Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (25 page)

The car slowly crept forward a few feet,
but it wasn’t going very fast.
 
As
the headlights dimmed from her vision, Caelyn suddenly realized whose car it
was.

“Oh, shit,” she said under her breath.

Elijah looked at her.
 
“What?
 
What is it?”

“My parents,” she said.
 
Her stomach clenched with dread.

The car stopped again and the door
opened.
 
Her father got out first,
and it was clear he’d gotten dressed hastily.
 
He was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt,
and his hair was a mess.
 
He
squinted warily at Elijah.
 
“Kindly
step away from my daughter,” he said loudly, his voice gravelly with tension.

Elijah glanced at Caelyn, then put his
hands up and took a few steps back.
 
“Hey, I’m not here to cause trouble, Sir.
 
I’m just—“

“You’re just what?” he said, and Caelyn
put her hands over her mouth.
 
She’d
never seen her father like this.
 
He
was completely furious.

“I just came here as Caelyn’s friend,”
Elijah said.

“You’re her new friend?”
 
Her father laughed bitterly.
 
“That’s wonderful.
 
Sure, I’m relieved.”

“You should be relieved,” Elijah
retorted.
 
“I’m looking out for
her.”

“I’m not interested in anything you have
to say,” her dad replied, then looked at Caelyn.
 
“Caelyn, come on.”
 
He motioned her toward the car.

“Dad, it’s okay.
 
Elijah’s my friend, and he’s perfectly
nice.
 
Nothing bad is happening,”
she said, trying desperately not to let the whole thing get worse than it already
was.
 
“Just go back home, I’ll be in
in a few minutes.”

Her father shook his head.
 
“No.”
 
His voice rose.
 
“No.
 
No.”
 
He shook his head again.
 
“Do you know how worried we are?
 
Do you know what your behavior is doing
to your mother?
 
Do you stop to
think for a minute about anybody but yourself?”

He was practically screaming now.

Elijah stepped between them.
 
“Now just calm down,” he said.
 
“This is getting way too intense.
 
Caelyn didn’t do anything wrong.
 
We were only talking.”

Her father glared at Elijah.
 
“I don’t know who you think you’re
talking to,” he said.
 
“But I’m not
getting way too intense.
 
I’m this
young girl’s father.
 
That means if
I decide that she needs to come home then she needs to come home.
 
I’m not leaving her to stand out on a
dark street with some punk—“

“Dad, please,” Caelyn said.

Elijah laughed and turned his back on her
father, shaking his head.
 
“Forget
it, I can’t talk to this guy.”

“Elijah, don’t listen to him,” she
said.
 
“He’s only upset and
worried.”

“No, Elijah, do please listen to me,” her
father said.
 
“You best get in your
damn truck parked in front of the house I own, and drive back to wherever the
hell you came from.”

“Dad, what are you doing?” Caelyn
cried.
 
“Stop it!”

Now Caelyn’s mother got out of the
car.
 
She was wearing a robe and she
yanked it tightly around herself.
 
Her hair was pulled back and she looked completely spent.
 
“Get in the car, right now,” she said.
 

“No,” Caelyn replied.
 
“I’m an adult.”

“Then start acting like one.
 
Adults don’t run away to Florida.
 
Adults don’t steal cars and sneak out of
the house at night to go necking with some strange boy in the middle of the
neighborhood!”

Caelyn almost laughed at the term
“necking,” but she held back.

Elijah shook his head again, the smirk
obvious on his face.

Caelyn’s mother turned to him.
 
“You think this is funny?”

He glanced at her.
 
“No, ma’am,” he replied, but his tone
wasn’t all that respectful.

“It’s not funny.
 
This is our daughter.
 
And she has a boyfriend, you know.”

Elijah’s smirk disappeared.
 
He looked at Caelyn.
 
“What?
 
Boyfriend?”

“That’s right.
 
I don’t know what she’s told you, but
she’s seeing a wonderful young man at her college.
 
I wonder what Jayson would think if he
knew what you were doing behind his back, Caelyn.”

 
Caelyn hung her head.
 
“Mom, you don’t know what the hell you’re
talking about.”

Elijah folded his arms.
 
“Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m pretty sure
Caelyn isn’t seeing Jayson anymore.”

Her mother’s face was stark white, her
pupils as big as coals in her eyes.
 
“Is he telling the truth?
 
Did you lie to me about Jayson?”

“Mom, why do you care so much about
Jayson?” Caelyn yelled.

Her mother drew back.
 
She looked around nervously.
 
“Lower your voice.
 
The neighbors—“

“Oh, fuck the neighbors!” Caelyn
yelled.
 
“The only reason you think
Jayson is so great is because you know he has a rich, powerful family and he
goes to Cambridge,” Caelyn continued, barely getting the words out, she was so
enraged.

“That’s not true,” her mother said.

“It is true.
 
You assumed he was good and so did I, but
he wasn’t good.
 
He’s fucking
evil!
 
He’s disgusting, and Elijah
is nice and kind and you assume the worst because of the way he dresses and the
car he drives—“

“Why is Jayson evil?
 
