Chapter 10 #2
“Trent will be fine,” Oakley stated, as he joined them.
“Still, we’ll keep an eye on him though.
” He looked over at Hayden and reiterated, “He was just coming out of it when I got to the vehicle. I didn’t find anybody nearby, but I did hear a car start up not too far away.
I just missed his attacker. So, Trent couldn’t have been out for that long, but still, it was a loss of consciousness. ”
Hayden nodded. “Yeah, I hear you. Definitely something we’ll keep an eye on.” He looked over at her. “Do you want to watch TV or take a shower or do something to destress?” he asked. “It’s been a pretty hairy day for you.”
“It has been. I was thinking about a shower and then an early night,” she shared. “I didn’t exactly get much sleep last night.”
“Not a bad idea,” he noted. “We’ll follow suit as soon as we set up our watch schedule.” He nodded at her. “Maybe go have that shower now.”
“Yeah.” She could take a hint all right. So, she got up and headed for the bedroom with an en suite bathroom. As she walked inside, she heard the men’s voices drop. She wanted to listen in, yet knew that, if she just asked them, they would tell her. They just didn’t want to disturb her right now.
And, for now, she would let them play that game because she needed a break from the whole situation, a chance to reset her mind and to think about how her life had gone from being safe to not safe to anything but.
As she curled up in the bed, completely forgetting about a shower, the tears started to fall, and she just couldn’t stop them. From that teary state, she fell right into a very deep but unsettled sleep.
*
Hayden checked in on the sleeping beauty to confirm she was doing okay. From the sounds of it, her breath was slow, heavy, and deep—peaceful.
She wasn’t kicking; she wasn’t fighting. She appeared to be relaxed, which was more than he could say for himself. Just too many things were going on right now that he didn’t like the looks of.
He returned to the living room, sat there, quiet, thinking about options, even though he was supposed to be sleeping now too, as Oakley was on first watch.
Hayden would be lucky if he got any sleep at all.
Not because they didn’t give him this four-hour period to sleep, but because his mind was spinning with all kinds of ideas, problems, and solutions.
As soon as he closed his eyes to get some sleep, his mind would come up with other problems.
Before long, he got up and checked on Trent and Andrea again.
They appeared to be fine. As he sat down again, his phone buzzed.
Not recognizing the number, he answered cautiously.
It was Amir Galanis, the overprotective dad, and Hayden was not surprised to hear from him.
Matter of fact, he’d been expecting his call even sooner.
Amir got to the point. “How is she?”
He looked down at his phone and asked, “How did you get my number?”
“From Mason,” he snapped. “How do you think?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t generally accept phone calls from just anybody.”
“I’m not just anybody,” he snapped. “I’m her father.”
“Oh, I hear you. But, right about now, she’s attempting to get some sleep, and that’s a good thing.”
“And yet you had another attack.”
“One of our men outside was attacked, yes.”
First came silence, and then he spoke, through gritted teeth. “I need this to stop. That’s my daughter you’ve got there.”
“I know it’s your daughter,” he replied. “Believe me that we’re doing everything we can to keep her safe and in good shape.”
“Yeah, but that won’t be enough if you guys keep getting attacked too.”
He didn’t appreciate the comment and didn’t bother to respond directly. “Your daughter is fine. She’s sound asleep. I can get her to call you in the morning.”
“And you and I both know that she’s not likely to call me back.”
Hayden knew it was a possibility. “You may be wrong to assume that because she is your daughter, after all.”
Amir sighed. “Do you have any kids, Hayden?” he asked.
“No, I don’t have any kids. … At least, none that I know of.”
Amir gave a bark of laughter. “Yeah.” He chuckled. “That’s a whole different thing too, isn’t it?”
“As a reminder, I knew your daughter years ago.”
“And what happened? Was she on to your tricks?”
“No, not at all. I’m the one who broke up with her.”
He gasped in astonishment, and then his voice hardened, and he swore. “And what was wrong with her?” he snapped.
Hayden told the truth. “I couldn’t quite … trust her,” he admitted. “And I’ve only just found out in the last few days that I was right.”
