Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Hayden
Flashback – Prison
“You ever gonna tell me your name?” I ask, voice low, thumb tracing the side of the metal bar on my bed.
He doesn’t answer, just shifts in his bunk above me, his arms slinged over the side of the bed. He’s older than me. His eyes always look like they’ve seen more than they should, they’re fucking hunted by something. But I don’t care because he’s the reason I’m breathing today.
“Rule number one,” he mutters. “No names. You don’t get mine. I don’t want yours.” I have to chuckle to myself because he knows my name, he said it a few times.
“Mr. Cain tell you that?” I ask, waiting to see if that makes him shift on his bed, but nothing. “It’s his thing, right? No names.”
He doesn’t reply.
There’s a silence that stretches between us, and it’s heavy. Neither of us want to talk, because we can’t say much to each other, but the silence is annoying as hell.
He finally speaks again. “So, what’d you do?”
I don’t answer at first. Not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t know how to say it without breaking again. Every time I think about it, a million questions run through my head.
“I didn’t do anything,” I finally say, words sharp and quiet, the burn is still there.
“They say I raped her. I never touched her. I fucking loved her. She knows that, too., I would’ve given her everything.
” My chest tightens, breath catching in the back of my throat.
“All I want to know is why. Why did she do it? Why did she say it? Why did she disappear?”
“Then ask her,” he replies, like it’s that easy.
I let out a bitter laugh and shake my head. “No one knows where she is. It’s like she never existed. No address. No trace. No fucking footprint. My parents, my brothers they’ve all looked. Every path we follow leads to a fucking dead end.”
I pause, my fingers clenching into fists, the weight of the last few months pressing against my ribs. Do I wonder where she is? Every fucking day, because I want to know so when I get out of this hell hole, I’m going to make sure she tells me everything.
“I don’t care anymore,” I whisper, even though it’s a lie and I know it. “After everything I’ve been through in here... she’s dead to me. She’s nothing.”
I say the words because I need to believe it myself.
I stare at the bunk above me. There’s a stain there, maybe blood, and I count the cracks running across the concrete. Anything to keep from seeing her in my mind again.
If she really knew me, really loved me, she wouldn’t have let this happen. Wouldn’t have left me here to rot with the guilt of a crime I never committed.
I close my eyes and let the thoughts drown me.
Until I hear it.
The clank of boots. The rattle of keys. A door opening.
I don’t move.
“Crawford,” the guard barks.
I sit up, squinting toward the light from the flashlight in his hand. “Yeah?”
“You’ve got a visitor.”
I frown. “Now? It’s the middle of the damn night.”
He doesn’t answer, just steps aside waiting for me to get up. Who the hell would be here at this time of night?
I slip off the bed slowly, muscles stiff and aching from the last beating I had a few days ago.
I follow the guard down the corridor, looking at the cells as I walk past them. The door opens and I walk in, but stop in my tracks when I see him.
Tall. Broad. Arms folded.
I freeze.
My heart hits my ribs like a fucking drum. My knees almost buckle.
“Cain.”
His name is a breath, a whisper that barely escapes me. But it’s him. The weight in the air shifts the second I step further into the room.
For the first time since I walked into this place, my chest feels lighter. My lungs expand like they remember how to breathe again.
Before I realize it, I’m walking, no… power-walking straight toward him, and the second I reach him, I throw my arms around him, gripping him hard, like he’s the only thing tethering me to the ground.
I feel his arms wrap around me, strong and solid. I feel him press his hand to the back of my head, grounding me like he always has from a far.
“Let’s go home,” Cain says.
Three words.
And everything inside me breaks.
Present time
I watch Olivia as she walks behind the bar and see the smile on her lips as another worker walks over to her. From the moment I’ve seen her back at college this is the first genuine smile on her lips. How I’ve missed that smile, she used to smile like that for me.
Why the hell does it piss me off that she’s smiling at others and not me? Even now, after everything, she still has a hold on me.
I walk away from the window, watching her is becoming an addiction. Just like it was all those years ago.
Turning around, I meet Cain’s eyes. Without having to say a single word it’s like he knows what I’m thinking. I hate it when he does that. Quickly breaking eye contact from him I sit down in front of him at his desk listening to the conversation happening around me.
Cain closes the lid of his laptop with a sigh. “Why do I feel like something’s about to break?” He looks at Mason while asking the question, because if anyone is going to be trouble for him it’s him.
