“I guess. Or would you rather stay out here with the cat?”
I found the cat watching me, daring me to even try it. Behind it, in the dark alley, I swear I saw movement in the shadows once again.
I quickly followed Hailey inside.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cool, crisp air-conditioning greeted me when I entered Hailey’s home and took in my new surroundings. The house looked bigger on the inside, with a wide-screen TV and sound system and pristine kitchen that looked like no one had cooked in it in years. I bet the trash can was full of take-out containers… unless Hailey and Luke had a chef. I wouldn’t be surprised.
Most of the homes on the Isle were laid-back, bohemian, or beach style. Hailey’s place smelled like a hotel, one of the upscale ones that piped in the expensive scents. I always felt uncomfortable in places like this, as if even the furniture wondered what I was doing here.
“Does it meet your standards?”
I shrugged. “It’s alright.” I turned around, finding Hailey right behind me and in my personal space. I didn’t like how she could creep up on me without me knowing she was coming. It was something no one had ever really been able to do.
I shook off my unease, noticing like I had the first time howpretty her eyes were. And her lips, they looked like the top of a heart, perfectly covered in red lipstick—
I shuddered. What was I doing getting distracted when I was here on a mission? I must have been tired.
She raised an eyebrow, her red lips curving in a smirk like she knew what I’d been thinking. Heat flushed my cheeks.
Her eyes narrowed like she was using her bullshit detector. “Don’t let my mom catch you saying that. The amount she dropped on this place.” Hailey sighed resignedly. “It’s repulsive.”
“And yet, here you live.” I put a hand on my hip, twisting my lips at her to let her know I was calling bullshit too.
Her eye twitched. I hit a nerve, and I had to admit it felt good to give it a little to someone after everything that had been going on.
I shook my head and mumbled that she should forget it and moved past her to the row of family pictures on the walls and the mantel of her fireplace in the living room. Her and Luke at various stages of their lives, together and always laughing. With their parents and looking so formal, very blond magazine-cover perfect, the four of them.
“I got tired of blond,” she said when she noticed me looking at the photo.
And then another photo with an extra guy added in. I leaned in. He looked like Hailey’s mom, with a sharp nose, thin lips, and a stare that could freeze water.
Hailey studied him too. “My uncle Simon; my mom’s younger brother. He runs the Endowment.”
“He looks intense,” I said.
Hailey’s lips pursed, her gaze growing distant. “He can be.” She came back from wherever her mind had taken her, refocusing on me. She mustered up a smile. “Make yourself at home.”
I sat down stiffly on the edge of the cream-colored settee, beating down the sudden onset of homesickness. It came out of nowhere. But I had spent hours alone in Charleston, something I’d never done before even though the city wasn’t that far away, as wild as that sounded. It would be too easy to sayscrew itand go back home where Nana would take care of everything.
Hailey sat opposite me, looking just as uncomfortable as I felt. “I guess you got the news about the search.”
The homesickness went away. I nodded.
She mimicked me, her hands sliding up and down her thighs like she was nervous. “Why are you here?”
“It was one of the places Naira visited when she was here, and I want to know what happened. And why.”
Hailey blew out a slow breath. Her eyes flickered toward the windows, like she’d done when we were outside. I turned, thinking again that something might be there, but there was nothing in the dark on the other side of the glass.
“Don’t do that to yourself,” she whispered me. “She’s gone. Luke’s… gone. They called the search off.”
“Don’t you want to know what happened?”
“Their boat crashed and sank. It’s been three weeks, Addae.” I hated how she looked at me, like she felt sorry for me.
“Because life must go on, right?” I snapped. She was just another person who wanted to move on like nothing happened, like they didn’t even exist.
