Hailey.
He felt like shit for hiding this. She had deserved to know what was going on. But like most things lately, he didn't tell her. For her protection, he told himself. But was it really? She could handle herself but he wasn't even giving her the chance to. Usually they were in tune to each other's movements, moods and feelings but they had been off since the Blue meeting. No wonder she looked so unhappy this morning. She had to be feeling the distance he had created as much as he was.
He didn't like knowing that she was hurting at home and it was his fault. Dacea wanted to leave. He couldn't though. Even if Katherine hadn't seen him, he wanted to see this concluded. Forward he moved through the crowd until he was finally upon the one who put the rift between him and his Céile.
"Hello my love," Katherine's soft voice purred.
He was having none of it. "Katherine." Dacea took the seat across from her. Her golden hair was smoothed into a large bun atop her head. It gave her a classic Audrey Hepburn look. She hadn't gone for trashy today by showing as much skin as possible without being arrested for public indecency. No, today she was trying to appease him with her conservative dress and pouty red lips.
"I'm so glad you agreed to this." She rested her hand on top of his.
"I'm not." He jerked his hand away.
Her left eye twitched. "How are you?"
"Tired of pleasantries and yourself?" It was a mistake coming here. Just looking at her, he knew she had fallen into some deep pit of insanity. There was something not right about her eyes. The pupils were too large, the color too bright. Her smile set his teeth on edge.
"I have my good days and my bad," she sighed and his shoulder stiffened.
Yeah, he couldn't do this. Just being near her was awakening his dragon. Dacea itched all over as the beast inside of him began to move. "Let's get to the point here so I can leave. What do you want Katherine?"
*****
Hailey had taken the Inspector Gadget SVU. It was like driving a boat and a poor choice for navigating around the city streets of Philadelphia. Somehow she made it in one piece and found a pull in spot. No parallel parking this beast of a car.
The Starbucks was a few blocks away. She wanted to walk the last few so he didn't spot the car. Dak was one of those pay attention to your surroundings people and she knew he would know his nondescript black SVU out of a lineup of the same make and model. It was his superpower. The walk would also give her a chance to settle. She felt shaky and restless. On the way there, she had chewed on her lip, picking at the dry spots till it bled. When she realized what she had been doing she began working on worrying her nails down to jagged edges.
Hailey wrestled the hood of her sweatshirt out from under her coat and put it up over her mass of hair. His superpower was also in special regard to her. He'd probably see her right away even if she dyed her hair and dressed as a man. The hood wouldn't do much but might buy her some time.
It wasn't hard to spot them even from across the street. They sat in front of the wall of windows for the world to see. It was like seeing the pictures of them Silas had taken but a thousand times worse since it was playing out in front of her. When they sat together, she found them to be equally as beautiful. Katherine with her tall skinny frame and power heels sitting across from Dak who even in just jeans and t-shirt looked like he commanded the world. They looked like they belonged together.
Her heart stumbled in her chest. She thought they had gotten past this. Of all the things he could do to her, seeing Katherine behind her back was by far the worst. He knew it too. After being led to believe he had gone back to her after Hailey's abduction, Dak promised he would never hurt her like that again. Honesty, he had promised.
And look where they were now...right back in it.
She crossed the street amongst a group of a dozen or so people. At this point she wanted to just go home. However, when Dak had made his promise he asked something of her as well, she was to not jump to conclusions without finding out the facts. Yes, it was a problem of hers and she knew it too. So, like a fool she agreed.
He might not have kept his promise but she was damn well going to keep hers.
The café was crowded. Almost all of the chairs were filled and the line wound through most of the space. Addicts lined up like ants needing their fix of the legal drug. She took her spot in queue and dug her hands into her pockets. From where she stood she could see both of them but only Katherine's face. A range of emotions kept passing over the harpy's features in great waves. First she was ecstatic, smiling so hard even Hailey's cheeks hurt. Then a wave would crest and break and she would become angry, her hands would do most of the talking with exaggerated violent gestures. Finally she would jump to sad and her eyes would begin to water.
Hailey never acquired the art of lip reading. No matter how often her 6th grade best friend tried to teach her, she just never caught on. For all she knew, Katherine could have been speaking Italian. The line moved forward. She lost view of them behind a display of mugs and coffee presses.
"This is ridiculous," she said out loud.
"It's always like this," the man behind her stated.
"Huh?" Hailey turned and blinked a few times. Was he speaking to her?
"I usually go to the one two blocks down. This line is always out the door." He gave a polite smile and after she didn't say anything else he went back to scrolling on his phone.
The interaction was enough to snap Hailey out of her steadily turning mind. He was right, the line was borderline obnoxious and Hailey was tired of sneaking around. Her original plan had only been to get here, now that she was, she wasn't sure what to do. If she stayed where she was, she could watch from afar. Neither of them had noticed her yet. That was an advantage she didn't normally have. However, she couldn't hear what they were saying. Hailey could only see.
She could always leave. Maybe pull the SUV out front of the window where they sat and wait for him to notice. They could duke it out at home. Problem with that plan was once she was home with him, he would make right on that promise to chain her to the wall. Her hands fisted at her sides. The Asswipe had no intention of letting her go even if he was seeing Katherine.
