Charming (20 page)

Haley shook violently. The room spun. Chris was there. He was there. He knew about Mom, how she died—heard it. Wanted to be with Haley, tell the truth—something she’d failed to do for so long now.

Chris ran his thumb over Haley’s hand and put a fraction of distance between their thighs. “No one else heard the crash. They all stood out on the street, laughing, listening to music and chucking bottles on the concrete. Niles was there, in the passenger seat of the car that had been next to Tommy, and he was trashed—so fucking trashed. I ran, pulled out my cell and called 9-1-1. Your car was upside down. You were screaming for your mom to wake up, wake up. I smelled the fuel and fell to my knees. What the hell was I supposed to do? But your voice, Haley, you kept repeating please, please, please, we have to get to Jocelyn, have to get away from Daddy, he’s not supposed to hurt us anymore.” Redness crept up Chris’s neck, up his cheeks, and his hand burned with sweat. “I followed your voice and saw you and your mom floating. I heard her say ‘Be good, sweetheart’ and you beg her not to give up. Then—”

“You asked if I could run.”

A single tear tracked down Chris’s nose. He wiped it away with the heel of his hand. “I knew I wouldn’t make it back for her. Somehow, I just knew.”

Haley propped her feet on the dresser and rested her head on bent knees. “You were the only one there.”

Nodding, Chris said, “I thought you blamed me for her death. I thought that’s why you always ran away. But then I realized you didn’t have a clue, and I thought you hated me because of the rumors. I wanted nothing more than to show you the real Chris Charming. I thought maybe you were the only one who would understand.”

Haley focused on the TV, stomach a twisted knot of nerves, of fear. “I thought you pitied me, or wanted to rub your fame in my face, or wanted to—yeah, the rumors didn’t help.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You know what I am? I’m tired, tired of hurt, worry, panic. I don’t sleep. I barely eat. I miss her so much, more than I should. But Mom was my idol, my rock. She laughed when I laughed and cried when I cried. She taught me to be strong, how to love, how to protect—and that’s all I’ve done since she died.”

“Protect who from what?”

Knock, knock
.

Chris jumped up. “Expecting someone?”

“No.”

“Stay here.” The floor squeaked under the weight of Chris’s steps, and the front door belted out a sound to match. “Christine?”

“Hey, Mr. Charming.”

“Please, call me Chris.”

“I came to see if Haley’d seen the news yet, but given how shitty you look,
Chris
, I’d guess I’m late.” Christine’s voice grew louder as she made her way down the hall and stopped at Dad’s door, Chris behind her, both of them looking on with frowns.

Seeing them there, pitying, worrying… Haley ran to the bathroom and threw up, unable to keep the emotions locked inside any longer. She could have prevented this. She could have helped everyone, but she kept getting distracted.

Christine pulled hair out of Haley’s face. “Aw, hell. You’re going to make people believe the pregnancy rumors if you keep this up.”

Chris snorted.

“Two boys fighting over you, you throwing up, one boyfriend missing. Definitely makes for good day time television.”

“You saw?” Chris asked, gripping the doorframe.

“Who didn’t?”

Color drained from Chris’s cheeks and left his face looking like a pile of unrolled dough. “You might need to make room for me over there, Haley.”

Chris and Christine knew so little, so very little about the truth. But Haley couldn’t voice her concerns, not here, not in front of them. Anything she said would be infused with lies. She knew where Niles was, and she knew he’d probably die. Soon. “I’m fine. Sorry. I’m fine. It’s just…”

“It’s my fault.” Chris handed Haley a glass of water. “I told her things I should have saved for another day—like the day of the party.”

Christine glared at him. “And that was?”

Haley sipped the water and savored the coolness as it washed away the acids. “He’s the one who rescued me.”

“Oh.” The news planted Christine’s butt on the edge of the tub, gaze drifting back and forth from Haley to Chris. “Oh. Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without this pain in the ass girlfriend of mine.”

“Any time, but I’m not sure she’s taking it well.”

“Well, you idiot—a.k.a, typical man—it seems you waited until she was in emotional overload before you fessed up.” Christine helped Haley to her feet and into her room.

“I don’t want to come in here.” Haley stopped and glanced around. She knew she was being watched. “Actually, let’s get the hell out of the house for a while.”

