Taking Shots (Assassins, #1)(111)

Shea smiled shaking his head, how could he think those things? His sweet Elli was crazy for him and only him. He could see it in her beautiful, sparkling with lust, green eyes.

He was jealous.

Something he had never been before.

His breath caught while she just grinned up at him totally oblivious to the fact that he was having an epiphany. He hadn’t even realized it had happen, he knew he loved her, but he didn’t realize that he was absolutely, completely, and entirely hers, and that she could break him.

She reached her finger up to his forehead, poking him hard between his eyes, “You’re thinking too hard,” she stated, “about what?” With every word her head nodded, and all he could do was laugh as she beamed up at him, drunkenly.

“Nothing, baby, you ready to head out?” he asked as he gathered her in his arms, kissing her cheeks.

“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 * 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.”