18. Hailey

EIGHTEEN

This was a disaster.

My thundering heart clobbered the base of my throat like a bass drum, my nerves so uncontrolled I could barely walk a straight line as I moved to the linen closet in the hall that was nestled next to the bathroom Maddie and Lolly shared.

I ripped open the door and frantically dug around for a blanket and pillow.

Flustered.

Agitated.

Shaken to the core by Pruitt showing up here. The truth that he didn't seem to care about what I had hanging over his head.

His threat lingered over me like vapor that swirled and spiraled and loomed.

Do you think I'm afraid of you? Do you realize how easily you could cease to exist?

It wasn't the first time he'd said something like that.

For years, it'd kept me stagnant.

Static.

Unable to move.

Somehow, some way, I'd found the courage to leave anyway, and I'd been so close to believing that we might actually be okay.

How ignorant I'd been.

I didn't know if Cody showing up here had made it better or worse. This comfort that I wanted to sink into that I knew could only be fleeting. Respite for what was sure to come.

It was stupid to allow him to stay here, to do this pretending thing out in public like he seemed set on, but I hadn't known how to argue when he'd been standing there looking at me like that.

So freaking resolved with my daughter's hand wrapped in his, the child jumping at his side, emitting all her joy without a single clue of what was coming for us.

Pruitt was here.

Nausea swam in my stomach, clawing its way through my insides and festering in my spirit.

Pruitt was here.

I had to figure something else out. Find a way to stop him.

Fully and completely.

My mind raced to the proof I kept hidden in a locked box beneath my bed.

But what then? What would it do to my dad? My father had been selling him horses for years. The thing was, he had no idea what was really happening with those horses, what they were being used for, the lawlessness that Pruitt embodied all while keeping a squeaky-clean name.

It'd taken me two years of living in the middle of it to discover his sins.

But I knew exposing it was the one thing that would stop him. It was the single power I possessed. I just needed to figure out how to wield it correctly.

Finally, I managed to tug free the big blanket I was looking for and dumped it on the ground then went in search for an extra pillow.

I gasped when a hand reached out and grabbed me by the elbow, and I whirled to find Lolly standing there with the most salacious grin on her face.

It slid right off when she saw what must have been written on mine.

Worry knitted her wrinkled brow.

"What is going on? I thought you were going to be happy that mountain man came knocking at your door, pushing his way right in, but I don't see a lick of happiness right now."

She almost tried to phrase it a tease, though I heard the concern.

The knot in my throat refused to lessen, and I took a painful, gulping swallow around it, looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening.

I dropped my attention back to her when I heard Cody laughing at something Maddie said from the kitchen.

"It wasn't Cody who first showed up here."

Surprise jarred her features, her dull gray eyes narrowing. "Who was it?"

My tongue darted out to wet my dried lips. "Pruitt."

Horror heaved from her lungs. A bout of anger rushed in behind it. "Are you kidding me? I can't believe that man had the nerve to show up at your door. I'd have thought he would have gotten the message that you don't want anything to do with him by now?"

"Pruitt has never been so good at taking no for an answer."

Only my grandmother didn't know how deep that really went. I'd never given her details, and she'd assumed that he'd strayed.

Cheated.

How sad I wished it were true.

"What does he want?"

A haggard laugh rolled up my throat. "What he's always wanted…me."

Under his thumb.

Submissive.

Playing the pretty prize to be paraded.

And you could say he'd never been much of a sport when he didn't get his way.

I should have seen it when he'd set his sights on me all those years ago, but I'd been too blinded by my grief to realize what was happening.

So desperately needing to be loved that I'd allowed him to catch me up in a whirlwind.

"Well, he can't have you."

"No. He can't." It was a breath.

A heavy chuckle echoed from the kitchen, and Lolly gestured in that direction. "And just how did that cowboy show up here?"

"He must have heard me arguing with Pruitt."

Except our voices had been so low there was no chance that he had. And he'd appeared from out of nowhere, manifested from thin air as if he'd been summoned by my fear.

"And now he's staying here?" Her tone drifted into suggestion. She couldn't help herself.

I rolled my eyes. "He's staying here because he's a nice guy. For one night. That's it."

Because I couldn't handle him rambling around under my roof. Especially after what had happened with us last night.

Letting him touch me had been just as big a mistake as letting him stay here was going to be. But honestly, I was shaken enough—worried enough for my daughter—that I didn't have the strength to disagree with him tonight.

"That's awful nice of him." Lolly drew it out.

I found the pillow I was looking for and dragged it out from between the towels where it was wedged. I leaned down to grab the blanket and held the stack against my chest.

"Don't get any big ideas in that head of yours."

"And what kind of ideas might those be?" She pressed her hand to her chest, completely innocent.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Well, I do have the best ideas…and I'm pretty sure it doesn't require an extra blanket and pillow. Your bed is plenty big enough."

"That is absolutely not going to happen." I angled around her to head back for the great room.

"And why would you deny yourself something that you know is going to be so good?" she urged from behind.

