Hunter's Rise
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HUNTER’S FALL
“Gripping, emotional and tense, and the book easily swept me up in its events. I look forward to reading more Hunter books!”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
“Complex personal histories and a very solid paranormal world add detail and intrigue as beautifully well-rounded characters reach for clarity and survival.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Terrific.”
—Midwest Book Review
HUNTER’S NEED
“A Perfect 10! Hunter’s Need is a riveting tale that I couldn’t put down and wanted to read again as soon as I finished… Highly recommending you pick up your copy immediately.”
—Romance Reviews Today
“A sensual and arousing delight… Compelling and suspense filled… Shiloh has once again delivered a spectacular mystery romance paranormal. This novel had me spellbound from the start.”
—Bitten By Books
“This is a terrific Hunters romantic fantasy starring two intriguing protagonists… Fast paced from the onset… Fans will relish this fine entry and seek previous thrilling Hunter tales.”
—Midwest Book Review
HUNTER’S SALVATION
“A page-turner from beginning to end.”
—Night Owl Reviews
“Scorching hot… Everything about Hunter’s Salvation was mind-blowing… Shiloh Walker is truly one of the best writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.”
—Romance Junkies
“One of the best… Shiloh Walker provides an excellent thriller that subgenre fans will appreciate.”
—Midwest Book Review
HUNTERS: HEART AND SOUL
“Some of the best erotic romantic fantasies on the market. Walker’s world is vibrantly alive with this pair.”
—The Best Reviews
HUNTING THE HUNTER
“Action, sex, savvy writing and characters with larger-than-life personalities that you will not soon forget are where Ms. Walker’s talents lie, and she delivered all that and more… This is a flawless five-rose paranormal novel, and one that every lover of things that go bump in the night will be howling about after they read it… Do not walk! Run to get your copy today!”
—A Romance Review
“An exhilarating romantic fantasy filled with suspense and… star-crossed love… Action packed.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Fast paced and very readable… Titillating.”
—The Romance Reader
“Action packed, with intriguing characters and a very erotic punch, Hunting the Hunter had me from page one. Thoroughly enjoyable with a great hero and a story line you can sink your teeth into, this book is a winner. A very good read!”
—Fresh Fiction
Titles by Shiloh Walker
HUNTING THE HUNTER
HUNTERS: HEART AND SOUL
HUNTER’S SALVATION
HUNTER’S NEED
HUNTER’S FALL
HUNTER’S RISE
THROUGH THE VEIL
VEIL OF SHADOWS
THE MISSING
THE DEPARTED
FRAGILE
BROKEN
Anthologies
HOT SPELL
(with Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, and Meljean Brook)
PRIVATE PLACES
(with Robin Schone, Claudia Dain, and Allyson James)
HUNTER’S
RISE
SHILOH WALKER
BERKLEY SENSATION, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi— 110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
HUNTER’S RISE
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / April 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Shiloh Walker, Inc.
Excerpt from The Reunited by Shiloh Walker copyright © 2012 by Shiloh Walker, Inc.
Cover art by Danny O’Leary.
Interior text design by Kristin del Rosario.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-1-101-57996-1
BERKLEY SENSATION®
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY SENSATION® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
Dedication… To my family, always. I thank God for you.
And to my friend Sylvia Day… who keeps telling me I’m not
allowed to stop writing the Hunter books.
For my readers. You all are wonderful!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
The Reunited
CHAPTER 1
“T
HE one thing I wanted him to do was die. And he wouldn’t. I mean, he had that fucking heart attack and I thought, finally, th
is is over. And what happens?”
Bent over her drink, the brunette smiled a little as she listened to the conversation between the two women. Maybe it was morbid of her— it was definitely a morbid discussion to eavesdrop on, but gloomy bits like that were one of the few things that amused her.
Her name was Sylvia… at least for now. She toyed with her glass of wine without drinking more than a sip every few minutes, more focused on the discussion than her drink.
“Oh, come on, Faith. He’ll die, sooner or later. We all do, right?”
