RAW (8 page)

“Probably not long.”

“It’s the first place they’ll search for me. Literally.”

“And then they’ll know I’m gone, too.”

“If your parents or sister haven’t already called them.” He looked at her with eyes that were calmly accepting of the dire situation they were in.

Caelyn didn’t bother explaining to him that Deena wasn’t likely to be the one who tattled to the police. It didn’t matter. The cops would find out one way or another.

He was right.

“So how long are we stuck here?” she whispered. “Because I can hardly take an hour of this, let alone a week.”

“I don’t know.” Elijah stroked her hair. “But Trey’s good at finding out the local police gossip. If they’re looking for us, he’ll find out and then we can take it from there.”

“I don’t know,” she said, looking down. Tears were close to the surface. She looked back up at him.

His face was perfect, his eyes were so dark and loving and kind. He saw her completely and loved her completely—she knew that. “I wish I could be stronger for you,” she told him.

“You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met,” he said. “I’m in awe of you.”

She laughed through her tears. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Not to me it isn’t.” He cupped her face in his hands and then kissed her softly.

After the kiss, she felt a little better. “Thanks,” she said.

He chuckled. “You just had a freak out, that’s all.”

“Yeah. I guess.” She still couldn’t shake the awful sensation that they didn’t belong there.

“You guess?”

She looked at Elijah. “He was pretty touchy when you asked him how he made money.”

“Probably because he doesn’t make much of it.”

“But you asked for a reason, didn’t you?”

Elijah grinned. “You’re too smart for your own good, kid.”

“Tell me.”

He exhaled. “Well, you’re really not going to like him after I tell you this part.”

“Great. Just say it, don’t torture me. Did he used to work for the Taliban or something?”

“No, but he did used to deal.”

“He’s a drug dealer.” She couldn’t believe how insane Elijah was. She glared at him. “You brought me to a drug dealer’s house?”

“Calm down and lower your voice,” Elijah said. “He’s not dealing anymore.”

“How do you know?”

“Because, he left the game when he left Boston. That’s why he owes me. He made a bad deal and got caught holding a lot of product that he couldn’t move. The dudes he owed money to wanted to kill him, but I stepped in and vouched for him. They let him slide.”

“And so he had to leave town?”

“Yeah.” Elijah shook his head, looking far away, as if lost in the memory of it.

“My Dad ended up paying off Trey’s debt. So I owed dear old Dad for that, and I paid big time.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to bring up bad memories.”

“It’s fine. But the thing is,” Elijah said, meeting her gaze, “I’m pretty sure that Trey straightened out after that. Sure, he moved into the woods and he got a little bit weird living out here, but he’s kept a low profile ever since.”

“You’re sure?”

“I can’t be one hundred percent sure. But I’m as close to it as I can get, and we’re running low on options right about now.”

“Okay,” Caelyn said. “I’m done complaining.”

“Good. Because I think I should go back out and hang with Trey for a bit, meet Paris, be a friendly houseguest.”

“I’ll come with you,” Caelyn said.

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to.” She smiled. “I don’t want to miss a single moment I could spend with you.”

He smiled back. “Me either.”

***

They didn’t meet Paris until lunch.

Elijah, Caelyn and Trey were in the cramped kitchen, where Trey was making them grilled cheese sandwiches on the old fashioned stove, trying not to trip over the stack of boxes that leaned perilously close to the flames.

When Paris entered the kitchen, she was wearing a t-shirt that showed her midriff and shorts that looked like they would need to add a few inches to be considered Daisy Dukes.

The first person Paris saw when she came into the room was Elijah. Her half-open eyes widened. “I didn’t know we had company, Trey,” she said.

He turned to her, spatula in hand. “You’d have known if you weren’t passed out like a kid after prom.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t be mean, Trey.”

“I’m cooking. Want a sandwich?”

“Yes, please.” She rolled her eyes, then turned to Elijah. “I’m Paris,” she said, holding out her delicate little hand to him.

Caelyn felt a sudden flash of jealousy—something she hadn’t ever experienced with Elijah. And she wasn’t sure where it was coming from.

“Elijah,” he said. He didn’t seem particularly interested in Paris.

