🥊 Hate or Fate 💕 {Enemies to Lovers}

.69.

"Isla," Gray's deep voice shook with the volatile emotions roiling behind his tortured gaze. "I wanted to tell you-"

"Holy shit!" Elijah burst into a sickening cackle. "Always the Boy Scout, huh, Gray? Well, Isla, now all the skeletons are coming out of the closet!"

"Shut your fucking mouth," Gray's dangerous growl even made Elijah flinch. "Don't do this!"

"Aww!" Elijah cocked his head and pursed his lips. "Still trying to protect her, huh? C'mon, someone was bound to mention Melanie and Lucas! Hell, her picture is all over our house, so Isla may-"

The name Melanie hit my memory like a tiny bomb, stirring up a past conversation with Elijah's mom in the debris of my scattered thoughts. I knew exactly who she was, and I knew that Lucas's adoption was private, but I'd never connected the dots back to Gray.

"You, prick! Keep your fucking mouth shut, Eli!" His hoarse whisper was a precursor to the fury Gray was about to unleash. His muscles quivered as I inched closer to feel the heat radiating off his sculpted body. "Shut you moth, while you still can! That's the last time I'm going to warn you!"

"Or you'll what?" Elijah's glazed expression morphed into a manic smile. "You'll have another breakdown? You'll go off on a bender and get arrested?! Again?! Does Isla even know about your little stint in rehab?"

"Baby! Baby please-" Elijah's date couldn't even muster the strength to complete her sentence.

I noticed a shrunken man with thinning blonde hair and tired eyes approaching us accompanied by a couple of huge men that looked like bouncers. 

"Is everything alright over here?" The man asked when they reached our table. 

"Yes, everything's fine. We were just about to leave," I told him. Then, I leveled my furious expression on my ex. "However, I have a temporary restraining order against this sloppy mess, and I'm going to need him to exit the premises first."

The gentleman's eyes bulged, and he tugged one of the bouncer's arms to whisper something in his ear.

"Isla," Elijah's wounded tone was slightly off-key. "Are you really that afraid of me?"

"I'm not afraid of you, Elijah," I snapped before Gray, or anyone else could answer for me. "I'm on my guard."

Elijah's face contorted into a mixture of contrition and defiance as if his inner thoughts were at war with his memories of that awful night.

"Because you hurt people, Elijah, and you do it on purpose." I continued hammering him with the truth he didn't want to hear. "Right now, you're harassing your best friend about the child he was forced to give up, on the anniversary of my dad's death, just to make us both as miserable as you are. That restraining order was filed because you need help, Elijah, not another fight."

Gray's fingers curled protectively around my middle, squeezing to remind me that he was there and he was ready to step in if Elijah lost his shit (again).

"C'mon, buddy, let's go," One of the bouncers squeaked in a voice that didn't seem to match his hulking frame.

Elijah flinched away from the hand about to clap down on his shoulder.

"We're going!" He shouted. 

Leaving his date to teeter awkwardly behind him, Elijah stomped off alongside the enormous bouncers.

"Can you give us fifteen minutes to settle our bill and make sure that man has left the premises?" I asked the smallish blonde man, who I assumed was the restaurant's manager.