Faith, a pretty blonde with pretty blue eyes and pretty curls and pretty, plump breasts shifted on her seat and sighed. “Um, this is about him. And he’s not going fast enough. I’d like him to kick it early enough that I can still enjoy my life before I’m too damned old and ugly. Damn it, this wasn’t what I’d planned on.”
Idiot. Sylvia set her wineglass down and checked her purse once more. The woman was an idiot. That’s all there was to it. Shifting around just a little, she studied the friend. The poor woman looked uncomfortable, but she was trying to hide it.
Faith didn’t even seem to notice as she leaned in after a quick glance around the bar— it wasn’t even a subtle glance. “That’s why we’re here. I’m looking to meet this… person. Apparently she takes care of problems.”
“Problems?” The friend was looking more and more nervous with every passing second, Sylvia noticed.
Smart girl.
Some people talked about doing stupid shit.
Others actually tried to go through with it. Faith was dumb enough, arrogant enough to try and go through with it.
“Yeah.” Faith worked up a convincing little sob. “He hits me. All the time. He doesn’t leave marks, because he likes to show me off. But I’m so tired of being hurt…”
“Faith, you’re not…” Her friend tried to laugh, but it fell flat. In the end, she just cleared her throat and asked, “What are you talking about?”
A cold glint appeared in Faith’s eyes. “Doing what’s necessary. And it’s not like I can divorce him, either. There’s that damn prenup and everything. And if I screw around on him? I’m screwed.”
“Look, this isn’t funny.” Her friend didn’t just look nervous now; she looked outright sick. “I know you don’t much care for the guy, so just divorce him. If you disliked him that much, you never should have married him.”
She reached into her purse and grabbed some money, threw it down on the table. “You can sit here and feel sorry for yourself alone. I don’t want to—”
Faith snaked out a hand, curling it around the other woman’s wrist. “Sit down,” she said, her voice cold. “You think I called you just so you could whimper and whine? I need somebody with me tonight and it’s going to be you.”
“I don’t want to be with you,” the other woman snapped, trying to jerk away.
“Tough shit.” The smile on Faith’s face now was cold. Cold, mean and ugly. “Because if you’re not, I’m going to spill your secrets.”
The woman went white.
“Faith, this is insane.” The woman was trying not to cry now. “Just divorce him or something. You can’t… you’re going to…”
“I’m just trying to make sure I have a nice, easy life.” Faith shrugged, unconcerned. “Just like you have a nice, easy life. It’s only fair.”
Fair. Fair? The absurdity of the conversation was almost enough to make Sylvia choke on the wine. Except she’d actually heard more absurd shit in her long life. After all, she was an assassin— very often, people didn’t have good reasons for wanting to see another person dead.
“Fair…” Sylvia lowered her glass of wine to the bar and spun around, studying the blonde and her friend. “Life really doesn’t have a great deal to do with being fair, does it?”
“Excuse me?”
Sylvia James leaned back against the bar and crossed her legs, an amused smile on her lips, keeping a hand on her purse. “I mean, if you wanted to talk about fair, we could talk about the fact that it wouldn’t be unfair to expect a woman to actually abide by the vows she took.”
Faith went white, and then red. Not quite so pretty now that she was pissed. Sylvia smiled. She was going to make the woman even angrier shortly.
Next to Faith, her friend squirmed uncomfortably. “Hey, lady, we’re just…”
“You, my dear, were just avoiding a whole shitload of trouble,” Sylvia said, resting an elbow on the bar, flicking her a glance before looking back at Faith. “You, on the other hand…”
“Bitch, why don’t you mind your own business?” Faith narrowed her eyes.
“My own business?” Arching a brow, she slid off the stool and sauntered closer to the table the women shared. “Maybe we should just get down to business then…?” Without waiting for an answer, she reached into her purse and withdrew a small digital recorder, hit the play button.
Faith’s voice, recorded two days ago, came out.
And Sylvia didn’t need supersensitive hearing to hear Faith’s breath catch as her eyes darted to the recorder and then back up to Sylvia’s face.
“Now, Ms. Dwyer, what were you saying about minding my own business?” With one hand resting on her purse, she leaned over the table, peering into Faith’s dazed eyes. “You called me. I told you I’d be here. I told you to take precautions. I told you to be discreet. I also told you… no lies.”
