by Nicole Fox
“So, you’ll talk to her and when she’s okay with it, you’ll text me?”
“I will.”
“Or we don’t have to let her know right away.”
“Right. I’d rather be upfront and honest though. I don’t want to hide anything from her. There have been so many changes for us recently, I want to make sure this won’t upset her or cause her more distress.”
He pulled his mouth into a half smile. “I wouldn’t want that either. You just let me know what works for you. I would feel privileged to be able to spend some time getting to know you. It’s not easy to meet people.”
“I wouldn’t know, I guess. I haven’t tried.”
“All the better for me, then.” He winked and walked himself to the front door. He didn’t know if she’d text him or when, but one thing was becoming more and more clear. She was not the one putting on an act. Jeremy was.
Chapter Seven
Hunter
He didn’t have the highest hopes. So when Vanessa texted him a few days later and asked to meet for drinks, he was shocked. He tried to get her to go for dinner, some place a little more intimate, but the only place she would agree to go was a local pub. Not exactly his ideal date, but he’d make it work.
He walked in and saw her immediately. She looked gorgeous. Even more so in a short skirt and close-fitting top. He went stiff before he even reached the table and slyly adjusted himself as he slid into his seat.
“You look amazing,” he said.
“Thanks.” She blushed and looked down.
Must not be used to getting compliments. She might be tough to get to open up.
A waitress came over and they ordered drinks.
“So, tell me about your job,” he said.
“Well, I’m a school nurse. There’s not much to it, really. Kids come for medication or when they want to get out of class. Sometimes they come when they’re actually sick, but not often.”
Hunter chuckled. “I recall faking it a time or two myself.”
“They all do. It’s a decent job, though. Easy. And I get to be near Katrin all day.”
“You like to keep her close.”
“Sure. I think most parents do.”
The waitress returned with their order and Hunter took a sip of his beer before continuing. “You seem a little more careful than most parents, though.”
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being cautious.”
“Maybe not. Just seemed like maybe it’s hard for you to trust new people.”
“There have been a lot of new people. Everyone is new.” She took a sip of her wine. “And like I said, I like to be cautious.”
“So, what made you move here, anyway?”
“My job. There’s usually only one nurse per school, so it can be hard to find an opening.”
“Have you ever thought of doing anything else? Some other sort of nursing?”
“No, not really.” She absently picked at the corner of her napkin. “I wanted to be close to Katrin.”
Hunter nodded. “There’s that distrust thing again.”
Vanessa looked down. “Sorry. I guess I am a bit over-protective at times.”
“Is that why you have her use a fake name?”
Her head snapped up. “What?”
“The other day when we were tossing the ball, she said by accident that her real name is Opal.”
“She said that?”
“Well, not in so many words, but basically.”
Her eyes widened. “Well, she uses that name to play pretend. It’s not really a fake name. Just a name to play pretend with.”
“Joanna.” He reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “It’s okay. You can tell me the truth. You’re running from something. Someone. I get it. I just want to have some clue so that if he shows up, I can protect you.”
“I…” She stared at him with an open mouth. “How…?”
“You’re much easier to read than you think.” He pulled his mouth into a half-smile and took another sip of his beer. “Your hesitation toward someone new, the fake name thing, the way you seemed so nervous over going out with me. It all points to one thing. A woman on the run.”
# # #
Vanessa gaped at him. She couldn’t believe he’d figured it out so easily. She thought she’d done a good job of hiding things, but she wasn’t fooling anyone. Who else might have guessed she was running from someone? What should she do now? Try to lie? Tell the truth?
Something about him made her want to open right up and confess it all. But that also seemed reckless. She didn’t know him well enough. Then Mari’s words came back to her. If she wanted help, she’d have to trust someone. She had Mari to help her, but having Hunter on her side would only help keep Opal even safer. Two people to trust was a better situation than only one, wasn’t it?
“You’re right,” she said. She took a long sip of her wine before continuing. “We’re running from my ex. We were married for over eight years, and it was after our first anniversary that he hit me for the first time. He was a drug addict, and he got worse and worse. He’d either get high and pass out — if I was lucky — or he’d go on a rampage and beat me. I thought it was best for our daughter to have her parents together. Even if it wasn’t the best marriage, at least we were all together. And he only ever hit me, not her. Until one night he did. We left the next day, when he was out scoring drugs. I filed for divorce, and he’s trying to take her from me. You were right about the names, too. We had to change them to make it harder for him to find us. I’m really Vanessa, not Joanna.”
“That’s a lot to go through.” He moved his hand to hers again. The warmth and his touch soothed her.
