Hunter

HUNTER

TWO YEARS AGO

I felt the rush of enjoying every minute as they ticked by. A sea of bodies surrounded me as they fought to find somewhere to stand, talk, laugh, or joke over the music. The music pulsed loudly, pumping so hard I could feel it in my bones.

It didn't help that I had a few drinks running through my system, though I wished I'd managed to score a little more than the tiny bag of coke I had already burned through. No responsibilities awaited me tomorrow, so all the suffering from tonight could be slept off, giving me free rein to enjoy the night as much as I wanted without worrying.

"Already done?" a voice called into my ear, and I laughed, wrapping an arm around his neck and pulling him close for a kiss.

"Last time, you were the one who went wild, and now it's my turn," I told Lucas, giving him another kiss.

"Yeah, you're definitely feeling it," he said, setting his drink on the table.

"What makes you say that?"

"Because you're being super affectionate."

"I'm always affectionate!"

He laughed, kissing the tip of my nose. "True, but you're even more affectionate when you drink...among other things. I do love you when you're drunk."

"Mmm," I nuzzled into his face. "And I love you when I'm not."

"Isn't that cute?" another voice at the table piped up, and I grinned at the blond-haired man. The three of them had appeared a couple of hours ago while I'd been sitting with Lucas and started chatting with us. They were all good-looking, but the blond, Callum, was definitely the cutest. I wasn't sure if they were trying to hit us up for some sexy fun later, but they were friendly and trying to have some kind of fun.

"We're adorable, thank you very much," I said with a laugh, eyes widening when another drink dropped in front of me, pretty in its layers of gradually deepening blue. "Wow, did the service change around here or something?"

"They've been buying our drinks for the past couple of hours," Lucas pointed out with a shake of his head. "You already thanked them for it the first time."

"Well, thank you again!" I said, raising my glass toward the three men.

"You're the first people who proved interesting tonight," Callum said with a wink. "And who wants to go out and be bored?"

"Not me, that's for sure," the dark-haired man beside him said. Whose name, after I thought about it for a moment, was Mitchell. From what I remember, he was supposed to be doing something with his father's business and had been the least talkative of the three.

"Seriously, we go out all the time, and people are just...bland," the third one, Damon, said with a chuckle. Honestly, he was the only one of the three I wasn't all that fond of. There was something off about him, not just because he was a lawyer. But the other two made up for his presence, so I was more than willing to tolerate him if the fun kept coming.

"By the way, your phone has been going off," Lucas said, sliding the device to me. "I wouldn't normally tell you since you don't care most of the time, but?—"

"But?" I asked and unlocked the screen to see the name at the top. "Oh shit, Kai got service? That's rare lately."

"Who's Kai?" Damon asked.

"That would be the only man I've ever had to compete with," Lucas said, but his tone and smile said he was only teasing. "It's his best friend from childhood. They're insanely close."

"Oh yeah?" Callum asked with a curious look. "How close?"

"Like brothers," I said, ignoring the twinge of discomfort I felt whenever I called him that. It was weird to refer to him as a brother when I'd had the most painful crush on him when we were younger. Not that I didn't still feel something for him that went beyond platonic, but that feeling was tucked away neatly in its box in the back of my mind where it belonged. "And before you ask, he's straight."

Kai and I had grown up during a time when I hadn't learned that having a crush on your straight best friend was as cliche as it got for a young gay kid growing up. Then again, I would have liked to see anyone in my shoes not develop feelings. Even if Kai wasn't aware of it, he was a damn good-looking man, and he had been the support system I needed when my family was...well, the reason I needed a support system in the first place.

"They're tight," Lucas continued to explain, giving me time to type out a message to Kai. "If you saw the two of them, you'd understand how tight I mean."

"And that doesn't bother you?" Damon asked, raising a brow, and I immediately pegged him as the controlling, jealous type.

Lucas let out a laugh and shook his head. "No. Even if Kai wasn't strictly straight, I wouldn't be worried. I've known both of them for a while, and this one isn't going to leave a relationship for another. He'll leave for a damn good reason. And Kai isn't the type to disrespect another person like that, no matter what he wants or feels. They're just close, and it wouldn't make sense to be jealous of their friendship. Envious? Yeah, definitely. Not everyone gets a best friend like they have."

"Wow," Mitchell grunted, taking a sip from his beer. "That's, uh, pretty confident."

