“Only people who have low self-esteem would belittle someone like that. You have to make yourself feel better by putting Hayley down.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I can see right into your soul, sister,” I said. “And it’s not a pretty sight.”
“Get out of my house before I call the cops.”
I smirked. “It’ll take them ten to twenty minutes to get here. We’ll be long gone.”
“I don’t like you.”
“I’m hurt.”
Turning her back on me, Medusa went to a side table and opened a drawer. After taking a lighter and a cigarette box from it, she lit up with hands that trembled slightly. I absently wondered why they shook, but put the reason down to her neurosis. Or illicit drug use.
Hayley returned from her room with a bulging satchel, walking down the stairs with it slung over her shoulder. She eyed Roxanne with brief curiosity before nodding to me.
“Let’s go.”
I gestured for Hayley to walk in front of me toward the door. From behind me came a strident shriek that sounded like a mix of a wild cat in heat and a baboon. I half turned, pausing, but Hayley continued on without looking back.
“I’ll get you, you little tramp,” Roxanne screamed. “You don’t walk out on me, slut. I hate you. I hate you both.”
“Give it a rest, Medusa,” I said calmly. “She’s out of your life just as you wanted.”
“I’ll get her,” she screeched, lunging toward me with her hands bent into claws. “I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you, I swear to God.”
I lifted my arm in a defensive motion, warding off her attack. Roxanne bounced off it like a pinball striking the wall, then fell, sprawling on her butt. Her cigarette flew from her fingers to land on the costly tiles, and burned a nasty black stain on the ceramic.
“You hit me!”
“I did not.” I sighed. “You attacked me, you fell down. Can’t you just have a bit of civility? Any possible decency?”
“No.”
I turned to find Hayley at my elbow, staring down as her sister beat the floor with her hands, screaming, her dark hair flying around her face. I watched in dreadful fascination, unable to fathom why such a minor issue resulted in a wild display of temper. Was this woman insane?
Hayley looked up at me, real fear tightening the lines at her eyes, the corners of her mouth.
“There’s no decency in her, Alaric,” Hayley said over the piercing voice shrieking like a toddler in a tantrum. “There’s no reasoning with her. All she has is her hate. Most of it for herself.”
“I hate you! You bitch! You did this to me!”
Roxanne awkwardly stood up, her hands still bent into talons. I braced myself for another attack, but Roxanne satisfied herself with hurling every insult under the sun at Hayley. Hayley rested her hand in the crook of my arm, and jerked her head for us to depart.
I obeyed her, turning my back on the hate-filled woman, absently wondering what brought her to this. I shut the door on Roxanne’s at the top of her lungs diatribe, and patted Hayley’s hand as we walked to my truck.
“Why are you scared?” I asked, handing her into the cab.
Hayley looked past me at the McMansion we’d just vacated. “She’s capable of violence,” she murmured. “You saw some of it.”
“She’ll never harm you.”
“You don’t know that.” Hayley met my gaze with a rueful shrug. “You’re leaving. Remember?”
I cursed under my breath. She was right. Unless Hayley came with me, I wouldn’t be at her side to protect her. I shut the door, and walked around the front of the truck to get in. I saw nothing of Roxanne as I drove us both away from that madhouse. It wouldn’t be difficult for Roxanne to find myaddress, and she certainly would know that Hayley was living with me.
Would she act on her threats? Her hatred?
