Deadly Mistake (Deadly Series Book 5)

by K. L. Humphreys

  “Hmm,” he licks his lips as he gets to his feet, “If you had showed me this side to you, I would have played nicer.”

  “Fuck you, asshole.” I can’t believe how much of a creep he’s being right now. He was an asshole but never this creepy or this dangerous, right now I’m scared for all of our safety right now.

  “That is the plan sweetheart.” he moves toward me again and I know that it’s only a matter of time before he grabs me again. “Just give in to the inevitable Hailey, there’s no point in delaying it.”

  Something black catches the corner of my eye and I reach my hand out to try and grab it. My fingers brushing against the coldness of the barrel, my eyes on Eric making sure that he doesn't see what I’m trying to do. I reach a bit further and my hand curls around it, a sense of relief washes through me. I can stop, him is what runs through my mind and although I know how to shoot, I’ve never shot anyone and I never thought I could do it.

  “You and that girl of yours are coming home with me.” He says again, walking towards me.

  “The hell we are.” I scream and his face changes from the calmness it had to a fully enraged asshole. His pace quickens and within seconds he’s almost on top of me I lift my leg and kick him again. It doesn’t send him sprawling but it does give me a little more time. I lift the gun and aim it at him, if he comes near me again I’m ready for him.

  “Hailey, what are you doing? Put the damn gun down.” he shouts, fear etched on his face.

  “Get the hell away from me.” I stand up, gun still pointed at him. He's not going to hurt me anymore.

  He laughs, “What are you going to do Hailey? Shoot me?”

  “If I have too.”

  He’s still laughing, “You don’t have it in you. Look at you, you’re pathetic. While we were dating, you were panting over that guy who rejected you. Now you’re living in this house, it’s like you’re stuck in the past. Stupid Hailey, she has no one, everyone around her is living their lives and they’ve all forgotten about you. No one comes and visits you, you have no one.”

  God, he’s been watching me for a long time. I haven’t had any visitors in the house since the day we brought Nicole home, I want her to be happy here so until she’s completely at ease around everyone, so I had been meeting everyone either at their houses or at the coffee shop where Jake works. “What about you? You want me, don’t you?” I laugh in his face and he’s getting madder, “I would never want you though.”

  He charges for me and I cock the gun hoping that it would stop him but it doesn’t, he keeps coming towards me. His hands grip my wrists and he tries to pull me towards him. I pull the trigger and he lets go of me as the force of the gun throws me to the ground. My breath is coming out in large pants as I stare at Eric on the ground, moaning in pain.

  I hear a car door slam and my name is being called but it sounds muffled, I think I'm in shock. Something touches me and I jump, no sound comes. “Hailey, please put the gun down.” It's Morgan, I can't move, the gun is tightly gripped in my hand. “Hails, please, he's not going to hurt you.” I feel her fingers brush mine as she grips the gun, I let go of it and Morgan wraps me into her arms. “It's okay, you're okay.”

  I pull out of her arms and rush into the house, running into Maddie’s room I open the closet and fall to my knees as I see Nicole’s beautiful tear stained face. I open my arms out and she rushes into them, I scoop her into a hug and hold her tight. Both of us crying and clinging tightly to each other.

  “Hailey? Nicole?” Scott’s frantic voice calls out and it’s not long before his arms are around us both and pulling us into his lap. “You’re okay.” it’s relief that I hear and he buries his head into my hair.

  “Is Markus okay?” I ask quietly not wanting to disturb Nicole, she’s moved her hands so that they’re wrapped around the both of us.

  “Yeah baby, he’ll be okay. He’s worried about you.” Scott whispers into my hair.

  “She’s bleeding.” Nicole tells him and he instantly moves us. I give him a look that portrays my annoyance, I wanted the comfort I was getting from them. He turns me around so I’m looking at him, his eyes narrow as he looks at my head. “I’ll get a band-aid.” Nicole cries rushing out of the room.

  “I’m so fucking mad at you Hailey.” His eyes glued to my head, “You could have been killed, what the hell were you thinking?”

  “I wasn’t, all I could think about was making sure that Nicole was safe.” I try to make him understand, “I just had to make sure that he couldn’t get to her. You have to understand that, I couldn’t let him hurt her.” I start to cry, my body shaking, I’m coming down from the adrenaline with a thud.

