My hand touched the doorknob, and I opened and closed the door quietly and quickly before anyone bothered to find me.
“Christian!” Hayley jumped back from the metal table, the chair scraping along the floor. She was still wearing her school uniform, but her knees were bandaged, and the white of her shirt was stained with dirt.
Before she made it over to me and crashed her body into mine, I caught a glimpse of her face, and I almost doubled over and vomited. She was hurt.
“I’m here,” I whispered as I wrapped my arms around her torso, bringing her into my chest. We both inhaled at the same time, breathing each other in.
“You’re here,” she whispered back. We stayed like that for a long time, her body glued to mine, my arms locked around her. It almost felt like torture letting her go. I brought my hands up to her cheeks, softly touching the bruise on her eye. “I’m going to fucking kill whoever did this to you.”
She chuckled into my hand, bringing those baby blues up to my face. “He’s arrested and going to prison for a long time.”
I shook my head. “I don’t care. I’ll break into the prison.”
A soft laugh escaped her. “You can’t break into prison.”
I cocked an eyebrow, peering down at her. “Wanna bet? I just broke into here.”
“What?” she squealed, her grip on my wrists growing stronger.
I shrugged. “They were taking too long. I’ve been sick to my stomach for hours, worrying about you, and it’s been fucking torture, sitting in that waiting area, knowing you were a short distance away, needing me.”
The apples of her cheeks rose, a pink dotting touching them. “Who said I needed you?”
The thump of my heart beating was so loud she could probably hear it. The feeling of anxiety wormed itself into my chest. “You may not need me, but I need you. I’ve always needed you.”
Hayley swallowed, her cheeks falling. She inched a little closer to my face, standing on her tiptoes. “I don’t like the feeling of needing someone. I want to be able to make myself happy and be able to save myself when needed...but”—her warm breath fanned over my face, and I dug my fingers into her hip—“you’ve always been the one to save me, Christian. You’ve always been my safe place, the one person I could think of when the sky grew dark. When all the little lies tasted bitter on my tongue, you were the one truth I couldn’t hide from. It’s you. It’s always been you.”
My lips dipped down to hers, and once they touched, the feeling of solitude bound us together. We were one. A vine of lies, truths, hurt, and sunny memories wrapped around our bodies, and there was absolutely no way it was ever going to break. I loved her. I’d always loved her.
The door swung open as our lips moved on one another, but neither one of us broke apart. I didn’t give a fuck who walked in. My tongue swept inside her mouth, and she happily obliged. Someone cleared their throat, and I finally broke my face away from hers, but I didn’t pull her body even a fraction of an inch away.
A man with an impressive mustache glared at me. “Who let you in here?”
My mouth twitched. “Myself. You need to get some better security. I walked right through the doors and found Hayley—the victim—still in her dirty school uniform from hours ago, without so much as a cup of water, sitting in this cold fucking room.” My nostrils flared as the man’s scowl disappeared. “This is absolutely unacceptable. I’m taking Hayley home, and if you have any further questions about her statement, you and your corrupted force can come to my house and get it from her.” I grabbed Hayley’s hand and began to walk out of the dimly lit questioning room.
The man called after us, “You can’t just leave. We aren’t finished.”
“Like hell you aren’t,” I called back, Hayley’s hand still tucked in mine. “You have Hayley in this bleak questioning room, alone, after she’s been through hell and back, treating her like she’s the criminal.” The man kept his mouth shut and dropped his eyes to the floor, realizing his mistake. “Now, if you need anything else from her”—I turned around, putting my back to him—“feel free to call me or her social worker. I’ll leave both of our numbers up front.”
Hayley looked up at me with unshed tears in her eyes and a hidden smile on her face.
“What?”
“I think I like it when someone sticks up for me.”
I cocked my lip. “Good. Get used to it.”
She smiled and walked alongside me until we made it through the doors of the station. Ann was quick to pull Hayley into a hug. I watched as Hayley’s face changed from surprised to relieved. She wasn’t used to people caring about her, and that was just something else she was going to have to get used to.
Epilogue
Hayley
I clutched my backpack with both hands as it rested on my shoulders. My stomach was a jumbled mess of nerves and excitement. This wasn’t an ordinary situation, to say the least, but I was excited.
For once, I was letting myself accept help as it poured all around me. Since Christian and I left the police station, with Ann trailing us, everything had been a whirlwind.
I had detectives and FBI agents taking my statement every other day it seemed and, unfortunately, making me relive the past. I had to give them a recount of everything that had happened in the last five years, especially touching on everything that had happened in the last few months. Tattoo Man came to visit me once, too. Apparently, he and my father worked closely together when he was an informant. It was nice to know that my father was trying to make right in the end instead of throwing his family to the wolves.