Haven Bound

27. Chelsea

27

Chelsea

The drive back to Hailey’s place takes a solid thirty minutes with early evening traffic, but Austin stayed right behind me the entire time. His dark green Wrangler never left my rearview mirror. I’m not surprised to find that Hailey is home when we get there. As much as she likes to let loose, she’s always followed a pretty consistent schedule when it comes to the various workout classes that she does. I’m pretty sure that tonight is spin night.

Austin follows me into the house, but when Hailey comes walking around the corner dressed for tonight’s spin class, I turn to face him. Just as I’m about to speak, he says, “I’ll be outside waiting when you’re ready. I need to touch base with Zack, anyways.” I give him a slight smile and wait until the front door closes behind him to say anything to my best friend.

“Hails, I’m so sorry about how I reacted when you told me that Austin didn’t have a choice in leaving.” I can’t help the way my voice quivers, but I quickly clear my throat and continue. “I talked to Austin…” Her familiar blue eyes find mine as she tosses her gym bag down onto the couch. She seems hesitant to say anything. “About everything. He told me about The Phoenix Legion and why he left, why he’s back, and who, um…” I need to figure out the proper way to phrase this so I don’t keep tripping over my own damn words. “He told me what his assignment is,” I mumble, my gaze shifting to the floor.

Hailey’s arms wrap around me, and we stand there hugging for a moment before we both pull back and sink down onto the sectional. “I’m so sorry that I couldn’t tell you, Chels. But it really wasn’t my place. The secret wasn’t only mine to share. It involves a lot of people,” she says.

I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for her, for Austin, for their whole damn family. “I get it. Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten so upset, but it felt like everything was falling down around me. The idea that you were keeping something from me was the breaking point, you know?”

She pulls her legs up onto the couch and tucks them underneath her, sitting cross-legged as I pull the blanket down off the back of the couch and into my lap. The weight of the blanket isn’t much, just enough to help me feel grounded. It gives my hands something to toy with as we venture into a slightly awkward conversation.

“Sooooo,” she starts, biting at her bottom lip as she eyes me.

“Just spit it out,” I tease.

She laughs as she asks, “Things with Austin?” Her question is simple, but the answer feels so freaking complicated.

“I’ve always loved him, Hails. I think right now, that’s all I can tell you.” She smiles softly at my answer, nodding as if in agreement with me. Then she reaches across the couch to take my hand.

“He’s my brother, but you’re my best friend. If he hurts you, I’ll totally fuck him up.”

We both break out into laughter, and with that, any tension that might have still existed between us evaporates .

“What about you?” I ask, giving her a knowing look. “What’s up with you and Ethan? We haven’t really had a chance to talk about it since that night at Club Obsidian. Austin said you two hung out for a while after we left.” Hailey freezes for a moment, her eyes widening briefly. She was probably hoping I wouldn’t ask about it, but I know she’s been pining after him for years.

Likely just as long as I have been over Austin. Ethan has never said anything directly involving Hailey, but I’ve seen how he looks at her when she isn’t paying attention. I get the feeling that there’s something more between them. They’re both just too damn stubborn to do or say anything about it.

“You know Ethan,” she says, tilting her head slightly back and forth, considering what to say. “He’s always been flirtatious but nothing more than that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with a girlfriend. Maybe he just doesn’t do relationships.” She shrugs her shoulders like it’s no big deal.

“And you don’t think you could be casual with him?” I ask. Hailey is the more adventurous of the two of us and has never shied away from casual sex.

“I don’t think I could handle it. Not with him,” she sighs .

“I get that, but you won’t really know where he stands unless you talk to him. Does he know about the whole Phoenix Legion thing?” I ask, unsure whether or not I want to hear the answer. I hate the idea that I’ve been the only person kept in the dark about this, but I also don’t know that I could keep the secret all to myself. Having other people who know, even if it’s just Ethan, would make things a lot easier.

She runs her teeth over her bottom lip a few times, staring down at her lap. “I think he knows, but we’ve never talked about it. If he knows, I’m not the one who told him,” she murmurs. If she didn’t tell him, then Austin did. Which means it was just me that he felt like he needed to hide this from. I have to ask.

I clear my throat before speaking, doing my best to disguise the hurt that I know will lace my voice. “Why would he tell Ethan but not want to tell me?”

Hailey looks up from her lap and gives me a tight-lipped smile, shrugging a shoulder. “I’m not sure, Chels. Maybe because he knew that Ethan had already seen some pretty dark things in his life. He probably figured that Ethan could handle it. And honestly, it’s a hard secret to keep. You have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to spill everything to you.”