  He pulls me back into him, “I know, I understand why you did it. Please, the next time there’s a crazed asshole outside do not go after him.”

  “I promise. Is he… dead?” I could barely bring myself to ask, have I killed someone?

  “No unfortunately he’s not, he’s in a bad way and on his way to the hospital.” His tone hard and I know that he’s upset that I didn’t kill him but I’m not, I’m glad I didn't. I don’t think that I could live with knowing that I killed someone.

  “Morgan helped me find a band aid. Here Scott, put it on Hailey and make her feel better.” Nicole says as she hands him the first aid kit before she sits beside us on the floor. I move forward and kiss her head, loving that she leans into my kiss. “There’s loads of people outside, what’s happening?”

  “Okay, let’s see, Nicole you’ll help me, won’t you?” He asks her, hoping that she’ll busy herself helping him that she won’t take much notice of the goings on outside.

  “Yes, what do we need?” She enquiries as she looks as my head, “Does it hurt?”

  “No Hunny, it doesn’t.” I smile at her hoping to ease her fears.

  They get to work in cleaning me up, it stings when Scott puts the alcohol wipe on the cut. I hiss in a breath, “Sorry.” He whispers, remorse in those wonderful green eyes of his.

  “It’s okay,” I whisper back, my eyes on his, watching as every emotion runs through them. Happiness, anger, fear, and relief.

  “There, all done.” He leans forward and kisses where he’s just put the band-aid. Nicole quickly follows suit, as she kisses it she puts her arms around my neck hugging me.

  A cough interrupts us and I look to the door, Morgan’s standing there a sad smile on her face, “I hate to break this up but Hailey I need to take your statement.”

  Nicole releases me so I can stand up and go talk with Morgan, my eyes plead with Scott to make sure that Nicole isn’t around when this conversation is going on, but it’s Morgan that save us. “Nicole, Stephen and Luke are in the sitting room waiting for you. Want to go and say hi while I talk to Hailey and Scott for a few minutes?”

  “Oh yay,” She says excitedly, she turns to me her face all serious, “I’ll be in the sitting room if you need me.”

  My niece is something special, so amazing and caring. I nod, not able to talk right now because I’m close to crying. I’m so proud of her and I know that Maddie would be too.

  “Is she asleep?” Scott asks as I walk into our bedroom, he’s shirtless, lying in bed with a folder in his hands. He brings his work home but very rarely does he bring it to bed.

  “Yeah, the poor thing was exhausted.” She’s not the only one, I’m shattered right now. I start to change into my pajamas, wishing I had the energy for a shower but I don’t, I have barely enough energy to get changed.

  “I bet, I’m proud of the way she handled herself today.” I smile, I can hear how proud he is in his voice, “I’m just glad that the both of you are okay, today could have been so much fucking worse.” He says gruffly.

  I climb into bed, leaving my clothes scattered on the floor, “I know and I’m thankful that Markus is doing okay.” He’s out of surgery and the doctors say that he’ll make a full recovery, it’ll take time and some rehabilitation. As soon as I’m in the bed Scott puts his folder down and turns to face me
, his face etched with worry. “Are you okay?” I ask as I reach out and touch his face, his stubble rough against the palm of my hand.

  “I’ll be okay,” He shakes his head, “So many thoughts ran through my mind on the way over here, I heard the gunshot and assumed the worst. I thought you were dead Hails, I thought he’d shot you and he was going for Nicole next. I couldn’t breathe or think. I was numb.”

  “Oh Scott..” A lump builds in my throat, I can’t imagine what he or Nicole were thinking.

  “I love you Hailey, you’re the air that I breathe and the thought of losing you brought me to my knees.” He pulls me into his arms and kisses my head.

  “I love you too Scott. So much.” We’re quiet for a while, just lying in each other’s arms, loving the peace and comfort it brings. “I shot him Scott, I can’t believe that I shot him. I never thought I’d harm anyone, no matter what they did but I shot him.”

  “I know baby and you did the right thing. He would have killed you, deep down you know that. I’m going to organize an appointment with a counselor, you need to talk to someone and I think it’ll be the best way to help you heal.” He says softly, pulling me closer towards him.

  “You’ll see them too, won’t you?” Hoping he’ll agree so that he can talk through his fears.

