Chapter 31

Slapping my hands together, I brushed the dirt and debris off the palms of my hands as I stood up, satisfied that the first thing that would find Clarabelle would be a wild animal and nothing more.

I was on my way back toward the path when I stopped short in my tracks. My ears perked up as I heard Elijah laughing and joking with a pair of young women.

Was this it? Had he finally found my replacement? But, why two and not one?

They weren’t as old as the Dempseys. They looked closer to his age than mine, but for some reason, just the sight of them was making me feel apprehensive.

Stepping behind the nearest tree, I gripped the trunk as firmly as I could and watched.

I couldn’t discern if his laughter was genuine or not, but the way he stood told me that he was enjoying their company.

But why?

Who were they?

“Is that her?”

I almost became spooked at the sound of the young girl’s voice, then blushed when Elijah glanced at me over his shoulder.

“Yup, that’s my gal! You about done, Maisie?” he called out with a grin.

I nodded as I tucked my hair behind my ears, then emerged from where I had tried to hide.

The closer I got, the more pretty I noticed the one that had pointed me out was.

Warm, sleepy brown eyes. Scarless, sun-kissed skin, raven-black hair nestled in a knot on top of her head, and a smile to kill for.

Her friend looked at me with severe blue eyes, heart shaped lips, and wild red hair. The way she looked me up and down was unkind.

She wasn’t like her friend.

She beheld a monster right before her very eyes, and she had no qualms about letting me know.

“Alright, well, now that she’s back, we’re gonna head on our way,” Elijah announced cheerfully as he slipped an arm around my waist and held me against him. “But, like I said, I’m pretty sure that if you follow the staircase over there, you’ll get to where you’re looking for.”

The raven-haired girl smiled and nodded, giving us a wave before she went on her way. The red-headed girl gave me one more steely stare before she quickly followed behind her friend.

“New friends?” I asked Elijah curtly as I pulled away from him.

“Huh? No, I don’t know who they are,” he replied as he started to follow behind me.

One might think my next movements were childish, but I decided to walk a little faster than normal. I knew he’d have trouble keeping up, regardless of what he had said to Graham.

I couldn’t bear to have Elijah see the angry tears streaming down my face. He’d know that I didn’t trust him as much as I told him I did, and it would make him feel worse about an already shitty situation.

“Maisie, are you pissed or something?” he called out as I began to jog down the cobblestone steps.

I shook my head without looking back and ran the rest of the way. Jealousy made me uglier than I already was, but I knew he deserved to be with someone who looked like either of them, not me.

“Maisie! Stop running!” he shouted in frustration.

But I didn’t.

I couldn’t.

We had already wasted enough time, and now I had to figure out how to get to Mr. Mike before it was far too late to recover what was mine.

___

Pushing open the camper door, I made my way up the steps and into the home. I quickly began to ransack the fucking thing for something valuable that I might be able to peddle.

My hope was to barter for enough money to buy two bus tickets to Kingston, even though I didn’t know how much that would cost.

I was done hitchhiking.

I was done with strangers.

I didn’t want to keep putting Elijah in demeaning situations just for the sake of keeping me happy.

It wasn’t fair.

“You know,” came the tired voice as Elijah entered the camper. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were lying.”

I ignored his teasing.

It amazed me that he wasn’t angry at having been made to struggle to keep up with me, then failing at the task.

If anything, his tone held amusement and some candor.

“Jesus, Maisie. You need to learn to take things in stride. I don’t, nor will I ever want anyone else. Once you start to believe that, you’ll see the world through different eyes.”

I gave him a sharp look as he settled onto the leather-lined couch that we had occupied for the better part of a day. He grinned at me as he ran his hands back through his hair, then stretched out his leg, removed the prosthesis, and laid it on the empty space next to him.

He was flirting with me in his own way.

With that damn charming smile, the prosthesis sat next to him instead of attached, the way he leaned back casually and watched me with feral eyes.

The longer he sat there staring at me, the more I could smell the sweat on his body.

Even though he was in the adjoining room, I felt his eyes on me as I moved from the small cabinet next to the kitchenette and headed toward a room in the back of the camper.

Turning the handle and peeking inside, I realized it was Graham and Clarabelle’s bedroom.

There’s got to be something in here I can sell, I told myself confidently as I went about picking through the pockets of the clothes that were strewn about.

I absentmindedly closed the door as I dropped a pair of Graham’s pants to pick up another, and was startled to find it hit against something solid.

Elijah, I reasoned with a shake of my head and without looking up.

“Stop being angry, Mais,” he pleaded, a little boy whine in his tone. I rolled my eyes as I dropped the pants then moved toward the small, wooden and plastic dresser.

“Maisie,” he said again in a softer tone. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply when he pressed his body against mine. His hands found their way to my hips, before slowly moving one up my stomach and between the gentle valley between my breasts, until he wrapped it firmly around my throat, forcing me to stand up against him.

“Stop being angry.”

It was no longer a plea, but a command. This wasn’t the tone of the boy I was so desperate to keep safe from the cruel world we had been forced into.

It was one of a man who knew how to make his own way with the woman he loved by his side, no longer afraid to show it.

“Maisie?”

His grip tightened just enough to steal my next breath away, and I felt almost free.

Of all the burdens I had carried since he was first planted deep inside of me. Since he began to grow in my womb, since Mama and Papa cut him out, and tried to keep us apart.

“I’m …” The words became caught in my throat, the sensation dry and numbing as he pressed his thumb deeper into my flesh. “I’m not,” I finally managed to stammer.

“Good girl,” he whispered, his lips grazing my ear. He held me in place for one more breath before he finally let go and made his way to the bedroom door. “Take your time, Maisie Girl. I’m gonna see if I can’t get your new teeth set up while you’re busy in here.”

My body felt flush as I turned to steal a glance at him. Elijah stood in the doorway of the bedroom, hands on either side of the doorframe, looking at me with an animalistic need in his eyes.

I looked down as I began to chew on the inside of my lip.

He let out a soft chuckle as he clicked his tongue on the back of his teeth, then disappeared back into the main area of the camper.

He wanted to be with me again—the way a man would with his lifelong companion.

But it would have to wait.

We both knew it, though neither of us accepted it.

It was just how it would have to be for now.