As she approached Forrester, his presence seemed to grow, to expand and take up the space around him. She could tell he held power. He was the kind of guy who could change things. He was the kind of guy who could make a difference.
So why had he just sat there while Phil pestered her and Kelly?
“Hey, did you find the funeral home?” she said to him as she approached.
He looked up at her from his whiskey and caught her in his gaze. Elle had to take a deep breath. He stared at her as if looking into her mind. She felt he could read her thoughts, and her main thought at that moment was that if he was so tough, if he was so hot and muscled and tattooed, then why couldn’t he stick up for her and Kelly?
“I found it,” Forrester said.
Elle waited, giving him an opportunity to elaborate on his father’s funeral, but he didn’t. He wasn’t much of a talker, Elle realized.
“How’s the burn?” she said.
Forrester smiled at the memory. “Again, I’m really sorry for acting like that yesterday. It was a weird day.”
Elle nodded. He pulled up the sleeve of his jacket and showed her the area the coffee had burned. The skin was red and tender, but it was nothing that wouldn’t heal in a day or two.
“It’s better already,” he said.
Elle didn’t hear what he said because she was so taken by what she saw. All along his arms were small, round cigarette burns.
“So it’s true,” she gasped, without thinking.
Instinctively, Forrester pulled down his sleeve.
“What’s true?” he said.
“Sorry,” Elle stammered, “nothing.”
“What’s true?” Forrester repeated. He wasn’t angry, more curious.
“I really shouldn’t say. It’s private.”
“What’s private?”
“It’s just,” Elle sighed, “I’m sorry, I know it’s none of my business, but you know how people talk.”
“About what?”
“I heard that you had cigarette burns on your arm. That’s all. I wasn’t sure whether or not to believe it, but now I see it’s true.”
“You heard that about me?” Forrester said.
“Yes. You know. Small town. People gossip.”
“I suppose they do,” Forrester said, almost amused that she’d heard something about him. He wasn’t used to it. He’d left Stone Peak when he was twelve years old. First he’d been in Billings, and later in California with Lacey and her father and the brothers. People in Stone Peak might have known his story, but by the time he arrived in California, he was just another kid with a past. He wasn’t used to people knowing his story. He’d never realized that everyone in Stone Peak might still remember him. He’d long forgotten all of them.
“I really shouldn’t have said anything,” Elle said, feeling awkward.
She glanced over at Kelly, who was watching the scene with a bemused look on her face.
To change the subject, Elle brought up the tattoos. “You like pit bulls?” she said. She was so flustered that she’d temporarily forgotten that the pit bulls played as integral a role in Forrester’s story as the cigarette burns. She just saw the tattoos that covered his arm, and brought them up.
“I guess I do,” Forrester said.
“How come?” Elle said, digging herself deeper and deeper.
Forrester thought for a moment. “I guess,” he said, “that they remind me that you can find kindness and love in the strangest of places. Sometimes it’s the very last place you expect, that you find the greatest treasure of all.”
“That’s a nice thought,” Elle said.
“Well, it’s just something I noticed growing up. It happened to me twice.”
“Really, when?”
Forrester laughed. “You have a lot of questions.”
“I guess I just find you interesting,” Elle said.
“And what about you? Maybe I have some questions of my own?”
“About me?” Elle said, surprised.
“Of course. It’s not every day I run into a girl that affects me the way you did.”
“I affected you?”
“You saw what happened,” Forrester said, fixing her in his powerful gaze. “You were pouring me coffee, and I just straight up reached out and touched your hand. That’s not exactly normal for me.”
“Have you ever done it before?”
“Of course not.”
“So why did you do it with me?”
Forrester shrugged. “I don’t know. A million reasons. Who can really say why any of us does any of the things we do?”
Elle was surprised at how comfortable she was starting to feel. She’d been so shy when she started talking to Forrester, she thought her nerves would have only gotten worse, especially because of the tone in which he was speaking to her. He was flirting with her. She was sure of it. But something about him put her at ease. She wanted to stay talking with him. She would have happily stayed there talking to him all night long, but it was at that moment that Kelly beckoned her back over.
Reluctantly, Elle acknowledged her.
“I think I’ve got to go back over to my friend,” Elle said.
The way Forrester looked back at her made her heart pound. He didn’t hold back a thing. He just looked straight at her, into her eyes, and even though she stared right back at him, he refused to look away. The moment lasted for seconds, but it felt like hours. Elle took a deep breath. She had no idea what she and Forrester might have communicated to each other in that moment.
Chapter 12
Forrester
FORRESTER WATCHED ELLE WALK BACK around the bar to her friend. He still didn’t know her name but something about her told him that she was going to be an important part of his life, at least for the immediate future. He’d always had an intuition for such things, and the look in her eye, the intensity of the gaze they’d shared, it meant something.
He watched her perfectly formed ass sway back and forth as she left him, and when she took her seat next to her friend, he looked right at her, making zero effort to hide his interest.
She was going to be his. She had to be. He had no doubt.
