Dead Man's Hand: A Small Town Romance (A Good Run Of Bad Luck Book 1)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “So, you want to take a trip?”

  He shrugged. “Or move someplace else. Maybe somewhere that isn’t so dangerous in the winter.”

  “But I thought you liked it here, with all the solitude.”

  “It’s just a place, no different than any other.”

  I thought about what he was saying, but I was confused. Why the sudden urge to leave? And why with me? Yeah, we were sort of a couple, but it’s not like we were married or anything. Why would he want to take me with him?

  “What about where you lived before?”

  His whole body stiffened and his eyes turned cold. “What about it?”

  “Well, do you ever think about going back there?”

  “No,” he said quickly. “I’ll never go back there.”

  “Why not?”

  His eyes narrowed in on me, like how he used to look at me when I first started staying here. “Why do you want to know?”

  “Why not? It’s just a question. I’m not asking you to divulge every dirty secret you have. I just wondered about where you lived before here.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said, standing quickly. He stormed into the kitchen, slamming stuff around.

  “Why are you acting like this?”

  He slammed a pan down on the stove, turning to me in anger. “It’s a part of my life I don’t want to think about. Just leave it the fuck alone!”

  I wanted to yell at him, to fight back like I usually did, but something inside me felt like it was dying. I tried to pretend like it didn’t matter if I didn’t know anything about him, and maybe it didn’t, but I couldn’t help but feel that if I didn’t ever know him, we didn’t really stand a chance. I didn’t know him, and he didn’t know me. What was the point in moving with him if all we ever had was this superficial relationship?

  I didn’t say anything else. I headed for the bedroom and shut the door behind me. Not two seconds later, Princess was scratching at the door. Sighing, I stood and let him in, knowing he wouldn’t leave unless I did. I didn’t really want to listen to him whining outside the door all night. Antonio caught my eye, staring me down as Princess darted past me onto the bed. I couldn’t shut the door now, in case Princess got hungry or needed to go out.

  I waited for a minute, hoping Antonio would say something, show me in some way that it mattered to him what I was feeling. But as he turned and headed toward the living room, I knew it was a lost cause.

  Two days passed with neither of us speaking to the other. We didn’t even speak as he took me to get my cast off. We both knew what time we had to leave, and we got dressed and walked out the door without a single word. It was weird to live with a man and not have any conversation at all. Even in the beginning, he would at least scowl at me or say the occasional negative comment. Now it was radio silence. I wanted to talk to him, I just didn’t know what to say.

  Where will this go if you don’t tell me about yourself?

  I think I love you, but you treat me like a stranger.

  I’m lonely, and I need you to be there for me.

  That last one was the hardest to even think about saying. I didn’t think it was fair to ask a man that I had only known for a matter of months to be there for me.

  I tossed my book on the table, tired of reading the same books I’d been reading since he brought them home. I’d already gotten through all of them, and now I was bored. Blowing out a long breath, I stared up at the ceiling.

  “Come on, we’re going hunting.” Antonio stomped past me, grabbing his coat off the rack.

  “We’re what?”

  “Going hunting.”

  “But I don’t know how to hunt.”

  “That’s why I’m going to teach you.”

  I shook my head. This man was giving me whiplash. He hadn’t spoken to me in days, but now he was taking me hunting?

  “I don’t want to go.”

  “Too bad. If you’re going to live here, you’re going to know how to use a weapon. The snow’s melting, and the wildlife are starting to come out.”

  “And your point would be?”

  “That if a bear comes after you, or a wolf, I would prefer it didn’t eat you.”

  “Oh, well, it’s good to know that you wouldn’t want me eaten. I feel so much better now.”

  “Just grab your coat,” he snapped, slipping on his boots.

  I didn’t want to do it out of spite, but I didn’t have anything better to do. Besides, it might be fun to learn something new. While I pulled on my coat and boots, Antonio went over to a cabinet that had always been locked, opened it and pulled out two hunting rifles. The cabinet had at least four others, and when he pulled out the ammo, my eyes bulged at how much he had.

  “Do you go hunting a lot?”

  He grunted in response.

  “Wow, that’s very informative. I’m so glad we’re working on this whole communication thing.”

  “No, I don’t go hunting a lot,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Then what’s with all the ammo? And why do you need six guns? You can only hold one at a time.”

  “It’s strategic,” he muttered, walking toward the door.

  “Oh,” I threw up my arms in annoyance. “Well, thank you for explaining. That really clears it all up.”

  He stopped and spun around, gritting his teeth. “If someone were to come here and threaten me, I would place one gun at each window, along with ammo to reload. If each gun is loaded and waiting, that gives me more time to defend myself, and less time fumbling with ammo.”

  I stared at him for a moment. “Do you fumble your ammo a lot?”

  He sighed and stormed out of the house.

  “What?” I yelled, chasing after him. “It’s a legitimate question!”

  I shut the door behind me and ran to catch up as he hurried across the yard to a storage shed. Once inside, he pulled out two orange jackets. Shoving one at me, I grimaced.

  “More orange? Why does it always have to be orange?”

