Maddie walks over to her and I watch as Hailey freezes but Maddie continues, she leans in and whispers something in Hailey’s ear. It's so low that I can't hear but whatever she's telling her has the affect Maddie was hoping for. Hailey turns and puts her good hand around her as the tears fall. Maddie’s body bucks as she sobs in Hailey’s arms. Luke, Morgan, and I look on as the sisters cry together not knowing what to do, do we leave them or do we stay?
They're interrupted by Dr. Lasiter coming in, the girls quickly pull apart and dry their eyes. Hailey giving the doc a small smile. “How are you feeling?”
“I’ve got a headache and I’m tired. Oh, and my hand is itchy.” She lifts up the hand that’s casted and waves it about. Her eyes are still glassy from the crying jag.
The doc frowns, “You need to take it easy, not too many visitors and you need to rest as much as possible. There is still some swelling around your brain but it’s gone down a considerable amount since last night. We’re going to do another scan in 72 hours and reassess then. Until then, two visitors at a time, drink plenty of fluids, and rest.” He gives a glance around the room, giving us all a warning look. I feel like I’m a kid again and being told of for looking up Missy Hering’s skirt.
“You heard the doctor Hails, you need rest, not stress. Morgan and I’ll leave but we’ll be back tomorrow.” Luke tells her as he walks up to her and pulls her into his arms, “I’m glad that you’re alive. If you ever need help. Just ask, I’ll always be here to help.” He kisses her forehead and waits for Morgan to give her a hug, she whispers to her and whatever she says is too low for me to hear, what the hell is wrong with these women, don’t they know that it’s rude to whisper?
Once Luke and Morgan leave I go and sit beside Hailey on the bed, I’m not leaving. “I’m going to go, I’ll leave you to rest. Get some sleep and I’ll be back tomorrow.” Maddie pulls Hailey in for a hug again and the two of them have a whispered conversation. Maddie pulls away and looks directly at me and it looks as though she’s giving me a warning look. ‘Don’t mess with my sister’ look before turning and leaving. Is she for real? Giving me a warning when she’s the one causing Hailey pain?
“Let's lie you down, you’ve been sitting up for a while now” I hit the button on the bed to recline us both. “Comfortable?” I ask as I pull her into me, so her heads resting on the bend of my arm. She makes a contented sigh and I smile, glad that she’s able to rest especially after that shitstorm that just happened. “Hails, what happened to Maddie?” I know Maddie told her, whatever it is caused Hailey to burst into tears. I hate seeing those tears fall, they’ve fallen more today than I’ve ever seen before. She doesn’t answer me and I look down and see it’s because she’s fast asleep. I close my eyes and lie next to her, not wanting to move in case I wake her up.
It’s been three days since Maddie told Hailey what happened to her and not once has Hailey spoken about it in fact any time I’ve tried to even speak about it, she shuts the conversation down or pretends she didn’t hear me. She’ll be coming home next week, Dr. Lasiter said that the swelling has completely gone, her bruising has come down too so she’s starting to look like Hailey again. Maddie’s been staying with me since the day she blew up at Morgan, Luke, and Hailey. When Hailey found out that Maddie has nowhere to stay she begged me if she could stay with me, I know that if I didn’t say yes Hailey wouldn’t be staying with me when she leaves the hospital.
“You busy?” I ask Dwayne as I enter his office, his eyes narrow at me and he must be wondering what the hell I want as I close the door behind me usually his door is always open, so he knows whatever I want is serious.
“I have some free time, what’s with the cloak and dagger shit? Am I going to get either fired or divorced?” Dwayne asks and I still can’t believe he’s married. I remember the day he joined P.I.G.S, he was like a fish out of water, he had no idea what the hell was going on. Since then he’s become one of us, he’s part of our family, our fucked-up family, but family nonetheless.
