The same chill that shook me when I first set foot on Lakeside campus all those weeks ago slithers down my spine as Koby parks his sleek Range Rover in my old favorite parking space.
Something disturbing pollutes this air, an echo of the past, of the despair and torture endured by the old asylum’s patients.
It’s early Sunday morning, meaning the staff are off-site, enjoying their weekend away from the students. The only person here with authority is the janitor. I bet he’s lurking in the shadows, watching our every move.
“I think I should go alone,” Hailey says, looking at the tall, gothic building peeking between the trees.
I don’t grace it with a reply, flinging the door open. My heavy boots crunch the gravel as I spin to help her out. No fucking way will I let her out of my sight.
It’d be careless not to assume my father, her father, or any number of others have eyes and ears here in case we show up. The sole consolation is that we’re a long way from Ohio and Pennsylvania. Neither Rhett nor Blaze can teleport here at a moment’s notice, but they’ll know we came, and they’ll wonder why.
My wristwatch shows it’s barely past seven am. Another consolation: this place is a ghost town at this hour. We pass a total of five people, all huddled in a tight group outside the theater, probably waiting for their friends. I bet they’re shooting last-minute scenes for their final movie project.
Memories hit me square in the jaw as I push open the heavy door to the girl’s dorm, letting Hailey inside first. Every nook and cranny reminds me of our moments here. Moments that led to her becoming the center of my world.
I carried her up the first flight of stairs after she got lost in the woods. I imagined fucking her against the walls of all the corridors we pass. I watched her hips sway as she climbed the second narrow staircase and spent countless precious minutes kneeling outside her door picking the lock. I spent many more precious minutes inside that room with Hailey over, under, or beside me.
I have half a mind to pick that lock again and take Hailey on the desk overlooking the forest…
If only there was time to waste.
Before my fantasy turns to reality, she’s outside Chloe’s room down the hall. Inhaling a deep breath, she shakes the tension off her arms and raises her hand. Every knock shakes the silent corridor like a thunderclap.
There’s an almost immediate commotion behind the wall. A deep groan, some mumbling, then a thud as if Chloe rolled out of bed, hitting the floor with her whole body instead of her feet.
Hastened steps resonate as she rushes across the room and the door opens wide in one sharp tug. Chloe looks a little confused, her hair like a rat’s nest, mascara smudged around her eyes. I guess they had a party on the other side of the lake last night. Either that, or she’s bathed in vodka. The stench wafting off her could get my lightweight Hailey drunk within the hour.
“Hailey!” Chloe exclaims, stumbling forward to wrap her arms around my girl. “Oh my God! Where the hell have you been?! You have any idea how worried I was?” She shoves her away, looking her up and down as if expecting her to be injured. “Are you okay? Are you back for good?”
“I’m okay, but I’m not staying. I just came to pick up my bags. You still have them, don’t you?”
It’s only now that Chloe’s attention latches onto me. A soft shudder shakes her, and the incredulous look on her face morphs into dubious fear.
Last time we spoke I barged into her room, barking out demands. My temper was all over the fucking place… looks like it left a lasting impression.
“Hey, Chloe,” I say. “Mind answering Hailey’s question?”
That earns me an elbow to the ribs and a drop-dead look from Hailey as she mouths behave over her shoulder.
Slamming my cock deep into her pussy while she’s sprawled on the desk in her old room becomes even more tempting while she glowers at me, her alluring feistiness on display. She’s whipped-cream-with-liquor-filling now she trusts me again, and there’s nothing more titillating than her confidence.
“Of course I have your bags,” Chloe interjects, pushing the door further open to let us in. “Care to tell me what’s going on? Why did you disappear? You were hysterical that night, Hailey. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m sure and I’m sorry, but there’s not much I can tell you. Maybe one day, but not yet. There’s too much happening.”
Try as she might, Chloe’s nowhere near as good an actress as Hailey, so the hurt she’s fighting not to show is painted across her face.
“We don’t have much time,” I say. “Where are the bags?”
“Under my bed.”
I grip Hailey’s wrist, tugging her back when she twitches forward, ready to crawl under there. “Let me.”
She bites her lower lip, the gesture both arousing and hinting at the writhing anticipation inside her. There’s not one facial expression I don’t know. All those weeks spent watching her almost non-stop will forever come in handy. It’s like having a front-row seat into her mind.
I’d be lying if I said I was perfectly composed. I’m far from it. It’s been four months since Rhett told me about Aalyiah’s death, Hailey’s involvement, my task, and the evidence that’s been staring right at me this whole fucking time. Four months’ worth of anger, blame, betrayal, and lies stacking so high I can’t see over the wall they’ve built.
I pull both suitcases out, itching to open them right here, but that would be careless. I rein it in while Hailey says goodbye to Chloe and we trek back through the maze of corridors, down the stairs, then along the cobblestoned path toward the parking lot.
