by Jo Raven
“No, this is perfect.” I kissed him on his full lips. I hadn’t been with a real family in a long time, and I made a mental note to also visit Emma’s parents soon. It’d been way too long. “Thank you.”
“You’re happy?”
“Of course I’m happy. This is going to be so much fun.” I jumped up and down on my knees, still over him. “Aren’t you happy?”
He grasped my hips, saying, “Well, now I am.”
“Hunter, there’s no time for that now.”
“Honey, there’s always time for that.”
And in one swift move he removed the tank top I was wearing and sat up to a sitting positing, casing me in with his arms.
“Rule number one, Grace. If you straddle a man, expect to ride him.” Hunter flipped me over onto my back, yanking my panties off. “Otherwise he’ll be forced to have his way with you.”
Soon enough I was lost to his touch, succumbing to his lips, his hands, and his cock, and loving every moment of it.
* * *
Tracey, Harper, and Aspen decided that taking me on a hike would be an awesome way to get to know each other. Unfortunately for me, I had never been on a hike in the woods.
“I told you this was a bad idea,” Hunter grumbled as he smacked another mosquito on his arm.
“Here.” For the umpteenth time today, Tracey started applying bug spray to our arms. As the oldest sister, she was the spitting image of their mother. “I don’t know why it’s not working on you. It must be the city smell.”
“What city smell?” Hunter asked.
“The one that reeks of a bad brother who keeps fun girls like Grace all to himself.” Since the moment we’d left the house, Harper had kept her arm underneath mine. I’d always wondered what it’d be like to have a sister, and today I was getting a triple dose.
“I feel like I’m being ambushed,” he moaned. Hunter didn’t like this hike at all, and I was sure he would rather have stayed home with me and continued our morning exercise. “I’m gonna go soak my feet in the river. Meet me there on your way back, and don’t stray off the usual path.”
“All right, Dad,” Tracey laughed, only to get a groan out of grouchy Hunter.
He quickly kissed me, saying, “Don’t be fooled. These ladies are witches. They’ll twist your words and make everything your fault.”
“I think I’ll be fine. I don’t think I told you this, but I speak witch.” I winked.
Hunter took off downhill toward the river, and we continued our trek through the forest.
“Grace, you have to excuse us, but when Mom called and told us you were coming, we had to meet you. Hunter’s never brought a girl home before. And he sounded so happy on the phone. Ever since we lost Dad, he’s changed. But in the past month, it was like we had our old Hunter back,” Aspen said. She was a couple years younger than me, but already engaged.
“It was like he lost his will to live,” Tracey added. “Hunter started taking on more dangerous cases and leaving for longer periods of time. The accident really took a toll on him.”
“I can understand that, though I can’t say I can relate to it. My family’s somewhat nonexistent. And crazy.”
Harper pushed aside a larger branch, holding it over her head as we passed so that it wouldn’t slam back into us. “We’re all crazy in some ways. So welcome to the family.”
It felt so easy to talk to the girls, and I was truly feeling like they’d accepted me with the first hello.
“How did your father die?”
“It was a train derailment when he went away on business to Europe. One of the most horrid phone calls of our life. Hunter took it the worst. He didn’t speak at all for the first few weeks, then went away on a case and he never wanted to talk about it. As you can imagine, with four ladies in the house we were very close. We all miss him, but Hunter… he just could never let it go. He locked himself up.”
I wondered whether that’s how I would feel if my mother passed. My heart ached. We used to be close before father kept her away, and now I wished for nothing else but to see her.
“You’re very lucky to have each other,” I said.
“Well, the way our brother looks at you, I think we’ll be adding you to our clan, as he calls it.” Aspen hopped over a rock. For a moment I thought I heard a crunching sound to the left, but I decided perhaps it was just Aspen’s loud landing.
“How does he look at me?” I asked.
“Grace, I’ve never seen him look at a girl that way. Like... like you’re his everything.”
