Between the Cracks (3 page)

He shed his coat, hung it on the sole hanger in the closet,
then lined his shoes up on the floor. I waited until he was on the other side of the room before I tossed my own shoes and jacket inside and closed the door. He hadn’t had much to say after I’d picked him up at the roadside diner, but since leaving Trey’s, he’d barely managed more than a handful of sentences. I didn’t want to give him a reason to go off.

He milled around the room, moving things he deemed out of place. It was almost seven and I was bagged from lack of sleep. Hayden on the other hand was spun.

“I’m going to grab us some drinks from the vending machine down the hall. You want anything specific?”

“Water is fine,” he said, but didn’t turn away from the window.

I pocketed a keycard and left him in the room. When I came back, Hayden was still standing in front of the window. I carried the armload to the only table in the room, and Hayden stepped in immediately.

He spent several minutes arranging the snacks by type before he was satisfied. Usually I wouldn’t think anything of it, but the length of time it took him worried me. Hayden was always anal. This was worse than usual, though. It made me think of when we were first setting up Inked Armor and
he was kicking the coke habit.

Once he’d gotten past the worst of the withdrawal and had started to function again, he put all his energy into getting the shop in order. Sometimes for Hayden, that meant spending hours in the stock room arranging everything until it was perfect. Once I’d left him there after closing, only to find him the next morning, passed out on the floor having used paper towels for a pillow. After that, we watched him a lot
closer.

Lisa had been the one to deal with him the most when he got into one of his organizational “moods.” Eventually she figured out how to curb the problem—at least to a point. Stress brought out his anal side and right now he was stressed to the max. As much as Tee might be struggling with her own shit, I was pissed at her for doing this to him. If they’d just been honest in the first place, I wouldn’t be dealing with this.

When Hayden was done organizing the snacks he headed for the bathroom. The shower came on, so I took the opportunity to call Sarah. She had to work tonight and I wanted to catch her before she went in. I’d sent her a couple short, vague messages during the day, hoping I’d have a positive update later. She’d want to be filled in, even if the news wasn’t good.

Sarah answered halfway through the first ring.
“Hey, hi. I was going to call you. Are you on your way home now? Can I talk to Tenley? How is she?”

“Whoa, slow down, gorgeous. Are you on the road?” I didn’t want to have this conversation to begin with, especially not if she was driving and distracted.

“No, I’m already at The Dollhouse. I was going to call before I went in, but you beat me to it.”

“Okay. That’s good.” I leaned against the headboard. “So, we’ve hit a little roadblock.”

“A roadblock? What kind of roadblock?” I could almost feel her panic.

“Turns out Tenley’s brother-in-law
is loaded. He lives in a mansion with security cameras and everything. He wouldn’t let us in to see Tee. Then he said a bunch of shit to piss Hayden off and called the police on us.”

“Oh my God, did Hayden get
arrested? Did he kick Trey’s teeth in? Please tell me he did. No, wait, I don’t mean that. I never should have let Tenley leave. I should have called you first, and then Hayden could have stopped her.”

“Sarah, baby, calm down.
Hayden didn’t get arrested. That pussy wouldn’t even open the door.”

“He’s such a bastard. You should have heard the way he talked to Tenley,” Sarah’s voice shook. “He was horrible with her. For her to go back to Arden Hills with him . . . you can’t leave her there.”

“We’re gonna do everything we can to bring her home. We’re staying the night in a hotel so we can try again tomorrow. Hayden’s pretty wrecked, though, and he’s not in best frame of mind.”

“I don’t know what Tenley said to Hayden, but she kept telling
me
she didn’t deserve him. I just . . . I’m scared. If she doesn’t come back with you, I’m afraid she won’t come back at all.”

I had no idea what to say to that. I didn’t know Tee well enough to have a solid read on the situation. “Have you tried to call her?”

“A bunch of times. It goes straight to voicemail. I really hope she remembered her charger.”

“
Me, too.” A dead battery was a better scenario than Tee purposely avoiding H’s calls. Being the dickwad he was, Trey would have said anything to put doubts in Hayden’s mind.

“I’m really sorry, Chr
is, I have to go. Sienna called me in early and I don’t want to get left with a bad section.”

I had a vision of Sarah dressed in one of her skimpy outfits. “You be careful in there. Don’t let Sienna pull her crap with you.”

“I’ll be fine. Can I call you when my shift is done? I know it’ll be late . . . .” she trailed off.

“Yeah, of course.
You call whenever you feel like it. I sleep pretty hard, so you might have to try a couple times.”

“Okay.”

“Catch ya later.”

“Chris?”

“Yeah.”

“I think—” she hesitated and expelled a slow breath. “I’m glad I met you. You’re a really good guy. Take care of Hayden.”

I didn’t expect the compliment. “Uh, thanks. I will.”

She hung up first. I
ran my thumb back and forth over the blank screen, listening to the sound of the shower running. Hayden had been in there a long time. I leaned over, knocked on the wall and called out, “You all right in there, bro?”

I got back a muffled, “Yeah. I’ll be done in a few.”

Hayden could go to dark places. I’d witnessed some pretty low moments with him. Many of his worst included Sienna. Tee was as opposite to Sienna as a person could get, which probably made this whole thing harder to deal with.

I only knew the version of Tee who hung out in the shop and gave Hayden the gears about cupcakes. Everything else—her past, the things she’d seen—that information had been passed on to me through Hayden. But his brain didn’t wo
rk the same way as most people. The way he saw things was different. Sometimes that was good, other times it wasn’t. He’d own her leaving as a failure on his part.

