Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (5 page)

“Don’t worry,” Elijah
said, all traces of playfulness gone from his voice.
 
“I would never do anything to hurt
you.”
 
And then he reached his hand
out—it didn’t have far to go—and took her hand in his.
 
“But we can do this, right?”

An imperceptible
shiver ran through her as he touched her.
 
His hand felt strong and kind of soft.
 
Butterflies were suddenly dancing in her
belly, but she took a deep breath and let it out.
 
“That’s fine,” she told him.

“Good,” he said,
grinning.
 
“Because otherwise you’re
not leaving me with much.”

“Okay,” she
said.
 
“What now?”

“Now,” he said, “we
eat.”
 
He was still holding her
hand.

They went to Burger
King and grabbed a few breakfast sandwiches and coffee.
 
Caelyn was fully prepared to pay for
herself, but Elijah stopped her.
 
“No way,” he said.
 
“I got
it.
 
No way I’m letting my girl
pay.”
 

She almost said,
But I’m not your girl
.

Except she didn’t
want to ruin the fun they were having pretending that she was his girl.
 
Of course, she didn’t feel right letting
him pay.
 
She decided that she would
repay him once they were back in the car and resuming their “real” roles again.

What are our real roles, though? Are we
friends?
 
Acquaintances?
 
What?

Again, there was no
good answer to be had.

Elijah pulled out an
enormous billfold to pay for the meal.
 
He peeled a twenty off the top and handed it to the cashier.

Caelyn’s eyes widened
as she stared at the cash in his hand.
 
He glanced at her as he put his money back in his pocket again.
 
“Something wrong,
babe
?” he grinned.

“No.
 
It’s just—most people usually keep
that amount of money in the bank…or a safe,” she said.

“I’m not most
people.”

“I’m starting to
figure that out.”

They got their
breakfast on a tray, which Elijah picked up.
 
“Where do you want to sit?” he asked
her.

She gestured to a
small table near a window.
 
“How
about over there?”

They walked to the
table and then sat down together.
 
Caelyn suddenly realized she was ravenous.

She unwrapped a
greasy egg and bacon sandwich and started to eat, barely stopping to
breathe.
 
She looked up to find
Elijah watching her with an amused expression.

“When was the last
time you ate?” he asked.

She wiped her mouth
with a napkin and swallowed.
 
“I had
a few bites of pizza yesterday,” she said.
 
The thought made her lose her appetite, and she put the sandwich down,
pushing it away from her as if it were now infected by the memories.

The greasy pizza
sitting on the table.

Jayson laughing.

And then, the
screaming.

“Hey, hey—are
you okay?” Elijah said.
 
Now he was
somewhat alarmed.

She wasn’t sure how
long she’d been caught in the nightmare of what had happened to her.
 
It was almost as though she’d blanked
out—but now she was swimming back to awareness again.
 
Her entire body was tense, like a coil
of wire.

“I’m all right,” she
whispered.

“Come on, let’s take
this stuff to go,” he said, grabbing the food and putting it in a paper bag,
picking up the two cups of coffee.

Caelyn nodded, stood
up and the two of them walked out together.

***

About an hour later,
they were driving through New York City, and getting close to the bus station.

Neither of them had
talked quite as much after the rest stop.
 
Caelyn was still reeling from the experience she’d had when Elijah had
asked her that simple question about when she’d last eaten, which had elicited
those awful memories and emotions.

She wondered how long
it would be before she’d be able to think back on last night with anything less
than pure terror.
 
Maybe it would
take her the rest of her life.

Rather than talk,
Elijah had put the satellite radio on some kind of radio talk show.
 
The name of the show was Geeks and Gear
or something like that.
 
It was a
couple of guys talking about computers and other techie stuff.
 
She was surprised that Elijah listened
to stuff like that—he seemed more like the kind of guy who would listen
to sports radio or angry rap music.

Regardless, she found
the voices on the show soothing, and even though she didn’t care what they were
talking about, it was sort of nice to just sit and not really focus on
anything.

Elijah was content to
do the same for a long while.
 
She
appreciated that he seemed to understand and respect when she was too
overwhelmed to have much interaction.

But finally, he did
talk again.
 
“We’re hitting
Chinatown,” he said, pointing ahead at the street.
 
The signs on the buildings were mostly
in Chinese now, and of course many of the people were also of Chinese
descent.
 

“Is that where the
station is?” she asked.

He nodded.
 
“They have the best, cheapest fares
around here,” he told her.

“Oh.”
 
She looked out the window and watched as
they drove through the city streets.
 
A feeling of loss was starting to creep up on her now.
 
She realized that Elijah and this SUV
had become a safe haven for her over the last few hours.
 
Somehow, she’d started to really trust
him.

It didn’t make sense.

Nothing made sense
anymore.

The minutes passed by
a bit too quickly for Caelyn’s tastes.
 
She suddenly wanted to hold onto her time with Elijah, to slow it down,
make it last somehow.
 
But before
she knew it, he was pulling into a small parking lot and stopping, his face
grim.

