ChapterTwenty-Nine
RANEY
My shoulders scream in protest at how hard I hug him. I bury myself into his neck and breathe in his cinnamon scent, while also perfuming up for him. This consuming need to soothe him is as necessary as breathing.
“It’s okay,” I whisper over and over against the crook of his neck. The way his arms are wrapped around me, it’s pretty obvious he’s not okay.
No matter the circumstance, no matter if I think he’s been completely set up by the Anders family, it doesn’t stop me comforting him. Goddamn these bonds we have. “How could you not have told me? I would have helped you.”
He shakes his head violently against mine, and I get it. How do you start justifying what you did? And you never should have to explain to anyone but yourself. Survival has to come before everything, I know it. I’ve lived it.
“Hayes...”
As I wrap my hand around his face, he fights against me for a few moments before everything in him lets go. He drops his forehead to mine, his eyes still slammed shut.
“Don’t shut me out…” I whisper.
He takes a shuddering breath, and it sounds so full of hurt, but I keep my hands wrapped around his face as he fights against me. His tears fall, but he refuses to look at me.
“I did this. I ruined everything,” he whispers, his confession barely audible.
I have a million questions, seriously, he has a child! But before I can say a thing, his body gives out, and we both drop to the floor of the car in an ugly, loud mess.
The door gets wrenched open. “Raney,” Rhodes yells out in a panic. And I realise belatedly it would look like Hayes had grabbed me and not the other way around.
“I’m okay. It was me. No guns,” I call out, looking up and raising my hands to the man standing overlooking, hyper vigilant, and hyper freaked out.
And like a good bodyguard, he doesn’t take my word for it as he reaches in the cabin to nab me. His hand poised to rip Hayes off me, but he stalls, seeing Hayes in his stressed out like state, and also the vice like grip I have on him.
“I’m okay. Honest. I tackled him, not the other way round,” I repeat quickly, trying to keep a lid on his growing need to protect.
“It didn’t look like that. It looked like he attacked you.” He nods dismissively as he keeps assessing the situation for himself.
“It was all me. My fault we’re tangled up. Hey, can you find my phone and some water, please,” I ask Rhodes as I try to rouse Hayes, shaking his shoulders when he starts blanking out on me.
“Will you be safe with him?” Rhodes asks me, scepticism in his voice.
“Of course, I am. Never been safer,” I reply as I kneel in front of Hayes. “Come on, get off the floor and come sit on the bench with me again. It will help Rhodes tone down the aggression too.”
I’m a bit surprised when Hayes does what I ask, though it’s easy to see he’s still not back to his normal self yet. Rhodes moves to get water out of the trunk.
“Can we keep this between me and you, Rhodes. I don’t want the others knowing any of the detail.” I start checking my messages, not finding the phone numbers from Puck I need. I have to dig through Hayes’ pockets to find his phone.
“What’s your passcode?” I ask once I’ve got it out.
Thankfully Hayes hears and holds his finger out and I manhandle it to open his phone. It takes me all of two seconds to locate Talon’s number.
“I’m going to call Talon and get him to meet you at home. Where do you live?”
He mumbles off some address without looking at me, and I hope Rhodes caught it. The usual nod I get when I look at him confirms he did.
“Close the door, keep watch for me, Rhodes,” I say, getting bossy.
Talon’s number rings out but goes to message bank. “Hey, it’s me. When you get this message can you get your ass back to your place. He told me. We need to catch up to figure this out, but first I think he needs to be with you and…”
I need time to figure out exactly what the hell is going on. That’s not me being selfish, turning everything about me, because fucking hell, this became something so much more. I guess I need to figure out if it’s my ‘more’ or if this is a Hayes only more.
“I’m sorry, Raney.” His words are so full of regret and guilt, they make me close my eyes to stop my own tears from gathering.
