Birdie’s footsteps thundered on the stairs. “I’m going to draw before bed.”
I caught Hadley’s elbow. “What’s going on with you?”
She spun to face me. “Nothing. I just don’t appreciate being essentially kidnapped.”
I studied her, trying to see what it was she wasn’t telling me. Hadley was annoyed with me for sure. But it was more than that. Hurt bubbled below the surface. “Did I do something today?”
She looked away towards the darkness outside the windows. “No. I just can’t forget the past as easily as you can.” With that, she disappeared up the stairs, too.
“Hell,” I muttered, ambling towards the couch and sinking onto it. I didn’t have the first idea how to heal the hurt I’d caused. The only thing I knew to do was to support Hadley in the here and now.
Part of that was keeping her safe. I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my contacts. I stopped on Mason Decker. I’d met the guy through an outreach program he’d started at his security company. He’d created these personal alarms that we could give out to anyone we came across on a call who might be feeling unsafe. All someone had to do was pull the little pin, and an ear-splitting alarm went off.
Mase had been distributing them all over the state of Oregon and had now taken the program nationally. But Wolf Gap had been one of his first stops, and Hayes and I had really hit it off with him. I tapped his name on my screen and waited. It rang four times before he answered.
“Hey, Calder. How are you?”
“Hanging in there. How about you?” I could hear kids shrieking in the background.
“It’s barely controlled chaos over here, man.”
“Exactly how you like it.”
“That’s the truth.”
I leaned back against the couch cushions, sparing a glance up the stairs. “I’m sorry to bother you so late, but I have something I wanted to run by you.”
“Don’t apologize. Plus, you got me out of dish duty.”
I chuckled. “Then I take back the apology.”
The sound of kids playing faded away and the snick of a door closing sounded across the line. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I have a friend. I think you met her briefly. Hadley Easton?”
“Hayes’ little sister, right?”
“That’s the one.” I pushed to my feet, needing to move. “She’s run into some trouble.”
Mase was quiet for a moment. “There a reason you’re calling me and not Hayes?”
I pulled open my back door, stepping out onto the deck. “Hayes doesn’t know what’s going on, and Hadley wants to keep it that way.”
Mason let out a low whistle. “Sounds like a recipe for disaster.”
“You’re telling me.” When Hayes found out that I’d kept this from him, he would lose it, but I couldn’t betray Hadley’s confidence like that. We’d never recover.
“Walk me through what’s going on.”
I did just that. From the video channel Hadley had started to the escalation in ugly comments and now the threats. As I spoke, I heard Mase typing on a keyboard occasionally.
“I think that’s everything. I was hoping you might have some ideas for how to look into this.”
There was a slight squeak as Mason must’ve leaned back in his desk chair. “Some people at Halo can start the search, but you might want to get a P.I. on the case.”
I knew Hadley would never agree to the private investigator. At least, not right now. “Start with what you can dig up. If you find something concrete, I might be able to convince her to loop Hayes in on this.”
“From the little time I spent with her, Hadley doesn’t strike me as the type to ask for help.”