Chapter 34
Grant
The Plan
Ihadn’t been able to sit still on the plane.
My legs knocked into Hayes so many times, he threatened to strap them down or chop them off.
Riding in coach for men of our size was laughable, but with neither of us having been on a plane before, we didn’t think twice about buying up last minute seats to Dallas.
We were both out for blood, but more than that, I was out to get my girl back. Every second in the air was another second I had no clue how Sophia was. What she was going through.
Me and Hayes went from one cramped space to another—from coach on the plane to the seats of a small rental car.
Whatever kept him distracted on his phone was keeping the ride silent, although my mind was buzzing to find Sophia.
I checked the time on the dashboard, my fingers drummin’ away on the steering wheel as we waited.
“It’s almost noon,” Hayes murmured, keeping his eyes down, the light of his screen shifting colors like he was watching a video. “Where is he?”
“Five more minutes, then I’m not opposed to storming the place if he doesn’t show.”
Hayes snorted. “You go in with guns blazin’ and what do you think will happen?” His gaze slid to the side to meet mine. “The security in there is all packin’. With their kind of money, they’ll kill you first.”
I narrowed my eyes on the upscale restaurant, my heart tugging violently toward the doors as they swung open. I shook my head to clear it. “I don’t know if that would stop me.”
Hayes’ brow arched. “You want her to see you shot up like that?”
I swallowed and leaned back in my seat, spreading my legs as I sighed. As much as I hated to admit it, whenever Hayes’ mouth did open and real words came out, he was usually right. “No,” I muttered.
“Then wait. Follow the plan.”
I gripped the wheel, twisting the leather like it was the neck I wanted to snap. “He’s taking too long.” Hayes smoothed his palm over his chest, wincing. I arched a brow, almost happy for the distraction. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I dunno. My pecs have been hurtin’ a bit. Sore.”
“Side-effect,” I replied, my jaw clenching. “I looked it up to see what they were tryin’ to put inside my girl.” The one Sophia ended up gettin’ was no better.
Suddenly, the car jolted, the door shutting behind our seats making both Hayes and I draw the guns we’d bought the moment we landed.
“Just me!” Walton’s arms shot up. “Here! Take it!” He waved his hand, folded up papers crumpling in his grip. I snatched them from him, watching his throat bob with terror. “Wasn’t easy to find, by the way.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t,” I muttered, unfolding the document to verify it was as I thought.
I nodded to Hayes, who then lowered his gun slowly.
“You’re sure you heard what you heard?”
Walton nodded immediately. “Absolutely. It was on her eighteenth birthday. I…I don’t know if she’s told you much—”
“She has.” I pocketed the papers and trained my gun right back on Walton. Just because he was willing to help, didn’t mean I didn’t want to put a bullet through his head a few times.
“Do you really think it will matter? You think they will care?”
I mulled that over, knowing I had no other straws significant enough to grasp onto. “It’ll have to do.”
Walton bobbed his head, looking unconvinced. “She’s inside,” he whispered. “She looks…like she used to. Nothing different.”
“Well to you, I’m sure that was acceptable.”
Walton shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, unharmed. Normal self.”
“She was fucking harmed when I took her, you jackass.” He flinched at my tone, the wuss. “My girl was covered in bruises that you failed to do a damn thing about.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Look, I already told you on the phone—I never touched her, and she covered it up. How the hell was I supposed to know?”
“Fuckin’ clueless,” Hayes murmured, turning his gaze out through the passenger side window, keeping watch while I focused on the coward in the back seat.
“If you gave a single damn about her, you would have seen all the signs. But you were too busy fuckin’ other women to care about the one you were engaged to.”
Walton’s jaw worked. “I didn’t want her anymore than she wanted me. And it was only one woman. Hailey. She’s the only one I want. The rest were…cover-ups.”
“Security guard just stepped out,” Hayes said, flicking his nose with his thumb. “Better hurry it up, Walt. We ain’t got time for this.”
