Heart of the Hunter (26 page)

“Oh, easy now, little lady, did Hunter not tell you we were coming?”

The man holding Luke looked over at Hunter, shaking his head in disapproval.

“Hunter, I’m upset. Did you not tell your girlfriend that your old man was coming for a visit?”

I could see the fire in Hunter’s eyes as he stared back. I could see the hatred pouring out of him. This was his father. The time had come. I couldn’t believe that everything he had talked about was actually coming true. I was so caught up in the bliss of being with him that the reality of who he was had barely had a chance to sink in. That all changed now. Now, I was staring at all the evil in Hunter’s life as he, Luke, and I were held there, helpless.

“How the fuck did you find us, pop?” Hunter finally said, as he lifted his head so his nose was toward the sky. He wasn’t going down yet, but I had no idea how long he could last, how long
we
could last.

Hunter’s father chuckled as he held the knife to Lucas’s neck.

“Come on, Hunter. Give me some credit here. I do run a hell of a business, you know? I did it long before you ever arrived, and I’ll do it long after I dispose of your sorry ass. We had you tracked for a while, kid. Just took me a bit to get myself organized is all.”

Hunter just stared back at him and laughed.

“You mean it took you a while to grow the balls? That’s what you mean isn’t it? You fucking coward.”

“Easy, Hunter. Don’t go running that mouth or I’ll make this slow and painful on you and your little family here.” He paused and then shook his head in sarcastic embarrassment. “What am I thinking? I forgot we had one more member of this lovely crew to bring out.”

He waved one of the men off me and motioned to the trunk of his car.

Who could he be talking about? No. Please, God, no.

Sure enough, as I felt a sick scream start in my stomach and pour out of my mouth, they pulled Grace out of the trunk.

I dropped as she was hauled out in front of Hunter like some sort of animal. He fought and he struggled and he screamed, but he couldn’t break free. Grace was bleeding and bruised. They had roughed her up. I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear a sound. I just watched while Grace wept as she was paraded out in front of us. I had never cried harder in my life. The sweetest and most innocent woman in my life had been beaten and degraded and it was all because of me.

“Kelly. Kelly, I’m so sorry dear. I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”

Grace was shaking as she was led toward me.

“Grace. Grace. Are you okay? I’m so sorry.” I turned to Hunter’s father and screamed at him. “How could you do this? What’s wrong with you? You’re a monster.”

I could see rage boiling in his eyes as he lifted the blade from Lucas’s neck and pointed it at me.

“Now, see here, cunt,” he seethed. “You little ladies can make apologies to each other and hate me all you want, but there’s one person, and one person only, to blame for this little predicament we all find ourselves in.”

He brought the blade down and aimed it at Hunter.

“If this ungrateful piece of garbage hadn’t turned his back on the only family his worthless ass ever knew, none of us would be here.” He turned his head and looked at Hunter. “So, Hunter boy. The man of the hour. How do you want this to go down? You’re going to die, that was decided the moment you took off in a car full of my money, but maybe, just maybe, I’ll show some mercy to the broads and this little punk if you beg me for your life. And, by mercy, I mean I’ll put bullets in their heads instead of letting the boys have their fun with them as you watch.”

Hunter stared back at him with all the anger inside him. I could see his chest heaving and all the muscles in his body tensing with every breath.

“I’m going to cut your fucking balls off, old man.”

As I stood there looking out on all the men and weapons scattered across the driveway, I felt like I was about to faint. This wasn’t real life. This sort of thing didn’t really happen to people.

“Hunter,” the old man laughed, “I’ve got to say, kid, the odds aren’t exactly stacked in your favor. One last chance, son, or I start by slitting this little fucker’s throat. Then I move on to the women.”

“Do what you’ve got to do, old man,” Hunter said flatly, condemning my brother to death. I couldn’t believe my ears.

“No. Please. Let him go. Hunter, what’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with all of you?” I was kicking and screaming and everything else seemed still.

“Will you control that bitch, please?” the old man shouted.

