Heart of the Hunter

by Chance Carter

I looked down at the kid as he passed.

  “Adult things, kid. Nothing you have to worry about.”

  What a fucking nightmare.

  Grace getting in my shit, this fucking kid eyeing me up and down like some overprotective father, how was I going to get through it without smashing something?

  What in the sweet fuck had I gotten myself into?

  A circle of bastards surrounding me with guns drawn felt more comfortable than this. I walked over to the breakfast table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. I wished I had a bottle of anything with a kick.

  Why the fuck was I here and what in the fuck made me think it was worth it?

  Then it hit me. Or, more accurately, swayed her sexy hips toward me and sat her round ass down on my cock, wiggling her way into it as her brother and Grace went about their business not knowing any better.

  Chapter 38

  Kelly

  I COULD FEEL HUNTER’S THICK cock growing against my backside and I started to get a warm sensation spreading out from between my legs. I had never been in such a constant state of arousal as I was around him. Even with my little brother and Grace in the room, all I could think about was pulling off his pants and putting him back inside me. I was never in control with him. It made me feel better than I ever had.

  I stood up and brushed my hand along Hunter’s chest.

  “So, Lucas, what do you have going on at school today?” I asked.

  He just looked up at me, confused.

  “Kelly, I told you last night. There’s no school today, remember? I told you.”

  I didn’t remember. I had been in such a fog last night that I couldn’t focus on anything.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Luke. I just forgot for a moment. What’s going on again?” I lied so he wouldn’t feel bad.

  Lucas just kept unpacking his backpack not realizing that anything was off.

  “I don’t know, something about cleaning, I guess.”

  “They are finally repairing that disgusting old bathroom they make the young men use, remember?” piped in Grace from the stove. “You booked this day off from the diner months ago, Kelly.”

  I remembered now. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten, but then again I couldn’t really believe anything about the last twenty-four hours of my life.

  “Oh yes, of course. Well, what are we going to do today, Luke?”

  Please say you have plans with friends. I need today. I need today to get myself together and be with Hunter. To figure out just what that means.

  “I don’t know,” Lucas said. “Maybe we could go for a drive outside of town? Maybe we could go swimming?”

  Back to reality it is, I guess.

  As much as I wanted it to be just me and Hunter, the fact remained that it wasn’t. Lucas was my brother and he still needed me. I still needed him. I glanced over at Hunter who must have picked up on my thoughts and was standing up to head toward the door.

  “Listen. It looks like you all have your hands full here today. Why don’t you let me get out of your hair and I’ll see everyone around?” He looked right at me, “Kelly I have to get going, but I will be back.”

  He said the last words clearly and stared into my eyes as he spoke them so I was sure he would return for me. He didn’t have to convince me. I knew he would come back, but I just didn’t know what I was going to do about my old life when he did. I couldn’t leave, but I knew he wouldn’t stay. All the heat and lust I had been feeling just moments before had morphed into sadness and anxiety.

  Suddenly, Grace spoke up from the counter as she was sliding eggs onto four plates.

  “Young man, hush.”

  Hunter stopped in his tracks and glared over at Grace.

  Dear god, Grace, stop pushing him. And Hunter, please just stay. Please.

  “You’ve come all the way here on Kelly’s insistence and apparently we owe you some thanks,” Grace continued. “Now, I’ve just cooked you a fine meal, somewhat against my will, and I’ll be goshdarned if you don’t sit down and eat it!”

  Hunter looked at me with a smile. “Yes, ma’am. My apologies.”

  He sat back down as Grace placed his plate in front of him.

  “I gave you an extra big helping. It looks like you can put the food away,” Grace said, smiling at Hunter. “Plus, it will soak up that devil juice in your stomach.”

  Hunter tensed up again as he shoveled a fork full of eggs into his mouth.

