Guts & Glory: Hunter (In the Shadows Security Book 3)

by Jeanne St. James

  He probably would have liked her omelet, too.

  She was sure he liked what he got served instead better.

  But Hunter was clearly athletic and had just spent a lot of energy making her lose her mind, so he was probably hungry.

  As much as she wanted to feed him, she also didn’t want to move. She liked right where they were.

  It was one thing to have her wiggly son in her bed in the morning, it was quite another to have a man like Hunter nailing her to the mattress.

  And nail her he did.

  She smiled up at the ceiling.

  She would be sore and possibly work her whole shift at The Carriage House bow-legged. But she’d manage.

  She turned her head just enough to look at the nightstand. They still had five condoms left. Even with all what they did, they managed to only use one.

  She wondered how long he would be in town...

  “Frankie,” he murmured against her skin.

  “Hmm?”

  “I need to get rid of the condom, but I’m liking where I’m at right now.”

  She was liking where he was at, too, but... “I was thinking about making you that omelet. Maybe I can run down and do that while you take care of business.”

  He lifted his head and glanced at her alarm clock. “How fast can you make an omelet?”

  She did a half-shrug. “I had everything prepared. No more than fifteen minutes.”

  “That might give us time for one more round before you get ready for work.”

  She covered her mouth and coughed. “My throat is suddenly scratchy, and I’m congested. I think I came down with the work flu.”

  He lifted his face from her neck, and she could see the gold flecks in his light brown eyes now that the sun had risen higher and was beaming through a gap in her curtains.

  “Will that get you in trouble?”

  “I hardly ever take off, even with having Leo. If the daycare can’t take him, my mom steps in when she can.”

  He rolled off her, slipped the full condom off, tying it and tucking it into a tissue from her nightstand. Then he rolled back, facing her, his head propped in his hand. “Why do you call her your mom?”

  Frankie let her gaze run down the line of his body, and it stopped at the first puckered scar. He most likely got shot while in the military, but she wondered about the circumstances.

  It wasn’t any of her business, just like her calling Diane “Mom” wasn’t any of his. “Because she’s my mom.”

  “She’s not your birth mom. Camila Hernandez was murdered in Guatemala while her baby girl was left behind in the States.”

  Frankie pushed to a seat and stared down at him. “Thank you for killing my afterglow.”

  “It wasn’t meant to kill it. I was just curious. Could do some digging myself, but I’d rather hear it from you.”

  “Why? Why do you need to know? This is just a,” she waved her hand over the bed and over the two of them, “thing. You’re leaving town soon, I’m sure. And I have a son who means the world to me. I don’t bring random men home and don’t plan on starting.”

  “I’m not some random man.”

  “No?”

  He didn’t answer her, instead he jackknifed up and off the bed, grabbed the tissue-wrapped condom and stalked naked out of the bedroom.

  She sat there in bed, staring at the open doorway, wondering whether she should get dressed and make him breakfast, or tell him to leave.

  But before she could decide, he was back, his jaw tight as he bent over to snag his boxers and pull them on. Then he started talking. “This is how it’s going to go. You’re going to call off sick from work, then haul your ass downstairs and make me breakfast. When we’re done eating, you’re going to clear off the table so I can fuck you over it. Then we’re going to spend the rest of the day up here in your bed, so by the time your son needs to be picked up from daycare, you’ll have to send someone else to pick him up as you won’t be able to move. Then I’m leaving, spending the night in the roach motel and heading to Lancaster first thing in the morning. And I don’t want to hear one fucking word about the fact that I’m bringing one of my... coworkers... up here to keep an eye on you while I search for Taz.”

  The whole time he was talking, she just stared at him as she waited for him to take a breath. And when he did, all she could ask was, “Is that right?”

  “That’s fucking right. By the time I leave here later, I will no longer be some random man in your bed and in your fucking pussy. Do we have that straight?”

