After dead-bolting all the doors and making sure every window in the house was locked tight, I curled into my cold bed in the house I’d shared with my husband. I hadn’t slept here in weeks, the house now feeling emptier than it ever had. The police tape was gone, the Feds having hauled out every box of paperwork with Brant’s name on it, and now here I was.
Stunned and numb.
I rubbed at my belly, thankful that the little life that lived inside wasn’t out in this big bad world yet. I had time to change this world for him. I had time to make a difference and remove him from this criminal life I’d been pulled into. And if that meant leaving Hunter, I would do it. I’d had enough of Hunter’s half-truths and lies by omission.
But despite everything, I ached for what we could have. In the moments where Hunter and I existed alone, I couldn’t picture a life of happiness and joy without him. The man behind the camera, the artist working to the tune of the rhythmic click. My head told me this was all wrong and running was the only path to survival, but my heart had different ideas. If I left him, Hunter would invade every moment of my life and every shattered corner of my heart. Our love was inevitable.
I tucked further into the sheets of my bed, desperate to close my eyes and escape my new reality. Hunter’s top notch security system had failed, and my house didn’t have half the tech his did. We had a rudimentary system that was on the fritz half the time. If JW wanted me, he could get me right here, and the sad truth was, I was so numb to the shock of all the revelations that my head was left spinning and I didn’t have the energy to care.
I could stay at my mom’s house outside of the city — I would surely be safer there — but then that would require explaining everything to my mom and putting her in the direct line of danger.
I sighed and rolled over, glancing at the clock to find it past eleven at night, the bright summer moon streaking through the windows keeping my thoughts pulsing with madness. Wandering to the kitchen downstairs, I brewed myself a cup of decaf tea, and as it steeped, I glanced around my home wondering if I could raise a child there. Hell, raise a child by myself at all. I hadn’t told Hunter yet; the fact was I could still run. Disappear and remove this baby from all the harm that would surely come of being born into this life.
I dumped the tea bag in the trash and added a few drops of honey to my cup before heading for the small deck that dominated the tight square footage of our backyard. Barefoot, I stepped out onto the cool wood, soaking up the soft moonlight as the sounds of the city filled my ears.
“Erin.” A soft voice carried on the wind and startled me from my thoughts, causing hot tea to wash down my hand and scorch. I screamed and dropped the cup on the deck where it shattered and splashed more hot water across my feet.
“Fuck!” Boots thudded up the deck stairs and swooped me into hard biceps.
“Get the fuck away from me,” I seethed and ripped myself from his grip.
“Erin. Hear me out for a minute.”
“Not a chance. I’ve heard you out way too many times, starting with that first night you introduced me to your stepfather. Not again, Hunter.”
“Well, too fucking bad.” He pinned me against his hard body before he dragged me to the bench on the porch and yanked me into his lap. “Need to feel you.” He sucked one quick breath in at my neck before his fingers tightened at my elbows. The adrenaline had always fueled Hunter’s lust, but I wouldn’t let it take me under this time. Not ever again.
“Let me go,” I grit and tried to wrench myself from his grasp.
“We’re way past that, Princess,” Hunter answered as he held me firmly seated on his lap. “I’ve got explaining to do, and we’re in this too deep for you not to give me the chance to do it.” He paused and his deep green orbs flashed in the silver light. He had no idea just how deep we were, and I’d be damned if I would tell him now.
I clenched my jaw. “Fine.”
“When I was in the Army–”
“Fuck, Hunter, stop living in the past! I don’t care about what happened then. Why the fuck have you been stalking me for months?!” I must have caught him off guard because his grip loosened and I jumped from his arms, sprinting across the deck to gain distance from him.
“It’s all fucking related!” His voice barreled closer, and before I could think, I darted through the doors of my house and through the kitchen. I needed away from him, I had to get out. I couldn’t handle anymore of his brand of honesty.
“Listen!” he bellowed when he finally caught my elbow and pushed me over the soft leather of the couch. I grit my teeth, wanting to fight him, take my rage out on him for putting me in all of this trouble. I’d settle for a bite, maybe a scratch. Anything to draw some blood. I wanted him to pay for his dishonesty.
“If I have to listen to your explanations one more time Hunter fucking Ellis, I’ll claw your eyes out.” I twisted until his grip softened. Softened but did not release.
“The fuck you will, Princess.” Hunter’s voice rang with a thread of amusement that grated across every one of my nerves.
“I was special forces in the Army. My last tour I was visited by a recruiter for Quantico…” Hunter’s voice fell off on his last word.
“Quantico?” I turned, my eyes widening with realization. “The FBI?” His grip finally loosened, and I stood and turned to find his eyes. They held mine, raw and bare, telling me he had no secrets left to reveal. This was it. The big one.
“They’d done their research.” Hunter pushed a hand through his short hair. “Knew my connections to JW. Once they saw I was interested in bringing him down, serious about being on the straight and narrow…I flipped.” He nearly choked on the last word before stalking off to the large bay windows, his hand working fiercely at the nape of his neck. “I came home from Afghanistan with the intent of going undercover in the outfit. Feds are cracking down on crime in the city, and it starts right here, with me and JW,” his voice cracking.
“Jesus Christ.” I walked to his large form silhouetted in the moonlight.
“This is the first time I’ve lost track of him. And you–you have been the wild card, Princess. But JW is ingrained deep in your life, and you didn’t even know it. So it’s true, I brought you in to protect you. I just didn’t bargain on falling in love with you.” His gaze cut to mine and a soft cocky smile lit one side of his mouth. “If I can’t find him in the next few days, they’re threatening to take me off the case for my own safety. Feds want me to go wit-pro. JW is a violent variable. He’s off the radar, which puts every one of us in danger. Mostly you.”
“Hunter–”
“I told them I wouldn’t go into wit-pro unless they could promise it for you too.”
“Hunter.” My heart thudded dangerously in my chest as this new bolt of information struck me. “Witness protection? I can’t, that’s–that’s a whole new life!” Tears I’d thinly veiled now surged down my cheeks. “No, no, this can’t be right. None of it.” I shook my head, thrusting my hands in my hair.
“The FBI doesn’t offer wit-pro to just anyone; there has to be an excessive threat…”
“God, Hunter. It’s so much more complicated than that.” Bile burned my stomach and surged up my throat. I didn’t have the leisure of waiting for the right time anymore. This was life and death. Times three. “I have to tell you something,” I said through frustration as I realized my life was making a one-eighty again.
“Is everything okay?” His eyes darted up and down my body as if looking for wounds yet to be discovered.
I pulled Hunter down on the couch with me, clutching his fingers in mine for strength I didn’t think I possessed. I swallowed the softball in my throat and then blurted, “I’m pregnant.”