  I mouthed the words, I’m sorry, to him and he just stared back as he chewed his food. I had made a mistake bringing him here. We should have taken a day to let things settle. I was forcing myself and my life on him and that was something he wouldn’t stand for. We wanted each other, needed each other, but could that really be enough?

  I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. He put his fork down and moved his hand to my lower back, running his fingertips under my shirt and sending cool shivers shooting up and down my spine that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I knew then more than ever that what we felt was enough. His touch ignited a fire in me and I knew he felt it too. I was his.

  “This is some fine food, Grace,” he said as he gazed up at me with his beautiful, blue eyes. He was tolerating this. For me. I wanted him even more and I wondered how that was possible.

  “Oh, hush. It’s just some eggs and bacon. I’m glad you’re enjoying it though.”

  Hunter slid his hand down my backside. Then he went back to his food.

  Grace went from the stove toward the hall.

  “Kelly dear, can you help me with the sofa bed please?”

  “Coming, Grace. Can you two boys play nice in here for a minute?”

  Lucas shrugged his shoulders and Hunter just shook his head.

  Everything was going to be okay. For now.

  Chapter 39

  Hunter

  JUST KEEP EATING, PAL. Finish your fucking food, say your goodbyes, and get the fuck out of here. You shouldn’t have come in, you fucking know that, but here you are and if you’re going to make it out of here you have to fucking remain calm.

  I looked across the table at the kid as he crammed his food into his mouth. He ate like an animal, but fuck it, so did I. I could hear Kelly and Grace chattering back and forth in the other room and I could only assume it wasn’t anything good. How the fuck was I going to get this girl out of here? Was I just going to stay there in that little piece of shit town forever?

  No, of course I wasn’t. I couldn’t. Not with my old man barreling down on me with the fury of south Boston behind him.

  Goddamn it, Kelly. Why did I have to fucking meet you? I was just fucking fine before you came into my fucking life.

  “So are you, like, Kelly’s boyfriend or something?” the little voice from across the table asked me.

  “Fuck do you care?” I said, barely looking up from my food.

  “She’s my sister,” he answered back without skipping a beat. He wasn’t scared of me at all. Yet.

  “You sure swear a lot. Didn’t your parents teach you not to swear?”

  This little kid was getting on my nerves. Just because his sister made me come like a fucking geyser didn’t mean I had to put up with this shit.

  “No parents, kid. None that I knew anyway. Must have missed that lesson.”

  Lucas got real silent and stopped eating his food.

  “Me too. I mean, I had parents. But they died. I don’t really remember too much about them, but I remember enough.”

  Fuck.

  Kelly never mentioned that her parents had died. She never mentioned them at all. I just assumed the good little girl had a good little life. It never even occurred to me that she didn’t have the fucking perfect parents living around the corner. That explained why Grace was hanging around. It also explained why her little brother was there, eating breakfast with me.

  Fuck me.

  I had never even stopped to ask a single thing about her life. I’d only thought about my own. Turned out she’d had her own s
hare of hardships to overcome.

  Goddamn. That pussy fucking blinds you, pal.

  “What happened to your parents, Hunter?” the kid kept going. I didn’t want to be having this fucking conversation and I couldn’t think of a way I could get out of it without upsetting this lovely little family meal time.

  “I don’t know, kid. Never knew them.”

  He sat there and his eyes dropped down to the table.

  “You’re lucky.”

  “And how do you figure that, pal?”

  He kept his glance firmly planted on the table in front of him and then spoke calmly.

  “Because then you don’t have to miss them.”

  Fuck me. I felt like I should give this little fucker an Oscar. You’re even melting my heart here, pal. Jesus, I’ve got to get the fuck out of here.

  I struggled to change the subject since all I wanted was for him to shut the fuck up.

  “So, what do you do in school, buddy? You got a favorite class, or you more of a sports and girls type of guy?”

  Lucas looked up and his mood seemed to brighten a bit.

  Thank fucking God. Babysitting is not fucking high on my list of talents, Kelly. Get the fuck back here.

