Vanessa
Vanessa had dozed off after making love to Hunter, but once she was awake, she sat straight up in bed.
“Something wrong?” he muttered.
“I need to get Opal and bring her home. Who knows when that CPS guy will come back.”
“I’m sure you have a few days.”
“Maybe.” She chewed her lip and details started to run through her mind. Was it safe here? If they needed to wait for CPS to return, how could they make sure nothing happened to Opal in the meantime? “Hunter?”
“Yeah?” He rubbed his face and looked up at her.
“Will you stay here? With us, I mean? For a little while? Until I know that Opal is safe? If we can’t run and we have to be here for CPS, but Jeremy knows we’re here, I don’t know if Opal is safe and I—”
“Vanessa.”
She closed her mouth and looked at him.
“Yes.”
She blew out a long breath. “Thanks. I don’t think I’d get any sleep if it was just me and Opal in this apartment.”
“I will protect you both. I told you that.”
“I know, but having you stay here is different. I’m not sure what I’ll tell Opal.” Vanessa was starting to feel like it had been much too long since she’d spoken to her daughter. But she couldn’t risk calling and having it traced to the farm house. That needed to remain their safe place in case they needed it again. “I’m going to shower so we can go.”
She gathered some clothing and went into the bathroom. With the hot water on, she didn’t hear Hunter come in. He pulled back the curtain, and she screamed.
He pressed his lips together to avoid laughing.
“What are you doing! You can’t sneak up on me like that.” She slapped his bare chest.
His smirk faded into a hungry gaze. He stepped into the hot water and pulled her naked body close.
She let out a sigh. “I hate you right now.”
“I’m okay with that.” He kissed along her neck, letting the water run down his face and her body.
Despite her racing heart and anger at being startled, she let out a moan when he pinched her nipple.
“We don’t have time for this,” she said. “I have to get to Opal.”
“I can make it really fast.”
“Hunter.” She stepped away from him. The idea of fast shower sex with no foreplay at all, when she wasn’t in the mood, felt much too much like the sex she’d been forced into her whole marriage. She didn’t want to ruin things between them. “No.” Her voice shook when she said it, and she half expected him to grab her and take her right there in shower anyway.
But he stepped back to give her room and said, “Can I at least watch you finish your shower?” The crooked smile returned to his mouth.
She let out a sigh and relaxed. “If you must,” she said, chuckling.
She hurried to finish, every minute that passed feeling like hours since she’d seen her daughter. The worry intensified and ate at her stomach. What if something had happened to her and Mari? What if Jeremy had found them? What if he had Opal right now?
When she stepped out, Hunter took a quick shower as she dressed. By the time she’d dried her hair and was ready, he was dressed and stood in the bedroom, checking his guns.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded and picked up her purse and keys from her dresser.
“I’ll drive,” Hunter said, and stuck out his hand for the keys.
“No, that’s okay. I’m too keyed up just to sit there.”
She climbed into the driver’s side, and he got into the passenger’s side. They drove along in silence, her mind still spinning with all that could go wrong. She had been checking for the black van again or any other vehicle, and was surprised that she hadn’t seen anything. It made her feel like she was missing something.
“Have you seen anyone following us?” she asked.
“Nope. You?”
“No. Do you think that’s strange?”
He shrugged. “Could mean a lot of things. I wouldn’t worry about it. Let’s just be glad we don’t have a tail.”
“But it feels like we’re missing something. Like we’re leading them right to her, and we don’t even know it. Why would they stop following us?”
“Maybe they think it’s not necessary if they know where you live. Maybe the guy is going to get lunch and will now be fired for missing you leaving. Maybe they think that with CPS coming to see you, you won’t go anywhere. Who knows.”
“Or maybe they don’t need to follow us because they already have her.”
“That’s just one possibility of many.”
She took in a shaky breath. It wasn’t what she wanted him to say.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat things for you, Vanessa. But I don’t want to worry you, either. We’ll be there soon, and then you’ll be able to put your mind at ease.”
She shot him an indignant look. “You think having Opal with me again will put my mind at ease? Then I’ll only be worrying about keeping her safe instead. Or that Jeremy will show up suddenly. I won’t be at ease until Jeremy is gone.”
He reached over to put his hand on her leg. “It’ll be okay. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
She clenched her teeth and turned off the main highway onto the country road that would take them to the farm house. When she glanced back again in her rearview mirror, the van was there. She sucked in a breath and felt a strange relief at seeing what she’d expected to see.
“There they are,” she said.
Hunter had already seen it and was watching in his mirror. “Get back on the highway. We need to lose them, and I don’t want to get any closer to Opal before we do.”
It was all country where they were and not many roads. She kept her eyes peeled for a place to turn around.
Hunter shouted, “Duck!”
Seconds later, she heard several loud clanks of metal.
“What is that?”
“They’re shooting at us. Keep your head down.”
She tried to put her head down and still see enough to drive. She ended up sliding down in her seat, but that wouldn’t let her look in the rearview mirror. From her side mirror, she saw someone hanging out of the passenger’s side of the car, aiming a gun at them.
Hunter already has his gun out and was lowering the window.
“What should I do? Stop?”
“No! Drive! I’ll handle it.”
He stuck his head out and fired several shots. Several more came back at them, one shattering the back window. She screamed at the sudden loud noise, and the car swerved.
