Completely Consumed (Addicted To You, Book Eight) Read online

  He bent down and picked up the pillow and blanket, tossed them on the bed.

  “Guess I’m going to hit the road.”

  Her stomach dropped. “Where to?”

  “Don’t know just yet.”

  “Boston?”

  He glanced at her. “Maybe.”

  “I thought you said you needed to get away from…bad influences.”

  “Maybe I did. Maybe I’m going back anyway.” His eyes met her as if challenging her to say something to sway him.

  She wanted to tell him that he should stay, that she wanted to see him again. But she got afraid once more. The truth was, he didn’t want to stay and she couldn’t bear to hear him say it to her face.

  So she just smiled again. “Will I see you when I get out of the shower or are you just going to—“

  “Nah, I should get an early start,” he said, cutting her off. “You take care, though.”

  She felt tears spring to her eyes and turned away, moving toward the bathroom.

  “Have a nice trip, Elijah,” she muttered, as she closed the bathroom door and heard him readying his things.

  She didn’t shower for long—maybe five or ten minutes. And then she got out of the bathroom fast, hoping to catch him before he left. But he must have been more intent to get out of there without seeing her.

  She stepped out of the bathroom and found the room key sitting alone on the table with a handwritten note next to it.

  I paid for an extra night in case that other room doesn’t work out.

  -Elijah.

  She sat on the chair and read it, feeling the ink on her fingertips. Tears were rolling down her face. She wished she could have at least gotten his phone number or something.

  Now she knew she’d never see him again.

  ***

  Something strange happened when she got into work.

  The waitress who had introduced her to Kenzie was working behind the bar, setting out freshly dried glasses. When she saw Caelyn walk into the restaurant, she grinned widely. “Hey, you.”

  “Hey,” Caelyn said.

  “Ready for your first day?”

  “As ready as I can be. A little nervous.” And sad, she thought, but saw no reason to mention that.

  “Your name’s Caelyn, right?”

  “Yeah. What’s your name again?”

  “Rosemary, but everyone just calls me Ro.” Ro smiled again as she set another glass on the bar. “Well, Caelyn you must be popular, because someone already called for you.”

  “Really?” Caelyn frowned. “Who?”

  Ro shook her head. “I don’t know. He didn’t say. He just asked if you were waitressing here today, and I said I thought so. I told him you weren’t in yet and asked if he wanted to leave a message. He said no thanks and hung up.”

  “Weird.” Caelyn felt an odd thrill run through her body.

  It had to have been Elijah looking for her. Maybe he wanted to apologize for the way he’d left things. Perhaps this meant that she was going to speak to him again after all.

  The thought picked her mood up and she was able to start her day of training with renewed enthusiasm.

  Before Kenzie arrived, Ro showed her some of the ropes—showed her the schedule and gave her a quick tour of the restaurant. They only had a skeleton crew on until about noon, when more of the staff began arriving.

  But everyone was incredibly friendly and made her feel welcomed. Once Kenzie and the rest of the staff showed up, everything kicked into overdrive. Customers were beginning to appear and be seated, food was being prepared, a few folks sat down at the bar.

  Caelyn’s duties were mainly to follow Ro around and help her as she watched her do her job, learned the menu and the procedures of the restaurant. Even though she wasn’t waitressing, it was still hectic, as she was running food to tables, getting drink orders, and dealing with customers the whole time.

  She was breaking a sweat, but basically enjoying herself.

  It was a lot different than sitting in class all day, but she wasn’t sure it was a bad thing.

  The hard part was when she occasionally allowed herself to envision what it would be like at night, going back to a room with nobody waiting for her.

  And it wasn’t even that she missed her roommates in the dorms.

  She missed him.

  Elijah.

  He’d left so suddenly, and she was still hung up on wondering why.

  It wasn’t until the evening, just a few hours before her shift ended, that everything turned completely upside down.

  Up until then, she’d been doing her job, hustling, learning everything as fast as possible. Ro seemed happy with her, and Kenzie was happy if Ro was happy.

