Between the Cracks Read online

  “I see you brought along one of your bodyguards. I feel it’s only fair to inform you this entire property is under video surveillance, in case you hadn’t noticed.” Hayden looked up to where one of many video cameras was wired into the trusses.

  “I suppose it won’t be in your favor to. . . what was it you said? Ah, yes, shove your foot so far up my ass it will come out my throat? Do I have that right?” He adjusted the collar of his shirt, his smile was smug. “Very eloquently stated. You’re quite the purveyor of violence aren’t you? Tenley’s taste has clearly suffered since her move. Or maybe it’s her guilt that’s the problem. Either way, it’s a good thing she came back with me when she did.”

  Hayden’s fists clenched at his sides. He was working hard to keep a lid on his anger, but it didn’t look like he was going to win the battle. “Like you gave her a choice?” he spat. “I want to see her, I want to talk to her, now.”

  “I imagine you do. However, that’s not going to happen. Tenley had a very long night. You know how dramatic she can be, always making everything about her. Regardless, she finally calmed down enough to fall asleep an hour ago.”

  “So wake her the fuck up,” Hayden snapped.

  “Considering the amount of medication it took to subdue her, I have my doubts anything short of an apocalypse could wake her.”

  “You sonofabitch. What the hell did you do?”

  “Nothing she hasn’t done to herself on countless occasions in the past.”

  Hayden grabbed the door handle and reefed on it, but it didn’t open.

  “Have you already forgotten the cameras above you, recording your attempt at breaking and entering,” he said coolly.

  “You’re lucky this is as close as I can get to you,” Hayden snarled.

  “It’s closer than you’ll get to Tenley while she’s here with me.”

  Hayden was too worked up not to react. He slammed his palms against the iron frame, making it rattle.

  I grabbed his shoulder and said quietly, “You gotta get a handle on yourself.”

  He shrugged me off. “I’m not going anywhere. Not without Tenley.”

  “Like hell you’re not. You’re going to leave my property, or I will call the police. With your appearance and the video feed I have, I don’t think it’ll take much to convince them you’re not welcome here.”

  “Let’s bail, H, we can come back later.”

  “If either of you so much as drives by my house again, I’ll have a trespass order issued. I’m sure you don’t need to add any more criminal offenses to your record.”

  Hayden snorted. “If anyone’s a criminal here, it’s you. Maybe I should call the police and tell them you’ve kidnapped my girlfriend.”

  “Girlfriend? Is that what you think she is to you? You’re more delusional than I thought,” Trey said with derision. “You go right ahead and notify the police of her whereabouts, but I’m well connected. I’m not sure you’d get very far with such an inane lie.”

  “You manipulated her into leaving.”

  “I’m sure you’d rather believe that than the truth. Tenley made the choice to come with me. I didn’t have to work hard to convince her it was for the best.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t have any problem guilting her into it,” Hayden said.

  “All I did was remind her of how unstable she’s been over the past year and how difficult it was for me to take care of her when she was released from the hospital. Of course, you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? Tenley’s not always forthcoming. I’m sure she wasn’t interested in sharing those details with you.”

  “I don’t buy it. I think you’re full of shit.”

  “Think whatever you want. Tenley was the one who told you to leave. You are the one who followed her here. And for what? To rescue her? Did you honestly believe she would turn around and go back with you?” Trey laughed. “Of course you did. When you called her repeatedly on your way here, she chose not to answer.

  “As much as she rails on about hating me at the moment, she still came with me rather than stay with you. If you’ll excuse me, it’s been a long night and I have better things to do than argue with you regarding your misperceptions.”

  The screen went blank. Hayden stared at it, silent and unmoving for the longest time.

  A static buzz came from the intercom and the housekeeper’s meek voice filtered through. “Mr. Hoffman has called the police. He suggested leaving if you wish to avoid charges.”

  “We should just go, H.”

  As much as I wanted him to get what he came for—Tenley—that wouldn’t happen if we ended up in a jail cell.