I turned to her, my heart close to bleeding out onto the floor. "Because I've had enough trouble in my life, Lolly, enough hurt, and my daughter needs stability. I need stability. And you and I both know that man is not going to give me that."

Tendrils of guilt flailed out of the black hole inside me. How could I even consider wanting that from him?

But I'd be a liar if I denied a piece of me did.

Sadness cut into every line in her expression. Her touch was gentle on my arm, all traces of mischief vanished.

"I just want you to be happy, Hailey. It's the only thing I've ever wanted for you. And I cannot tell you how proud I am that you left that scheming sleazebag."

Surprise at her accusation had a frown carving me in question. Her directness severe and sharp. Did she know more than she'd let on or was it just obvious that Pruitt was scum?

I didn't have time to ask before she forged ahead, her voice curled in ardent earnestness. "So proud of you for standing up for what you deserve. The only thing I've wanted is to see you and Maddie safe and happy. And you're going to be, Hailey, you're going to be, just as long as you remain strong. Strong and fierce the way I know you are."

She paused then emphasized, "I know that deviant changed so much of your perspective. That he hurt you. I just hope the wounds he left don't make you so guarded that you don't allow yourself to live."

"I am living, Lolly. For the first time in a long time, I am. And I won't let anyone steal that from me. I promise you."

I wouldn't allow any one person to hold my happiness.

Not ever again.

"Thank you." Cody's voice was as quiet as the shadows that babbled in the room, lulling and peaceful as he glanced at the blanket and pillow that I'd left for him on the couch.

I'd tucked Maddie in a half an hour before, while Cody had plodded around in the bathroom next to her room, setting me off-kilter the entire time, trembles rolling and energy pulsing.

Now he stood in the darkness in front of me, a giant in my living room. A man I didn't really even know but somehow trusted to be there.

I shouldn't.

It was a fool's game, whatever the hell this was.

The only thing I knew was I was going to lose in the end.

"You're thanking me?"

That smirk tugged at the edge of his mouth, far gentler than it should ever be. "I'd fully come prepared to sleep on the hard floor, nothing but a dog. It seems you're doing me a favor."

"I think it's you who's doing all the favors." The words were wisps.

"It's my honor to be here, Hailey."

Silence danced around us, the questions radiating from him so profound that I could almost see them hovering in the room. I itched in them, unsure of how to respond. What to give him and what he expected.

A warning is what it should be. A true one. One that told him to run as far as he could. Turn his back. Act like he'd never met us before, and sure as hell not dive into this headfirst the way he was suggesting.

In discomfort, Cody roughed a hand through his hair, staring at me through the night. "Think we should talk about your ex."

Right. There they were. The questions coming.

"We probably do."

"Maddie's father?" he pressed.

"Yes."

His nod was tight. "How long have you been apart?"

"Three months."

"And it's safe to assume you were the one who did the leaving?"

"Pruitt collects things. Possessions. He doesn't like when he gets them taken away."

Cody flinched, his voice a scrape of animosity. "Seems like a solid douche to me."

I fiddled with my fingers, gaze dipping away before it drifted back up to him.

I needed to lay this out. Make him see.

"He's someone you don't want to mess with, Cody."

The heap of a man stilled, a frozen boulder of heat, like he was afraid to trust himself to move. The protectiveness I'd felt from him earlier lapped against me in warm, dragging waves.

"Already told you the bastard can come at me, Hailey. He's going to find out really quick I'm not someone you want to mess with, either. Especially when it comes to you."

It was scored in dark aggression. The mark of a man who didn't shy away from destruction.

He always came off as carefree.

Heedless, even.

Almost reckless in his detachment.

But that wasn't close to who was standing in front of me right then.

"You don't owe me anything." I nearly begged it, knowing I should put a barricade up between us. Send him away. Stop this before he got any deeper.

But my spirit leaned his direction.

He reached out like he could touch it, and he set one of those big palms on my cheek again. The brush of his thumb was achingly tender as he ran it back and forth along the hollow of my eye.

"That's what friends do, Hailey. They share the load, and it looks like yours just got a little too heavy to bear."

Threads of guilt curled around my ribs and tightened around my heart. What kind of friend was I, doing this? Allowing him to invade my space like this? Touch me the way he had last night when I knew the trouble it would bring him? More so, with the way Brooke had felt about him?

But that was so long ago, and this…

Intensity blazed as he traced my face with his eyes, as if he sought to memorize every line and divot and curve. His caress soft and adoring.

I felt beautiful beneath it, the way this man saw me. The way he made me feel. But he didn't have the first clue what he was signing up for.

"I can handle Pruitt," I forced out.

"Of course, you can, but that doesn't mean you have to do it alone. Let me be strong enough to carry some of it," he murmured. "Let me be there. For you. For Maddie. Let's chase this fucker off, then you can get on with your life the way you so clearly need to do."

"Why would you do that for me?" My head barely shook, trying to understand.

"Because there's something special about you, Hailey Wagner. There's always been." Then he cracked a grin like he didn't think either of us could endure the weight that sagged the room any longer. "That and I really like the sound of my name on your lips when you come."

