by Jessie Cooke
“Larry has knowledge regarding a federal case, so they’re taking him into protective custody until he can testify.”
“I’m confused.”
Hunter smiled and reached for her hand. She took his. His left arm was still in a sling, but God did she love that right one. He led her out of the courtroom and once they were outside he said, “The bodies of Georgie and Charles Winters were just discovered in a trailer in Connecticut.”
“Bodies? They’re dead?”
“Yeah, and they were killed by the same man that kidnapped Angel. Because this man crossed state lines to commit a crime, the Feds took over the case. Because Larry has intimate knowledge about Georgie, Chuck, and by proxy, Josiah Miller, he’s going to be one of their star witnesses when they catch him.”
“And until they catch him?” Claire could tell by Hunter’s jovial mood that he thought Larry was better off with the Feds, but she wasn’t sure why until he guided her a few steps away from the courthouse and said:
“You see that big gold building there?”
“Yeah, it’s a hotel, right?”
He nodded. “It’s a four-star hotel, and that’s where Larry will be holed up until they need him to testify.”
Claire didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She threw her arms around Hunter’s neck and hugged him tightly. “Thank you.”
He laughed. “You’re welcome, but it wasn’t all my doing.”
“I’m sure it was most of your doing. Do you have work, or can you come back to Rockport with me?”
“I’m free. What did you have in mind?”
She smiled. “I’d rather show you.” Hunter shuddered in her arms. God, she loved that.
Hunter would have never said it to Claire, but he was disappointed when she didn’t take them straight back to the Inn. The whole way to Rockport he was thinking of all the things he wanted to do to her body but before he realized it, they were in Rockport…downtown. She parked the car and like an excited little girl she said:
“I want to show you my town.” Hunter didn’t tell her that he’d been there quite a few times as a kid. It was a beautiful little town, if a little quirky. He liked it, but he liked making love to Claire more. He tried to look happy as he responded:
“Great!”
She took his hand and they started walking down the main street. It was dotted with museums and art galleries and after the second one, he realized that she was planning on taking him into every one of them. He told himself to suck it up and try to have fun. Life wasn’t all about sex and motorcycles…or at least that’s what his mother told him.
The third building on the street was an artsy little coffee shop. She pulled him into it and ordered some fancy designer coffee. Hunter humored her and took a drink. “Holy Christ, that’s good,” he told her honestly. It tasted like coffee with caramel and maybe a little bit of chocolate. He’d drunk the whole sixteen ounces before they got to the next gallery, and he wanted to go back for more. He wasn’t sure if it was the coffee/crack, or the gallery, but the third one was definitely a charm. It was filled with charcoal drawings of nature, and Hunter was fascinated by the way someone could draw something freehand in such intricate detail.
By the time they left the third gallery, he had a genuine smile on his face. The next shop made saltwater taffy and he bought two huge pieces. He ate one all by himself and it only added to the crack effect of the coffee. By the time they got to the famous red fishing shack that he remembered loving as a kid, he was snapping pictures and acting like a stupid tourist. He was surprised at how good it felt to just have fun, out in the fresh air, with a beautiful woman, without sex being involved at all. Well, there were the stolen kisses in front of the lush and colorful gardens and flower boxes, and by the time they got to Bearskin Neck, he had felt her up a few times as well. Bearskin Neck was a peninsula that jutted out into the harbor. It had stores and gift shops and more galleries. The houses themselves were works of art, and as they walked Claire told him the history of some of them that dated back as far as 300 years. They walked down past a gorgeous neighborhood until they reached the beach, where the white sand opened into a beautiful view of the open sea. They walked along the sand until it turned into rocky outcroppings and the weather started to grow cold. Hunter enjoyed the walk back the most because Claire cuddled up into him, letting his body block the icy wind.
