She gives a small shake of her head, burying her face in Beck’s chest and inhaling a fortifying breath before pulling away. I’m relieved to see she looks stronger as she pulls her shoulders back and straightens her spine. With a steeliness in her eyes that wasn’t there before, she moves toward my father. I reach forward, intending on stopping her from doing whatever she’s going to do, but she sidesteps me, bending down to grab the knife she had. She stares at it for a second, before running her gaze over my father, pausing when she notices the sheath on his hip.
There’s no emotion on her face as she wipes the blade on his gray suit pants and gets to her feet. Fuck me, if I don’t get a little hard at the sight of her covered in blood and wielding a deadly weapon. If the look of adoration in Beck’s eyes, and sudden tightness in his pants is anything to go by, he’s feeling it too.
Without another word or a backward glance at my shitstain for a father, we leave the room, and I make a mental promise to Hadley to destroy every piece-of-shit scumbag associated with this godforsaken place.
We move at a slower pace, making our way back to the interrogation room to meet the others. I’m sure our twenty minutes are well up by now, but despite Hadley’s determined face, it quickly becomes apparent that she’s struggling. I watch her closely, and it’s clear from her stick thin frame and the bags under her eyes that she’s been starved and hasn’t had much chance to rest while she’s been here. Not to mention the cuts all over her body. The large one on her thigh seems to catch every time she over-extends her leg as she keeps wincing, and it’s taking everything in me not to whip her off her feet and carry her the rest of the way.
Thankfully, we don’t run into any issues, and it doesn’t take long before we’re rounding the corner into the corridor with the interrogation room.
I’ve been walking behind Hadley, watching her obsessively, and I’m immediately on alert when she freezes. Looking past her, I discover the reason she’s stopped.
“Hawk.” The emotion is thick in her voice, and even though she doesn’t say the word all that loudly, her brother, who’s standing further down the hall, in front of our designated meet-up spot, turns toward her, the permanent scowl falling off his face as his eyes widen, and he takes her in.
Hadley takes off like a bullet, running toward him at a speed I wouldn’t have deemed possible in her weakened state, and Hawk rushes to meet her half way. The two of them collide like something out of a movie, and holy fuck, if it doesn’t make my insides go a little gooey. The two of them are a fucking twinmance for the ages. This moment, as the two of them embrace each other, clinging to one another like it’s the end of times, epitomizes just how far Hawk has come in the last few months. It’s good to see the fucking asshole has a heart after all.
After what feels like forever, the two of them break apart, and Hawk takes a step back, running his gaze over her. His brows pull together as he registers the red tinge to her skin, and the very obvious blood stains covering her previously cream dress.
“Why are you covered in blood?” Without giving her a second to respond, he snaps his gaze to Beck and I. His eyes darken and he barks out, much more sharply, “Why the fuck is she covered in blood?”
“I’m fine,” Hadley quickly assures him, giving his arm a reassuring squeeze. “It’s not mine.” She hesitates, glancing back at me with a mixture of emotions I can’t place. Turning back to face her brother, she can’t meet his steely gaze as she mutters, “I’ll tell you later.” I don’t like the way she seems almost embarrassed, or afraid to tell him. I don’t give a fuck that my dad is dead, and I know Hawk and the others will be as proud as I am that she overcame her fears and did what needed to be done.
Losing his patience, Mason shoves Hawk to the side, wrapping his arms around Hadley, and West, needing his moment with her too, does the same, so our poor girl is squished between them.
As they pull away, Wilder pipes up, “Good to see you, Sunshine. I was worried you wouldn’t get to see my incredible knife skills.” He holds up his bloodied blade, and I quirk a brow at Hawk, but he just shakes his head. Guess that’s a story for another time.
Despite Wilder’s nonchalance, there’s a softness in his eyes when he smiles at Hadley, and I can’t decide if I like the way he looks at her, or fucking hate it.
She lifts her own still partially bloodied blade, and although it doesn’t look as deadly as Wilder’s, she grins wickedly.
Wilder’s eyes light up. “Twinsies.”
It’s Hawk’s turn to raise an eyebrow in question, and I simply murmur, “I’ll fill you in later.”
“Let’s find Cain and get the fuck out of here,” Hawk barks, wrapping his hand around Hadley’s and tugging her toward the exit.
“Wait,” Hadley calls out, digging her feet in and forcing Hawk to stop in his tracks unless he wants to drag her along behind him. “What about Michael? I was with him when…” Her brows scrunch together as she struggles to remember something before shaking off the thought. “He might be here.”
“Michael?” I question. “No, he’s fine. He’s back at school.”
“What do you mean you were with him?” Hawk growls angrily. “He said you’d parted ways before you disappeared.”
Wrinkles form along Hadley’s forehead as she struggles to think, before sighing and shaking her head. “I don’t remember. I think I was drugged. It’s all a blur. The last thing I remember was walking toward the lake with him.”
“We can sort all of this out once we get the fuck out of here,” Beck interjects, but his lips are pressed tightly together, and there’s a hardness in his eyes that wasn’t there a second ago. When he looks my way, I know he’s thinking the same thing I am—Michael didn’t say anything about going to the lake with our girl.
Sighing, Hawk nods his head in reluctant agreement and starts moving toward the exit again with Hadley by his side. The rest of us fall into formation around them, moving as a single unit toward the back entrance of the building.
Reaching the exit, we pull open the door and step out into the night. Hadley pauses to tilt her head up to the dark sky, sucking down a deep breath of the fresh air, and I once again curse my fucking father for everything she’s had to endure.
Scanning our surroundings, the yard seems quiet. I’m hoping that means Cain has managed to take out any guards that were lurking around out here.
We’re making our way silently toward the compound’s back exit when we hear footsteps—someone running in this direction. Falling still, I raise my gun while positioning myself in front of Hadley, noticing Hawk doing the same on her other side, and the others closing in behind her. Regardless of our attempts to block her, Hadley crouches into a fighting position between us, wielding her knife with all the skill of a trained mercenary.
The second the asshole guard comes into view, I fire off a shot, but he’s too far away and it’s too dark out, and the shot goes wide.
Spotting Hadley, the fucker’s eyes widen and he calls out, “D!”
“Wait!” Hadley shouts, surging forward and throwing out her arms in an attempt to stop us from shooting at him. “I know him.”
“He’s a guard,” I growl, refusing to look away from the enemy, even though he’s holding his arms in the air in surrender, and no longer advancing toward us.