Hailey doesn’t say a word, keeping up with my step, eyes darting left and right like she expects someone to jump from the shadows and put a gun to her head.
“Which one?” I ask, glancing at Hailey once I’ve dropped the cases in the trunk of the Range Rover.
She elbows her way closer, forcing me to step aside, and within twenty seconds she’s digging through the larger suitcase, littering the trunk with her clothes. She’s trembling softly, muttering incomprehensible gibberish under her breath. The flimsy dresses she wore the whole time we were at Lakeside fly every which way, boiling my blood.
Each and every single one will burn. Over my dead body will she wear another piece of clothing Alex bought her.
Ryder leans against the car, laptop tucked under his arm. Smoke swirls around him as he watches Hailey’s every move, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.
Lucky fucking bastard.
Once all the clothes are out, Hailey finds a zipper at the bottom of the suitcase—a concealed pocket—slides it open and shoves her hand inside. Those pretty blues of hers widen on cue. Her lips part, letting out a soft gasp, and the aorta on her neck pulses in time with her erratic heartbeat. She carefully pulls the chain out to dangle the heart between us.
There’s a pause. Silence fills the air. The weight of what she holds makes us all hold our breath. That small silver heart is everything: an answer, a key, the means to an end.
The move to check the King…
I reach out but she jerks back, using her thumbs to slide both loops down. The locket pops open, revealing a micro memory card tucked into a narrow slit.
The tension that’s been tying up my muscles for months hisses out of me in a sharp gush and the adrenaline rush makes my heart fucking sing.
Finally.
The evidence I’ve been looking for all this time is here.
“My dad asked me to remind you about your deal,” Hailey says, pinching the card between her fingers. “What’s the deal?”
“He wanted me to call him first, before anybody else, once I saw the evidence.” I cover her hand with mine, squeezing gently. “Give Ryder the card. The sooner we see what’s there, the better.”
She hesitates, chewing the inside of her cheek while holding my gaze for the longest time. I can almost hear the thoughts rushing inside her pretty head… doubts and insecurities taking center stage.
The small card she holds is what I’ve been looking for since day one: the reason I came to Lakeside. The reason I got close to Hailey. She’s scared that once it lands in my hands, we’re done. Words pile up on my tongue, left unspoken as the dynamic between us changes for the second time.
I could reassure her, promise her forever, but it’s her who has to burrow into her feelings and decide whether I’m worth her trust.
She loves me. Her body craves my touch, but she’s still so incredibly insecure. All I can do is hope she knows I’m all hers.
“Don’t hurt me,” she whispers, wiggling her hand out of my grasp to drop the card into Ryder’s waiting palm.
“Never again,” I say, pulling her into me as a weight I didn’t realize was there lifts from my shoulders.
◆◆◆
It’d be way too fucking easy if we could just pop the card into the laptop and access the evidence at the touch of a button.
And since nothing about this has been easy since the start, I’m not surprised when Ryder swears under his breath.
“It’s encrypted,” he adds, his fingers ramming the keyboard faster and faster.
Of course it is.
“You’d think Alex was some high-end hacker with how well this shit is hidden.”
“Can you access it?” Koby asks, gripping the driver’s seat headrest to pull himself in so he can see better as Broadway exits the dirt road out of Lakeside.
“Of course I can fucking access it… I just wouldn’t want to risk doing it on the road. We need a stable, secure connection and if this…” He taps at something on the screen, “…is what I think it is, I’ll need more equipment.” He meets my eyes in the rearview mirror. “The gear I keep at your loft.”
“Fuck, Chicago again?” Koby asks.
“We can set up camp at a hotel somewhere, but in the time it takes to secure the connection, we’d be halfway to Chicago anyway.”
Broadway glares at me in the rearview mirror. “I take back everything I said about the safe house being boring. I want boring-ass bliss and noon wake-up calls again.”
He keeps whining most of the drive back. That’s eleven hours of Broadway at full volume.
Hailey’s mostly silent beside me, staring out the window at the falling snow. I’d like to say she’s calm, but that’d be a lie. She’s miles away, lost in her thoughts, not done digging up her past. There are still too many question marks floating around and if I know one thing about Hailey, it’s that she’s determined. She won’t stop hunting out triggers until she knows exactly what happened the night of her accident.
By the time we arrive in Chicago it’s almost midnight and my head’s pounding. I don’t usually let my men chauffeur me around. My Corvette rarely gets a day off. I miss the feel of leather under my fingers and the growl of the engine when I squeeze the gas pedal… but taking the wheel means distance from Hailey and I’ve not had my fill of her yet.
Bad fucking drug.
Perfect high.
I can’t stop touching her. Even if it’s just my fingers tangling her hair or my lips grazing her temple. It’s enough. It’s everything and it’s fucking disturbing.
