My eyes fluttered open at his words. He hadn’t disappeared, and I hadn’t floated away. “It’s not your job to help.”
“It’s exactly my job. And I’ll do it wherever I can.”
I studied the man in front of me. The angular jaw that always betrayed Hayes’ frustration. The rough stubble and planes of his face. Those eyes so dark and deep, I felt as if I could sink into them and get lost for days. Nothing in him spoke untruths. Maybe Hayes truly was one of the good ones. Someone determined to make the world better for everyone around him. “You don’t need to take care of me.”
He pushed to his feet and started for the door. I thought I’d finally sent him running. But instead, he only poked his head out. “Tim, we need twenty.”
“We don’t—”
Hayes ignored me and simply shut the door. He began moving around the small kitchenette without another word to me, opening cabinets until he found two mugs. Then he riffled through drawers until he found a box of something. Within a few minutes, he was easing into the chair opposite me and handing me a steaming mug.
I didn’t touch it. “What if I don’t like tea?”
“Then just wrap your hands around the mug. It’ll help.”
I had the burning urge to stick out my tongue at him. But as I wrapped my hands around the ceramic, and the heat sank into my palms, something in me eased. “You’re very overbearing, you know that, right?”
He shrugged and blew on his tea. “Everyone has to have a character flaw.”
I snorted. “I’d say you have a few.”
“Never claimed to be perfect.”
I stared down into the swirling liquid. “Perfect’s boring anyway.”
“Very true.” Hayes was quiet for a moment, letting the silence swirl around us the same way the liquid in my cup did. “You going to tell me what happened?”
I sighed. It was clear he wasn’t going to leave me alone until he got some pieces of the puzzle. “I had a run-in with my brother. Just brought up some bad memories.”
“Okay…” He was quiet and, for a moment, I thought he wouldn’t push. “What’s the status with your family?”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you been in touch with them since you left Wolf Gap?”
I dunked the tea bag a few times before taking it out and resting it on a spoon. “I lived with my older sister in Seattle until I moved out for college. But, no, I haven’t talked to the rest of my family since I was twelve. Allen and Ian paid a couple of visits to Seattle when I first moved there.”
Hayes’ jaw worked back and forth as if he were working out a math problem in his mind and having trouble. “They harass you?”
“They made their presence known. But once we moved, they didn’t put any real effort into finding us.”
“And your mom? She didn’t put a stop to it?”
I gripped the mug a little tighter, my mother’s face flashing in my mind. “I think she lost her fight.”
“You were her daughter.”
“And I cost her the love of her life.”
Hayes’ gaze bored into mine. “Was that really how she saw it?”
“I honestly don’t know. All I know is that she couldn’t break free of that life. My sister, Jacey, tried to get her to come with me, and she wouldn’t. She didn’t want that freedom for herself.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand your family. The people they’ve tied themselves to.”
I traced an invisible design on the table. “I won’t lie, there’s some ugliness. Hate. But some of the paranoia comes from how they were raised. My grandparents on my dad’s side were the same way. They’ve been preached to about the government being out to get them. Other preppers wanting to pillage and steal. It skewed their
outlook. But there’s good in that community, too.”