I grinned as I tucked away my phone and returned to the conversation. "That is one of the many things I love about him. There's no drama about the people in my life, and he's not worried about me, which, hell, I take as a sign that I don't have to worry about him."

Then again, we'd been dating for a while and even had our business and apartment together. Those were three things I definitely wouldn't do with someone I didn't believe I could trust. The man was the steady rock in my life, always a place I could go to survive the buffeting and beating the world handed out.

"Well, and he's also the first boyfriend who actually gets along with my best friend," I added with a laugh.

"Is he a bit of a shit-stirrer?" Callum asked with a grin.

"No," I snorted, thinking he had a nice smile. It was the kind of smile that made you think you could dress him up and take him home to Mom...well, if you didn't have an alcoholic dumpster fire for a mother like I once had...who wasn't dead from an accident that was entirely her and my father's fault. "Kai doesn't start shit, and neither does this one. He's a little distant with the guys I date, but it was always them trying to stir something up."

"He was pretty distant with me at first," Lucas said as he drained his drink and waved off an offer for another. "Took me a bit to realize he was just keeping an eye on me."

"Someone doesn't trust my taste in men," I said with a roll of my eyes.

"As any best friend should," Lucas said with a laugh. "I just let him be, let him do his thing. Eventually, he came around, and everything was perfectly fine between us. We both want what's best for , and that's more than enough for us."

I sighed contentedly, leaning against his shoulder and letting the warmth seep through me...helped along by alcohol and a cocaine supply that was quickly running out. Growing up, I dreamed of having the life I had now, but the hope of getting there had always been faint. Home was a constantly rotating cycle of abuse and neglect from the people who brought me into the world, and the neighborhood Kai and I grew up in was...bleak, to say the least. Meeting him and realizing that despite appearing poorly matched, we were practically made for one another made things better.

Ironically, his leaving for the military had been the best and worst thing. Worst because I lost my partner, my anchor, the person I could turn to when the world grew harsh and cruel. On the other hand, it was the best because it essentially kicked the crutch out from under me and forced me to face the world on my own. The time I had with him at my side had given me the strength to realize I wanted to do things differently and, more importantly, that I was going to.

There had been a lot of missteps and mistakes along the way, and some things were outside my control, but eventually I found my way. I managed and owned a café and cat adoption business and had an apartment in the city. My car was new, my bank account was in five figures, and I hoped the hints I picked up from Lucas meant I was about to face a marriage proposal.

"So," Callum said loudly, pulling me out of my reminiscence. "I was thinking."

"Of?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"Well, we're running low on supplies," he said with a wink as he patted his pants pocket. "And I noticed you are too."

"This is very true," I said with a nod.

"And we just so happen to know someone around here who could hook us up. And it'll probably be better than the stuff you're getting."

"That's bold," I said with a laugh and glanced toward Lucas. His face was polite, but I could see he was slightly uncomfortable. However, when he met my gaze, he smiled, which I thought meant he was fine. "But maybe, just maybe, you have my interest."

Callum grinned. "Well, I'll take that as a yes. So why don't you finish that drink, and we can have some real fun?"

If I'd been alone, there would have been no way in hell I would have taken him up on the offer. The three guys were pretty intimidating, even if they were apparently from good families and in good standing. I was eager to have even more fun, but that didn't mean I was ignorant about how the world worked.

I chuckled. "How about you prove your stuff is going to be better? Because I already know how good my stuff is."

"Sure," he said, sliding a metal case my way. Knowing what went on in this place, I didn't worry about opening it to find a small amount of powder left. Sliding the tiniest of spoons someone had bought me as a joke once, I quickly breathed in a bump. Within seconds, I felt the surge of adrenaline and pleasure hit.

"Holy shit," I said with a laugh. "Alright, yours wins. I guess that's that rich boy money."

"It can buy you just about anything in this world," he said with a wink.

I glanced at Lucas, who was still giving me a wary vibe but wasn't shooting me the usual warning signs. To my surprise, after getting permission, he even took a bit, giving me a taste of what I must have looked like as he blinked in surprise. With that, I figured our night was set on its best path, and with a grin, I slid from the booth to follow them out of the club and onto the street.

Feeling too good to worry about anything, I slipped my arm around Lucas', smiling when I felt him squeeze my arm and keep it there. He didn't have the same wariness I did when being affectionate in public. Then again, he'd grown up with a good family in a decent neighborhood and didn't have to deal with being a target just by being himself. Hell, he'd got more hell for being the son of the principal than he'd ever got for being gay.