  “Yeah baby, I’ll talk to the shrink.” He’s got humor in his voice and I love that we’re not letting this affect us. “Sleep baby, no doubt Nicole will be up early.”

  “Gone are the days of sleeping in until noon.” He chuckles and the sound makes me smile, “goodnight Scott, love you.” I mutter against his chest.

  “Sweet dreams Hailey; bet they’ll be about me.”

  “Full of yourself.” I mutter but I can’t stop the smile from forming.

  “Sleep.” He says and I can hear the tiredness in his voice, it’s been a long, draining day. I kiss him again and close my eyes, hoping that I’ll be able to sleep and not have any nightmares.

  Epilogue

  Hailey

  Six Months Later

  “Merry Christmas Mommy Maddie.” Nicole sings as we make our way to the graveside. “Mommy Hailey and Daddy Scott got me loads of presents.” She turns to me, “Do they celebrate Christmas in Heaven?”

  “Yes, of course they do. Maddie and your grandparents will be celebrating together and looking down on you.” Scott tells her as he sits beside her.

  “Oh yay. That’s good, I hope she gets loads of presents.”

  I smile at her exuberance, we come and visit Maddie every week. Both Scott and I bring her, I don’t want her to feel as though Maddie isn’t part of our lives, she’s a massive part and Nicole gets to tell her all about her week. She’s told us that she loves coming to talk to Maddie, to let her know that she’s okay, that we’re all okay. Nicole called us mom and dad the day after the shooting. She told us that we are her parents. That she’s lucky that she’s had three mommies.

  “Mommy Hailey is having a baby, I’m going to have a brother or sister.” I look to Scott and see that he’s eyes are on me so full of love and happiness. I’m three months pregnant and, so far, Nicole is the only one to know; we’ll tell everyone when we’re ready. “I hope it’s a little girl, I want a sister. Boys are smelly and dirty.”

  Scott gives her a look, “Not all boys are smelly and dirty.”

  She ignores him and carries on talking, “Uncle Jake has found a boyfriend and he’s really nice. He’s working with mommy and daddy now. I’m not going to call him uncle yet because Jake told me that he has to take thing slowly first. I don’t know what that means but I promised Jake that I wouldn’t call Marty uncle.”

  That little rat. Oh, I’m going to kill him, he’s been telling her all sorts of things lately including how to put makeup on which would be fine except Scott asked him not too, we want her to stay a child as long as possible. She’s grown so much since we’ve brought her home, in every way possible. She’s grown at least three inches, if not more, and her personality is one that we all enjoy. She’s so outgoing and vibrant, so much like her mother was that it's a joy to be a part of her growing along with making memories and reliving older ones.

  Nicole’s favorite thing to do is sit in the library we made and have everyone and anyone tell her about Maddie. I’ve got Dwayne and Henry looking into finding as much as they can about Liza Matthews as they can. That woman was a part of Nic’s life for a long time and it’s only fair that she’s celebrated and recognized for that.

  “Aunty Morgan’s having a baby too. She’s having a boy so I’m going to have a cousin. Another one, I asked Aunty Sophia if she’s having any more and she laughed at me. She told me that Uncle Nathan has put his foot down, he thinks there are too many girls around and he doesn’t want anymore. He’s silly because you can never have enough girls. Girls are the best.” She turns and sticks her tongue out at Scott. Morgan’s five months pregnant and they couldn’t be happier, they’ve so far only told close family, so that means that everyone knows. Morgan was so worried when she first found out, she was so anxious that they would lose this baby too. I think we all felt relief when she hit the twelve-week mark, but we know that even then things can go wrong, thankfully, everything seems to be okay and their rainbow baby is due in about four months.

  “Mommy Maddie that evil man that hurt you and mommy Hailey died, he won’t hurt anyone anymore.” I look over to Scott and I know that he can feel my eyes on him but he doesn’t look at me. I got a visit from Morgan at the beginning of the week, Eric had committed suicide in his cell. I felt instant relief knowing that he couldn’t come after me anymore but I also had a feeling there was more to this than actually meets the eye and anytime I brought it up with Scott he changed the subject. Do I want to know what really happened? No I don’t, Eric’s dead and there’s nothing he can do to hurt me or my family anymore. Markus, has made a full recovery and is back to work, he’s no longer considered a recruit but a member of the family.

