Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
HAYES
Being forcibly woken up by freezing cold water to the face was not how I expected my day to start.
At least I assumed it was still morning. There was no way to tell for sure based on the sterile windowless room I found myself in.
Fun fact: Apparently, I was also tied to a metal chair. That little tidbit of information went unnoticed until I tried to wipe the water from my face.
So quick recap. I had no idea what time it was, but considering my limbs weren't numb, I probably wasn't in this position long before the ice bath.
I didn't have the first clue where I was.
The room I was in reminded me of a morgue, but last I checked, I wasn't dead.
Not to mention I was restrained, and usually, morticians didn't feel the need to do that.
Dead people rarely put up a fight.
With all that being said. I was screwed. For the moment anyway. Hopefully, I could change those circumstances soon.
"Are you done assessing your situation and ready to start talking?"
I blinked the last of the water out of my eyes and stared up at the woman in front of me.
My ex-fucking-fiancée.
"There are better ways to get a man's attention."
"And I assure you, I had every intention of simply talking, but you attacked, and I felt the need to defend myself."
Her matter-of-fact tone pissed me off. She was blaming me. The victim here.
"You broke into my house while I was sleeping. What did you expect me to do? Welcome you with open arms?"
"Sarcastic. I like this guy." The woman standing next to Sloane, with black hair and bright red streaks running throughout, slapped my ex in the arm with a chuckle.
"Well, thank you. I'm sorry we haven't formally met. I'm Hayes, and you are?"
"Nyx. You've already met Anita. That's her boy toy, Beckett. The one hiding behind us is Lilith, and I don't think you need an introduction to Sloane." She pointed to each person respectively.
"You're right. Sloane and I know each other intimately."
Maybe intimately was the wrong word considering we never made it past second base. We both agreed that wouldn't happen until our wedding night.
"Right." Nyx dragged the word out. "But that's not why you're here."
"No, apparently, it's to talk." I turned my head to my ex and gave her my full attention. "I'm clearly not going anywhere anytime soon." I pulled on the restraints to prove my point. "So how about you tell me what you want to talk about so I can get back home and check on my business."
Sloane glared at me with her arms crossed over her chest. If I weren't tied down, I would mimic her stance just to screw with her. I didn't particularly like that she had me at a disadvantage, but it would seem that was a habit where we were concerned.
"Mason Dunkin."
I rolled my eyes. Not this again. "I already told you I didn't know the guy before he sat down across from me at the cafe."
"Well, I don't believe you. Hence the discussion again."
"I don't really care what you believe." I glanced around the room at the women, but it was the guy––Beckett I believe they said his name was––who piqued my interest. There was something about his demeanor that struck a chord with me.
He reminded me a little too much of the law enforcement guys I've dealt with over the years.
"But I am curious why you have such a hard-on for him.
What did he do? Break one of your hearts? "
Clearly that was the wrong thing to say. Anita went from relaxed to “I'm going to rip your throat out” real fast. If it wasn't for the guy hooking her around the waist and dragging her ass out, I would likely be dead.
Sloane glowered at me. "That question didn't win you any favors."
"I can see that. How about this one instead? Why the fuck did you leave?" If I was going to be forced to stay here and deal with her, I might as well get the answers I wanted. My intention was to find her but she beat me to it.
"Everyone out!" Sloane didn't look away from me while she shouted.
I didn't break eye contact as the other two left. I didn't need to see them to know they followed the order. Their heavy footsteps were answer enough.
"So you can have an audience to question me about some guy I barely met, but this discussion requires privacy?"
"You don't get to turn this around on me."
"On the contrary. I told you the last time we spoke that you lost the right to question me. You want answers? Fine. But only after I get what I want first."
"The reason I left doesn't matter anymore."
"It sure as hell does to me. We had our future planned out.
We were going to get married. Hell, you wore my damn ring on your finger.
I went to bed one night thinking everything was fine, and then the next day after work, you didn't show as planned. I went crazy looking for you. Even tried your parents’ place, but they wouldn't let me past the gate.
For two days, I was out of my mind with worry until one of your friends finally told me you left and were never coming back.
So how about you explain to me what the fuck happened to change your mind so suddenly. "
The pain in Sloane's eyes was the only indication what I said hurt her. But even that didn't last long. This new Sloane didn't wear her heart on her sleeve anymore. She locked that shit down. Either that or she didn't care about me anymore.
"Life happened. A big ole dose of reality slapped me in the face, and I did what I had to do to survive."
"And you didn't think to confide in me? I swore I would always be there for you, and you didn't give me the chance to do that. You took that choice away from me."
"Yeah, well, you weren't the only one who had choices taken from you." Anger simmered in her eyes, but it was the sadness in her voice that gave me pause.
"What the hell does that mean?"
Sloane reinforced the walls around her. "Nothing. I'm done talking about the past. Tell me about Mason Dunkin and what you know about the Dunkin family?"
"I. Don't. Know. Anything." That was my story, and I was sticking to it.
"Bullshit. Trouble always had a way of finding you." Her words were a slap to the face even if they were true. When we were together, I tried so damn hard to stay on the straight and narrow, but there was always something or someone around to screw that up for me.
I shrugged my shoulder. "That may have been true at one time, but I'm guessing you've looked into me, and I know for a fact my record’s clean.
" It really wasn't, but technology was a beautiful thing if you knew how to use it.
And I just so happened to have a friend who knew their way around manipulating my records.
Sloane scoffed, "Yeah, a little too clean and a whole lot suspicious. Makes me wonder what you're hiding."
That hurt in ways I didn't want to think about, but I shrugged it off like it was no big deal. "It doesn't really matter what I say, then. You've got some notion that I'm no better than my parents, so why should I keep trying to defend myself."
My parents were criminals. If there was something illegal going on in the area, there was a good chance they had a hand in it.
Selling drugs? You betcha.
Boosting cars? Definitely a time or two.
Robbery? Yup! They needed to keep their supply of booze somehow.
As far as I knew, they’d never murdered anyone, but a lot could've changed in ten years, and I didn't exactly stick around to watch their downfall.
"Or maybe you could save both of us the hassle of continuing this back-and-forth and just tell me how you're connected to the Dunkin family."
Well, I wasn't about to do that, but I could continue spinning things back to her until she got pissed enough to let me go.
"You know, maybe Toby was right. Your parents got to you, and you finally realized I was nothing more than trailer trash."
The room went from cold to arctic. Something about what I said changed Sloane's entire demeanor, and I wanted to know what the hell it was.