“What do you mean? Of course she’s trustworthy. What are you saying?” he snapped.
“She was living under an assumed name, so I didn’t even know what her real name was because she didn’t want anybody, including me, to know about you.
My instincts kept nagging at me, telling me something was going on, that she wasn’t being honest with me.
And I already had a suspicious nature,” he admitted, with half a smile.
“So no way I would take a chance on a relationship with somebody who was not open and honest with me.”
After a long moment, Amir replied, “I did know about that, although I don’t think I ever talked to her about it. I understood why she was doing it, and I did worry that people knowing her last name was Galanis would make her fall prey to a … different kind of predator.”
“Predators are everywhere,” Hayden confirmed. “I’m not sure there’s a better or a worse kind in any of that.”
“A lot of them just want her money, and a lot want to use her for power,” he shared.
After a heavy silence, Hayden retorted, his tone equally hard, “You better not be talking about me.”
“It’s not that I’m talking about you directly. However, I haven’t determined that I couldn’t be talking about you. As you and I both know, power is something that men tend to think they have free will to use.”
“Yeah, well, women aren’t exactly free of deception either,” he snapped.
“And I’ll remind you, young man, just who I am. I am her father.”
“You asked me a question, and I gave you a straight answer, but, rather than digesting that, you’re trying to pull the power card on me right now,” he pointed out, trying for a casual tone.
“I’m here, looking after your daughter. As I told you, she is currently fine and resting.
If anything changes, we’ll let you know. ” And, with that, he ended the call.
He sat here with half a smile on his face, wondering what the repercussions of that move would be. On the one hand, he didn’t care. On the other hand, he didn’t want to cause Andrea any further trouble.
Yet he realized just how protective Amir Galanis was still being of Andrea.
Hayden really struggled last time to end their relationship, just based on her deceptions, with her father nowhere in the picture.
Now Hayden was getting in over his head, and the chances of getting severely hurt increased every day that he was with her. Plus, Amir was involved now.
Hayden shook his head. Back then he knew something was seriously wrong in her world, and he didn’t know or have any way to combat it when she wouldn’t be honest with him. Now it would be hard to grab any sleep after these most recent revelations.
When he finally did get up, it was five in the morning, and he grabbed a quick shower, checked on Oakley outside, and then checked on the two sleeping inside.
Everything was the same as before, so he headed to the kitchen and put on coffee.
The loud ring from his phone startled him.
Mason calling. Hayden greeted him with an update.
“Oakley’s on guard. Trent and Andrea are both asleep,” he greeted him, “and I’ve recently checked on Trent. ”
“How is he?”
“He’s breathing normally. He refused to go for medical care, which I half expected, but we’ve been keeping an eye on him, and he’s doing okay.”
“Good to hear,” Mason stated, “but you and I both know head injuries can be dicey.”
“They can, but I would say he’s doing well, considering.”
“Good enough. Have him call me when he gets up, okay?”
“Yeah, will do. I’m not sure where we’re going from here. I did get a nighttime phone call from her father.”
Mason snorted. “Yeah, that probably went really well.”
“Not as well as it could have, but maybe as well as to be expected,” he acknowledged. “Obviously Andrea is his child, his only daughter, and he’s paranoid that something’ll happen.”
“Something already happened,” Mason corrected.
“That too, but, from his perspective, he’s trying to keep control over her—and us—so that nothing goes terribly wrong. I thought he would already be in New York by now.”
“We’ve asked him to stay away. That doesn’t mean he will for very long though. He wants results, and then he will come by.”
“Sure, results, whatever the hell that means.”
“Exactly.”
Hayden asked, “Any updates?”
“We do have one development. Arlene, the woman supposedly heading this up from the university itself, both in New York City and in London, was also found dead in her prison cell—like the Hulk. Her unit is on lockdown while there’s an investigation. Regardless, she’s now out of the picture.”
“How was she killed?”
“Execution style, gunshot to the back of her head. Not like the Hulk.”
“That’s not good.” Hayden stared at his phone. “And her half-brother?”