Sharing Hailey (20 page)

Mark introduced Tony to Officer Lujan then said, “I told her we have cameras around the outside of the house, so we’ve probably got the attack recorded. I’m going to the house to download a copy.”

“Now?” Hailey asked, faintly alarmed that he’d be by himself. The tears had done a great job of calming her. Still, Daniel suspected she and Mark were in a relationship. Mark’s safety was as much in jeopardy as hers.

“I won’t be long. You can get started on the paperwork.”

“I don’t think you should go alone. Tony can go with you.”

“Tony stays with you,” he said firmly. “Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”

Officer Lujan interrupted. “I’ll have my partner meet him there. He needs to examine the crime scene.”

Hailey accepted the offer before Mark could turn it down. “Yes, let’s do that. Okay, Mark?”

“Sure. That’ll work,” he said.

Officer Lujan walked to the front door and asked her partner to come inside. He got Mark’s address and headed back out.

Mark hugged her, kissed the top of her head, then exited the station. After he was gone, the paperwork began. Almost without emotion, Hailey relayed the sequence of events, the degrading things Daniel had said—word for word—and the terrifying things he’d done. But it was as if she were an observer. The terror and degradation didn’t touch her.

When Mark returned with the DVD of Daniel attacking her car, Officer Lujan had filled out her report, taken photos of the damage to Hailey’s car and dusted it for fingerprints, obtained an emergency order of protection and given Hailey the forms for the six-month Order of Protection from Domestic Abuse.

There was that phrase again.
Domestic abuse.
The thought of having to go to the courthouse tomorrow and file those forms embarrassed her. She wasn’t that woman, and she didn’t want people to think she was. She wasn’t helpless. She wasn’t weak.

“We’ll work with the Albuquerque Police to arrest him,” the officer explained. “But be aware that he won’t stay in jail long. It’s entirely possible he’ll be released on his own recognizance less than twenty-four hours after he’s arrested. I’d suggest you call the domestic violence shelter. They can provide you with temporary shelter so he won’t be able to find you.”

Mark and Tony stiffened at the suggestion.

Officer Lujan didn’t miss their uneasiness, but before they could object, she said, “He won’t be able to find the safe house unless Hailey tells him where it is. If she gives him that information, she won’t be allowed to stay in the house. Your other option is to find a place to live that he doesn’t know about. As you learned today, he will find you if you stay with someone he knows.”

“How long do I hide?” Hailey asked.

The pity in Officer Lujan’s expression should have warned her. “Some women hide for the rest of their lives.”

“I can’t do that,” Hailey said dully. “I have a business. I have friends.”

Mark’s callused fingers gently massaging the bend between her neck and shoulders, but it was Tony who spoke. “We’ll figure out something.”

“The Order of Protection may discourage him. He may take it to heart,” the officer said. “Or it might escalate the situation. He may become more violent. These men are unpredictable.”

Hailey’s head began spinning, and a buzzing started in her ears. She closed her eyes.

Tony’s hand joined Mark’s at her neck, but instead of massaging, he pushed her forward. “Head between your legs.”

She didn’t resist. This was a nightmare. And according to Officer Lujan, she might never wake up.

Chapter Nineteen

She wasn’t going to a shelter. She’d already decided that. She didn’t like the idea of living with strangers. She had a little money saved. She could rent a place. Maybe not in Albuquerque. Maybe on the outskirts, Rio Rancho or Los Lunas, someplace Daniel wouldn’t think to search for her…at least, not right away. He’d start with her friends. When he didn’t find her with any of them, he’d hunt for her in Texas at Jake’s. She needed to warn her brother. It made her sick to think she was putting Jake and Nikki in danger. Hopefully, when Daniel didn’t find her there, he’d give up. And that was assuming he pursued her at all once he got the protection order.

When they returned to Mark’s house, Mark and Tony tried to get her to sit down and relax while they unloaded groceries. But even though she was exhausted, she wanted to help. They had to be as tired as she was.

Mark went right to the kitchen to fix some dinner. Hailey wasn’t hungry. She wanted to curl up on the bed and go to sleep, but she also wanted to be near Tony and Mark. The serenity from her crying jag was gone. She was scared.

She grabbed her pillow from the bedroom, toed off her tennis shoes and stretched out on her side on the sofa. Then she dragged the quilt draped on the back of the sofa over her body and tucked her knees up. Tony’s weight settled at the other end, so she flipped over and placed the pillow in his lap. His hand rested on her upper arm, not moving, just letting her know he was there.

She drifted, listening to Mark move around in the kitchen.

* * *

The morning sun filtered through Hailey’s eyelids. She stretched and yawned, thinking of the day ahead—more specifically, the grant she was starting today—but she couldn’t focus on work. Something didn’t feel right. She had a sick feeling in her gut.

Daniel.