Holy hell, she was pissed. Outright seething under her hooded sweatshirt. If she was a dragon like her so called Mate, her skin would be smoking right now. She was pissed at him, at Katherine, at this goddamn line that hadn't moved in minutes.
She quickly came up with a new plan. She harnessed the anger and molded it into something she could use. It wasn't something she usually did but Katherine needed to be bitch slapped and Dak needed a swift knee to the balls.
Hello confrontation.
Before she lost her nerve, she stepped out of line and weaved through the patrons with a new found determination. As she got closer she began to hear bits of their conversation. None of the words made much sense from the splattering she could hear until her name was spoken. She paused only a few feet behind Dak.
"...and what about Hailey?" Katherine asked.
Like she was nothing but a small inconvenience he said, "What about her?" His head tipped slightly. She was a bit taken back by the tone in his voice. Actually, it was the lack of tone. If Hailey hadn't been staring at his familiar brown hair she would never have believed that was her Mate sitting there.
"Well, does she know what we are doing?"
"No," he stated, "and let's keep it that way."
Whatever ideas of confrontation Hailey held faded away. Her stomach had turned to stone, cold and heavy. If she had felt shaky before, Hailey would be considered an earthquake now. Getting out of there was now priority number one. Let him do what he wanted with the harpy. She was done caring.
*****
"Dacea," Katherine all but sang.
"Look," he ran his fingers through his hair pulling just hard enough to distract him from lunging across the table and throttling her. "I'm leaving. You are impossible and are quite possibly clinically crazy. Stop the calls. Stop the letters.
If I find you following me or Hailey again I will not hesitate to kill you."
"You ruin my fun," her full red lips pouted.
"Yes, I do." Dacea pushed back his chair and stood up. As he turned her ran right into a woman standing behind him almost knocking her off her feet. Katherine was howling with laughter, the screeching noise of it distracted him and he nearly missed grabbing the woman's shoulders to steady her. He felt a shudder go through her limbs as a spark danced over his fingers. "I'm sorry Ma'am..." She spun out of his grasp before he got a good look at her and began to push through the people standing in her way of the door. All he saw was a purple hood and black coat but what he smelled was his Mate.
"Hailey?"
Katherine was still laughing. "Oops," she stated between breaths. "Guess the secret is out!"
"Shit. Hailey!" Dacea followed after her. Why had she been there and what the hell had she seen? "Excuse me." He pushed through the people but most of them had already moved out of his way. She had made it outside but he caught sight of her hair as the hood blew off her head.
She was running. She was running away from him.
He stopped as she did and yelled her name again. He knew she heard him by the way her shoulders tightened. Hailey turned as a taxi pulled up and met his eyes. They stared at each other for a long moment. He was asking her to come back and talk about whatever it was she thought she witnessed. He was asking her to trust him and for once, not to run.
There was so much sorrow in her eyes it rocked him. "Please..." he begged her soundlessly. She closed her eyes and turned her head disappearing into the taxi.
Chapter Eight
Katherine thrived on drama and today's festivities were better than an episode of the Bad Girls Club. If she would have known Hailey would be making an appearance, Katherine would have put on more of a show. It had worked out, but it could have been so much more of a performance.
Through the window she watched Dacea chase after her but Hailey was already long gone. Pity, she thought as she sipped her macchiato, she would have loved to have seen an Act 2.
Her phone chimed in her purse. It was from Wendell, the little horn dog. Every day it was the same thing. "Baby come over." "You're so sexy." "Please do that thing with your tongue." Blah! She was tired of it. She was holding up her end of the bargain but he was slow at executing his. When he gave more of an effort towards what she wanted, she would do the same for him. Katherine ignored the phone and put her it on silent then slipped it back into her purse.
Wendell could wait, she had other dragons to seduce at the moment.
Dacea was still in the spot he'd been in as Hailey had driven away. He was on the phone and yelling something fierce into the receiver. She hung back. While she waited for him to wrap it up, she checked out her nails. Katherine was due for another manicure. The light pink tips were just not matching her mood lately. Maybe she'd go with blue and get a little snowflake on one with a few rhinestones. While she was at it her hair could use a trim, maybe some highlights. The winter always dulled her blonde to an ash if she didn't keep up with it.
"What are you doing?" Dacea barked at her.
Katherine looked up and batted her eyelashes innocently. "Oh, well I just wanted to make sure everything was ok? Hailey isn't mad, is she?" ‘Cause we wouldn't want the stupid crying bitch to be upset.
"Go away, Harpy, before I make a call to our mutual friend Lia. She would have no problem asking her father to call you back home."
She hissed. Zeus was a pompous ass who would derail her plans for a short time. Katherine was already lagging by a few weeks. "Fine," she spat. "Go deal with your dramatic whore, I have better things to do than watch your pitiful love life."
"Gladly," he said and walked away.
*****
Silas saw the SUV pull up into the driveway. He had cleared her through minutes before and had been waiting comfortably in the chair in the front hall. He couldn't honestly say he had ever sat in that chair and wasn't really sure why he had a chair there to begin with. Mainly, it held his coat after he took it off before someone else put it away.
