Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
HAYES
After dropping Tempie off at the farmhouse, I’d gone home and tossed and turned all goddamn night long, recalling the look on her face as she slowly leaned over the console of my truck the night before.
She looked like she was about to kiss me, and Christ, in that moment I wanted to feel her lips against mine more than anything else.
If I wasn’t thinking about that, I was remembering the darkness that seeped into her eyes when I pulled away.
That was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. Distancing myself from her went against every single one of my instincts. But if I was going to survive her leaving again, I was going to have to maintain that deep chasm she’d dug between us years ago.
“Yo,” Trick called, drawing my attention and pulling me out of my head where I’d been stuck for the past five minutes. “I’m sure whatever fantasy world you’re currently stuck in is a lot better than the real one I’ve been livin’ in, but how about you join me here, anyway?”
As my partner’s words penetrated, the pen I’d been twirling between my fingers stopped and I tossed it onto the desk, leaning back in my chair to kick my feet up and rest my boots beside it.
“I’m right here. What’s goin’ on?”
His look said he knew I was full of shit. “You know, people in this goddamn town love to talk. And one of the things they like to talk about most is other people.”
I interlaced my fingers and rested my hands on my gut as my eyebrows lifted. “That statement leadin’ somewhere, or are you just pointing out the obvious?”
The corner of his mouth tugged up in a smirk. “What I’m getting at, asshole, is that I’ve heard all about the epic lost love that was Hayes Walker and Temperance Levine. Christ, to hear people talk, you’d think you were town royalty and the breakup just happened yesterday.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“You’d think the people in this town would’ve found somethin’ more interesting to talk about over the past two fuckin’ decades,” I grumbled unhappily.
“Oh, they talk about plenty,” Trick chuckled sarcastically. “Case and point, the shit show that is currently my life. But they have a tendency to stick with their favorite stories.”
Dropping my feet to the floor, I pushed my chair forward and propped my elbows on my desk. “There a reason you felt like sharing this?”
He leaned forward, his expression growing serious. “I saw your face last night, brother.”
My gut twisted painfully as I pulled in a deep breath to try and calm the hurricane currently raging inside me. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about,” I managed to get out between teeth gritted so tight my jaw clicked.
“Really?” he asked disbelievingly. “So you’re sayin’ I imagined you watching her like she was the only woman in that bar? Like no one else existed for you in that moment but her?”
“Jesus Christ,” I snapped, sitting tall and raking my hand through my hair in frustration. “Are we gonna sit here and talk about our feelings now?”
Trick held his hands up. “You wanna share the story of your first period with me, go right ahead.”
“Dickhead.” I picked up my discarded pen with a deep chuckle and threw it at him.
He ducked before it hit its mark, but at least the mood had cleared.
Rising to my feet, I grabbed my blazer from the back of my chair.
“I told Tempie I’d return her car to her this morning.
Do me a favor and pick me up from the farmhouse in an hour? ”
“You sure you don’t want me to come along now?”
That would have been the smarter call, but I hadn’t been making the wisest decisions as of late. “I got this. An hour should be enough time.”
“All right. I’ll come get you then. But….” He trailed off as I slid my arms into my jacket and settled it on my shoulders. “Just answer one question for me, yeah?”
“And what’s that?” I asked after a moment’s hesitation.
“You sure you know what you’re doing?”
Hell no. “Yeah.”
I could see the doubt written on his expression, but he thankfully let it drop.
We’d been partners for a long time, and friends for even longer than that.
After Lincoln, he was probably the closest person to me.
He knew when to push and when to let something go, and he wisely chose the latter this time around.
I didn’t give him a second look, knowing I was poking at a wound I’d thought had healed a long time ago, as I turned on my boots and headed down the steps of the bullpen to the exit out back.
But when it came to Temperance Levine, I just couldn’t seem to keep my head on straight.
Temperance
I spun around at the sound of twigs snapping, my heart pounding so hard my ribs ached.
“Hayes?”
A large shadowed figure came out from behind the trees in the distance.
I squinted to try and see him more clearly while my blood grew cold with fear.
I couldn’t make out who it was, but I knew to my marrow that it wasn’t Hayes, and whoever the man coming closer and closer was, I had no doubt he was dangerous.
Very, very dangerous.
“Who are you?” The tremor in my voice echoed over the freezing wind blowing the dead leaves all around my feet.
As the figure grew closer, his massive frame became more visible, and the sheer size of the man terrified me.
I knew I should run. I knew I should turn and escape into the wood, but for some reason, I just couldn’t
“Stop,” I ordered, lifting a shaky hand to ward him off, but it was no use.
He just kept coming. “Don’t come any closer!
” I cried into the darkness, stumbling backward.
My heel caught on a raised root and I tumbled to the ground.
Decaying leaves and mud smeared on my palms as I scooted backward to try and get away from this unknown threat.
The tears spilling from my eyes felt like ice as they ran down my cheeks, leaving that horrid pins-and-needles sensation in their wake. “Please, stop,” I begged, but the dark figure just kept coming.
The moonlight shined through the bare, leafless trees, but the shadow man’s face remained completely black. In the darkness, I could see his arm move, his hand reaching into the pocket of his coat and pulling out something that caught and glinted in the murky light.
“Oh god,” I whimpered. “Please no. Please, don’t do this.
” The panic at the sight of the knife in his hand made my lungs freeze and my muscles grow stiff.
I felt frozen to my very bones, though it had nothing to do with the winter night air, and everything to do with fear that seeped into my very core.
Where was Hayes? What happened to him? He left me that note asking me to meet him here in our spot, and he never showed.
And now I was here, alone, with this shadow man, and all I could think was that this was it.
This was the end. I was going to die out here in the cold, in the dark, all alone in a place that had once been so precious to me.
Everything seemed to move at warp speed then as the figure disappeared for a single moment, only to reappear standing right over me.
His arm went up, the knife glinting again before it became a blur as he brought it down.
My lips parted and my blood-curdling scream pierced the otherwise tranquil silence just before I felt the razor-sharp tip of the blade sink into my skin.
I jolted awake from the nightmare, shooting up in my bed as a painful scream tore from my throat, leaving a nasty burn in its wake. My entire body was shaking so badly my teeth rattled, and a cold, clammy sweat had broken out across my skin.
I’d had that particular nightmare more times than I could count. It wasn’t the only one related to that awful night that plagued me, but that didn’t make it any less powerful. Even after all this time, those nightmares still had an agonizingly strong hold on me.
It had gotten so bad years ago that I began avoiding sleep at all costs, living on coffee and energy drinks just to stay awake so I wouldn’t have to relive them.
I’d started missing my college classes and was walking around like a zombie for weeks before Aunt Reenie finally had enough and insisted I see a therapist about it.
It took a year of therapy to reach the point where I could handle the nightmares and didn’t fear falling asleep, but they never actually went away.
Pulling in a deep breath, I willed my heart to slow down and the tremors racking my body to subside.
It took a minute to calm myself, but once I could breathe normally again, I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings.
The light filtering in through the slats of the wood blinds was only the palest of pinks, and when I looked to the alarm clock on the bedside table, I discovered why.
It was barely six in the morning, meaning I’d only gotten a few hours of sleep, and all of them were fitful and tormented thanks to that goddamn dream.
I had the lunch shift at the diner and knew I was going to be dead on my feet, but getting back to sleep after a nightmare was always impossible.
Deciding to make the best of the early hour, I climbed from the comfort of my warm bed to start my day.