  We stay for a while and Nicole nonstop talks about anything and everything. “Come on Nic, it’s time to get going.” Scott tells her as he gets to his feet and these are the times that I hate. I hate that we have to leave her, I hate that we have to say goodbye. It still hurts that she’s gone and I’m mad at myself for putting us all in the position where we all got hurt. Because I didn’t listen to my first instinct and carried on talking to him, my sister died trying to protect me, I lost the person I looked up too, and my niece is without her mom. That stupid mistake is all it took to destroy our lives.Yes, we’ve gradually started to rebuild but they’ll never be the same again. There’s a piece of us missing that we’ll never get back.

  “Okay daddy.” She’s quiet for a moment as she looks down at the grave, “I love you mommy Maddie, I’ll be back next week and tell you all about the wedding.” She blows a kiss and takes Scott’s hand, “Okay mommy, we’ll see you in a minute but don’t take too long, we don’t want to be late for the wedding.” She’s such a bossy little thing.

  “I won’t be too long, I promise.” I put out my pinky, because a pinky promise means you’re not lying. She smiles at me and starts to pull on Scott’s arm, they’re giving me alone time with Maddie. “Hey beautiful lady, God that daughter of ours is something huh? Mads, she’s so much like you it hurts, but in a good way. She reminds me of all the goodness that was you.” Tears well in my eyes as they always do when I talk to her. “Today is hard, not only is it my first Christmas without you, it’s my first Christmas with Nic and it was so good but you were missing. I kept turning my head to tell you something but you weren’t there.”

  I turn back when I hear Nicole laughing as she sees the butterflies around her, one day she was in the backyard and there were five butterflies flying around, something that I had never seen before or seen since, she asked me what it meant and I told her that seeing butterflies means that a loved one is near. Seeing those five meant that her mommy Liza, mommy Maddie and her grandparents were watching over her. She wanted to know who the
fifth butterfly was and I told her that it was a man that meant a lot to everyone in our family. He died trying to protect Winter that Connor means the world to all of us.

  “Mommy, look mommy Maddie’s following me.” She cries as she runs and the butterfly follows her.

  I smile and turn back to Maddie, “You should be here today, you should be standing by my side.” I let the tears fall, “I told you when I was sixteen that I was going to marry Scott Dallas and you we’re going to be my maid of honor you told me no matter who I married you’d be my maid of honor. God Mads, you should be here, you should be standing up in that church and watching me marry the man I’ve loved since I was sixteen.”

  I take a deep breath, “I miss you more than you’ll ever know. I love you so much and I’m so proud of you.” I stand up and kiss my hand and then touch her headstone, “You told me that you would redeem yourself, let me tell you something, you never had too. Not to me, not to Nic, and definitely not to anyone else. You went down a wrong path but you came back, hell you came back better than before. You showed me that it’s okay to make mistakes, everyone does, it’s how you deal with them that counts. You dealt with the mistakes you made the only way you could and I can’t ever fault you for that, you coped the only way you could.”

  Nicole calls my name, it’s time for me to go, “Know that I love you Maddie and I’m so proud of you. Thank you for Nicole, she’s the most amazing little girl, look after Mom and Dad for me.” I blow her a kiss, turn away and start walking towards my family.

  I gaze into Scott’s eyes, hardly believing that today has actually happened. I am about to become Mrs. Hailey Dallas, who would have thought this could actually happen? It really does prove that dreams can come true.

  “I love you with all my heart and soul Scott. You are the rock that I never thought I wanted but certainly needed. You picked me up when I thought I was broken, when I thought I couldn’t breathe with the pain I was in. You didn’t even hesitate when I told you that I wanted to give my niece a home. You jumped in head first and gave me and Nicole the safety and love that we needed. You made us a family we sought after, you make sure that we know every day how much you love us. So, I Hailey Mayers, take you, Scott Dallas, to be my lawfully wedded husband, my hero, and the father of our children for the rest of eternity.” Gasps filter through the church when I place my hand on my stomach and say our children. I wasn’t going to tell everyone this way, it just felt right. I was meant to write my vows but everything I wrote down sounded so cheesy. So, I decided that I would wing it, I’d look at him and I know what I needed to say, I was right, as soon as I looked into his eyes my feelings came flooding out.