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It had to be from the drugs. The idea that they’d poisoned me pissed me off. “Why the hell am I here?”
The hot guy scowled, then focused on Rena. “Yeah, why is she here?”
“To talk.” She smiled.
So I wasn’t a prisoner. “You’re saying I can walk out right now?”
Rena narrowed her eyes at me. “Well, of course. But we strongly suggest you stay.”
“Don’t listen to her, Tessa.” He glared at her. “You can go any time. I’d really appreciate a few more minutes though, while you’re here. It couldn’t hurt, right?”
My gaze darted to Rena.
She sighed. “I’m sorry we kidnapped you that way. With Frank and Lila always around, it’s more efficient to snatch up the recruit and explain later. We didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You’re welcome to stay and talk but if you don’t feel comfortable, you’re free to go,” the guy said. “I promise.”
I didn’t plan to hang around any longer than necessary. I’d take him at his word and get out. Everyone stayed put as I moved toward the door. I exhaled in relief.
A large metal box crashed through the wide tinted window and shattered the glass. A figure jumped through the opening, gun in hand, and all eyes shot to the intruder. Hayden. He aimed the weapon, his eyes darting to each of the four figures. “Tessa, get over here.”
My breath caught in my throat. Very likely, in a matter of seconds, I would’ve calmly walked out on my own. But seeing Hayden there with his gun waving and eyes blazing, my heart pounded. Would they let Hayden go? I glanced at the hot guy again. Behind him the two men in black each held a rifle aimed at us.
“You’re free to go.” The hot guy flicked his hand and the guns behind him lowered.
I believed the guy, but rushed to Hayden’s side anyway, since there was no point in taking any chances.
Hayden began to back up, gun still trained on my kidnappers. He elbowed a shard of glass and it clattered to the floor, making the opening bigger. I stepped through ahead of him. “Get in the car. Quickly.”
A second later, we peeled out. “How did you find me?” I shook out my hands trying to steady them. It didn’t help.
“Wasn’t hard. Whatever they shot me with only knocked me out a second or two, I think. When I looked up, the van was tearing out of there.” He shook his head as he negotiated a turn. “Principal Linton and Agent Phillips get a big fat F for letting those people take you.”
“Everything happened pretty fast. They wouldn’t have had a chance to stop them anyway.” Still, why didn’t Fawn or Linton rescue me instead of letting Hayden handle it? They’d said that sorcerers tended to avoid confrontations with normal people. Maybe they figured Hayden had a better chance of getting me out of there since my abductors wouldn’t want to risk exposing their true nature. Involving themselves with a non-supernatural would only complicate the situation. “Besides, they were already letting me go.”
“Why would they do that? Aren’t they the guys who’ve been stalking you?”
“Sort of.” I bit my bottom lip and tried to think of a way to explain it.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure anymore who to trust. It’s good you showed up.”
His eyes met mine. “So these guys abducted you, but now you’re thinking maybe they’re not so bad? How does that work?”
“I’m not sure… But I don’t think these guys meant to hurt me.” Yet, I added silently, then gazed out the window. “They wanted a chance to talk to me without interference from Linton or Fawn. That’s pretty much all I know right now. By the way, where the hell did you get the gun?”
“I stole it from my step-dad a while ago. Never needed it until now.”
“And you just happened to have it on you?”
“In here.” His free hand tapped a spot in the console near his knees. “When I first got this car and had modifications done, I also had them make a compartment so I could hide stuff from my step-dad.”
I’d never had any strong opinions about guns, one way or the other. Until now. If he hadn’t had the gun and Rena resisted, what would I have done then? “It seems like I was there a few minutes before you showed up. I may have passed out, so it’s hard to tell. Were you casing the joint first?”
“Sort of. I watched them a bit. Mostly I needed to wait because I was still feeling a little weak from whatever they gave me.”
I let my head drop back against the backrest and glanced at him, feeling a slow smile spread over my face. Damn, but he was sexy in rescue mode. I aimed my gaze on the road to keep myself from staring at him. “How does a teenager go about stealing a gun?”
“He married my mom when I was ten and a few months later he started punching on me. When my mom wasn’t around, of course. And he never hit me where she could see any bruises. He threatened to kill her if I told anyone.
“Couple years later, he moved on to my mom. I was scared he’d kill her. All I could think about was getting one of his guns, so I could save us if I needed to. Every time they left the house, I tried getting into the gun cabinet. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent trying to pick that stupid lock.” Hayden paused at a stop sign for a split second before continuing.
“One day, it opened. I lifted the gun, locked the cabinet and wiped my prints. He didn’t even notice for about two weeks.” Hayden laughed. “Then he called the police. They couldn’t trace it back to me and I’d already hidden the gun in the air vents. A lot of good that did me the next time he hit me. I was nowhere near the damn thing.”
“Is that when you got that scar?”
He touched his cheek. “Yeah, he wears a big ring.”
Hayden had been abused and eventually learned to defend himself — even won trophies. The last few years had to have been awful. But all I could see was what he’d accomplished and how he’d triumphed over hard times. I smiled. “Because of all that, you were able to save me today.”
He smiled back. “Yeah, well, they got you on my watch. Very uncool. No way was I going to let them get away with that.” He checked the rearview mirror then pulled over to the curb and parked. “I can’t take you home. You’ll stay at my house from now on.”
“What?” My jaw dropped. “As if my parents would go for that. Are you kidding?” Not only that but I’d promised to spend the day with Bree. I didn’t like breaking my word. I wanted to get home. Which wasn’t going to happen any time soon since we were still parked at the curb.
“You can forget about me taking you home. They’re probably waiting for you there. If not now, then another time.”
“Like they won’t expect us to go to your place?” I cocked a brow.
“Better security at my house.”
“They were about to let me go. You know that guy you saw? Not the two bozos in black but the other one. He convinced that bitch to release me. I think she would’ve let me go anyway. But if there really is a problem, it’s her, not him. He won’t let her do that again.”
“Tessa…” He sighed. “You trust too easily. Better safe than sorry, right? You’ll be fine at my house with all our security. And I won’t molest you… much.”
No, no, no. “That guy? I’d met him before. He was in my room when I got home last night.”
“He was waiting for you in your room?” Hayden’s eyes narrowed at me before he signaled to leave the curb.
I nodded. “He stayed a few minutes then left.”
“He didn’t hurt you?” Hayden’s voice was strangely gruff.
“No. He was totally nice.”
“What did he want?”
I shrugged. “He says Linton and Fawn are lying to me.”
“I don’t think you should trust any of them.” He stopped for a red light.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I figure. Still, he could’ve hurt me last night but he didn’t. He didn’t even come after me when I wouldn’t go into my room.”
“You let a perfect stranger in your room and you’ve never invited me once?” He snorted.
I decided to ignore that. The last thing I wanted to discuss was the two of us alone in my bedroom. “We just talked. Then we made a deal to meet again tonight.”