The Hailey Holloway Complete Series

by K. C. Stewart

  "You two had sex!" Lia laughed as he whipped his head back towards her. Dacea's eyes flared as his dragon rumbled under his skin. So many years of not having to worry about outward expression, he was still forgetting to keep his face somber.

  "Leave it be, Lia," he warned in a deep growl.

  She ignored him. "No, see now I understand what happened. You told her to move in, she got angry and left, you followed her back to her place where the topic of sex was brought up, you guys bumped uglies, then I bet you brought up the moving in thing in the afterglow of the aforementioned sweet lovin', and it brought you full circle back to where you started." She looked at him like, "Am I right or am I right?"

  "I stand by my previous statement. You need to drop…" His words trailed off when he heard the front door open and close. For a fleeting moment he had thought it might be Hailey. Dacea pushed off the counter and began to walk towards the entryway. Heels clicked on the hardwood floor. The thoughts of her dropped instantly from his mind. Hailey rarely wore anything that clicked.

  He wondered who was in his house uninvited and unannounced. The clicking entered the hallway. No one, not even his security was to bother him at the moment. Dacea racked his brain trying to recall if he had forgotten about an appointment of any kind.

  "Dacea?" a feminine voice called from the hallway. It stopped him in his tracks. The voice was one from his past, one that was long dead to him. It was the very last voice he had wanted to hear, especially now.

  "Who's that?" Lia stepped beside him, her blue eyes full of instant distrust. "Dacea? You ok there?" She nudged him but he kept his eyes trained on the hallway. The clicking of heels became louder as the woman traveled across the hardwood floor. His brow wrinkled further in confusion. She couldn't be here. Not after all this time. Not now with Hailey gone. Not now.

  Katherine turned the corner, her face beamed with delight. "There you are! I was beginning to think you were hiding from me." She dropped her Louis Vuitton bag on the kitchen counter as if she had done it a million times before. "Are you going to just stand there," she flashed her come fuck me eyes, "or say hello to me like a Mate should?"

  "Excuse me?" Lia pushed in front of him, which was fine because he still couldn't find his voice. Dacea knew his jaw was hanging open, "collecting flies," as his grandmother would have said.

  "And who are you?" Katherine looked at Lia like she was a smudge of dirt on her shoes.

  "Greek-Motherfucking-Goddess, and you?"

  His former Mate looked disgusted. "Oh. You're one of those."

  "What the hell does that mean?" Lia turned back toward Dacea. "Who the fuck is she? Don't you lie to me Dacea, or so help me I will go Hades on your ass."

  "She's a harpy," he choked out, "and my former Mate." Disbelief muddled with revulsion in Lia's eyes.

  "You mated that?" she said still pointing.

  "Katherine is my old fiancée you might say. However, I haven't seen her in centuries." He added, "Hailey knows," when Lia didn't say anything.

  "Miss me?" Katherine injected and both Dacea and Lia looked over to her. She had only grown in beauty since he had last seen her. Her flawlessly smooth skin was naturally sun kissed with a golden hue. Legs ran on for miles with her thigh high stiletto boots that stopped a few inches before her flaming red dress began. She was his adolescent wet dream come to life, again.

  "What are you doing here Katherine?" His voice was gaining back some of its shaken confidence. Not many had the power to do that.

  "Oh, I lost track of time." She waved away her comment like she had only spent and extra hour shopping. "I was traveling through South America and the next thing I know I hear you are dead and then alive again. Well, I just had to come see for myself."

  "Hundreds of years have passed," he said through clenched teeth. "Hundreds."

  "Really? Oh, well oops," she giggled. Lia gagged beside him. Dacea really was at a loss as how to handle this. His mind had shut down the moment she walked into the house. She must have sensed his uncertainty and took advantage. She walked over toward him, and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I missed you," she said in a whisper. Her scent was the same as it had been. It took him back to years before as they lay naked in the forest after just having sex. Their scents hung heavy in the air as they had cuddled and talked.

