I’m jittery, unfocused, still detached from reality, half of my subconscious floating back into what I’ve just relived, half clinging to Nash like he’s my lifeline. The only thing that connects me to the here and now.
“You hit them,” I whisper, focusing on the present, my voice shaky. “What if they press charges?”
The question should be different, I know.Whydid you hit them? They were only trying to help...
“I keep you safe, and I decide how.”
I swallow hard, shaking with worry. What if he’s taken in for questioning and the cops tell the dean? She’ll call Dad. She’ll tell him I left the campus again.
It took an hour after the dean informed him I got lost in the woods looking for a missing student to calm him down enough that he stopped planning to take me away from Lakeside.
“It’s not safe, Hailey. That boy went missing!”
My arguments won’t hold up if he finds out I snuck off campus. He won’t let me stay. He’ll hide me somewhere, somewhere new and foreign. Far from Lakeside.
Far from Nash.
A soft shudder shakes me at the thought.
“Your lack of trust in me is insulting,” Nash says, his fingers tracing gentle patterns along my spine. “Easy, pretty girl.” He stamps a kiss on my head. “You’re safe.”
Am I? Dad would disagree, but when Nash is close, nothing can touch me. He keeps me safe. He’s the only person who’s made mefeeltruly safe since I woke up in hospital. Instinctively I burrow my face in his chest, inhaling his spicy, tangy scent.
There’s more there. A unique blend of leather, cologne, and sex. Strong and heady. It shouldn’t be soothing, but three deep breaths stop me shaking in the cold night air.
The distant murmur of the town gets lost, the growing noise of police sirens drowning everything else out until the patrol cars stop and the sound dies.
“You don’t calm down easily, do you?” Nash says, kissing my head again while red and blue lights dance across my closed eyelids. “If I say it’ll be fine, itwillbe fine, Hailey.”
“Dad will take me away if he finds out I left campus.”
“No one will ever take you away from me.”
Car doors slam at the mouth of the alleyway and heavy footsteps reverberate against grimy bricks, growing louder as they approach. Pulling away enough to see, I watch police officers emerging from the glare of the headlights, their shadows stretching and weaving against the alley walls.
A familiar face, lined with deep wrinkles, steps forward while his men hang back. Every move he makes radiates authority, but it’s the tired kind, like he can’t wait to retire and kick back with a fishing rod and a can of Coors.
It’s the same sergeant who questioned us when Nash brought me back to campus on Monday.
“Ah, you two,” he says, his voice gruff, eyes lingering on Nash’s hold around my waist. “Alright, what happened here?”
“I—” I pause, swallowing the lump clogging my throat. “I had a panic attack. I jumped out of the car and Nash...” I gesture to him with a trembling hand, “...came after me. It... it was a misunderstanding.”
I try moving to Nash’s side, but he holds me still while one of the men he punched steps forward, his face smeared with blood, more spattered down his jacket, hands, a few specks on the tops of his white converse.
“He attacked us! We were trying to help!”
The sergeant narrows his eyes at Nash, a flicker of amused curiosity in his gaze, probably recalling the fury coursingthrough Nash when the paramedic tried to make him leave the ambulance while I was being checked over.
Or he remembers how he carried me for five miles, then hardly let go of me until we were both dismissed.
“That true?” he asks, surveying everyone.
“Yes.” My hands fall away from Nash’s hoodie. “But like I said, it was a misunderstanding. I panicked and they thought he was hurting me.”
One of the other officers who was with Nash and Levi when they found us—Malik—steps forward, his rookie eagerness resonating in every step and every word. “We got multiple calls about a disturbance, Sarge.”
“I’m aware, but...” The sergeant rubs the bridge of his crooked nose, dragging his hand lower to pinch his chin. “I can see the lady’s unharmed, so—”