  At around eight o’clock, Caelyn took a break. She grabbed a Diet Coke and stood out back with some of the other servers and kitchen staff, most of whom smoked. They all talked while smoking, and she drank her soda.

  Then she went inside, dumped her drink at the bar, and went to the bathroom.

  The woman’s bathroom was towards the back of the restaurant, and there was a long hallway leading up to it, that hooked around a corner.

  Caelyn was coming out of the bathroom when someone familiar rounded the corner. It took her a moment to place who it was, because she had no way of imagining that this person could show up there.

  When she saw him, it was as if her entire mind just shut down.

  She almost seemed to go deaf, and her vision narrowed. She stumbled a little.

  He smiled at her. “I’ve been looking for you,” he said.

  She tried to swallow but it was like there was a boulder in her throat. “What are you doing here?” she asked, but it barely came out of her mouth.

  Jayson smiled wider. “I came to find you, babe.” He reached out to touch her and she stepped backwards.

  “How did you know where I was?”

  “Lucky for you, your friends really care about you. Alicia told me you got a waitressing job out here, and it didn’t exactly take a genius to track you down.”

  “Why would you track me down? Obviously I left for a reason.”

  He cocked his head as if it had never occurred to him that she was trying to get away from him specifically. “Because I couldn’t figure out why you just stopped responding to me. I thought we were together. I thought there was really something between us.”

  She looked around, but the hallway was empty. She thought about screaming, but didn’t know what she’d say if people came running to help.

  Say that he raped you.

  No, she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t open that can of worms. She’d run to Florida to avoid this very moment, and here it was, happening anyway.

  “I need to get back to work,” she said, trying to walk by him.

  Jayson blocked her path. He was a very large guy. He wasn’t as cut and muscular as Elijah, but he was bulkier and taller. And he was much, much stronger than her—she knew that already. “Come on, I flew all the way out here to see you. Doesn’t that get me some brownie points?” he chuckled.

  “I can’t do this right now.”

  His smile disappeared and he reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Listen,” he told her, his voice dropping to a lower register. “I want you to come home with me.” His hand tightened. “I like you. And I want you in Boston with me.”

  “I don’t want to go anywhere with you,” she said, finally meeting his gaze.

  But his eyes were the same as the other night—there was nothing in them but coldness and blackness. “I get what I want,” he said. “I think you saw that firsthand, didn’t you?”

  “Fuck off.”

  His hand tightened, and now her wrist hurt. There was a searing pain. “Listen, I can make things worse than you could ever imagine if you try and mess with me,” he told her. “Don’t go down this road, baby. I’m warning you.”

  “Caelyn?”

  The voice that called out was from behind them. Jayson turned around and looked at the person. �
�Who are you?” Jayson said.

  And that’s when Caelyn saw who had spoken. Relief flooded her instantly.

  Elijah was standing there, as if he’d somehow known that she needed him right at this moment, as if he’d heard her and come running. His expression was strangely calm.

  “I’m a friend of Caelyn’s,” he said simply. “Who are you?”

  “Oh, that’s funny—you’re her friend. Well, she’s my girlfriend.”

  “You must be Jayson,” Elijah smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” He walked towards them casually.

  “Good things, I hope?” Jayson turned and looked at her with his dead eyes.

  Suddenly, Elijah sprang forward. Within fractions of a second, he’d grabbed Jayson by his shirt and thrown him into the wall. Jayson’s head collided with a vicious thud, and as he came bouncing off, Elijah hit him in the belly with a hard punch, doubling him over.

  Caelyn let out a startled yell.

  Elijah was like a man possessed. He smashed Jayson in the face with a series of uppercuts and then, when Jayson fell to the floor, he jumped on top of him and started punching him over and over again.

  There was blood everywhere. So much blood, Caelyn had never seen anything like it. She tried to drag Elijah off.

  A group of people had formed in the hallway, but they were too frightened of the violence to step in.

  “Stop,” Caelyn cried. “That’s enough. Please, Elijah.”

  Finally, Elijah got up. Then he looked at her. “I’ll never let anybody hurt you again. I told you that,” he said.

  She nodded, unable to even speak after what had just happened.