“Because you’re dramatic,” Mason says, grinning, and it also makes me laugh, because if I had to say someone is dramatic, Cain is the last person I would say.
“And I think you’re an asshole,” Cain bites back, making both Miles and I laugh even more.
“So, I only have one more entry left on my Christmas gift, but—”
“You need to catch him in a good mood if you want to go up there without a fight.” I cut Mason off because we all know how he is with the sixth floor.
Mason throws his arm across the back of the chair. “You want us to stay out of there? Fine. But you better come through with something just as good next Christmas.” Mason’s comment makes Cain burst out laughing.
“Hell will freeze over before that happens.” I look over at Mason as Cain tells him, and I have to agree with Cain. Mason loves the fifth and sixth floor, getting him out of there is hard enough, so hell will have to freeze over.
“Mom texted earlier,” Miles cuts in, waving his phone. “She wants everyone home for dinner tomorrow. Said, and I quote, ‘If anyone is late, I will guilt-trip you into an early grave.’”
“Sounds about right,” I smirk. “Did you tell her we’ll be there?”
“She said, all of us. That means Declan too, and you.” Miles raises a brow then points to Cain.
“I’ll be there—”
“For an hour, then you will make an excuse to leave.” I cut him off, and I see the side of his lips curl up into a smile.
Before he can say anything Declan storms in, looking like someone kicked his dog, and he doesn’t even have a dog.
Mason doesn't miss a beat. “Jesus, D. What is it now? Not getting laid enough even though your girl lives with you?”
“Fuck off,” Declan grunts, rubbing the back of his neck. “I swear to God, the women in my life are going to kill me.”
Cain smirks. “Trixie giving you hell?” He glances over at me, because we all know if Trixie is in one of her moods she can give Declan as good as he gives.
“No. Lileah.”
That shuts us all up because normally Declan and Lileah are tight and it annoys us all. Even Mason and Miles aren’t that tight. So, for them to be fighting is surprising to us all.
Declan drops into the seat beside me with a grunt. “She’s pissed she can’t go to prom without all of us breathing down her neck.”
Mason’s eyebrows shoot up. “We’re not all going, did you tell her?”
“Yeah. Apparently, someone asked her. And apparently, she’s mad I told her she’ll have at least two of us there. She said I was being overprotective.”
“We have a reason to be overprotective,” Miles snaps.
Declan glares, shaking his head at us. “You want her going alone?”
“No,” I shout, and my body runs cold thinking about what happened at the last prom.
He nods. “Exactly. I told her she needs to remember why Hayden is the way he is about prom—” I glance up but say nothing because I know my sister isn’t stupid enough to forget what happened.
Declan continues. “—and why, the rest of us are on the same page. She can either keep moaning and stay home or enjoy her night and deal with us watching.”
“I’m going to sit in the corner,” I say, looking at them all. “I won’t say a word. But if I see one boy touch her in the wrong way—”
“You’ll kill them,” Mason finishes, raising a hand like he’s heard it a thousand times. “Yes, brother. We know. It’s practically on your resume.”
Miles laughs, and nods. “I think it’s on all of ours.”
Declan chuckles. “I reassured her, told her unless something happens, you won’t even be noticed.” He pats my back, and I nod. I know Lileah hates it, but it’s the only way she’s going, I won’t go through another bad prom night.
"She's the baby sister of four brothers who know how to kill, it’s not easy for her, and her having a boyfriend won’t be easy.”
“Especially not for baby sisters who get asked to prom by teenage boys who think TikTok trends make them interesting,” Miles adds, rolling his eyes. “There's something else I have to tell you.”
We all turn around to face Miles, but his eyes are locked on me. “And what's that, you finally coming out?” I joke with him and he tells me to fuck off which makes me laugh.
“Fuck off, it’s about Olivia.” I look away from him, because he knows I don’t care, so why say anything?
“When I was in her car, I saw something, and—” he stops, and it makes me turn my head to face him.
“—I know we hate her for what she did, and we will always be on your side. You hate her, we hate her, you forgive her, we forgive her. But there was a note I saw, and it said, "We will play again, like old times.” Miles stops for a moment, and I use every ounce in my body not to react. “She looked freaked out when she took it from me, I don’t think it’s the first note she’s got. ”
“Who’s sent it?” Declan asks.
“Don’t know, didn’t ask, and even if I did I don’t think she'd have told me.” I glance over to the window, wondering who'd have sent her the note. “If I had to pick who sent it, Leo would be on the top of the list.”