Face Your Fears

Chapter 10

In that moment, it felt as if several things came crashing down around me at once. 

   What the hell was going on? 

I had the immediate urge to smash my fist into the guy's face and get him the hell away from my cousin. I didn't like the possessive way he was staring at her, and I certainly didn't like the way she was returning the gaze with nothing short of adoration.

 "Archer," Lauren repeated, moving forward to hug me. "How are you?"

 I couldn't muster up a response and I barely had enough movement in my limbs to return the hug.

 "And Hadley!" Lauren threw her arms around Hadley next, squeezing her tightly. "Congratulations!"

 "Thank you," Hadley said coolly.

 We both had our eyes fixed firmly on Havoc, like we both were expecting him to make some sudden move and attack.

 Havoc smiled back, a glint in his eye that made my arm tighten around Hadley and pull her closer to me.

"Oh," Lauren said, as if realizing there was someone standing beside her. "This is Henry."

Henry, was it? That was a nice change from the name Havoc.

"Pleasure," Havoc said, smiling at the two of us. "I've heard a lot about you from Lauren."

 "Is that so?" I said, finally finding my voice.

"All good things, of course," Lauren assured us, laughing.

 Oh, I really did not believe that.

"Well, it's good of you to come and visit!" aunt Karin said, coming over to thrown an arm around Lauren and squeeze her tightly. "It's about time Lauren found a nice young man to settle down with."

 Hadley's fingers locked around my arm in a tight grip, holding me in place, and then I realized I had been moving towards Havoc. To strangle him or throw him out the door, I wasn't sure. I just knew I had the urge to cause this man as most pain as possible. Just like he was doing to us.

Havoc caught my eye with his unnatural, creepy mismatched eyes and smiled, making me think he knew exactly what was going through my mind at the moment. 

  "So you two have been together for a while, then," Hadley said, making her voice sound pleasant and politely curious. 

 How was she doing that?

"Only about a month, I think," Lauren said, glancing up at Havoc.

 "Sounds about right," he agreed with a nod. "But I have to say, it feels a lot longer than that."

Lauren flushed bright red and everyone laughed.

 Of course they'd be laughing. Who wouldn't be charmed by this guy? His posh appearance, slick backed hair and British accent probably made him seem all the more appealing. 

 "Be that as it may," Sophia said loudly, shooting Lauren and Havoc a smile. "We all need to get moving. Mass starts in an hour, but if we want seats we need to leave now."

  I pulled Hadley down the last few steps, brushed past Lauren and Havoc without a second glance, into the thankfully empty kitchen.

 I rounded on Hadley, positively shaking with rage now, but before I could say anything, she grabbed my face in her hands and forced me to look her in the eye.

 "Calm down, okay? We can't do anything about this right now, not with the family here."

"Did you see how he - he had his hands on her, Hadley! He was touching her!"