  Hayden exhaled hard. “Yeah. You’re right. Let’s get out of here.”

  He turned and walked down the steps to the car. I followed, glancing over my shoulder to check the windows. I was sure we were being watched by that jackoff. Hayden dropped into the passenger’s seat and dragged the belt across his chest.

  When we were a few miles away, I found a gas station and pulled in. “We can go back later. Maybe that Trey dick will leave and we can convince that housekeeper to let us see Tenley.”

  “What’s the point? Trey’s not going to open the door and he’s not going to let Tenley answer it. If we show up there again, he’ll do the same thing and call the police.”

  “But Tee’ll have to leave the house at some point, right? It’s not like he can hold her hostage.” I said, hoping I was right.

  “Even if everything he said was bullshit, Tenley didn’t tell me she was leaving. She just went with him. I don’t even know her. Not like I thought I did.”

  “Sarah said she wasn’t making sense. She was probably just confused. That brother-in-law of hers is a fuckwad.”

  “He’s not her brother-in-law,” Hayden said.

  “Sorry, you know what I mean. I can only imagine the crap he spewed to make her think she had to come here.”

  Hayden shrugged. “She would have stayed in Chicago if she wanted to.”

  “You can’t know that unless you talk to her.”

  “That’s not going to happen anytime soon.” He sighed. “I need a drink.”

  I wasn’t going to argue with him. He’d been up for more than thirty-six hours and a lot of bad shit had happened in a short time. Getting him drunk might be the best plan. His not knowing what was true and what was a lie was going to mess with his head. Without answers from Tenley, Hayden was going on the assumption that all the things that douche said were true.

  After finding out who she’d lost, especially the way he did, he’d have a hard time trusting Tenley again—even when she did come back. If I got him wasted, I could buy some time until I figured out a plan. We’d have to grab a hotel room and stay the night in Arden Hills; then we could try again tomorrow. It was better than taking him home with nothing but Trey’s asshole comments floating around in his skull.

  “I’ll find us a bar.” I put the car in reverse and drove out of the lot.

  It turned out there weren’t that many bars in Arden Hills, and we ended up at a tavern. They served beer and they had flat screens, so I was game. Hayden was disappointed in the selection of scotch, and the draft wasn’t much better.

  He opted for the bottled variety, doubling up on the first round. Hayden rarely did draft because he didn’t want to risk drinking out of glasses he suspected weren’t clean. His options were limited, though, and I wasn’t going to cruise around looking for another bar.

  If I did, he might decide he wanted to get out of Arden Hills. I didn’t like the idea of leaving Tenley in that house with that fucker Trey. Even if Hayden believed Tee had gone with him by choice, I didn’t think the decision was that simple. Hayden was too wrapped up in his own fears to see Trey was manipulating him, too.

  When our waitress, a tiny redhead named Linda, came back to check on us, I ordered him another double round and some food, even though he insisted he wasn’t hungry. Linda looked a little nervous to be serving our table. Hayden was like Eeyore
with a black cloud of doom hanging over his head, and neither of us fit the profile of most of the guys in the place. The crowd was a cross between hicks in their mid-to-late twenties and guys over sixty.

  Several hours later, Hayden had polished off a dozen beers. The more he drank the less he said. He kept rubbing his eyes until they were completely bloodshot. He had to be wiped. I was. The sun had already gone down, and we couldn’t get his car until the morning.

  “Why don’t we settle up here and find a place to crash for the night. We can get Tee in the morning.”

  “There’s no point,” Hayden slurred. “Let’s just get my car and go back to Chicago.”

  “No can do, bro. You’re hammered. You need sleep and a few gallons of water. A shower wouldn’t hurt, either. Besides, we can’t get your car until morning, might as well stay put.”

  He didn’t have the energy left to fight with me, which told me how messed up he was. I paid the tab and got Hayden out of there without too much stumbling. Even in his drunken stupor, he still managed to make it difficult to decide on a decent hotel. He balked at the Quality Inn, but I wasn’t paying for the Hilton when there was a good chance he would puke.

