The basement door was in sight, and their voices trickled from below. My ears strained to hear what they were saying. I inched closer, taking care of my steps. Hailey and Justin were partially turned away from where I stood, their bodies angled toward the flat-screen. She looked good—happy—and I noticed a lack of cuts and bruises. I hadn’t expected them, but the worry hadn’t faded regardless.
Melodic laughter spilled from Hailey’s lips, and I froze. There was so much joy in the sound that it filled my soul and lent a lightness that I hadn’t realized had been missing. But my life—the Mafia—it took so much, and my residency then establishment at the hospital claimed whatever was left. Not even my sister, Sofia, could extinguish the bleakness that had seeped into me of late, and she was the most capable.
One of them had hit replay on the game, and they argued back and forth good-naturedly. I crept down the remaining steps while they were distracted and facing away. At the bottom, I eased around the back of the staircase, effectively blocked from their sight by the rear wall of the stairwell.
What was the point of the kidnapping?It was clear they were friends and apparently in it together. The target had to have been Allen, but I couldn’t figure out why. As an heiress, Hailey wouldn’t need the money. I meant to find out their reasoning behind this without cueing Allen in on what I was doing. I relaxed back into the shadows, content to listen for the time being.
I didn’t have a visual from where I stood behind the wall, but their voices carried clearly to where I was. She’d changed from her attire that morning. Instead, she wore a forest-green sweatshirt and, from what I’d seen through the drone’s eye, black leggings.
“Gross. How can you can drink that?” Justin said, and I peered around the corner to see the name of the beer Hailey held.
It was an ale. I had to agree with him. I preferred a good IPA or a stout.
“Hey, I don’t criticize when you never drink when we go out.” She nudged him with her shoulder as they settled onto the couch and resumed their game.
Justin snorted. “You know why.”
They were silent for a few seconds while their players entered a battle. When it ended, I strained to hear what Hailey said: “I forgot that alcoholism runs in your family. Sorry about that. This has been a highly stressful day.”
“You’re telling me.” Justin swore, narrowly missing his character getting shot.
“I’m going stir crazy. I need to get out of here.”
Justin snorted. “With your one shoe?”
“Just call me freaking Cinderella.”
“Funny. The shoe fits—except you have an evil stepfather instead of a stepmother. Well, she is sort of awful too.”
“Touché.” She lifted her drink in a salute while tapping against the controller with her other hand. “And no stepsiblings, thank God.”
As interesting as their conversation was, I didn’t plan to wait too much longer before making my presence known.
Hailey
Isnuck a glance at Justin, not wanting to turn away from the screen and risk my character dying. “You seeing anyone?”
“No one important.” He groaned. “You know me. I always pick the wrong guys. I want something serious, and they let me down. Every damn time.”
“You and me both.” I nudged him with my shoulder, feeling bad for bringing up his love life. “At least you go for it. I’m still dreaming about that guy.”
The game froze. He’d paused it then turned to face me, his mouth hanging open. “Still? You know his sister. The guy’s not unattainable. You need to go for it.”
“Yeah, well.” I needed to change the subject fast. The last thing I wanted to get into was how I had it bad for Sofia La Rosa’s Mafia boss brother, the man I’d never even met face-to-face. I was such a weirdo. “Hey, we need to put in another call to Allen, up the stakes a little.”
“I still can’t believe what we did.”
“I can’t either.”
“What are you doing?” Justin paused the game, setting his controller down as he turned toward me, his voice serious.
I didn’t want to see the judgment in his eyes, even though he was right to question my motives. I took a deep breath then rested the controller on my crossed legs. After leaning back against the couch, I turned my head and faced my best friend. We’d known each other since grammar school and had been fast friends since the moment I gave Lucas Davis a bloody nose for shoving Justin to the ground and calling him a terrible slur for gay men on the playground.
Bullies and injustice against those who couldn’t defend themselves were my triggers.
Back then, Justin had been a scrawny kid, small for his size and different in how he dressed and acted, an easy target for bullies like Lucas.
My driving force behind why we were hiding in his basement followed the same pattern. Justin had gone along with my crazy scheme without saying a word until now. I shrugged. “I can’t let Allen get away with it.”