“Here we are,” he
said softly.

She looked at him and
smiled.
 
“Here we are.”
 

“We can sit for a few
minutes if you want.
 
The bus won’t
be leaving for a little bit still.”

“No, I don’t want to
keep you,” she said, trying to smile.
 
“You’ve already gone way above and beyond for me, Elijah.
 
I appreciate it.”

“I wanted to,” he
said, his eyes locking on hers.

She wanted to say
something then.
 
She wanted to say
that they should keep in touch, exchange numbers, anything.
 
But she couldn’t seem to find the words.
 
Her throat locked up.
 
“Thanks again,” she managed, and then
opened her door and got out, making sure he didn’t see the wetness in her eyes.

Caelyn walked towards
the door of the station, bag and purse in hand.
 
She told herself not to look back and
was able to stick to her decision.

Once inside, she went
to the window and said she wanted a one-way ticket to Orlando, Florida.

The ticket came to
just over ninety dollars with tax.
 
It was about a third of her money—gone in one shot.

The teller pointed to
a bus sitting out front, parked on the street, and told her that she could
board it now.

Caelyn walked to the
bus outside and showed her ticket to the driver, who was standing beside the
bus.
 
“Go ahead,” he said, not
smiling.
 
His eyes were dull, his
mustache gray and wilted.

As she went up the
steps to get on the bus, she looked quickly over her shoulder at the parking
lot and didn’t see Elijah’s SUV.
 
He
was gone.

The bus was less than
half empty, and Caelyn took a seat near the back, sitting by the window.
 
She stuffed her travel bag under the
seat and put her purse on her lap.
 
The seats weren’t exactly roomie and comfortable, but at least she’d be
safe for the rest of the trip.

She wanted to think
about Florida and be happy.
 
Freedom
was just a hop, skip and a jump away now.
 
One very long car ride away, was the place that she’d been dreaming
of—somewhere where she could start over.
 
There would be sun and beaches, and new
starts.

But right at that
very second, it felt like an empty promise.

She was thinking only
of Elijah—his dark eyes, his wicked smile, the feel of his hand covering
her hand, the way he’d called her babe in that sarcastic manner when she’d
given him a hard time about carrying so much cash with him.

She hadn’t wanted
Elijah to go like that—she hadn’t wanted him to leave without so much as a
phone number, an address.
 
She’d
felt like they’d somehow formed a connection in a very short time, and now that
connection could never become what it was meant to be.

And what was it meant to be, Caelyn?
She asked
herself.
 
Do you really think that a guy who uses a fake name with the police,
carries hundreds and hundreds of dollars in cash around in his back pocket, and
admits to running away from something bad—do you really think there’s a
future with a person like that?

But despite all of
her logic, she felt the loss of him acutely and painfully.

In some ways, losing
him so soon was worse than what had happened to her last night.

Now that’s just
stupid, she told herself.

Maybe it was.
 
But it was how she felt.
 

A few minutes later,
the driver got on board and sat down, starting the engine.
 
She heard the hydraulics hiss and the
engine roared dully as they got ready to move.

At the last moment,
the driver stopped.
 
He opened the
doors to the bus and yelled out at someone.
 
“Yeah, what is it?
 
You got a ticket?”

There was the sound
of footsteps and then Elijah climbed aboard the bus, looking around for
something—someone.
 
His gaze
landed on her.

“Caelyn,” he said
loudly, without a hint of embarrassment.

She swallowed.
 
Her whole body was warm, and strangely
tingly.
 
Maybe she was
dreaming.
 
Maybe she was going to
pass out.
 
“Elijah, what are you
doing?”

He beckoned to her,
waving her towards him.
 
“Come on,”
he said.
 
“Let’s get out of here.”

“I can’t, I’m going
to Florida—remember?”

“Let me take you,” he
said.

She felt like she’d
been blasted by a hurricane.
 
The
force of what he was saying nearly turned her legs to jelly.
 
Florida with Elijah?
 

Her mind was
racing.
 

The driver turned
towards her.
 
“Excuse me, lady.
 
We need to go, I have a schedule to keep.”

“I know, I’m
just— ”
 
she stumbled over her
words.
 
“I’m just—”

“If a man who looked
like that asked me to go to Florida with him, I wouldn’t waste a damn second,”
an older black woman said from across the aisle.

Caelyn grinned.
 
“Screw it,” she said.
 
She grabbed her travel bag, shouldered
her purse and got up.

Elijah was laughing
now and so was she.

“I guess I’m as crazy
as you,” she told him, as they left the bus together.

“That’s why we need
to make this trip together,” he said.
 
“Now let’s go get you a refund on that ticket.”

Caelyn followed
Elijah off the bus and towards the station.
 
The bus promptly pulled away, and when
she looked at the windows, she noticed that all of the people seemed to be
staring at her as they left.

Well, she thought, who
could really blame them after that scene?

As embarrassing as it
was, she was feeling happy.
 
She was
relieved that Elijah had come back for her.
 
That meant he had felt it too—the
connection between them.
 
It meant
something to him as well.