  Securing the room was just as much of a challenge as finding a hotel. As far as piercings went, I only had the eyebrow ring, and all my ink was covered by my jacket. Hayden wasn’t so inconspicuous. Besides that, he looked like hell and he was half in the bag.

  When the concierge told me there were no rooms available, Hayden pulled out his platinum credit card and his ID. He shot the guy behind the desk a murderous glare. “One room. Non-smoking.”

  “Two beds,” I added.

  After that, there didn’t seem to be a problem.

  Before I was allowed to go into the room, Hayden checked out the bathroom and the closet. It was normal for him to do that kind of thing. Because of his parents’ murders, he was diligent about making sure things were safe.

  He shed his coat, hung it on the sole hanger in the closet, then lined his shoes up on the floor. I waited until he was on the other side of the room before I tossed my own shoes and jacket inside and closed the door. He hadn’t had much to say after I’d picked him up at the roadside diner, but since leaving Trey’s, he’d barely managed more than a handful of sentences. I didn’t want to give him a reason to go off.

  He milled around the room, moving things he deemed out of place. It was almost seven and I was bagged from lack of sleep. Hayden on the other hand was spun.

  “I’m going to grab us some drinks from the vending machine down the hall. You want anything specific?”

  “Water is fine,” he said, but didn’t turn away from the window.

  I pocketed a keycard and left him in the room. When I came back, Hayden was still standing in front of the window. I carried the armload to the only table in the room, and Hayden stepped in immediately.

  He spent several minutes arranging the snacks by type before he was satisfied. Usually I wouldn’t think anything of it, but the length of time it took him worried me. Hayden was always anal. This was worse than usual, though. It made me think of when we were first setting up Inked Armor and he was kicking the coke habit.

  Once he’d gotten past the worst of the withdrawal and had started to function again, he put all his energy into getting the shop in order. Sometimes for Hayden, that meant spending hours in the stock room arranging everything until it was perfect. Once I’d left him there after closing, only to find him the next morning, passed out on the floor having used paper towels for a pillow. After that, we watched him a lot closer.

  Lisa had been the one to deal with him the most when he got into one of his organizational “moods.” Eventually she figured out how to curb the problem—at least to a point. Stress brought out his anal side and right now he was stressed to the max. As much as Tee might be struggling with her own shit, I was pissed at her for doing this to him. If they’d just been honest in the first place, I wouldn’t be dealing with this.

  When Hayden was done organizing the snacks he headed for the bathroom. The shower came on, so I took the opportunity to call Sarah. She had to work tonight and I wanted to catch her before she went in. I’d sent her a couple short, vague messages during the day, hoping I’d have a positive update later. She’d want to be filled in, even if the news wasn’t good.

  Sarah answered halfway through the first ring. “Hey, hi. I was going to call you. Are you on your way home now? Can I talk to Tenley? How is she?”

  “Whoa, slow down, gorgeous. Are you on the road?” I didn’t want to have this conversation to begin with, especially not if she was driving and distracted.

  “No, I’m already at The Dollhouse. I was going to call before I went in, but you beat me to it.”

  “Okay. That’s good.” I leaned against the headboard. “So, we’ve hit a little roadblock.”

  “A roadblock? What kind of roadblock?” I could almost feel her panic.

  “Turns out Tenley’s brother-in-law is loaded. He lives in a mansion with security cameras and everything. He wouldn’t let us in to see Tee. Then he said a bunch of shit to piss Hayden off and called the police on us.”

  “Oh my God, did Hayden get arrested? Did he kick Trey’s teeth in? Please tell me he did. No, wait, I don’t mean that. I never should have let Tenley leave. I should have called you first, and then Hayden could have stopped her.”

  “Sarah, baby, calm down. Hayden didn’t get arrested. That pussy wouldn’t even open the door.”

