Taken for the Hunt: A Dark Romantic Suspense

by Mae Doyle

  Taken for the Hunt

  A Dark Romantic Suspense

  Mae Doyle

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Before

  Chapter 2

  Natalia

  Chapter 3

  Natalia

  Chapter 4

  Marco

  Chapter 5

  Natalia

  Chapter 6

  Marco

  Chapter 7

  Natalia

  Chapter 8

  Marco

  Chapter 9

  Natalia

  Chapter 10

  Marco

  Chapter 11

  Natalia

  Chapter 12

  Marco

  Chapter 13

  Natalia

  Chapter 14

  Marco

  Chapter 15

  Natalia

  Chapter 16

  Marco

  Chapter 17

  Natalia

  Chapter 18

  Marco

  Chapter 19

  Natalia

  Chapter 20

  Marco

  Chapter 21

  Natalia

  Chapter 22

  Marco

  Chapter 23

  Natalia

  Chapter 24

  Marco

  Chapter 25

  Natalia

  Chapter 26

  Marco

  Chapter 27

  Marco

  Chapter 28

  Natalia

  Chapter 29

  Natalia

  Chapter 30

  Marco

  Chapter 31

  Natalia

  Chapter 32

  After

  Thank you!

  This is a work of art/fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events, or places is purely coincidental. Any persons appearing on the cover image for this book are models and do not have any connection to the contents of this story.

  All characters depicted in this work are unrelated consenting adults. This author assumes no responsibility for the use/misuse of this material.

  © 2021 Mae Doyle

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  Chapter 1

  Before

  The girl didn’t have a name.

  They called her rabbit, not Anna, because that was what she was to them.

  A rabbit, not a person.

  It didn’t matter, because even if there was someone on the island who used her name, there wasn’t anyone good who was going to be calling her. Anyone yelling her name into the dark of the woods was after her, and not to help her.

  That’s why she ran.

  Panic filled her, coursing through every cell of her body as she pushed herself harder than she’d ever pushed herself before. Even though she had sneakers on, she could feel the soft sand and the dead palm branches compressing under her feet with every step. Above her something jumped from one tree branch to another, but she didn’t stop running.

  She just ducked her head, a prayer escaping from her lips, and she ran on. Even though she knew that it was fruitless, she ran, her muscles all screaming for her to stop and take a break, her brain telling her that if she stopped, she’d be dead.

  Dead and gone, and there wouldn’t be a damn person on the earth to mourn her. She knew when she’d pick up that first John five years ago that being in the game was going to kill her, but she hadn’t been able to walk away.

  Now look at her.

  Once you were caught in the woods then nobody ever saw you again. She’d heard whispers of a girl who made it off the island and disappeared, but that sounded like the kind of tale that desperate people whispered to each other to try to feel better about their situation.

  Anna didn’t have any misplaced beliefs about there being a way off the island. She knew that the last girl who had whispered about the possibility of escape had disappeared one night when she was taken into the woods, but Anna heard the men boasting about catching her the next night.

  That girl hadn’t even made it to the water’s edge, but Anna was determined to make it there and beyond.

  Grunting, she pushed herself. Her breathing was erratic and she could already feel the stitch in her side. Off to her left, farther into the island, she heard a dog howl and the skin on the back of her neck prickled.

  She hadn’t thought that they would bring out the dogs so soon. She’d hardly gotten started on her run, but they must have really wanted to catch her.

  She broke through the edge of the woods, gasping and throwing her arms backwards to try to keep from pitching over the edge of the cliff. Far down below her, she could see the waves crashing against the rocks. Huge boulders poked up through the foam like fingers, all of them reaching for her.

  She could jump, but she’d never make it. They’d find her broken body smashed to bits on the rocks below, but that might be preferable to what was coming up behind her.

  For just a moment, she hesitated. She’d known the entire time that they were on an island, but she never once thought that the island would have such a steep cliff and drop into the water.

  Shaking her head, she took a deep breath, preparing to throw herself off onto the rocks. It wasn’t ideal, and she was terrified of the pain, but it had to be better than what was coming for her.

  But she hesitated too long. In the time that it had taken her to debate whether or not it was better to live with what was coming or throw herself to her death, they’d caught up with her.

  “Hello, rabbit,” a dark voice said from behind her, and the girl whipped around, her eyes growing wide.

  In a last ditch attempt to take control of her own life, she stepped backwards to the edge of the cliff, but before she could throw herself over it, he grabbed her, his hand wrapping easily around her arm and pulled her forward.

  She stumbled and pitched forward, but he caught her, probably the only kindness that he was going to show her.