  Moments later, two policemen were pushing through the crowd. One of them immediately grabbed Elijah while the other knelt down to check Jayson, who was moaning and kicking his legs slowly, trying to get up.

  “Stay down, we need to check you over,” the cop said.

  Elijah was being arrested.

  “Put your hands behind your back, son,” the cop told him. Elijah complied obediently. He looked at Caelyn and sort of shrugged, as if to say, what can you do?

  The cop on the ground grabbed the radio off his lapel. “We need an ambulance at Mean Margaritas. Repeat, we need an ambulance as soon as possible, over.”

  Caelyn stumbled out of the way, as they led Elijah out of the restaurant in handcuffs.

  ***

  Hours later, she was sitting in the police station. She’d already given a verbal report to three or four different officers. She’d had to tell them the truth—that she’d been raped by Jayson and that Elijah knew about it.

  She explained that Elijah had been defending her, thinking she was in danger when he saw Jayson cornering her in the restaurant. And in fact, she had felt threatened by Jayson at the time.

  What was going to come of her statements, she didn’t know.

  She was sitting in a small room, feeling like she was guilty of something. She’d been waiting for over an hour when one of the detectives she’d spoken with knocked and came back inside the room.

  “Are you okay? Do you need some water?” he asked.

  “I’m okay,” she said. “I just want to go home.”

  “And where is home?”

  She didn’t answer. “I’m not sure right now.”

  The detective sat down. “How well do you know Elijah?” he asked.

  She thought about it. “I guess not very well.”

  “He’s been traveling under a fake identity,” he said. “Calling himself Jake Daniels, which is actually his brother’s name. Were you aware of that?”

  She shook her head almost imperceptibly. She had known a part of that story, just not all of it.

  “And were you aware that he’s been incarcerated previously?”

  “No,” she said, her insides feeling as though they were filling with ice water.

  “Well, he has been. A few times, starting at a very young age. This last time, he went to jail for over a year for grand larceny. Leaving Massachusetts, he is also now in violation of his parole.”

  “I didn’t know any of that. All I know is that he picked me up when my car was broken down, and he drove me to Florida. He never hurt me or did anything inappropriate.”

  “Until he beat that man a few hours ago,” the detective said.

  She looked down at the table. “That’s right.”

  “Well, you’re free to go, ma’am. You haven’t done anything wrong, that I can see. We’ve alerted the Boston police about your claims against Jayson Reynolds, and you can take the matter up with them if and when you return.”

  “Okay,” she said. “And what about Elijah?”

  The detective glared at her, his eyes narrowing. “You’re very concerned about him, I see.” He breathed out heavily through his nostrils and flipped open his manila folder. “As of tomorrow, he’ll be shipped back to Massachusetts to deal with his parole violation, and likely they’ll handle the charges against Mister Reynolds as well.”

  “Thank you for telling me,” she said.

  “Mister Reynolds, just so you know, has been released from the hospital already, having sustained only superficial injuries. As far as I know, he’s now returning to Boston as well.”

  Caelyn’s mouth was dry and she was shaking. “I understand,” she whispered.

  “Good luck, ma’am,” he said, rising from his chair and opening the door for her to leave.

  When she left the police station, there was nobody waiting for her. Nowhere to go. Although, she remembered she still had her room at the Seaside Motel. She would have to stay there tonight, as she certainly wasn’t going to be welcome at Kenzie’s home after what had happened at the restaurant.

  And then what? Caelyn thought.

  They were bringing Elijah back to Massachusetts because of what he’d done to protect her.

  And she realized that she wanted to be there for Elijah. Whatever that meant.

  There was only one way to get home. She had no money for a flight. She had no options left.

  Without bothering to debate it internally, Caelyn pulled out her cell phone and dialed the one number she didn’t want to dial.

  “Hello, Mom?” she said into the phone. “It’s me. I have something I need to tell you.”

  THE END OF EPISODE ONE OF NAKED

  LOOK FOR EPISODE TWO, BAD, AVAILABLE NOW!

  Table of Contents

  BOOK EIGHT