Page 45 of Saving The Shortstop

“I can never sleep,” she admits. “Ice cream helps. Sometimes.” She looks me over, her eyes roaming my face. “You’ve been staying here ever since those flowers showed up, huh?”

I take a swig of my water before setting it on the counter, peeling the wrapper off slowly and mindlessly.

“Yeah, well … Haven says I don’t need to, that I can go home.” I pause. “But she doesn’t understand how fucked up people can be.” When I feel Lilly’s gaze on me, I cringe. “And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. It’s not her fault she doesn’t know—I’m glad that she doesn’t understand it. It’s just—” I stop, knowing I’m blurting out way too much to a girl I just recently met. And I shouldn’t be talking about Haven to her roommate either.

I’m about to turn and go back to bed, but her voice stops me.

“I get what you mean,” she says, her voice soft and unsure. “I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I kind of … looked you up.” When I frown, her cheeks redden. “Not like … that. Not in a creepy way. But I like Haven. I’m new here, but she’s been kind to me. After hearing about how Tabor grabbed her the way he did, I just—I don’t know, I wanted to make sure that with you, she would be safe.”

Even at a mention of Tabor grabbing Haven, I tense up. I feel like the biggest waste of space, not doing shit about it yet. But fuck, I don’t know how to go about any of this.

“And what did you find?” I utter, not sure I even want to know.

She’s quiet, and the silence between us is damn near deafening for a moment.

“I think that I understand what you mean because … well, we grew up similarly to each other.” She pauses, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear nervously. “You were adopted by a retired NFL player? I was adopted by a since-retired NHL player.” Her eyes look down, and she pushes the bowl away from her. “I didn’t dig too deep into your files, Dallas. I only looked deep enough to know that you’re okay. And that Haven is safe.”

She just said so much information in only so many sentences, and I find myself trying to figure out what to ask her first.

“So you get it?” I mutter, shamefully. “You understand why I’m scared to leave her alone after those few things he did?”

“Duh.” She nods. “The world is dark.” She looks down, sighing. “Some of us have just had a little more experience with it than others.”

Out of nowhere, it hits me. This is Lilly Hunt. I never really put two and two together that she’s Hendrix’s little sister.

Hendrix came from a home with a lot of similarities to my own. Which means so did she. But something else dawns on me too. She said she didn’t dig too deep into my files, but that means … she accessed files to begin with.

She’s either a computer nerd or a hacker of some sort. And she cares enough for Haven to feel the need to make sure she could trust me to be around her.

She may be the one who can help me find out if Tabor is really bluffing or not when it comes to the pictures he claims to have.

Inhaling sharply, I look up at the ceiling before letting a deep breath out. I can’t believe I’m about to ask her this when I barely know her, but here I go.

“How hard would it be for you to get into someone’s pictures?” I swallow nervously. “And delete something that should have never been there to begin with?”

She narrows her eyes, searching for whatever she wants to ask before actually saying it. But instead of questioning me, she sits back in the seat.

“It wouldn’t be that hard,” she utters, lifting a brow. “Do these pictures have anything to do with the person you’re staying up all night to protect and the monster you’re protecting her from?”

“Maybe,” I mumble, and that’s the only answer she needs.

Getting up, she walks away from me and toward the hallway.

“I’ll get my laptop,” she says, never looking back.

Maybe this is a mistake. This is probably wrong to go behind Haven’s back and ask her friend to do this. But knowing that this creep took naked pictures of Haven will destroy her. And I’m not going to let that happen right now.

So first, we’ll take care of the pictures. And after that, I’m not sure yet, but because it’s for Haven … I’m sure as fuck going to figure it out.

NINETEEN

DALLAS

By the time I make it back to Haven’s room, it’s one in the morning and I know I’m pretty much fucked in the sleep department at this point. Because tonight, I found out that the sick fuck really did have explicit pictures of Haven after all, and I was really hoping he was bluffing.

Lilly proved to have some serious hacking skills though, and she was able to infiltrate Tabor’s shit, find a handful of pictures, and delete all of them. So, since sleep isn’t going to be happening anyway, when I walk in and see her still passed out on that damn air mattress, I know I’m not going to let her stay there all night. She has practice tomorrow and a scrimmage against NEU’s rival school, Casco Bay, this weekend. So, at the end of the day, the girl should be in her own bed.

I lift her from where she’s lying and place her on her bed, and as I pull my hands away, she stops me by reaching for my shirt.