  Katherine moved in another inch and kissed him. He stood as a statue, never moving to touch her or respond to her seduction. She wound her fingers into the hair at the nape of his head and pulled her body flush against his. She moaned loudly in an attempt to put on a show.

  Dacea heard Lia say, "Security," in amongst the noises of pleasure Katherine had been sounding off. He felt cold with her smothered against him. She didn't have the same presence as Hailey, who radiated warmth. Dacea reached behind him and pried her fingers out of his hair. He took a step back, cutting all contact with her.

  "No, Katherine. I have found my Mate, my true Mate. This," he motioned between them, "won't ever happen. You need to leave now."

  She pouted. "Dacea, you seriously can't-"

  "I am," he interrupted and stepped back a few more paces to separate himself from Katherine. "I am dead serious about Hailey. I'll have my driver take you wherever you want to go, but you are leaving. Now."

  The aforementioned driver stepped from the hallway. "Ma'am, if you would just follow me." With a hand hovering at her lower back the driver ushered her out of the kitchen. She only put up a minor struggle until the driver gripped her elbow and pulled her toward the door. "I'll call you!" she yelled before the front door closed.

  He exhaled a breath. His hands splayed across the kitchen counter, his shoulders tight, and head hung low. What the hell just happened? he asked himself.

  "You don't deserve her," Lia stated still disgusted.

  He knew she wasn't speaking of Katherine. "No, I don't." He stood upright and looked over his shoulder at the muse. She was furious. Her lips were pressed together so tight they were only but a thin white line, her eyes full of loathing.

  "But I love her and need her back home. Please, help me?"

  He turned to face her fully, his face pleading for her aid. He would get on his knees and beg if that is what Lia required. It wasn't until Katherine had kissed him that he understood just how much Hailey meant to him, how much he loved her. She was part of him now and with her gone he had a part of him missing. Every hour the missing piece grew larger and deeper, the cavernous space only allowing more room for the worry and guilt to flow in.

  He needed her back.

  "Lia, if I lose her…I lose everything."

  "Fine," she finally said. "I'm helping you for her sake, not yours. But, Dacea? When we get her back, you will tell her what you just told me."

  "You can count on it."

  Chapter Seven

  Hailey had woken to a small dragon Lego figurine, the kind you would find in the medieval Lego kits with the castles and he knights. It took her brain a minute to catch up with what her eyes had already processed. She had expressed her hope that Silas would step on a Lego yesterday, but instead of stepping on it as she wished, he brought her one. Hailey snorted and reached for the dragon. He was bright green with a little wisp of orange plastic fire coming from his mouth. So Silas had a sense of humor, who would have known?

  The bed was surprisingly comfortable for being in a cell. Might even be better than the one she had at home. It was small, only a twin bed, but it was luxurious with its plush memory foam top giving it a soft yet firm feel. She was half tempted to strip the sheets and find out who made the bed so she could get one for her apartment.

  Alex's voice was a steady flow of words as he read aloud from Tom Robbins Jitterbug Perfume. She had been in a mood when she woke, so Alex took it upon himself to get her out of it. It worked; she was enamored with the story. Not that she would tell him that.

  This morning he had pushed his single bed up against the wall where hers was. She had taken to leaving the blinds closed on all the walls but the one t
hey shared. Alex seemed pleased to have someone to talk to, even if it was just reading aloud to her. He would occasionally glance over and just smile. She was glad to have him as well. He made it all suck just a little less.

  "You ok?" he asked, bookmarking his spot with a piece of paper.

  "Honestly?" she asked turning over the Lego dragon in her hand. "I don't know anymore. I feel like a blank piece of paper, not even the college ruled, pre-punched kind. Just blank, void of everything." She rolled over to face him and re-adjusted her pillow. "Does that make sense?"

  "In a way it does. You just don't know what to do with yourself and feel helpless, right?"

  "Yeah," she sighed. "How do you do it? Not go crazy here. Not hate him."