  “I don’t know. The school part is okay,” the little guy said, and then he paused and looked around to make sure Grace and Kelly weren’t too close by. “But I like the sports and the girls better.”

  You grimy little fucker. A man after my own heart.

  “I’ll tell you a little secret, pal, but don’t let Grace know,” I gave the kid a smile and leaned across the table a bit. He leaned in too and looked around for the old broad. “I never went to school for anything other than girls or sports either.”

  Lucas sat back in his seat and smiled.

  “So what do you do, Hunter?”

  Goddamn you with the questions, kid. I’m still half drunk and trying to eat here.

  “I work for Dennis, pal. You know? Fixing cars and shit.”

  Lucas’s eyes brightened up anytime I cursed. It was probably the most excitement the little dude ever got.

  “What type of car do you have? Is it fast? Is it red?”

  I just laughed into my coffee.

  “Yeah, kid. It’s red and it’s real fucking fast.”

  “Awesome.”

  We sat there in silence a little longer until he piped up again.

  “I’ve had like five girlfriends this year.”

  The little fucker was trying to talk shit with me. I couldn’t believe it. What a fucking joke. How did people do this everyday?

  “No shit, pal. That’s actually kind of pathetic. When I was your age I think I had ten girlfriends. At the same time.”

  He looked back at me like he wanted to deck me.

  “I could have twenty if I wanted to,” he said.

  Voices carried in from the living room.

  “What are you two talking about in there?”

  “Girls,” Lucas and I shouted at the same time and then looked at each other and chuckled.

  Kelly’s head shot out from around the corner and gave me a confused look. I just shrugged my shoulders and went back to talking shit with her little brother. She disappeared around the wall and I heard her and Grace start up again.

  “So, what is it, kid? You’re like eight, maybe nine years old or something?”

  “I’m ten. Ten years old. Do I look like a baby to you?” he said, raising his voice and standing up, pushing his chair back

  I slid back in my chair and laughed, pretending I was scared.

  “Whoa, sorry, pal. I didn’t realize I was dealing with such a tough fucking guy.”

  Lucas laughed and sat back down in his seat.

  “Tougher than you, car guy.”

  He went back to eating his eggs and so did I. We didn’t talk anymore.

  Maybe the little fuck wasn’t so bad after all.

  Chapter 40

  Kelly

  GRACE WAS PULLING THE SHEETS off the sofa bed like she was mad at them, but I knew she was angry with me for bringing Hunter around. She had always been protective of me, but it had only grown stronger since Phil had walked out. She didn’t trust men around me. That went for any men, let alone huge, handsome men covered in tattoos with a tendency toward violence.

  “Kelly, I just don’t understand what is going on here.”

  “Grace, please, just give me a chance to explain. It’s not what you think.”

  I was trying to come up with something to tell her, but I knew I wouldn’t get out of this conversation without the truth, or at least some version of it.

  “Well, then just what is it, Kelly? Don’t lie to me, young lady. I see the way you’re looking at that vagrant in there, and even worse, I see the way he’s looking at you.”

  I was momentarily flustered when she said she saw the way Hunter looked at me. I got a rush of butterflies in my stomach like some schoolgirl who found out the boy she was crushing on thought she was pretty. I could feel myself blushing and I felt stupid, but I didn’t care.

  “Grace, it’s just, he’s just,” I was stammering through my words and looking at the ground. “He’s not what you think, Grace. I mean, he is, but.”

  “But, what, Kelly?” Grace interrupted.

  I went to open my mouth, but I couldn’t think of any answer that would make sense to her. Or me, for that matter.

  “You supported Elle when she met Forrester,” I stammered.

  “That was different,” Grace said back.

  “Why was that different?”

  “For one thing, Forrester was different from Hunter. He didn’t smell of booze. He didn’t beat people up in the diner.”

