by Nicole Fox
“I’m a killer, Vanessa. How good of a person can I possibly be if I take lives and make money doing it?”
“But you don’t kill just anyone. You only kill bad people. You’re probably helping people.”
“You can make excuses for me all day. But at the end of it, the fact is the same. I commit felonies constantly. I could be locked away for life many times over. Then what would you and Opal do? Come visit me in jail?”
“I don’t know. You haven’t been caught yet.”
“But I was once.”
“But that was a long time ago.”
He chuckled. “The statute of limitations doesn’t expire on murder. If they found something in thirty years about something I did ten years ago, they could lock me away. I haven’t been caught. Yet. But that could change. It’s part of the risk I take every time I take a job. It’s part of the job I like. Knowing that every day is borrowed, that at any moment, I could lose it all. It makes me look at life differently.”
“What if we went to some other country where they couldn’t send you to prison if evidence came up?”
“You’d really uproot Opal like that? Move her across the world just to protect me from facing justice for what I’ve done?”
“You protect us,” she insisted. “You’d give your life for us, so why can’t we give up something for you?”
“Because I would never let you do that for me. I’m not worthy of that sort of sacrifice.”
“I say you are.”
“Well, then, you’re nuts.”
She was quiet for a long time. “What happened when you were caught?”
“Well, I was doing what I do best. I was protecting someone. I had this girlfriend in high school, Julia. She cried to me more than once about how horrible her dad was. Told me he touched her and hit her. Of course, I got pissed. I couldn’t stand to think she’d gone through something like what I went through in my childhood. So, we made a plan, and I killed him. I was sloppy because it was done in anger. There was evidence everywhere. Didn’t take them long to hunt me down. Ten years later, when I was finally released, I find out the truth. She made the whole thing up. She was pissed at her dad because he wouldn’t buy her a car or some other stupid crap and wanted his life insurance money.
“Nothing was the same after that. How could I ever trust someone again? I’d just done ten years and committed the biggest crime of my life for a lie. So, I figured that if I killed once for money—or for her to get money—then why not do it again? I felt like my life was over. I had nothing to live for. So, it became about the chase, the rush of it all. I did it once more and didn’t get caught that time. Then it was, how many times can I do it and get away with it? Every time I take a life, I wonder if it’ll be the last one. If my time is finally up, and they’ll get me and lock me up for good or put me to death.”
“I can’t imagine living like that.”
“And that’s why I can’t be what you need. You’d have to be okay with all of that.”
“But what if I was okay with it?”
He took a moment to think. If she accepted it, could he really do it? “Vanessa, if you could live with knowing what I’ve done and what could happen at any time, then I would want nothing more than to have a relationship with you. And you’d be the first person ever to make me feel that way since Julia. The first person I’ve trusted since I was seventeen.”
# # #
The silence in the room seemed to go on forever. She thought about what he said. She could not promise him anything if she didn’t mean it. And she wasn’t sure if she could mean it. She wanted him, and she felt that he was good for them. But his past was scary, and the fear of him being locked up at any moment made her stomach feel heavy with dread. Could she live like that forever?
“Here’s the thing, Hunter. I’ve always done the right thing. From returning a piece of candy I stole when I was five, to changing my life to make my parents happy and fit into their picture of what I should be. I grew up Catholic, going to church twice a week, confessing all my sins. In my world, there was no such thing as premarital sex. It just wasn’t something a good girl did. So, when I got to college, I kind of… went crazy. I think all the years of not being allowed to do anything got to me. I had never drank or done drugs or had sex. But when I got to college and saw everyone else doing it and it wasn’t messing up their lives, I wanted to try it, too. I started dating Jeremy, and he kept trying to get me to have sex with him. I said I was waiting, but one night I got drunk, and we did. I got pregnant.
“I thought my parents were going to kill me or disown me when I told them. I almost didn’t tell them. I almost had an abortion, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Jeremy tried to talk me into it, but I wouldn’t. I finally told them and they made me marry Jeremy. He didn’t want to, but my parents threatened him. I still don’t know why in the world it worked. He could have shut them up or taken care of anything with his money or connections. The only thing I can think is that they were able to convince his parents. Jeremy did everything his dad told him to do. But he hated it. And he took it out on me every day after.
“The first time he hit me, he said it was an accident and he was just too mad, but he was seeing a therapist and working on his anger issues. I found out a year later that he’d just been going to get high instead. Everything about my life with him was hard. Everything was painful. When he hit me, I hid it. I couldn’t admit to anyone what a mess I’d gotten myself into. I was afraid my parents would say this is what I deserved for being a bad girl. I felt bad. On some level, I felt like I did deserve it. After my dad died, my mom was around more. She would come and spend time with us. Opal loved having her around. But she started to suspect what was going on. She tried to convince me to leave, but I wouldn’t. After she died, it seemed too late. I’d lost my way out. So, I kept dealing with it. Then he turned to Opal.
