Page 186 of The Stalker

27

The Asshole

Tatiana wokein the middle of the night when Hayden yelled loudly next to her. He was screaming and shaking as he fought off some unknown predator in his head, though she suspected she knew the cause of his nightmare.

“Hayden,” she said loudly as she tried to shake him awake.

“No! Don’t do it!”

“Hayden.” She shook him harder, and his movements stopped.

“Tatiana?” he asked into the darkness.

“Yes. I’m here.”

He pulled her to him and hugged her tightly. “I was having a nightmare.”

“I figured,” she said around a lump in her throat.

He squeezed her tightly and jerked sharply. “Ow.”

Tatiana moved back away from him quickly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Actually, I hurt myself,” he said, sounding amused.

He searched in the darkness to find her lips and kissed her softly. “I’m glad you’re here with me. The nightmare was bad, but I feel better knowing you’re here.”

“I’m glad.”

She wished there was more that she could do for him, that somehow she could take his pain away, both physical and mental. She knew she couldn’t do that, though, so she simply lay in the dark with him until she heard his breathing even out and knew he’d fallen asleep again.

* * *

She wokeup in Hayden’s arms the next morning and carefully extricated herself from him so as not to wake him up. It was early, but she was unsurprised when she turned on her phone and saw multiple messages from his friends.

She quickly called Sebastian, who was the one who had messaged her most frequently. “Hi, Sebastian. I’m sorry I didn’t call you last night. It was late when we got back, and—” she considered for a second whether or not to tell him about Hayden’s breakdown, but figured that they were close enough that Hayden would be okay with it, “—Hayden wasn’t in the best shape, mentally, after giving his statement. I was in there with him when he did it, and it was rough. When we got back here, he had a bit of a breakdown, and I thought it was better for him to get some sleep and come see you guys this morning.”

“I understand that completely, but you could’ve at least told us that, though,” Sebastian pointed out.

Guilt washed over her because his friends hadn’t even crossed her mind last night. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. I was so focused on Hayden that I didn’t think about the fact that you guys would be worried about not hearing from him.”

“It’s fine. Will you come up and see us this morning? I’ll tell the others, and we can meet in Gabriel’s suite.”

“Yeah, of course. I’ve still got the keycard to the room, so we’ll come up as soon as Hayden’s feeling up to it.”

She hung up the phone and heard a loud sigh from behind her, turning to see Hayden looking at her from the bed.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I should’ve called Sebastian from the hallway.”

“It’s okay. I assume they want to see me.”

“Yes, they do. He’s going to get the others to meet us in Gabriel’s suite whenever you’re ready to go see them.”

“I’m ready now, but I forgot to charge my phone last night, so I need to borrow yours to call Harrison and Heather.”

His voice cracked as he said his friends’ names, and she nodded before walking over to hand her phone to him. He typed in a number from memory, and after a few seconds of staring at it, he pressed the button to dial.

“It’s not Tatiana. It’s Hayden.” He paused and listened before a smile came to his lips, but it didn’t wipe the frown from his face. “Yeah, I will be, but could you guys possibly come down to room seven-fifteen first? I need to talk to you before we go see the others.”

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