“Um, no to the divorce and Nathan won’t fire you, unless you do something to Soph or the kids.” I shake my head at the way his eyes light up. “She’ll castrate you if you even think about pulling a prank on her. She’s pregnant and hormonal.” I cringe at the phone call I got last night, somehow, she found out that Maddie was staying with me and although she thinks I’m a saint, her husband doesn’t and neither does Sam. Not that I can blame them, the way she’s behaved toward Winter is unforgivable and although Winter has, her boyfriend and Nathan can’t.
Dwayne’s face goes a shade of grayish green as he cringes at the thought of what Soph will do to him, “Okay, so what can I help you with.”
“What I ask, stays between you and I. No one is allowed to know.” His eyes narrow but he waits for me to continue. “I need to find out what happened to Maddie, it happened about eight or nine years ago.”
“Scott, what the hell man?”
“Trust me, we all know something happened to her and it changed her. Hailey’s been through enough and I need to make sure that nothing else hurts her.”
He doesn’t even hesitate. “I’ll find out, don’t worry.” I know that he won’t stop searching until he finds out the truth. He cares about Hailey and he doesn’t want anything else to happen to her. “I’ve been searching for Eric, he’s great at hiding. He’s not withdrew anything for the past week, he’s not been online and he must have a new cell as his other one hasn’t pinged. I’m not letting that asshole get away, it just means I have to dig into his life deeper.” A dark look comes over his face and I know that he’s got both situations in hand, “we’re going to find Eric and we’re going to find him before the cops do. No one hurts Hailey and gets away with it.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dwayne so serious. “She’s okay, isn’t she?”
I give him a look, if she wasn’t wouldn’t he have been told? Moron. “Why don’t you go and see her?” Besides me, Nathan is the only one from P.I.G.S to visit her in the hospital.
He looks sheepish, “I didn’t think she’d want to see me, well the guys were talking and we didn’t think she’d want to see any of us.”
“Why would you think that?” I bite out, Hailey would have loved to see the guys, it would have brought normalcy to her day.
“Well, because we should have helped her, we should have stopped him a long time ago. We let it continue.”
“You don’t think that’s going through everyone’s mind right now. You don’t think we all wish we had stopped him? All we can do now is show her that we’re here for her, show her that we won’t let her come to harm again. Show her that she’s one of us and no one messes with us.” He nods as I tell him this but I know that Hailey made up her mind and there was nothing we could have said or done to change it.
“You’re right. I’ll swing by after work. If I find anything on Maddie I’ll let you know.” He turns his attention onto the computer in front of him. I leave him too it because I have one more stop to make before I go back to the hospital. I walk into my office and grab my keys, knowing that Dwayne’s searching for Eric and what happened to Maddie. Looking at the clock I see I have only seven minutes until he finishes work.
I rush out of the building and across the street and stand outside the coffee shop as I wait for Jake to finish. I don’t know how I’m going to tell him everything but he needs to know, Jake is the one person she needs right now and that’s a harsh pill to swallow but I’m not a selfish ass and the main thing is for Hailey to get better, to feel safe again. The door to the coffee shop opens and Jake’s glued to his cell phone, not once looking at his surroundings. I place my hand on his shoulder and the poor kid jumps out of his skin. “Oh, hey Scott, is everything okay?”
“Come on Kid, we’re going for a ride.” with my hand still on his shoulder I direct him towards the parking lot where my car is. He doesn’t say anything just follows me. Damn, this kid needs to have a crash course in safety or something.
“Um, where are we goin
g?” He finally asks when I drive out of the parking lot. “Is everything okay?”
I glance at him, the wringing of his hands and his leg jumping tells me that he’s either nervous or scared shitless. “Not really, Hailey’s in the hospital.”
“What the hell happened? Drive faster!” Shock’s setting in.
“A few days ago, Hailey moved in with Maddie.” I see relief enter his eyes, he’s thinking she finally got away from that bastard. “The night they moved in, Eric broke in and beat the two of them. Maddie has a broken arm and a few broken ribs. Hailey, had swelling on her brain, she has a broken leg, broken wrist, and her nose is broken.” Tears fall from his eyes; this kid really does love Hails. “She’s okay, she’s slowly getting better.”
