Heart of the Hunter

by Chance Carter

  “Hey,” the guy with the martini glass said. “You can’t talk like that about Rob.”

  Another guy, a big guy with a beard, stood up. “And who the fuck is asking?” he said.

  “If you guy’s aren’t Rob, there’s no reason for you to get hurt,” I said. “That’s the only warning I’ll give.”

  The guy with the beard looked at the guy with the martini glass. Then they looked over their shoulders at three heavies who were watching everything. All five guys started approaching me.

  I shook my head. I didn’t have time to smash up a bar. I had to find Lacey.

  It was the guy with the beard that reached me first. He swung a punch, which I dodged, then grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him, face first, into a tray of champagne flutes. A heavy was next, his lumbering movements pathetically slow. I swung my knee into his groin and then slammed him down on top of the bearded guy. A second heavy landed a fist on my shoulder but I leaned away from it and he stumbled forward. A fist on his chin, followed my another on his neck, took care of him. The last heavy and the guy with the martini glass hesitated at this point. It was a wise decision.

  The entire club was watching.

  “Rob,” I said again. “This is the last time I ask nice. After this, it’ll be time to start calling paramedics.”

  They looked at their friends in a crumpled mess on the floor.

  “Fuck you,” the guy with the martini glass said.

  I had a feeling he was Rob, he had the look of the kind of idiot Lacey might go on a date with. Good looking, but no substance.

  I was about to jump across the table and grab him when I felt a sharp pain at the back of my left knee. I turned in time to see one of the heavies had smashed a champagne bottle against the back of my leg. As I fell, another leapt toward me. I managed to push him over me, into the rail that separated the VIP area from the rest of the club, but I fell down. I heard a crunch as my cell phone smashed under my weight. The guy I’d just flung into the railing was coming back for me and as he made to kick me on the ground, I grabbed his foot in mid-movement. I pushed myself up and under him, lifting him over me. He came crashing down on the table, covering the chicks who were still sitting there with champagne.

  It was just me and the martini guy now.

  “You’re Rob, aren’t you?”

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  “It doesn’t matter who I am.”

  “It will when my guys destroy your life.”

  I smiled. “We’ll see about that. In the meantime, where’s Lacey?”

  “Lacey? This is about Lacey?”

  “Yes it is, now where the fuck is she?”

  “She’s gone, man. She fucking left.”

  “And is there any reason for me to believe she might not have had a good time while she was with you?”

  “I didn’t touch her.”

  “Then why did she leave in such a hurry?”

  I knew something had happened to her. That text message had come from someone else’s phone. That meant she didn’t have access to her own. She’d left the club on foot, alone. That meant, at the very least, she wasn’t enjoying herself.

  “I didn’t even know she was gone,” the guy said.

  I looked at him, reading the look in his eyes. I didn’t buy it. He wasn’t the kind of guy who’d let his date slip out when she wasn’t having fun. He was pushy. He’d have forced her to stay. The text message had said, help.

  He’d done something to her.

  “Let me ask you a question,” I said to him. “What do you do for a living?”

  “I’m a plastic surgeon.”

  That was all I needed to know.

  I took three strides toward him, he crouched back in fear but I didn’t care. I wasn’t showing him any mercy. He swung for me and I leaned back, out of reach, then I planted a heavy fist in his face, followed by a second. He fell back like a felled log.

  Chapter 19

  Lacey

  “JUST WAIT HERE A SECOND,” I said to the cab driver. There was a quiver in my voice that I couldn’t mask.

  “I aint got all night, lady.”

  I nodded and ran over to my car. The thing that scared me most, even more than not having the money to pay the cab driver, was being left alone in the parking lot of Crawford Beauty Cosmetics. The place had such a sinister feel to it now, especially after the way Rob had treated me at the club. Did he honestly think I was that kind of girl? I glanced at my reflection in the glass of my car and sighed. I did look like that kind of girl.

  I tried the driver’s door and to my enormous relief, it opened. Thank God.

