Hunter
My name is Hunter, and when it comes to my woman, I don’t play around. I feel her. I protect her. I love her ferociously.
Some people say I go too far. They think I deserve to be locked up. I’m not a reasonable man. I’ve got more blood on my hands than you’ve ever seen. And I'll tell you right now, I would kill for my woman. Isn't that what true love means?
Am I an animal? Am I a monster? Sure.
But Kelly changed me. She tapped into something deep inside me. I live for her now. She’s the one I protect. She’s the one I kill for. Most men don't know what it means to be willing to die for their woman. I'm here to show them.
My name is Hunter, and if anyone ever threatens Kelly, if they even think about it, I will hunt them down, and I will kill them.
Chapter 1
Hunter
I didn’t know where or who I was anymore. Maybe it was the rotating set of lies I’d been telling every random person I came into contact with in every shit town I stopped in, or maybe it was that those lies I now lived by made me seem like a stranger to myself. Working nine to five, making small talk, having a beer with some guy I didn’t even like, just because we were at the same bar at quitting time, that wasn’t me. I don’t know that person. I don’t know myself.
For as long as I could remember, I had been part of something. That something was who I was. A Donnelly. A bad seed from a bad tree that stood tall and cast a shadow on the south side of Boston. But that something was gone now. I’d lost it all.
People knew us.
People knew me.
And they left me the fuck alone.
Family? I don’t know if that’s the word for them. I didn’t have my old man’s brains or my brother’s charm. Probably because we weren’t blood. They took me in. I was just some stray that got stamped with the brand because the wife took pity on me, may she rest in peace. They did their best to give me a chance and bring me up as their own, but I never was. Tough as a brick, and better looking than the lot of them combined, I wasn’t one of them.
Couldn’t even cut it in school like my brothers. Only good that place ever did was give me a chance to pick up pussy and kill time in shop class. I’m sure the old bastard would have kicked me to the curb as a kid if he hadn’t discovered early on that what I lacked in social graces, I made up for in brute strength and complete disregard for rules of any kind. He never saw me as a son and sure as shit didn’t treat me like one. To him, I was more like an animal he’d found and could uncage when the situation got too unpleasant to be dealt with personally. I didn’t know any better so I didn’t care. We’ve all got to make a living.
It was more than that, though. Truth is, I liked it. I can’t remember when I got the taste for violence. Maybe it was just in me. I ain’t ever been much good at anything in my life except hurting other people, but I’m damn good at that. Debts to collect? Some gang of pukes is fucking with the wrong shopkeep? Send Hunter to straighten it out. I usually leave a pretty big mess, but the problem always gets straightened up. Not much of a job, but I’m not much of a guy. Or at least, that’s what I thought.
One day can change your whole fucking life. Take you from beating, drinking and fucking whatever you want in your city, to just trying to blend in somewhere else.
A few months back, my old man was having issues with a business partner, so he sent me and the new kid to put an end to the issue. And the partner. I knew this sad excuse for a man and he wouldn’t be trouble. Good chance for the kid to get his feet wet and for me to show him how it was done. We wheeled up, kicked in the front door, and found the poor son of bitch passed out in his recliner, holding a half empty scotch glass. The kid looked at me with a question in his eyes and the dead he saw in mine gave him the answer. He put two bullets in sleeping beauty’s chest and then one in his skull to be sure. It was a proud moment for me. Turning to leave, we heard a clatter from the kitchen and the kid took off down the hall. No witnesses. He was learning quick.
I checked the side rooms as he made his way toward the sound. I heard fighting. He was kicking the shit out of someone.
I nodded in approval. I’m ashamed to admit it now, but that’s what I did.
When I got to the kitchen, I saw the guy’s wife and kid huddled up in the corner with new guy’s barrel staring them down. He had no question in his eyes this time, just a small smirk that crept across his mouth. I don’t know what it was about the look of terror on that broad’s face as she cradled her son in her arms, but something inside me snapped. I broke the cardinal rule of the Donnelly Clan. I broke the cardinal rule of any Boston crime gang.
I let my heart influence my thinking. For one moment, the first maybe in my entire life, I was human.
I looked at the new kid. He was going to kill this woman and child and get a hard on doing it. I cleared my throat and he turned to me, a crazy, frenzied look in his eyes. I gave him a chance. I shook my head. That was it. That’s all I gave him.
Don’t do it.
But he just gave me back that crazy grin. He wanted to kill them, and he was going to enjoy it. Something inside me broke.
I lifted my arm, pointed my gun at his face, and, well, I don’t want to say what I did next. Just know, before you judge me, that I didn’t do it because of a love of violence. I didn’t do it because I hated the new kid. I’d trained him. I liked him, even. I did it because, for the first time, I saw that someone had to do something. There’s only so much crime and violence that this world can take. Sooner or later, a man, a real man, has got to take a stand.