“I told her, I begged her to get rid of him. God! Why didn’t she listen?” He angrily wipes his tears away.
“You were right, she had left him.” I’m looking at the road but I catch his head swing my way from the corner of my eye. “He broke into her house that night and held her and Maddie at gunpoint. He told her that she had a choice go back with him or both you and Maddie would die.”
“That stupid, brave, beautiful girl what the hell was she thinking? She should have told me, I would have made sure he wouldn’t have touched her.” He’s broken, the tears are falling but no matter how many times he wipes them away they continue to fall.
“I know, we’ve all said the same thing but you know Hailey, she’ll do anything she can to protect the ones she loves.”
“Stupid fool.” He mutters and I don’t know if he’s talking about Hailey or himself. “I should have known there was something wrong. Hailey would never willingly stay with someone who called me a queer or a faggot.”
That gets my anger rising again, that fucker isn’t just a woman beater he’s a homophobic asshole too. “Hailey didn’t want me to tell you and she’ll probably be mad as hell but I don’t care, she needs you now more than ever.”
“Damn straight, she does. I can’t believe she wasn’t going to tell me.” He looks like a wounded puppy now. Great, he’s hurt that she didn’t want him to know. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because she’s ashamed. She feels ashamed now that everyone knows what’s happened.” She told me, only yesterday, that she’s ashamed and that now that everyone knows they look at her with pity.
“She shouldn’t be ashamed. She’s done nothing wrong!” He shouts and damn near bursts my ear drum, I turn and glare at him. “Sorry, damn it Scott, surely she knows that she doesn’t have to be ashamed. She’s too good, too selfless, how did this happen, why did this happen?” He’s talking to himself but he’s right, why did it happen to her? No one deserves a beating, no one deserves what she’s been through especially when it could have been prevented. “I should have helped her, I shouldn’t have let her push me away.” He swipes away at his tears, “How is she?”
“She’s getting better physically, as for emotionally, well only time will tell. We all wish we could have done things differently but all we can do now is let her know that she’s safe and she’s going to stay that way.” Eric’s not getting near her, there’s no fucking way, I’ll kill him before he’s within ten feet.
I park in the parking lot and Jake is getting antsy, he keeps giving me a look that screams hurry the hell up. We walk into the hospital and as we start walking up the stairs to get to her ward, we see Maddie coming down them, her face red and puffy. She’s been crying again, damn, that means Hailey will be crying too. She gives us a tight smile as she passes us, I wish Dwayne would hurry up and get back to me, I need to know how serious her secret is, will it affect Hailey?
Walking into her room, I see that her eyes are red, she’s been crying. She’s lying on her back but her head is facing the door. Her eyes widen as Jake walks in but she soon bursts into tears. It doesn’t take him long to pull her into his arms, “You stupid, brave girl! I love you.” He climbs into the bed beside her and rocks her as they both weep, jealousy creeps in but I’m not going to do anything about it, right now they both need each other.
My phone rings and Hailey and Jake are still crying, I pull it out of my pocket and see that it’s Dwayne calling. I leave the room so I can talk in private, “What have you got?” I don’t bother with formalities.
“Nothing on Eric, that fucker has disappeared of the face of the earth. I’m still searching and I’m going to find him, he can’t stay hidden for much longer.” Fuck, how the hell is he staying hidden, there is more to him than what we know and I have no doubt Dwayne’s going to find him. “As for the other thing you asked me, damn, bro! You’ve known her your whole life?”
I’m wary now, what the hell has he found out. “Yeah, her and Soph met in Kindergarten.”
“I found out what happened and you’re going to be shocked.” Dwayne says skeptically and I doubt that I’ll be shocked, nothing about Maddie can shock me anymore.
Chapter Twelve
Hailey
Three Months Later.
