Saving Hailey: Chapter 6

PRESENT DAY

“You don’t have her?” I snap at Vaughn, leave emotion at the door long forgotten. Disbelief and fear shake my voice in equal measure. The cup vibrates in my hand, coffee sloshing at the lip. “How the fuck is that possible? Where is she? Have you seen her since she ran from Lakeside?”

Now it’s his turn to pale, his reaction mirroring mine. His hands shake as he rakes them through his hair.

The only sound is our breathing echoing in the near-empty room. His silent expression shifts from anger to something far more chilling… fear. Realization. A father’s worst nightmare.

He stares and stares and stares at me so fucking long with those vacant eyes that I wonder if he’s gone into shock. Just as I’m about to snap him out of it, he moves and crack… his palms slam hard against the metal table with a resounding clang.

It doesn’t startle me, but I bet a few guys watching the show from behind the one-way mirror got a good scare.

Vaughn lunges forward. I’m about to retaliate, thinking he’s going for my throat, but instead, he grabs the recorder, hurling it at the wall. It splinters on impact.

His chest heaving and a Molotov cocktail mix of emotions carving deep lines into his forehead, he marches out, slamming the door with a finality that echoes in my head.

The room must be soundproof because when he returns two minutes later, I haven’t heard a thing from outside.

“Are you trying to fucking tell me you don’t have her?” Vaughn seethes, his clenched fists hammering the table. “Are you fucking certain Rhett doesn’t?”

I glance over his shoulder, noting that the cameras have stopped blinking. I guess he disabled them.

“No one’s watching or listening,” he says like he read my mind. He must have cleared out the observation room too. “Just… fuck!” He tangles his fingers in his hair. “Tell me you know where she is. Tell me your sick fuck of a father has my daughter! Tell me she’s okay. It’s been a week!”

He paces the room, lost in his own turmoil.

“Vaughn,” I seethe, trying to ground us both, my mind whirring through possibilities. How does he not know where she is? “Matthews picked her up that night,” I speak my thoughts aloud. “How would Rhett have Hailey?”

“Matthews’ car was found in Ohio, Carter. What else would I think?!”

Shit. Was Matthews working for my father? No… Rhett would’ve told me if he bought a cop close to Vaughn.

On the other hand, given the nagging feeling I have that Rhett’s only been showing me half the picture, I wouldn’t be surprised if he kept that information firmly in the other half.

I massage my temples, forcing a calming breath past my teeth. Rhett doesn’t have Hailey. If he did, he wouldn’t be able to keep himself from gloating.

“I was fucking certain you found her a new hiding spot. The only reason I let you cuff me is because I thought you’d tell me she’s safe.”

“I don’t have her!” His voice quivers, the terror of a father scared about his child taking center stage. “I didn’t know she’d left until the dean called the next morning.”

There’s a pause, his eyes darting left and right, chasing his own express train of thoughts. Mindless panic and fear mix in his eyes. His knuckles whiten with how hard he clenches his fists and sweat trickles down his forehead.

Every part of him is jittery like an outmanned gunman unsure where to aim. I’m not doing any better. Though I am hiding it well.

“Don’t fuck with me, Willard. Tell me where my daughter is!” Once more, he slams his hands on the table. It serves no point other than channeling his rage.

Better the table than my face.

“You were the last one with her! You need her to help your father!”

My temper soars at the tone of his voice and the shit he’s spewing. He has no idea about the bigger picture. The unspoken accusation that I don’t care about Hailey sends me flying off the handle. I bolt upright, grabbing his collar to yank him forward so hard his thighs hit the metal edge of the table.

“Don’t underestimate how far I’ll go for Hailey. Don’t think there’s a single line I won’t cross to get her back.”

I shove him away, slumping back into my seat. I’m shaking inside, engulfed in a chill that feels like I’m lost in the Arctic Circle. Fear threatens to drown me. It strips me of the one thing that can help me find my girl: control.

Cold, harsh, calculated control.

Holding onto it when my mind’s stuck in a loop, chanting sevendays onrepeat is damn near impossible. All this time, I was convinced Vaughn pulled a Houdini trick and hid Hailey out of my reach, off the radar.

Hiding her at Lakeside had questionable results, but people learn from their mistakes. I was certain Vaughn learned to hide his daughter better.

Our only concrete lead was the Lakeside security footage. I’ve watched the video of Hailey leaving the building with her suitcase and getting into Matthews’ car a thousand times.