I felt my chest swell with happiness. Their approval and confirmation of what I’d seen grow between me and Hunter meant everything to me.
A breaking branch to the left startled me. This time I was sure it was more than a simple jump, and I froze. “Did you hear that?” I asked.
“Yes,” all three said at the same time. If they were trying to scare me, it was working.
“Grace, whatever you do, don’t run,” Harper warned. Her voice had lowered to a soft whisper as she spoke from the side of her mouth.
“Why?” I mimicked her way of speech, and then followed the fear in their eyes to the distant trees they were staring at.
I should have known better than to look. The black fur stretched way too wide and the growl was way too loud for my liking, so I did the only thing a city girl would do. I screamed my lungs out. Harper jumped at me, covering my mouth, and Tracey and Aspen held my arms steady. Thank goodness fear froze my feet, otherwise I would definitely have run. Unfortunately, the black bear had heard me, making its target all the more interesting.
“Slowly back away. Don’t look it in the eyes.”
Back away where! I thought. I couldn’t even say it because Harper’s hand was still over my mouth. I slowly reached up to remove it.
“It’s gonna attack,” I said.
“If it does, curl into a ball and protect your head.”
“So that it can play soccer?” I felt my nerves get the best of me.
The bear approached closer, and boy was it even bigger than I’d originally thought.
“It’s gonna attack,” I repeated.
“Just keep going, Grace.” But noticing the girls picking up speed as the bear neared, I was sure that we were going to die. I could already see the headlines: “Three Women Mauled By Bear.”
I crouched to the ground and picked up a rock. “I’m not going down without a fight.”
“Grace, one swipe and you’ll be out. When he’s ten feet away, slowly get down into a ball.”
“I wanna run.” Tears spilled down my cheeks, and as if on command the bear started running. All three sisters fell to the ground, and I started running. It wouldn’t take long before the bear reached me. He—or she—totally ignored the three scrunched balls on the ground and decided to follow me. I promised myself that if I made it out alive, I’d never go hiking again.
I jumped over a fallen tree and ducked under branches, yet the bear was getting closer. From way behind me I heard screams and cries to get down, but my body just wouldn’t listen. What seemed like hours of running must have only been seconds. It was so close I could smell its wet fur. Three more pounces and it’d be all over. A loud bang echoed through the forest. Then another. I just kept running. I couldn’t stop. Whatever made that noise may have scared the bear for a moment, but I didn’t want to take a chance. The forest was getting darker and unfamiliar. The sounds blended, my chest heaved, and I’d started running out of breath when someone caught me from behind.
“Grace, stop!” Hunter squeezed his arms around me from behind.
“Hunter, there’s a bear!” I cried, urging him to run.
“It’s dead. The bear is dead, Grace. It’s okay now.” He wiped my face with his big hands, tucking the messed up hair behind my ears and smoothing the top of my head over and over. “It’s gone.”
I fell into his arms, breaking down. He held me until his sisters found us.
“Nice shooting, Hunter.”
/> “They call me Hunter for a reason,” he chuckled. The girls laughed.
“You shot the bear?”
“Grace, it was about to attack you.”
“She saved our lives.” Aspen was still trying to catch her breath. I guess I wasn’t the only one scared shitless of the bear.
“I didn’t do anything,” I said.
“You drew its attention away from us.” Tracy hugged me tightly. “Thank you.”
“Really, I just ran because… well… I freaked out, to be honest.” I then turned to Hunter. “Did you know there were bears here?”
“Yes, but in my whole life, this is only the second time I’ve seen one.”
“Next time you take me out to the woods, Caveman, please make sure they’re not bigger than Central Park.”
“Don’t worry, Grace. This is the first and the last time you’re walking out here without me. And that goes for all of you.” He pointed to his sisters.
“Welcome to the family, Grace.” Tracey draped her arm over my shoulder on one side, and Harper did the same on the other. “And to the nuthouse that we like to call home.”
