Page 35 of Hayes
My heart races rapidly in my chest. Wordlessly and slowly, he guides my fingers until, finally, the latch pops free. Hayes removes his fingers from mine and sits back, allowing me to remove the other handcuff from my wrist.
My shoulders slump in relief the second I have free range of my arms again.
He waits without a sound while I remove the handcuffs from my ankles, using the technique he just taught me.
I should thank him, but I don’t. I can’t yet. He’s saved me multiple times, but I can’t thank him. I don’t trust him enough for that yet.
There’s something he’s hiding. There’s some truth he needs to tell me before I can thank him. Before I can trust him. Before I can admit that I might love him.
“You bought me?” I snap, my words coming out harsher and more accusatory than I meant for them to.
“Would you have rathered Leo or someone else to have bought you?”
“Yes!”
He blinks as if I slapped him.
I stand up, not liking having this conversation while I’m in a position of weakness on the floor. Then I’m eye to eye with Hayes.
“Why? Because you like pain that much? If Leo bought you, you wouldn’t escape. You couldn’t even get free of handcuffs; he’d use far more restraints if you were his.”
“Because I can’t kill you!” I yell, breathless.
Hayes’s eyes widen, and then he grins. “You can.”
“I can’t.”
He takes my hands in his. “You can. And someday, you’ll realize that. If you need to, you kill me. You put yourself first—always. I’m not a man worth saving, protecting, or stopping you from doing what you have to do. Do you understand? Promise me you won’t hesitate to kill me when the time comes.”
I glare at him. “No. I don’t make promises like that. Not anymore.”
He sighs. “Fine, but if you realize someday that you want to kill me, then do it.”
“You have that much of a death wish?”
He shrugs. “I’m not afraid of death. I’ve lived a good life. I have good friends. I live every moment like it’s my last. And I love you. I can’t even explain why, just that I know that I do. Whether you ever love me back or not doesn’t matter. I want you to be happy. I want you to get to live because I know your life hasn’t had much happiness. And if killing me means you’ll finally be able to be who you were always meant to be, then I want you to kill me, Lily.”
My heart stills as he calls me Lily. No one has ever called me that before, but I kind of like it.
Fuck, I’m so totally fucked.
“So you bought out my contract? Or did you just buy my next first?” I ask.
Hayes hesitates, his smile faltering.
“The contract is over. You have a new contract. The auction is over. The money will all be sent to your family. And you’ll be married to a monster in a few weeks.”
“You’re not a monster.”
He looks at me with a look dripping with so much pain that all I want to do is wrap my arms around him until he smiles again. The world isn’t right if Hayes isn’t smiling.
“I am—and I’m sorry for that, Lily. But at least I’m a monster who will help you get revenge before you finally decide I’m worth stabbing in the heart.”
Chapter 16
Hayes
Time is running out. I need to find Ruby. I need to fulfill my part of our plan. I need to figure out my Titus problem. My phone is buzzing with relentless calls from Gage. And there’s a missed call from an unknown number, which I suspect was Lennox risking everything by calling me.
