Chapter 22 Haisley
HAISLEY
Haisley knew that Tristan was too good to be true.
It was just impossible that he was that nice, that handsome, that into her, and not also completely delusional.
She dropped the tray she’d just clocked him with and sprang away, because she couldn’t hope to overpower him if he proved violent.
He followed her as far as the door to the dining room, but Haisley didn’t wait to see if he came further, fleeing down the hallway to her own room.
She slammed the door behind her, and locked it.
She listened at the door, trembling, and waited for him to come after her.
But he didn’t come charging at her door, snarling, he only tapped lightly. “Haisley? Haisley, are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just want to explain, or maybe show you. I’m doing a terrible job at this, can you forgive me?”
He sounded so nice, and reasonable. But he was also, clearly, completely insane.
The whole lot of them were. Haisley wanted to believe the best of Tristan, he seemed so funny and sweet, but he thought he was a bear, and that she was his mate, whatever that meant, and it was a short, slippery, snowy slope from that to locking her up in his luggage and kidnapping her or something.
Haisley wasn’t even sure what she thought he might do to her.
She didn’t stream movies rated R, and she liked her books on the light, fluffy side.
She never watched the news. Maybe these people were part of a horrible cult.
Maybe they wanted privacy at the chalet for awful sacrifices.
It was like she’d somehow landed in a horror movie.
Well, she was not going down into the dark scary basement with the cute crazy man. Not even to make out.
“Haisley?”
Haisley had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud at her ridiculous imagination. As mentally ill as this man must be, he hadn’t tried to hurt her, and it was hard to imagine their tight-knit family being evil. But she wasn’t going to put herself further at stupid risk.
Tristan tapped again. “I’m not going to break down your door,” he said, as if he’d guessed what she was thinking. “And I’m not going to turn you in. I just…I’m sorry I’ve done this all wrong.”
“Tristan?” That was the Yas, Queen voice from the kitchen. “Did I hear something break? Chef said there were cookies?”
Haisley heard Tristan scramble away from her door.
“Yes, Magnolia. Sorry, I just dropped a tray. You’re welcome to try one of the cookies. They’ve got carob, which is fine if you aren’t expecting chocolate.”
Their conversation dropped to a murmur, and Haisley shortly heard another voice, Corkscrew Guy, join in. “Did someone say cookies?”
He was chided by a low voice that Haisley couldn’t make out.
The chatter was too muffled to follow from there, but it sounded merry and upbeat.
Haisley’s hammering heart gradually slowed. They weren’t going to come carve her into little pieces. Tristan hadn’t given her up to them, even if he was deranged. She played their conversation over and over in her mind, hoping for any explanation. Was it a joke? Was he pranking her back?
She couldn’t get over the possessive way he’d said, You are my mate. Normal people didn’t say that. Normal people didn’t claim they were panda bears. Nothing about this was normal at all.
The worst of it wasn’t that she was stuck without snacks until they all left again, the worst of it was that she felt stupid and betrayed and deeply confused.
Much, much later, when their distant noises finally went away, Haisley waited a little bit longer to be sure, and then cautiously opened her door. The hallway was dark, but there was a little plate in front of her room, piled with snacks that wouldn’t spoil and topped with one carob cookie.
He’d saved her one! Haisley told herself that a single act of kindness didn’t make up for being a complete loony.
It probably wasn’t drugged, but Haisley didn’t eat it, just in case.