Her eyes flew open as terror gripped her.

“
Tony. Mark
,” she yelled as she bolted up, panicked at being alone. Where were they? Were they okay?

Mark sprinted from the open bathroom door, hair wet, skin dripping, a towel in his hand. He stretched for the top drawer of the nightstand as he scanned the room. “What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t know where you were.”

He stopped, his hand on the gun in the nightstand. His alarmed expression became confused. “I was just getting out of the shower.”

“Where’s Tony?”

“Hospital,” he said. “He left about six.”

Hailey took a deep breath. She had to calm down. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I just woke up and remembered yesterday and y’all were gone.”

He shut the drawer and sat next to her on the bed. He rubbed the towel over his hair. “Not a problem. How are you feeling?”

She plucked at the sweatshirt she’d put on yesterday morning. Her legs and feet were bare, and she vaguely remembered them removing her sweatpants last night after they carried her to bed. “I don’t know. Fine, I guess.”

“Tony talked to Beth last night. You know, she’s a lawyer and she has experience in cases like these.”

Hailey cringed. Even though he hadn’t said it, she thought it—
Men who beat their women.

“She wants to review the forms before we file them, so we’ll go by her office first. She’ll also represent you at the hearing. “

“I need to find a place to stay.”

“We can talk about that tonight when Tony gets home. I’m not comfortable with you being separated from us, not even in a shelter.”

“I can’t stay here, Mark. He’ll come back.”

Mark dropped the towel to his lap and bracketed her hips with his hands. “And Tony’s place will be next on his list. I know. I still think you’re safer here. You know how small town Albuquerque is. You can’t go anywhere without seeing someone you know. You could run into him or a friend of his anywhere—a restaurant, the grocery store. Hell, with his money, he could hire someone to track you down. Unless you’re willing to stay inside the shelter twenty-four seven, you run the risk of him finding you.”

“Mark, you have a business to run. You can’t babysit me twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”

“I can work while you work. If you want to go somewhere, I can go with you. And don’t forget Tony.”

“Daniel knows I’m sleeping with you. If I stay here, he might hurt you.”

“I’m not going to let him catch me with my pants down.” He glanced at the towel wadded up in his lap and grinned. “At least, not figuratively.”

Hailey wished she could laugh, but this was too serious. “I can’t take that chance. If something happened to you, it would kill me.”

“So you understand where I’m coming from,” he said, his expression serious. “The three of us together can watch out for each other.”

“Did you and Tony discuss this last night after I went to sleep?”

“No, but we can talk about it tonight. We’ll come up with something.”

Her shoulders slumped as a defeated sigh escaped her. “Maybe Daniel will leave us alone now that the police are involved.”

“It’s possible.”

“You don’t think he will?”

“I don’t know, babe. I just don’t know.”

* * *

When they left the house later that morning, Hailey felt as vulnerable as a deer during hunting season. She glimpsed Daniel everywhere. Behind a cottonwood, in cars that surrounded them, walking down the sidewalks. Mark avoided the parking garages that abounded downtown and found a space on the street after circling the block around Beth’s building for close to thirty minutes.

While they talked to Beth, she kept telling herself this wasn’t happening to her. Her ex-boyfriend hadn’t attacked her. She wasn’t a victim of domestic abuse. She wasn’t that woman. She wasn’t haltingly explaining her relationship with Daniel to a lawyer who had experience in matters of domestic violence. Even while they watched the security video of Daniel beating against her car window, she kept telling herself it couldn’t be real. Things like that didn’t happen to average women like her. While Mark translated Beth’s legal jargon, the same litany repeated over and over in her head.

Things like this don’t happen to people like me. I’m smart. I’ve got a college degree and a job. My father didn’t beat my mother. This isn’t me.

Except it
was
her.

And now she was terrified. Beth led them to the courthouse from the office through a little-used shortcut to file the protection order forms. Since cell phones weren’t allowed in the courthouse, they had to leave theirs in Beth’s office. Hailey tried to make herself as small as possible, the feeling of being exposed and defenseless almost overwhelming her. Her face heated as the stranger at the courthouse examined her paperwork. She wanted to tell the clerk that this wasn’t her, but she bit her tongue. Obviously, it was or she wouldn’t be standing there.

She didn’t speak on the ride home. She was so busy looking for Daniel that she couldn’t focus on conversation. She held her breath when Mark drove into his yard, terrified that Daniel would be waiting for them. Mark parked in front of the house, as close to the porch as he could get, instead of the garage. Hailey didn’t pretend a calmness she didn’t feel. Not waiting for Mark to open the car door, she hurried to the front door, quickly slid her key in the lock, turned it and slipped inside. Mark was right behind her, shutting and locking the door while she punched in the code to keep the alarm from going off.

Only when the door was closed and locked and the alarm system rearmed did she relax.

