Wild Wind: A Chaos Novella (Chaos #6.6)(82)

Her phone stopped ringing.

“Do you agree?” she queried.

She needed Jagger to help her work through things.

And he was there to do that with her.

“I do,” he said. “It goes without saying, I’m about you. But he was not down with losing contact with you. He didn’t go about it right, but he was pretty messed up you weren’t available to him. And I don’t think that’s about him needing you to deal with his shit however that comes. I think he loves his sister. He might not show it, but he probably loves your dad. That scene with that phone call at your dad’s house was serious, and he was on the outside of that. His doing. But being shut out after he hurt you that bad clearly ate at him.”

“Yeah, it clearly did that,” she agreed.

“I hate that it’s your job, but outside is where he put himself, with you, your dad, Haley and the girls, and he needs someone to show him the way in.”

“Yeah,” she muttered.

“But if you decide to do that, you should do it only when you’re ready,” he added.

“Mm,” she hummed, looked to her phone, hit some buttons, and when he heard it ringing, she put her finger to her lips.

He grinned at her.

Apparently, she was ready.

“Thanks for returning my call,” was her brother’s greeting.

“Please don’t make me regret it,” Archie replied.

A beat then, “What I did last night was messed up. It was completely out of line.”

Even through the phone, it sounded like that was painful for him to say.

Which gave Jag more insight into Elijah because the pride was definitely strong with this one.

“It was,” Archie agreed.

“I’m sorry about that,” Elijah said tightly.

“Apology accepted.”

“I think…I need…to take some time…to take stock,” Elijah admitted like he was being tortured for those words.

“Mm-hmm,” was all Archie gave him.

Elijah came to his end.

“Jesus, I just miss her, Arch,” he spat.

“I do too, Eli,” she said gently. “So does Dad. You can’t think just because he has Haley that he doesn’t. He loved Mom. He’s just not one of those guys who can be alone. He likes company. He likes taking care of people. He’s loving and social. He’d be miserable if he spent his life all by himself, honoring their marriage when half of that marriage is no longer of this world.”

Elijah was quiet.

Archie kept going.

“You’ve hurt Haley. Also Hellen and Liane.”

“I—”

“You can’t deny it and you can’t excuse it. I’ve seen it,” she cut in quickly. “She’s great. Those girls are great. We can never have Mom back, but they aren’t chump change, Eli.”

“Like I said, I need to take stock,” Elijah reiterated.

“Right,” Archie said.

“And I can’t lose you while I’m doing it.”

There it was.

Archie locked eyes with him.

“Right,” she repeated, but this time it was softer.

“I don’t…all I can say is I’ll be working on it. All of it. Just…give me some patience,” Elijah not-quite asked.

“I’m going to point out you’ve already had a lot of that, Eli, but I’ll give you more because I love you, because you’re family and because that’s what Mom would want me to do.”

Utter quiet from Elijah after that.

Archie moved on.

“I’m not managing this building without your help, Eli. So you either pay me to manage it or you help.”

“You were right about all of that. I was just being a dick. No clue why.”

Jagger had a clue.

Like Mal, or anyone who felt lost to their pain, Elijah needed to be seen.

The thing was, in Elijah’s case, he’d been seen so much, Archie, and probably Andy too, had put up with his shit so long, he was addicted to it and he didn’t know how to operate any other way.

“Deduct what you need to deduct for me to pay you back and for you to do what you have to do to keep things good,” Elijah went on. “I can’t help right now, with school and work, I can’t add on. We’re preparing a brief at work and I’m working eighty-hour weeks and still have to hit class and study. I’m barely sleeping, and shit is intense.”

“You could have told me that, Eli.”

He sounded impatient when he replied, “I guess I’m not a great communicator, Archie.”

“Trust me, take stock on that too, brother,” she advised. “Not just for me, Dad, our family, but anyone in your life. You acting like an asshole to get your way is going to get old real fast with people who are not bound to you. You with me?”

“I’ll take stock.”

That sounded like it was gritted through his teeth.

Archie grinned at Jag.

And that was a little sister who liked to make her big brother squirm.

Jag smiled back.

“Though, your big takeaway from this is that I love you,” she said. “I’m done putting up with your shit, but I’ll never be done loving you. You dig?”

“Dig?”