“I’m on house arrest. One of their laws. But you two go on. And don’t worry. If anyone comes and asks questions, I’ll vouch that there was a fight, but Haley went inside and stayed there all night, and Chris and Niles left in separate cars on friendly terms.”

“Best stalker ever.”

“I do what I can.” Christine leaned near Haley’s ear and whispered, “Make sure you brush your teeth first, babe.”

Oh God. Haley ran to the bathroom and took care of her teeth, ignoring the rat’s nest of hair on her head, the mismatched clothes, and smell. She’d shower later.

Chris met her at the door and helped Haley into her jean jacket. “Christine just left, muttering something about needing to be home if ‘they’ called. I’m assuming that’s code for her parents?”

“Yeah.” Haley stepped out into the night, checking both ways on the empty street before taking a seat in Chris’s car. “Christine’s parents are strict, unconstitutionally so.”

“She also informed me that my balls would be in grave danger if I hurt you.” He laughed and pumped up the heat in his Porsche to ward off the cold gripping the air. No more Indian Summer, no more hints of warmth. Winter raged, stealing leaves from trees, replacing dew with frost. The first snowfall would likely arrive soon. Weather is so weird, so wishy-washy. “I take it you’ve been hurt before?”

Haley shook her head. “Christine knows I’ve sworn off men, so I think she’s a little overexcited about this… paradise.”

“Sworn off men? So, what, you’re playing for the other team now? Because if that’s true, you’re sending mixed signals.”

“Not playing for the other team.”

They wound down dark country roads, passing an occasional car, headlights the only sign of civilization around for miles. Deer lingered on the side of the road, ready to dart out and cause an accident.

“Where are we going?”

Chris sighed. “Thought we’d just drive and clear our heads. We could go talk to my dad, maybe the police.”

“Oh.” Made sense, but why did those last two words ‘the police’ send a shock of nerves through Haley’s stomach?

“All this, swearing off men, because of Niles? I thought you broke
his
heart.”

She shifted in her seat. “Not because of Niles, not because of someone I’ve dated.”

Chris tapped the brakes and pulled onto the shoulder, allowing the car to idle. He took her hands in his and stared into her soul. He was so good at that. “Haley. What aren’t you telling me? You keep alluding to things, and I’d much prefer you just tell me the truth.”

Stupid big mouth. Of course Chris would want to know what she meant. How could Haley tell him she didn’t trust men when they could go from being amazing fathers to deadbeat dads overnight, with one drink.

“You can talk to me.”

No. No she couldn’t. Not inside the car. Haley pulled out of Chris’s grasp and got out of the car, left her cell on the seat, walked ten yards, twenty, thirty, farther and farther away from the Porsche, from microphones, cameras, and the psycho.

“Wait up.” Chris shrugged into a black hoodie, covering his pale blue sports coat, and fell in step with Haley. “I could understand if you said it was Niles who made you this way, after every rumor he spread—”

“Do me a favor?”

“Sure?”

“For the rest of the night, don’t say anything else about Niles, my family, or anything else. I just… I can’t…” Can’t let you be so wonderful when your family could be hurting.

“Sorry. I understand.”

“I don’t think you do. But you will.” Haley walked to the middle of the ditch along I10. Breathe in. Breathe out. “I can’t take it anymore. I’m about to go insane. You’re nice, Chris, opposite of everything I’ve ever thought about you. You deserve much, much more than me.”

“Haley?” Chris stepped closer.

She backed away. “Let me finish. There’s this man—”

“A man?” The muscles in Chris’s jaw worked hard, strained under the weight of an assumption. “If he’s hurt you—”

“Oh, hurt is an appropriate word, but it’s so much worse than that.” Haley gasped. “So. Much. Worse. He took Dad, forced Joce to do things against her will, tried to get me to do things I didn’t want to do, promised he’d hurt me, kill my family—”

“
What
?”

“All I had to do was get you out of the house without your parents.”

“Out of my house?” Chris’s stoicism cracked, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Haley?”

“I tried, good God did I try, to do the opposite of everything he said. And he sent Dad’s finger to me, stuck it to my refrigerator while I’d fallen asleep on my homework at the kitchen table. My dad’s damn finger, Chris. He said he would make my sister pay. Every time I picked up the phone to call the police, you, anyone, he was there, torturing her, making her scream. Yet I still refused.”