When they made it back to downtown they ate seafood in a cozy little restaurant that looked out over the harbor. There was a fat seal sitting outside their window and Hunter barked at it until it barked back. Claire giggled at him and told him he was crazy again, but she seemed to be enjoying herself more than he’d ever seen her. Maybe it was having the stress of Larry’s being in trouble taken off her shoulders. Whatever it was, Hunter was glad. Her face was glowing and her smile lit up his world. He knew he was falling in love with her and he was surprised that it didn’t even scare him.
After dinner Hunter ordered a drink and Claire ordered coffee. He finally decided it was time to ask her:
“Why don’t you drink?”
She sighed and looked out at the harbor. She made a silly face at the seal and then finally looked back at him. Her blue-green eyes swam in his as she said, “It’s kind of a depressing story, are you sure you want to hear it?” He nodded and reached across for her hand.
“I want to know everything about you. Maybe one day I’ll even get what you see in Larry.” He winked at her and she laughed.
“That one might be harder to explain. But about the drinking. My mother was married to a man when I was ten years old. I was so happy because I’d always wanted a father and he was so nice to me. He treated me like a princess and took me places and bought me things. When I was twelve years old, he offered me a drink. He had a dry martini every night after work, and I liked being close to him and having things that were just between us…so I accepted it. From then on, every day before my mother got home from work, he’d make us a drink. That went on for two years. By the time I was fourteen, I didn’t need just that one drink, and he knew it. He started buying an extra bottle of vodka and he didn’t say a word when it disappeared by the end of the week. My grades were failing at school and I was getting into stupid trouble. I brought a boy home with me one day when I was fifteen and he and I drank the whole bottle of vodka. We were about to have sex when my stepfather came home and caught us….” She turned her face away and Hunter saw her swallow a thick lump in her throat. He already wanted to kill this guy, even before she said, “He said that if I was ready to have sex, it was going to be with him. He said that I needed to pay him back for everything he’d done for me.” A tear escaped her pretty eyes and rolled down her cheek. Hunter’s blood was boiling and his heart was aching for the young girl she’d been and the innocence she’d lost. “For the next two years, until I was seventeen, we had sex every day. I drank more and more to be able to stand it. I was so ashamed and I felt so guilty. I was almost relieved the day my mother came home early and caught us…but God, it was so hard. She threw him out and she told me it wasn’t my fault. But she never looked at me the same and in my head, I thought I could hear what she was thinking about me…and it was all bad. I started sleeping around and I stayed drunk all the time. Two months before I should have graduated from high school, she poured my drunk ass into a car and drove me to rehab. I left there sober, but when I went home, I still couldn’t look my mother in the eye. She had a new boyfriend too and he seemed nice, but I was afraid of him. I was afraid of myself and most of all, I was afraid of what she thought of me. That’s when I decided to come and find Larry…and here I am, ten years later.” She wiped the tears off her face and Hunter tried to find words for what he was feeling. He ended up with:
“I’m so sorry that happened to you. God, it makes my heart hurt and my stomach sick. Honestly, it makes me want to find him and kill him.”
Claire smiled as another tear rolled down her cheek. “It doesn’t make you think less of me?”
; “Are you kidding? It only proves what I already knew about you. You’re one of the strongest, most resilient women I’ve ever known. I think I’m falling in love with you, Claire.”
She sucked in a shaky breath and then let out a little sob. Hunter wasn’t sure what that meant until she said, “I think I’m falling in love with you too.”
28
When they got back to the bed and breakfast, Claire drove past it and parked in front of the cottage. They’d made love dozens of times, but so far only at his place. The first thing Hunter noticed once they were inside was the large fireplace with wood and kindling already in the center of it, ready to be lit. It was cold outside and a warm fire sounded cozy and romantic.
“You want me to light the fire?” he asked. She smiled and nodded.
“I’ll change while you’re doing that.” She left the room and Hunter tried to block out the images he had in his head of her being fed alcohol and abused as a young girl. She was here with him now and she was safe, that’s what he had to keep reminding himself.
