As I sat in the passenger seat of Hunter's truck, I felt an abnormal swell of annoyance roar to life inside of me, which was stupid considering he wasn’t even speaking.

In fact, he had been nothing but pleasant and courteous to me throughout the duration of the car ride, but I still felt irked.

His choice in music pissed me off. The fact that he looked at me twice pissed me off, but not as much as the fact that he had only looked at me twice.

Uncle Kracker's Smile blasted through the speakers of his truck then and I folded my arms across my chest and huffed out a sigh.

That song!

Back when we had both been living at Teagan and Noah's, we had all gotten drunk one night and decided to hit the town, only to end up taking part in a couple's karaoke competition at a local bar.

Hunter and I had come last with our pathetically drunk version of Uncle Kracker's Smile. Partially because we had laughed throughout the entire song, but mostly because his singing voice sucked.

Hunter didn’t comment on that so I huffed louder.

I got nothing but a smug little smirk.

Bastard.

"Turn it off," I finally snapped when I'd had quite enough of the taunting music.

"No," he replied without hesitation.

I swung my gaze to his face and gaped at him. "Change the goddamn song, Hunter."

Instead of turning it off, he turned up the volume and hummed along to the music.

"Asshole," I muttered before resuming my staring out the passenger window. I needed to get out of this truck. I needed to put some space between me and this infuriating man.

"Sing, Carter," he ordered.

"Absolutely not."

"Do it."

"Not happening."

"Come on," he teased. "For old time's sake." Winking, he crooned loudly, laughing when I cringed.

"If I sing, will you stop?"

"Maybe?"

Reluctantly, I began to mutter the words. That only made Hunter croon louder.

Without my permission, a laugh fell from my lips and I slapped a hand over my mouth.

He grinned devilishly.

Giving in, I sang along to the song, fighting down a smile the entire time, until it became impossible. How could he do this to me? Make me feel like a child? Make me give in? he was goofy and playful and I loved him for it.

I sang along until my sides hurt from laughing.

"There she is," Hunter mused when the song was over. Turning down the volume, he exhaled a contented sigh and added, "I've missed this version of you."

"This version of me?"

"Yeah," he replied without remorse or hesitation. "You know, the real you."

I didn’t say anything back to that.

In truth, I was kind of stumped.

He had this strange ability of cutting me down to the bone with his words…exposing me, making me feel almost naked around him.

* * *

Lucky

"Can I tell you a secret?" Hope asked in a small voice, when I pulled my truck up outside her place in Denver.

Killing the engine, I turned to face her, giving her my full attention. "You can tell me anything."

"I can still see their faces at night," she whispered, blue eyes wide as saucers, as she stared up at me. I watched her carefully as she spoke. "The men we got rid of –" Her voice broke off and she shuddered. "I can still smell their burning flesh." She looked straight into my eyes and whispered, "It keeps me awake at night."

Exhaling a heavy sigh, I rubbed my jaw and strived to find the words to tell her to ease her conscience. "You didn’t do any of it," was all I came up with. "It was all on me."

"No." She shook her head and twisted sideways in her seat, giving me her full attention. "Don't try and soothe me with lies." Leaning towards me, she whispered, "You might have lit the flame, but I handed you the matches." Her hands trembled slightly as she tucked a curl behind her ear. "The worst part of it all is that I'm not sorry."

What could I say to that?

The truth?

"I’m not sorry, either," I admitted honestly.

"And if I had to go back in time, I would still do it over again," she confessed, biting down on her bottom lip. "I have no regrets."

"Neither do I."

"Does that make me a bad person?" she asked then, voice soft and unsure.

"If it does, then what the hell am I?" I shot back. "I've done worse than what you saw me do that night." Much fucking worse.

Hope took a long ass time to respond; so long, I actually thought she wasn’t going to.

Finally, when she unfastened her seatbelt and had her hand on the door handle, she whispered, "I don’t know what that makes you." She pushed open the door and stepped out. "But I like you, Hunter Casarazzi," she added, turning back to face me. "Regardless of how much blood is on your hands."

With that, she closed my truck door and disappeared into the house, leaving me alone with her words.

Well shit…