CHAPTER EIGHT
HAILEY
Ijolted awake when Trey sat next to me on the leather couch, and I swore I could hear my heart kick into overdrive. I blinked the room back into focus. I must have fallen asleep bingeing Netflix and waiting for him to come back from the hospital. He grinned at me, and I swore he was even sexier in person than in the pictures. Justin and I had dished about our dream guys, and he was mine.But really, who wouldn’t like a hot doctor with a bad boy side? Sign me up!
If only. I had to laugh at myself. We were together under the weirdest circumstances. He’d hijacked my ransom situation. I never would have thought that Trey La Rosa would break in to Justin’s house and whisk me away to his.
I was romanticizing it, but it felt good. I sank my teeth into my bottom lip to prevent myself from saying anything stupid. I wished I could run off to the bathroom and make a quick call to my best friend. After he got over the fear of a smokin’ hot Mafia guy breaking into his house, he would have to admit that Trey was fine.Ah—get a grip!
“Did the operation go okay?”
“It did. He’s in recovery and doing well. The doctor on call today is monitoring him, so I should be good. Let’s hope.” He rested his head against the couch, and I noticed the dark circles under his eyes again. “So, we’ve got three days that you’ll need to hide out?”
That shocked me back to reality. “O-oh”—damn it, Hailey, stop stuttering. “Yep. Allen is supposed to hand over the cash then.”
“Why cash? Why not have him transfer the funds directly into the donation account?”
“That would be the logical thing to do.” I tucked my unruly hair behind my ear. “Allen knows how I feel about the children’s wing and fundraising. The first thing he would think if that was the ransom demand was that I was orchestrating it.”
“Which you are.” A smile played around the corners of Trey’s lips, and I grinned too.
“Yeah, but the goal was to keep him from figuring that out, not to lead him to who was behind everything.”
“I haven’t had a day off in a while.” He picked up the remote from the coffee table and flipped it in his hand. “I’m not even sure what to do. Got any ideas?”
I glanced around the open space, again noting the lack of video games. Disappointing. The kitchen caught my eye. “What about making drinks and sitting on the balcony?” I pointed to a small electronic firepit. “You’ve got a source of heat out there.”
He grinned. “It’s January. That won’t help even a little. We could get the fire going in here.”
I smirked. “You mean by flicking the switch?” I’d already noted it was an electric one.
He chuckled. “City living. It’s not like I have time to chop wood. Nor do I want to deal with ordering and stocking it. That’s a lot easier.”
I shook my head. “I want to say I’m disappointed, but I prefer the convenience of electric too.” I got to my feet, headed into the kitchen, then opened a cabinet before going in search of other types of alcohol. When I found where he kept his liquor, I pulled out the rum and a few other bottles.
“Whoa, what are you planning on making?” Trey was by my side, rummaging around in the fridge. He took out a charcuterie board and set it on the counter.
I stopped and stared. “Why do you have a ready-made meat-and-cheese board?”
“Sofia.” He shrugged. “She brought it over with the pastries. No idea why, but I’m not complaining.” Eyeing the alcohol bottles lined up on the counter, he took out the orange juice. “If you’re leaning toward tropical drinks, there’s some small cans of pineapple juice and some other mixers over there.” He pointed to the pantry to the left of the fridge.
“I was thinking rum runners, Caribbean style.” I thought that was what they were called the last time I had them in the tropics. No one made them as they did there, and I would never order one in the States. If only we were beachside. “Or maybe piña coladas.” I could suck those down just as dangerously.
“Where do you go in the Caribbean?” He pulled a fancy blender out of the pantry, set it on the island, then got a cupful of ice and added it.I guess we’re starting with piña coladas.
“Where wouldn’t I go? Well, scratch that. There are a few places.” A pang of longing hit me. “My sister and I made our parents take us a few times a year when we were teenagers.”
“She was a year older than you?”
He knew. I didn’t know if that made it worse or better. Kasey would have been all over him if she had been there. God, I missed her. “Kasey was everything I’m not. Beautiful, outgoing, and talented. She wanted to be an actress, and she was crazy good. My parents adored her. It didn’t matter to me, though. We were close.” The splash of pineapple then coconut juice into the blender drew my focus, and I tried to push aside the ache of her absence. It never fully went away. “Justin was one of the only friends we had in common.”
He flipped the switch, and the blender whirled to life. He poured the concoction into two tall glasses then added reusable straws when it was done. The first sip was heaven. I closed my eyes and could imagine my toes in the sand and the sun warming my skin. The sound of the ocean rolling and crashing against the shore played from memory as the taste of the drink coated my mouth. “This is good.”
He winked then took a long draw on his straw. When he came up for air, he grimaced. “I’m not going to be able to have more of these without feeling sick. Let’s switch to rum runners after.”
I shrugged. I loved them both, and I got it. He probably drank hard liquor or wine, maybe even beer. Sugary drinks had the potential to mess with one’s stomach, for sure. I moved to the other side of the island and climbed onto a seat, pulling the charcuterie board closer so I could snag a piece of cheese.
“It had to be difficult after she died.” He wasn’t letting it go, and I sighed, resigned to the conversation. “If one of my siblings were killed, I think I’d go on a rampage.”