FIGHT

Chapter 22

My heart drops and I feel like I've been punched forcefully in the gut by Thor. I can't control my breathing; my chest is constricting and my head is spinning. I start to feel dizzy, gripping the surface in front of me to keep myself from falling out of my chair.

This is not happening.

Luke assesses my internal conflict, most definitely sensing my disbelief of what he said. Though I know he's telling the truth, I wish he weren't. Elliot Samson is my brother. Elliot Samson is Elijah Stevens. How did I not see it before? Luke laid out everything in front of me; he only avoided the name.

"You should've known, sweetheart."

My eyes flit quickly to look at Luke for a split second before I avert them to study the bland color of the counter in front of me. I need to focus; I need to get my head to stop spinning. If Elijah's out, there are much bigger problems than the fight.

"Why is he using a fake name?"

I lock eyes with Luke, knowing he'll give me a straightforward answer. Now that I'm so distraught, he'll be willing to relent any information to me, no matter what. I'm not in any mindset to take the actions to alter his sentence.

"Because of you." I search his eyes for a lie, but I find nothing.

"Why?"

He shrugs, "Eli mentioned something about not wanting you to find him. When we were dating, he could check in on you from afar. Now that you're with Samuels and I'm here in hell, I guess he stopped caring. He knows we aren't together and never brings you up anymore."

Ouch.

I take a deep breath, thinking everything through. Elijah knows I'm not with Luke anymore. He knows Luke broke his promise of taking care of me. "Does he know why we aren't together?"

"Well, he knows why I'm in jail, so yeah, sweetheart. Thanks for that. I got a two hour lecture from him on that one."

Luke looks like he wants to continue talking, but I raise my hand up, signaling for him to stop. If Eli knows what happened, he knows about Holden. Right?

"What about Holden?"

"What about him?" Luke seems bored with the subject of Holden, preferring to dwell on my brother.

"What does Eli know about him?"

I raise up from my chair, pacing back and forth across a small space in the room. I can feel Luke's eyes on me, creating tension in the air as he procrastinates answering me.

"Eli doesn't know anything about your involvement with Samuels. I didn't tell him any of that. I thought it'd be fairly entertaining whenever you showed up at the match and watched your boy toy and brother beat the shit out of each other."

"You're sadistic."

My arms raise, pressing my hands against my forehead. The puzzle is coming together, but I feel like I'm forgetting something that will click everything together.

Holden's match.

"I saw Elijah at Holden's match. I thought it looked like him, but the guy ran so fast that I couldn't be completely sure. He bumped into me after Holden was declared the winner. At the time, I thought it couldn't be him, but that was only about a month ago, so he was out of jail by then. It was him, wasn't it?"

Luke only nods at me and I think that's going to be his only response before he begins talking. "I told him you were getting training from Josh and that you were attending the match. Eli thinks you went for Josh, not Samuels."