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Her
Hunter closes me in the car, rounds the hood, and then slides into his seat. He’s gu
“It’s going to be okay.” He breaks the silence. “I’ll make sure it is.”
I hear guilt in his voice. The same strangling guilt that tightens around my throat.
“How did he know?” I ask, my gaze straying from one passing streetlight to the next. How would anyone know of my friendship with Brent? I rarely went to Atomic Buzz. I shared a few drinks once or twice a month. I paid rent in cash. Nobody knew how much that man meant to me, not even the man himself.
“Torian?” Hunter asks. “It wouldn’t have taken much. Especially not when you borrowed Brent’s car to go to Seattle.”
“That’s how you worked out my name, isn’t it?” I drag my attention from the road and face him. “You followed me?” To Seattle. To my childhood home. To the cemetery.
“Yes.”
One word. No elaboration.
I nod, no longer shocked by the depth of his betrayal. “Were you the asshole who ran me off the road?”
“No.” He hits me with a two-second scowl, then returns his focus to the road. “I’m the asshole who showed that piece-of-shit a thing or two about ma
“You killed him?” I can’t find the will to care. I’m devoid of emotion. Completely lacking concern.
He remains quiet, shielding me from the truth.
“Hunter?”
“No, I didn’t,” he growls. “I could’ve. I should’ve. I even promised I would. But then I remembered how you reacted to Dan’s death, and I didn’t think you’d appreciate me taking a guy’s life, despite what he did. I only inflicted the pain and threats necessary to make sure he wouldn’t give Torian any valid information about you.”
I frown, my brain taking too long to process any coherent thoughts. “Am I supposed to be flattered? Should I say thank you?”
He releases a derisive laugh. “No. Don’t thank me, princess. I fucked him up enough to make him wish he was six feet under.”
My chest loosens. Why?
I refuse to be charmed by his brutality. I won’t be seduced by violence. And yet a part of me is comforted by the thought of his protective savagery.
I’m so irrational right now it’s scary.
I glare and return my attention to the road, letting the hollow ache sink back in. He drives onto the highway, takes a familiar off-ramp, and then onto a desolate street.
“Where are we going?” I rest the side of my head against the glass. “Is this another ploy to get me away from civilization so you can kill me?”
“Yeah.” He nods. “I trail you for weeks to make sure you’re safe, save your ass from getting killed, only to slit your throat on a back road in the middle of nowhere.”
“Smarter men have done stupider things.”
He sighs. “I’m not going to hurt you, Sarah.”
“Anymore, you mean?” The taunt slips from my lips without permission.
“Yeah,” he murmurs. “Not anymore.” The promise is barely spoken, yet filled with solemn conviction. I believe him. At least, I want to. I need to.
I have nobody. Nothing. And God, I’m begi
My immediate family is dead. My extended family are so distant they wouldn’t even recognize me after all these years. My one friend has just been murdered. And tonight, I stole a car from the only other person who has acknowledged my pathetic existence.
“Why did you stop chasing me?” I ask, exacerbating my pitiful situation.
The car slows as he looks me in the eye. “You don’t know? I thought you must have figured it out.”
“No. Why would you think that? I’ve had no clue this entire time. I always used cash. I don’t know how many times I got a new phone, only to throw it away days later. But you always found me. At least until I went to Eagle Creek.”
“Because you stopped using your video surveillance.” He turns his attention back to the road. “Without the feed, I had no idea where to look.”
My mouth gapes. “You hacked my feed?”
How the hell did he do that? When did he do that?
He glances at me, and his lips kick at one side.
“You think this is fu
He smirks. “No, I’m thinking that I’d love to slam my mouth against yours to taste your shock.”
My heart stops, drops, and rolls. I’m burning. Blazing.
“Decker gained access to your account not long after we first met. It gave me the ability to track whenever you left your apartment.”
“But…”
“You always stayed in cheap hotels with a window that faced the road. Without fail, you would point the camera at something Decker and I could search online. Either a road sign, a business name, or a landmark. You made it easy.”
Until I moved into a bed and breakfast and started relying on Betty’s dogs for security instead of my camera. “I thought you’d given up on playing games. I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “I hadn’t given up.”
If my stomach wasn’t currently in a battle with grief and attraction, I’d slowly devour the delicious bowl of his determination.
He flicks the car lights to high-beam, illuminating a stretch of road I recognize.
“Is this…”
“The place you shot at me?” he taunts. “Yeah.”
“Why are we back out here?”
He slows, approaching a dirt drive with a dilapidated wooden mailbox to the side, the faded number thirteen partially covered by overgrown shrubs.
“Who lives here?”
“I do. This is where I wanted to take you the day of the funeral.”
“Why?” Surely, taking me to his house will expose vulnerabilities for a man with his profession. How does he trust me so easily? Or is this knowledge a bigger vulnerability for me? “Do you plan on keeping me here?”
“Keeping you?” He scoffs. “Can you stop assuming the worst for a second and focus on what you already know?”
“Which is?” I scan the front yard, with its imposing trees covering the ground in a canopy of black.
“I was supposed to hurt you, okay? But I didn’t. I should’ve, and I chose not to. After wasting weeks sidestepping my contract, I’m not going to change my mind now.”
“That’s comforting,” I drawl.
A house comes into view, the roof bathed in moonlight, along with the front porch that gives a slight hint to the wall of windows behind.
It looks nice. Modern and tidy, with no garden, only manicured lawns and sensor lights that flick on and temporarily blind me.
“Shit.” I squint through my adjusting vision while he pulls into the garage.
The car turns off, and I sit, waiting for answers to questions that multiply. Why did he bring me here? Why did he save me tonight? What happens next? And the most poignant of all—“Why did all this happen, Hunter?” My voice is soft as I stare at his vacant garage wall. “Why didn’t you ask me for information on day one? Why didn’t you force it from me?” I turn to face him. “You’re this cold-blooded killer who doesn’t care about hurting people, so why didn’t you use that against me?”
He focuses straight ahead, not meeting my gaze. “I don’t know.”
“Bullshit,” I whisper. “You have an agenda. I know you do. I’m just not sure what it is.”
“Come inside and I’ll explain.” He unfastens his belt and opens the driver’s side door.
“Why? Why can’t you do it here?”
“Because we both need a drink to settle the adrenaline.” He slides from the seat and closes the door behind him. He walks around the hood, opens my door, and holds out a hand. “Come on. I’ll tell you everything. Whatever you want to hear.”