Chapter Fifteen

After a few minutes of tense silence had passed, Clare was starting to worry. Eli hadn't said a word after she had told him the truth. She had apologized for letting him believe that there was anything truly wrong, but he wouldn't have it. He simply continued to drive towards her place, following the speed limit this time. After a few more minutes passed, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Eli, please talk to me." She pleaded. She could already feel tears forming and didn't want to cry, but she would if he made her. She was extremely delicate right now, and he should know that. She finally risked looking over at him and instantly regretted it.

His features were tense; his eyes were shadowed. Her vision began to burn with unshed tears.

"You're going to have to be a spectacular actress." Eli murmured.

She perked up, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "What do you mean?"

"You're going to have to make the police believe that you've lost some things of great importance in the fire." He explained his voice still low. "That way, in case the person who started the fire is still there, he or she believes that you no longer have the evidence that will keep you free."

It was in that moment that Clare realized that Eli's mind worked in far different way than her own. He'd somehow managed to see this as some sort of poker game, and he was trying to bluff their opponents.

Whoever the hell their "opponents" were.

"I-I can do that." Clare assured him softly.

"I know you can." Eli said, the tenseness easing. "You just have to sell it to everyone else, including whomever started the fire." His eyes narrowed as he pulled over.

Clare blinked, surprised. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong." Eli said, staring ahead.

"What is it, then?" Clare asked nervously.

Eli continued to stare straight ahead, all but lost in thought now. Clare was already worried and this not talking to her was starting to bother her. They were in this together, as he'd said not too long ago. She gently reached out, cupping his cheek. "Elijah Goldsworthy, please tell me what's going through that head of yours."

The use of his full name finally seemed to snap him out of his trance. He turned to regard her, smiling ever so faintly. "How did you know to make a digital copy of the evidence?" He asked, referring to what she had told him.

Stop. I made a copy.

Clare smiled in return. "Jake worked with the police department, as you know. He told me, in the rare moments he wasn't hostile, what some of the procedures were. They copied evidence they found at crime scenes. At least what they could copy digitally."

"So that's where you got the idea from? Jake never suspected that you might have taken pictures of what he'd done?"

It was Clare's turn to turn away. Her eyes became shadowed, her expression darkening. "Oh, he suspected."

"Where's your phone?" The voice of Jake Martin from her memory snapped at her. "You didn't take any pictures, did you?"

"How did you manage to hide it right underneath his nose?" Eli asked, breaking her from reverie.

"I-I bribed him with the promise of sex." Clare whispered.

There was another silence, one that she couldn't take. She knew, could even feel, Eli judging her for bribing her own husband with sex in order to keep her safety. Just when she couldn't take it anymore, Eli peeled out of the spot he'd pulled over to.

"Whatever you do, don't give it away." Eli said as he abruptly turned the wheel onto her street. "Act like you've lost everything in the fire. Do you understand?"

The harshness, the severity of his voice caused her to flinch, but she whispered: "Yes."

He brought the car to an abrupt halt outside of the house, and as she saw the house she'd grown up in engulfed in flames, it wasn't hard to pretend to cry. She opened the door to the car, stepping out and her eyes grew wide as she the acrid, black smoke spewing into the air.

A police officer approached her cautiously. "Are you Clare Martin?"

Clare nodded, not in any mood to correct him that her husband was dead. She'd have to work on getting that changed when she finally had the time. If she finally had time time again. "Yes, I am."

"We're afraid that if you had anything in the house, it's beyond saving now." The officer reported. "I'm sorry."

Clare nodded again, allowing the actual tears to fall onto her cheeks. "Thank you. T-There's nothing that can be done?"

"The fire department is doing all that it can, ma'am."

Disappointed with that reply, Clare turned away and joined Eli amongst the spectators of the fire. "Do you think he or she was here?" Clare asked, wrapping her arm around Eli's waist.

"I don't know." Eli replied, continuing to scan the thinning number of people. There was a few people leaving, but he couldn't see if anyone had looked back.

"What are we going to do now?" Clare whispered.

"We'll go to my place." Eli said, wrapping his arm around her and walking away from the fire towards the car. He held the car door open for her, and a small smile thanked him. Eli closed the door, walking around the other side and getting into the driver's seat. He truly wished that there were some way he could take Clare away from all of this. Even for just a day. She didn't need all this stress and worry. It wasn't good for the baby.

"Are you in the mood for something to eat?" He asked, smiling as genuinely as he could as he turned the key.

"I'm actually starving." Clare replied with a giggle. "Could we get something to eat?"

As he put the car from neutral to drive, he chuckled. "Anything for you, Clare."