Knowing that she’s wanted to tell me everything, but kept the secret out of familial duty eases the pain knotting in my chest. Reaching across the couch, I take her hand in mine and squeeze gently. “I’m not mad, Hails. I promise. I can’t even imagine the weight that this secret has put on your shoulders over the years.” She squeezes my hand in return. I pull away to lean against the back of the couch, fidgeting with the soft blanket on my lap.

“To be honest, there are things I’ve kept from you, too. Things from my past that I’ve worked really hard to forget, but they seem to keep coming back to haunt me.”

Her blue eyes bounce back and forth between mine in confusion. “What things?” she asks. I don’t know if I’m prepared to tell her. But if there’s a chance that she can help me battle my demons in some way, it’s worth a shot .

“Do you know who Austin’s target is?” I ask carefully. Just because they’re siblings and part of the same organization— is a group of people that willingly kill the bad guys considered an organization? —doesn’t mean that they keep each other informed about their tasks.

“Wait, what do you do for the Legion?” I spit out suddenly, realizing now that there’s so much I don’t know about my best friend.

Hailey shakes her head and laughs at my questions. “Now I’m the one that feels like I’m being interrogated,” she teases, making fun of the other day when I questioned if she and Austin were interrogating me when I filled them in about Jason.

“Oh, c’mon! I have so many questions. I wanna know everything!” I exclaim. She smiles as she tilts her head from shoulder to shoulder, seemingly trying to decide how much to share with me.

She sighs and begins to overload me with information. “For whatever reason, our parents decided to wait until we each turned eighteen to tell us everything, and honestly, the timing was just in my favor. I’d already been talking to my mom about nursing school and they’d just recently lost one of their local on-call nurses. Before you ask, she didn’t die. She moved out of state with her new husband, and the Legion needed someone close to Haven Beach. I expected my parents to fight me on it, but I think they hated the idea of both of their children putting themselves in the line of danger every day.”

She gives me a concerned smile, silently apologizing for the reminder that Austin does in fact put his life in danger with every mission that he’s given. “I spent my time making sure I had the education to be the on-call nurse that they needed. As soon as I was finished with school, I stepped up at the hotel and started learning everything I could about event management.” She pauses, and it gives me a chance to reflect on everything that she has said.

Hailey is such a freaking powerhouse. I can’t even imagine the amount of stress she must be under every single day, and she never lets it show. She always seems so organized and put together.

We sat and talked for a little while longer, and I made sure to tell her about my stepfather and the fact that he’s the assignment that Austin came home for. I also filled her in about her brother’s insistence that I stay at the hotel for a while. It was no surprise that she agreed with that decision, telling me that it’s probably safer that way.

I’m in my room getting together everything that I may need or want while staying at the Elysian when I hear the front door open. “Chelsea?” Austin’s voice reaches me from the living room.

“Almost ready!” I don’t think it’s true, but I say it anyway. I have no clue how much I should be packing or what I should even be packing. Everything I need for work is at the bakery, but I do need several logo shirts and my favorite bakery meme shirts that I like to rotate through.

I know I need the basics, but now that things are heating up with Austin, I want to make sure I’m prepared for the next time we’re intimate. I want something nicer than black cotton underwear. Not that he seemed to care. I just know that I feel sexier when I’m wearing something made of lace.

“Need any help?” he asks, and I turn to find him leaning a shoulder against the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest with one ankle over the other.

Fuck me.

“I think I’ve got it,” I tell him. Or at least I did before you came in .

His presence is a little distracting in the best way possible. Flashes fill my mind of the way he looked at me sprawled out on the bed before him, the way his full lips felt pressed against mine, the way he groaned between my thighs, and the way I felt having his hard cock in my mouth.

“We can come back if you forget something that you need, or I’ll just buy it for you,” he says, a smirk tugging at his lips as he watches me.

I roll my eyes at that last comment. “I don’t need you to buy me anything.” That seems to capture his attention because the next thing I know, he’s standing in front of me and tipping my chin up until I’m forced to meet his gaze.

“I know that you don’t need me to, Chelsea. But I want to. You’re mine now, and I’m going to take care of you.”

His words settle something deep within me. All of the tension that I have been hanging on to releases from my body, causing my shoulders to slump forward slightly as I relax against him. Austin’s arms wrap around my waist. He presses a kiss to my temple, holding me tightly against him.

“Ready?” His deep voice sends a tantalizing shiver down my spine. I step away from his embrace and look around the room that I’ve called mine for the past few months.

“Yeah, I think so.”

He grabs the few bags I’d thrown together and nods for me to lead the way.

I’m not sure how prepared I am to face everything that is coming next, but I know that I’m ready to move forward with Austin at my side. No matter what that might look like.