She spent the afternoon on the couch, her laptop on the cushion in front of her. She tried to focus on the grant she was writing, but it was impossible. She didn’t know where she would end up, but her trip to the courthouse had convinced her she would never feel safe again—not in Albuquerque, maybe not in New Mexico.

When Tony called to say he was on his way home, she watched for him out the front window, worried about his safety until he walked through the door and closed and locked it behind him.

With the alarm reset and the three of them safely ensconced at home, she collapsed, her back sliding down the front door until she sat on the heated terra-cotta tile. Peering up at Mark and Tony as they stood over her, she said bleakly, “I can’t do it. I can’t live like this.”

Tony reached for her hand and pulled her up. Wrapping her in the warmth and security of his arms, he said, “I know. But we’re lucky. We have options. Let’s talk about them.”

Tony had a distant cousin with a furnished home in New Braunfels, Texas. It was empty while the cousin did a two-year stint in the Peace Corps. She could move in and keep the utilities in the cousin’s name. No rental agreement. No paperwork for Daniel to track.

“I can’t go with you,” Tony said. “But I feel a lot better about you being in New Braunfels alone than here with me.”

“I can go with her,” Mark said.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Hailey said, holding up her hands to stop them. “Neither of you has to come with me. My business is portable. Yours aren’t. And once I disappear, Daniel will leave you alone. He’ll see that we’re not together anymore. And y’all can look out for each other.”

“I don’t feel right about you going alone,” Mark said.

“New Braunfels is only an hour south of Austin. Jake and Nikki will be so close, it’ll be like living with them.” She attempted a smile. “And I was talking about moving to Texas, anyway.”

“But that was before,” Mark said.

Before they’d told her how they felt about her. Before they’d made love. Before they’d come together.

Taking Mark’s face in her hands, she said, “I want you here with Tony. Looking out for him. I don’t want him here alone.”

“I can take care of myself,” Tony countered.

“Then humor me,” Hailey replied. “Because you know I’ll worry about you.”

“Can I drive out with you and help you get settled?” Mark asked.

Even if he hadn’t looked like he’d just lost his best friend, she wouldn’t have said no. “I’d like that. It’s a long drive.”

“Tell me you’re not ending our relationship because of Daniel,” Mark said, a hint of fear in his eyes.

“I’m not. I love you both, but I won’t have you abandoning your businesses and totally disrupting your lives because of me.”

“I don’t like it,” he mumbled.

“Neither do I,” Hailey said sadly before forcing some optimism into her voice. “But it’s temporary. Right?” God, she hoped it was temporary. Living in different houses in the same city was one thing. Living in two different states was another. “This will give us time to figure things out. It will give us time for things to calm down.”

So they decided Hailey would move after the hearing for the Order of Protection.

Despite the plan, or maybe because of it, relief, guilt and anger waged a three-front war within her.

Relief that Daniel wouldn’t be able to find her, not without some serious detective work, and Hailey just didn’t think he’d put that kind of time, money and effort into a search. Of course, she was still having trouble believing that he’d been upset enough to attack her.

Guilt that she’d turned Mark and Tony’s lives into one big mess. That they would have to watch their backs until Daniel calmed down. And if he didn’t, they’d have to move as well.

And finally, anger that one man had the power to force her to go into hiding because the criminal justice system couldn’t protect her. Officer Lujan had been right. Daniel hadn’t spent more than twelve hours in jail. He’d gotten out before they’d even learned of his arrest. An abusive man might get a slap on the wrist, but a likelier scenario was that he wouldn’t even get that. That was what the police officer had carefully tried to tell them yesterday and what Beth had bluntly told them today.

She was lucky she had the resources to disappear. What happened to the women who didn’t?

That question nagged at Hailey the next day as she tried to focus on the grant proposal she was writing for a local animal shelter. Beth called that afternoon. A date for the hearing for the permanent protection order had been set. In eight days, she’d be forced to face Daniel in court. If he didn’t show, the judge could reschedule the hearing for a later date, although with the video of the attack as evidence, Beth thought they had a good chance of the judge signing off on the permanent order. And once that happened, she’d have to leave Mark and Tony.

“Hailey, I need to know if you’re holding anything back,” Beth asked bluntly. “Is there anything about Daniel that you haven’t told me because you’re afraid of how Mark or Tony will react?”

“No, they know everything.” She frowned. “I wish they didn’t. The way Daniel treated me… It makes me feel like such a loser.”

“You are not the loser here. Daniel is.”

“I feel so guilty,” she said. “I’ve ruined their lives.”

“Hailey,
you
did not ruin their lives. Daniel’s violence isn’t your fault. It’s his. Blame him, not yourself, not Mark, not Tony.”

Intellectually, Hailey knew she was right. Still, a part of her blamed herself. If she hadn’t dated him to begin with… If she’d broken up with him earlier…