In fact, maybe she was the reason he’d come back to this town at all. Only God knew. Before he’d left, Faith and Lacey had given him plenty of reasons not to ever come back. In fact, they’d practically forbid it. But he’d insisted. He’d felt there was a reason.
Was it this girl?
She sure wasn’t like anyone he’d ever seen before. There was a secret strength in her, a quiet confidence beneath the surface. On the surface she was sweet and beautiful and lovely, but he knew that inside her there was something bolder, something more ferocious, something he could love. Call it a hunch, but he knew that once she knew the truth about him, once she knew everything he’d been through, she’d be the girl who could love him too. The one who could truly love him. And if he found a girl to love him, who knew, maybe she’d even give him a child.
He looked across the bar at her and shook his head. He couldn’t believe it. Here, of all places, he’d found a girl with the fire in her gaze that he’d been searching for his whole life.
Forrester ordered another whiskey and sipped it while one of the idiots from the booth put a song on the jukebox. Forrester recognized it vaguely, some stupid pop song from a few years back.
The guy who’d put it on then walked over to the girls and addressed them by name.
“Kelly, Elle, what do you say we get this party started?”
Forrester watched as the girls rolled their eyes and gave each other a look of disdain. He knew that neither of them was interested in dancing with the boy. He’d also gathered that they were the sons of important local politicians, and that that was the reason the bartender couldn’t do anything about them.
He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t stepped in yet to get rid of the boys. He didn’t like seeing women being harassed. He wasn’t the least bit afraid of the boys’ fathers. There wasn’t a thing in
the world people from a town like this could do to harm him. Together with Jackson, Grant and Grady, he knew that there was no amount of trouble in a place like this that he couldn’t handle.
But something kept him from acting. He realized that it was his own curiosity. He wanted to see what the girl, Elle, that was her name, he wanted to see what she would do? What kind of a person was she? Would she put up with them? Would she ignore them? Would she ask for help? Would she give them what they wanted? There were so many ways she could play it. Forrester doubted that she herself even knew yet which way she would go.
Elle, he said to himself, rolling the word over his lips. He liked the sound of it.
The jerk, as well as his three friends, were now standing right next to the girls’ seats. One of them took Kelly’s hand and tried to pull her from her stool. Two others took Elle and, working like a wolf pack, the boys cajoled the girls to the dance floor in front of the bar.
Forrester took a sip of his drink. He was still waiting. If you wanted to know about a person, you watched them.
What would Elle do? Who was she? Was she the girl for him?
“You ever been with a real man?” the ringleader of the boys said to Elle.
“Like you’d know the difference,” Elle said.
Forrester grinned at her answer.
“Oh come on baby,” the ringleader said, putting his arm around her waist. “Let me show you a good time.”
“You wouldn’t know how to show a girl a good time if your life depended on it.”
“You’ve got sass girl.”
“You haven’t seen the half of it,” Elle said.
She drew back her hand and made to slap the boy across the face. The boy caught her arm in mid flight and overpowered her, forcing her arm back down to her side.
“Feisty little one, aren’t you?”
Elle smiled at him innocently, and then, in the blink of an eye, pulled up her knee right into his groin. He doubled over in agony.
Forrester laughed to himself. He’d seen enough. He didn’t have to let this son of a bitch go any further to get a read on Elle. She was a straight shooter, she called them how she saw them, and that’s all he’d wanted to know.
Because of what had happened when he was a kid, Forrester had trust issues. He’d learned to cope by watching people closely in stressful situations, and seeing what sort of decisions they would make. It was amazing what this told him about people.
He could see, for instance, that while Harry was a good man who wanted to do the right thing, he lacked the courage to push the limit when it was clear that he might lose everything if he did. Kelly was rolling her eyes and trying to discourage the boys, while avoiding doing anything that would make them mad. She had a past with the twerp named Phil. Forrester could tell from her body language. She was also trying to protect other people. That was the main reason she didn’t stand up to Phil and his friends. She didn’t like what they were doing, but she was too scared about what would happen to the people she loved, her family, Harry, her boss at the diner, to do anything openly confrontational.
Elle didn’t have the same hangups. Forrester watched as she shoved Phil across the dance floor and made her way back over to the bar.
“Come on, Kelly. Let’s get out of this place.”
“Not so fast, hot stuff,” Phil said.
Forrester stood up. “Hey, bartender,” he said, “I’m really sorry about the mess.”
“What mess?” Harry said.
Forrester left a hundred dollar bill on the bar. “This mess,” he said, and he picked up a bar stool and brought it crashing down on the bar, smashing it into pieces.
Everyone in the bar went silent. Harry’s jaw dropped. Elle and Kelly looked over to him with a mixture of worry and relief. They could see that someone was finally going to do something, although they’d already been wondering what the hell was taking him so long.
The four boys were apprehensive because of the way he acted, and yet were itching for a fight. They were practically snarling.
“You,” Forrester said, pointing to Phil. “I think the lady told you to get the fuck away from her.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Phil said, puffing out his chest.
Forrester had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. It wasn’t polite to roll your eyes before you beat the shit out of a guy. “I’m her friend.”