  “It’s so you don’t get shot.”

  “Why would I get shot?”

  “Because in your clothes, you blend in with the landscape. A hunter might mistake you for a deer.”

  I snorted. “Well, I should hope not. I have no antlers.”

  “From a distance, that wouldn’t make much difference. It’s better to be safe than dead.”

  I glared at the material and then looked up at him. “You’re not going to shoot me, are you?”

  “Why would I shoot you?”

  “I don’t know. You take me out here, hand me a gun, and tell me we’re going shooting. Maybe you’re annoyed with me and you plan to bury my body out here.”

  “The ground is frozen.”

  “Well, maybe you’ll feed me to a bear.”

  “I wouldn’t waste the bullet then.”

  Huffing, I rolled my eyes at him. “Hey, I’m trying to make legitimate points here, and you’re ruining it.”

  “Well, you are right about one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I am annoyed with you.”

  He stomped off, leaving me on my own. I would shoot him if he had actually handed me the gun. I ran after him, struggling to keep up as he moved quickly through the woods. But as he moved further away from the house, I found myself mimicking his actions, stepping in certain places and hugging the trees more than walking in the open. He held up his fist, which I assumed meant that he wanted me to stop.

  “Alright, this is a good place to load.”

  “You could have just told me to stop.”

  “What?”

  “You held up your fist.”

  “Because we need to move quietly.”

  “You act like we’re in the military or something. It’s just the woods. Do you think someone’s going to jump out and start firing at us?”

  He clenched his jaw as I smirked at him. I was getting to him, which I found quite amusing.

  “We’re not going to kill anything if you’r
e stomping through the woods.”

  “I wasn’t stomping,” I retorted. “In fact, I was quieter than you were, but then I’m smaller and lighter than you.”

  “Are you finished?” When I nodded, he held out a gun to me. “This is a bolt action rifle.” He pointed to a switch thing on the gun. “This is the safety. Full safety,” he said, pointing to the position it was in. He moved it one position over. “This is the position for loading, but still on safe.” Then he moved it one more position over. “Safety off.” He flipped it back to the middle position. “Before you load, always point the muzzle away from anyone standing nearby—”

  I grabbed the gun out of his hands before he could say anything else. My fingers moved as if from muscle memory as I pulled back the bolt and grabbed the cartridges and started loading the gun. I chambered the last cartridge, making it five in total in the gun. Sliding the bolt back into place, I flipped the safety back to the full safe position.

  Slowly looking up at Antonio, I let out a light chuckle. “Well, it just made sense.”

  His gaze slowly assessed me for a moment. “Just don’t shoot me.”

  “I have no plans to.” He turned to walk away. “Yet.”

  He stopped in his tracks, almost looking over his shoulder at me, but stopped short. “If you’re going to shoot me in the back, make it a headshot.”

  I rolled my eyes at his dramatics. “Oh come on. I was joking! Why would I shoot you? Better yet, why do you think I know how to use one of these?”

  “Maybe someone took you hunting.”

  We continued through the woods quietly, keeping an eye out for any animals that crossed our paths. Though, honestly, I wasn’t really watching. I had no intention of shooting anything today. We finally came across some kind of structure that looked to be some kind of hiding spot. I took a seat inside, huffing in annoyance. This was not quite what I expected when we came out today.

  “Aren’t you at all curious as to why I knew how to load the gun?”

  “No,” he said bluntly.

  “Really? You didn’t think, Huh, that was weird. She doesn’t remember anything else, but she knows how to load a gun.”

  “No.”

  “Wow, Mr. Chatty today, aren’t we.”

  “We’re hunting, not talking.”

  “Clearly, I was mistaken,” I said sarcastically. “Because I thought we were just sitting here, waiting for a deer to stroll by, just waiting to be shot.”

  “Hunting is about patience.”

  “Yeah, I don’t have a lot of that right now.”

  “I can tell. You won’t shut your mouth.”

  I leaned forward, trying to get him to look at me, but he just kept his gaze on his surroundings. “You know, part of the problem we have is that you won’t talk to me.”

  “Part of the problem is that you won’t shut your mouth and we’re supposed to be hunting.”

  I grinned at him. “Look at you, bantering with me. I think you missed your calling in life.”

  He blew out a frustrated breath and turned away from me.

  “I’m just saying, this wouldn’t be nearly so boring if you actually talked to me, maybe answered some of my questions.”

  “What questions? All I hear is yapping.”

  “You know, you’re acting like an asshole again. It’s just like when I first came to stay with you.”

  “And you won’t stop talking, just like when you first came.”

  “I believe the first time I came, you liked it.”

  He slowly turned his gaze on me, heat building in his eyes. That got a reaction out of him at least. His jaw hardened and he shifted in his seat. I made a point to look down at his crotch, noticing the swelling in his pants.

  “It’s a shame that won’t be repeated anytime soon.” I quirked my head to the side, a slight grin on my face. “Are you still happy you took me hunting?”

  Standing quickly, he walked out of the shelter we were in. “Let’s go.”

