Addiction

Chapter 57.

To say Hayden has been distracted these last few days wouldn't even cover the extent of his behavior. He was on edge—more than usual—and didn't let me leave the house without Geoff. Whether I was going to work, to my dad's, to the store, Geoff went everywhere with me. Hayden didn't even bother to give an explanation as to why I had to be watched but he said it's for my protection. Protection from what...or who?

"There's a chance I may be out late tonight, please don't wait up. Geoff will be here just outside the bedroom door until I come home."

"Are you ever going to tell me what this twenty-four hour security watch thing is about? Hayden it freaks me out a little, I don't know how to feel about it. Is someone watching me? Is someone trying to hurt me or you? Are our lives in danger?"

"This situation is a little out of your depth. It's for our safety, I'd never let anyone hurt you."

"Just tell me what it is." I was growing annoyed by the second. He's always trying to keep something from me.

We were engulfed in complete silence for what felt like minutes before Hayden speaks again, "My friend, Heather, she thinks she's being blackmailed because of a relationship that we once shared. There's a chance someone is targeting the women they know I had a sexual connection with."

"That'd be a lot of women to target." I snort.

"Alice this is serious." He glares at me, unamused by my comment.

"Sorry." I murmur apathetically. I still find it funny. "What do they want from her?"

"They want her to shut down her bakery and wire them half a million and if she doesn't they're threatening to anonymously report her to the police for engaging in sexual acts with a minor."

"How would they do that without proof?"

"Apparently they have proof of her and I together. I wouldn't see how that's even possible as that was over a decade ago and only two people know about Heather and I having any type of relations."

"Well who knew about it? Maybe they're the person behind this." I suggest, though I'm pretty sure Hayden already looked into it.

"Only Collin and Ryder but I don't see either of them doing this." My scalp prickles at the mention of Ryder's name. This is probably all him. He already tried and failed to kill him once, this will only make sense if it were him. "Ryder has a problem with me and you together, this has nothing to do with Heather. And if things hadn't changed too much I believe he adores Heather, in a motherly way."

"Why don't you just go to the police with this? It's blackmail."

"A few officers at the police department aren't very fond of me anymore, I will handle this myself. If I involve them they might find a ridiculous charge against me and arrest me, and we don't want that."

"No we don't." I respond. "Can you tell me about your relationship with her?"

"I really do have to go Alice."

"Please Hayden? I'm in the dark about everything. You don't talk to me."

He swears under his breath pinching the bridge of his nose. "After I got kicked out of the Burke's house, Heather found me and had taken me in treating me as if I were her son. She didn't really care about what I was doing at night as long as I was with Collin and Ryder. They'd come to her house, pick me up, and we would go out to a bar or a nightclub. Until one night I lied to Heather telling her I was leaving with Collin and Ryder when I was actually going out by myself. Ryder ended up going to Heather's while I was gone and they got into a conversation about where I might have been. He told her everything that I was into and when I got home that night she was waiting up for me."