Page 227 of Hold Me Until Morning

Ghosts played through her expression, and I could tell that she was struggling, words on her tongue that she didn’t know how to release.

“What is it?” I pressed.

“My father…he killed Brooke when she overheard him giving the order for Brent to kill you.”

Hailey’s grief banged against the walls. Heavy and harsh. A tear got loose of her eye, and I gathered the moisture with my thumb.

That fucking monster.

I still couldn’t believe it.

Couldn’t believe that one man could be so dirty.

That he could be so vile.

“I’m so goddamn sorry, Hailey. I’m so sorry for every single thing you’ve been put through. I wanted to protect you from it all.”

“You did.” She sniffled. “He’s the one to blame. He’s the one who orchestrated everything. Set it all into motion. I hate him, Cody. Hate him for stealing the most important people from me. Brooke. Lolly.”

She choked over that, a sob ripping through the desolation.

Agony thrummed. Sorrow suffocating.

She held tighter to my hands.

“And he tried to steal you, too. But he can’t have you, Cody. Not when you’re mine.”

She inhaled a quivering breath, and another tear fell. “You saved us.”

“I think Lolly did a lot of that saving, too.” The words were gravel. Awe and grief.

Wistfulness danced through her features, her face soaking wet as she nodded. “Yeah. The two people who ever truly loved me came for us. Stood for us. Fought for us.”

“She was so damned brave…just like you.” I murmured it.

“Says the man who suffered three gunshot wounds for us.” The softest tease played in her soggy words.

My thumb brushed her cheek. “I would have taken them all.”

Her throat bobbed heavily when she swallowed. “I know you would have.”

“And I’ll be standing for you for all my days, Hailey. For as long as these feet will carry me. Well, just as soon as I get free of this mess.”

I wiggled the hand that had the tubes and wires stuck to it, giving her the slightest smirk, trying to find some light in the darkness that hovered in the room.

A promise that she was going to be okay.

Hailey let go of a watery giggle. “I think you would even then.”

“Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Me hauling off down the hall, ripping these tubes from my arms, wearing this hospital gown with my bare butt on full display out the back.”

“It is a nice butt,” she said, sniffling through a laugh.

I stared at her through the dense, laden silence.

A thousand emotions banged between us.

Hurt.