Chapter 33. Haley
Haley
Ace hadn’t come to Riverstone alone. He’d brought Maverick as backup, and Paige hadn’t stopped drooling since she’d come from the hospital.
“You’re embarrassing yourself,” I whispered as Ace and Mav walked through the house, checking the doors and windows I’d already checked. “At least try to pretend you don’t want to rip off his clothes and jump into bed with him.”
“I mean…” She waved vaguely in Mav’s direction, unable to even finish her sentence. “It’s like someone jumped into my head, plucked out my fantasy man, and created him in real life.”
“I still think this is overkill,” Mav said after they’d finished their security check.
“You think Haley is in danger because a journalism student and his student hacker sidekick put together some crazy conspiracy theory based on a posting they found on the dark web and information your wannabe journo got from threesomes he had with some White House interns?”
“Chad’s been having threesomes with White House interns?” Paige laughed. “I thought his weekend trips were for his investigative journalism project.”
“This is his investigative journalism project,” Ace said. “I just can’t believe the FBI wouldn’t take him seriously.”
“I can’t believe Tony and Jordan took it seriously.
” Mav added another log to the fire Ace had built to warm me up after I’d gotten a chill in the garage.
“But I’m not complaining. I’ve never been to Virginia before.
Now I can check it off my list of states to visit.
Your town is very festive. I’ve never seen so many lights.
You’ve even got lights on your roof and no one is living in the house. ”
“My dad put ours up a few years before he passed away,” I said.
“Ace and my brother helped him. It was so much work, he decided to just leave them up year-round. Mom didn’t like the idea of Christmas lights in summer, but you can barely see them, and she did like just having to flick a switch in November when the town lights go on.
” It was a memory an ordinary person might share about someone who passed, but I’d never been able to talk about Dad before, and the words, as they dropped from my lips, felt shiny and new.
Ace adjusted the damper in the fireplace. “I would have liked more backup. There’s a lot of property here, and a lot of house to protect.”
“Maybe we have no backup because the danger is minimal,” Mav countered. “Two of the kidnappers are dead. Two are in custody. Maybe there is another dude out there, but he’s not going to have the resources to act alone, much less follow Haley to Virginia. No one knows she’s here.”
“Chad thought it was organized by a group at a high level.” Ace shot me a worried look.
“Even if they weren’t watching Haley’s house, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out where she is.
This was her mother’s constituency. The house is in her name.
Haley just went through a traumatic event. Where else would she be?”
“I dunno. Sitting on a beach in Mexico to get away?”
“Haley’s not really a sit-on-the-beach kind of girl,” Paige said.
“Every time I’ve tried to get her to suntan with me, she lasts two minutes and then she’s out on the water parasailing or waterskiing or engaging in any number of adrenaline-inducing water sports that are the complete opposite of relaxing. ”
“I suntanned on Mr. Dixon’s motorboat during that school trip in eleventh grade,” I reminded her.
“And then five minutes later you were beside him at the wheel, urging him to go full throttle.”
“They’ll be desperate,” Ace said. “There are only two days until the election. Haley’s mom has full-time security. They need Haley to force her mother out of the race. My guess is that they’re already on their way.”
“Are you sure you’re not here for another reason?” Mav tipped his head in my direction. I wasn’t sure if he meant for me to see, but his meaning was clear.
“I’m just doing my job,” Ace said, his voice tight.
“Except it isn’t your job. I heard you already had a new assignment in LA, and you took time off to come out here.”
Ace gave Mav a warning shake of his head.
I didn’t understand what was happening between them, but I shrugged it off.
I was still emotionally exhausted. I didn’t know how long I’d stayed in the garage, but the tears kept coming for what seemed like forever.
I cried for Dad and for Matt. I cried for Paige and her mom.
I cried for me and the girl I was who had loved so deeply she was afraid to love again.
Ace didn’t say anything. He just held me until finally the pain washed away.
“I have faith in Chad and Theo,” Paige said. “If they think there’s some kind of political conspiracy, then I believe them. The question is, what do we need to do? Should we take Haley to a hotel? Wouldn’t that be safer? There are so many ways someone could get into this house.”