Walton ducked behind Hayes’ seat, trying to stay unnoticed.
“It’s not odd for me to leave these sort of events and come back an hour later.
They are probably watching for the paparazzi.
” He adjusted the hair that’d shifted, grimacing at something in the car, or maybe the car itself.
What-the-fuck-ever. “I’ll do what you asked, only I haven’t seen her father yet. ”
“What do you mean you haven’t seen him yet?”
Walton’s head wobbled. “Well, Kora’s there. But she said he was feeling under the weather and promised he’d be there tonight after he rested.”
Hayes met my gaze. “Sounds suspicious as fuck,” he said, seemingly reading my thoughts.
“Are Kora and her brother talking about anything?”
Walton thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Riyan seems way more focused on Sophia. He’s sitting on the other side of her, and nearly bit my head off when I sat down beside her before remembering this was our rehearsal lunch, not theirs.”
“It’s no one’s fucking rehearsal lunch,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Sure, sure, yeah.” Walton checked through the window, noticing the security guard had vanished before sliding back up into his seat. “I promise I will do what you asked of me. That is all you needed confirmation of, right?”
“You do what I asked, and then you leave,” I clarified. “For good.”
Walton dusted invisible shit from his clothes. Bet he didn’t know what color dirt was even if it hit him in the face. “Yes. We are clear on those terms.”
“Good,” I replied, then gestured toward the back door with my gun.
Walton jolted back into his seat, thinkin’ I was about to shoot him or somethin’.
I hated the fucker, but now I needed him and unfortunately shooting him wasn’t going to do me any good.
For today, at least. “Now get the fuck back inside and make sure Riyan keeps his hands to himself.”
Walton nodded before scurrying from the car, his pace along the brick sidewalk eager and jumpy.
Hayes shook his head, his index finger laying over his lips as he asked, “You think he’ll listen?”
I shifted the car into drive, my heart hurting worse as we started moving away from the restaurant. Away from my girl. “If he doesn’t listen, you can act like it was him who knocked you out and not Riyan.”
“Sounds like a good way to start the weekend.” Hayes chuckled, then went right back to his phone, this time, tapping away.
“When Sophia comes back home, you think you’ll finally do somethin’ about whoever it is you’ve been after?”
Hayes shot a look at me, then put his phone face down. “I dunno what you’re talkin’ about.”
“’Course you don’t.”
Hayes tapped his fingers on the back of his phone, the sound being the only one in the car for a few minutes as we drove back to the hotel to get changed. “If I did know what you were talkin’ ’bout, do you think I’m too fucked-up to be…”
“Wanted?” I finished, then scratched the back of my head. Hayes and I were close, but not once had he ever opened up like that before. It was usually me pourin’ out my feelings about everything and anything to both of my friends while they looked at me like I was too soft.
“Loved,” Hayes corrected. “Pretty sure she wants some part of me, but not…ya know.” His leg started bouncin’ harder than mine had on the plane.
“All of you,” I finished again.
He nodded. “Yeah. That.” He flexed his hand over his phone, then shook his head. “Nah, forget it. I didn’t ask.”
“Yeah you did.”
“Nope.”
“Nothin’ to be ashamed of,” I said truthfully.
“Forget it,” he repeated, then went back to scrolling his phone, his fingers fisting his dirty-blond hair.
I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “If you want someone that bad, bad enough to be more worried about her feelin’s than your own, and worryin’ if you’re good enough for her, then I think she might be the perfect one for you.”
Hayes lifted his head slowly and smiled in a way I’d only seen when he was super drunk or getting high off a fight with my sister. He was a bit fucked up for sure, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t worthy of feeling what I did for Sophia, and what I believed Carver did for Lyra.
“So, I should go for it,” he concluded. “Right?”
“Fuck yeah,” I replied, slapping his chest with the back of my hand. “You should.”