I smile at Addison as she walks towards me, she looks better now and she has fully come to terms with what happened in London. Her best friend was killed in front of her and she was kidnapped in hopes of getting her sister Skye to come and find her, which she did. The man behind Addison’s kidnap wanted Skye to join his criminal empire, I don’t blame him, even seven months pregnant Skye is kickass. Addison and I have grown really close, both of us had been hurt and in turn both have had nightmares of what’s happened to us. She’s been with me every step of the way through my recovery. From trying to walk again after breaking my leg, to truly opening up about how I feel, letting my emotions out and not trying to keep it bottled in. I was scared of the reaction I would receive if I were to say what was on my mind, it’s stupid because no one in my life right now would hurt me but I was accustomed to being hit if I gave an opinion that differed from Eric’s.
Maddie was the hardest to let my emotions out to, I know that the others blame her for what happened to me, I’ve told them all that they shouldn't. I went willingly and I would do it again if it meant that my sister and my best friend were safe. The reason I’m having a hard time letting my emotions out to her is because of the guilt I have, knowing that she made a choice to keep me kills me. I know it’s because she loves me and that I have no doubt about, but knowing what she sacrificed so I could stay with her kills me and I wish there was some way I could repay her, help her but I know there isn’t.
Scott has been so sweet, so understanding. I know that he’s wanted to start a relationship since the day I came out of the hospital but that wouldn’t have been fair to either of us. I knew that I needed time, I needed time to heal and time to be myself again. Scott would have taken me anyway but he wouldn’t have had the real me, he would have had the broken me. I couldn’t do that to him, I couldn’t do that to myself. He’s been cheering me on every step of the way and when I finished up with Dr. Moran, I knew that if he was still waiting, I’d happily start dating as I was in a happier place. He took me out that night, he told me he was done waiting, that he knew how hard I had worked to get to this point and he didn’t care, I was his and he was taking me on a date.
I’m at a stage where I’m happy in my life, both Maddie and I are living in the same building as Scott, just a different apartment. I overheard Nathan and Sam saying how pissed they were that Scott was letting Maddie stay in his apartment and I felt bad, I had begged him to let her stay and he was getting shit because of it. So, I asked Luke to help us find a secure place to stay and he ‘happened’ to know someone who was renting an apartment two floors above Scott’s.
Going back to work has been hard for two reasons. One: because everyone knows what happened and I was worried they’d think I deserved what happened for staying with him. Two: P.I.G.S and Smithy International merged as one company. All employees from both firms have so far been kept on and I was so worried that they wouldn’t want me anymore. As Smithy International had a lovely receptionist by the
name of Keely but I was told before I went back that they wanted the two of us and before the merger happened we both needed firearms training. The merger has been successful and Smithy International is bigger than ever, we’re constantly rushed off our feet, which is a great sign and I also got a raise so win, win for everyone.
“Hey you, how’s Skye?” We’re all so excited, we don’t know what she’s having yet although everyone at Smithy’s think Ryder and Skye do know and in turn Addison knows but so far no one has let it slip. There’s a bet going between the guys on what weight the baby will be.
“Happy,” She rolls her eyes but the smile she has gives away the fact that she’s glad her sister is happy. “She and Ryder put the baby’s nursery together today but of course no one’s allowed to see it.”
“Aww, they must be so excited. She’s got less than three months until the baby’s arrival. Hell, even I’m excited. How are you?” We walk into the coffee shop where Jake works, even though it’s an hour away from Smithy’s I still come by every night after work. Sometimes I bring Addison with me and Jake absolutely adores her. Since Scott brought him to the hospital to see me, he’s had to speak to me every day, there isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t text, call, or see me. I know that he feels as though he was a bad friend for not calling me when Maddie went to rehab but it was the best thing, having him at arm's length meant that Eric wasn’t near him. We order and take a seat in the far corner of the shop.
“I’m okay, I finally managed to get a job.” Her eyes light up and that means she’s got a job she loves, something to do with art. It’s the reason she was in London, she was working in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
“Tell me where, good God woman, don’t keep me in suspense.” Jake brings the coffees over but he’s busier than a one-armed paperhanger, it’s rush hour as everyone’s in grabbing a coffee after finishing work.
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