Page 184 of The Stalker

“I’m glad she did.” He looked back over at her. “You were the only person I wanted to see from the time I woke up in that box.”

Tatiana squeezed his hand as she looked at him. It felt as though this nightmare might finally be close to being over.

“The second night, Sarah kissed me and slept next to me again. She kept stroking my chest, and I hated it so much. I told her that I was ticklish and asked her to stop, which she luckily did. Oh, she did this laugh. This sickening laugh that was all high-pitched and made me feel ill. She was all apologetic again, ‘I’m so sorry, Hayden. See? We’re learning things about each other already. I’m ticklish behind my knees, just so you know.’ And then that laugh again.”

He shuddered as he said it, and Tatiana squeezed his hand.

“The next day, we had breakfast, and then Sarah went out to get something. She didn’t want Daniel to leave in case his picture had been leaked. Daniel spent the entire time she was gone telling me how useless I was and that Sarah only wanted me for sex, but she loved him. He’d apparently taken my comment from the day before to heart. I asked him if he’d read any of the letters he’d delivered for her.”

Tatiana’s jaw tightened, and she had a foreboding feeling that she wouldn’t like Daniel’s response.

“He kicked me in the stomach twice for that comment and said that Sarah told him she was just saying that so she could get me to have sex with her, but she really loved him. I gave up trying to reason with him and just let him talk. He punched me in the ribs or kicked me in the stomach whenever I didn’t respond. I think he was avoiding my face so that Sarah wouldn’t see.”

He said it all in a monotone voice with little to no emotion, and it scared her a little. It was obvious that these memories were painful, and she wondered how badly he’d been damaged by this experience.

“Sarah came back, and she wanted to have lunch with me. She told me that she wanted to go for a walk with me, but she didn’t trust me yet. I didn’t want to risk her thinking I was trying to escape, so I didn’t try to convince her she could trust me.”

She knew that he was about to hit the point in the timeline where they arrived to rescue him, and was relieved that he’d almost finished. She just wanted to get him away from here so he could start putting this terrible experience behind him.

“We had lunch just after twelve—” he lost the monotone note to his voice as he said this, then smiled and looked at Tatiana before he continued, “—and when we were finished, Daniel took our plates away, but before he did, Sarah made out with him. Like, full-on graphic with her hand down his pants, but she kept looking at me—”

Hayden stopped talking suddenly and retched twice. He covered his mouth with his hand and then took a sip of water before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

“Sorry, it was…a lot. I don’t know how much time passed before we heard you guys yelling that the FBI was here. Daniel appeared with the gun and gave it to Sarah. When she pointed it at my head—” he broke off and his body shook with tears.

Tatiana grabbed a tissue and handed it to him. He wiped his eyes before squeezing them shut tight while he continued talking.

“I thought I was going to die. I’d never see my friends or family again. This was the moment I’d be killed, and when the gunshot happened, I thought she’d shot me.” His voice broke and he took another few moments before he seemed able to continue. “I looked over, and she was lying on the ground. She said, ‘I love you,’ and that was it. She was dead. I’ve never seen someone die before.” He looked up at Special Agent McGuire and said, “I don’t know what else to say.”

“You’ve told us plenty. We just have a few questions that we need to ask,” she said.

The interview continued for another half an hour, with the FBI agents clarifying certain points with Hayden. They seemed to be trying to get more information on Daniel’s role in everything, and Tatiana assumed that since Sarah was dead, their focus was now on what they could use to get Daniel convicted.

When it was over, Special Agent McGuire had someone retrieve Hayden’s phone and watch for him, then saw them to the front of the building. “I can’t thank you enough for your time this evening, Mr. Vega. I know that this experience has been very difficult. The victim liaison will be in contact with you sometime tomorrow to organize counseling and other services for you.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.”

They were driven by a pair of FBI agents in a black SUV back to the hotel. He put his arm around her and held her close as they sat in silence during the drive, and he thanked the agents as they were dropped off at the front of the hotel.

“I have a room on floor seven,” she told him. “It’s not a fancy suite.”

“I don’t care as long as you’re there,” he said with a smile on his face. “I do need a shower and a change of clothes, though.”

She took him up to her room, and as soon as the door closed behind them, he pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. They stood there for a long time before pulling apart.

“Are you okay?” she asked, feeling stupid for the question because it was obvious he wasn’t.

“Not even close.” He frowned at her and bit his lip before asking in a quiet voice. “How do I get over this?”

Tears were threatening to fall as she saw just how badly he’d been broken. “With time. And therapy. And even then, you’re not expected to be okay. What happened these past three days was traumatic, and it will take time to even get to a semblance of okay. When you do, you will still have something happen and you will feel it all over again as badly as you feel it now. But it does get easier to deal with that happening over time.”

They stared at each other and Hayden didn’t say anything, just nodded his head.

“You said you needed a shower. How about you do that and I’ll get Jesse to go down to the bus and get some clothes for you.”

“Okay.” He choked out the word and turned to enter the attached bathroom.

Tatiana sat on the bed and blew out a long breath of air. She hated this for him. She hated Sarah, and her being dead didn’t make Tatiana’s feelings any less heightened. She felt as though molten lava was coursing through her veins when she thought of what she’d done to Hayden. And even though she’d never wanted to take a human life, she wanted to go back in time and enter the house so that she could kill Sarah herself.

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