He lit the fire and had it roaring by the time Claire came back in a short flannel robe. His imagination was going wild, wondering what if anything was underneath it. He put his good arm around her waist from behind and pulled her back into him. She leaned back into him and he put his lips on her neck, enjoying the way it sent goosebumps skittering across her flesh. “You taste so good,” he told her, honestly. She was sweet and salty and he felt like he could just eat her up like the saltwater taffy he’d had earlier. She made an “mm” sound and snuggled deeper against his chest. He held her for a few minutes, both looking into the fire and lost in their thoughts. After a bit, he turned her toward him and kissed her sweet lips. She closed her eyes and let his tongue slide in between her lips. She brought her own out to play, and Hunter was the one with goosebumps as the kiss turned as fiery as the logs burning behind them. When they came up for air she said:
“Come here, I want to show you something.” She led him over to the big window in the back of the cottage that he’d looked through the day he’d been snooping around. From this side, though, the view was incredible. There was a crescent moon out and stars peppered the dark blue sky, lighting up the water below so that they could see it as it crashed into the rocks and turned into a white, lacy foam.
“It’s beautiful,” he said, “But not as beautiful as you.” He kissed her again with the same passion as before, and Claire wrapped her arms up around his neck and kissed him back. After a few minutes he realized that she was tugging him down onto the window seat. It was covered with a thick, blue cushion and he sat down on it and pulled her up into his lap. They kissed and explored each other with their hands, slowly and deliberately removing each piece of each other’s clothing. Once he had her completely nude and he was as well, he sat back down next to her on the window seat and then he reached over and cupped one of her breasts in his hands. She gasped as he rolled the hardened nipple between his fingers and then he leaned down and took it into his mouth. He rolled his tongue over it and used his lips to suck it in and out of his mouth. Claire’s hands were in his hair and she was whimpering. He loved the sexy sounds she made, and he loved knowing that he was turning her on. He moved his mouth over to the opposite nipple and gave it the same treatment that he’d given the first one. Claire breathed out his name and pressed his face harder into her breasts as she arched her back. The combination of her hot body against his, her nipple in his mouth, and the ocean roaring only steps away caused a rock-hard erection that throbbed up against her hot, smooth flesh.
Hunter released her breast and slid down to the floor between her legs. He pushed her back into the cool window and slid open her legs with his one good hand. Then he buried his face in her sweet, wet pussy and reveled in the way she tasted, looked, smelled, and sounded. She was whispering his name between moans as he licked up and down the outside of her lips. She bit back a gasp as he split open her lips and let his tongue play inside. She cried out when he let his tongue press into her swollen clit, and she cried out louder and pulled his hair when he sucked it into his mouth. He swirled his tongue around and around it, feeling it grow in his mouth. Claire was bucking her hips up off the seat, almost delirious, lost in ecstasy. She kept telling him how good it was, how great it felt, how badly she wanted him. She was almost chanting when suddenly she arched her back even higher and all but screamed out, “I love you!” as she came. Hunter smiled into her hot flesh and continued to lick softly until she finished her orgasm and pulled him up to her mouth. They kissed hard and while they did that, he sat down again and pulled her back into his lap, facing him. Claire reached down and took his throbbing hard cock in her hand and raised up just enough to let him slide into her. Hunter held onto one of her hips tightly and with just that one hand he slid her up and down on his cock. She let him do the work, moving her where he wanted her and then slamming up into her over and over, hitting bottom each time. Every time he did, she gasped, moaned, whimpered, or cried out his name.
Hunter moved his hand up to her breasts and played with her nipples while she took over. She used her knees to press into the cushion and move herself up and down. She was taking every inch of him now on her own and the fingers of her left hand dug into his right shoulder. Hunter was dangling on the edge, just about to explode when she bent down and began licking his lips. She licked the length of them and then traced them with her tongue. He tried to catch it with his, but she pulled back and then licked at him again. It was fucking hot and he groaned loudly, grabbed onto her ass again tightly with one hand, and just as he was beginning to come, she shoved her tongue deeply into his mouth. He began to suck on it and while he emptied himself into her moist, tight tunnel, he nursed on her tongue and rocked against her body and wondered how in the fuck he got so lucky.