And just like that, I ended the only life I’d ever known. From that moment on, my days in Boston were numbered. My life was cheap. I was a target to every lowlife bounty hunter in six counties. The Donnelly Clan would see to it.
It was a stupid fucking move. That’s what you get for growing a conscience in my line of work. I had to skip town fast, and I knew it.
Luckily the wheels we took to the job had a duffle bag with a substantial debt collection sitting in the back seat. I knew I was fucking the family over as I drove off, not knowing where I was going. But like I said, they ain’t my family. Family means more than that. Family is something that touches you somewhere inside. I mean, I’ve never experienced it, I’ve never even got the faintest whiff of it, but sometimes you’re allowed to believe in a thing you’ve never seen, aren’t you?
Now, sitting here, living off that duffle bag in a haze of shit beer and the day-to-day grind, I wonder if I lost my mind that night. As it turns out, it wouldn’t be the last time some broad and a kid made me go fucking crazy. One day can change your life. That day began, the morning I met Kelly.
Chapter 2
Kelly
At least the sun was shining. If there’s one thing you can count on in the town of Stone Peak, Montana, it’s the beauty of nature. The view over the mountain range, the miles and miles of pine trees in the valley, the way the clouds gather around the snowy peaks, it’s enough to take a girl’s breath away. It’s enough to make you feel safe and secure in the world. It’s enough to give you a little hope.
When I was a little girl, I thought I wanted to get out of this place. I thought I was headed for the big city. I never understood the people in the town who said they’d stay there their whole lives. The same faces, the same stories, each day the exact copy of the one before. I saw the sameness of it all as a way of rocking yourself to sleep, singing you a sweet, carefree lullaby until, before you knew it, you’d slept away the best years of your life.
I didn’t want to wake up some cold morning and discover that I was just another familiar face, living out my days just like the rest of them. I thought I was headed for bigger things. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to be someone. I wanted to find my destiny.
Destiny.
Life has a way of getting in the way of silly things like that. I know better now. I’m not foolish enough to think I have some great destiny in the world. I’m just an ordinary girl, scraping by a
s best she can, and I do it on my terms. I live the life I created, the life I built for myself through my own sweat and hard work, and for that, I will always be grateful.
“Morning, Kelly,” a voice called as I walked absently along the sidewalk toward the diner, chewing my healthy breakfast Snickers bar.
I looked up. It was Grace, the one person in my life I knew I could always count on.
“Morning, Grace.”
“Did you remember to pick up the ice from Harry’s?”
“Oh, shoot,” I said, slapping my forehead. I’d been so preoccupied that morning it had totally slipped my mind.
Grace shook her head. “Well, don’t worry about it. I know you’re doing your best with what the Good Lord gave you.”
I grinned at her. She was always teasing me.
“And why are you eating that crap so early in the morning? You know I like to cook you breakfast. Candy bars are going to be the death of you.”
“Yes, ma’am. Sorry, my mind was off wandering.”
“Oh, hush. It wasn’t Elle and Forrester you were thinking about, was it?”
I shrugged. “Do you think something like that will ever happen to me, Grace?”
“What? Some handsome, rich guy with a mansion in California rides into town and sweeps you off your feet?”
“Something like that,” I said, realizing how ridiculous it sounded.
Grace smiled. “You never know, kid. It happened to Elle.”
“It happened to Elle,” I repeated to myself.
She’d called me the day before, telling me how great things were, inviting me up to the vineyard. I sighed.
“You really do have your head in the clouds today,” Grace said. “But now, let’s get your head on serving some people breakfast, since that’s what I’m paying you the big bucks for.”
I love Grace. She’d been like a mother to me since I lost my folks when I was seventeen. She took me in, gave me a roof and three square meals every day. Eventually, she gave me this job waiting tables when I finished high school.
If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have ever made it this far. I owed her everything.
“I will, Grace. What’s the special going to be today?”
“I was thinking eggs. Sound good to you, baby?” she asked with a grin.
“Sounds great,” I said. “Same special as every other day.”
This was our routine and had been for the last six years of my life. We used to make the walk to work together every morning when I lived with her, but that changed when I got with Phil, the sheriff’s son, and we moved into our own apartment. I didn’t see as much of Grace during that period. She was never far away, but living with Phil, I felt as if she was a million miles away.
Phil wasn’t ever one for either of us leaving the house much, except for work, and Grace was never his biggest fan. He wasn’t a bad man by any means, just not much of one. I really did care for him for a time, but I can’t say my heart was broken when he skipped town to be with some other girl. It was more of a surprise to me than anything else, as I didn’t think he had the courage to do something that bold. Grace said it was a coward’s move and that there shouldn’t be any room in my life for cowards. I knew she was right, except when I get lonely and think about what it would be like to have a man, any man, even a man as cowardly as Phil, in my bed at night.