“After the first time, he cried for two days. He felt so bad about it. He couldn’t even look at her. But months later, he was high and she didn’t listen to him. That time, he only cried once. Then, he found a way to deal with the guilt, because after the last time, he barely showed any remorse at all. When I had to take Opal to the hospital, I knew it didn’t matter if I felt like I missed my chance to leave or had no place to go. I had to get out. So one night, I seduced him. When he was lying there after, having his usual drink, he didn’t know it was laced. I drugged him enough that I could steal the money in the safe and get out. We only had a few hours before he would wake up.
“The point in all this is that I can do bad things. If I really have to, I’ll take risks to protect people I love. When I was younger, I did stupid things for the sake of proving I could. But I know that doing risky things just for the sake of the thrill isn’t worth it. That rush you need? You can get that other ways. You could be a cop even and still get the bad guys, but the right way.”
“A cop?”
“Yes. Or something else. I don’t know. Hunter. I like you, too. I want to be with you. But as much I want to, I can’t stand by and watch you kill people. Or live off the money you make doing it. Stop the vigilante stuff. Let the good guys handle the bad guys. That’s what they do.”
“The good guys don’t always do a good enough job.”
“Well, that’s for them to worry about, not you. You don’t have to save the world.”
“I do,” he said. “I have to save you and Opal, and right now, you are my world.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Vanessa
Vanessa sat at the table with Opal. “Okay, let’s try this one.”
They worked together on her math homework. Vanessa glanced continually at the door. Any moment, Hunter would return. He was only at the store, but she hated having him out of sight. Running to the store wasn’t as bad as going to work, though. Trying to work all day was almost torture, except she could see him sitting in his car from her office window, watching over her and Opal. But this was bad enough. And she couldn’t look out t
he window and see him there, watching over them.
It was their normal routine now that if anything needed to be purchased that couldn’t be done online, Hunter would go out and do it. Far too risky to have Vanessa or Opal out of the house more than they needed to be. Going to school and work was risk enough.
Weeks had passed since their last encounter. She started to wonder if Jeremy had given up, but there was no way he had. She knew better, but the long chunk of peace felt nice, and she didn’t want it to end. Someone might be coming after them at any time. Someone might be attacking Hunter right now. She chewed her lip and looked at the door again.
“You nervous because Hunter is out?”
Vanessa looked at Opal and realized she was watching her. “A little, yeah.” She tried to play it off and turned back to the homework. “Did you get the last one figured out?”
“Yeah.” Opal pointed. “I really like Hunter.”
“Do you? I’m glad. Okay, so we have this page still to finish.”
Opal put her pencil down and looked at her mother. “Is Hunter going to be my new daddy?”
Vanessa’s mouth popped open. Clearly, she should have had some sort of discussion with Opal about all this before now, but it was too late. She’d asked. Vanessa had to say something. But what? Sure, if he decides he can stop killing for a living?
Opal leaned her head down and whispered, “If he is, I think I’d like that.” She giggled and covered her mouth with her hand. “But you would never tell Daddy, would you? I mean my old daddy?”
“No, I would never tell him. I hope we don’t ever see him again.”
Opal pressed her lips together.
“Are you okay with that? Do you miss him?”
Opal shook her head fervently. “I know he was bad. He hurt you a lot, and I didn’t like that. He scared me. And now I don’t feel scared all the time anymore. Hunter doesn’t hurt you, and he makes you smile. So, I like that. And I like being safe.” She picked up her pencil again and started on the next page of homework.
Vanessa watched her with a smile on her face and a glow in her heart. More than ever, she hoped things could work out with Hunter. They could have a wonderful life, the three of them. Opal liked Hunter, and he would make a great father. She was already falling for him, and he had feelings for her. They both felt safer when he was around, and they needed that so badly. They didn’t have to hide who they were with him. She never had to worry that a dangerous ex would scare him away. Instead, she was busy trying to convince him not to kill for her. What more could she ask for?
They just needed to get this thing with Jeremy settled. Once he was out of the way in jail and there was no threat to her and Opal, no possibility that she would be taken away, then they could move on and all be happy together. She would finally have the family she’d always dreamed of. The one she wished for with Jeremy, but always knew was never possible. This was the life she should have had from the start. A man who loved her and protected her, a man who loved her daughter and risked his own life to save her. Not someone who would hurt them both.
Hunter was the one she wanted. It felt like the perfect life was so close. Just around the corner, just barely out of reach. Get Jeremy out of the way, and it was all hers.
She pulled Opal into a hug and kissed the top of her head, then looked back to the door, thinking Hunter should be home any minute now.