29
“There’s nothing in the world like the feeling of putting a bitch out of her misery.” Hunter said as soon as he walked into the interview room. The inmate who was sitting shackled to the metal table didn’t even flinch. He was a big guy, with a hard body and a blond buzz cut. His skin looked like he had waged a long, hard battle against acne and lost. His nostrils were too wide and his eyes were too close together. In the looks department this poor guy had come in last, which was probably why he worked so hard on his body. If he was a woman, he’d be what men referred to as a “double-bagger.” He’d need a paper sack over his head and the person doing him would need one too, just in case his broke. Hunter wasn’t normally so judgmental about looks, but he hadn’t liked this guy as soon as he heard he killed his sister, and he was already sure the ugliness wasn’t only skin deep. Hunter did know one thing about the man, however, that he hoped would penetrate the invisible armor the man seemed to be surrounded by. He didn’t flinch at Hunter’s abrupt entry, or harsh words. Like a good soldier, he sat with his dull-brown eyes focused on the wall in front of him and his back ramrod straight. “Is that your quote, Jon, or did you borrow it from a friend?” The man still didn’t say a word. “My name is Hunter Donovan. I’m a bounty hunter and I’m not here about your case. I know you’re waiting on an appeal. I’m not here to get in the way of that. I’m looking for the man that killed my brother. That quote was that man’s signature, but that was never released to the press. So, Jon, tell me where I can find the guy you heard it from and I’ll walk out of here and let you get on with trying to straighten out your own life.”
Jon finally looked at Hunter. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, so you can walk out now and stop wasting both of our time.”
Hunter sighed. “Okay, I’ll enlighten you. Your former cellmate heard you talking in your sleep about killing women, Jon. He asked you about it and that’s what you said to him. He was paroling when he told the P.O. about this, he’s got nothing to gain by lying about it. I’ve got no desire to complicate your appeal, either, Jon. I really don’t give a damn what you dream about.” That part wasn’t true. It made Hunter sick to his stomach. He had a har
d time believing an innocent man would dream about things like that and then try and laugh it off with a disgusting quote when confronted about it. But it wouldn’t behoove him to let this guy know how sick he made Hunter. “This is not about your case at all. It’s not about trying to bring new charges against you. There’s a man out there killing women, a man that killed my brother too, and all I want is for you to tell me where to look for him.”
“Again, you’re wasting my time. Why should I care about something that is only about you and has nothing to do with me?”
Narcissist. “I was hoping you might want to clear your conscience.” Hunter tried with a half-smile. He wondered if this man had any conscience, or even a soul for that matter. His eyes were empty, completely devoid of emotion. Hunter wondered if he lost both, the day he killed his sister…or if the army had taken some of it out of him. Jon didn’t respond so Hunter asked, “What do you want, Jon? What will it take for you to help me?”
“A new trial.”
Hunter almost laughed again even though the man said it with a totally straight face. “I can’t do that. I told you, I’m a bounty hunter. I don’t work for the cops or the courts. The best I could do is put a word in for you…”
“But yet you were so sure if I knew this guy, there wouldn’t be any new charges filed against me. We’re finished here,” Jon said, looking at the wall again.
“Jon, I read your case file. I believe you killed your sister by accident and then you panicked. I don’t believe you were working with a serial killer. But you have to know him. That saying…that’s his signature…”
“You said that already. Maybe it was my cellie that said it and he’s just trying to put it off on me, you ever think about that? You’re just gonna take the word of a fucking rat?”
“No, Jon. If you tell me honestly that you don’t know this guy…”