted towards him.

That was a mistake.

She was met with an awful sounding backhand. There was a disgusting sounding crunch and Eli was pretty sure that he had just broken Clare's nose. She crumpled to the floor away from Jake and away from him. Eli got onto his knees as Jake whirled to him, holding the gun out in front of him.

"Move and she dies." He said, his voice a rasp. "Move and you die." His eyes narrowed. "Understand?"

Eli nodded. He couldn't find his voice. Or even if he could, he couldn't trust it not to break. So he watched as he turned his back on him and stood over Clare like an animal proud of the kill it had just made. Hungry for the dinner it had just caught.

This was it. He was only going to have a few valuable seconds before Jake would catch on and turn around and shoot him. Only a few seconds to see if he could knock the gun out of Jake's hand.

Only a few seconds to die a hero's death.

It was now or never.

He stood up and lunged at Jake...

Just as Jake spun around...

The last thing he heard before total blackness consumed him...

was the sound of a gun firing.