She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and jolted back upright. “I’m fine,” she said stonily.
Zander, who had paused just ahead of her, turned in her direction, and to Hayley’s horror, she saw a car roar precariously close to the small group heading for Maddox’s car. Simultaneously, the front and back windows on the passenger side slid down and two guns appeared. Before she could shout a warning, shots sounded.
She lunged toward Zander as her violin case went skidding across the ground. Desperately she tried to push him away, but when her body slammed into his, his arms wrapped around her like steel beams and they both went flying to the ground, Zander landing atop her with a sickening thud.
She was screaming his name. She knew she was and yet she couldn’t hear anything. All she could feel was the warmth of his blood as it soaked into her clothing and the absolute limpness of his unconscious body.
28
Hayley huddled in the corner of the waiting room, head down, knees drawn to her chest in a tight ball as she rocked back and forth. The police had questioned her incessantly, but there was little she could tell them. It had all happened so fast. She couldn’t even provide a description of the vehicle because all she’d seen were the windows sliding down, guns aiming in her direction. She could only remember the terror and certainty of Maddox, Justice or Zander being killed. And then Zander covering her. Taking the bullet that should have hit her.
Hayley had become extremely frustrated and increasingly more agitated to the point of hysteria that she couldn’t recall much at all about the gunmen. Only that they’d worn masks covering their entire faces except for their eyes. When it’d become apparent that as a result of their questioning, she’d only become more distraught, the police had turned their attention on Justice and Maddox. They’d been rigid and angry, more worried about Hayley than they were about cooperating with the investigating officers. Only when a witness at the scene had been able to give the authorities a lead on the vehicle the shooters had driven had the police finally stopped their inquisition.
Never fully aware, even during her questioning, Hayley had withdrawn even further, the feeling of Zander’s weight over her, the warmth of his blood covering her skin the only memories that overwhelmed and tortured her.
Several times a tentative seeking touch registered on her shoulder or arm but she flinched away, refusing to be drawn from the fog of worry, torment and guilt. She hadn’t been allowed to ride to the hospital with Zander, though she screamed his name and fought tooth and nail as Maddox and Justice both pried her away from Zander’s unconscious, bloody body. She’d refused to allow anyone to examine her, saying that Zander was the one who’d been shot. It was he who needed their attention. And she’d been furious with the police and their repeated attempts to distract her from her vigil.
She went still when she heard Maddox a few feet away on his cell phone as he apprised Silas of the night’s events.
“You need to get down here immediately,” Maddox said quietly. “She’s severely traumatized. She won’t let anyone near her. No, I don’t think she was hurt, but she’s not doing good at all, man. She needs you right now. She was devastated that you weren’t at the recital. She wasn’t herself after we told her that we had orders to take her directly back to the apartment. She wanted to go to some party she was invited to because she was under the impression you wouldn’t even be home tonight. She doesn’t understand the danger or the threat, or at least she didn’t. Damn it, Silas, she’s hurting and I don’t know how to make her stop.”
Fresh tears streamed down Hayley’s buried face, and her shoulders shook with sobs. She didn’t want Silas here. Not when it was so obvious she meant so little to him. Zander should have never been at her recital that night. He should have never been shot.
If he died because of her, she’d never forgive herself. Never would she be able to look any of the men now gathered in the waiting room in the face.
A furor of activity and sound echoed from across the room, andshe dimly registered the arrival of more of Silas’s friends. Then she heard an unfamiliar man’s harsh demand to know what had happened, and when she realized who he was—Drake—it only caused her to tear up all over again. What had happened? Did he know where his wife was and that Silas was with her and not with Hayley as he’d promised?
“Is she all right?” Drake demanded. “What the hell happened?Howdid this happen and who the hell is responsible?”
He raged on, but Hayley shut him and everyone else with him out. Everyone was there except the one person she most wanted—or had wanted. At the moment she didn’t think she could bear to face him.
“Who is with Evangeline?” Drake demanded hoarsely.
Hayley flinched and shifted so that her arms were now covering her ears in addition to her head.
“I sent Thane over so that Silas could get here as fast as he could,” Maddox said calmly. “I’ve kept him updated every few minutes. He’s one pissed-off man right now. Last time I spoke to him, he was just five minutes from the hospital, so he should be walking in any time now.”
So Drake did know that Silas had been with his wife all night, and was apparently unbothered by it. But then it was hardly likely that he knew the depth of his brother’s devotion to the woman he’d married.
Hayley curled into an even tighter ball, ignoring the pain, the guilt, her overwhelming worry for Zander, knowing that the very last thing she could handle right now was facing the man who’d broken his promise—and her heart.
***
Silas threw open the doors to the emergency room and immediately scanned the waiting area for Hayley, his heart lurching in fear when he didn’t immediately spot her.
“Where is she?” he demanded hoarsely.
Drake and Maddox both stepped toward him and then turned inthe direction of a faint, blood-covered figure huddled into a barely visible ball in the far corner.
“Hayley!” he cried, immediately shoving Maddox aside.
But Drake and Maddox held restraining hands on both his arms.
“Just hold up a minute,” Maddox murmured.
“What the fuck?” Silas raged. “Why hasn’t she been taken care of? Let me go, damn it!”
“She hasn’t spoken to anyone except the police when they questioned her, and even then she was pretty out of it. She won’t let anyone near her,” Maddox said in hushed tones. “She said she wasn’t hurt and screamed at everyone to take care of Zander. She tried to shove him out of the path of the gunmen but was too late and Zander took her down with him to protect her. She’s freaked-out, man. You’re going to have to take care with her.”
