Hailey’s POV
The whole time I kept my head high, pretending I wasn’t scared of her.
Vanessa. Her eyes, her smirk, the cold metal of the gun she’d pressed to my forehead—everything about her clung to my skin like ice I couldn’t shake off. But I refused to show fear in front of her. Why would I? She already saw enough when she had the gun aimed at me.
By the time I finally got home, it was late, the darkness had already filled up. My legs felt like they were carrying bricks, and my mind was still a tangled mess of everything she said, everything she implied, everything she threatened.
As soon as I stepped out of the car, I saw Ryan pacing outside the front door, back and forth, tense like he’d been doing it for hours. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, hair messy, jaw tight. The second h