For the first time in a long time, I actually did feel like I was part of a family. A family I could one day join, perhaps, because the moment Hunter’s sisters saw me, they’d treated me like their own. Although I had nearly died today I had also gained a new family—and that was priceless.
CHAPTER 16
The familiar sound of buzzing hair dryers and the smell of hydrogen peroxide felt like home. I stepped from one foot to another to the rhythm of a song on the built-in overhead stereo system, humming under my nose. Combing the hair of a regular client, Julie, I felt my chest swell. The past weekend with Hunter, despite its unconventional start, had been one of the best of my life. And now that I was back at work, I couldn’t feel happier anywhere else than in my salon. Well, maybe Hunter’s bed was another happy place of mine. He always made sure I had a smile on my face and between my legs when I spent the night with him. I’d been living in his condo for over two weeks now, and with his constant company I was beginning to forget about my family’s troubles, and Scar. Ironically, Hunter was now my only reminder that the threat hadn’t gone away. He’d drive me to work and pick me up afterward, and he made sure I was never left alone.
“Here comes the boy toy,” Julie whispered.
I turned to peek as Hunter entered the salon. The wave of female heads turning toward the front door, along with Frankie’s, never ceased to amaze me.
“Shh, he’s not a toy.”
“Has he graduated to the status of the one, then?”
“It’s not like that. I’ve been trying not to think of him that way, but yeah. It’s serious.”
“You know, I don’t get you, Grace. You’ve slapped the label on every guy you’ve dated on day one, yet you refuse to do so for Hunter, the guy who’s head over heels for you.”
“He’s not…”
“Then you’re blind. He always looks at you like you’re the only one in the room.”
I wanted to say, “I know,” but keeping that little secret stashed away in my heart a little bit longer felt more important.
“Shh.” I shushed her as Hunter approached.
“Hi, Magic Fingers.” He grasped me around my waist and brought me in to him for a longing kiss.
“I’m at work,” I said, pulling away.
“And I brought afternoon snacks.” He placed a set of white takeout containers on a desk. From the aroma of exotic spices, which included saffron, I assumed we were eating Middle Eastern cuisine.
Hunter’s gaze flew over every single chair in the salon, the way it always had when he came here. It was a habit of his to be aware of his surroundings. But today he was acting extra cautious. While his attention was still on me, I couldn’t help but feel that he was carrying additional worries on his shoulders.
He leaned in to my ear, whispering, “I’m just gonna check the back.”
“Is everything okay?”
“I hope so.”
The lack of certainty in his voice had me worried. He kissed me once more on my cheek and went to the back. As soon as he disappeared, the outdoor display sign flopped to the sidewalk.
“I’ll be right back,” I said to Julie.
The air was heavy today—the hottest day we’d had yet, and summer wasn’t starting for another month. I looked down at the sign on the ground, wondering how in the world the wind had taken it down. There was no wind. And that’s when I heard Hunter’s panicked voice from the inside.
“Grace! Watch out!”
I saw him running toward me in slow motion, pure panic set in his eyes, but I couldn’t move. Someone grabbed me from behind while covering my head with some sort of cloth, and the next thing I knew I was thrown down onto what I assumed was the backseat of a car, kicking and screaming. The screech of tires pierced my ears as the car swerved. It felt like it was going fast—too fast. The smell of expensive, freshly cleaned upholstery was under my nose. I pushed myself up, only to be thrown back down as the car took another sharp turn.
“Get me out of here!” I screamed. “Hunter!”
“Calm down, Grace. Nobody’s fucking hurting you,” a familiar voice said. I thought it sounded like my father’s but much younger. I finally managed to drag myself up to a sitting position. My hands were free so I yanked on my new headgear, throwing it to the side.
Across from me sat a man with a familiar face. It took me a while to recognize my second oldest brother, Cash, without his neatly trimmed beard. He was a younger replica of my father, at least the way I remembered him. Sharp jawbone, pursed lips, and a dimple in his cheek when he smiled. I had yet to see that expression on Cash, but I was sure it’d be there—I could already tell.
