Christopher parked in front of Chloe’s apartment building and turned to her with the intention of waking her up, but instead watched her sleep for a few minutes. He wanted to reach out and stroke her hair, caress her face, and let her know how much he would always love her. He watched the slow rise and fall of her chest and listened to her soft breathing and knew she was finally sleeping after who knew how many nights of futile attempts to sleep through the night.
He always found peace he didn’t know existed when he watched her sleep. Coincidentally, the first time he watched her sleep was the first night he had taken a life. He did what was expected of him, and he did it without fail, when a foreman at the Port of Boston had been shorting the count of containers that came in each week by five each shipment, taking the contents and selling them to another Family from New Jersey. Each shorted container cost Matthew thousands of dollars, and even though Matthew paid well, the foreman apparently felt that New Jersey paid him better. Cornering the man behind a building, Tucker pushed the barrel of his pistol into the man’s forehead while Christopher wrapped an electrical cord around his neck and held it there until the man stopped breathing. Afterward, Christopher appointed another dockworker as foreman, making the replacement prove his silence and loyalty by dropping a container on top of the body, thereby explaining his death as the fault of a malfunctioning crane.
After the unfortunate incident, riddled with remorse and self-loathing, Christopher went to her that night. Even though she didn’t know what happened, she held him and comforted him with no words. He felt like a lost soul looking for his way home. She felt no pity for him, just the overwhelming need to make his pain go away. He kissed her with a passion she never thought possible and carried her to her bed, making love to her for the first time, softly caressing her body and making her flesh prickle from head to toe. He showed her what it meant to be enveloped in complete euphoria, taught her how to touch him to the brink of uncontrollable pleasure until his hand found its way between her legs, feeling the heat coming off her, begging him to take her as his fingers massaged, while at the same time his mouth enveloping her breast and listening to her moans of pleasure and her begging him not to stop. He felt her muscles contract around his fingers as her body shuddered with a spasm of pleasure and he buried himself inside her, moving her with his rhythm until his last powerful thrust when his world seemed to stop and explode at the same time.
Afterward, he wrapped her in his arms while they softly spoke to each other in the dark, each of their hands caressing and exploring each other for as long as they could keep their eyes open. Eventually, Renee had fallen asleep and he watched her, wishing he could feel as innocent as she looked at that moment.
He couldn’t stop himself when he began to gently stroke her hair and whispered, “Hey, we’re here.”
She took a minute to wake up, stretching as best she could in the cramped quarters. He felt an urge he didn’t want to control. He had never stopped loving her and never thought he’d see her again. He missed her with an ache he could never quite define. As she began to sit up, Christopher leaned forward and gently kissed her. He had taken her by surprise, but then she kissed him back and every nerve in his body began to tingle and both of their breathing deepened as the ache of the kiss began to take over. Sadly, it only lasted a minute.
She forcefully pushed him away with shame on her face. “I can’t do this, Christopher.”
It was at that moment Christopher understood he would never have her again as anything but a friend, and he could swear he felt a crack in his heart as he pulled away from Chloe. “He has no idea how lucky he is.”
She lifted her hand and lightly caressed his face, apology in her eyes. “I love him.”
“And what happens if you can’t have him? Are you willing to put yourself through that pain all over again?”
“That’s not fair. The pain I have gone through for the past eight years wasn’t my fault. If it turns out that Hunter and I can’t ever be together, then the fault is my own and I’ll deserve the consequences that go with it, but I’d rather try and fail than run and never know.”
Christopher nodded in painful understanding. He was jealous of a man he’d never even met and realized that she was right. He opened the car door. “Grab the box. David’s waiting for us.”
***
Chloe’s jaw almost hit the floor when she walked into her apartment and saw Hunter and David in the living room, laughing heartily over who knew what. Both turned to her, stifling their laughter. She stood in silence, waiting for some kind of explanation, but knew she wouldn’t get one. While David’s eyes went directly to the box in her hands, Chloe knew exactly who Hunter was looking at with utter disbelief in his eyes.