The car door slammed and moments later Hailey was storming through the door. Dacea hadn't explained much during their call about what happened but he caught enough through the nonsensical yelling to put together the basics. Dacea, the idiot, had met with Katherine and Hailey had found out about it. Personally, Silas believed he deserved everything coming his way.
His sister was worse off than he imagined. Her chapped lips were white as she pressed them together in a hard line and her forehead wrinkled into a severe frown. She was more pissed than anything but the hurt was written plainly in her eyes.
She saw him and before she has a chance to begin her rant Silas held up a finger silently asking her for a moment. His phone was prepped and all he had to do was hit the call button. It barely even had a chance to ring before Dacea picked up.
"She's here," he stated and hung up on the raving Red dragon. "Now," he stood and slipped his phone in his pocket, "what happened?" Hailey growled at him as he gave her a hug. It was still a new thing for them but if she was going to growl then he wouldn't do it anymore.
"You called him?"
"I did."
"Traitor!"
"Would you rather have him show up here looking to see if you were alive?"
"No, but..." She seemed to have more anger and frustration than words would allow. Silas nodded in understanding, silently telling her she didn't have to explain right now.
"How about I take you upstairs to your room? I find taking a shower usually helps to calm me down. Or there is the gym where you can run the frustration out of your system. I'd also be happy to go castrate your Mate." There was a twitch of a smile but it was gone too soon. "I'd go for option number three if I were you."
She punched his arm and started past him. Upstairs it was then, he mused and followed after her. She had to stop when she reached the top of the stairs. "This way," he said with an outstretched hand and took the lead. He put her in the room next to his. Silas renovated it shortly after discovering their relation. She had never been this far into his house before so he had never had the chance to show it to her. The room was nothing special but she could do with it as she pleased. It would always be available to her whenever she needed it, for as long as she needed it.
However he did have one rule. If Dacea needed to stay here as well, he had to sleep elsewhere, preferably in one of his basement cells that were monitored and passcoded by Silas personally.
"This is you. That is me." He pointed to the door they had just passed. "You'll find what you need inside. Let me know whatever else you might want." He reached in front of her and pushed opened the door. "I'm around if you need me."
She muttered her thanks and went inside, closing the door behind her. Silas turned back down the hallway to leave her to sulk. He had nothing to offer a female in that state. His plans for the day were mostly in house things but given the circumstances, Silas thought getting out for a while would be best.
His car was still out front from earlier. In a completely impromptu decision, Silas grabbed his keys and left the house. Once outside he felt breath enter his chest. Dacea must have really fucked up for Hailey to have that much bad energy coming off her. It was nice to not be the only one putting his foot in his mouth all the time when it came to her.
Silas had a tendency to say the wrong thing all the goddamned time, which made him leaving for a while probably for the best. She had a way about her that let him lower his guard unintentionally. He tended to speak before thinking when Hailey was about. It was refreshing but in her state of mind, one wrong comment could have him sharing the dog house with Dacea.
He left without his security. By now there was probably a car following him as they raced to catch up. He rarely went out without at least one of the guys with him but today he just wanted to drive. Speed was something of an addiction. He loved going fast. Whether it was in a car, boat, or as his drago
n flying over the mountains in a blur with the rush of the air encasing him. Speed was a craving and a not so guilty pleasure.
"Let's see how good you boys are," Silas said while glancing into his rear view mirror at the car tailing him. Once he hit the highway, he punched the gas and took off.
It was just before lunch on a Thursday. In theory it should have been the calm before the storm, but I-95 was always busy no matter where you were on it, whether it be Pennsylvania or Virginia. He wove between the commuters passing them in a streak of silver. Silas grinned looking into the rear view mirror. Little by little his security team was losing ground.
He had just gotten his new Porsche Spyder and hadn't had it out for a real test drive yet. Now seemed like as good of a time as any to see what she could do. He accelerated more and let his mind go. Silas fell into a trance where his body acted without guidance of his mind. It was freeing and relaxing. This was his meditation.
Security had long since dropped off behind him. Hopefully he gave them a little fun but more likely they were back at his house worrying about what form of punishment they would receive for not keeping up. Silas's joyride had put him in a generous mood. He wouldn't dole out any punishments, but he also wouldn't tell them that. Letting them think and wonder would be amusing for a few days.
As the highway became more crowded he reduced his speed to a more highway friendly rate. With his mind still on the edge of peace, he exited the highway. It wasn't until a particular street sign caught his eye that he realized where he had ended up. Miss Charlotte Morgan's apartment was only one block ahead.
He didn't need any more information on her. The pictures were more than enough for Lou to start talking. But she was a riddle and Silas enjoyed a good enigma from time to time. He parked in the middle of the block, outside of a pizza shop.
"Oh look, it's lunch time," he grinned. From the table in the front he'd be able to see the windows of her place. The car stood out in this neighborhood. Already he had a few gawkers. Silas exited the car, walking right past a small group of teenagers with thoughts of theft in their shiny little eyes.
The Hailey Holloway Complete Series Page 40
