Mary Grace’s frown was firmly in place as she wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They were about the same height and she resisted the urge to lay her head on Mary Grace’s shoulder. From the time she was a kid she’d learned to pull back from emotional attachments, to not get too close and definitely not to overshare. That had started to change the last couple months, but old habits and all that. Plus she was still shaken by the attack.
“Come on, Nova’s here too,” Mary Grace said. “My sister couldn’t make it so it’s just us. And you’re going to tell us what’s going on.”
Skye stiffened slightly, going into what Hadley thought of as battle mode. As if she was ready to start throat-punching anyone she deemed a threat. The woman could be intense. “What’s wrong? Did someone hurt you?”
“No, sorta…yes,” she sighed. Luckily she had on a turtleneck so they couldn’t see the faint bruising on her throat. “I’ll just tell everyone in the kitchen.” Because she didn’t want to tell the story more than once.
As she stepped inside the homey kitchen, she was greeted by a smiling Nova. “We didn’t think you could make it tonight.” The brunette bombshell was drinking a glass of red wine, her legs crossed as she leaned gracefully against the center island.
Skye picked up her bottle of water even as Mary Grace went to grab one for Hadley. “So what’s up, half-pint?”
Some of the tension left her shoulders at the nickname. “Ah…something weird happened at school tonight. Or after.” Quickly she launched into the near-mugging. Or…whatever her attacker had intended. For now, she was pretending he’d just wanted her wallet when she was pretty sure it was more than that. She’d been a woman, alone in a parking lot—he’d likely wanted to rape her. And possibly kill her. She knew that deep down. It was just difficult to think about.
All three women listened intently as she recounted everything from the first attacker, to the newcomer who took out her attacker, right up until she’d left the campus police office.
“How did they treat you at the office?” Skye demanded, her expression fierce.
“Ah, fine. They were nice. And they work with the locals… I guess it’s sort of a combined thing. They’re real cops, not like mall cops.” That had made her feel better, since she’d given an official report. She gingerly touched her neck and hid a wince.
“What about security footage?”
“There was a glitch or something and for the last couple hours all footage on campus has been erased. Everything goes offsite though, so they said in a couple weeks they should have more. Might be able to see what actually happened. But I’m betting no since there were no lights in that lot.”
“Was it just that lot?” Skye asked.
“No, there was an electric outage on the west side of the campus.” Hadley was still unsure how that was possible and the cops hadn’t seemed to know either.
“Huh.”
“Don’t start,” Mary Grace murmured, giving Skye a hard look.
Skye lifted her palms up. “I didn’t say anything.”
“I can literally hear the wheels turning in that crazy head of yours. And you’ve got a look about you.”
Skye snorted but simply shrugged. “Well…the mugging—which wasn’t a mugging at all—was weird. And you’re not even sure which guy, the bearded one or the masked one, was attacking you. My money is on the masked guy being your attacker, since he felt the need to cover his damn face, and the bearded one kicked his ass. But…that whole situation is weird. And don’t even deny it,” she snapped out, returning Mary Grace’s hard look.
“I agree,” Hadley said, sighing. “It was weird, but what the heck can I do about it? I’ll park somewhere different once school starts back after spring break and make sure I always have a buddy with me.”
“You can also start carrying pepper spray and maybe let Brooks hire you a bodyguard.”
Hadley started to laugh but paused at Skye’s set expression. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“I am…mostly. Not about the pepper spray though. And I still don’t like what happened. It’s weird, and weird is never good.”
“Sometimes weird is good,” Nova murmured, her expression turning sly as she looked at Skye. Hadley had learned that Nova was often the one to break tension if there was any, and right now she was incredibly grateful for the light, almost teasing comment.
“Whatever, pervert,” Skye growled.
Nova lifted a dark eyebrow. “I’m not the one who wears underwear with sexual sayings on my ass.”
Hadley blinked once, then shook herself. “I’ve got this handled, you guys. Just…don’t tell Brooks.” She loved her brother but he was out of town with his fiancée right now and she didn’t want to worry him or bring him back needlessly. Especially since nothing bad had actually happened.
“You’re setting your security system every night?” Skye asked instead of actually agreeing that yes, she wouldn’t tell Brooks.
“Leave the girl alone,” Mary Grace said, sliding a glass of white wine in front of Hadley. “She’s been through enough without adding an interrogation.”
She wasn’t normally a drinker, but after the night she’d had, she was making an exception. Because water wasn’t going to cut it. “Thanks.”
“I’m going to be looking into this,” Skye said. “Fair warning. But I’ll drop it for now since you’re okay.”
To her surprise, the others dropped the subject of what happened and they had a normal girls’ night, something Hadley had never had before moving to Redemption Harbor. Her mom had been weirdly competitive with her, even with Hadley’s own friends. Eventually she’d stopped bringing friends over.
Before she realized it, two hours had passed and Mercer, Mary Grace’s husband, returned home, baby Mia cradled in his arms.
He smiled at all of them as he entered the kitchen, and Hadley had to refrain from reaching for the baby but only because she was sleeping.
“Gonna get her upstairs. Nice to see you guys,” he said quietly to them.
“I’ll be up in a bit. Oh, and Hadley is staying the night so make sure you wear clothes,” Mary Grace added as her big husband stepped out of the room.
“Ah, what?” Hadley asked.
“Well you’ve had two glasses of wine and—”
“So I’m fine to drive home.”
“Yes but Skye looks as if she’s about ready to have a heart attack at the thought of you going home alone tonight so you’ll stay here until she can ask Gage to hack the campus security system and get a look at your would-be mugger.”
Hadley looked at the three women, all of whom didn’t seem surprised by this suggestion. “You guys are being overprotective.” She knew how to take care of herself and had been doing it for a long time.
Surprising her, Skye sidled up next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Look, Brooks is out of town and he would lose his shit if he learned about what happened and then found out I did nothing to keep you safe.”
“My house is safe.” She knew her brother was cofounder of a security consulting company and yeah, she’d heard them talk about some gray area stuff before, but hacking her school’s security seemed waaaayyyy over the top.
Skye simply squeezed Hadley’s shoulders. “Come on. The Boy Scout can be so annoying when he’s in a mood. Just humor us and stay here? You’ll be doing me a favor.”
“Oh my gosh, you’re sneaky.” She gently elbowed Skye but nodded even as she looked at Mary Grace, relieved that she wouldn’t be alone after what had happened. “And so are you.”
Nova just snorted into her wine and muttered, “You have no idea.”
Even though Hadley thought they were being a teeny bit overprotective, she could actually admit that she didn’t mind staying the night. What had happened at school had jarred her a lot deeper than she was ready to accept. And she wasn’t sure how long it would take to put it behind her.
Chapter 2
—Great things never come from comfort zones.—