Chapter 7: Trapped

Hailey's eyes scanned the basement room again, then she padded over to one of the windows and got on her tiptoes to try and look out. The movement sent a sharp pain through her ankle.

She sucked in a breath through gritted teeth and looked down at her injury for the first time, only to find her foot drenched in blood that flowed in wide streaks from the gash on her ankle. She raised her foot off the ground and realised that she'd left a trail of bloody footprints on the floor that showed the paths she had taken through the room. The adrenaline in her system had kept the pain at bay, and she hadn't noticed how much her wound was bleeding.

Jay hurried to her side and grabbed her arm to stabilise her. "Hailey, let me take a look at that!" he said urgently, worried by the amount of blood.

"It's nothing. Just a graze wound," Hailey waved him off. "What do you see outside?"

Jay knew that she wouldn't let him take care of her injury until he'd looked, so he straightened up to see what was outside of the window. "Nothing. Just an open, empty field."

The disappointment on Hailey's face was hard to miss. "I guess we'll just have to wait and hope that the unit finds us," she sighed.

"They will," Jay reassured her and tugged on her arm to pull her into the beam of light shining in through the window. "Will you let me have a look now?"

Nodding, she let him help her sit down on the ground and rested her back against the brick wall. Jay knelt next to her to examine her wound. He took his pocket square out of his front suit pocket, ripped it in half, and used one of the pieces to pat and wipe away the blood off Hailey's skin.

She leaned her head back against the wall and watched him as he tended to her ankle. His movements were careful, the touch of his strong hands gentle, and he lightly chewed on his bottom lip as he concentrated, doing his best to not hurt her.

"See," she said once the blood was gone and they had a good view of the wound. "It's not as bad as it looked."

Jay glanced up at her face. "How's the pain?" he asked, the concern in his caring eyes making Hailey's heart swell.

"I'll live, Jay," she smiled and was glad when the corner of his mouth twitched up too as he nodded.

Jay folded up the other piece of the pocket square, carefully wrapped it around her ankle, and tied it off with a knot.

"Thank you," Hailey whispered.

"Best I can do for now," he replied, studying her.

His eyes wandered across her face before their gaze was drawn in by a thin red line around her neck.

"Where is the necklace?" he asked, noticing that it was gone.

"Asher ripped it off when he tried to grab me," Hailey replied and brought her fingers up to her neck, causing her skin to sting at the touch.

In one spot along the linear mark, her skin had been nicked by the chain, and a single drop of blood had run down her neck. Gingerly, Jay reached out and wiped it away with the sleeve of his dress shirt. His eyes lingered on her neck for a moment longer, and when he looked up, he found her calmly watching him.

They exchanged another quick smile before he got to his feet and walked back to the window. Nothing had changed outside.

"How does that guy know you?" he asked as he wrapped his fingers around the bars in front of the window and pulled, but they were rock solid.

"I arrested him for an armed robbery about five years ago," Hailey recalled as Jay moved to the other window and tried the bars there as well. "I guess they let him out early."

"Huh," Jay huffed and started pacing through the room, inspecting every inch and crevice.

Hailey stayed where she was, watching him. They didn't know how long it would be before their unit found them, so she decided that it would be best to save her energy.

The basement room they were in was damp and cold, and Hailey was wearing nothing but her short, sleeveless dress. The concrete floor she sat on was cold as ice, and she rubbed her hands over her arms as a shiver shook her body.

Jay stopped pacing and immediately shrugged off his jacket to hang it over her shoulders. She accepted it thankfully and pulled her legs close to her body. The jacket radiated Jay's residual body warmth onto her skin, and his scent, that lingered in the fabric, engulfed her.

The jacket kept her warm for some time, but before too long, Hailey's entire body was shaking from the cold, and she had to clench her teeth together to stop them from chattering. Jay, who had been switching back and forth between leaning against the wall next to her and checking for any movement outside for the past few minutes, noticed the increase in her shivering.

He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor too. "Come here," he said and held his hands out towards his partner.

She hesitated for a moment, reassuring herself that she was understanding his intentions correctly.

"Come," he repeated with a hint of a smirk forming on his lips.

Hailey considered declining his offer but the need for some warmth made her accept. She shuffled towards him, and when she was close enough, Jay hooked his arms behind her back and under her knees and scooped her up, pulling her onto his lap. They awkwardly shifted around and repositioned themselves a few times before they settled on a position in which Hailey sat between Jay's legs, with her legs hanging over one of his thighs. Her side was pressed up against his chest, and she'd laid her head down to rest on his shoulder. Jay pulled his jacket off her shoulders and draped it over the two of them like a blanket, then tucked his arms underneath and wrapped them around Hailey's shoulders.

The warmth radiating off his body sent a wave of goosebumps down her legs and arms and the back of her neck. Her skin was cold under the palms of his hands as he rubbed them up and down her arms to soothe the goosebumps, and he cursed himself for having needed a few minutes to build up the courage to do this.