Within minutes of entering my loft, my kitchen island is littered with hardware I can’t even name. Ryder’s in full work-mode, hyper-focused as he connects cables, sets up equipment, and taps at his keyboard.
“What happens now?” Hailey asks, getting comfortable on the couch. She looks perfect in my space. Our space. “How long will it take to access the files?”
“Given the level of encryption, I’d say a few hours at least,” Ryder says, eyes jumping between the screens of two laptops. “Koby, you remember how to check the network is still bulletproof? It’s been a while since I set it up.”
“Yeah, I’m on it.” He slides onto a bar stool beside Ryder, tapping away.
“Once you know what’s on the card…” Hailey looks at me. “What then?”
“Then I meet my father.”
Her eyes widen a little. “You’ll give him the evidence?”
“A copy. He needs to reassure his acquaintances and stop the wild goose chase. And I need a copy to make sure that, from now on, Rhett stays in line.”
Broadway smirks under his nose, glancing at me from where he’s watching Ryder work. “Somehow I don’t think Rhett will be happy taking orders from you.”
“I don’t suppose he will, but he won’t have a choice. It’s time for a regime change in Ohio, don’t you think?”
All three of my men whip their heads toward me.
“You want to take over?” Broadway asks, his eyes sparkling. “You mean it?”
Koby bursts out laughing. “Now you’ve done it, Boss. He’ll be floating six inches off the ground for the foreseeable future.”
Broadway’s been telling me to make a move on Ohio for at least two years but it’s not easy in practice. You don’t simply take over the reins. Either you kill the current boss or you force him to step down.
Until now, I’ve never wanted the main seat, perfectly content with the operation Dante let me set up in Chicago.
Things change, though. Now I have Hailey, taking charge equals more respect, fear… and an ally like Dante brings a different level of protection. Save for the morons who raided Delta a few years back, no one’s dumb enough to willingly get into Dante’s bad books.
Bosses who want his approval crawl out of their skin to earn it, and those who’ve got it crawl out of their skin to keep their business relationship intact.
Most threats against Dante or his wife are eliminated before they even hit Dante’s radar.
And the best part?
The small inner-circle Dante built. Six bosses, each feeding the other. They operate like one organism: the success of one depends on the success of the others.
Nothing guarantees safety in our world as much as becoming a part of their tight-knit group. Now I have someone I need to protect at all costs, taking over Columbus is my best bet.
“Let’s see what the evidence is first,” I tell Broadway. “Then I’ll figure out how to best use it.”
Hours later the sky outside breaks into dawn, Ryder’s still tapping away, and Hailey’s barely awake on the couch, staring at the TV screen.
“I’ve got something,” Ryder announces, those few words jolting everyone back to life. “Only one folder, but the other two won’t be long.”
I cross the room, stopping behind Ryder. To my surprise Hailey hangs back, watching us from the couch.
“Go on,” I urge, nudging Ryder’s shoulder. “Show me what we’re dealing with.”
He hovers the cursor over the folder, pausing for a beat. “You sure you don’t want to look through this alone?”
“Press the fucking button.”
And he does. Pictures pop up on the screen, one after another, a familiar person front and center in each one.
My brain can’t compute fast enough.
I know what I’m seeing. I know who I’m seeing but it’s so fucking abstract, so far from what I thought I’d see, that it takes me a minute to snap out of the initial shock.
“Fuck,” Broadway mutters, raking his hair back. “That is not what I expected.”
“What is it?” Hailey asks, sitting up, her blue eyes alarmed.
I look up from the screen, my words catching in my throat. This will crush her in ways I can’t even imagine. She’s spent months piecing her past back together, uncovering the truth bit by bit, learning about the threats lurking in the shadows.
We had so many theories, so many reasons Hailey might have been thrust into this mess, all of them plausible, some so fucking close to the truth… but none quite hitting the mark.
“Carter,” she urges, getting to her feet. “What is it?”
I meet her eyes, my tone calm as I do my best to soften the blow. “It’s your father.”
Now I know why he wanted me to call him first. The possibilities multiply inside my head as I pull my phone out and dial his number.
He better have a good explanation. He better fucking pray I believe it was an accident that Hailey got involved in this nightmare. That putting her through hell wasn’t a deliberate move.
I hold the phone to my ear, every ring of the dial tone bringing me closer to shattering Hailey’s entire world.
“Carter,” Vaughn says, his tone gruff like I pulled him out of bed. “What’s going on? Why are you—”
“I have the file,” I snap, staring at the pictures of Vaughn littering the screen. “What I’m making of this right now doesn’t make you look good.”
“I can explain, it’s—”
“Get on the fucking road, Vaughn.”
I end the call and send him my address, my heartrate spiking higher when Hailey pads across the room, stopping on Ryder’s left.
A soft gasp falls from her lips, eyes filling with tears.
