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.