  She didn’t think she had ever been speechless in her life. Not once. Even when Taz was taking out his temper on her. Not once had she been quiet, which was one of her problems.

  But at that moment, her mouth hung open and she couldn’t find any words.

  Other than, “Okay.”

  Chapter Nine

  He was anxious to get back to Manning Grove. He had called Steel to come up and keep an eye on Frankie and her son while he was gone. Steel wasn’t happy about it, but he did it. Hunter then met Walker in Lancaster and they spent three days searching for any sign of Taz or at least for a clue as to where he might have disappeared.

  Lancaster was a bust; they didn’t get shit.

  They had talked to everyone who worked at Frankie’s former employer, The Boneyard. They had a conversation with Frankie’s old landlord. Also with the manager of the fleabag motel where Taz lived temporarily before landing behind bars.

  He checked with Lancaster City PD, some local police departments surrounding the city and also the State Police in that area. Nothing. Besides his arrest for assaulting Frankie, he’d kept his nose clean while in that area. Not even a fucking parking ticket.

  They also ran across a couple members of the Sons of Satan MC, a support club for the Pagans. Since that outlaw club was based out of Lancaster, he wouldn’t put it past Taz to have tried to weasel his way into their midst.

  They didn’t know shit about any Tasmanian Devil. Nor were they open for any further discussion. But after staking out their clubhouse for two nights, no one who looked like Taz came or went.

  The obvious conclusion was Taz was no longer in the area and probably left once he got released. His parole officer hadn’t seen him either, which was why he had an open warrant for his arrest.

  But Hunter wanted to find him before law enforcement did. If Taz ended up behind bars again due to breaking his parole, he, or any of the Shadows, would have a tough time getting access to the man.

  They could, but it wouldn’t be as easy as if Taz was free. Plus, if D’s crew could make him disappear, then no one would be the wiser. Any death in lockup was investigated, even if it appeared to be suicide.

  Here Hunter was already planning the motherfucker’s demise, even though no one had talked to Slade and told him the details of his brother, or the situation involving the mother of his nephew. Hunter was leaving it to Diesel, who was oddly sitting on his hands.

  His boss probably had a reason, but to ask the big guy what it was was futile. He’d probably grunt and hang up the phone, so Hunter didn’t push it.

  They’d deal with it when they had to deal with it. Right now, they still had to find the slippery fucker.

  On his long trip back north, he stopped in Harrisburg to check on his baby at the dealership. She was in pieces as they worked on her, restoring her to her former beauty.

  Now, if he was going to shed a tear over anything, that sight would’ve caused it.

  But by the time he drove past the painted wood sign that read, “Welcome to Manning Grove,” his irritation about the destruction Frankie caused had waned.

  Lucky for her. Because his palm had itched to spank her ass as he stood in the bay at the dealer’s body shop while witnessing the damage all over again.

  She’d probably fight him if he tried to take her over his knee, but that would be a challenge he’d welcome. Because the woman would never go down easy.

  Which was why it surprised him to no fucking e
nd Taz got away with abusing her. If anything, Hunter would have expected her to stick the biker between the ribs with a fucking kitchen knife in the middle of the night while the asshole was sleeping.

  He never understood women and wasn’t even going to try. It wasn’t worth the headache.

  But a sharp pain stabbed his temples when he pulled into Frankie’s driveway and saw Steel’s blacked-out custom Fat Boy parked in front of the garage.

  Son of a bitch.

  He was supposed to be keeping an eye on her, not making moves. That being said, Steel had a short fuse and Hunter couldn’t imagine him tolerating Frankie’s back-talking, act-first-think-later, hot-tempered attitude.

  Nope, all that sass needed a man with a lot of patience. Hunter wasn’t the most patient man himself, but after spending a day in bed with the woman, he might be willing to dig deep for a little extra to deal with her.

  Because at the end of that day, minutes before Frankie’s “mom” dropped off her son, Hunter had left with a grin and nothing but prunes left for his nuts. If he came one more time, it would’ve simply been a puff of smoke.