I was right there, less than three hundred feet away, behind the tree line, pacing a path while on the phone to Dante and Broadway. I was right there, oblivious that she was slipping right through my fingers.

Ryder and Jackson have barely slept since I came back, scouring Vaughn’s entire digital footprint, but they found nothing. Not even when they hacked his precinct.

I was on the road, berating my men over the phone while checking all the holes but every lead I followed turned up empty.

No wonder.

I’ve been chasing shadows the whole time, assuming Hailey was with her father.

I put the biggest magnifying glass to Vaughn, tracing his every step, hoping he’d go see her and betray her location. We sent bugs to his phone, but he’s too smart for that. He either changed the device or started using burners.

At least that’s what I thought. Whenever we hit a dead end, I conjured an explanation, a reason why I still haven’t found my girl after seven days.

My knuckles whiten more the harder I grip the table.

Instead of fixating on Vaughn, I should’ve cast my net wider, considered Rhett’s enemies. God knows how many there are who could benefit from the evidence that Hailey’s the key to.

“Matthews was with her that night,” I grit out, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, barely holding myself together. “Where was he taking her? What were your orders?”

Vaughn pales further, a man on the brink of collapse as he folds into himself, sinking into the chair opposite mine.

I’ve known him by reputation for years. Despite Rhett and Vaughn’s mutual hatred and the obvious mafia man/cop issue, there was always an undertone of respect in Rhett’s voice when he mentioned Charles.

The man is a war machine. Methodical, strategic, with a code of honor few possess. Rhett depicted him as the epitome of unbreakable control. A man who holds his own, even in situations where others would fall apart.

He’s been responsible for taking down the most vicious, vengeful men in the business. Nothing ever sways his judgment. No amount of money or promises can buy Charles Vaughn.

But there’s nothing of that man in the person sitting across from me. Not even a fucking shadow. There’s no courage, no control, no plan. His eyes brim with tears, his gaze hollow with despair and deep, all-consuming fear for his daughter’s life.

It matches my own… probably knocks it right out of the park because he’s her father. Hailey’s all he’s got left since he lost his wife. Everything he’s done until now was to protect her after hefailed to see how close she and Alex were. Both our problems stem from that sleazy motherfucker but it was Vaughn who sent him on his mission to destroy my father.

And now it’s destroying him.

Poetic fucking justice. Too bad it’s at Hailey’s expense.

He swallows a sharp breath, lifting his eyes to mine. “I swear, Willard, if you’re lying, if you’re—”

“I. Don’t. Have. Her,” I grit out through clenched teeth, holding his gaze so he’ll read the truth in my eyes.

I doubt it’s enough, but it has to be. I can’t prove it.

“Then where is she?! Why were you at Lakeside?”

“Why do you think?” I lean forward, the cold table a doubtful barrier between us if he decides to smash my face against the handcuff rail. “She knows where Alex’s evidence is and Rhett wants it.”

I deliberately omit that—according to Hailey’s most recent flashback—she is the evidence. There may be some paperwork hidden in the bank, or God knows where, but her testimony will be crucial. She’s an eyewitness. An anomaly in the world where Rhett Willard reigns. No one ever testified against my father because no witnesses ever lived to tell the tale.

Except Hailey.

And Rhett doesn’t know she caught him red-handed.

“You sent Matthews to pick her up,” I say, watching Vaughn grab the table as if to keep himself from pacing the room. “Where was he taking her?”

He squeezes the metal hard enough to leave dents. The stubble along his jaw hints that he’s not been in the right frame of mind to shave lately, and his shirt’s stained and wrinkled. It all confirms he truly has no idea where Hailey is. Some things you can’t fake, and the sorrow in his eyes, the fucking guilt there, is one of them.

“I didn’t,” he murmurs, almost to himself.

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t send Matthews.” He rakes one hand through his hair, then drops it back down, staring at his fingernails; he’s bitten them so short they look sore. “I didn’t know Hailey was leaving. I didn’t even know about you until recently.”

“He didn’t tell you he was picking her up?” I ask, narrowing my eyes. Why wouldn’t he? “She called him to come get her and given how fucking paranoid you were, I get why she called him not you, but—”

“How is that relevant?! Her life is on the line!”

“You think I don’t fucking know that?!” Now it’s my hand banging against the table, my patience fraying beyond its limit. “You’re not the only man here who’ll move heaven and hell for her. Don’t forget I let you put me in handcuffs for a chance to find out she’s okay, Vaughn.”

