“It is,” he says. “I never should have let you go out alone.”
“I wasn’t alone. Andre was there.” I glance around the room, realizing I haven’t seen him since the salon. “Where is he? Where’s Andre?”
“He’s… Want some water?” August stands and goes to the table where there is a jug and a glass.
“August? Where’s Andre?” I repeat.
“I don’t want to say, and I’m also not going to lie. So please don’t ask.” He doesn’t look at me as he pours some water into the cup.
“Where is he?”
“He’s gone, Hayley. We found him… It was too late to help him,” August whispers.
Tears start running down my face. I only knew him for a few days. But August knew him, trusted him. “I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t do this, so you don’t have to be sorry,” August says, coming back over to the bed.
“No, I’m sorry that you have to feel that pain. He was your friend.”
“Nothing will ever compare to what I felt watching you bleed out on the ground. That… I’ve never been more scared in my life, Hayley.”
“Can I go home?”
“Not until the doctor says you can.”
“Can you lie with me, then?” I shuffle across the bed, and August climbs in next to me. “I’m scared to go to sleep.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know if you will be here when I wake up,” I tell him.
“I’ll be right here. I promise I’m not going anywhere.” August kisses the top of my head, and I let my eyes close.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
TWO HOURS EARLIER
“Igot him,” Colton says, looking up from his phone.
We’ve been sitting in the hospital room, waiting for Hayley to wake up. The doctor said he was able to stabilize the bleeding, so there shouldn’t be any long-term effects—thankfully, the knife missed anything vital.
“Where?” I’m already standing, ready to go.
“You stay here. I’ll go get him,” Colton says.
“No, he did this to my girlfriend. Not yours. You stay here. Call me the second she wakes up,” I tell him. “Send me the details.”
I walk out the door and force myself to keep going. I want to stay with her, but I need to find the fucking asshole who did this to her. I need to make sure he can never touch her again. And there’s only one way for that to happen.
By the time I get to the car, I’ve got the details on my phone. I tap the address into the GPS. It’s a twenty minute-drive.
Good, I can be there and back before Hayley wakes up. Hopefully.
I pull up two houses down from the fucker who I’ve now learned is Joseph fucking Kenn. A guy Colton and I grew up with. What the fuck he thinks I stole from him, I have no idea. It doesn’t matter, though. The minute he went after Hayley, he sealed his fate.
I open the glove compartment, take out the pistol I keep there, and check that it’s loaded. Then I walk up to the door. I don’t knock. Instead, I kick the fucker down and storm inside—gun raised.
“Drop it,” I tell him when I turn and see Joseph reaching for his own weapon.