  Alex sat with his back against the wall and his legs stretched out the length of the bed. He didn't answer right away but let her question simmer slowly in his mind.

  "I've been here a long time," he began. "Sometimes I resent Silas for the life he stole from me, but I accepted my fate long ago and have made the best of it."

  "Why are you here?" A question she had been wondering for a while but wasn't sure the procedure for asking such things.

  "I wanted an egg roll," he said with a smirk.

  Hailey snorted.

  "No really, that's what happened. I wanted an egg roll so I ordered from the place down the street from my apartment. My Mate was going to come with but I told her to stay home. I was only going to be gone for ten minutes tops. There was no need for her to change and come with. But on my walk back home I saw something I wasn't supposed to see."

  "What did you see?"

  "I'm afraid he's going to have to answer that later," Silas said from the open door. Hailey looked over her shoulder at him and sneered. She never had felt hatred this intense before. It was all she thought about; even when she suppressed the feeling it was still there stirring under the surface ready to take over at the first mention of Silas.

  Alex and Silas exchanged a friendly nod before Silas closed the blinds from his own controller. She caught Alex opening up his book again before the glass was shrouded.

  "You could knock," Hailey hissed.

  "I could. Won't, but could," he agreed and closed the door. "Mind if we talk?"

  "Yes."

  "Pity. We are going to do so anyway." Silas pulled the armchair out of the corner toward the bed. She frowned at the chair then at him. He had brought more than just the Lego dragon last night.

  "What is it?" he asked as she glared. "Oh this? I brought it down last night, thought it would make the place a little more comfortable." He sat; his eyes flickered toward the Lego she held, then away. His mouth turned upward into a small pleased smile.

  "Why am I here, Silas?" Hailey had pushed herself into a sitting position and mimicked the one Alex had just been in. She put the Lego back on her nightstand. With that, the spell was broken, his smile vanished and his eyes turned back toward her face.

  "So we can have a chance to get to know each other. I feel we would have a lot in common if we only took the time to talk and gain a better understanding of the other." She stared long and hard at his face. Hailey wasn't great at reading people but he seemed sincere and strangely excited.

  "What's your game?" she wondered aloud.

  "There is no game. Only two people getting to know each other better."

  "Bullshit."

  "Pardon?" He arched an eyebrow.

  "I call bullshit. This has to do with Dak, doesn't it? Get to him through me."

  He shook his head. "No, this has nothing to do with Dacea." His fingers drummed a soundless beat on the arm of the chair. She watched them in silence for a while. When he paid notice to what she was looking at, he stilled his hand. "Hailey, I have all day, all week actually."

  Hailey sighed and twisted the corner of the blanket. "What do you want to talk about?" she asked in a groan, resigned to the fact she needed to play along if she wanted out.

  "Tell me about your childhood. Was it good?"

  Well that was an odd question—not one she had been expecting. "It was tolerable. I made it out the other side relatively unscathed and that's all that matters, I guess."

  "Why was it only tolerable?" Silas rested his forearms on his thighs and leaned forward. He was genuinely interested in her life. It confused her but she kept talking.

  "My brother got sick very young and died a few years later. After he died my parents wanted nothing to do with me." It still stung when she said it out loud. "I think the first time they actually cared about my wellbeing was when I was in the hospital last month." Hailey remembered Silas hovering outside her door, he had been there. "You met them didn't you?"

  "Yes, I had the unfortunate pleasure of making their acquaintance."

  "That's a guilty face. Why are you making a guilty face?"

  "You're not going to like it." He dropped his eyes to his hand that had started the beat back up.

  "Just tell me." Hailey had been fidgeting with the blanket. As she talked, she had braided the fringe a dozen times. She put down the braids and settled in, waiting for his confession.

  "Your parents weren't going to come to the hospital. I personally spoke with them on the phone and they told me to let them know when you were better. That was it, not even a hint of worry in their voice. I was furious. Here you were so close to death and they didn't want to be bothered. So I had one of my men go get them and bring them in."

