by Elodie Colt
Damn, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I’d treated Haylie today. I’d pushed her over her limits the entire afternoon. In fact, I’d pushed her farther than she should have been able to endure.
My frustration grew, and the woman in front of me felt it. I banged her harder, and she cried out in both pain and pleasure.
Haylie had taken it all. Any other student would have thrown up from the high lactate excess after forty minutes of my brutal drilling. Not her. That girl was unbreakable, but I broke her. I had wanted to break her all along, and now that I achieved my goal, I had no idea how to fix this.
Growling in frustration, I grabbed the whore’s ass tightly, digging my nails in as I came inside her. She wasn’t even close to an orgasm, but I couldn’t care less. I only wanted to ease the tension in my body and recharge my energy through the Connection. Renewed strength was already flowing through my veins, calming my rage, and clearing my mind a little bit. It wasn’t much, as I was in no way attracted to this woman, but it was better than nothing.
Zipping up my jeans, I thanked the girl whose name I forgot as soon as we were done, and left a generous tip. As I made my way back to my car, my gaze fell on the sign at Joey’s bar across the street. It felt as if years had passed since Jimmy and I went in there in hopes of getting information about Dorian’s whereabouts. Back then, I hadn’t known of Haylie’s existence. Biting my lip, I contemplated what to do and decided to have a beer before heading back.
I wasn’t surprised to find Lauren behind the counter. The bar was rather empty, as it was common on weekdays. When I came up to take a seat on the barstool, Lauren looked up, and her mouth parted in surprise before she gave me a cocky smile.
“Officer Dwight, how nice of you to pay us a visit,” she mocked me in her usual sweet voice, and I couldn’t help but smile. I understood why Haylie loved her so much. Lauren was easy to like.
“Yeah, I was close by and thought I’d drop in for a drink.” I plopped down on a barstool.
“Beer and tequila like last time?”
“Just a beer, please.”
She nodded and retrieved a bottle from the refrigerator. “What’s bothering you?” she asked in a concerned tone, opening the beer’s lid before setting it on the counter.
“Why do you assume something’s bothering me?”
“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “I’ve been working here for years. I know the moods my customers are in as soon as they enter.”
I sipped my beer and nodded absently. “Women problems,” I muttered, at the same time wondering why I was spilling the beans in the first place. I guess I just wanted someone to talk to who wasn’t part of the Roes in the compound. And it wasn’t as if I could talk to Chris now, either.
“Cassie or Haylie?”
My head snapped up at the unexpected question. Lauren had witnessed Cassie’s dramatic performance in the club, and therefore knew she was missing. Hell, I hadn’t wasted one single thought on my ex ever since. Did she become so unimportant to me that I hadn’t even noticed her absence the last few days? Should I worry? No, Cassie could take care of herself. If anything, I should be grateful she was trying to leave us in the past.
“Why do you think Haylie is the cause? Have you been talking to her?” I dared to ask, eyeing her closely. Lauren and Haylie were best friends, and it was what girls did, to chatter about such things all day long, right? So, this begged the question—what had she told Lauren?
Lauren gave me a sad smile. “No, I haven’t talked to her since I left. She only texted me once, asking how I was doing, but that was it.” Relief and disappointment washed over me at the same time. “But the fact that you’re asking proves this is about her,” she added carefully, along with a meaningful look.
“There’s nothing going on between us,” I clarified and took a large sip of my beer. How could I tell Lauren what was going on? She didn’t know anything about the world of Roes, Haylie’s unique heritage, or Ricky, for that matter.
Lauren laughed and leaned back against the refrigerator, crossing her arms. “It didn’t look like that when you were dancing.”
“It was just a dance.”
The words felt like the lie they were. Whenever I thought back to that night, my heart skipped a beat. These luscious hips grinding against me, these beautiful eyes shut in surrender, that skin so soft under my fingertips… I’d never seen anything more hypnotizing.
Lauren’s eyebrows shot up in disbelief. “Are you trying to convince yourself or me?”
I thought about what answer to give her but was saved by the owner, Joey, as he called out, “Hey, Lauren. You can call it a night if you want. I’ve got this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Okay, then,” Lauren said eagerly and quickly grabbed her things.
“Where do you live? I can give you a lift if you like,” I offered and emptied my beer.
“That would be great, thanks. It’s just a few streets east.”
We made our way to my car, and I opened the door for Lauren to get in. After she gave me general directions on where to go, she redirected the subject to the one girl I desperately tried to get out of my head. Maybe it had been a bad idea to visit the bar, after all.
“How’s training going with her?”
I was confused for a moment before I remembered Lauren had been present when I volunteered to train Haylie. Another one of my stupid decisions, I suppose.
“Good. She’s one of the best,” I answered truthfully.
Lauren huffed out a laugh, shaking her head. “Of course, she is. I wouldn’t have expected anything less.”
“We had a fight,” I confessed in a lower voice, relieved the words were finally out.
“As in an argument?”
“Yes, but it was pretty bad,” I answered grimly, earning another carefree laugh from Lauren.
“Impossible. You can’t fight with her. She’s too sweet and understanding.”