“I think we should stay here and draw them out,” Mav said. “You need to end this so you’re not constantly looking over your shoulder. And your mom needs to know who’s behind it, because the threat might get worse if she is elected.”
“So, I get to be bait?” I shrugged off the blanket Ace had wrapped around me, warm now from the roaring fire. “Should I put on some lingerie and run screaming into the dark forest?”
“It’s not a horror movie, babe.” Paige patted my knee. “No one is going to come at you with a mask and a chain saw.”
“No, they’ll be disguised as record executives and wear expensive clothing and seduce me with promises of making me famous.
” I couldn’t hide the bitterness in my tone.
How could I have been so stupid? Why would an EMI record exec come to see me at a karaoke bar?
Stefan worked for a smaller record label, and he hadn’t thought I was ready.
I should have known I wasn’t big-time material.
“Mav and I brought some surveillance equipment we’re going to set up around the house to let us know if anyone comes into the yard,” Ace said. “Why don’t you two get some rest?”
It had been a long day, and I was more than happy to go upstairs.
Paige and I made up my mom’s bed for Maverick, and then she came into my room with a thin blanket and a pillow.
“Are we setting up the spare room for Ace? I forgave him for five minutes after he saved you, but now I hate him again for walking away, so I think he should sleep alone in a cold, hard bed that has thumbtacks between the sheets.”
I laughed out loud. “Your mama bear claws are showing.”
“He should be afraid. I think I told him I would claw out his eyes if he hurt you again.”
She looked so serious; I almost believed her. “He blamed himself for what happened, Paige. You should have seen him at the hospital. He was devastated. And he is here now even though Mav said he’s in the middle of another job.”
Paige sniffed in derision. “That is the least he could do.”
“He did save me from the kidnappers,” I offered. “He got into a gunfight and had to shoot two men. That couldn’t have been easy.”
“That was the job.” Paige folded her arms and leaned against the wall. “I’m hearing a lot of excusing his behavior, and not a lot of being angry about his inability to make any kind of commitment.”
I’d never thought of it that way. Ace and I had never been in an actual relationship, so the issue had never come up, but commitment could take many forms. “I was angry at him for years, and then he came back into my life, and for a while it was like it used to be between us. I always feel comfortable around him. I never feel like I have to be anyone other than myself. He never judges me; never tells me I talk too much or that I’m too energetic or crazy.
He makes me feel calm, Paige. He makes all the noise in my head go away.
I know that if I go too far, or I’m about to fall, he’ll be there to catch me. ”
“Oh God.” Paige tipped her head back and groaned. “You’ve fallen for him again.”
I took the blanket and pillow from her and added them to my bed. “Would that be so bad?”
“It would if you’re just pretending to yourself that he didn’t hurt you, just like you’ve done with all the other terrible things that have happened to you in your life.”
“I didn’t pretend today,” I said. “While you were at the hospital, I opened one of Matt’s boxes from the air force and I let myself feel everything—the pain and loss and the memories.
I thought about Dad and how much I missed him, so I opened one of his boxes, too.
It hurt but it was beautiful, and I cried for them for the first time and I couldn’t stop and then Ace was there. ”
“He always did have a good sense of timing,” she said, not unkindly.
“He just held me until I was done. Now I feel different. Empty, but not in a bad way. I don’t want to hide from how I feel anymore—not about them and not about Ace.
I care about Ace, and I think he cares about me.
I wish he hadn’t left, but I understand why he did, and it doesn’t change how I feel.
He left, but he came back when I needed him. That’s enough commitment for me.”
“I guess we’re not making up the spare room,” she said. “At least I won’t have to sneak in there tonight and make good on my promise to avenge you.” She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a container of thumbtacks. “What am I going to do with these?”
Ace joined me in bed an hour later, slipping between the covers and curling his warm body around me. “I didn’t know if you’d want me here,” he murmured. “I didn’t check my messages until I went to the guest room and saw you hadn’t made the bed.”
“The heat has never worked well in that room.” I snuggled against him. “I didn’t want you to be cold.”
“So thoughtful.” He chuckled and put his arm around me. “You’re definitely warming me up.”
“I hope so. It’s been a long time.”