  It didn't surprise her but she still felt like she was punched in the gut. All that support and caring hadn't even been real. "Is that your solution for everything? Send your men to do your dirty work, what a great leader you must be."

  He gave her a look that said how amusing he thought she really was. "Anyway," he began ignoring her question, "I had them spelled into caring. As long as I was near they would act how loving parents should act. It was wrong for me to do that to them, but their behavior was inexcusable." He spoke the next part very clearly, "I am sorry for what happened to you."

  Hailey was looking at him and trying to figure out what happened to the Silas she had met only a few weeks earlier, the one who was responsible for putting her in the hospital in the first place. "Why do you care?"

  "Like I said, we have more in common than you might think."

  "Like what?" One polite conversation didn't excuse the fact that he still kidnapped her. She was skeptical of him and had every right to be.

  "I can't tell you that just yet."

  His words worried her slightly; he knew something, something that connected them. Silas stood and walked to the door. He unlocked it by keying in a number and grabbed a bag that was sitting just outside. "I brought you some things from your apartment." He laid the bag on the bed beside her and sat down again.

  Hailey unzipped the black duffel bag and smiled. It was filled with some of her things: clothes, her Nook, and a few framed pictures. The first photo she pulled out was one of Lia, Darby, and Hailey at her apartment after they broke her out of the hospital. The three of them were piled in her bed watching chick flicks and Disney movies while Dak played the part of their personal butler. Hailey set it aside and pulled out one of her and Dak. She had taken it with her phone on their first date. It was a very badly taken selfie in low light, but Dak was smiling and looking at her while she grinned at the camera on her phone.

  "I'm surprised you brought me this." She turned the frame around so he could see it. Silas's eyes narrowed slightly in disgust before he looked away.

  "It makes you happy, doesn't it?"

  She nodded and looked at the picture again, missing Dak as much as she hated Silas. "Yeah, it does."

  "That's why it's in there. I believe there is one more."

  He was right. The last picture was of Josh, her brother, and Hailey at his 5th birthday party. He had a cowboy hat on and she had a beaded headband with a feather sticking out the back. His party was Wild West themed but Hailey hadn't wanted to be a cowgirl, so her mom had made her an Indian costume. It was the
last time they got to celebrate with him. On his 6th birthday he was in surgery, and by his 7th he had died.

  "The pain never goes away does it?" Silas said quietly.

  "No, it doesn't." Hailey remembered about the bin with all of his sister's things in it she had found back in early October. Dak had told her that Silas once had a sister who was killed by her father shortly after her birth because she was the wrong gender. "How long ago did she die?"

  Silas pulled his phone from his pocket. "Not long enough for it to stop hurting." He turned the phone around and showed a picture of the two of them together. Silas wore a smile unlike one she had ever seen on his face. It was happy and content, just like his eyes, not even a slight hint of the typical Silas malice anywhere on his face.

  "She was cute."

  "She's beautiful," he responded and pocketed the phone. "I should be going. Thank you for indulging me." He slid the chair back into the corner. "If you need anything, just ask."

  As he left she said his name. He turned with curiosity on his face. "It wasn't terrible," she told him with a hint of a smile.

  Silas laughed and left.

  The room was quiet and empty after his departure. Hailey looked down at the picture she still held. Dak must be going wild about now. It was strange to be on the other end of the game board. Last time she was the one making plans and failing horribly at executing them. This time she had to sit and wait either to be rescued or escape.

  Hailey rolled out of the bed and put away her clothes. She pushed the prisoner-wear to the side and made room for her own. If the stuff wasn't so damn comfortable she would be tossing it on the floor. But it was, so she didn't. The three pictures were placed on various flat surfaces around her room. It helped, she realized, to make it more her own space and less cell-like. Just like the bright red chair Silas had brought her. She had to admit he had good taste. It was a pretty fantastic chair.

  With nothing more to do Hailey sat back in her bed and turned on her Nook. None of her 736 books interested her. One after the next was passed over as she read each title, each one sounding just as boring as the last. She groaned and set the Nook aside.