“I’m so afraid all the time now. That he’ll find us, that he’ll show up and take her. I have nightmares about it almost every night. I dream that I go to her from class, and she’s gone. Or I wake up in the morning, and he’s been in the apartment and has taken her, or that he breaks into my bedroom and…” She dropped off and looked away from him. That was one dream she didn’t want to think about long enough to talk about.
“You’re safe here. You’re safe with me. I happen to be the protective type. I feel much better when I have someone to look out for.”
“Well, thank you, but you barely know us. I can’t expect you to be on bodyguard duty.”
“I’d love to have the honor of protecting you,” he said. He squeezed her hand.
“I wish I could just go out with a handsome man and have a good time. But I can’t. I’m too busy looking around for a sign of my ex, or for someone who might be watching us. I’m the only thing keeping Opal from the meanest father you can imagine.”
“You never met my old man.”
Her lips parted, but she didn’t know what to say to that.
“And from now on,” he added, “You’re not alone. I won’t let anything happen to Opal. Or Katrin, or whatever name she has to go by to be safe. I’ll do my best to protect you both.”
“Thank you, Hunter. It’s strange to me to be able to trust a man, but I feel like I can trust you. It’s kind of nice, actually.” She smiled at him, and a warmth filled her. She was starting to really like him, despite herself. And his attraction was undeniable. It’d been years since she felt any sort of sexual desire for a man. She’d been so disgusted by sex and the way it was often used against her and forced from her that the idea of letting someone get that close and being that vulnerable was impossible before. But now, with Hunter making her feel as safe as he did, and her wanting him as bad as she did, she thought maybe it was time to see.
She took a deep breath and tried not to think too hard about what she was about to say. She squeezed her eyes shut and said it as fast as she could. “Do you maybe want to come back to my place for a little while?”
When she opened her eyes again, Hunter was looking at her with a raised eyebrow and a gaze full of desire. He stood up and went to the bar to pay the tab.
Chapter Eight
Vanessa
Hunter followed Vanessa back to her apartment, still reeling over the fact that she’d invited him. He was hoping to get her to open up to him, and she had, but he never imagined this. They couldn’t drive fast enough.
Inside her apartment, he sat close to her on the sofa in her living room. He had to keep looking away to avoid that same drawn-in feeling he felt before. He still didn’t think she was ready for that, but she was like a magnet to his body. He wanted to move closer, but he forced himself to stay put, reminding himself that she likely didn’t invite him back here for a booty call.
He had to act like he didn’t want her so badly. Not just for her sake, to take things slow, but he still had a job to do. Jeremy had paid him $25,000 to kill this woman. And that meant there would be only two outcomes. Either Hunter would have to kill Vanessa, or Jeremy would come and take his money back. And likely not leave either of them alive. So there was really one choice now. Protect Opal and Vanessa at all costs, knowing Jeremy had hired a hit man once to kill her. He’d do it again. And he’d already shown plenty of violence toward her in the past. Jeremy was not someone to be taken lightly. The van, too, was worrying him. There might already be someone on him, or tailing her.
“Can I ask,” she said, pouring them more wine.
He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her question.
“Well, you said earlier that your old man was mean. I guess I was just wondering what you meant by that.”
“That.” He picked up his glass and took a sip, wishing she had beer instead. “Well, let’s just say that I know exactly how Opal feels.”
“Your father hit you?”
“My father, my mother, sometimes even aunts and uncles if they were around and bored. Bunch of junkies, all of them. Always high on something or drunk off their asses. I come from a long line of no-good criminals and addicts.”
“I’m sorry they were all like that.” She reached over and put her hand on his knee. The warmth ran through him at her touch.
“It’s all I ever knew. My whole life I was told I was nothing and would never be anything. They called me stupid and put me down all the time. Miracle I even made it this far. Or finished high school. They wanted me to fail. They didn’t even come to my high school graduation. Or anything at the school. They weren’t involved in my life at all, unless it was to go get them more cigarettes or make a run.”
“What sort of run?”
“Pick up drugs, drop off drugs, whatever. The riskier the exchange, the more likely I’d be the one to go. They said it was much less likely that a kid would get robbed or shot, so it was better for everyone if I went. I’ve been mugged more times than I can count, been beaten almost to death, was stabbed a few times, and was even shot once. All doing their business.”
Vanessa gasped and put her hand to her mouth. “That’s so terrible.”
He shrugged. “Eventually I got out of there. Left them to their own devices. They didn’t last long. Both died less than five years after I left home. Guess they had no one to buy food or do their dirty work anymore.”
