Hunter: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  That didn’t sound very promising. He walked forward and took in the recruits that were lined up. “Ladies, you are here today so that I can assess if you’re good enough to join the police department. I’ll be evaluating all of you along with my coworker, Pappy.”

  There were a few snickers and I saw Knight’s body go rigid. “Something funny, asshole?”

  “No, sir,” the man said after clearing his throat.

  I saw Knight taking in a deep breath and then blow it out. Shit, it actually looked like it was working.

  “First thing you’ll do today is run the course. If you can’t pass it in under five minutes, you’re automatically disqualified. Get your asses to the starting line now!”

  The men hurried over to the starting line and Knight blew his whistle, starting the timer as the recruits took off. A few were very fast and obviously skilled. Another was fast, but a little uncoordinated. One was very slow, but obviously had heart. He pushed until he caught up with the guy that kept falling all over himself, then grabbed onto his arm and started pulling him through the course, picking him up when he fell and hauling him up the rope right along with him. I was impressed. Knight was too because when the timer went off and they still hadn’t finished the course, he didn’t cut them loose like he usually did. Instead, he waited for them to finish, obviously wanting to see how they did for the rest of the day.

  The fastest of the group stepped forward, strutting like his shit didn’t stink. “What the fuck? Call it. They didn’t finish in time.”

  “I’ll call it when I’m ready to, recruit,” Knight yelled at him.

  “This is bullshit. The one guy can’t even climb the fucking rope without help.”

  “Recruit!” I shouted. “This is where we decide if you make it into the department or not. I would suggest you keep your mouth shut if you still want that opportunity.”

  The guy turned to another recruit and mumbled, “This guy’s a washed up old man. That’s why he’s training instead of out on the job.”

  Knight stepped toward him, his eyes dark and lethal. I shook my head at the recruit’s idiocy. “Old man? You want to step into the ring? See how old I am?”

  The man snorted like that was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.

  “I’ll make a deal with you, you and me in the ring. If you beat me, I’ll let you decide who stays and who goes. If I win, you walk out of here and you don’t finish the training.”

  He looked around at the other guys, unsure if he should take that deal. He was bigger than Knight, but Knight was a trained assassin. He knew more ways to kill someone than most people in the military. And more than that, he liked it.

  “And if I don’t agree?”

  “Then you walk out of here anyway,” Knight grinned.

  “I don’t think this is a good idea,” I said, shaking my head slowly. “Aren’t you going to try to stop him from killing your recruit?” I asked Sean.

  He shook his head. “Nah, I’m not worried about it. They’re not on our payroll unless they pass the course. They’re someone else’s problem.”

  “I can take you,” the recruit said with more confidence than he had.

  Knight smirked at him and pointed to the ring. “Let’s do this.”

  I shook my head, knowing this was going to end badly. I walked over to the medical room and grabbed my bag. There was no way that guy was leaving with anything less than a severe limp.

  Knight pulled off his shirt, socks, and shoes, standing only in his jeans. Knight had stayed in shape and the scar that ran along his chest where he had been stabbed proved that he had seen action and lived to tell about it. He cracked his neck, jumping up and down a few times to loosen up. The other guy stretched a few times and then did a ‘bring it’ motion with his hands.

  “Oh shit,” I whispered as Knight’s face grew dark and the assassin in him took over. He stepped forward and then waited. The other guy moved in, swinging left and right, but Knight always dodged his attempts at striking. Knight moved quickly, locking the guy’s arms and striking repeatedly in his kidneys. He moved back, giving the man a chance to regain his breath. He grimaced as he panted through the pain.

  The guy faked taking a knee and then shot forward, attempting to throw Knight off balance. Knight stepped aside and threw him into the ropes. He was toying with the guy. I shook my head and looked at the other recruits that could see the same thing happening. They were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

  Knight let him throw a few more punches, never landing any before I saw that look that I knew all too well. He was going in for the kill. The question was where would he strike and how much damage would he do? A kick to the chest threw the guy into the ropes, followed by a solid foot to the side of the knee, which had the guy screaming in pain. Knight finished him with a carefully placed throat punch. He wouldn’t die, but he was definitely going to be having trouble breathing for a while.

  Sighing, I stepped into the ring and went to tend to the fallen recruit. Sean smirked at me from the sidelines and Knight pulled his shirt back on, having not even broken a sweat.

  “Jesus, Knight. You could have gone easy on him,” I said as I examined his knee that was swelling rapidly.

  “I did. He’s not dead is he?”

  “What the fuck, Knight?” Cap said as he entered the training center. “These guys are supposed to be training, not ending up in the ER.”

  “He accepted the challenge,” Knight shrugged.

  “Why the fuck didn’t you stop this?” Cap asked Sean.

  “He has a point. I don’t know if I’d want him on the department if he can’t back up what he shoots at the mouth. I kinda wanted to see what would happen.”

  Cap threw his head back in frustration. “You knew what would happen. It’s Knight.”

  “Yeah, but it’s been a while. He could have gotten sloppy in his old age,” Sean shrugged.

  “It’s been like a year.” Cap walked over to the recruit and looked down at him. “So what did you say to piss him off.”