Great. I nearly moaned out in frustration. “Well, seems like I can,” I muttered in a sour tone.
Lauren’s house came into view, and I pulled over. “This is yours?” I asked in awe. The building was huge and looked like an expensive, three-story designer loft. Blue water reflected from a swimming pool in the backyard.
“Yeah. I ‘inherited’ it. My dad is an exec in the oil business and moved to Dubai with my mother a few years ago.”
“They left you alone here?”
She gave me a sweet smile. “I don’t mind. We didn’t have a very strong relationship. Well, then, thanks for the ride, Officer,” she said, grabbing the door handle. Before she stepped out, she looked back to me with a scrutinizing expression on her face.
“You’re fighting the wrong battle, you know?” She gave me an intense look, as if she expected me to figure out the meaning of her words on my own. I didn’t.
“Don’t fight her. Fight for her,” she finally clarified and got out of the car, leaving me speechless and with only more questions wreaking havoc in my mind.
I observed the monitors in front of me with little interest. The halls of the compound had emptied since dinner time, leaving the underground area isolated and silent.
Training with Haylie the last few days had been good and bad.
Good, because both of us went back to pretending nothing happened, for which I was grateful. I couldn’t have dealt with another emotional outburst so soon from either of us.
Bad, because Haylie became withdrawn again. She’d been focused and swift in her movements, and had even managed to place a well-aimed roundhouse kick the other day. Her improvement after such a short time was incredible. However, she hadn’t dignified me with one single look since then.
Maybe it was better this way. It seemed as if as soon as we got involved with each other, everything started to go downhill.
Movement from one of the monitors made me strain my eyes. It was funny how that specific monitor in the left corner caught my a
ttention every time. It came from the camera installed in the aisle of my room—and hers.
The door to her room opened, and Haylie stepped out, eyes flipping left and right before staring straight into the camera. She wore an expression I couldn’t decipher, biting her lip before closing the door behind her and disappearing in the direction of the cemetery.
I straightened and swung my head toward the monitor viewing the hallway that led to the cemetery above. Haylie appeared, a backpack settled on her back, which immediately made me suspicious. Why did she need a backpack? Where was she going? For a moment, I considered following her but fought the urge to do so. Stalking her would do me no good.
About fifteen minutes later, Sarah came in. “Hey, have any of you seen Haylie? She’s not in her room.”
“Outside,” I answered, checking the monitors again for any sign of her. Nothing. Strangely, I always felt a tiny amount of trepidation whenever she wasn’t inside the safe walls of the compound. Or under my watchful eyes, for that matter.
“No. I just came from there.”
I frowned. “I saw her walking down that hallway not long ago, and she hasn’t come back since then.”
“I would have seen her. She wasn’t in the cemetery,” Sarah repeated firmly.
My stomach started to do unpleasant somersaults. Something told me I should have listened to my gut when seeing her with that backpack. Was she running away? Did it all become too much to her? Was I the reason for her need to escape? No, it didn’t make sense. She wasn’t the kind of girl to flee.
“Sarah, watch over for me, will you? Josh, search the aisles on the other side, including Jenna’s old training room. Scott, come with me,” I ordered and was already halfway out of the office, not waiting for Scott to catch up.
“Wait, do you think something’s happened to her?” Sarah asked in alarm.
“Let’s hope not,” I said before fast-walking to Haylie’s room, thinking about how I’d chop off the hands of anyone who dared to touch her.
I already knew I wouldn’t find her in her room, but I needed to check, nonetheless. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but my search wouldn’t last long. A yellow Post-it was stuck on the mirror frame beside her bed, and the uneasy feeling in my stomach grew when I picked it up with trembling hands, recognizing Haylie’s handwriting.
They wanted me to come alone. I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry…
Crumpling the paper in my fist, I felt my control slowly slip. ‘They’ meant the Hunters, without a doubt.
“What did it say?” Scott asked from behind me.
“They lured her out,” I said in my darkest voice, my knuckles already turning white from fisting my hands. “I need you to trace her. Follow me,” I commanded and dashed out, running in the direction of the cemetery.
What did they plan? How had they contacted her? And how the fuck had they lured her out in the first place? Haylie wouldn’t be so stupid as to follow their orders.… Unless they’d used something as leverage.
As soon as we were outside, I hung back to let Scott take the lead, giving him distance so as not to disturb the sensitivity of his ability. Pulling out my phone, I called Josh.
“There’s no sign of her,” Josh informed me immediately.
“I know, she’s gone. She left a note. The Hunters somehow managed to make her leave.”
“What the…”
“Where’s Jimmy?” I rushed. A qualified Racer would be helpful now.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Scott pointing in the direction of the woods, and I jogged after him, the phone still pressed against my ear.
“Phil drove him to meet Serena at a conference. He won’t be back for a few hours.”
Well, shit. “Go back to the control room and tell Sarah to focus on the cameras surrounding a...” I pulled my phone away from my ear to look at the digital watch on the screen, making a mental note on how much time had passed since Haylie’s escape, “... two-mile radius from here.”