“You think I believe you care about her? You only want her because your father needs the evidence. Don’t take me for a fool.”

“How can I not when you’re acting like one? I was sent to Lakeside with orders to extract information. My mission was to break Hailey,” I seethe, the confession a bitter pill. “But she broke me and now she’s mine. Better get used to that idea.”

“Over my dead body!”

“That can be arranged,” I shoot back. “Don’t tempt me.”

His mouth falls open, but he snaps it shut quickly, eyeing me with a newfound intensity.

“I’m an open book, Vaughn. No need for mind reading.” I lean back, my voice steady despite the turmoil churning inside me. “Stop wasting time. She’s not with you and she’s not with me but she’s out there somewhere. She’s too important to kill, because she knows too much, but there are many ruthless fuckers out there who know about the mole you planted.”

“They don’t know about Hailey’s involvement,” he counters, a hint of his composure resurfacing.

“They do. There are no lines they won’t cross when their lives are on the line. And… Rhett has a rat in his ranks. It’s safe to assume everyone who’s in the business of knowing knows. Hiding her at Lakeside wasn’t such a smart move. My father paid off a nurse at the hospital. She told him where Hailey was going before you even signed the admission papers.”

“We both know what your father is capable of.” He rubs his neck that’s glowing red with exasperation. “I did everything I could to protect her. We didn’t talk about her memories in case Rhett had tapped my phone.”

Better safe than sorry, I guess.

I get why he put that particular safety measure in place, but if Vaughn had ignited a stronger sense of trust in Hailey from the get-go, she’d have called him, not Matthews.

“Where exactly did you find Matthews’ body?” I ask, my mind grabbing the scattered puzzle pieces. “He obviously got paid to bring her to someone at the first opportunity.”

“No,” Vaughn clips, a hint of ruthlessness piercing his hurt. “Matthews would never accept a bribe, Willard. Believe it or not, some men just aren’t built that way and if there’s one man I’d bet my money on, it’s Matthews.”

I scoff, my knuckles rapping a steady, cynical rhythm. “Loyalty is a luxury. In our world, it’s often the first thing to be sacrificed. We all have our limits, Vaughn. We all have our vices and most of us have weaknesses. Looks like Matthews’ weakness was his daughter. I bet you can relate.” I let the words hang between us, a cruel smile playing on my lips. “If I had Hailey at gunpoint and told you she’d die if you didn’t drop the investigation, would you really sacrifice her to protect a flawed system?”

His throat works, a hard swallow betraying his struggle, a bead of sweat tracing a path down his forehead. His silence is louder than any words he could utter.

“I didn’t think so,” I continue when he doesn’t answer. I won’t lie, I thought he’d disagree and stay on his high horse. We’re on opposite sides of an invisible line, but he’s desperate to find Hailey, and the line between right and wrong he tries so hard not to cross has begun to blur. “I need a phone.”

“Forget it,” he snaps, the clean-cop façade crawling back over him.

“It’s been seven days. Hailey’s being held captive and you don’t have a clue where. Think about what they could be doing to her.” I lean in, my eyes locked on his. “Your accusation won’t stick. I didn’t kill Matthews. You have zero evidence, so I’ll walk out of here the minute I call my lawyer. Do you want your daughter back or not?”

“Of course I want her back, but we’ll do it my way.”

“Your way?” I let out a cold, humorless laugh. “Because that’s worked so fucking well thus far? You had your chance and you failed. I have resources you can only dream about, zero inhibitions, and the capacity to do what’s necessary. Get me a phone.”

He bristles at my words, but that clean-cop façade he’s barely put on starts sliding away again. “If you think I’ll work with some criminal to—”

“I will get her back.” I shut him up. “You have my word.”

“You’re fucking delusional. You think I’ll let my daughter end up with someone like you? The trash I’ve spent my whole life sweeping off the streets? You won’t touch her.”

“Unless it’s over your dead body, right?” I scoff, folding my arms over my chest. “By that logic, you should’ve dropped dead weeks ago. Hailey’s mine. Either get on board or get out of the fucking way.”

The air between us crackles with hostility. I know this won’t go down easy. He’ll do everything in his power to separate us the moment she’s safe.

I’m not arrogant enough to take his silence as an admission of defeat. Men like Vaughn don’t turn the other cheek when they’re slapped, but he’s out of options, so, at least for now, I have the upper hand.

“Now…” I say, forcing him to choose a path. “Get. Me. A. Phone.”