“Keep it straight!”
“I’m trying!” The fear and adrenaline raced through her. She tried to stay down but still drive straight. Her head spun and her knuckles were white bumps.
She looked over at Hunter again. He kept ducking in and out of the window, shooting his gun, then coming back in to reload. The scene was like something out of a movie. This highly-armed man, sitting in her car, firing at the car behind them. This could not be her life. Hunter looked every bit like the dangerous hit man he was.
She’d forgotten for a minute that he was hired to kill her. That he made money and killed people for a living. She let that sink in. She couldn’t imagine ever actually killing someone, as many times as she’d wanted to kill Jeremy. The idea of pointing a gun at him and pulling the trigger gave her a small measure of comfort, but she feared if it came to that, she wouldn’t be able to go through with it.
But here was Hunter, firing round after round, hoping to kill someone. Trained to kill someone. How he didn’t get caught, she had no idea. Unless he did. Maybe he’d spent a lot of time in jail. Suddenly, she felt like she didn’t know him at all. And she’d slept with him. She’d let this man into her house, this trained killer. She’d slept beside him when he had been paid to kill her.
Was she nuts? How could she think she was safer with him? Jeremy might have money and connections, and he was decent with his hands, but he’d never killed anyone that she knew about. How many people had Hunter killed?
As she kept gripping the steering wheel, jumping at every shot that was fired, one thing ran through her mind over and over. He was far too dangerous for her. She could not have a man like him in her life, around her daughter.
# # #
Hunter aimed again and fired. The man behind the wheel slumped forward. Finally. He had to have taken a few hits, that tough bastard. The shooter in the passenger seat had been much easier. Two shots to take out the window, a few missed shots as Vanessa swerved all over the damn road, then two more to drop him.
He would have been much more efficient if he had a skilled driver. Her screaming had thrown him off, too. It wasn’t the conditions he was used to working under, but she was handling it well, given the circumstances. After her one big swerve, she’d at least kept the car steady. She didn’t slow down or speed up too much. She had instinctively known what distance to keep between the cars. A little practice and she could become a fine driver for this sort of thing.
The van stayed straight on the road for a few moments, then veered off as the road bent. He kept it in sight, watching as it hit the grass going too fast, flipped over once, then again, before finally settling. A few moments later, he heard the loud boom of the explosion and felt the car swerve slightly as Vanessa jumped. When he looked back, he saw only flames.
“Guess that took care of them,” he said.
“What just happened?”
“I shot the driver, then the van flipped and blew up.”
The car sped up as the wreckage grew farther and farther away.
“Nice driving,” he said, turning back around in his seat and reloading his gun. Who knew if there were other vehicles in the area or someone else who might come after them. He needed to be ready at all times.
He looked over at Vanessa. Tears rested low in her eyes, but didn’t stream down her face. Her hands were still tight on the wheel, and she glanced continually in her mirrors.
“It’s okay,” he said, reaching out to brush her hair back.
She flinched at his touch.
“Vanessa, calm down. It’s over.”
She clenched her jaw and refused to look at him.
“What’s wrong? You that freaked out?”
She swallowed hard and glanced over at him. “I…” She watched the road again, then seemed to work up courage to ask, “How many people have you killed?”
“Where is this coming from?” Of all the things he expected her say, this was not it.
“Answer the question.”
“I’m not sure exactly.”
“Guess!”
“Whoa, calm down,” he said. “What’s this about?”
She pulled the car over, stomping the brake heavily, and screeching to a halt on the side of the road. She turned to face him, her eyes wild. “Ten? Twenty? A hundred?”
“Closer to twenty. Why?”
She closed her eyes, finally sending the tears down her cheeks. “I can’t believe I slept with you,” she whispered. “You get paid to kill people. I never should have let you into my house. I have a daughter, Hunter. And she needs a father, not a trained killer in the next room. I need someone in our lives who will be there for us. To do things like cook dinner or take out the trash, to mow the lawn and go to the movies with. I don’t need someone who owns more guns than pants, and who pays the bills by ending lives. I’m sorry. I let this go much too far.”
“You’re telling me,” he snapped back.
He knew this was a mistake. Hadn’t he thought that earlier? That getting too close to her was a mistake? That having feelings for her would only cause problems? And sure enough, now she was flipping out on him for not being the family man he never claimed to be.
“If you can’t trust me, then don’t go to the farm,” he said.
“I’m not saying that I can’t trust you,” she said slowly. She seemed to be calmer now. Slightly. “You’ve proven that much to me. And you’ve protected me. I’m not saying I don’t appreciate all you’ve done for me, for us. I do. I just can’t…” She bit her lip and looked away. “I just can’t.”
“Fine.” A new plan came to his mind. He needed to do what he’d promised and get on with it. No more time to mess around. “I have a new plan. Take me back to my hotel.”
She pulled back onto the road and drove at a normal speed. Their silence spoke volumes. There was no way they could ever have a relationship. No matter how much he wanted her or she thought she had wanted him, it would never work. He wasn’t the kind and loving office worker who’d go off to the job all day and come home and be Daddy and Hubby. This was who he was. If she didn’t like it, fine. He knew she wasn’t his type from the start, and this was just his confirmation. Further proof that it wasn’t worth it to fall for someone. In his line of work, getting involved only meant trouble. He didn’t have time or patience for trouble. He had a job to do.