Page 34 of Broken Minds

Chapter Fourteen

I woke up not knowingwhere I was. I didn’t recognize the room, but something about the feel of the place, and even the smell, made me think I was still in Hayden’s house, just somewhere I hadn’t been before.

What had happened? Why had he brought me here? I assumed he was the one to bring me up, and I hadn’t made it by myself and then blocked it out.

Suddenly, the events of the previous night came back to me in a rush. Loretta had come down to the room, had Tased me. I’d run and then...

I curled into a tight ball, a whine of dismay crawling from my throat. Oh, God. I had killed Loretta. I was a murderer, just like my father.

Every muscle in my body wound tighter, until I trembled with tension. I wanted to shrink into myself, to condense and grow smaller, until I eventually imploded and vanished. I didn’t know how I could live with this. How could I keep going, knowing I had taken a woman’s life? The disgust I felt toward myself made me want to claw my own skin from my body and rip out my eyes. I no longer wanted to be a part of myself, but I had no idea how to make this all stop.

A wail of anguish tore from my throat, and I sobbed into the couch cushions. I wished I could go back to sleep, just to escape the pain, but I was wide awake now and had to face reality.

My throat hurt from crying, my face puffy and my nose blocked. I didn’t think I’d ever stop crying, but eventually my tears ran dry, and I ended up just lying there, hollow and exhausted, staring at the wall.

Where was Hayden?

I had vague recollections of him finding me. It was like trying to remember a dream where the details had vanished, and I could only recall flashes. But Hayden had been there afterward. He’d held me and comforted me, and he’d taken off my handcuffs when I’d begged him.

That realization made me sit up, and I checked my wrists. I was free. He hadn’t tied me up again with something else. Was I even locked in the house?

Feeling weak and shaky, I got to my feet. I crossed the room to the living room door, opened it a crack, and peered out into the hallway. The house was silent.

“Hayden?” My voice sounded too loud, but I called out again. “Hayden, are you here?”

The doors for the elevator were opposite me, and I shivered at the sight. I prayed I would never need to go down there again. The thought of being locked up in the same place as Loretta’s body was a nightmare. The sight of her sprawled out on the bathroom floor, her eyes bulging and tongue swollen, jumped into my mind, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to dispel the image.

It was irrational, but a part of me felt like I was going to bump into Loretta, alive and well, and she was going to glare at me and demand to know what I was doing.

The memory of straddling Loretta’s back, the chain of the cuffs locked around her throat, and me pulling harder and harder jumped into my head. I tried to push it away, not wanting to look at it in any detail. I remembered my anger and hatred, though. Hayden could say I hadn’t meant to do it, but I had. Right in that moment, I’d been filled with such rage that seeing her die was all I wanted.

Not finding any sign of Hayden, I kept looking around the house. I tried the back door and found it unlocked, but I didn’t bother to step outside.

There was nowhere I could go. I’d tried to run before, and all it had gotten me was locked up down in the room beneath the house. There was the boat, but Hayden would have the keys on him—he wasn’t stupid enough to make the same mistake twice. I had no intention of trying to swim to safety either. Now I’d gotten to know Hayden better, I no longer thought that was my best chance of survival.

I had to ask myself, did I really want to escape him?

Right now, I only wished he was here, so he could tell me what I was supposed to do now. I didn’t think he was going to be angry at me for what happened, yet nerves still fluttered inside me at the thought of seeing him again.

I turned to make my way back to the front of the property.

Someone was standing in the hallway, and my stomach lurched. But then I realized it was only Hayden. I hadn’t heard him come back in.

He was bare-chested, his tan skin sheened with sweat and streaked in dirt. His dark hair stuck up wildly, and he hadn’t shaved that morning, so stubble made his square jaw appear even sharper. He was normally immaculately presented, and right now he looked rough and dangerous.

He turned to me. “Jolie.”

Just hearing my name on his lips made me crumble inside. He was my enemy, yet I found my feet moving, bringing me closer to him. He matched me footstep for footstep until we crashed together. My arms automatically went around his neck, his around my waist. I pressed my forehead to his shoulder, not caring that he was sweaty and dirty, and he buried his nose in my hair.

“It’s okay, Jolie,” he told me. “I promised you I’d fix it. It’s done. You don’t have to worry anymore.”

I didn’t want to let him go. His skin was hot, while my shock had chilled me right down to the bone, and I was sucking in his body heat like a snake basking in the sun. But I wanted to look into his eyes and pray I would be able to read the truth in them when I did.

“You fixed it? What do you mean?”

“The body is gone. Buried. I’ve still got to burn her belongings, but once I do, there will be no trace of Loretta ever being here. We’ll pretend like it never happened.”

“But it did happen, Hayden. I can’t just forget that.”

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