Page 10

Chapter Ten

Griffin’s Beach Hailey

H ailey climbs off the back of Colt’s bike and helps Lindsey off of Gavin’s once they reach the clubhouse. All she wants to do is climb into bed with Gavin and feel his protective arms around her, but she doesn’t have the right to ask. Not anymore. He has the waitress now.

Until tonight, Hailey had gone her entire life not needing a single person to save her. Now, she finally understands what Lucas has been telling her. These people love her no matter how difficult she makes it to do so. She has to learn how to let people love her.

“Gavin, bring Lindsey to one of the empty apartments, and then find some clothes in your dad’s apartment for her to sleep in. You’re safe here, Lindsey. I promise you that,” Colt says.

Gavin doesn’t look too happy, but he does as he’s told without argument. “Come on, Lindsey.”

“Wait, you’re Gavin? Like, Hailey’s Gavin?” Lindsey asks him. “The one sleeping with the waitress?”

Hailey wants to laugh. She wants to find something amusing in this entire situation, but she just can’t. Even when Gavin simply mutters, “Something like that.”

They follow behind into the clubhouse, and Lucas dives at her and nearly knocks her down as he clings to her. His arms wrap around her so tightly that she struggles to breathe, but it doesn’t matter. She holds him right back.

“I’m okay.”

There were moments she couldn’t stop worrying that she’d never see her brother again. Either of them. And not seeing Calla grow up felt like a special kind of torture.

“I was so scared, Hails,” Lucas says, and his tears hit her T-shirt over the uncomfortable lingerie.

His fears break her, and she bursts into tears of her own, her legs giving way. Her brother holds her up, and she can’t fight the reality anymore. Something worse than she’s ever experienced before almost happened, and she needed help to get out of it. She needed her family.

“I love you, Lucas. I’m sorry I didn’t say it before. God, please know what I said the last time we spoke kept haunting me. If that was the last thing you ever heard me say, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”

“I know,” he whispers. “Me, too. And I love you, too.”

Regaining her footing, she releases him and wipes her eyes.

Lex stands next to Lucas, but she waits to reach out to her.

In this moment, she can no longer ignore how patient Lex has been with her.

Still is with her. She’s let Hailey pick the pace of their relationship, and she’s respecting boundaries.

New tears form, and she throws herself at Lex. The only real mother figure she’s had since she was eight. Lex holds her tightly and whispers, “Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?”

Shaking her head, Hailey sniffles. “Just bruises and cuts from zip ties. Colt showed up just in time.”

“Grayson said he talked to someone in Riverview, and they’re sending out a crew of people to the building. They’ll take care of the girls,” Lex tells Colt as she continues to hold Hailey.

“Good,” Colt says, his hand reaching out to rest on Hailey’s shoulder. “There were so many girls there. I can’t remember a time I’ve wanted to murder so many people at once.”

Pulling away, Hailey wipes her eyes. “Thank you.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lex asks, leading her to a chair. “Kent, can you grab us some water?”

Kent Conway. The same year as Gavin and a legacy Prospect, too. Hailey can’t remember which member he belongs to in this moment, but she gives him a small smile in thanks when he hands her the drink. She doesn’t remember the last time she ate or drank anything.

Lucas disappears, and she worries about him. She’d go after him, but she’s so tired.

“I knew something was wrong,” she says. “I didn’t do this, Lex, I swear.”

“No one thinks you did.”

Her lip trembles. “It’s still my fault. I’m so sorry. I was mad, and that’s why I lied and told Lindsey I didn’t have any family. That I was an orphan. This never would have happened if I wasn’t so stubborn.”

“Hailey—”

“Lindsey started seeing Gary. I didn’t meet him until last night, and I knew something was wrong.

He kept buying her clothes to make her look both younger and slutty at the same time.

She already looks twelve without all that.

She has fucking unicorn sheets, for crying out loud. And fucking Care Bears on the wall.”

She isn’t sure if Lex is about to tell Hailey that she didn’t lie to Lindsey, so she interrupts and jump into the story. The last thing she can handle now is being told she’s passed over too many chances, and she’s not their family.

“Lindsey didn’t think it was weird?” Colt asks.

“She’s from an overprotective family in rural Oregon. She just liked that a guy wanted her. He came to the dorm last night for the first time, and I knew something was off the moment I laid eyes on him. I’d turned off my phone when Lucas called, and I slipped it into my pants without him noticing.”

Smirking, Lex nods. “It’s what I would’ve done, too.”

“Then an old guy named Mel came, and they took us, shoving us into a trunk after zip tying our hands.”

Reliving it brings back the fear she hadn’t allowed herself to fully feel at the time, and her body shakes. Lucas returns to the room and hands a T-shirt to Colt who stands in just his leather after giving his shirt to Hailey. “Here.”

“Thanks, buddy,” Colt says.

“What happened to Mel?” Hailey asks. “He ran the whole thing.”