But Caelyn had to admit, the girl was the type that guys seemed to flock to at bars and clubs and parties. She had cute little breasts, and the nipples were visible through her revealing t-shirt. Her stomach was flat, and she had a small diamond stud in her belly button. Paris’s legs were thin and toned, and her face was angular but very pretty.

She seemed, quite frankly, out of Trey’s league by a long distance.

“Hi, I’m Caelyn,” Caelyn said, moving towards Paris and shaking hands too.

Paris smiled, but then turned quickly to Elijah again. “So, you’re the famous Elijah that Trey’s always telling stories about.” She batted her eyelashes at him.

“I hope he’s not telling too many,” Elijah said.

“He’s told me enough,” Paris said, smiling flirtatiously.

Caelyn was acutely aware of Elijah in his jeans and t-shirt, and just how incredibly sexy he looked, his biceps bulging, the curves of his chest and shoulders so apparent. And his light beard with slightly mussed hairdo only made him appear hotter and sexier, like a Calvin Klein ad.

“And what about you?” Caelyn asked Paris.

“What about me?” Paris said, hardly taking her eyes off Elijah.

“What kinds of stories would Trey tell us about you?” Caelyn asked, aware that she sounded a bit rude and condescending.

“Oh, I’d probably need a few drinks before we go there,” Paris said. “And so would you.”

“I bet.”

Elijah shot Caelyn a look that told her to calm down, but she was too annoyed.

She almost felt angry with him for being so attractive and magnetic. Couldn’t he have at least covered up his body a little better? Didn’t he know the affect he had on women?

Trey broke the tension when he brought over the plate of grilled cheese sandwiches stacked one atop the other and set them on the table.

There was only one plate, so everyone just grabbed a sandwich and ate, and the crumbs fell where they fell.

“Thanks, Trey,” Elijah said. “This is the best grilled cheese I ever had.”

“My secret’s lots of butter, white bread, and then only one slice of Swiss cheese,”

Trey said.

Paris sighed. “It’s a lot less impressive the hundredth time you’ve eaten it.”

“Maybe if you could make anything besides a bowl of cereal, we’d have a wider variety of meals around here,” Trey replied.

That quieted things down, and everyone just stood there in the claustrophobic kitchen and ate silently for a bit.

There was a buzzing sound that Caelyn didn’t even recognize for a moment.

Then she realized it was coming from her purse, which she hadn’t felt comfortable leaving out of her sight since arriving at Trey’s house.

Now she realized her cell phone was ringing. “Shit,” she said, reaching into her purse and pulling it out.

Everyone was staring at her, but Trey’s eyes were huge. “You still have your phone?” he said, his voice sounding strained.

“Yeah. I mean, I had it turned off for a while to save the battery—“

Suddenly, Trey reached out and snatched her cell phone from her hand and then threw it on the floor, where it smashed into dozens of pieces. Trey bent down and grabbed the biggest remaining pieces off the floor.

Elijah had jumped to his feet. “Hey, what the fuck’s your problem, man?”

Trey straightened up and glared at him. “What’s my problem? What’s your problem?” he said, showing Elijah the pieces. “You know every cell phone has a GPS in it, and the cops can see exactly where you are. They can tell everything, you don’t even need to make a call for them to trace your location.”

Elijah licked his lips. His jaw flexed as he stared directly back at Trey. “You didn’t need to grab the phone from her like that. Next time you want to touch Caelyn, you better count your fucking teeth first.”

“I didn’t touch her. I touched her phone. We might still be completely screwed,”

Trey said, turning away from Elijah. “Depends whether or not the cops have gotten as far as tracking her phone or not. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” He started out of the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” Paris said.

“I’m going to throw this shit in the wood stove.” He left the room.

Caelyn was shaking, and Elijah was just staring at the empty doorway.

“Sorry,” Paris said, her lips contorted into an apologetic grimace. “He gets pretty paranoid sometimes.”

“Great,” Elijah said. “Just great.”

***

After the cell phone incident, Elijah and Caelyn went back to their room. Trey had disappeared and Paris had told them she was going to have a bath.

The moment the door was closed, Caelyn turned to Elijah. “We have to go, right?”

Elijah ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, we do. But the problem is that we have almost no cash and there’s a good chance the police are looking for us.”

