RAW by Kelly Favor Read Free Book Online

as she grabbed her beach bag and purse.
    “How do I know you won’t leave and tell them anyway?” Deena asked, as Caelyn pushed by her.
    “Don’t worry about me, Deena. You’ve got enough on your hands, especially with that stressful English class that seems to take up so much of your time lately.”
    Deena’s jaw quivered. “Caelyn. Promise me you won’t—“
    “Get out of my life and I’ll get out of yours, okay?” Caelyn said, and then she walked briskly out of the room and downstairs. When she left through the front door, she took one look back and saw Deena staring down at her from the second floor railing.
    Caelyn walked outside, took a nice long breath of cool air, and then continued to Elijah’s car. She got inside where it was toasty warm and dropped her bag down next to her leg.
    “You okay?” Elijah asked, as he pulled away from the curb and into the empty street, and then began driving off at a fast clip.
    “I’m okay.”
    Silence descended for a moment and Elijah shifted gears. “Got enough room for your legs?”
    Caelyn nodded. Then she looked at him. “Did you somehow…I don’t know…did you escape from prison?”
    Elijah let out a loud laugh. “Escape from prison? You make it sound like a TV
    movie of the week or something.”
    “Did you?”
    He stopped laughing and looked at the road. “No.”
    She let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God. For a second I actually believed—“
    “I escaped from the courthouse.”
    She put a hand over her mouth, staring at him in shock and horror. “Elijah, please tell me you’re joking. Please.”
    He glanced at her. “You realize that I was going back to jail for three years, right? Three fucking years, Caelyn.”
    “You can’t know that for sure.”
    “I do know it for sure. They told me at my last hearing that I’d get an automatic reinstatement of the rest of my sentence if I violated parole again. Once your sister planted that credit card on me, I was toast.”
    Caelyn shook her head. “But they’ll catch you and then you’ll go back for even longer.”
    “They’re not going to catch me.”
    Caelyn took a deep breath and let it out shakily. “I’m so glad you’re here with me, but I’m terrified, Elijah.”
    He looked over at her. “You’re terrified of me?”
    “Of what you’re doing. Of what’s going to happen to us.”
    “What’s going to happen to us is we’re going to be together.” He smiled. “This is a good thing, Caelyn.”
    “The police will be looking for you.”
    He sighed. “I’m small potatoes. They don’t give a shit about me, I’m not a mass murderer. I’m just some two-bit criminal that got away. Sure, they’ll have a warrant out for my arrest, but as long as I stay under the radar, I’m fine.”
    “Maybe you should slow down,” Caelyn said. “You’re going seventy and the speed limit’s fifty on this road.”
    Elijah nodded patiently. He looked out the front windshield, his expression seemingly happy, content even. “I love you, Caelyn—even when you’re being mean.”
    “I’m not being mean.” She shifted in her seat. Part of her was so overjoyed that he was in the car and she was with him, soaking in his presence. Another part of her was angry that he was being so totally irresponsible and not even seeming to be aware of how serious this was for both of them.
    “You’re being a little bit grouchy,” he said.
    “Well you’re not taking this seriously enough. I’m involved now, too.”
    His grin faded. “I’m not stupid, Caelyn.”
    For the first time, she was noticing this new car that he was driving and wondering just how it was that he’d been able to acquire it. She glanced in the backseat and saw an umbrella, a magazine, and a children’s book called The Great Ape Goes to Bed Early.
    “Elijah, whose car are we in right now?” she asked, her voice unsteady.
    His shoulders hunched. “I think we should talk about this later.”
    “We’ve got plenty of time to talk