Chloe brushed off her surprise and approached David, handing him the box. When a grunt of shock escaped Hunter’s chest, David turned to him. “I was going to tell you but thought it best for you to see for yourself.”
Christopher approached Hunter with his hand extended. Hunter looked between Chloe and Christopher in disbelief and stared at Christopher’s hand, deciding against shaking it. “What the hell?”
“It’s a long story,” David said, “and we’ll get to the explanation in a little while. Until then, we have some things to take care of.”
“Excuse me?” Hunter asked.
Chloe slowly approached Hunter, not knowing what kind of reaction to expect. “Hunter, I can explain.”
“What the hell is going on, Chloe? Am I finally going to get the truth? All of it?”
“It’s not her fault,” David interjected. “She just got the explanation herself in the past forty-eight hours. If you would be willing to give us a few minutes, you’ll get your explanation as well.”
Hunter had no choice; he was going to have to wait. He sat back down and suspiciously watched Christopher take a seat next to David. Chloe didn’t know what to do so she stayed where she was as David set the box on the coffee table and took the key out of his pocket.
“What’s in the box?” Hunter asked curiously.
“That’s what we’re about to find out,” David said as he opened the lock box to remove a disc. David and Christopher shared a questioning look and all Hunter could do was stare at Christopher, looking like he was trying to burn a hole right through him.
“So,” David said, looking around the living room, “we need something to play this on.”
“There’s a player in the bedroom,” Christopher said, and Hunter’s head snapped up, glaring at him in concentrated aggression.
David looked at Hunter. “You deserve an explanation, but for now it will be the abridged version.” David turned to Chloe. “Do you trust this man?”
Without a second thought, Chloe answered, “Implicitly.”
Chloe knew what Hunter was being told was in confidence, and while he could use this information against Matthew and his associates, he couldn’t tell anybody where the information came from. Hunter listened to David with intense concentration, every once in a while glancing in Chloe’s direction for verification. When David was done with his story, he gave Hunter a few precious minutes to process the information he had just received. The abridged version turned out to be more information than he thought.
All Hunter could do was shake his head. “Unbelievable.” He looked at Christopher, speaking in a hard, flat, distrustful tone. “And you?”
Christopher let out a heavy sign and spread his hands apart in resignation. “She loves you.”
Chloe shifted uncomfortably in her chair, restraining the rainbow of emotions, preparing herself for the hurt, afraid to meet Hunter’s gaze. When she finally was able to look him in the eye, he gave her a soft smile to let her know he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“Now,” David said, holding up the disc. “I understand we can watch this in your bedroom.”
Chloe nodded and David went into the bedroom with Christopher behind him. Chloe stood and turned to Hunter. “Are you coming?”
“Why was he in your bedroom?”
“We stopped here this morning so I could shower and change clothes before driving up to Alabama. He apparently took it upon himself to look around while I was in the shower.”
She took his hand and led him into the bedroom, stopping in their tracks at the murderous rage on David’s face as they watched what Sasha died to protect.
***
Hunter’s mind still couldn’t process what he had seen on that video and the way the others all reacted to it, like it was behavior that was expected and unsurprising. They had watched the video four times, all in stunned silence, before David and Christopher left the apartment with the promise to see Chloe again in a few days.
“What happens now?” Hunter asked as he watched Chloe pack her bags.
“Now, I go to Boston.”
Hunter took hold of Chloe’s hands and tightly wrapped them in his own. He wasn’t sure how to tell her, but he had no other choice than the truth. The look of uncertainty she gave him almost broke his heart. “I need to talk to you. Sit down.”
She looked at him with curiosity while Hunter moved her bags off the bed and sat beside her. “I know that look, Hunter.”
He took a breath to steady himself. “Have you watched or listened to the news at all today?”
“No, I was on the road,” she said, understanding instantly dawning on her. “Another one?”
Hunter’s voice was steady as he remembered David’s advice. “What you have to tell her will shatter her. If you love her—and I believe you do—after you tell her, be there for her.” Unless she threw him out, he wasn’t going anywhere. “Two, actually. Alice…” Chloe gasped in disbelief, shock gripping her, her muscles tightening, her breathing ragged. Hunter grasped her hands tighter. “…and her son, Samuel.”