  “You were a feisty little one, you know that?” He asked. He towered over her, wrapped with muscle, a smirk on his face. She’d caught a glimpse of the men who came to the island before, and they all looked the same.

  They all wanted one thing.

  “You can close your eyes if you want,” he said, pulling her away from the cliff. She did as he said, clinging to that last kindness that anyone was ever going to give her.

  Even so, she heard him pull his gun. She heard him cock it. She heard the bang.

  And then she heard nothing.

  Chapter 2

  Natalia

  “You’re late.” My boss stands with her arms crossed on her chest, scowling at me like I’d just drug a dead body into the back kitchen of the restaurant rather than showing up five minutes late. You’d think that being late was a cardinal sin the way she’s looking at me but I can’t help but think that maybe she just needs to get laid.

  Doesn’t some good dick put everyone in a better mood? Perhaps that’s my problem. I just need to find some dick, too. It’s been a long fucking time since I got laid and I try not to think about that while I answer her.

  “I got stuck in traffic,” I tell her, swinging my messenger bag up and over my head and hanging it on the hook by the door. All of the employees have their own hooks for their belongings and, so far, nobody has had anything stolen.

  It’s not like I have anything worth taking, but it’s goo
d to know that your shit is safe where you work.

  “You walk,” she tells me, her eyes narrowed. “How did you get stuck in traffic when you walk?” My boss has a zero tolerance for bullshit, and recently I’ve been pissing her off more and more. It doesn’t bode well for me, especially when I really need this job.

  For just a moment I close my eyes, imagining for a moment what I’m going to do if I get kicked out of my apartment. I can’t couch surf with my friends, that’s for sure. There’s only so far you can stretch a friendship, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve passed the limit on most of mine.

  I sigh and rub my temples, feeling a huge headache already coming on before I open my eyes. It’s not that I don’t like Dina, my boss, but she can be such a hardass sometimes.

  “Explain, Natalia.”

  “I took a longer route than normal to avoid that creepy guy who hangs out on the corner of Main and Maple,” I admit with a shrug. “I honestly didn’t think that my detour would add that much time to my walk, but it did, and I’m sorry.”

  She immediately softens, her hands swinging free and hanging down by her sides. “Creepy guy?”

  I nod, relief flooding through my body that she doesn’t look as pissed as she just did. “You know the guy? Thinks he’s a street preacher but he’s always talking about political conspiracy theories and not what you need to do to get into heaven? Has a beard so he looks like Jesus but likes to watch your ass when you walk away?”

  “Language,” Dina tells me, like she’s my mom. “I know him. He’s creepy, but harmless. You can’t keep being late, Natalia. I can only cover for you so many times, and this was the last one.”

  I want to point out to her that she’s the boss and so she can cover for me as many times as she wants, but I bite my tongue. Waiting tables instead of getting a real job, as my friends say, isn’t what I want to do, but it makes ends meet.

  Ex-friends? Friends? I’m not sure what to call them anymore since I haven’t seen most of them in weeks. They all have big-time jobs with big salaries and I just can’t swing cocktails every night of the week on my shitty tips.

  “I’m sorry,” I say, hoping that it’s what she wants to hear and that it will get her off my back. My stomach twists as I continue. “I’ll make sure I’m not late again.”

  “Do that. My husband is looking for any excuse to fire you, Natalia. Make sure that you don’t get him a reason to or you’ll be out and I won’t be able to stop him.”

  I nod and pull my apron on over my black t-shirt and jeans. The dress code for Hannah’s Grill is a black or white top with jeans, but nobody can see that I’m wearing a band t-shirt under my apron. I didn’t have enough cash to buy plain shirts for work, and I’m just doing my best to make this work.

  Dina’s right, though, her husband would probably shit a brick if he saw me, so I tie it around my waist quickly, making sure to double-knot it so that nobody can untie it and pull it loose.

  “Get out there,” she says, handing me my notepad. I take it from her and throw her a grin before walking through the busy kitchen and pushing open the saloon-style doors into the restaurant.

  A plume of steam and the smell of cooking burgers follows me into the main room and I stop for a moment, getting oriented. You never want to rush into your shift without knowing exactly who you’re going to be serving so you can be strategic about it.

  Off in the corner booth are some teenage guys who are probably going to stare at my tits and then not tip, so I mentally move them to the bottom of my list to take care of. There are some families by the window, the wives with perfect perky ponytails and then husbands with slick backed hair, and I know that they’ll be decent tippers, although probably not great.

  The real goldmine is the table in the corner, away from the windows, closest to the bar.

  Four men sit there, all of them quiet as they nurse their rocks glasses. The man closest to me has dark hair pushed back from his face and wears a tight t-shirt that shows off his perfectly sculpted arms.