Twenty-five minutes was time to run farther, but I held onto the hope she hadn’t gone that far. She didn’t know the woods or the area around the compound. Wherever she wanted to go, she needed to get out of here first, and as the Hunters didn’t know about the location of our compound, they couldn’t have given her directions either.
“Search for Chris and Jared, I need them both. Take Jimmy’s car and wait until I know where we need to go. Be prepared.”
I ended the call and continued to follow Scott. If Jimmy wasn’t available, we needed to rely on another Racer. Jimmy would be furious with me for involving a Freshman, but Jared was the first to come to my mind. There was no time to form a detailed plan.
A few seconds later, my phone vibrated, and I took Chris’ call. I briefly filled him in on the message Haylie left.
“You do realize that, wherever they are, they’ll have scouts out there guarding the area. If they wanted her to come alone, they won’t take it lightly when they realize she didn’t. We need to be careful,” Chris reminded me.
“I know. Phil’s away with Jimmy, so I don’t have a Watcher available. We need to rely on Josh and Scott.”
“Okay, we’re on our way to the car.”
We covered the ground quickly, Scott leading the way to where he could trace Haylie’s scent. She’d wandered northwest in a straight line. It didn’t look like she’d gotten lost out here. The cemetery was huge, and it was already dark. It had taken me months to know my way around here. How did she know where to go?
The woods became thinner until I could hear the sounds of traffic from far away.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to trace her on the street,” Scott called from a few feet away. I cursed inwardly. Scott would struggle with catching her scent in the middle of the city.
After a few minutes of aimlessly crossing streets, we came to a park. “She definitely crossed this area, but her scent becomes fainter here,” Scott mused.
Helplessness settled over me as I spun around in hopes of spotting a familiar mass of brown hair. What are you up to, Bryceland? Where would they want you to go?
My phone vibrated again, and I took Sarah’s call.
“I found her,” she rushed, giving me the address of the crossroads where a camera caught her. The phone nearly slipped from my grasp when Sarah told me the street’s name.
It took me not more than a second to put the puzzle pieces together. I could only think of one location Haylie would go. “Lauren,” I muttered.
“What?”
“Thanks, I’ll check in later.” I ended the call and quickly texted Chris our location. “Lauren’s house is on that street. They have Lauren and used her as leverage.”
Chris pulled the car to a stop in front of us shortly after. “I know where she is,” I informed the rest as soon as I opened the car door. “They have Lauren. We need to get to her house and check out the surroundings.”
“What?” Chris shouted, panicked. “Shit! Do you know where she lives?”
“Yes,” I said and gave Chris directions.
If I hadn’t decided to go for a drink at Joey’s and give Lauren a lift later, I wouldn’t have known where to look. It was pure luck, considering we’d arrive in time, of course.
When we reached our destination, Chris slowed the car in front of Lauren’s luxurious house, and we all watched closely for anything out of place.
“There’s a backyard on the other side. They probably stationed guards there,” I mused. “Josh, can you hear anything?” Chris killed the engine, allowing Josh to listen closely.
“I hear a female voice,” Josh said, concentrating on his ability. “I can’t make out what she’s saying.”
“Is it Lauren’s?”
“No. She has an accent. Spanish, maybe.”
“Chris, drive around,” I commanded.
He did as he was told, turning on the music as we came to a stop on the other side of the yard where it was enclosed with a metal fence. Traffic was lighter here, so c
hances were high Catchers could overhear us—blaring music was a perfect distraction.
“Scott, are you able to trace anything from here?”
Scott eyed the area closely. We were far away from the main street, surrounded by nothing else than backyards. “Could work,” he replied and stepped out of the car.
He steadied his hands on the roof and closed his eyes as he let his nose do the work. Impatience made me fidget. Tracers were exceptionally helpful as long as they were in an area unpolluted by the stench of the city, which limited their assignments greatly. Also, they usually needed a lot of focus and concentration and, therefore, time. Thus, Tracers were not suited for the open field where every second counted.
“Why not let Josh listen in?” Jared yelled over the rock song from the back row.
“Because he wouldn’t be much help tuning in on possible guards who keep silent all the time,” Chris explained. “Josh will be more helpful when we’re inside.”
“And what if they have Tracers themselves?”
“Doubtful,” I answered. “Tracers aren’t the first choice when it comes to guarding routines. And even if they had a Tracer stationed, he’d need to be very skilled to trace us here. Scott is the best one I’ve ever met. No one can compete, trust me.”
The door finally opened, and Scott sat back down.
“Three guards, one of them female. I smelled blood, someone must be hurt. Relax, it wasn’t Haylie’s,” Scott added in a rush when he noticed my nostrils flare in fury. I let out a sigh of relief. “Haylie’s scent crosses the yard. I guess she’s inside the house, but I couldn’t trace her that far.”
“Okay.”
“We need to take them out before they can sound the alarm. Could you make out a specific direction?” Chris asked Scott who nodded and pointed to where the Hunters appeared to be hiding in the shadows.
Chris looked at me. “Let Jared run them down, and we’ll finish them off.”
I nodded, agreeing to his suggestion. “Can you do this?” I asked Jared when we all got out of the car. He grinned, excited for his first mission.
