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“Jesus, yes! Just shut the fuck up and get Katie’s present. I’ll be there shortly. Oh, and Marion and Ava are with me,” I said, then quickly hung up.
“You left them at the mall?” Ava cried.
“Yes, Ava. It’s not like they’re dogs, and I left them in a hot car. They’re in a mall. I needed to get to Katie, and I needed them to pick up Katie’s present,” I explained.
“There’s no need to get pissy, Jackson. I just thought it was rude not to let them know you were leaving them,” she huffed, crossing her arms and legs. She turned to stare out the window.
“Well, princess, since that’s how you’re acting, you will be happy to know I told them. When asked about them, I became upset because I’d forgotten to text Evan the info about Katie’s present while Brock’s crazy ass driving was trying to get us all killed.”
“I’m…”
“Just stop,” I whispered. I was very close to losing my shit, and I didn’t want to be an asshole to Ava or in front of Marion. The latter didn’t need anything else to deal with, and the former didn’t deserve it because she was overwhelmed with the only father figure she’d ever known turning out to be a fuckstick.
After picking up Evan and Anthony and, thankfully, Katie’s present, we went home. When we arrived, Katie and the others still weren’t back. I hid Katie’s present and went looking for Hayden. I needed some answers.
Hayden had been staunchly in Conrad’s corner from the get. Then, in a blink, he flipped. Telling Conrad he was dead to us.
I searched high and low but came up empty-handed. I was heading back to my room when a voice behind me said, “I figured you’d come looking for me.”
I spun around. “We need to talk,” I told him.
I stalked past him toward his room, but he grabbed my arm and pushed me into Marcie’s room. He shut the door behind us.
“What do you want to know?” he asked, sitting at the desk in the corner.
“I wanna know what the fuck you were thinking taking her over there?”
He was nonchalant as he said, “Jax, she’s her own person; she can do what she wants. And she wanted to see Conrad.”
He had a point. I hated that he had a point, but I couldn’t argue with him on that front. “Okay. You’re right.”
Hayden’s face twitched.
“Don’t fucking gloat.”
He held his hands up in surrender.
“So, what fucking happened?” I asked, dropping onto the foot of the bed.
Hayden huffed, leaning back in his chair. He scratched at his bicep for a minute. “Conrad’s been blowing up my phone because it’s Christmas, and Katie and I should be there with our family—yada, yada, yada. Anyway, I was pissy. Katie asked a question that irked me. I smarted off to her. She let me have it, and the next thing I know, she demanded to be taken to Conrad’s.”
Nodding, I asked, “What happened when you got there?”
Hayden laughed. “You know how she is. Fucking shy and sweet and innocent as fuck until she gets riled. She jumped out of the car and stormed the castle, dude. Even though there were a shit ton of people there, she threw open the door and walked through the house like a fucking queen. She didn’t stop when Conrad jumped up to greet her. She walked right past him to the backyard, where she tore into him.”
He had her pegged. That was Katie to a tee, and as much as I wanted to know every syllable she uttered, I’d wait for her to tell me.
“So, what made you jump off the Conrad wagon?”
Rage burst from him, filling the room with so much toxicity it gagged me. His eyes widened then narrowed as his hands clenched into fists so tightly I would be surprised if his hands didn’t get stuck that way.
“What did he fucking do?” I demanded.
Hayden growled low in his throat. “I don’t know what she’s told you and what she hasn’t, and I won’t share it because while I may rag on you guys about loud sex, that’s just banter. She went outside to have that conversation in private, and the only reason I know what she said is because I opened the door so I’d know if she needed me.”
Someone was getting a raise.
“I’m not asking…”