  That night he’d gotten the best sleep he’d had in a long while. In fact, he’d even slept in the next morning and skipped his early morning run.

  He was also surprised he hadn’t lost ten pounds with all that cardio.

  And, fuck him, he couldn’t wait to do it again.

  Her pussy was like hot silk, her mouth like a Dyson vacuum, her tits and ass were perfect for all kinds of extracurricular activities.

  And the woman hadn’t said no to any of them.

  “Fuck,” he muttered into the quiet interior of his rental SUV. Then he adjusted his hard-on and thought back to his time trapped under a pile of rubble in Baghdad so the blood would recede from his dick.

  But bringing that memory back to the surface made him scramble quickly from the interior of the vehicle. He didn’t need to go into a full-blown panic attack due to being in an enclosed space.

  As he approached the front door, it swung open and Steel filled the doorway wearing a snug, white wife-beater with an unfolded paper napkin tucked into the neckline.

  Hunter’s step stuttered as he took in his fellow Shadow, who was also wearing a shit-eating grin.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Hunter collected his composure and climbed the steps onto the porch.

  That wide grin didn’t even waiver. “Eating. The fucking bitch can cook.”

  Hunter stopped on the welcome mat, dropped his head and stared at his boots, trying not to take offense at Steel calling Frankie a bitch. He knew the man didn’t mean it as an insult, but Hunter had a strong dislike for it.

  “Brother, can see your panties just got in a wad, but get over it. You calling her loquilla isn’t much better.”

  He raised his gaze. “She told you that?”

  “Told me a lot of things.”

  Fuck. She probably ran her fucking mouth. “Like what?”

  Steel’s grin turned into a full-blown, smart-ass smile and he stepped back as he shrugged. “Said she had a hard time finding your dick and had to get out the magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers.”

  “Big enough to make you gag,” Hunter muttered as he pushed past him and into the house.

  “Then good thing I don’t like sucking dick,” Steel announced as he shut the front door and twisted the deadbolt.

  “That’s not what Brick told me,” Hunter threw over his shoulder as he headed toward Frankie’s kitchen.

  He slammed on the brakes when he discovered not only Frankie stood at the counter in a pair of olive-green short shorts clinging to the bottom curves of her luscious ass, but she wore a bikini top, this time the color of the sun.

  “What the f—” He swallowed his curse as his gaze landed on Leo sitting at the table in a booster seat, his curious dark brown eyes glued to him.

  The kid had an elbow macaroni stuck to his cheek as he smiled at Hunter and said, “Hi,” then waved a hand at him, which was covered in what looked like cheese.

  “Hi,” Hunter returned automatically.

  “This sh— stuff is the fu— freaking best mac and cheese I ever ate,” Steel said, now sitting at the same table as Frankie’s son and shoving a forkful into his mouth.

  Frankie turned around, giving everyone in the room a great view of her cleavage, as her gaze slid through Hunter to give Steel a warm smile. “I’m glad you’re enjoying it.” Her smile was gone when she finally turned her attention to Hunter. “Sit. I’ll get you some dinner.”

  Sit. I’ll get you some dinner? That was his welcome after busting his ass for three days searching for her abusive former lover and after he fucked her into oblivion the last time he saw her?

  Fuck. That.

  In two long strides, he had her hooked by the elbow and was tugging her toward the kitchen door that lead to her backyard. “Watch the kid,” Hunter tossed over his shoulder at Steel and continued to “escort” a surprised Frankie out the back door, not waiting for an answer from the other man.

  As soon as the door closed behind them, he pulled her across her postage-stamp-sized backyard and behind the not much larger garage.

  “Problem?” she asked, her attitude already bubbling at the surface.

  Right now, she wasn’t the only one with an attitude.

  He spun her until her back was to the garage wall and dropped his hands to his hips. He forced himself not to get in her face when he growled, “Yeah, I got a problem. First off, your kid has the courtesy to say hi and you don’t?”

