Page 29 of Acceptance
Smirking, Lex nods. “It’s what I would’ve done, too.”
“Then an old guy named Mel came, and they took us, shoving us into a trunk after zip tying our hands.”
Reliving it brings back the fear she hadn’t allowed herself to fully feel at the time, and her body shakes. Lucas returns to the room and hands a T-shirt to Colt who stands in just his leather after giving his shirt to Hailey. “Here.”
“Thanks, buddy,” Colt says.
“What happened to Mel?” Hailey asks. “He ran the whole thing.”
Slipping the shirt on, Colt takes his leather back from Lex and pulls it onto his back again. “Do you want the gruesome details?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe when Lucas isn’t here,” Lex says.
Her brother shakes his head. “No, I want to know what happened to the guy who did this to my sister.”
Chuckling, Colt smiles. “Venom made good on his threat of cutting off Mel’s fingers and making him eat them. And before you ask, I have no idea where that came from.”
“But he’s alive?” she asks, eyes wide. Maybe she wasn’t right about them being her family.
“No, he’s very,verydead.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, both at knowing they killed him for her and that the mastermind is gone, she leans back in the chair. “When they threw us in that room, I hid my phone under the mattress. I had to try and learn their routine before I could call you, Colt. We had only a small amount of time until they moved us to the fourth floor.”
“You kept your wits about you,” Lex says and gives Lucas a knowing look.
“I know you guys already paid for the semester, but I don’t know that I can go back,” she whispers. “There… It… I’ll get a job and pay you back. I just… Please don’t make me go back.”
Hugging her tightly, Lex kisses her temple. “You don’t have to go back, sweetheart.”
“I’ll pay you back—”
“Don’t worry about it. We just needed you home safe, and you are. Do you want to stay here tonight? Or do you want to head back to the house?”
She lets out a shaky breath. “I should stay with Lindsey,” she says even though she’d love nothing more than to curl up in the bed of her room at Colt and Lex’s house.Herhouse. “Is that okay? She was about thirty seconds away from a total psychotic break.”
Hailey hasn’t asked for permission so much in her life, but she owes that very life to these people now. Every single person showed up for her, and they helped her. Even though she knows she’s done nothing to deserve it.
Gavin comes downstairs, and Colt whistles for him. “Take Hailey to the room you put Lindsey in. Can we get her some boxers or shorts or something?”
“Here,” Felicity says. “I grabbed her a pair when I got some for her friend.”
“Thank you,” Hailey says and takes them.
Hugging Lucas one more time, she follows Gavin upstairs. He stops in front of an apartment and regards her with a look she can’t quite decipher.
“Are you okay?”
“That’s yet to be determined, but physically, I’ll heal. The cuts and bruises aren’t that bad.”
His fingers gently touch her arm above the gauze someone put on her wrists before she left Riverview. Doc, she thinks. “I’m sorry this happened to you.”
“I’d say I’ve survived worse, but I don’t know how true that statement is anymore. I figure I’ll re-evaluate where I am mentally after I get some real sleep. Check on myself in the morning, you know?”
“When Mom called and said you were in trouble, I didn’t know what to do. We haven’t talked since that morning a month ago, and—”
“Can we have this conversation tomorrow or the next day, Gavin? We need to talk, but right now, I’m so mentally and physically exhausted that I might pass out right here. The adrenaline faded pretty quickly once we got here.”