With Tee, it had been clear from the beginning that she wasn’t a chick he planned to bang and ditch. Now that he’d seen what Tenley’s life would have looked like if all those people hadn’t died, he was going to be hard to manage. Hayden was good at getting inside his own head and staying there. Sometimes I was grateful that I didn’t have his smarts. It was as much a curse as a gift.

Twenty-five minutes later, the bathroom door opened and Hayden came out with a towel wrapped around his waist. The skin that wasn’t covered in ink was bright pink and irritated looking. “I used all the soap,” he said matter of factly. “And the hot water.”

“I can shower later.”

He laid his clothes over the chair, rearranging them until they were creaseless. Then he went back into the bathroom and the hair dryer came on.

“Getting pretty for me?” I called, hoping to get a laugh out of him. I didn’t expect to succeed.

“Fuck you,” came the reply.

The bathroom door was still open, so I leaned forward and caught a glimpse of his reflection in the full length mirror hanging in the hall. He was blasting a pair of boxer shorts with the blow dryer.

I got up off the bed and came around so I could see him clearly. “What the hell are you doing?”

“What the hell does it look like? I’m drying my boxers. I’ve been wearing them all day. It wasn’t like I was going to shower and then put them back on dirty. It’s bad enough I’m going to have to wear the same clothes tomorrow.”

“Right. Gotcha.” I left him to it and palmed the remote so I could channel surf while I waited for him to be done.

“Feel better now?” I asked when he came out a while later wearing the dry boxers.

He nabbed a Gatorade from the table and flopped down on his bed. “No. But I’m clean, so there’s that.”

I muted the TV. “Should we make a plan for tomorrow?”

“I don’t know that it’s going to make a difference. As much as I hate it, that shithead has a point. Even if she didn’t want to, she left with him. I think that spells out pretty fucking clearly where we’re at.”

“I don’t know, H. She’s got a lot going on, and that Trey guy is shady. I wouldn’t trust a damn thing that comes out of his mouth. I think we should
try again in the morning.”

“I guess.” He punched his pillow and turned his attention to the TV. “You mind turning that up. I’m done talking.”

I must have passed out at some point, because I woke up to my phone vibrating against my cheek. I fumbled with it, blinding myself with the glare of the screen. It was Sarah. I answered the call, glancing over at Hayden. He’d fallen asleep sitting up with his arms crossed over his chest. The TV screen glowed black, casting a dim shadow across the room. I rolled off the bed and shut myself in the bathroom.

“Hey, how’s it going?” My voice came out all gravel.

“I’m sorry I woke you.”

“No problem. I’d wake up to the sound of your voice any time. How many times did you call before I picked up?”

“Four.”

“That’s not bad.”

She laughed, but then grew serious. “Have you heard anything?”

“Nothing.
But then that Trey guy said she was sleeping.”

“Do you believe him?” Sarah asked softly.

“I don’t know what to believe.”

“I tried to call Tenley a few more times tonight. I’ve even emailed her with no re
sponse. It’s not like her. She’s not a heavy sleeper and she has a lot of nightmares. I used to hear her, back before she and Hayden were a thing.”

“Hear her?
Like walking around her apartment in the middle of the night?”

“She had night terrors or whatever you call them. She’d scream in her sleep. Sometimes it was so loud I could hear it from my apartment.”

“Seriously?”

“You didn’t know? Hayden didn’t tell you that?”

I sat on the edge of the tub and rubbed my temple. I’d only had a couple of beers earlier, so that couldn’t be the reason for the sudden headache. Maybe it was lack of sleep and the stress of the situation. “This thing between them is way complicated. Hayden’s not into sharing, especially not his feelings. He keeps a lot of stuff to himself. Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s going on with him. We’re going back to Trey’s tomorrow to try again. Whatever happens, I’ll call you.”

We talked for a few more minutes but she was preoccupied and I was tired. Eventually she ended the call and I went back to bed, but I didn’t sleep much after that.

Hayden woke up at five in the morning. Normally, I could sleep through anything. He must have had one hell of a dream, though, because he’d ended up on the floor between our beds, swearing like a champ.

“You all right, man?” I asked, struggling to focus in the dim room.

“I don’t—”

He rubbed a circle over his pecs and looked down at his hand, eyes wide and haunted. I didn’t have to ask what that was about.

“Yeah.
I’m fine.”

That was total bullshit. He picked himself up off the floor and sat on the edge of the bed. He stayed that way for a while, elbows resting on his knees with his head bowed. Eventually, he got up and disappeared into the bathroom. This time he was quick with the shower. I figured he’d want to get Tenley
early so we could all head home.

My own shower wasn’t
that refreshing. Hayden hadn’t left much in the way of shampoo and the soap was gone. I hadn’t thought to call down to the front desk to ask for more, so I made do with what little there was.

Fifteen
minutes later, I came out of the bathroom to find Hayden dressed, sitting on the edge of the bed, foot bouncing on the floor.

“Let’s go get my car.”

I stood there, staring at his bowed head, trying to decide if I’d heard right. “I think you mean we should go get Tenley.”

“No. I want to get out of here and get my car. Like I said before, if we go back to that house someone will call the police. I’ve never had a record and I don’t need one now.”

“Calling the cops doesn’t mean you’ll end up with a record. We have to at least try.”

“Tenley’s not answering her phone. Not for me. I know Sarah tried to call her because I heard you talking last night.” He stood up. “Trey’s right. She made a choice and I’m not it.”

I thought he’d been asleep when I answered the call. Obviously, I’d been wrong. Arguing with him was pointless. When Hayden got an idea in his head, it was impossible to change his mind. I considered using Lisa or Sarah as leverage to get him to go back to Trey’s. It would cause more problems than it would solve, though. Hayden didn’t need any more guilt than he was already shouldering.

“Okay. We’ll get your car and go home.”