Knight Casefiles Book 1: Revelations

Revelations [Chapter 32]

Chapter 32

“You know, I never did get to thank you,” I told Elaine as we made our way back to the van. Despite the never ending sleet that almost blinded us, I didn’t feel lost. The way we were walking, it just seemed right.

“I thought you just did,” Elaine said with a blush.

“Not for that. That was different,” I said. I didn’t have much intention of relaying everything that had happened in the clearing – at least not the cheesy, inner realization bits. We had to move quickly, and I had my manliness to keep. “I meant for trusting me back there, even though you had no business doing so.”

Elaine stopped walking and turned on her heel to face me. Without her stilettoes, she was more than a head shorter than me but it didn’t stop her from looking intimidating. “Chris, I’ve known you for over a year. You. Are. My. Boyfriend. I had every reason to trust you.”

“But I lied to you, I-“ My heartfelt self-pity was interrupted by her hand colliding with my cheek. “Ow!”

“There. We even?”

I rubbed at the sore spot on my face. “What the heck was that for?”

Elaine sighed and touched the hand I was using to soothe my cheek. “I hate being the dramatic one. I told you that the other night. And I know that you promised me that you would never lie to me and you pretty much shot that down.” I winced but she didn’t seem to notice. “But…after everything that happened tonight – I need you to trust me. That I’m not going to go femme fatale on you because you kept something like,” she grimaced, “all of this from me. Tell me, how do you think I fought like that?”

I recalled our encounters in the past few hours. The confident way she held the gun, her quick adaptation to each and every situation, her surprising stamina in the face of creatures that should’ve left her a whimpering pile of trauma. “A really, really thick skull?”

She laughed. “There’s that. And there are the times I went out on the field, accompanying the editors to locations that required being physically prepared. I’ve been to the more corrupt parts of South America, Chris. I’ve been to shoot-outs between the cops and the mafia. Hell, I’ve been to Iraq – of course, it was only a few hours when we went to pick up the real reporters,” she said with a scrunched up face. “Stories like that need a lot of staff. But only the writers, the big-shots, get the by-lines.”

“You…didn’t tell me about those.”

“Like I said,” she said with a smile. “We’re even.”

It’d been a long and tiring day. I’ve been beaten, battered, drained, double-crossed, thrown about, and tempted. But at the end of it, all I could really do was laugh. So I did. Heartily, so. And my girlfriend joined in, an echoing laugh only amplified by our surroundings. When we finally settled down, I smiled at her.

“I only wanted to protect you, Elaine. Those things back there.” I frowned. “You got lucky this time.”

She breathed, her nostrils flaring. “My heart tells me to kick you in the balls for that. But my brain is telling me that you’re right.” She hung her head and stared at her hands. “I’ve never been so scared in my life, Chris. Those things I gave Robert and his peers so much shit about. Being faced with them…I didn’t know what to do.”

I placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She didn’t even twitch. “You couldn’t have. I need you to understand that you won’t always be able to help me like that.”

Elaine looked at me deeply and muttered, “You know, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t mad at you. That, this doesn’t change anything between us. I want to tell you that, Chris. I really do but…I don’t know…”