  The guy groaned and held a hand over his throat, taking deep breaths. “I called him a washed up old man.”

  “You dumb fuck.” He turned to Knight and shook his head. “We had a deal, Knight.”

  Knight pointed to the guy on the ground. “He’s breathing. His kidneys will heal and he’ll only be pissing blood for a week. His knee will be fine with physical therapy. I don’t know what you’re complaining about.”

  Sean ran a hand along his jaw and slapped Cap on the back. “Look on the bright side. At least we found out what a pussy he was before he joined the department. I’d say Knight did his job.”

  I pointed to one of the other recruits. “You get to take him to the hospital to be checked out.” I stood, walking over to Knight. “I’d work on those breathing techniques a little more. I don’t think they’re working for you.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Lucy

  LUCY: I’M HERE.

  Claire: In the bedroom

  I got out of my car and headed for her front door. Ever since she and Derek got together, she’d become a girly girl and took extra time to get ready to go anywhere. It was kind of pissing me off. We had made plans a week ago to go shopping for some clothes for my weekend in Philadelphia for the teaching conference. I had plenty of clothes for teaching, but I hadn’t had time to replace my day to day wardrobe.

  I opened her door and walked inside. “Claire? You ready?” I sighed and walked back to her bedroom. The door was closed, so she had probably just gotten out of the shower. “Claire,” I said, turning the door knob.

  “Lucy! Don’t come in-” she shouted as I opened the door and then screamed.

  “Oh my, God! My eyes! I think they’re burning!” I turned with my eyes covered and ran out of the room, straight into the hallway wall. I cried out in pain as my nose connected with the wall and I fell to the floor. Blood gushed from my nose, covering my shirt.

  “Lucy? Are you okay?”

 
; “I think I broke my nose,” I whimpered.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know it was you.”

  “I texted you.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t see who it was. I thought it was Derek. I should have looked more closely.”

  “Yeah, you should have. Crap. Now I have to go to the doctor. You’re going to have to drive me.”

  “Uh…I’m gonna need your help.”

  “Seriously? I just broke my nose trying to get away from that image and now you want me to go see it again?”

  “Lucy, do you want me to take you to the doctor or not?”

  “Fine,” I grumbled, getting up and grabbing some paper towels to soak up the blood. I held my nose back, careful not to walk into any walls as I made my way back to her room. I walked over to her and had to laugh at her predicament. “What the hell is this stuff?”

  “Would you stop looking and just get me out of it.”

  “I think I’m going to need an explanation to go along with this.”

  “After you get me out.”

  I sat on the edge of the bed and tilted my nose back. “Before.”

  She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut. “Derek and I like to experiment. One of my fantasies is being rescued by a superhero.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard about that. You’re kind of famous.”

  “Shut up,” she shook her head. “Anyway. We’ve played out a lot of them, but this one is Spiderman.”

  “Oh, God,” I groaned. “You two are so fucked up.” I stood and tried to get the spider webs or whatever they were to come off, but they were stuck tight. “Hold on, I’ll get some scissors.” I went to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with scissors and a knife. Her eyes widened and she shook her head. “Put the knife down.”

  “Sorry, Claire. I’ve got to get you out of there.”

  “Just be careful. I don’t exactly trust you with a knife near me.”

  “Relax. I’m sure your superhero would save you.”

  “You can’t breathe a word of this to anyone.”

  “You’re no fun.”

  I worked on the bonds for well over fifteen minutes, but I couldn’t get them off. My nose was still bleeding and my eyes were starting to swell shut.

  “Claire, I have to call Derek. I can’t do this and I need to get some relief for my face.”

  “Fine, but make sure he doesn’t tell anyone.”

  “It’ll be the first thing I say.”

  I pulled out my phone and couldn’t see clearly anymore to find his number, so I used Siri.

  “Hey, Lucy. What’s going on?”

  “I’m at your house and your wife needs you. She got herself in a bit of a predicament.”

  “Can you take care of it? I’m slammed at work.”

  “No, I can’t because I need to go to the hospital. I’m pretty sure my nose is broken and I can hardly see anymore.”

  “Shit, can Claire drive you?”

  “No, she’s…indisposed at the moment.”

  “You tell him not to say a word!” Claire shouted.

  “And you’re not supposed to tell anyone,” I relayed to Derek.

  “I’ll be there as fast as I can,” he said with a sigh. I sat down on the edge of the bed.

  “My face is killing me. I need some good pain relief.”

  “My wrists are killing me. This is not very comfortable.”

  “How did you get yourself like that anyway?”

  “It’s too embarrassing to tell.”

  “I’m pretty sure we’re past embarrassing.”

  I tipped my head back after getting more paper towels and waited for Derek to get there and the bleeding to stop.

  “Claire bear?”

  “Oh thank God. My arms are killing me,” she whined from the bed.

  “I don’t want to hear it. I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to see for a week.”

  “What the fuck?” I looked up to see Hunter and Derek standing in the doorway, staring at the bed. Derek quickly shoved Hunter out of the room and closed the door. “What the hell is going on here?”

