Chapter 43

Hunter

I opened the car door and stepped out into the midday sunshine. I was a long way from the cold streets of Boston and when I turned around to see Kelly standing there, it hit me like a punch in the face. All my life, I had been alone and that was exactly the way I fucking liked it. The only person I ever had to look out for was me, and I did whatever the fuck I wanted, whenever I fucking wanted. Now, standing in the middle of fucking nowhere, surrounded by the highest mountain peaks in the country, I found myself scanning the property not for what could come my way, but for what could be lurking and waiting to take her away from me.

I had met Kelly only a day earlier, and yet, there I was, promising the girl I would never let her go, and that nothing could ever hurt her. The most fucked up thing about it was that I wasn’t lying. Kelly, Lucas, even Grace, were now my responsibility and I would be goddamned if I let anything happen to them. I couldn’t stop what was coming my way and I didn’t care to. If my old man came knocking, I would answer with the full force of hell behind me and the cocksucker would get everything he deserved, maybe more.

I had thought that Kelly was a hazard to me, that being with her would only slow me down and fuck up my life. What I realized in the last day was that my life was already beyond fucked up and, for better or worse, she was a part of it. There was no shaking her. I wanted her, I claimed her as mine, and now I was going to do whatever it fucking took to keep her by my side. Maybe she didn’t deserve it, and I knew goddamn well that I didn’t, but that’s just the way it was now. I didn’t have a choice and she didn’t either. I saw it in her big, beautiful eyes every time they stared up at me and I knew it in my gut. The girl ran through my veins like a drug and I knew I’d never be without her so long as there was air in my lungs. We satisfied a need in each other, some animal fucking desire that couldn’t be replaced by anything. No amount of murder, mayhem, and self destruction could clear my head of her or drive her away from me. Our lives were now molded into one, and there wasn’t a fucking thing either of us could do other than accept it. There was a fight coming and I needed all my strength focused on that, not trying to outrun a truth that now consumed both of us.

“Luke? Lucas, where are you?” Kelly’s voice shook me out of my head and back to my feet.

“In the barn, Kelly,” a little voice called from a distance. “This place is so cool.”

I looked over at Kelly as she used her hand to shade her eyes from the sun and arched her back as she stretched out from the drive. I thought she was going to spill out of that dress and I wanted to take her on the car right there. I walked up behind her and pressed my growing erection against the small of her back as she sighed and wrapped her hand around the back of my neck.

“I want to fuck you right now, right here,” I whispered as I put my teeth on her earlobe.

She moaned softly and pushed her body back into me.

“What are you going to do to me first?” she cooed as she slid her body up and down against mine. I squeezed her hips and pulled her ass against me. She was soft and pure and I wanted to fucking ravage her.

“I’m going to rip that fucking dress off and,” I said, but she stopped me.

“Hunter, wait.” She moved her body off of me slightly and called out across the field. “So, what do you think, Luke? Good place to spend a day?”

The kid. Fuck. Why did we bring him?

“This place is awesome. Come see the barn. It’s huge,” he said as he ran up.

There was something else huge I was about to show her, pal. How about you fuck off back to that barn for a few hours?

I felt Kelly’s hand slide off my neck and drop down over my body until it reached my own hand.

“Hey, pal, your sister and I have some things to take care of. Why don’t you?” I started and Kelly squeezed my hand. I stopped talking and I didn’t quite know why.

“Sure, Lucas. You go on ahead and Hunter and I will be right there.”

The kid smiled and took off again toward the barn.

“Kelly, I don’t know how much longer I can last here, sweetheart. If my cock gets any harder, I’m going to fucking pass out.”

She turned around and wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her chest against mine and biting her bottom lip. She was ready. She needed me, but something was hiding behind her eyes.

“Hunter, your life. I can’t lie to you and say I’m not worried about how I can be a part of it. Sure we’re fine today, but what about tomorrow? Or the next day?”

“Kelly, I told you, you never have to feel that. Nothing will ever happen to you while I’m around. You’re fucking safe, darling. Whatever might come is coming for me and I can’t stop that. I don’t want to. But, sweetheart, it will never touch you.”

I wasn’t lying to her. She had to fucking know that.

“I know,” she started, “but.”

“But fucking nothing,” I said as I pulled her close to me. “This shit with my old man, who I am, whatever comes of it, I’m the winner. You fucking know that.”

Her eyes went toward the ground and I could see she understood. She wasn’t fully ready for me and what I brought, but she fucking understood.

“I know, Hunter. I really do. There’s no place I’d rather be than by your side. There is no place I have ever felt safer. I just know that there is something coming for you and I’m afraid. I can’t help it.”

I looked down at her and pushed her chin up with my hand so she was staring into my eyes.

“I know you’re afraid. And I’m not going to fucking sugar coat this shit for you, you should be. My life is not safe. I’m the fucking bad guy, Kelly, and don’t you ever forget that. But you have to fucking know that means that I will do anything, fucking anything, to protect what’s mine. I don’t give a shit about the law or God or whatever else normal fucking people care about. I’ve got a place reserved in hell and I will drag any motherfucker that even considers hurting you down there with me.”

I could feel my chest heaving and my jaw clenching just thinking about someone other than me touching her. There wasn’t a chance in fucking hell that anything would happen to her.

Kelly smiled as she looked up at me.

“So, we’re safe today?” she asked.

“You’re fucking safe, always,” I said as I drove my lips down on hers and slid my hands to her backside and under her skirt. She opened her mouth more and I kissed her harder as she breathed deeper and deeper. She was mine and I wouldn’t let anything come between us. Not my old man, not her fucking small town, nothing.

She slowly took her lips away and sighed as she rested her head on my chest.

“Then let’s just enjoy this. Today, this beautiful property, our time here, just for today let’s not think about anything else. Please?”

She meant it and I suppose it was the least I could do for her. She got dragged into this fucking nightmare of a life and now she was here to stay. Her and everyone she cared about. We were safe for the moment. No one but Deacon and Grace knew we were here and even if the old man was hot on my heels, he wouldn’t be knocking today. Might as well give her a little fantasy before the shithole reality that is my existence really set in for her.

“Sure, darling.”

I put my arm around her neck and pulled her head into my side as we walked toward the barn. Today she could pretend this was our life.

When we got to the barn, she ran in and started goofing around with Lucas. She smiled at me and I lit a cigarette as I sat down on a bale of hay, taking note of every tool or broken piece of wood I could jam into a motherfucker’s throat, should life come calling sooner than I thought.