Chapter 20

20

M ay's words keep rolling through my head.

Standing at Snowflake's stall, I feed her the carrot and apple I brought from the house.

Hunter isn't her grandson, and still, she trusts him like he is.

Snowflake's wet nose nudges against my face, and I pull back, laughing as I reach out, rubbing my hand down her neck and noting how soft her coat is. She's either seeking all the attention or looking for more to eat.

"When you're healed, I'd love to teach you how to ride." I jump, spinning to face Hunter.

Turning back to Snowflake, I give her another pat. "I'd like that," I say, smiling with the memory of Hunter's and my moment this morning fresh in my mind. I can still feel where his hands ran over my skin. It now burns as a reminder. "You're making it very hard for me not to trust you."

I hear a low chuckle behind me. "I want you to trust me. Hopefully, I'm showing you that I can be someone you can rely on."

He knows exactly what he's doing, and it's working. My defenses are slowly beginning to crumble. The problem is, I still remember the deal we'd made. Whoever succumbs to the other first gets what they want.

Only now, I'm not sure I want to leave anymore. I love May, and I love feeling loved and cared for, which is something I've never experienced before. Could I be with Hunter and live with the possibility of becoming something I never thought I would have to? A possible killer?

Turning to him, I say, "You remember saying I'm only here because I was promised to you?" Folding his arms, he nods. "Is that true?"

My heart hammers in my chest. Deep down, I don't want it to be the reason—I want him to actually want me. Possibly even love me one day when the time is right.

The way his eyes roam over my face, there's no hardness or glare. Instead, there's softness and something else. He moves closer, and my skin prickles with awareness. "Little Red, we all say a lot of things in the heat of the moment."

It's as though a weight lifts off my chest that I didn't realize was sitting there. "Oh..." I can't help the grin that touches my lips and my cheeks heat.

"Do you want to go for a walk?"

"Sure." I smile, letting Hunter lead the way out the barn's back door.

My gaze lands on the porch swing. There must be so many childhood memories here for my family. My brothers mainly, since it seems they got a much better upbringing than my own, and now both are gone. I'll never get to know the things they enjoyed growing up, and a new sadness settles in my chest.

"What's on your mind?" Hunter's question pulls me out of my thoughts.

I sigh. "I was thinking about the childhood my brothers had here and how I'll never hear their stories."

Hunter gives me a sideways glance.

"What?" I ask. Why is he looking at me like that?

"You really want to know about Miles?" His expression tells me that I'm crazy.

Oddly enough, I do. "Yes. Surely, he couldn't have always been this bad person he turned into."

Hunter takes my free hand and gives it a little squeeze. He doesn't let it go either. "You're a good person, Little Red."

This is a different, more friendly side of Hunter. He appears carefree, not the uptight, suit-wearing, stone-faced man I've witnessed so many times before. He's wearing dark blue jeans with a black tee—nice, casual, and damn attractive. The suits are a different level of hotness, but this country-boy look he's pulling off makes me want to ravage him.

Clearing my throat, I say, "It's not an easy thing for me to be open with people. With you, I'm trying. Just don't hurt me."

I catch the side of his mouth pull up. Hunter walks me into the forest behind the barn, following a cleared path into the trees, not the shrubs I ran for the other night on the other side. This path is clear, and trees and shrubs line the sides, a gravel path leading the way.

"You know, I grew up with Nash and Miles."

I glance at him with wide eyes. "What were they like?"

"Well, I mostly hung out with Nash. We were joined at the hip, as May puts it." He laughs. "We were always out the back here, climbing trees, building forts, and just being boys."

Hearing those memories makes me smile. Knowing that my brothers had a good life makes me happy.

Hunter steals a glance at me, then questions, "Are you sure you're okay hearing this?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be? I want to know about my family."

Hunter is silent for a moment. "Because this would have been your childhood, too, if youweren't taken away."

I didn't really think about that. Now it's been brought up, I won't be able to let it go.

"I think growing up how I have has made me a stronger, more resilient person. If I'd simply become your wife after growing up in this life, your life, I may not have had the strength for survival I do now. I know it's a foolish way to look at things, but I've been angry for so long, and now I have a chance to get to know my family." I chew my lips as a lump forms in my throat.

"Tell me about how you grew up?" he asks gently.

I laugh. "Why are you asking when you probably already know if you've kept tabs on me?"