  “Where to now, Captain?”

  “Anywhere but here.”

  He stormed off ahead of me, once again, refusing to speak to me. I bit my lip as an idea formed in my head. I positioned myself in the shelter, making sure my gun was level, flicked off the safety, and took aim. I wasn’t sure how I knew I could do it, but I did. Looking through the scope, I lined up my target, took a few calming breaths, and pulled the trigger. Antonio stopped immediately, his whole body stiff. Raising his hand, he fingered the hole in his right sleeve, then finally turned to look at me.

  I stared at him innocently. “Would you look at that. Isn’t that funny?”

  “No,” he said coldly.

  I flipped the safety back on and slung the rifle over my shoulder. “I think it is.” I stepped out and walked over to him. “For a woman that can’t remember a thing, I knew how to load a rifle, and how to aim so perfectly. I would say that’s pretty incredible. Yet, you don’t seem all that surprised by it. Why is that?”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “So, you’re still not going to tell me what you know.” When he didn’t say anything, I walked past him and headed back for the cabin. With every day that passed, I got this feeling that not only was he hiding things from me about his past, but about me as well. I couldn’t live with that. Either he needed to tell me, or I was going to have to leave. He promised me he would tell me when he knew something, so this was just one more secret between us. I had enough secrets in my head.

  34

  Antonio

  If I had any doubts about her abilities before, they were all washed away this afternoon. I had assumed I would have to train her to defend herself, but it all came back the moment I started showing her how to load the weapon. It was a little odd, because in families like ours, women in general were more ornaments than anything. They were never involved in family business of any kind. But she obviously had been trained in how to handle a gun and how to shoot properly. She put a hole right through the goddamn sleeve of my coat. I wasn’t stupid. She had meant to do that.

  And if she knew how to handle a gun, what else would come back to her? I watched her chopping vegetables for dinner, seeing how swiftly she used the knife. It wasn’t like she was a housewife chopping vegetables. She used that knife like it was a weapon. As she carried the cutting board over to the stove, she twirled the knife in her hand like it was second nature. It made me wonder why she hadn’t done that before, but the only thing I could think of was that she was right handed, and her cast had just come off.

  The more she used the knife, the more comfortable with it she became, which gave me an idea. I strolled into the kitchen, grabbing two knives from the butcher block and headed back toward the kitchen table. Stopping suddenly, I spun around and aimed the knife right over her right shoulder. I knew I wouldn’t hit her, not unless she decided to step in front of it at the last minute. It was a risk, but I had this gut instinct that she knew exactly how to handle it. Without another thought, I flung the knife through the air, placing it just over her right shoulder, but it never passed her head. Her hand went up on instinct and caught the knife by the handle, just as it was whirling past her head.

  She looked up at me, her eyes narrowing dangerously. I smirked at her, but was completely unprepared for her to whip it back at me. At my face. I caught it, just as she had, tilting my head in acknowledgement. Flipping the knife back and forth in my hand, I tried to decide my next move, but when she quirked an eyebrow at me and held up her much larger knife, I decided to back off.

  Holding up both hands, knives still in them, I acquiesced. “I give in.”

  “Are you testing me?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Why?”

  “I think you know why.”

  “I might, but I think you know more than you’re letting on.”

  I did, but there was no way I was telling her the truth. I couldn’t risk it just yet. I needed to make sure she was still with me when it all came out. I couldn’t lose her. But as I tested
her, I realized that if she did turn on me, it wouldn’t be as easy to get away as I thought. But I wouldn’t try to get away. As I told Knight, she was my last chance, and if she wanted to kill me, she’d have to put a bullet in my head, because I wasn’t going on without her.

  “So, still not talking, I see. Well, until you decide to talk, there will be no more sex.”

  I glowered at her. “I think that’s taking things a little far.”

  “Maybe for you. I have no problem abstaining.”

  “Really,” I said, prowling forward. “You have no problem going without my cock?”

  “Not at all.”

  I was in front of her now, pulling her flush against me. I leaned in and licked a trail up her neck. “And you don’t mind that I’m hard as a rock right now, needing to be inside you, feeling your pussy clenching around me.”

  I could feel her pulse racing under my tongue. Her breath came out in short pants. “Not really. That’s your problem, not mine.”

  “And you don’t care that I could slide my hand in your pants right now and feel how wet you are for me.”

  My hand slid down her side, then cupped her sex before flicking the button on her pants as I slid my hand into her warmth.

  “Why would I care about that?” she asked.

  My fingers slid over her clit, eliciting a moan from her. I took her mouth, forcing my tongue inside to tangle with hers. I was so wrapped up in the taste and feel of her that I didn’t even see the knife until it was too late. I felt the thin slice of the blade against my neck and froze.

  She pulled away from me, grinning at me. “You know, you’re almost too easy to draw in. A few moans and you’re already thinking about sex more than whether or not I’ll stab you.”

  “You can’t fake your desire for me.”

  “No, I can’t,” she admitted, “but I can definitely use it against you. Come near me again when you’re not willing to talk, and I’ll use the knife next time.”