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4
Iflipped through the channels on the television as I waited as patiently as I could for Hayley to wake up. Kalin was reclining in the armchair on the other side of the room, waiting just like I was.
Finally, I heard her groan.
I set the remote down on the couch beside me as I turned to look at her. She slowly blinked her eyes open, sitting up instantly afterwards. “How in the hell did I end up back here?” she snapped at me.
My eyes flickered to Kalin’s. He sighed, realizing just like I did that she was feeling the aftereffects of her high. If she didn’t get another hit, she was going to be really fucking pissy until the effects of the drug fully wore off.
“Someone knocked you unconscious and left you on my porch,” I told her. “And somehow, they got you to snort cocaine up your nose.”
She was silent for a moment, and then her body went rigid as she began to remember what happened to her. Her face paled to a sickly-white color, and her hands began to shake in her lap. I watched her cautiously. I wanted to comfort her, to let her know that I would make sure she would be okay, but after what had happened last night, I wasn’t entirely sure how she would react to any kind of comfort from me.
She abruptly stood up from the couch, pushing her slender fingers through her red hair as she chewed on her bottom lip. “I can’t go back to that shit, Drake,” she reminded me. I nodded. I knew that as well as she did. She had fought hard and long to stay sober all of these years.
“Give it about twenty-four hours, and then the effects should be out of your system completely.”
She nodded and turned to walk towards her bedroom, but she suddenly stopped and spun back around to face me, fury lighting up her beautiful features. “What the fuck have you dragged me into?” she demanded angrily. “Before you got caught up in Lacie’s life, I didn’t have to worry about this fucking bullshit. I was coping and trying to get better, but this shit,” she said, swinging her arms out angrily, “was over. It wasn’t a part of my damn life anymore.”
I shook my head at her. “I didn’t get you caught up in anything, Hayles, and you know it,” I told her. Her blue eyes flashed angrily. “Lacie brought this on you by coming to you for help. Those men think you’re an easy target because you were Lacie’s best friend.”
“Well, I’m not,” Hayles snarled at me.
I stood up and walked towards her. “I know that, but regardless of how different you are from Lacie, these men are targeting you. They want easy customers, and since Lacie was an easy customer, they think you’ll be one, too.”
“By forcing me to snort coke up my nose at gunpoint?!” Hayles screeched.
Fury like no other roared through my veins. “Gun point?” I asked softly, my voice dangerously low.
Hayles swallowed hard but nodded at me. “They put the line of coke on the bar, holding a gun to my head so I wouldn’t run away. Then, they instructed me to snort it up my nose, or they’d blow my brains all over the place. I chose to get high instead of dying.”
I clenched my jaw, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. “Go on and take a shower and get cleaned up,” I told her. “I have security around this house. Kalin and I will be back later.”
She arched an eyebrow at me. “And where are you going?” she demanded to know.
I turned away from her and snatched my jacket up from the back of the couch to shrug it on. “To take care of some shit,” I told her as I walked towards the door that led to my garage.
Hayley
I sighedas I laid out on the lounger, allowing the sun to beat down on my skin. Most of the effects of the coke had worn off, so now I was feeling a bit tired and drained.
These effects were all too familiar to me, and I hated that I was feeling them again.
I sighed when my phone rang from beside me, disturbing my peaceful silence. I grabbed my phone and looked at the caller ID to see who was calling me. My heart clenched in my chest as I looked at the screen, Damien’s name glaring back at me.
I had never deleted his number in the hopes that if he decided to call me when he got out, I would know to ignore the call.
But I hadn’t anticipated that four years later, it would still rip me apart inside to see his name.
I swallowed hard as I did the worst thing possible; I answered the phone. I had no power when it came to Damien Parrish.
“Hello, darlin’,” Damien’s smooth voice came through the line. My stomach twisted with that familiar need for him, that need to be close to him despite everything that had happened between us.
Why in the hell had I answered the phone?
“Damien,” I murmured, unable to utter anything else as my soul warred within me.
“Been a while, darlin’. You hide well,” he remarked.