He decided to leave out the part how when they died, he hadn’t gone to either funeral. Not because he didn’t want to. He didn’t have the choice whether or not he wanted to. At the time he was in prison, serving a ten-year sentence. He’d always been something of a protector, so when his high school girlfriend told him her father was abusing her, he took care of it like he never got to take care of his own parents. It was his first kill. He remembered how it felt. Powerful, dangerous, wrong. Might have been his only kill, except that he found out later she’d lied. The man had never touched her. That anger and deep-seated distrust flared hot in him and never cooled down. It gave him the hard edge he had now. But the protector in him wasn’t dead. Vanessa and Opal were resurrecting it. And maybe that wasn’t the only thing.
For a moment, he considered telling her all of this. But this was a first date, and she had trust issues. This wasn’t the time. Maybe someday.
Vanessa reached for a tissue and dabbed at her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“It’s just so wrong what they did to you.”
It took a second for her action and her statement to come together in his mind. “You’re crying… for me?”
She nodded. “I’m sorry. I hate to think of anyone going through what I went through, and what they did to you was so much worse. I wish I had the capacity to kill sometimes. It might be awful to say that, but I can’t help it. Did you ever fantasize about killing your parents?”
Hunter chuckled. If she only knew. “Only every night.”
“I guess they’re lucky that you turned out nothing like them.”
Right. Lucky that he turned to murder before drugs and wasn’t around to be able to kill them. No doubt he would have eventually if the lowlifes hadn’t done the job for him. Sometimes the desire was still there. He still had wonderful dreams where he got to kill them. Got to point a gun at their heads. Got to beat them to death. Got to cut them and torture them like they had to him.
Vanessa dabbed at her eyes again and brought him back to the present. She was crying for him. Feeling something for him, because of what he’d been through. Never had anyone cared like that for him. No one ever cared what happened to him. He was always the one brushed aside, forgotten and left behind. Never the one being listened to and cried for.
He dropped his eyes to the floor. If he had the emotional capacity, he might tear up himself.
# # #
“Do you want to dance?” Vanessa asked. Seeing him quiet and sad had made her bold. She felt more comfortable with him than she had with anyone in a long time and she wanted to keep it going, wanted to see how close they could be.
She got up and went to the little wireless speaker sitting on the TV. She opened the app on her new, pre-paid phone, and started playing music. The sound quality wasn’t good. Nothing like the full sound system she’d had in the house with Jeremy, but it was better than nothing. She stood there, a little awkward, waiting for him.
He seemed to be considering for a moment, then got up and took her hand. He pulled her close and held her as they swayed. It wasn’t so much dancing as it was the stiff sway of the high school couple at their first dance, but it was the nicest thing she’d felt in a long time.
For once, she didn’t feel like a mother. She wore no functional-but-not-flattering clothing. She wasn’t wearing the uniform of a school nurse. And she didn’t have on one single bruise that proved she was a survivor. She should feel good about surviving, but sometimes she wished desperately that rather than having made it through, she hadn’t had to make it at all. Being with Hunter made her feel like a woman, not just someone who got away from a horrible situation.
She was free, and for the first time in so many years she’d lost track, she felt safe. It was a strange feeling. It almost made her wary of it. Too much security could make a person get lazy. She couldn’t afford that. Not when strange vans showed up. But for right now, for this little sliver of time, she could allow herself to just exist in the space of Hunter’s arms, and to be taken care of.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered in her ear.
She wiped a stray tear and smiled. “Absolutely nothing. I was thinking how I couldn’t remember the last time I felt safe.”
“I’m glad. I want to protect you both.”
She held his gaze and couldn’t get over the look of desire in his eyes. Her own expression must mirror his, because she was warm with wanting him.
He leaned closer to her, slowly. Her heart raced. He was going to kiss her. It was really going to happen. She closed her eyes and waited. His lips, warm and smooth, pressed against hers. He slipped his mouth over hers, his tongue gently playing at the edge of her lips.
It felt amazing kissing him. She hadn’t been really kissed in so long. Kissing Jeremy had been a chore, and never pleasurable. He used it as a tool of force, like everything else in their lives. But kissing Hun
ter was how kisses were meant to be. Soft and pleasant, building the desire in her with every pass of their tongues.
She opened her eyes to look into his when he finally pulled back from her. Behind him, she caught sight of the clock.
Vanessa gasped. “Oh no. I have to go.”
“What? Why?”
“I had no idea it was so late. I was supposed to pick Opal up an hour ago.” She scrambled to find her purse and her keys.
Hunter stood where they had been embracing just a moment ago, watching her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have been watching more carefully. I don’t mean to just kiss you and run out, I—”