I looked over to where Hunter knelt with a blade in his shoulder and saw him staring at Lucas. They both had a calm about them and everything seemed to go quiet at once. I could see that Hunter’s breathing had slowed and Lucas had no tears streaming down his cheeks anymore.

I had no idea what was about to happen, but it was going to be a bloodbath. I just prayed we were the ones left standing after the dust settled.

Chapter 50

Hunter

“S
O,” WHO’S IT GOING TO
be, Hunter? We going to waste you all at the same time, or do you want me to start one by one with these fucking civilians? Make a choice, lad. It will be your last.”

My vision was red. I didn’t know how I could get to him, but I knew I had to. He was five feet away, but it might as well have been five hundred. If I could just get to the blade on my ankle.

“I can start with the kid here if you want?” the old man continued.

That’s it, you sorry old prick. Keep rattling on. You’re all fucking talk and always have been. Never lifted a finger to do any dirty work in your whole miserable life. That’s why you brought this crew of punks with you. That, and you knew I’d cut you from your balls to your chin if you came alone. Keep talking, coward. Give me some time to fucking think.

“Or maybe I’ll start with the old girl here? She is the one that got us here, after all.”

He motioned his head toward Grace.

“Imagine my surprise when we rolled into the only diner in town and this one just started pouring her guts out about one of her waitresses taking off with some tattooed drifter. I must have done something right in my fucking life to get that kind of luck dropped in my lap. Can’t fucking think what it might be, but I must have done something.”

Grace was weeping. She had led them right to me, right to Kelly. I couldn’t fucking blame her though. She had no reason to think the well dressed man sitting in her diner today was on the warpath. She had seen me beat the life out of two people and was afraid I was going to hurt the closest thing she had to children. She didn’t trust me, and of course she had reason not to. Every instinct she had about me was right, and now I had landed the whole lot of them in more trouble than any good person deserved. I had dragged them all down with me and now I had to get them all out.

Think, Hunter, fucking think.

My head was racing a mile a minute and getting nowhere. If I managed to get these fucks off me, the old man would slit Luke’s throat. If I got to Luke, Kelly or Grace would go down at the old man’s order. I was fucked. We were all completely fucked.

I looked over to Kelly and she stared back at me. She had the same look in her eye that she always had. The one begging me to save her.

I turned back toward Lucas and saw the look in his eye too. I went fucking silent and felt the blood slow in my veins. He wasn’t looking at me and he wasn’t looking at his sister. He was staring up at my old man with pure, burning hatred. I had given the old man that same look many times, but I had never seen it out of anyone else, especially a goddamn kid.

Luke, you’ve got to be fucking joking.

The little punk had a knife to his throat and all he was thinking was murder. He wanted to gut that old fucker as much as I did, and he was trying to figure out how he was going to do it. He saw nothing else. I knew that feeling. I knew it well and I couldn’t believe the fucking balls on this kid standing in front of me.

“Lucas. Hey, Luke,” I cried, and the kid’s eyes shot back toward mine. He was breathing deeply and practically foaming at the mouth. “It’s going to be all right, pal. You got me? It’s going to be all right.”

He looked at me and nodded his head, but the fire in his eyes didn’t change. I didn’t want to see the little fucker get his throat cut and I had to make a move quick.

I lowered my head and took a deep breath. This was it, now or never. I gritted my teeth and was about to rip myself away from the assholes holding me when I heard a bloody scream come out of the old man’s mouth.

“You little fucker,” the old man cried. “You little piece of shit. Someone get that fuck. Shoot him. Shoot him now.”

When I looked up, I saw Lucas spit out a piece of the old man’s finger and bolt toward the house. The bastard stood there, holding his blade in one hand and fumbling for a pistol with the other, leaking blood all over his fine suit.

I heard shots ring out as Lucas peeled around the corner of the porch, just as bullets pelted the wood.

“Run, Luke. Run, run, run,” Kelly shouted.

Grace had fallen to the ground in shock.

Holy hell, kid.

Suddenly, I heard shots ring out behind me and realized the fucker digging the blade in my shoulder had taken his hands away to unload a clip at Lucas.

You stupid motherfucker.