What are you talking about?” her dad
said.

She turned to Elijah and buried her face
against his chest, sobbing.
 
She was
so angry and hurt and sickened by everything.
 
She felt his strong, powerful arms
encircling her, holding her.

“What is she going on about?” her mother
said, and her voice was choked with disbelief.

“Listen,” Elijah said, still holding
Caelyn.
 
“Your daughter’s been
through a lot, and I guess she hasn’t told you about it yet.”

“And she told you?”

“Yeah, she did.”

“That’s absurd,” Caelyn’s mother
replied.
 
“Please let go of her
now.”

“Maybe she should’ve told you what that
great guy Jason did to her,” Elijah spat.
 
“Maybe you all would have been a lot nicer to her.
 
Then again, maybe not.”

“What did he do?
 
Is anyone going to answer us?”

“It’s not my place,” Elijah said.

Caelyn spun around, looking at her parents.
 
“Jayson raped me.
 
Okay?
 
Now do you get it?”

Her mother’s face grew even paler, if
that was possible.
 
She
stuttered.
 
“That makes no
sense.
 
Why didn’t you say anything?
 
Why did you pretend everything was fine
between you two?”

“Because, I didn’t want to deal with
you.
 
I didn’t think I could trust
you.”

“Well I can’t say I feel differently
about you,” her mother replied.
 
“So
far, all you’ve done is lie to us.
 
How do I know this isn’t yet another lie?”

Caelyn was about to respond, but Elijah stepped
out in front of her.
 
“Excuse me,
but what you said just now was an absolute crock of shit.”

Suddenly, Caelyn’s father let out a
strangled yell and attacked Elijah, throwing punches with both arms.
 
Elijah moved easily out of the way of
her dad’s clumsy attempts to hit him, ducking and weaving.
 
Her father tried to grab hold of him and
Elijah deftly moved aside again, which caused her father to fall forward onto
his knees.

Just then, the front door to a nearby
house opened wide and a voice yelled out at them.
 
“I’m going to call the police if you
don’t stop whatever it is you’re doing out there!”

Caelyn’s mother was helping her father to
his feet.

Elijah put his hands up once more.
 
“That’s enough for me.
 
I’m going.”
 
He started walking away.
 
“I’ll call you, Caelyn,” he told her.

“No you won’t,” her mother screeched at
him.
 
“Do not call her ever
again!
 
We won’t let her speak to
you!
 
You’re a vicious, nasty punk!”

“Mom, stop it,” Caelyn said, for what
felt like the millionth time.

“I will not stop it.”

Elijah was getting further and further
away now, presumably heading back to his truck.
 
She hated to see him go.
 
It was like a knife in her heart.
 
He’d once again tried to stand up for
her, only to be cut down for his attempt.

Caelyn’s dad was brushing off his
pants.
 
“God damned punk.”

“That boy is bad news,” her mother
said.
 
“What a piece of work.”

Caelyn stared off into the distance as
Elijah faded into the blackness of the night.
 
She was empty inside.

“Get in the car, Caelyn.
 
Now,” her mother said, pointing.

Caelyn felt beaten down.
 
She had no energy left to expend on
fighting.
 
Slowly, she walked back
to their car, even though their house was only a minute or two walk away.
 
She would get inside the car, be driven
home, and then they would say whatever they wanted to her.

She wouldn’t fight.
 
She was sick of fighting, sick of
losing.

Caelyn’s parents got in front, and then
she opened the back door.
 
She was
about to get inside, when a pair of headlights came around the bend in the
road.
 
Caelyn stood there and
watched the headlights as the car approached.
 

It was Elijah’s pickup truck.
 
Part of her was intending to just stand
there and watch him go.
 
But another
part of her had other ideas.

Suddenly, without even thinking about it,
she sprang away from her parents’ car and waved at him.
  

He slowed and then brought the car to a
quick halt, his window rolling down as she came over to him.

“Wait a second, Elijah,” she said,
breathless.

He smiled softly at her.
 
“I couldn’t stick around because I can’t
risk getting arrested again,” he told her.
 
“But I’ll call you.”

“No,” she said.
 
“You won’t call me.”

His eyebrows rose.
 
“Why not?”

“Because,” she said, “I’m coming with
you.”

The look on his face was almost
comical.
 
“I’m not sure you know
what you’re getting into.”

“I don’t care,” she replied.
 
“I only know what I want.”
 
And then she was running around to the
passenger side door and getting in.

“You sure?” he asked, that slight grin
returning to his face once more.

“One hundred percent.”

“Okay,” he sighed, giving her a sidelong
glance as she slid into the seat beside him and closed her door.
 
“I guess this is really happening.”

“Scared?” she asked him.

He laughed and then shifted into gear and
hit the gas.
 
The pickup burned
rubber as they sped away from her parents.

“I don’t get scared,” he told her.
 
“Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

THE END OF BOOK 2 OF
NAKED

Book 3 of Naked is available now!
 
Continue reading the Naked series by
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