“Well, friend, I’m going to give you five seconds to get your ass out of here, before we put it in the emergency room for you.”
Forrester walked right toward him. Phil took a step back before regaining his courage. As Forrester passed the other boys, one of them swung a punch at him. Forrester grabbed the fist in mid-flight, without even turning to face the guy who’d thrown it, and began to squeeze. The boy cried out in pain and fell to his knees before Forrester released his hand.
“I think it’s time you four cocksuckers got out of here,” Forrester said, “before someone gets hurt.”
“Before someone gets hurt?” the ringleader said. “Come on, buddy. There are four of us.”
Forrester looked down at the guy whose fist he’d just crushed. “I count three,” he said.
“Three of us then,” Phil said, his voice faltering.
At that moment, one of the other boys leapt forward at Forrester. Forrester took a step back so that the boy’s lunge missed him. Then he brought his arm down on the boy’s back as he stumbled past. He fell, crashing into the stools at the bar.
“Two,” Forrester said.
“Who the fuck are you?” Phil said.
Forrester grinned at him. “I’m Forrester Snow,” he said. “I’m from these parts. You might have heard of me.”
Phil was silent for a moment while he thought about it. The name was obviously familiar to him. Then he made the connection. “The pit bulls. The funeral. You’re back.”
“I’m back,” Forrester said. “And if any of you dipshits so much as look at this bar again, or at the diner, or at either of these girls, they’ll never find your bodies. Do you hear me?”
Phil looked at his friends and motioned for them to back off. “Come on fellas,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Forrester stood where he was, in the middle of the dance floor, until the boys had gathered up their things, settled their bill, and left the bar.
“I apologize again for the mess,” he said to Harry.
Harry just shook his head. He wasn’t sure what to make of what had just happened. He was worried that the repercussions of this were going to fall back on him, but Forrester would make sure they didn’t. If he was anything, he was thorough. He wouldn’t have started a fight like that in a town like this if he wasn’t willing to stick around and see it to its conclusion.
Everyone was silent. Forrester gave a little nod to Kelly. “Sorry for ruining your night, miss,” he said.
Kelly just shook her head. She didn’t know how to respond. “That guy was my ex,” she stammered.
Forrester nodded.
“He was a shitty boyfriend,” Kelly added.
Elle was looking at him but he said nothing to her. He turned and began walking to the door. Elle watched with her jaw wide open. When he got to the door he turned to her. She was still looking at him, her big eyes full of admiration. She was his. He knew it.
He smiled at her. “Aren’t you coming?”
Chapter 13
Elle
ELLE WAS IN SHOCK. She looked at the scene in front of her, the broken stool, the smashed bottles, the looks on the faces of Kelly and Harry.
When Forrester called back to her, her heart flipped. She thought he was going to leave without a word to her. Now she was torn. Did she even want to be anywhere near a guy like that?
Forrester didn’t wait. He just kept walking, right out the door. Elle looked at Kelly for help. She only had a moment to make up her mind, she knew that much.
“What are you waiting for?” Kelly said.
“You think?” Elle said, looking
deeply at her friend.
“You’re crazy about that guy. It’s so obvious. If anything, I’d say you’re as crazy as he is. You’re perfect for each other.”
“What about you?” Elle said.
“I’ve got to get back to my brother. He’s the only man in my life.”
Elle laughed, and then, hardly even able to believe what she was doing, she found herself running out of the bar after Forrester. Outside, she saw his truck. He was sitting in the driver seat waiting for her. She ran around and hopped in.
Forrester turned and smiled at her.
“You’re here,” he said.
“Does that surprise you?”
He laughed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know if anything would surprise me about you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He shrugged. “You’re something, you know that?”
“I’ve heard it,” Elle said, a little unsure of what he meant.
“Your name’s Elle, isn’t it?”
Elle nodded. “And yours is Forrester.”
Forrester reached out and took her hand. Elle held her breath. She wasn’t sure what was about to happen. He looked at her small hand in his larger one and smiled. He brushed it lightly with his thumb, then lifted it up to his mouth and kissed it.
“This is what I wanted to do last night in the diner,” he said.
Elle just looked at him, her mouth open in surprise.
“Why?” she said. She really wanted to know. In fact, she was dying to know. Never in her life had someone just chosen her out of the blue, the way Forrester had, and given her so much attention.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I just saw you there, in the diner, and then you came over, and without thinking, I took your hand.”
He let out a little laugh, as if surprised or embarrassed by what he’d just admitted, then turned on the truck and pulled out of the lot. Elle watched his every move. She looked at his hands. The way he turned the key. She looked at the fob on the key, it was a metal pit bull, and it dangled from the ignition like a dog bobbing it’s head. He turned to her and she looked away in embarrassment. He smiled. She looked out the window as they drove. It was starting to snow and the gentle white flakes glowed in the street light. He passed the intersection and didn’t turn for the diner or her little attic apartment, he kept going along the Main Street, all the way to the fancy hotel at the end of the street.
Heart of the Hunter Page 72