  “He’s such a bastard. You should have heard the way he talked to Tenley,” Sarah’s voice shook. “He was horrible with her. For her to go back to Arden Hills with him . . . you can’t leave her there.”

  “We’re gonna do everything we can to bring her home. We’re staying the night in a hotel so we can try again tomorrow. Hayden’s pretty wrecked, though, and he’s not in best frame of mind.”

  “I don’t know what Tenley said to Hayden, but she kept telling me she didn’t deserve him. I just . . . I’m scared. If she doesn’t come back with you, I’m afraid she won’t come back at all.”

  I had no idea what to say to that. I didn’t know Tee well enough to have a solid read on the situation. “Have you tried to call her?”

  “A bunch of times. It goes straight to voicemail. I really hope she remembered her charger.”

  “Me, too.” A dead battery was a better scenario than Tee purposely avoiding H’s calls. Being the dickwad he was, Trey would have said anything to put doubts in Hayden’s mind.

  “I’m really sorry, Chris, I have to go. Sienna called me in early and I don’t want to get left with a bad section.”

  I had a vision of Sarah dressed in one of her skimpy outfits. “You be careful in there. Don’t let Sienna pull her crap with you.”

  “I’ll be fine. Can I call you when my shift is done? I know it’ll be late . . . .” she trailed off.

  “Yeah, of course. You call whenever you feel like it. I sleep pretty hard, so you might have to try a couple times.”

  “Okay.”

  “Catch ya later.”

  “Chris?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I think—” she hesitated and expelled a slow breath. “I’m glad I met you. You’re a really good guy. Take care of Hayden.”

  I didn’t expect the compliment. “Uh, thanks. I will.”

  She hung up first. I ran my thumb back and forth over the blank screen, listening to the sound of the shower running. Hayden had been in there a long time. I leaned over, knocked on the wall and called out, “You all right in there, bro?”

  I got back a muffled, “Yeah. I’ll be done in a few.”

  Hayden could go to dark places. I’d witnessed some pretty low moments with him. Many of his worst included Sienna. Tee was as opposite to Sienna as a person could get, which probably made this whole thing harder to deal with.

  I only knew the version of Tee who hung out in the shop and gave Hayden the gears about cupcakes. Everything else—her past, the th
ings she’d seen—that information had been passed on to me through Hayden. But his brain didn’t work the same way as most people. The way he saw things was different. Sometimes that was good, other times it wasn’t. He’d own her leaving as a failure on his part.

  With Tee, it had been clear from the beginning that she wasn’t a chick he planned to bang and ditch. Now that he’d seen what Tenley’s life would have looked like if all those people hadn’t died, he was going to be hard to manage. Hayden was good at getting inside his own head and staying there. Sometimes I was grateful that I didn’t have his smarts. It was as much a curse as a gift.

  Twenty-five minutes later, the bathroom door opened and Hayden came out with a towel wrapped around his waist. The skin that wasn’t covered in ink was bright pink and irritated looking. “I used all the soap,” he said matter of factly. “And the hot water.”

  “I can shower later.”

  He laid his clothes over the chair, rearranging them until they were creaseless. Then he went back into the bathroom and the hair dryer came on.

  “Getting pretty for me?” I called, hoping to get a laugh out of him. I didn’t expect to succeed.

  “Fuck you,” came the reply.

  The bathroom door was still open, so I leaned forward and caught a glimpse of his reflection in the full length mirror hanging in the hall. He was blasting a pair of boxer shorts with the blow dryer.

  I got up off the bed and came around so I could see him clearly. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “What the hell does it look like? I’m drying my boxers. I’ve been wearing them all day. It wasn’t like I was going to shower and then put them back on dirty. It’s bad enough I’m going to have to wear the same clothes tomorrow.”

  “Right. Gotcha.” I left him to it and palmed the remote so I could channel surf while I waited for him to be done.

  “Feel better now?” I asked when he came out a while later wearing the dry boxers.