SAWYER
“SAWYER!”
I’d never heard my name cried so excitedly, so eagerly, even the time I scored the winning goal at our high school hockey playoffs. Hayden’s sad, beautiful eyes were filled with tears as she flung herself into my arms.
“Oh my God, I’m so happy you’rehere!”
I was happy too. Especially since I’d dreaded her reaction to barging in like this, completely unannounced. But it wasn’t like I had a choice, really. Not after what we’d seen so far.
And my God, forget all that. She just feltso. Fucking. Good.
“Cole was just here!” she exclaimed, pulling back to look at me. Her hand went to my face, her fingers running over my stubble. Maybe to make sure I was really, truly here.
“He—He was outside. I saw him drive away, and…”
Damn, it was cute as hell.
“I know he was here,” I said closing the door behind me. “I’m the reason he went away.”
I swept into her apartment and started turning on lights. After touching a few of the switches, I realized the lights were already on.
“Energy-saving bulbs,” Hayden rolled her eyes, answering my unasked question. “Cole swapped them out when he changed everything else in the apartment.”
“What the fuck is wrong with him,” I swore, looking around.
“How much time do you have?” Hayden chuckled.
Her laugh triggered a flood of memories, instantly bringing a smile to my face. I missed it so fucking much! And shit, it’d only been a week.
The longest week of my life, though.
“Look, I know you made it clear you wanted to be left alone, but I had to tell you something.”
Hayden’s smile faded. She looked a little hurt. “I never said I—”
“Bigstick fuckhead has been tracking you,” I pointed toward the door. “He’s been following you around, practically everywhere you go.”
Her expression turned weird. Like she’d swallowed a handful of worms.
“H—How you do know that?”
I hesitated for an awkward moment, then shrugged.
“Becausewe’vebeen following you around, too.”
There. I’d said it. It was out there, and she could be mad about it, or she could be—
Relief crashed over me as Hayden flung herself back into my arms. This time I held her tightly, feeling the warmth of her body pressed solidly into my chest. I wanted to hold her like this forever. Even more, I wanted to pick her up and take herhome; to keep her safe and protected for the rest of her beautiful, gorgeous life.
“But how?” she eventually mumbled. “There’s no way Cole could’ve followed me. I made sure I wasn’t—”
“He’s been tracking you through GPS,” I cut her off. “He put a Tile on your car.”
Hayden’s mouth dropped open. I’d forgotten how pretty a mouth it actually was.
“It was attached to the inside of your wheel well,” I went on. “Stupid place for it, really. Easy to find. A few hours ago we tucked it into a Faraday bag, and gave it to a friend of ours who runs long haul trucking routes. He just pulled it out of the bag, and it started transmitting again.”
Realization dawned on her quickly. “So that’s why Cole just took off!”
