Free ACHE (Naked, Book 5) by Kelly Favor Page B

doing something like that, he’d have done it by now.”
    “But he wouldn’t hurt you.”
    Elijah laughed bitterly. “That’s a nice assumption.”
    “You think he’d hurt you?”
    “That depends,” Elijah replied, still watching out the window. His eyes widened as his father emerged from the car carrying a brown bag.
    “What’s that?” Caelyn said. Her first thought was a bomb.
    “That’s called a peace offering.”
    “What’s in it?”
    “Blood money. Literally.” Elijah’s mouth was drawn into a straight line as his father knocked on the door and immediately came in without waiting for an answer.
    He held the brown bag in the crook of his arm and brushed his feet off on the welcome mat.
    “What, no coffee?” Gabe asked, his eyes flitting to Caelyn.
    “I’ll go make some,” she said, but Elijah held up a hand to her.
    “Hold on.” He folded his arms and turned to Gabe. “What do you want?”
    “I think we have to end this madness,” Gabe said. “And here’s a gesture to show that I’m serious.” He bent down and put the bag on the floor, then used the tip of his cowboy boot to push it a few feet towards Elijah.
    Elijah just stared down at it. “That’s the money, isn’t it? The money you took from my car after the accident?”
    “The money you stole from Jake.”
    “Which he stole from my apartment.”
    Gabe smiled. “Let’s not nitpick. There’s something extra on top of what Jake took from your apartment—as a good faith token.”
    “I guess Jake feels bad for getting me shot,” Elijah said. “Tell him to go fuck himself.”
    “Jake didn’t get you shot,” his father said.
    Caelyn got a shiver of fear up her spine, as if she already knew what was coming.
    She just hoped that Gabe would decide not to actually spell it out.
    “Then who did?”
    “It doesn’t matter. Take the bag. Use it however you want. And then, maybe in a month or two, we can talk again—the three of us.”
    Elijah knelt down, quickly opened the bag and peered inside. “You even gave me back my gun.”
    “It’s yours. We want you to have what’s yours, Elijah.”
    “Thanks,” Elijah said, standing up. “I’ll take the money and the gun. But I don’t want to see you or Jake again. It’s over between us.”
    Caelyn looked at Elijah now. “You can’t take that money,” she said.
    Elijah turned his attention to her. “Why not?”
    “Because, it’s dirty money. I don’t want any of that stuff around us anymore, and you promised you’d stop.”
    “I wouldn’t be stealing—he’s giving me back what’s mine.”
    “Elijah’s right,” Gabe said, as his beady eyes bored into Caelyn. “Besides, this is a family matter. You shouldn’t speak about things that don’t concern you.”
    “It does concern her,” Elijah told him. He used his foot to kick the bag back towards his father. “And if Caelyn doesn’t want me to take it, then I’m not going to take it.”
    Gabe snorted. “You’re a couple of kids playing at being adults.”
    “How adult is it to steal a bunch of money out of my car when me and my girlfriend are bleeding to death inside?”
    “The cops and ambulance were on their way. If we’d left that stuff you’d be in jail right now,” his father growled. His face had grown blotchy with anger. “You don’t think about the bigger picture Elijah. And it seems that neither does your lady friend.”
    “You should go,” Elijah said. “Thanks but no thanks.”
    “I’m leaving that bag. If you don’t want what’s inside of it, then throw it out.”
    “Fine, we’ll throw it out,” Caelyn told him. And she meant it. She was sick of listening to Elijah’s father try and bully him.
    Gabe smiled coldly at her. His voice was calm as he spoke directly to her, not looking or seeming to care that Elijah was standing right there. “You can throw the money out, but if you think for even a second that you can come between me and my son, you’re very mistaken.”
    “It’s