Page 98 of Out of the Shadows
The seconds ticked by. My eyes were burning, and I tried desperately to keep them open but failed.
“Fuck!” Blinking rapidly, I turned away and rubbed my eyes to clear my blurred vision. “How do you do that? It’s inhuman,” I muttered under my breath.
He huffed out a chuckle but still refused to give me anything, even though we both knew precisely why I was here.
“Then I guess I’ll stop beating around the bush. That ‘support’ you were talking about … Was it Sasha?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and watching him intently. His eyes darted to the side, and that was all the answer I needed to know that my suspicions were correct.
“Shit, Hunter, you didn’t have to do that.”
“What’s the point of having a stepbrother in prison if you don’t use his contacts every once in a while?” There was the tiniest hitch in his voice, one you wouldn’t have recognized if you hadn’t spent years with him. But I knew his tells. Like the way his jaw twitched, which was almost impossible to hide.
“I don’t know, dude. Probably not for this, if you want my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful we got that shit off our backs, but it must have been difficult for you.” I eyed him with concern, but there was still no trace of emotion on his face.
“I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? You know I’m here for you.”
“I know.” His hard gray eyes softened a fraction. That wasall I would get from him, all he would allow.
He swiveled his chair from left to right. “What do you think Hailey’s going to do now?”
I frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that she probably realizes that her father won’t be able to pay for her education. And she doesn’t have a scholarship or even a job.”
I stared at him like he was a few fries short of a Happy Meal. “She’s got me,” I said slowly. “She doesn’t have to worry about a thing.”
He barked out a laugh. “Are you serious? You really think she’s going to go for that?”
What the hell was he talking about?“I honestly have no idea where you’re going with this. Care to explain?”
“Nah.” He waved it off. “Forget I said anything. Maybe I’m wrong.”
I narrowed my eyes on him, but I’d already lost his attention. He turned back to his screen, which I took as a request for me to leave. He didn’t like having other people in his personal space for long.
When I reentered my room, most of the lights were out, Hailey was snuggled up in the sheets and appeared to be asleep. I carefully slid into bed next to her so as not to wake her. As if she had a built-in heat sensor, she curled up against me without ever waking up.
I hugged her, a tingling sensation running through my stomach at the realization that this was my life, that I was allowed to experience so much happiness, and planted a kiss on the top of her head.
Hunter was wrong. Why should she have a problem with me taking care of her? We were a team; what was mine was hers. It was simple, really.
Thirty Five
Hailey
“It’s not that simple,” I groaned, burying my face in my hands. My usually very reasonable, perfect boyfriend had suddenly turned into a stubborn donkey.
“Of course it’s that simple. We’re a team. A team supports each other.” He defiantly crossed his arms over his chest.
“Yeah, well, for that to work, both sides of the team have to bring more or less the same amount to the table. Can’t you see just how out of balance we are when it comes to that?” I tried to appeal to his common sense. We had been going around in circles for what felt like an hour, neither of us willing to budge.
“Funny, a few days ago, you would have brought more to the table, and it wasn’t an issue then.”
I jerked my head back, my eyebrows raised. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Colt scoffed. “It’s pretty obvious. When people looked at us,they wonder why you slummed it with me. You’re beautiful, smart, kind, and rich.”
“Was rich,” I corrected with a sardonic tone.