  Inside were my clothes, my purse, my phone, my wallet, everything, just as Cassie had said. At least she hadn’t lied about that. I pulled out my wallet and took out forty dollars for the driver. Then I ran over to him in my ridiculous heels.

  “Sorry for the wait.”

  “No problem,” he said. “I was afraid you weren’t going to have any money to pay me. You’d be amazed at the kinds of offers I get from chicks that don’t want to pay their cab fare.”

  “I can imagine,” I said.

  “Not that I’m calling you that sort of chick,” he added.

  I nodded. “Of course not. Would you mind waiting until I get my car started?”

  “You’re scared here?”

  “A little,” I said.

  The driver nodded.

  “Thank you,” I said and hurried back to my car. I had to take off the heels to be able to drive safely.

  The key was there and I turned the ignition. I’d never been so relieved to hear my engine start. I pulled out of the parking lot at a higher speed than was safe. I didn’t care. By the time I was back on the highway, a flood of relief rushed through me.

  I had to call Grant. I’d managed to send him a text from the phone of one of the chicks at the club without her noticing, but I didn’t know if he’d received it or not. I glanced at my phone. No missed calls. That was weird. I dialed Grant’s number, swerving dangerously around a pothole that I hadn’t noticed until the last minute. I hated using my phone while driving, I knew it was a bad habit, but I was too nervous to stop.

  I held the phone to my ear and listened to the dial tone. It rang and rang but there was no answer. It wasn’t like Grant not to pick up. Didn’t he care? Wasn’t he worried about me? Hadn’t he received my text?

  Things had been so strained between the two of us for the past few weeks. Maybe I should have texted Jackson, or Grady, or Forrester. Maybe Grant had decided that whatever happened to me on dates from now on was my own problem. I guessed I couldn’t really blame him. I’d told him in no uncertain terms to butt out of my business.

  I threw the phone down on the seat next to me and got onto the freeway.

  A moment later it started to ring.

  “Grant?” I said.

  There was a confused voice on the other end of the line. It was a woman’s voice.

  “Grant? No. This is Cassie.”

  “Cassie?”

  “Is that you, Lacey?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  I was too surprised to say anything else, too taken aback to tell her where to go.

  “Thank God. I was so worried about you. Something awful has happened.”

  I thought about Rob and his buddy trying to warm me up for a threesome.

  “Really?” I said, noncommittally.

  “Yes, Rob’s in hospital. Someone beat him up at the club. He’s in a bad state.”

  I wanted to tell her that I didn’t give a crap what happened to Rob, but I found myself instead saying, “That’s awful, Cassie.”

  “Yes, and Lacey?”

  “Yes?”

  “The only person he’s asked for is you. Will you come? We’re at Mercy.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I’d just escaped Rob. I thought he was a scumbag. I’d been terrified at the club with him and his friends. And I didn’t trust Cassie as far as I could throw her. She was t
he last person I wanted to be talking to.

  My mind went to Grant. Why hadn’t he called? Why hadn’t he responded in any way? He wasn’t even picking up his phone, and I’d told him I needed help. Was he that angry with me? Was he really done with me?

  I’d blown it. I never should have slept with him. It had ruined everything.

  I should have known better. If there’s a guy who feels unattainable, a friend you feel is always going to be beyond your reach, then for God’s sake, don’t ever sleep with him. It will ruin everything. A friend is something you can count on. It’s rare in today’s world to have a true friend. You don’t want to screw that up for one night of passion. I hadn’t just lost my chance at having a relationship with Grant. I’d lost him as a friend too.

  “Lacey?” Cassie said. “Are you coming?”

  I sighed. I had to face facts. My life wasn’t going to get any better on its own. I was the only person who could change it. I was thirty-four, I’d been cheated on in all my previous relationships, and the man I loved couldn’t have been less interested in me if I’d told him I was dying. He didn’t even respond to pleas for help anymore.

