heard the intruders, he shoved Ellen away from him. She blinked up at him stupidly until she followed the direction of his surprised, guilty gaze. His eyes locked with Hailey’s, and in them she saw a chasm of regret and remorse opening up, widening, threatening to swallow her.
“Hi, Hailey,” Ellen chirped.
“Shut up!” Tyler barked. “Hailey—”
“Go to hell,” she said calmly. She turned away from them and made for her bedroom, where she planned to gather her things together and leave before she was sickened and humiliated further.
“Hailey, stop,” Tyler ordered. When she didn’t obey, but hurried her suddenly leaden feet, he bounded after her. He caught her at the doorway and grabbed her shoulders from behind.
“Let me go,” she screamed, twisting away from the iron strength of his hands.
“No. I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. Think about it and you’ll know how wrong you are.”
“You couldn’t possibly know what I’m thinking,” she spat.
“Like hell I don’t. I know that proud thrust of your chin, that ramrod spine. It means you’ve made up your mind about something and nothing can change it. But, by God, you’re going to listen to me while I explain what you saw.”
“What I saw was self-explanatory.”
A blistering expletive was pushed through his teeth, but he didn’t release her. He kept her pinned against the wall. She raised murderous green eyes to him. Later she would die of the hurt. Now all she felt was a blinding rage.
“You got what you wanted last night. Your seduction was carried out. So now you’ve gone on to another challenge. Isn’t that what your life consists of? Challenges? Gambles? Well, congratulations. You won the game with me. Now let go.”
For a moment his eyes lost their anger, and in them she saw pain. “Do you think no more of me than that Hailey?” It was a harsh, low whisper that only she could hear, but she was stricken by the disillusionment it conveyed.
Then his eyes went as hard as flint again. “Ellen,” he shouted.
“What?” Ellen said sulkily from the position she had maintained by the fireplace.
“Come here.”
“What—”
“Dammit, I said to come here,” Tyler roared. Ellen didn’t dare disobey that fearsome command. When she was a few steps away, he anchored Hailey against the wall with a steel forearm across her collarbone and reached behind him to drag Ellen up to them. “Tell her why you came here.”
Ellen looked first at Tyler with her wide, green eyes, then at Hailey. After licking her lips, she said, “I came here to ask him for a loan.”
Hailey sagged under Tyler’s ruthless hold, but he didn’t relax it. For a moment she forgot him and the unscaleable wall between them, and looked with dismay at her sister. “You what?”
Ellen’s lower lip began to tremble. “They fired me from my job, Hailey. Just because I took a few days off last week because I wasn’t feeling well. When I went to work yesterday morning, they told me to clean out my desk. They were so mean to me.” She was sobbing in earnest now.
“But why did you come to Tyler, asking for money?”
Ellen sniffed prettily and her tears clung to her lashes like dewdrops. “I went to you first. I went to Serendipity and they told me you and Tyler had come here. So I followed.”
“I gave you money last week, Ellen. Surely you’ve got severance pay coming.”
She darted another fearful look at Tyler before turning back to Hailey. “I didn’t pay my rent last month. I had so many other things I had to buy. So now my landlord is threatening to evict me. They’re not paying me severance because I took a few sick days. And even if I find another job right away, it’ll be weeks before I get a check.
“He’s got a lot of money, Hailey,” she said referring to Tyler. “I knew he could loan me some and not even miss it. When I found out you were with him, I decided it was a better idea to ask him instead of you.”
“Oh, my God.” Hailey closed her eyes and bowed her head in shame that her own flesh and blood could be so unconscionable.
“Tell her about the kiss.” Tyler’s voice was low, deep, but intimidating.
“He … he said we could work something out—”
He jerked on Ellen’s arm roughly and Hailey wondered how it managed to remain in its socket. Ellen’s eyes went wide with fear and her face paled significantly.