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry with the heat that flooded, pulsing between us.

In an instant, that tether of energy writhed and thrashed.

"We agreed last night that was a one-time thing."

I forced myself to take a step back before I did something stupid and reached for him again. Got to my knees and undid his belt so I could…

I didn't realize my attention had drifted to the enormous bulge in his jeans until he cleared his throat. I jerked, my eyes flashing back up to his.

A challenge pulled across his ridiculously handsome face. "Is that the way you want it?"

Gathering all my resolve, I said, "We're just friends, Cody. That's all we can be. It will only complicate things."

I repeated his defense from last night.

"And maybe I've come to realize I'll welcome any complication if it means getting close to you."

That arrogance resurfaced, the man nothing but a taunt, and he reached down to the hem of his tee and peeled it up and over his head like he'd done it a thousand times in front of me before.

My mouth dropped open, and I swore, the world canted to the side.

Annihilated by the sight.

I was pretty sure it was the result he was going for since he let one of those smirks free, the kind that did a little slaying of its own.

I couldn't form a coherent thought or word, stupefied as I stared at him through the moonlight that flooded through the window.

There'd been no question that he was made of muscle and brawn. A fortress of strength. A mast of power.

But I nearly crumbled at the sight of him like this.

Skin bare and glowing, like the sun breaking on a dreary, gloomy day. A golden, coarse stone, ruggedly chiseled and shaped. A sculpture of tenacity.

Shoulders obliterating view, wide and hulking, that power reverberating beneath the flesh stretched tight across his packed, quivering chest.

It rippled down his abdomen, his stomach engraved in sharply cinched divots and lines, his hip bones jutting out from above the waist of his jeans.

Where I was soft, he was hard, forged of slate.

Designs covered his left arm and scrolled up over his shoulder to his pec, bright colors that gleamed in the night.

But what caught my attention was where the mosaic lines opened to a clock that sat right in the middle of his chest.

Prominent and emphasized like it'd become the focal point of who he was.

An emblem that was drawn to appear rustic like the man, rusted metal or bronzed iron, the teeth heavy and gnarled as it ticked through time.

Though the hands of the clock were bent, jagged where they forever rested at eight-seventeen.

He winced for one beat when he realized what I was fixated on, then he jarred me out of the trance he had me under when he tossed his shirt over to the couch. "You don't mind, do you? I mean, it shouldn't be a problem for you to see me like this considering we're just friends, yeah?"

It was pure provocation.

I blinked a bunch of times.

Damn it. He was distracting me from the point of this conversation.

"You need to reconsider?—"

A finger was pressed against my lips, stopping the words from spilling out. "I'm doing this, Hailey, and I promise you, I won't have a single regret."

Why was he proving to be so sweet? So good and right?

"Cody." It was barely a whisper, and I wished I could divulge all the information so he could make an actual educated choice.

But I couldn't give him that.

Not yet.

It wasn't safe.

"Mean it, Hailey. You don't need to worry about me."

"I think I already do."

"Well, we are friends after all." He winked, back to light, as if the weight of my world hadn't just suddenly been placed on his shoulders.

I fidgeted, warring, before I gave.

Accepted his gift.

"Let me know if you need anything."

He smiled. "You might not want to know what it is I need, Hailey."

Heat flamed.

"Right…okay." Awkwardly, I tossed a hand behind me toward my bedroom. "I'm going to bed."

I couldn't get my feet to cooperate, and Cody kept grinning like he was somehow making a good time of this. Standing a foot away. That big body so close and on display.

I finally forced myself to turn, and I rushed across the floor, though I paused when I got to my bedroom door to whisper, "Goodnight, Cody."

He was still standing there, watching me. "You sleep well, darlin', because I'll be sleeping light. You can rest assured that no one is getting by me."

How was he so different than I'd imagined or expected him to be? Or maybe he'd been a different man when I'd met him that summer.

A player who probably didn't have the first clue that that wayward smile had crushed two bleeding hearts.

One to never beat again.

"Thank you. For everything." I meant it.

With all of me.

"It's what I'm here for."

I could only give him a small nod, deciding it was no use to argue with him that we weren't his responsibility any longer.

He'd already chosen that we were.

It was on me to make sure it didn't bring him harm.

On me to be the one to chase Pruitt away before Cody got involved any deeper.

Maybe it was time to be brave enough to do what I'd been threatening all along.

Apprehension prickled in my consciousness, and fear whispered terrors into my mind.

Swallowing it down, I forced myself the rest of the way into my bedroom and snapped the door shut behind me.

Cody didn't move until I'd clicked the lock, then I pressed my ear to the wood and listened as his boots thudded across the floor. Listened to the rustle of fabric and the steady cadence of his breaths.

Resigned, I peeled myself out of my clothes and changed into my favorite teal sleep shorts and matching tank then climbed under the covers.

I sank into the warmth.

And just like all the nights since I'd moved in, I felt the pull of his presence.

His aura profound.

Only it didn't echo from the window.

It echoed from the other side of my door.