Dumbstruck, Chloe stared at Hunter. “I don’t understand.”
But he knew that she did. Hunter knew they were thinking the same thing. If David was in Louisiana, it was possible Matthew could be here too.
“How?”
Hunter closed his eyes, trying to find the strength to tell her. Direct, to the point, and every detail. He told her the facts as he knew them, all the while Chloe stared at the wall in shock, occasionally nodding her head and knowing the more she heard, the more Matthew was behind it.
“Reggie and Charlie,” she said softly. “I have to go…”
“That’s not a good idea. They’re not in a good place right now. You should wait.”
“I don’t have time to wait! This is my fault. I have to go talk to them.”
Hunter wrapped his arms tightly around Chloe and held her to him, her head resting on his chest. “Later. Right now, you need to take care of you.”
“It’s my fault,” she repeated. “All of it. Every single one of the women who has been killed. Samuel. Everything is my fault.”
He began to stroke her hair the same way Christopher had in the car. She violently pulled away and stood before him in anger, her hands shaking at her side. He could see the revenge burning in her eyes and stood to face her, his hands gripping her shoulders to keep her from running out the door. He knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Chloe, you have had a bitch of a week. You have been slammed with your past suddenly charging back into your life and you have been running on little to no sleep for days. Everything you are feeling is justified, but if you run off right now and try to find him somewhere in the city, he will win because you aren’t in the right state of mind. And none of this is your fault. It’s his.”
The involuntary shaking began to ascend in every muscle in her body and Hunter knew no matter how hard she tried, she was about to crack. He sat her back down on the bed and gently held her face in his hands, watching as her eyes glistened with tears and waiting for the inevitable.
“It’s okay,” he told her, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Chloe could barely speak. “He was only six years old.”
A single tear managed to escape her grasp and she had no choice but to give in. She fell into Hunter’s arms and sobbed until she couldn’t cry anymore.
***
As the sun was coming up, Hunter stood in the bedroom doorway with a cup of coffee in hand, watching Chloe sleep. He could tell it wasn’t a restful sleep, but it was much needed sleep just the same. Chloe had let go and exposed her vulnerability to Hunter, a part of her that she had never shared with anybody else, and he knew, without a doubt, that included Christopher. As Chloe slowly stirred awake, Hunter crawled into bed with her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. She tightly pressed her body against his.
“You stayed.”
He kissed the back of her head. “I told you I would.”
“I dreamed about Matthew. I confronted him and he laughed at me. I can’t be scared when I face him again.”
“What are you going to do?”
She let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. Even if I did, you carry a badge and a gun. I wouldn’t be able to tell you anyway.”
She’s not a killer. He knew it deep in his gut. “You’ll do what you have to do and you’ll be strong and confident. You won’t let him get the best of you.”
“I made a promise to you, but I don’t know if I will be able to keep it.” She sounded ashamed.
Hunter squeezed her tighter. “Like I said, you’ll do what you have to do. I just need you to remember that I’m here if you need me.”
She rolled over to face him. He could see her fighting back tears again. “I don’t want to—I can’t—hurt you anymore or lie to you. Breaking my promise to you, it would be the same as lying.”
“Chloe, you can’t predict or control what is or isn’t going to happen when you see him. It wouldn’t be lying if circumstances turn out differently than you hope they will.”
“I kissed Christopher.”
Hunter jerked his head back in surprise at both the confession and sudden change of subject, then realized he couldn’t blame her. He couldn’t deny that he would do the same thing if Amy suddenly came back to him. He leaned in and kissed her softly. “But my kisses are better, right?”
For the first time in what seemed like days, she smiled and said jokingly, “I’ll let you know.”
He kissed her again, this time to let her know he wanted to stay like this for as long as he could. She kissed him back, pulling herself closer to him as the kiss got longer and deeper. When the kiss broke, he rested his forehead against hers.
“Stay one more day,” he pleaded.
“One more day,” she said with both a smile and regret, “and then I have to go.”