They had never been this close before, and as she sat there, curled up against him, Jay realised how small she was. When he'd lifted her up, she'd barely weighed anything, and his hands could fully encompass her upper arms with his fingers touching. But that delicate body belonged to one of the strongest and bravest people he knew who, just like him, was never afraid to enter a gunfight or a physical altercation to do good and help people. Every day, she did something that made his admiration and affection for her grow, and she held a place in his heart that no one else could take.

"Feel warmer yet?" Jay asked, still rubbing his hands up and down Hailey's arms.

"Yeah, this is working great," she chuckled.

"Good," he murmured and let his cheek rest against the top of her head, smelling the soft floral scent of her hair.

Silence fell between them as they waited for Hailey's shivering to die down.

"I'm sorry for getting us into this situation," Jay mumbled after a while.

Hailey raised her head off his shoulder and looked up at his face questioningly. "What do you mean you got us into this situation?"

He stared at the wall across from them for a few seconds before meeting her eyes. "We weren't equipped to go mobile. You said so, and the fact that the team hasn't found us yet confirms that. I shouldn't have convinced you to go through with the buy. I made the wrong call. I'm sorry."

"Jay, I carried that decision with you," Hailey objected, furrowing her forehead. "The buy would have worked if it hadn't been for that guy who recognised me, and Hansen and his crew would be in handcuffs by now. No one could have expected that their last accomplice would be someone I've arrested before."

Jay shook his head. "We have to expect and prepare for anything and everything," he said, looking and sounding defeated. "You got shot today, Hailey. It could have been much worse."

"But it isn't," she insisted, staring back at him emphatically. "I'm fine. We're fine. We just have to wait for the unit to find us. Everything is okay."

She could tell from his face and the guilt in his eyes that she hadn't managed to fully convince him just yet.

"I was the one who decided to keep going when they wanted our phones. I'm just as much at fault as you are," she added.

Jay sighed and pulled her tighter against him when another shiver ran through her body.

His action made Hailey aware of how strong his arms around her were, how secure and safe she felt in his embrace. His scent was infatuating as she laid her head back down on his shoulder. Her nose was almost touching the side of his neck, and for a moment, she imagined inching closer and letting her lips brush over his skin, but expelled that idea from her mind as quickly as she'd conjured it up.

"I can't bear the thought of anything happening to you," Jay whispered out of the blue. "You mean so much to me."

Hailey's breath halted, and every last hint of coldness was cast out of her limbs by a sudden warmth that radiated from the depths of her chest into every inch of her body. Her cheeks felt as if they were burning up as she shifted in Jay's arms so she could look at his face.

He didn't say anything else as she gauged his expression. There was a faint crease between his brows, and his eyes held a cautious intensity as they now bore into hers. His gaze jumped back and forth between her vibrant blue eyes, searching for a reaction to his words.

The two of them had lost themselves in each other's eyes many times before, had expressed their unfaltering trust and appreciation for one another, had tightened and reinforced their unique bond and friendship, all without as much as a single spoken word or a touch. Their eyes had said it all. But they had never been this close in any of those moments.

The air between them began to hum with electricity, and Jay struggled to keep his breathing even. It became shallow and strained, and his throat was thick with emotion and longing to give in to the immense gravitational pull that Hailey's eyes had locked him in. He wanted to move closer, feel her skin on his, but he was still fighting against that urge, unsure if it would be a mistake that couldn't be undone after the fact.

But then, when Hailey parted her lips ever so slightly and moved her hand to rest against his chest, all restraints that had been holding him back went out the window. This was all the confirmation he needed.

He began inching his face towards hers, and as they both realised what was about to happen, their hearts began beating faster, and butterflies awakened and fluttered around in their bellies.

They kept their eyes locked in on each other until their faces were only a hand's width apart, then Hailey closed her eyes and awaited the touch as her heart thumped desperately in her chest. Jay's breath tickled her skin, and a moment later, she felt his lips on hers.

Hailey's lips were cold, and Jay felt a tingling sensation from the touch as if the contact was sending an electric current back and forth between their bodies.

The kiss was simple and gentle and lasted only a few seconds before he pulled back an inch. Neither of them moved for a moment as they savoured the sensation of the touch that still lingered on their lips. When it had worn off, Hailey slid her hand from Jay's chest to the back of his neck, and he cupped her cheek with his hand before they pulled each other in for another kiss.

Their lips felt soft and comforting as they reconnected and started moving together. Hailey's lips parted, and Jay drew her bottom lip between his. The muted sigh that escaped her throat made him pull her in closer and tighter against his body.

Both of them had longed for this touch longer than they'd dare to admit, and they treasured every moment as their lips and tongues caressed each other. There was no urgency, no rush in their movements, just pure serenity and expression of deep emotion and affection. Neither had ever felt anything like it before.

They had played a lot of pretend over the past two days, the touches they had shared had been for show. But this was real. This time, they weren't acting, and no one was watching or listening.

Hailey was overcome by a wave of happiness, and her mouth curled up into a smile against Jay's. He pulled back to look at her. When he saw the elation on her face and heard her soft giggle, the corners of his mouth twitched up too, and he brushed his fingers over her hair before placing a few quick kisses onto her smile.

Voices echoing in the distance broke the spell they'd been under and pulled them out of their moment and back to reality.