  “Forrester was no angel, and you know it, Grace. And yet he and Elle are happily married now.”

  “Well, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean this is going to work out the same way for you, Kelly. You can’t be naive. You have to face the facts.”

  “The facts? The facts are that you supported Elle. You gave her your diamond bracelet. You wanted nothing but happiness for her, while for me, you’re just being negative.”

  “Child, I am not being negative.”

  “You are, Grace. You’re against this thing with Hunter. This one chance I have at happiness.”

  Grace looked at me with a seriousness in her eyes that I had never seen before. She looked like she was going to scream at me, or perhaps burst into tears. Then she spoke, slowly and deliberately.

  “Kelly, the reason I’m more cautious with you, is because I love you more.”

  “What?”

  “I only got to know Elle for a short time. I cared very deeply for her in that time, but you’re different. You’re family. You’re a daughter to me, Kelly. You and Luke are like my own flesh and blood. And I’d never forgive myself if things went badly for you. Remember how sure you were that things were going to go well with Phil? And look how they turned out. I can’t watch you go through that again, Kelly. I love you too much.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I just shook my head.

  “I don’t want you to make a mistake, Kelly, because I couldn’t bear to see some thug from out of town come here and ruin your life. I couldn’t bear to see you heartbroken again. You’ve been through too much. If it’s wrong of me to want to protect you, then I admit to it now.”

  I just shook my head.

  I didn’t want to listen to her, I didn’t want to hear her words, but she was right. She was coming from a place of love. She only cared about protecting my heart, and I was all too willing to throw it at the first hot guy to glance my way. I had met Hunter scarcely twenty-four hours earlier. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and all of a sudden I lost all my certainty about everything.

  What was this? What was I doing with him? Was it all just lust? Some girlish crush?

  Or was it really something more? And how was I supposed to tell the difference?

  I let out a deep sigh and looked around the corner to check on Hunter and L
ucas.

  As I gazed down the hall and saw the two of them sitting there eating in silence, a sense of calm came over me. They were fine.

  This, Hunter and I, whatever was happening, it was fine. It wasn’t something that could be explained, and it didn’t have to be. It was what it was and there was nothing that anyone or anything could do to stop it. I realized just as I had from the moment we first touched that I was not in control of anything. I was just getting better at accepting it.

  Love is a strange thing. It doesn’t always make sense. In fact, it rarely makes sense at all. It’s something you feel, in your heart, not something that makes sense in your head. Was Hunter a violent criminal? Yes. Was he a dangerous bet for a girl like me? Definitely.

  But did any of that matter? No.

  Because love doesn’t explain itself. It doesn’t owe the world justifications. It just is. And once there’s love, real love, all the shitty circumstances in the world can’t do a thing to stop it.

  “Grace, I don’t have an answer for you.”

  I stood in front of her with my arms crossed and didn’t say anything more.

  She stopped pulling off the bedding and looked up at me, shaking her head.

  “Kelly. I want you to listen to me. I know things have been hard for you. You had to grow up awfully fast, and it wasn’t an easy ride. But, baby, you don’t have to make things even more difficult for yourself. That man in there is bad news. I knew it from the moment he walked into the diner. What he did to those two men, I can’t even bring myself to say it.”

  “You mean, when he stopped them from raping me?” I said back.

  I had never spoken like this to Grace in my life and it felt horrible. I felt like I was challenging everything she stood for. It felt like I was throwing back in her face, all the kind things she’d done over the years for me and Luke. She looked back at me and let out a deep sigh.

  “Yes, that may be true. But he didn’t just stop them, my dear. He nearly beat them to death. And I don’t see any remorse, do you? I know not to judge a book by its cover, but look at him, Kelly? Is that what a respectable man looks like? Covered in tattoos, reeking of whiskey first thing in the morning? Is that who you want to spend your time with? Is that who you want Lucas to spend time with? How does this end well for you? He’s only going to hurt you, baby.”