  “He says hi to rocks in the yard and bloated roadkill along the berm.”

  He ignored that. “And second, why the fuck are you wearing that around Steel?”

  “What?”

  She was playing dumb, which was not helping his blood pressure. “That top.” No, it couldn’t even be called a top. It only covered her nipples. And even then, barely because he’d seen firsthand how large they were. Perfect for his damn mouth, not Steel’s.

  “Well, maybe you haven’t noticed, it’s blazing hot outside and I needed to water my garden.”

  His eyebrows shot up his head and he was surprised they didn’t launch to the moon. “You were outside in that with your hose?” He wanted to close his eyes to fully appreciate that image.

  But he couldn’t because while his eyebrows had gone high, hers went low. “A hose is what you use to water. So, yes.”

  “With Steel here?”

  “Yes, he played with Leo outside while I watered.”

  “I’ll just bet he did.”

  Of course Steel was going to watch Frankie watering her garden with her tits barely contained in a couple scraps of fabric. Tits which were proportioned to her ass and thighs. The only woman he’d met recently who might have bigger ones was Rissa. And all his teammates had a difficult time not having a full-blown conversation with them when she was in the room. The struggle was real, and the only reason why they succeeded was because Mercy saw everything.

  “Since you’re sharing your ‘problems,’ then so will I... One, I didn’t need a babysitter. I certainly didn’t ask for one. But, for some reason, I got one. Also, for some reason, us sleeping together once, mind you, suddenly made you the boss of me. I’m not sure how that works. Oh wait...,” she lifted a finger, “it doesn’t.”

  Hunter’s head jerked back. “I’m not the boss of you.” And they didn’t sleep together only once. He lost count of how many times, it had just been all been packed into one day.

  “Then stop acting like it. I’ve survived the last four years without you.”

  While that was true, there was a good reason why she’d been safe before now. “Frankie, Taz got eighteen months for what he did to you, then had twelve more tacked on. You think that made him happy? And he was released only a few months ago. If he’s out to find you, it’s going to take him longer than you think to do so. It took me a while and I know what the fuck I’m doing. Let me remind you, him doing extra time for bad behavior and
then skipping out on his parole officer is a sign he didn’t find Jesus while inside or that he’s on the straight and narrow. He’s gone ghost for a reason. My guess is to find you or avoid us.”

  Her head tilted and her hands planted on her hips. “Which you never explained why he would need to avoid you. You’d think he would want to reunite with his long-lost brother, not hide from the men trying to reunite them.”

  Hunter’s mouth snapped shut.

  She threw her hands up at his non-answer. “Right. Luckily, Steel decided I needed to know the truth.”

  Fucking Steel. Was his teammate trying to get in there? Well, he wasn’t going to get in there. Fuck no. Hunter had already been in there and marked his territory.

  He closed his eyes and bit back a curse. What the fuck.

  He hardly knew the woman, had sex with her once... Fuck, for one day, and now he was claiming his territory?

  No. Just fucking no.

  He did not need the burden of a regular piece or her kid.

  Who, he reminded himself, was Slade’s nephew.

  He opened his eyes and stared at the woman before him. But that didn’t mean he didn’t want to get in there again.

  Maybe Steel could take Leo to the park.

  Jesus. He shook his brain free of that selfish thought.

  Suddenly, the strong woman who stood with her back to the garage crumpled before his eyes. Her face twisted seconds before she covered it with both hands.

  Damn. He hadn’t been ready for that.

  “He can’t find out about Leo,” came muffled from between her fingers.

  Like her face, something twisted deep inside him and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into him. She planted her face in his chest and he dug his fingers into her hair, which was up in a messy knot on top of her head, to hold her against him as a few sobs wracked her body.

  He dropped his lips against her hair and whispered, “That’s why I need to find him, Frankie. For your safety and Leo’s, too.”

  She sounded too vulnerable for his liking when she asked, “Do you really think he’s searching for me?”