“This is piss fucking poor timing to play a joke on me. Is this payback for what I told you about your mom?”

Haley shook her head.

“You’re
not
joking?” Chris took a step toward the car, glancing over his shoulder as if he needed to judge the distance, judge how much time it would take him to swoop in and rescue his family. He believed.

“Not a joke, not a prank. Everything I do he monitors. I broke the TV looking for bugs—and I found them all over my house, in my
bathroom
.”

“You’re admitting to helping someone hurt my parents, Haley.” Another step away. “How could you? They’ve never been anything but nice to you.”

“I did everything
but
help.”

Chris’s lip rose in a hideous sneer that made Haley flinch. No more violence.

“Why didn’t you call the police? Tell me? My dad? Instead you take us out and make us think you actually care, make us think you might not have fallen quite as far as the gossipers at our schools say you have.”

Haley assumed ‘us’ meant ‘me’. And nothing this town thought about her—or Chris—was true. Nothing. And she didn’t care. “He said if I acted out of character, said anything to anyone, they’d all die. What would you do if your dad’s finger showed up taped to your fridge while you were sleeping? Can you tell me? Can you provide me firsthand knowledge of how you’d react in my shoes? What the fuck, Chris? I’m telling you now because I’ve done everything wrong in his eyes, pissed him off. He said I obviously didn’t care enough about Dad and Joce, that he’d take Niles—kill my first, someone I’d always remember. I was an idiot and actually believed I could beat him. I tried tracking him down, got tapes from the grocery store, visited the gas stations. I followed clues from sounds coming through the receiver when he called.”

“Kicking the pay phone?”

Haley nodded as an old truck raced along the road and blasted them with cold air as it passed. “Not my best moment.”

“So you used me?” Another step, another gap between them, another indication of how much Chris hated Haley for putting his family at risk.

She couldn’t blame him.

“Not even close.”

“Yet I’m here, with you, alone, and my parents are where? I have to go, Haley.” Chris ran back to the car, then slid behind the steering wheel and rolled down the window. “Right now. Get in.”

Haley hurried into the passenger seat and strapped in before Chris decided to take off and leave her standing in the middle of nowhere. He didn’t speak, just drove ninety in a fifty-five, eyes on the road, muscle in his jaw working hard.

How could Haley’s life be so horrific? So unfair? No mom, a dad and sister who hated her, and the one person who offered a chance of flying free, of finding a path into a brighter future, well, he currently couldn’t stand the sight of Haley.

He pulled his phone out, dialed a number, and waited. “Dad, hey. You and Mom home?”

Haley grabbed his forearm. “
Chris
.”

“What?”

“Be careful. There’s a, um, deer in the road, staring at you!”

Nodding, he continued, “You’ve probably already figured this out, but I lied when I said I was sick and going home. I went to Haley’s and finally told her the truth. Can you and Mom meet me for coffee? No, Haley can’t come. She’s… I think she’s mad at me. Yeah, I’ll give her time.”

By his tone, all the time in the world. Haley might never see Chris again.

He parked the Porsche in front of Haley’s house and got out, grabbed her elbow and dragged her down the street. “That first night when you showed up at my house, in that dress, and you danced and talked and laughed with me, it was all fake? All for this?”

“If I said no, would you believe me?”

Lips pursed and eyes narrowed, angry, fuming, Chris said, “Try me.”

For once, Haley deserved someone’s hostility. For once.

But she hated the way he looked down at her with narrowed eyes, as if he thought she was disgusting, horrendous, when only an hour ago, he’d admitted he wanted her.
Wanted
her. “I thought my sister was finally being nice to me and gave me that dress. I enjoyed every second of time I spent with you.”

“I have to go.” Chris left a trail of tread and white smoke as he took off down the street, revving his engine.

Haley stepped onto the front porch and heard someone curse. Goose bumps spread across her arms and legs, and she changed course and peeked around the side of the house, heart pounding wildly. A man in dark clothing and a ski mask ran toward the red apartment behind the main house.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Not going in there. Not after telling Chris everything. The psycho probably wanted to murder Haley before she became more of a liability. This house had never felt safe, but now it screamed certain death.