When Hailey woke up, it was around 11. She didn't have to search her mind as to her whereabouts, it was obvious, his scent was hanging all over the bedsheets that covered her. Yet, the pain emerging from her left thigh brought back the real reason why she was asleep in his bed. She lifted the sheet and looked at her wound. The bandage looked fresh and clean. She used the force of her arms to sit up and scanned the room. The garbage was filled with a few blood-stained bandages, indicating that Drew had changed them a couple of times throughout the night and wee hours of the morning. There was something almost exciting about the fact that she had abandoned her body over to him and that he'd done it without her knowing it. She leaned over to the right side of the bed and saw him asleep, in just a pair of boxer shorts.
Feeling awkward about being in his room as he slept, she opted to return to her room. She let her legs drop to the side of the bed and tried to stand. The pain, as she put the weight on her left leg, shot through her entire body causing her to wince. Pushing through the pain, she took a few steps which, was a bad idea. She knocked, her left thigh, into his desk, cutting her breath short. To support her, she placed her hand on the desk next to his opened laptop. The shift in motion brought the screen to life and a picture of her appeared. She looked at it aghast. She scrolled down and found everything there was to know about her, almost everything. Her heart sank, he was spying on her.
"It's not what you think", she heard coming from the other side of the bed.
Still supporting herself on the desk, she turned her head and saw Drew standing in the exact spot where he had been asleep.
She said nothing as she stood up, trying to act strong, and walked the two steps that separated her from the door. He tried to reach as before she opened it but failed as she started limping out in the hallway towards her room. He followed her.
"Hailey"? he asked, almost begging her to stop.
She tightened her jaw, not only out of anger but out of excruciating pain. Suddenly, her knee buckled, and her leg gave way underneath her. Drew caught her just in time in his strong arm and muscular chest.
"I've got this. Let me go, Drew"!
It was obvious that she was angry and in hindthought he could understand why.
"Are you always this stubborn"? he asked her as he picked her up carefully in his arms and she tried to push him.
"Do you always spy on people"? she slithered out to him with such venom, it stung.
He carried her back to his bed against her most insistent protests.
"You're bleeding, stop acting like a spoiled brat"!
She looked at her thigh, and the bandage was soaked in blood.
"You know that's an invasion of privacy, I could get you arrested".
Drew said nothing as he proceeded to change her bandage.
"You could have just asked, you know".
"Well, in case you hadn't noticed, communicating is not my strong point".
Her anger softened as she looked at him.
"I would have told you what you wanted to know".
He looked at her doubtful. "Really"?
She nodded.
He sat on the chair and looked at her. "Hailey Wade is not your real name is it"?
She blinked a couple of times. "Why do you say that"?
"Hailey Wade died in 1983 and there is no birth certificate in that name with anyone around you age. Why lie"?
She wet her dry lips and pinched them together for a second. "For my own protection", she said simply as she bent her head down, almost like someone guilty of a crime.
His protectiveness went into action. He sat down again next to her and gently raised her chin with two of his fingers.
"Are you in danger? Is that why you came to Cancun"? he asked looking deep into her soul through her amazing almond shaped brown eyes.
"It's not why I came to Cancun, but if people were to find out who I really am, then yes, I could be in danger. You must think I'm a terrible person".
He shook his head. He was doing the same thing.
"No, I don't think you're a terrible person. If anything, I understand".
"What do you mean"?
"My name isn't Drew Riley, either. And let me reassure you, I'm not a murderer and I'm not running away from the Feds or anything like that".
"Then what are you running away from"?
"My past".
She seemed to think and try to put different things into place in her head. "It has to do with the way you handled those guys last night, doesn't it"?
"Why do you say that"?
"Because, even if I asked if it was in the Army, I've seen guys fight and defend themselves like you did last night. Those techniques have nothing do with what they teach you in the Army".
She was smart, he knew she was getting closer to who he truly was, and he was afraid she would never speak to him or get close to him ever again.
"Either you are a mercenary or you're a hitman. And seeing the way you act and the things you do, I think you're the latter".
He lifted his eyebrow and congratulated her internally.
"How do you know that"? he asked curious.
"Because, you are exactly the kind of man I've been warned against".
"Good looking and charming bloke"?
"No, the kind of man who could use me to get to my family".
So that was the story.
"Look, I promise you, I'm wasn't sent here for you. On the contrary, I came here, just like you, to be someone else and stop this crazy life, I no longer want".
He put his hand out and smiled at her. "Arthur Bishop".
She smiled back naturally. The name suited him way better than Drew Riley. She took his hand in hers. "Julia VanKirk, it's a pleasure to meet you Arthur".
"The pleasure is all mine Julia".
He closed his eyes for a moment and realized the reason behind her fake identity. "Vankirk as in VanKirk Consolidated"?
She shook her head. "Now, you understand why".
And he did, Gideon VanKirk was a businessman who had created an empire based on oil, gold, real estate and buying out numerous companies. He was worth billions of dollars and his daughter along with it.