Elijah:The Boss's Gift(28)
“I want one thing from you,” Cherry said.
“What?”
“I want you to throw that file in the trash. I don’t want you to go hunting for the demons of the past. It’s over.”
Elijah gritted his teeth, thinking about the twins that needed to have a little payback. “No, there’s two more people that I need to see.”
“There isn’t, Elijah. It was over.”
“A compromise, I check and make sure they’re not hurting anyone else. They’re not, I leave them alone. They are, I deal with them?”
She nibbled her lip. “Okay, fine, deal.”
“Good, the night is young, and I want to fuck you again.”
Chapter Eight
Cherry watched Elijah on the phone the following morning. She was moving her clothes through to his room with Mindy’s help. The young girl talked animatedly about how awesome it was for her and Elijah to be sharing a bedroom. Cherry tried to listen to the conversations on the phone. She wanted to make sure there were no other women waiting for him. Jealousy was an ugly thing, and she had a great deal of it.
Last night when he admitted he didn’t love her it had hurt, but she could handle him not loving her. He at least cared about her, which had to mean something.
“Do you think he’ll propose to you?” Mindy asked, drawing her away from the fourth phone call he was making.
Four phone calls, four women. How many more would he have to make?
“No, I don’t think so. This is all new, Mindy.”
Elijah was outside the bedroom, talking. He wasn’t trying to hide what he was saying. Mindy was more focused on her.
“Can I ask you something, Cherry?” Mindy asked.
“Sure.” She placed the last pair of jeans into the walk-in wardrobe.
“Are you really a daughter of a friend?”
Cherry paused, glancing over at her. “Why do you ask?”
“I know my dad, and he’d never bring a friend’s daughter home. I’m not stupid. I know his job is not everything he makes out it is. It’s dangerous. I’ve heard him talking on the phone. Caleb and Henry are part of that life. That Sunday we went to dinner at Caleb’s, that was the first time I’ve ever been allowed near them.”
Tucking some hair behind her ear, Cherry pulled her shirt down over her hips as it had ridden up as she’d been putting away some clothes.
“You don’t need to lie to me.”
“I don’t want to lie to you,” Cherry said. “This is not for me to say.”
“No, she’s not a daughter of a friend,” Elijah said, entering the room. He no longer held his cell phone. Was he done, or had he forgotten to save all the numbers of his women? There goes the jealousy again.
He walked to her side, gripping her hip.
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Mindy.”
“She was a gift to me. Some men I do business with gave me a choice, and I decided to bring her home.”
Mindy gasped, looking toward Cherry.
“I saw something bad, and I didn’t have much of a choice,” Cherry said.
“I’m also not an idiot, Mindy.” Elijah sat on the edge of the bed. “You’ve known I’ve not been a real businessman for a long while. You’ve known since you managed to break into my laptop a year ago.”
Cherry stared at Mindy, seeing the young girl’s cheeks heat. “You know about that?” Mindy asked.
“I know everything there is to know about you. I care about you so much, and I will never let anything happen to you. There are men out there who will not bat an eye about hurting you. Why didn’t you go to the cops?” Elijah asked, pushing some hair off Mindy’s shoulder.
“You’re my dad. I know you wouldn’t hurt anyone that was innocent.” Mindy’s hands rested on her knees. “Do you even want to be here, Cherry?”
Cherry smiled. “Yes, I do.”
“You and Dad, that’s real.”
“Yes, it’s real. The only thing that wasn’t real was me being a friend’s daughter. I don’t have any family of my own. I grew up in foster homes.” Cherry sat the other side of her. Mindy was being very brave, but then, Elijah was her father. Cherry doubted he even punished Mindy for bad behavior. She’d never heard him raise his voice at the young girl.
“I don’t want you to leave. I like you, Cherry.”
“I like you, too, and I don’t want to leave.” The only time she’d be leaving was when Elijah was ready to get rid of her.
“Okay, I can handle that. I’m going to get ready for school.” Mindy hugged her father then turned to Cherry. “Thank you.”