I ripped the knife out of my shoulder and drove it in the dumb son of a bitch’s jugular. As I came to my feet, I brought my fist down to the other cunt’s jaw with all my fucking might. He dropped hard and fast. Just to be sure, I picked the baseball bat off the ground and started to bash his skull in. After two hits, the fucker was down for good.

I looked back up toward the porch and saw the two goons who were holding Kelly and Grace reach for their pistols and take aim. I moved quickly, taking cover behind the car as bullets riddled the trunk. I reached down and pulled out the steel that was wrapped around my ankle and noticed I still had the baseball bat in my other hand.

Well, fuck. Knife and a bat to a gunfight, hey Hunter? Better than nothing, I guess.

As I crouched against the side of the car, I saw my old man scurry around the side of the house like the fucking rat he was, trailing blood from his mangled finger.

Yeah, you run, cunt. I’ll be with you shortly.

It was the two fucks with hand cannons on the other side of the car that had my more immediate attention.

Think, Hunter. Fucking think, goddamn it.

There was no time for thinking. It had never been my fucking strong suit anyway. I took three short breaths and tossed the baseball bat high to my right and started to move around the car to my left. When the bat dropped, the two motherfuckers started unloading their clips in that direction, and I took off in a full fucking sprint toward them from their blindside. I dragged my blade across the first one’s throat, tearing it open. Then I went to drop it in the second fuck’s eye. He swung his arm around and stopped me. I watched the knife drop to the ground where the first punk was bleeding out. Then I fell to the ground.

“Hunter,” I heard Kelly scream from the porch. She was standing in her house coat, shaking and crying her eyes out. “Hunter.”

I rolled in the dirt with the big ape and managed to knock him off me with a hard head butt.

“Kelly, get inside the house, now.”

“But Hunter.”

“Now,” I cried.

She turned and ran inside the house slamming the door behind her. She was safe. For the moment at least, she was safe.

I felt a fist come down on my face and looked up, just as the goon cocked his pistol and took aim. I rolled out of the way as two bullets bit into the dirt where I had just been.

I swung my leg and swept his feet out from underneath him, watching the big fuck crash to the ground. I reached over, grabbing his collar, and mashed my fist into his face twice. I watched him go limp, grabbed his gun, and sprayed the fucker’s blood all over the chest and face.

I let out a hard sigh as I fell back on my ass and rested my hands on the ground.

“Fuck me,” I gasped as I tried to catch my breath.

I looked around at the collection of bodies and blood that soaked the dirt of the driveway, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it as I climbed to my feet. I let out a deep groan as I lowered my hand back down. I forgot there had been a blade digging around my shoulder until a minute ago.

I took a deep drag of my cigarette and exhaled a thick cloud into the afternoon heat.

“Fuck me,” I sighed.

I took one more deep pull of the smoke and threw it to the ground. The hard part was over. Now I just had to find that old fuck who liked to think he was my father. I had to find him and, when I did, I was going to fucking murder him with my bare hands.

But first, I had to get to Kelly. Nothing was done until she was safe.

Chapter 51

Kelly

I
RAN INTO THE HOUSE
as my heart beat out of my chest and gunshots rang in my eardrums. It had all happened so fast. One moment I was lying in my bed with Hunter, and the next there was a gang war exploding in front of my eyes. I couldn’t catch my breath and my legs felt like they were about to give out. I turned to run back to the porch, but heard more gunfire and sounds of fists against flesh. I felt like I was being pulled in two directions and before I knew it, I had collapsed against the wall and was sitting on the ground. There was nothing else I could do. Hunter was outside, fighting for his life, fighting for
my
life. I put my head in my hands and rocked back and forth to the sound of the mayhem that surrounded me. Then my head shot up.

“Lucas,” I gasped.

Where had he gone? I could barely register how he’d escaped. I had turned my head for a second and then all I saw was Hunter’s father gushing blood and Luke running full speed around the house.

“Lucas,” I cried desperately. “Lucas, Lucas.”

I pulled myself up and ran through the house, looking in every room. There was no sign of him.

Dear God, please, please let him be okay.