"Seriously?" I piped up as we walked a few blocks, and I recognized where we were headed. "This isn't the greatest part of town."

"It's alright," Callum said with that same easy grin that invited us to trust him. "We've met our guy around here more than once. We know how to handle ourselves."

I thought about telling them there were probably plenty of people in the hospital or the morgue who thought the same thing. We were only a couple blocks from the apartment building where I'd spent the first eighteen years of my life. I knew just how bad this place used to be, and from what I'd been told, it had only grown worse. All I wanted was to get off the street as soon as possible.

Lucas was the one who muttered when the three men headed straight for an alley, dead-ended by a wall. A flickering neon sign bathed the end of the alley in red, making it look like the dirty white door beneath it was covered in blood. "They're going to get us all killed."

"In there?" I asked from the mouth of the alley, watching them approach the door.

"Where else?" Damon asked with his slippery smile, gesturing to an otherwise vacant alley unless you counted the trash and rats that didn't bother moving as the three men passed.

"Let's just...get inside. That's better than standing in the open," I said, glancing around nervously.

"Yeah," Lucas said as we walked forward. "I love you."

"I love you too," I told him with a light chuckle as we reached the end of the alleyway. The door opened and the three men stepped in, though Callum waited for us to enter the building with them.

"Jesus," Lucas muttered as we looked around the room. The floor was covered in trash and dust, and save for some wooden boxes shoved into the corner, there wasn't much to see, especially with the only light being the red neon flickering outside.

"You two wanted some fun, right?" a new voice piped up, and I turned to find a man standing by the window, his face thin and marked with old acne scars. "That's what I provide, all kinds of fun."

Suddenly, I felt more sober than ever when I realized we were surrounded by four men in some partially buried part of the neighborhood. Oh God, we were surrounded.

Something grabbed me roughly from behind, and I heard Lucas grunt in surprise as I yelled out, "No!" and flailed. It was more than that. I fought. I fought like hell as I realized everything I'd ignored was coming to be.

I let out another cry, and something collided with my chin, sending my jaw to one side and my mind to another. A moment later, I was gasping for breath, and I felt a prick in my arm. A new weight filled me, and I tried to cry out, shoving against the weight but knowing nothing but…

Weightlessness.

Freedom.

Pain .

"Lucas!" I cried, feeling the first burning agony of someone pushing themselves inside me for what it was. Drug or not, I knew what was happening and twisted to find him.

Only to find his eyes wide as blood dribbled from his front, his hand arched toward me. A searing pain threaded through me as someone, one of them, shoved something inside me.

"Fucker!" I snarled and twisted even as I felt the warmth explode within me.

Oh God, someone had just come inside me. They'd used me, and I just?—

"Ahhh," I couldn't help but scream as something else, someone else, pushed inside me. Lube or blood didn't matter because it hurt.

Oh God, it hurt .

"!" came the gurgled cry as I realized I was bent over a box, being used, staring at the man who had been my companion for so long.

"Lucas," I gasped, reaching for him.

Then it came, the flash of silver, the blade coming down, and Lucas let out another horrific gasp as crimson burst from him. I tried to cry out, only to feel the push of another inside me.

" God, they always fight. Fucking love that ." I heard a voice hiss.

Oh God. They were fucking me. They were raping me. And they were killing the man who loved me until—oh God, they were in me. They were taking turns, and they didn't care. They didn't?—

"Yes," came a harsh voice, and my stomach turned as I felt someone come inside me with a groan.

Everything swirled around me, and I swung toward nothing, only to collapse on the floor. A cry rang through me as a blade shoved into my side, my breath heaving as I felt everything they'd pumped into me leave.

"Be a good boy," a voice soothed, "and die here where you belong."

Of course. I had led Lucas and me here, and this…this is what I deserved.

Suffering.

Pain.

Inevitability.

My eyes drifted to Lucas, who was slumped against a wall, and I didn't know if he even knew what had happened. His sight was unknowing and lifeless.

"Lucas!" I screamed, and something inside me twisted as I heard laughter from somewhere on the other side of the hill.

No.

No.

Nonononono.

A scream bellowed up from inside me as I saw his death had happened while I had been nothing. And that despite the screaming agony in my side, brought by the glittery flash of a blade?—

NO.

Everything in me hurt, and I crawled.

Crawled and crawled.

"Help," I breathed once I was outside. " Help ."