  “I was trying to surprise you.”

  “Uh, a little help here. I’d like to get out of this very strange situation and get my face looked at before this shirt turns to solid blood.”

  “Right,” Derek said, helping me up from the bed and out the door. “Hunter, take Lucy to the hospital. She thinks she broke her nose.”

  I held out my hand and he grasped onto it, pulling me into his side and wrapping his arm around me. “Come on. You can explain on the way.”

  He led me out to his truck and helped me inside, then took off for the hospital. “So, you want to explain what that was back there?”

  “That was why I have this,” I said, pointing to my face. “We were supposed to go shopping, but apparently she forgot and thought I was Derek. By the time I opened the door, it was too late. I ran from the room screaming with my eyes closed and ran straight into the wall.”

  “Ouch. Do I want to know what she was doing?”

  “Apparently, she was wrapped in Spider-Man’s webbing.”

  “Those two are so fucked up.”

  “Tell me about it. I think I’m going to have nightmares. I should never have seen her like that. I think I’m going to be scarred for life.”

  “Emotionally or physically?”

  “Both,” I sighed.

  “We’ll get you some pain meds and hopefully your nose isn’t broken.”

  We pulled into the hospital and Hunter helped me inside. The nurses got me back right away since I was bleeding all over the place and the doctor came to check me out.

  “How did this happen?”

  “I walked into a wall.”

  The doctor looked skeptically at the nurse. “This is much worse than just walking into a wall.”

  “Well, I kind of ran at it full force with my eyes closed.”

  “Why would you do that?” the doctor asked. I didn’t want to give my sister away. It was a weird enough story as it was.

  “I saw something I wasn’t supposed to.”

  “Right.” The doctor nodded to the nurse, who immediately left the room. “It looks like you have a deviated septum. We could see how things look in a day or two, but it would be best to get you in for surgery and get that fixed. You could have breathing complications, frequent nosebleeds, and facial pain without it. The surgery is like any other. There are some minimal risks such as scarring, decreased sense of smell, deformed nose-”

  “Deformed nose?” I screeched.

  “It’s very unlikely. Our surgeon is very good. Those are just minor risks.”

  “When would this happen?” Hunter asked.

  “Today. We’ll have to check the schedule to let you know the time, but it’s better if we get this taken care of right away. It’s an outpatient procedure and only takes about ninety minutes. We’ll put you under general anesthesia, so you’ll have to have someone drive you home and stay with you a day or two.”

  “I can do that.” Hunter grabbed my hand and gave a small squeeze. I was grateful that he was there. Ideally, I would stay with my sister, but I was pretty sure that after what I saw, I would be avoiding her for at least a week.

  The doctor asked Hunter to step outside for a minute, which could only be a bad thing. Was something more serious going on?

  “I have a counselor on the way to see you. I want you to talk to her and only then will we proceed.”

  “Um…okay. What kind of counselor? Like emotional?”

  A knock on the door had the doctor spinning around. “Here she is. This is Jane Carson. Please, listen to what she has to say.”

  The doctor left on that cryptic note and I watched as the counselor took a seat. “I want to ask you some questions and I need you to know that this is a safe place to talk. Nothing will go further than me.”

  “Okay.”

  “Did someone attack you?”

  I scrunched my nose, causing pain to shoot through my fa
ce. “Excuse me?”

  “This looks like a very viscous attack and that young man with you is easily twice your size. I just want to be sure that you’re safe.”

  “I am. I promise you, that man would never hurt me.”

  She sighed. “A lot of women come through here and say the very same thing. Please, don’t let him get away with this. There are people that can help.”

  I could see that I was going to have to explain if I didn’t want her calling the police on Hunter. “Look, I was supposed to go shopping with my sister. I went to her house and she thought I was her fiancé. They have a little kink in the bedroom and she had created some webbing in which she was tied naked. I walked in and saw that and proceeded to go running from the room screaming and straight into a wall. No one hurt me but my sister for not locking her bedroom door.”

  The woman stared at me, trying to decide if she should believe me. “Would you like me to get her on the phone for you? Would that make you feel better?”

  She nodded and I pulled out my phone, dialing Claire. “Oh, Lucy. Are you okay?”

  “Claire, I have a very concerned counselor here that is going to have Hunter arrested if you don’t tell her exactly what happened. I’m going to hand her the phone.”

  I handed the phone over and watched as the counselor went from disbelieving to staring at me in total shock. She nodded, not saying anything until Claire had finished. “Thank you, ma’am. I hope you’re okay now.”

  She handed me the phone back and rubbed her forehead. “I never saw that coming,” she murmured as she stood. “Feel better,” she said as she left the room.

  Hunter appeared a few minutes later with a confused look on his face. “What was that all about?”

  “You just got out of a night in jail for domestic abuse.”

  “What?”

  “I had to call Claire and have her clear it up. They were certain that you were beating me.”

  He stared at me for a moment and then started laughing. “Claire told her what happened?”

  “Yep,” I smiled. “I told her that they were going to arrest you if she didn’t tell the counselor exactly what happened.”

  “I don’t think they actually can do that. Don’t you have to file a police report?”