She paused and sipped her wine, studying the dark red liquid, desperately wishing it was something else. “Now I’ve been sitting here for twenty minutes. You weren’t discreet. You didn’t take precautions. And…” She drew her voice out, studying the woman through her lashes, watching as the blood slowly drained from Faith Dwyer’s face. “You lied to me.”
“I didn’t lie.” Faith blinked, rapidly working up some pretty convincing tears. “My husband beats me. All the time.”
Convincing. But not convincing enough. She reeked of lies. Humans couldn’t lie very well. Not to somebody like Sylvia, at least.
More than a century ago, she’d been made into a vampire, and she’d spent quite a few years refining her skills. One of them was learning how to read people— fellow vampires, other freaks in the world… mortals. This woman was lying. Vampires could smell a lie the same way a human could smell spoiled milk— lies didn’t smell much better, either.
“You’re lying,” Sylvia said gently. “I’m already pissed… don’t make it worse. I’ll be sending this on to the cops.”
“You fucking bitch. You can’t.” Faith stood up, shaking her head. One hand curled into a fist at her side.
Sylvia saw the muscles tensing in her arms and she chuckled, slipping the recorder back into her bag and stepping back. “I’d think twice if I were you— remember what you hired me for. Do you really want to try to grab something from me? Or worse, hit me?”
Then Faith decided to change tactics. Tossing her head, she settled back in her chair, legs crossed lazily. She studied Sylvia with practiced boredom. “That little thing doesn’t prove jackshit. Just a couple of voices… doesn’t even sound like me. Why waste our time? Look, I’ll just pay you the money and we call this quits.”
“So you can try to hire somebody else later down the road? I don’t think so.” She stroked a hand up the buttery smooth leather of her cross-body sling bag, patted it. “You see, I have this little problem with women who try to paint men as abusive, when the men aren’t. It just makes it that much harder for the real victims, you know. The recording will go to the police… as will this.” Sylvia pulled another device out of the concealed pocket in her bag, this one a sleek, little digital video recorder.
Sylvia loved that device. She hit a button and after it had rewound enough, she showed the display to Faith. It had captured the blonde’s pretty face with crystalline clarity, as well as her voice. It played a few seconds before the recording stopped and then Sylvia hit the record button again, careful to keep it angled away from the friend. She hadn’t gotten the woman on video earlier and
she wouldn’t this time, either.
So far, the woman was only guilty of bad judgment in friends. No reason for her to suffer overmuch for that. “So, Faith Dwyer, wife to the Honorable Justin Dwyer, is sitting here and we just heard her discussing with an unknown party plans to have her husband killed— she was going to pretend to be an abused wife, if I’m not mistaken. Anything to say, Faith?”
“You whore!” Faith lunged for her.
Sylvia sidestepped, laughing. “Oh, that was perfect. I bet your husband’s lawyer is going to love this.” She stopped the recording and took a moment to wag the device at her before tucking it safely away. As the woman came for her again, she delivered a quick, easy jab, sending the icy bitch straight to the floor.
Behind her, she heard the bartender pick up the phone and calmly start to dial. She’d warned him earlier there might be trouble. And she’d paid him an extra hundred to keep calm if she had to get… physical.
Things had just gotten physical. He’d kept calm and earned that hundred. But it was time to go.
While her friend continued to stare, her mouth open in shock, Faith sprawled on the floor moaning, her pretty blue eyes dazed. Sylvia knelt down at her side and waited until that fog started to lift before she said anything.
“I don’t appreciate having my time wasted, sweetheart,” Sylvia said once Faith was looking at her. The arrogance she’d seen was gone now, replaced by fear and worry. Good. “You don’t want to be married? Listen to your friend… file for divorce. But don’t lie to get me here.” Rising, she went to take a step away when Faith clamped a hand over her ankle.
“You can’t go to the cops,” Faith said, the fear in her eyes taking on a desperate slant. “I… shit. I’ll pay you, damn it. Just don’t tell them.”
“Sorry. I don’t do bribes or blackmail.” She shook Faith’s hand away and kept walking.