  I can’t help the fact that my mouth waters when I see the tattoos snaking up his arm. I’m a sucker for ink, and I know right away that this is the table that’s going to get most of my attention and where I’m going to get the majority of my tips.

  Taking a deep breath, I smooth down my apron and grab a pen from my back pocket before walking straight over to the men. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is where I’m going to be laying on the charm as thick as possible.

  I’ll take care of the families and the teenage guys, sure, but not yet.

  Not until I see what this group of tatted up men want to eat, and not before I allow myself a little time to drink them in.

  “Hey, I’m Natalia,” I say cheerfully, stopping in front of their table and popping my hip out a little bit to get their attention. “I’m going to be your server today, so what can I get for you?”

  They all look up at me but it’s the man closest to me with the thick dark hair that makes me suck in a breath. His eyes are a deep icy blue that seems so bright as to be an impossible color for anyone to have naturally, and his strong jaw almost makes my knees week.

  Men like that simply don’t live around here. Hell, I wasn’t sure that they lived anywhere outside of magazines, and I swallow hard, tearing my gaze from him to look at the three other men.

  They’re all drinking me in, which normally I love, but there’s something uncanny about the way they’re looking at me. It’s like they’re sizing me up, and I’m not so sure that I like it.

  Before I can take a step back, though, the man closest to me clears his throat. “Steaks, medium rare.”

  I swallow, trying to ignore the fact that he has only said three words to me and I already feel myself getting wet. It’s ridiculous, so be so turned on and also so nervous about the way they’re looking at me, but I can’t help it.

  “For all of you?” I manage, clicking my pen once against my notebook. It’s an easy order and one that I don’t need to write down, but I’m surprised that they’d all want the same thing.

  And that the alpha here would just order for everyone.

  “For all of us,” he confirms, then picks up his drink and takes a sip, his eyes still locked on me. I get the feeling like I’m under a microscope and I feel my face turning red.

  I’ve never been wrong about a table before, but maybe there’s a first time for everything. There’s certainly something about the way the four men are looking at me that’s unnerving as hell, and I smile again before backing up.

  “I’ll get that right in for you now,” I tell them, turning away to escape to the kitchen.

  “Oh, and Natalia?” The man’s voice stops my retreat and I swallow hard, turning back around to look at him.

  He’s dangerous. I should have picked up on that from the moment I first laid eyes on him, but I wasn’t really paying attention. It’s obvious now, though, not only in the way he’s looking at me, but in how he holds himself. The other three men aren’t as powerful as he is, even though they’re all ripped like him and covered with tattoos.

  If there’s one thing that I learned a long time ago, it’s to pick out who the alpha was so that I could do my best to avoid pissing them off. Somehow, unfortunately, I missed the mark this time.

  “Yes?” I ask, tilting my head a little bit to look unbothered. I don’t want them to know that they’ve got me unnerved.

  “Another round. Whiskey. On the rocks,” he tells me, and I nod.

  “Celebrating?” I ask before I can stop myself. It’s the sort of thing that I would normally say to customers, but these guys aren’t normal customers and I really should just get the hell away from them.

  “We will be,” he tells me with a grin.

  I shiver, turning away from him.

  At least, once they eat and go, I’ll never have to see them again. I can ask Dina, but I’m pretty sure that they’ve never come here before, so they’ll get what they’re looking for and get the hell out.

 
; I don’t even realize for a moment that what they’re looking for might not be a meal.

  Chapter 3

  Natalia

  The rest of my shift is busy.

  Teenage boys are the worst in terms of being incredibly needy and not giving enough of a payoff for the work that you do for their table, and I’m on my fifth trip back from the kitchen for extra condiments when the alpha from the table of four guys raises his hand a little to catch my attention.

  He’s looking straight at me so it’s not like I can try to pretend that he’s not calling me over, so I drop off the honey mustard with the teenagers, wipe my hands on my apron, and walk slowly across the restaurant to their table.

  The families are all gone, the lunch rush was practically non-existent, and I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to get a halfway decent tip from these guys, so I smile as I walk up to them.

  “Hey, you guys doing okay? Ready for the check?” I ask, reaching into the pocket on my apron to grab it for them.

  “Not yet. I’m afraid that I was rude before, Natalia. I’m Marco, and these are my associates.” The alpha man reaches out his hand for me to shake it. I hesitate for a moment, remember that rent is two days late, and reach out.

  His hand is huge, his skin cool. I don’t want to have any reaction to him touching me, but the feeling of his hand engulfing mine makes me swallow hard. It’s been so damn long that I’ve had a boyfriend that I can’t really remember what it was like to have someone’s hands on me.