Slipping the shirt on, Colt takes his leather back from Lex and pulls it onto his back again. “Do you want the gruesome details?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe when Lucas isn’t here,” Lex says.

Her brother shakes his head. “No, I want to know what happened to the guy who did this to my sister.”

Chuckling, Colt smiles. “Venom made good on his threat of cutting off Mel’s fingers and making him eat them. And before you ask, I have no idea where that came from.”

“But he’s alive?” she asks, eyes wide. Maybe she wasn’t right about them being her family.

“No, he’s very, very dead.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, both at knowing they killed him for her and that the mastermind is gone, she leans back in the chair.

“When they threw us in that room, I hid my phone under the mattress. I had to try and learn their routine before I could call you, Colt. We had only a small amount of time until they moved us to the fourth floor.”

“You kept your wits about you,” Lex says and gives Lucas a knowing look.

“I know you guys already paid for the semester, but I don’t know that I can go back,” she whispers. “There… It… I’ll get a job and pay you back. I just… Please don’t make me go back.”

Hugging her tightly, Lex kisses her temple. “You don’t have to go back, sweetheart.”

“I’ll pay you back—”

“Don’t worry about it. We just needed you home safe, and you are. Do you want to stay here tonight? Or do you want to head back to the house?”

She lets out a shaky breath. “I should stay with Lindsey,” she says even though she’d love nothing more than to curl up in the bed of her room at Colt and Lex’s house. Her house. “Is that okay? She was about thirty seconds away from a total psychotic break.”

Hailey hasn’t asked for permission so much in her life, but she owes that very life to these people now. Every single person showed up for her, and they helped her. Even though she knows she’s done nothing to deserve it.

Gavin comes downstairs, and Colt whistles for him. “Take Hailey to the room you put Lindsey in. Can we get her some boxers or shorts or something?”

“Here,” Felicity says. “I grabbed her a pair when I got some for her friend.”

“Thank you,” Hailey says and takes them.

Hugging Lucas one more time, she follows Gavin upstairs. He stops in front of an apartment and regards her with a look she can’t quite decipher.

“Are you okay?”

“That’s yet to be determined, but physically, I’ll heal. The cuts and bruises aren’t that bad.”

His fingers gently touch her arm above the gauze someone put on her wrists before she left Riverview. Doc, she thinks. “I’m sorry this happened to you.”

“I’d say I’ve survived worse, but I don’t know how true that statement is anymore. I figure I’ll re-evaluate where I am mentally after I get some real sleep. Check on myself in the morning, you know?”

“When Mom called and said you were in trouble, I didn’t know what to do. We haven’t talked since that morning a month ago, and—”

“Can we have this conversation tomorrow or the next day, Gavin? We need to talk, but right now, I’m so mentally and physically exhausted that I might pass out right here. The adrenaline faded pretty quickly once we got here.”

He nods and smiles. “Sure, Hailey.”

When he turns to walk away, she reaches out to grab his wrist. Her arms wrap around him as he turns to face her, and she feels even more relief when his returns the gesture.

“I haven’t cried this much since my mom died,” she says with a chuckle.

Neither one makes a move to release the hug, and she just holds him. She misses him, and seeing him accompany Colt to help save her put a lot into perspective.

“You need to get some sleep,” Gavin whispers.

“How was Lindsey when you put her in there?”

“Shaking like a leaf, but she seems to know she’s safe.”

Nodding, she pulls back. “Thank you for taking care of her.”

“I’m always here, Hailey. I—”

“Tomorrow,” she interrupts. “Brain’s already half asleep.”

The sneaking suspicion he’s going to tell her he loves her again creeps into her mind, and the conversation that follows such an admission requires at least a few hours sleep. Maybe more.

“Tomorrow,” he agrees.

Opening the door, Lindsey knocks over the lamp as she tries to turn it on. “Who’s there?”

“It’s just me,” Hailey says and turns on the overhead light. “Hailey.”

She lets out a small sob. “Are you staying in here with me?”

“Is that okay?”

“I don’t want to be alone.”

Slipping quickly out of the ugly lingerie, she puts Colt’s shirt back on and pulls up the pair of shorts Felicity gave her. “Would it be weird to leave the light on?” she asks as she climbs onto the bed.

“I’d like that.”

“I’m not going back to school.”

Lindsey snakes her arm around Hailey’s, and she rests her head on Hailey’s shoulder. “I’m going to call my parents to come and get me. I don’t want to go back, either. I just hope they don’t get too upset about the money.”

“If it’s a problem, I’ll see if my family can help out.”

“Why’d you say you were an orphan? I mean, I’m really, really glad you’re not, but I don’t get it. They’re scary, but they seem to really care about you.”

“Because, technically, I am. Lex and Colt adopted Lucas, not me. They wanted to, but I’m stubborn. And an idiot.”

“I need to thank them tomorrow,” she says, her voice low as sleep takes over.

Yeah, so do I. Another big conversation to have. But first… sleep.