Page 85 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

Troy adds on. “Hi, I’m Hallie’s boyfriend. So sorry to cut your visit short, but we were just heading out. It was nice to meet you.”

Hallie turns on him. “Really? I haven’t seen my friend in months, and I get two minutes with her?” Even she can register she’s slurring her words. The stress and alcohol are catching up to her. She doesn’t feel well.

Troy lowers his lips to talk into her ear. “You are out of control. I don’t know what happened, but we are going home and we’re staying there until I get to the bottom of what’s going on. Let’s go. Say goodbye to your friend.”

She makes the mistake of looking into his eyes. She hates that he still has the power to crush her like a bug. He is so perfect and for such a short time, she had dared to dream she could be with a man like Troy, but it was just a dream. The protective dam of anger she had built up is crumbling and she can feel the tears about to come.

The raunchy sounds of the room fall away as Hallie begins to spiral down. She can hear Stacey asking if she’s okay as the tears begin flowing in earnest. The memory of a life-changing phone call combined with too much alcohol for her petite frame and there, standing in the middle of the chaos, Hallie starts to sob.

She vaguely feels Troy scooping her into his arms. She hates that he feels so safe. She knows it’s a mirage… a lie. She can hear Stacey asking Troy about where Hallie is living and how she can get in touch with her to check up on her later. Hallie can hear the worry in both of their voices as they talk about her. She hears Troy giving out her address in Eagle’s Pass.

She doesn’t remember much of their trip back to the car, but she knows Troy carried her the entire way. She expects him to be so furious that he’d be yelling at her. It would have been easier if he’d been angry. Instead, he keeps reassuring her with soft words like “It’s okay, baby. I have you now.” And “We’re almost there. I’ll take care of you.”

His comforting words only make her cry harder because she knows they’re all lies. He’s only going to take care of her until he gets what he wants and then he’s going to pack up his apartment and move back to DC and play house with Victoria.

Hallie loses some time during their trip because it seems like she’s barely closed her eyes and Troy is carrying her from the elevator to his apartment. He doesn’t stop to turn on any lights, but carries her straight to his bathroom, the room where the fateful call had come in. The memories of Victoria’s words finally have Hallie rushing for the toilet, losing every drop of alcohol and bite of fettuccine Alfredo she’s consumed since the start of this disastrous evening.

Damn Troy. He stays there with her, holding back her hair. Wiping her face with a cool washcloth. Helping undress her and carry her tenderly to his bed. The bed they’d made love in just a few short hours before. She’d expected him to pounce on her to get one last romp out of her before he leaves town, but instead, he strips them both bare and crawls into bed behind her, spooning her in his arms until she gratefully blacks out.

Chapter Sixteen

Nothing is making any sense. Troy had held Hallie until she fell asleep, or more accurately passed out. He’d tried to get some sleep himself, considering he’s been working around the clock for the past few days, but after tossing and turning for a few hours, he’s decided he’s too wound up to sleep. He’d thrown on a pair of boxer briefs and has parked it on his couch in the dark, running the past week through his brain over and over, looking for the missed clues to bring order back to his life.

Twenty-four hours ago he couldn’t wait for this night to arrive. He had hoped to talk with Hallie about her plans to stay in Eagle’s Pass and let her know that he had put things into motion with his work to be able to move there too, as soon as possible. Now here he sits wondering if he even knows who Hallie really is.

She’d been an entirely different person tonight and as much as it scared him, he has to reluctantly admit this is exactly the kind of shit that happens when you rush into things too quickly. He’d let his emotions and the extraordinary circumstances in meeting Hallie outweigh his common sense. He should have known better than to fall in love so fast. There is so much they don’t know about each other yet.

If only it were that simple, but like it or not, Troy does love Hallie and he’s determined to get to the bottom of what had her spooked tonight. No one ever said it would be easy, but he wants her in his life. He wants to love her. To lead her. He wonders if his father ever had to face similar problems and if so, how he dealt with leading his family through stressful times. He wishes he could call his dad for advice.

With a groan, Troy heads back to the bedroom. He knows he’ll feel better just holding Hallie in his arms.

The sun is shining through the bedroom curtains when Troy stirs awake. He’d seen four on the alarm clock before finally passing out from sheer exhaustion. It only takes a few groggy seconds for the memories of their disastrous night to flood in on him. His head is pounding. He should be relieved that he’d managed to finally get some sleep, but instead of feeling rested, he feels lethargic.

Troy had rolled to his back in the night. Rolling to his side, he reaches out to pull Hallie close and finds the bed empty. In a shot, he is wide-awake, sitting up, scanning the room quickly and finding it empty. He shoots out of bed, rushing to the bathroom, hoping to find Hallie there in the shower, feeling hung-over and ashamed of her behavior the night before. Instead, he finds an empty room. A heavy dread sets in as he realizes her overnight bag is missing.

Troy rushes through the rest of the apartment but is already sure of what he is going to find. Hallie is gone.

How could he have been so wrong about them and their future? How could he have read her so wrong on their ski trip? Troy tries her cell phone. No answer. He sends several text messages. No response.

He collapses onto the couch to take stock of his options.

The easiest thing would be to write the whole event called Hallie Boudreaux off as a terrible mistake and go back to bed. That idea doesn’t even finish before it’s rejected. Hallie is under his skin. There is no forgetting her.

He could let things cool down and head out to Eagle’s Pass in a few days over the weekend after they’d both cooled down and could hopefully talk things through more clearly. The fact that Troy is jumping out of his skin, however, tells him there is no chance in hell he’ll be able to concentrate on anything until he understands what’s happening with Hallie. He is angry, of course, but he can’t shake the feeling that there is something much deeper at work with her. Something that needs his understanding and patience.

So that leaves getting dressed and chasing after her, like a little puppy dog. It doesn’t sit well with him that she has him acting like an impulsive teenager, but in the end, it doesn’t matter. He can’t rest until he figures out what’s wrong and does all he can to make it better.

Troy heads into his room to throw on jeans and a sweater and is in his SUV within ten minutes, on the road to Eagle’s Pass. He tries Hallie several more times with no luck and finally breaks down and calls his sister.

“Troy, you’re killing me here. It’s New Year’s Day. Just this one day of the year, couldn’t you sleep past eight in the morning?”

Troy hadn’t really looked at the clock, but it doesn’t matter. “Trace. Sorry, but I didn’t know who else to call. Something is really wrong with Hallie.”

He can hear his sister moving around on the other end of the phone and when she talks next, he can hear the concern in her voice. “What’s wrong with Hallie? Is she sick or something?”

“I don’t know. She was fine when she got here yesterday, but about an hour into her visit, she got really distant and acted angry. We did go to dinner and the concert, but we both had a terrible time. I tried to get her to open up and talk to me about what was bothering her, but nothing I said helped. She drank too much, and I brought her home to sleep it off, but I woke up this morning and she’s already gone. I can’t believe she fucking snuck out without saying goodbye or leaving a note.”

He can hear the panic in his own voice, and it pisses him off.

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