He cocks an eyebrow. "I didn't always have eyes on you. I knew the area you had been in, and yes, I had people around keeping an eye out for you because I knew one day you'd be special not only to me but to the rest of your family."

My chest tightens at his words. Clearing my throat, I say, "Let's just say I've lived on the streets and survived because of the friendships I made with other homeless people."

Hunter frowns. "What happened between you and your foster family?"

"Which one? I was in and out of quite a few homes until I turned eighteen, and I just packed my stuff and left." I shrug, thinking back to that time when I couldn't wait to get out of that abusive home.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I don't think that was May's or your mother's mom's plan at all. What happened to make you leave the last home?" His jaw tenses as he asks.

"The father was a drunk, and everyone in the house, including their biological kids, copped the abuse. If we had bruises, we didn't go to school. Hardly any food was in the house at times because he would drink it all away, and the final straw was when, because I wasn't his daughter and I was older, he thought it was okay to try stuff on me, and I wasn't having any of it so I left."

Hunter is silent for a moment. That was a lot of information for him to take in and process. I squeeze his hand reassuringly, and this jolts him out of his thoughts.

"Sorry, Nash or I should have helped you sooner. I'm so sorry for what you went through."

"It's okay. I'm here now, and this is much better than what I had, and I'm grateful for it."

We both fall silent for a moment, the sounds of the different bird calls filling the area around us until Hunter breaks the silence. "Have you read Nash's letter?"

My chest squeezes. I shake my head. "No, not yet. I'm not sure I'm ready."

The birds are singing around us as we walk, and the breeze gently kisses my skin.

"Ah...here we are."

I follow Hunter's line of sight. Sitting there amongst some overgrown shrubs is an old wooden playhouse. It isn't huge, but it appears to be big enough to fit three adult-size bodies inside, I'm sure of it. There's what looks to be mold growing on the wood, and some of the tin roof has rusted. A small sheet of the roof has come off or maybe blown away in a storm or something, but with a little TLC, it would come up nicely.

"Wow," I breathe out.

"Welcome to the shack." He laughs. "This is where Nash and I hung out. Your grandfather built this for us. We kept hounding him, and finally, he gave in."

"This is great." I release Hunter's hand and move closer to inspect it. "I guess it's been a while since you were out here."

"Well, yes and no. Nash and I stopped playing here when we were dragged off to work for our fathers. Your mother and father were already in the deep end with families of the underworld because of what had happened to you and your sisters. Things became tense with our families, and I wasn't allowed to spend time with Nash anymore."

"I sense there's a but."

Hunter kicks a stick, and then his head comes up. "Yes, there is. Later, Nash wanted me to meet him here, and this is where he told me he'd found you and his other sisters." My chest suddenly grows tight, and I open my mouth to speak, but Hunter holds up his hand to stop me. "What I didn't mention to him was that I'd already been searching for you."

I swallow. "Me?"

"Yes. Only you. When I was eighteen, I knew about you and your family's betrayal. When I was twenty-one, I sent Landon to find you."

A memory comes to the front of my mind. "When I lived under the bridge, there was a man there."

He nods.

"That was Landon?"

"Yes. I wanted him to keep his distance, only observe."

"I remember a man. He scared me. Though when I look at him now, I don't remember him." All the times I've seen Landon around the barn, his face has never clicked with my memory.

"He's great at hiding in the shadows. That's his specialty."

"Specialty?" I cock my head to the side.

Hunter shoves his hands in his pocket and walks around the shack. "Yeah, he's good at certain things."

"What? Like an assassin?" I laugh.

He stops walking and stares at me. He's not making a joke. "If that's what you want to call it."

I rub my forehead. "This is all so much for me to wrap my head around."

He opens his mouth, but I cut in. "Don't tell me any more right now. I don't want this moment ruined by all the dark stuff that will cloud me for the rest of my life."

"All right. So what else do you want to know?"

Hesitantly, I ask, "Can you take me to where Nash and Miles are buried?"

"Sure, if that's what you want."

"It is, but I have another favor."

"Anything."

"Can you get Nash's letter from my original bedroom in the bedside drawer and the photos of my sisters?"

Hunter takes my hand, leading me away from his and Nash's playhouse—a place I now feel connected to.

I remember Nash and his constant teasing of me, just for fun. I shake my head at the memory. Then, I'd thought he had a crush on me. Looking back, he was just being a big brother, bothering his little sister. That realization makes my heart swell with so much love for him.