  “Yes,” I said weakly into the phone. “I’m coming, Cassie. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

  Chapter 20

  Lacey

  WHEN ROB SAW ME HE burst into tears. I was standing in the corridor outside the trauma center, still dressed up like a playboy bunny.

  “Lacey, thank you so much for coming.”

  “Of course, Rob,” I found myself saying.

  His face was bandaged and he’d received several stitches across his nose.

  “What happened?”

  “You don’t want to know,” he said. “Some mad man came into the club and started beating everyone up.”

  “Some mad man?” I repeated, wondering if Grant had responded to my text after all.

  “He was just berserk, Lacey. He beat up three of my guards and kicked the shit out of Duke.”

  I wanted to smile but I stopped myself. I wondered if it had been Grant but I knew it couldn’t have been. The time for fantasies was over. If it had been Grant, he’d have answered my phone call. Plus, there was no way he could have gotten to the club that quickly. It was time for me to get real. There was no knight in shining armor looking out for me.

  “You look terrible,” I said to Rob.

  He came over and put his arms around me, then started sobbing into my neck. I held him, showing him more sympathy and affection than I felt. No one liked getting their nose broken, but it wasn’t the end of the world. He could at least be a man about it.

  “I’m so sorry, Lacey.”

  “For what?”

  “For everything.”

  “What are you talking about, Rob?”

  We sat down on two of the uncomfortable plastic seats in the waiting area.

  “Do you want some coffee?” he said.

  There was a really crappy looking coffee machine across the corridor and I reached into my purse for some change. I got us two coffees and returned to my seat.

  “Is Cassie here?”

  “She had to leave, but that’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Lacey. I feel so bad.”

  “For what? Having Cassie deceive me?”

  “Yes, that, and everything. I should have treated you better. I know you weren’t enjoying our date. I know I was being a complete scumbag.”

  “You were,” I said.

  “I just really wanted to have a threesome with you and Duke. It’s a little thing we do sometimes. Call it our way of breaking in new girls that we think are relationship material.”

  “Relationship material?”

  He nodded. “But I already know with you, it’s completely inappropriate. You’re too classy for that sort of thing.”

  “You really don’t know anything about me, Rob.”

  “Sure I do. We’ve spent a lot of time together these past two nights. I feel like I’ve known you for weeks.”

  I looked down at my body, dressed in the overtly sexualized clothing of his and Cassie’s choosing. He didn’t know me at all if he thought this was how I wanted to look.

  “I know that you’re intelligent. You’re beautiful. You’ve got a strong mind of your own and won’t put up with shit from douchebags like me.”

  “That’s true,” I said.

  “I understand why you ran out from the club.”

  “It wasn’t a good vibe, Rob. I didn’t like it one bit. I was scared.”

  “I know.”

  “Is that what you put all your dates through?”

  He shook his head. “You’re different, Lacey. I want to change. I want you to help me change.”

  “Why would I do that?” I said.

  “Because I have such strong feelings for you, Lacey. I’m crazy about you.”

  Chapter 21

  Grant

  MY PHONE WAS CRUSHED TO PIECES. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time. I walked purposefully out of the club and took the sim card out of it before flinging it across the street. I drove the van a few blocks away to some higher ground and pulled over. I was on a street of abandoned warehouses. No one would disturb me there.

  I got into the back of the van and powered up the equipment. It’s top of the range. I bought most of it on the black market from retired government agents. I could do anything with it, find anyone.

  I typed Lacey’s cell number into a laptop that was wired to a high-powered radio receiver. Then I waited. A map of the city showed up on the screen, then the map zoomed in closer and closer on the triangulated location of Lacey’s cell.

  I thought about calling it, I could make a call directly from the receiver, but then I noticed she was at Mercy hospital.

  My mind went completely berserk. All I could think was that she might be hurt. If anyone had touched her, there would be hell to pay.

