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See if something stuck out to him since he was more familiar with the people and the area.
And I’d ask him about Hayden, ask him to keep a closer eye, check him out.
“Well, I guess time will tell, won’t it?” Paisley’s grandfather brought me out of the flurry of dread that clamored through my chest, and he winked when I looked back at him. “Ezra is a good one, though, don’t you doubt that.”
My attention climbed back to Ezra.
Nowhere else to go.
Because this man, he was my safe place.
“I don’t.”
I glanced in the mirror, blowing the hair out of my face as I washed my hands in the bathroom in one of the outbuildings, then I slipped out into the narrow walkway that ran between the two barns. The party was in full swing to the right, the guests just beyond. Voices and laughter carried on the limbs that whooshed overhead, and I headed back in the direction of where Ezra waited.
Only I stalled when someone stepped out from behind a jut out in the next building over.
My heart skittered, lifted and sank.
Hayden.
I toiled over the options of dropping my head and pushing around him like I didn’t notice he was standing right in the middle of my path and going up to him and demanding to know what he knew.
I wasn’t exactly…afraid.
Ezra was within earshot, and if I shouted, I knew he would come running.
I just felt…uneasy. Like I was tiptoeing around something unfound.
Both wanting to run and take the chance to look closer at the man who stood in front of me.
But I knew I had to play it careful. I couldn’t just demand to know what he knew.
I forced that same feigned smile to my face that I wore every time he came around. “Hayden, hi.”
He glanced over his shoulder like he was checking to make sure no one was around. Discomfort pulled my stomach in every direction. Could he be any more sketchy? I could almost read every secret he kept behind his ostentatious smirks.
Only he wasn’t wearing one today, and he took a step toward me, his voice so low that it chilled me to the bone. “I’ve been wanting to get a chance to talk to you alone.”
Alone.
I wasn’t super excited by the prospect of that. “What about?”
He took another step in my direction. “You never called.”
I trembled out a discordant laugh. “It seemed the only reason you wanted me to call was so we could set up a date, and I’m with Ezra now.”
I let it hang like a warning.
Ezra would snap this guy in half.
Only I gasped through the shock when he stalked all the way to me, took me by the arm, and jostled me back until we were hidden behind a large tree trunk that shaded both buildings.
It obscured us, blurring the view of anyone going in or out of the restrooms.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I fought to keep the panic out of my voice even though each word shook, and I cocked my chin at him in challenge. I would claw my way out of here if I had to.
He planted his hands on either side of my head, and the oxygen punched from my lungs when he had me fully boxed in, his cologne close to noxious when I inhaled.
“I said I wanted to talk to you.”
I figured a knee to his balls was an appropriate reaction right about then.
Instinct.
Only I froze when I caught sight of his forearm out of the corner of my eye. Hayden was wearing the sleeves of his shirt rolled up for the first time since I’d seen him, and there was a tattoo exposed on the inside of his forearm that I’d never seen before.
It was the face of a joker, though it wore a crown that dangled from one side of its head.
I was almost positive I’d seen that exact same image before.
Drawn on the bottom of a page in the journal.
My spirit both hit the ground and soared.
Holy shit.
He was involved. Knew Jessica. He had to.
I was stuck. Having no clue if I should run or stay. See how this played out.
Hayden leaned in close, his breath fanning over my cheek. “I—”
Only the growl that came from the side cut him off. “I’d suggest you back the fuck away from Savannah before you no longer possess the ability to.”
At Ezra’s voice, Hayden jolted three steps back, though it took all of two seconds for his arrogant smirk to return to full force. He laughed and lifted his hands in surrender. “Sorry, Ezra, man. Don’t get all spun up. I didn’t know she was yours until right now when Savannah told me the two of you had hooked up. I wasn’t trying to overstep.”
Ezra grunted, and Hayden laughed, clapping him on the shoulder as he moved around the man. “She’s all yours, lucky asshole. I’ll just be on my way.”