“You think Trey was telling the truth about the GPS in my cell phone?”

He nodded and rubbed his eyes. “Yeah. That was stupid of me not to think of it.”

“So the police could be on their way here now,” Caelyn said. “We have to go.”

“I don’t think they would have had a chance to try and locate your phone yet,” he said. “I mean, it’s possible but I doubt it. They’d have had to do a lot in a short amount of time.”

“We can’t take the chance.”

“Where are we going to go?” Elijah asked her.

She stood there, biting her fingernail, her mind a blank. “I don’t know. But you’ll think of something.”

“Caelyn,” Elijah said, looking serious. “I’m out of ideas. This place is my best idea.”

“Well, it wasn’t a very good one.”

“No, it wasn’t. But unless the police were trying to trace your phone within the last few hours, we’re fine here. We’re safe.”

“I don’t feel safe. And I don’t like either of them.”

“Keep your voice down.”

She shook her head. “This is crazy. What are we doing?”

“Listen to me,” he said, grabbing her shoulders and staring into her eyes. “If we can hang here for a few days, just a few days—“

“No, please—“

“Just a few days, until things blow over. Then I’ll see if Trey can lend me a hundred bucks or something, just enough so we can get to Maine or Vermont, maybe even Canada.”

“Ask him now, and we’ll leave right away and drive until we get there,” Caelyn said.

Elijah sighed. “How much is he going to want to help us after the way I just threatened to knock his teeth out?”

“How much is he going to want to have us stay a few days after you threatened to knock his teeth out?”

Elijah stared at her, his eyes searching. “Okay. I’ll tell him we’re leaving.”

Just then, there was a low knock on the door. “Hey, it’s Trey,” came the muffled voice.

“Come on in,” Elijah said, moving a step away from Caelyn.

The door opened and Trey came into the room, his head hanging, eyes downcast.

“Hey, man. I just wanted to say how sorry I am for the way I acted before. I never should have taken your girl’s phone like that. That was totally not cool.”

Elijah sighed. “It’s okay. And I didn’t mean the thing I said either.”

Trey looked up at him, a half-smile forming on his face. “I need some dental work, anyhow,” he said. “You could’ve saved me a few bucks if you just knocked them all out for me.”

Elijah laughed, shaking his head. “You’re nuts, you know?”

Trey stroked his beard, his gaze darting from Elijah to Caelyn and back again.

“Listen, I hope I haven’t totally offended you guys. I’m really happy to have you both here, and so is Paris. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I hope you’ll give me another chance, and stick around.”

Elijah scratched his jaw. “Yeah, the thing is—we were kind of thinking that with the GPS thing and all…we might have put you and Paris in danger. We were saying maybe it’s time to hit the road, just in case.”

“Seriously?” Trey asked, surprised. “You’re leaving already?”

“I don’t want you guys to get in trouble on my account,” Elijah told him.

“It’s okay. You know I’d take a bullet for you,” Trey told him.

“You don’t have to.”

“And what about money? Do you have enough to get where you need to go?”

This made Elijah pause. “Well, we are kind of short on cash at the moment. I was going to talk to you about that.”

“Please don’t go yet,” Trey said. “If you wait until tomorrow afternoon, I can get you like five hundred bucks, no problem.”

“We don’t need that much.”

“Just hang tight until tomorrow and I’ll set you up so you can actually make it somewhere. I’m just waiting for a payment from one of my customers and then I’m good to go.”

Elijah took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He glanced at Caelyn, but she didn’t feel comfortable saying anything with Trey watching her.

“Okay, we’ll stay until tomorrow. But then we really should go,” Elijah said.

“Yeah, of course, totally.” Trey grinned. “You thirsty? I got some home brew that is absolutely out of this world.”

Elijah laughed and nodded. “Maybe just one glass.”

Caelyn tried to smile.

“How about you, Caelyn? You like home brewed beer?”

“I can’t say I’ve ever tried it.”

“You haven’t lived until you’ve tried mine,” Trey said. “Come on.” And then he led them out of the bedroom.

Elijah and Trey were back to talking and laughing, and Caelyn had the sinking sensation that they were never going to get out of there.

***

Naturally, it turned out that Trey and Elijah wanted to have a lot more then just one glass of Trey’s home brewed beer.