“What do you want from me?”
“We just want to talk, Grace.”
“Who’s we?”
“The family.”
“And you couldn’t have called?”
“If we did, would you have agreed to see us?”
Of course not, I thought.
“So you decide that kidnapping works better?”
“Ah, come on, Gracie. We’re family. It’s about time we got to know each other better.”
But I didn’t even want to talk to him. Not while I was his prisoner. I slouched in the seat, wondering whether the door would open if I pulled on the handle.
“You don’t want to do that, Grace,” Cash warned. “You’d get your face and body messed up if you jumped out at this speed, and I don’t want to be the reason for screwing up that perfect skin of yours or scraping those long legs.” His gaze snaked up and down my body, making me feel uncomfortable. I was his sister for God’s sake. Why was he looking at me like I was the next one in line to conquer? Or maybe that was one of his patented looks?
Outside, the buildings flew by as whoever was driving seemed to speed up. Cash was right. It wasn’t the best idea to jump out of the getaway Escalade they’d used to abduct me from my salon. Hunter must have been going mad now, calling reinforcements and trying to locate me. I should have known better than to go outside on my own. Scar had warned me they would try to get in touch with me. I didn’t say another word to Cash, and he remained just as quiet.
An hour later the car turned in a weaving driveway. For a moment it appeared as if we were driving into a forest. Shivers ran up my arms as my stomach began twisting with nerves. The dark hole we seemed to be driving through seemed to have no end. Thoughts of being tied down to a tree for the wolves to feed on, or buried in the middle of nowhere, roamed through my mind. When light finally shone, the car pulled up to a mansion that could definitely pass for a White House. This had to be my father’s new house.
The door beside me opened and I cautiously stepped out onto the interlock driveway. Cash motioned for me to go up the ten steps toward a door suitable for a giant. Why would anyone make doors this huge? I mean, I was sure the tallest man in the world could easily pass through and still h
ave enough space to jump on a trampoline in the threshold and not hit his head. But once I stepped into what I still assumed was my father’s home, it made sense because everything here was over-the-top. The furniture, the expensive paintings, the marble floors, and a waterfall cascading down a wall, right into a pond of exotic fish. My head couldn’t turn fast enough to take everything in.
“To the left.” Cash followed right behind me as a door to a beautifully furnished library opened. Shelves upon shelves were stacked with encyclopedias and sets of law books. At the very top was a display of a notary stamp collection. The room smelled of leather, expensive cigars, and liquor. Way too much liquor. The monstrous chair swung around as my father put out a cigar he was just finishing. I recalled my mother never liking the smell, and I wondered whether she was here.
At first glance my father looked as if he hadn’t aged a year. His coy smile and strong jaw, which had been passed to all the Wagner boys, remained the same. He appeared to be in shape, and I bet he still worked out the way he used to. But there was tiredness and sadness in his eyes. For a moment it made my heart ache. He looked like he’d lived seven centuries, not seven decades.
“Hello, Gracie.” His voice dominated the room the same way I remembered.
“It’s Grace,” I corrected.
“Yes, well. You never did like it when I called you that. I’m sorry for today’s circumstances, but it’s been difficult to get a hold of you. That pestering agent has been keeping you all to himself.”
“You mean trying to keep me safe from you.”
“Ah, Gracie. You don’t need to fear us. We’re family, and I’d never hurt one of my children. Just because your mother chose to keep you away from us before doesn’t mean that we can’t spend time together now.” My father stood up, strolled to the front of the desk, and leaned back against it, gesturing to the chair in front of me. “Have a seat, please.”
I stepped to the front of the chair but remained standing. Staying at eye level with my father felt more comfortable than having him look down at me.
“I think it’s a little bit late for a family reunion.”
“It’s never too late, Grace. I hope I can show you that with new trust.”