  I had no time to spare. I climbed into the front of the van and began speeding toward the hospital. I pulled up outside the emergency room and left the van in the ambulance bay. It would be towed in minutes but I didn’t care. I pushed through the swing doors and ran straight to the desk.

  “Lacey Eden,” I said to the nurse at the desk. “Was she admitted?”

  “Just a minute, sir. Are you her husband?”

  I hesitated. I don’t know why. The question caught me off guard. “I’m family,” I said at last. “Her brother.”

  The nurse typed Lacey’s name into her computer and scrolled through the results. “Sorry, sir. No one by that name has been admitted.”

  My heart was pounding. That could mean she wasn’t hurt, that she was perfectly fine, but it could also be even worse. She hadn’t had her phone. What if she didn’t have her ID?

  “What if she didn’t have ID?” I said. I took Lacey’s picture from my wallet and showed it to the nurse. “Do you have any women in their thirties, blonde, who might not have been identified?”

  She typed again, then looked up at me. “No, sir. It’s a quiet night. No one unidentified fitting that description.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t been admitted. That didn’t explain why her phone was showing up here though. I was about to turn to leave when I saw, down the corridor toward the trauma center, a blonde woman in a stripper outfit talking to a guy with a bandaged face.

  I knew it instantly.

  It was Lacey. It didn’t look like her, it wasn’t the way Lacey usually dressed, even the hair and makeup were different, but there was no questioning it. I’d know that face anywhere, and it was Lacey’s.

  And she didn’t look distressed at all. Not one bit. In fact, she looked like she was having a heart to heart with the guy in the bandages.

  I ducked around a corner before they saw me. I didn’t want to approach. I knew I should have gone up to her, asked her if she was all right, but I had to know what was going on. I was desperate. Something fishy was going on, and the best way of finding out what, was to spy. Lacey had been very cle
ar. I was to give her space, and privacy. I was to butt out of her love life.

  But she’d asked for help too. That text message. I had no doubt she’d sent it. She was getting mixed up with something bad, and my job was to find out what, even if it meant spying on her.

  I hurried back to the van. Miraculously it hadn’t been towed.

  “Is this your vehicle, sir?” a security guard said.

  “Sorry, it was an emergency.”

  “This bay is for hospital vehicles only.”

  “Yes, sir, I’ll move it right away.”

  I drove to the parking lot a hundred yards away and then directed the radio listening device directly at Lacey’s cell phone signature. I prayed the walls of the building weren’t too thick to get a signal. There were windows in the waiting area so I had a decent chance of picking up something.

  I put the headphones on and immediately pulled them off. My eardrums almost burst from a loud screech. I adjusted the dials, turned down the volume and frequency, and put the headphones back on. I could hear the nurse at the front desk speaking on the phone. I adjusted the angle, someone coughing, a child crying, a television set, and then suddenly, a man’s voice.

  “Because I have such strong feelings for you, Lacey. I’m crazy about you.”

  That was it. I stabilized the signal.

  Then came Lacey’s voice. “Rob, I had no idea you felt like that.”

  “I’m nuts about you, Lacey. You’re an amazing woman, and you deserve everything a man has to give. You’re nothing like all the other women I know.”

  “You’ve known me for such a short time.”

  “And in that time I’ve learned so much, about you and about myself. You make me want to be a better man, Lacey. You make me want to do something real with my life. I’m through playing games with women. You taught me that.”

  “What are you talking about, Rob? I haven’t taught you anything.”

  “I want a relationship with you, Lacey. A real one. I want the whole deal. I don’t want to let you down. I want to give you what you want. What you deserve.”

  I cut off the power to the receiver. I’d heard enough. At this point, it was just an invasion of their privacy. Whatever trouble Lacey had been having earlier in the night, it was the normal troubles of a girl out on a date with a guy who was trying to woo her. I was sure that was the guy whose nose I’d broken at the club and I felt bad about that now, but the best thing I could do was leave. If Lacey was trying to have a relationship with that guy, that was her decision to make. It wasn’t my place to interfere.