# # #
“Jeremy, I’m working on it,” Hunter said. “I’m close. I’ve finally gotten Opal to trust me. The problem is, Vanessa never leaves her alone. And I can’t kill her while Opal is there.”
“This is taking too long!” Jeremy growled into the phone. “You said days or a week or two at the most. It’s been seven weeks now. I’m done waiting.”
“These things can’t be rushed. It’s not something to be taken lightly. It has to be done just right if you don’t want any heat on you. And right now, there’s too many people around.”
“Listen to me. I. Don’t. Care. Do whatever it takes to get the job done. Now!”
Jeremy ended the call. Hunter shook his head as he tucked his phone in his pocket. He didn’t think Jeremy would buy it much longer. He’d already proven that he had other people on the job. Sure, Hunter had taken them out too, but that didn’t mean more weren’t coming. Something had to be done before Jeremy could move again.
He closed the car door and unlocked the trunk to get the groceries. He picked up one bag in each arm and walked toward the steps to the apartment. Before he could get there, he heard the distinctive sound of a silenced gunshot, followed by a whizzing sound as a bullet cut through the air in front of him. Hunter dropped to the ground.
So, he was right. Jeremy was already done waiting. He scanned the area, looking for the source of the shots.
Then, someone screamed. His heart lurched as he thought of Vanessa. But it didn’t sound like her scream. He flipped his head back and forth to see who it was.
He saw the blood first. It hit the grass in large drops. If he were any closer, it would have splattered on him. The smell of gunpowder filled the air and the shouts broke into the new stillness, breaking it into a choppy mix of too loud and too quiet.
He saw the feet. Men’s shoes, slacks. The gun shots had stopped. He lifted his head enough to glance around, but heard no more shots. He looked up to see the man’s face.
Then the recognition set in. Hunter knew this man. And the fact that he was here now and had witnessed this had to be a good thing. He crawled as fast as he could toward where Nicholas was now on his knees.
Blood poured from his shoulder. He’d been hit and was already pale. He can’t die, Hunter thought, but then he heard another noise.
Car tires squealed. Hunter looked up just in time to see the car flying at them. He yanked Nicholas’s shirt, pulling him off the road in just enough time to miss having his legs run over. The car took off with another squeal as it turned and sped off down the road.
“Now do you believe us?” Hunter shouted. “That guy was hired by Jeremy, Vanessa’s ex-husband. Probably to kill me. He’s after her, and he’ll kill her, then take that little girl and keep hurting her like he did to her mother for years. Is that what you want?” Hunter had a handful of Nicholas’s shirt, and it took all he had not to shake him. “If you don’t start listening to us, you’ll be the reason Jeremy succeeds in killing Vanessa. Do you want her death on your hands?”
Nicholas stared back, white-faced, mouth slack, blinking at him. He was in too much shock to answer or even register what Hunter was saying.
“Come on,” Hunter said. “We need to get you inside. They might come back when they realize they didn’t actually kill anyone.”
Hunter got to his feet, still looking around cautiously. The speeding car might have been a diversion. But no shots flew at him. He hauled Nicholas to his feet and slung his uninjured arm over him so he could pull him along.
Nicholas’s feet dragged, and he thought he might pass out at any moment. At least the guy was light. Hunter could carry his almost-dead weight with no trouble. Which was good, because there were a lot of stairs.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vanessa
For all the time she’d spent watching the door, waiting for it to open, when it finally did, she nearly jumped out of her seat. It crashed open with a loud bang. She must’ve missed the sound of the key in the lock.
Hunter stumbled in. She screamed when she saw the blood, and ran to him.
“It’s not mine,” Hunter said. “It’s Nicholas’s blood. He’s been shot.”
“What? By who?”
Vanessa looked over Nicholas, trying to see how bad things were.
“I’d have Opal go into her room if I were you,” Hunter said.
Vanessa spun around and saw Opal staring wide-eyed at them. Her lower lip trembled, and she looked like she was about to burst into tears.
“Opal, honey, let’s go into your room, okay?” Vanessa went to her and ushered her out of her seat at t
he table, using her body to block her view of the bleeding man. She closed the bedroom door behind them and knelt down to Opal. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. We just need to get him help and doctors will make him all better, okay?”
“Did Daddy do that?” she whispered.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. And Hunter protected Nicholas, too, didn’t he? He’s going to be just fine.”
Opal blinked at her, and the seconds were ticking by in Vanessa’s mind. “Just sit here and play, and I’ll let you know when everything is okay again.” She gave her a hug and kiss and rushed back into the living room.
Hunter was half holding up Nicholas, and Nicholas looked very pale, which was a startling contrast to the deep red seeping across his chest.
“Get him into the bathroom,” Vanessa said. “We need to stop the bleeding.”