Anyway, I survived that break up. I kept strong and it turned out fine. I settled into a halfway decent little house close to work and my life returned to normal in every other way. The sun kept shining. The mountains looked as beautiful as ever, more beautiful in fact. Phil ended up returning to town a year after he left, but I didn’t succumb to my loneliness and get back with him. I’d realized that he wasn’t the man for me. I deserved better. I didn’t deserve to be dumped for some other girl. I deserved a man who chose me, and only me, and stood by that decision every day of his life.
Phil still gives me some trouble in Harry’s bar from time to time, he tries to hit on me, or does something stupid to get a laugh out of his friends, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. For the most part, I ignore him. When he gets really drunk, he says he wants me back. He’d never do anything about it though. And I guess that’s the reason I don’t go back. If he’s not man enough to step up to the plate and take what he wants, then he’s not man enough to have me.
I was polishing cutlery when the bell over the door chimed for the day’s first customer. Like yesterday and tomorrow, it was Dennis.
“Morning, ladies. How is everyone’s health today?”
“Oh, good morning, Dennis,” Grace called out from the grill. “We’re still ticking here. You going to surprise us today, or just stick with the usual eggs and bacon?”
“Nobody burns it like you, Grace. I’d be a fool to get anything else.”
“Cup of coffee, Denny, or you had your fill at the shop?” I asked.
“Never enough, babe. The new guy drinks it as much as me, so I have to rush my way through to get some before it’s all gone. I’m not used to fighting for it, and he’s got more than a few inches on me. Pick your battles, right?”
I didn’t exactly love it when he called me babe, but I let it go because he was a good man. He didn’t mean anything by it. And he was the fairest mechanic in town. He’d never charged me for the work he did on my beat up excuse for a car after Phil left, and I haven’t charged him for a coffee since. Never the arrangement, I just couldn’t think of a better way to return the favor. I don’t think Grace knew, but if she did, she wouldn’t care. Dennis was in every morning for breakfast and it was a pleasant way for everyone’s day to start.
“How is your new helping hand? You’re not working him too hard, I hope?” Grace called, as she fought the smoke billowing from Dennis’s burning bacon.
“Well, he’s a bit of an acquired taste, that kid,” Dennis chuckled. “One hell of a mechanic, though. Knows his way around a vehicle and doesn’t need to be told twice how to do something, if at all. Took a little while, but he’s warming up. Anyway, he’s just finishing a cigarette outside. You can judge for yourself when he comes in. And we all know how you ladies like to judge.”
“Hush,” Grace said to him as she passed me the plate of burned bacon.
Before I even turned around, I felt a presence walk through the door. It was as if the room had been filled, but I couldn’t see what with. As I set Dennis’s plate in front of him, two massive, grease streaked hands gripped the counter and slid the body attached to them onto the stool behind it. I could see his forearms ripple underneath the tattoos as he leaned in. He spoke to Dennis, but he looked at me. I didn’t look back.
“Goddamn, Denny, you didn’t tell me this town had girls that looked like this. I would’ve been in here for breakfast every day. What’s your name, sweetheart?”
I was almost afraid to look up to see who, or what, was sitting in front of me. Not because of the catcalling. Being a waitress anywhere, let alone a small town, gives you some pretty thick skin, not much phases me, but because I could already tell that this guy was different. I felt something, I don’t know why, but I knew he had a darkness and a power behind him that I had never come across in my life.
“I thought waitresses were supposed to be all chatty and shit? Can I at least grab a coffee off you, darling? Unless you got a beer you want to throw my way. That’d be all right, hey, Denny? A little breakfast of champions?” He patted Dennis on the back and grabbed his shoulder.
While this sounded like the usual jackass with an ego and a drinking problem that I was used to shrugging off, there was something behind his words that felt forced. It was almost as if he was playing a role. Regardless, I learned long ago not to give this behavior any more time or attention than it deserved. Just keep your head down and do your job, that’s what I told myself, and they take the hint eventually. This guy would too, if I kept my cool. I kept my eyes focused elsewhere and calmly walked to the coffee maker and poured him a cup. I could feel his eyes burning into th
e back of me, and I tried to shake the feeling it gave me.
I poured the coffee with my back to the counter, and whispered, just to myself, “this is all you’re getting off me, so just keep talking your big talk.”
I realized I was saying it to convince myself.
Dennis cleared his throat. “We do our drinking off the clock, Hunter, but I’ll be happy to put that coffee on my tab. You had a hell of a first week, boy. And ladies, don’t let this guy get to you. Like I said, he’s an acquired taste. And as for you, boy, let go of my shoulder. What are we using vice grips for when you’ve got those things?”
“Ah, Denny I’m only trying to get a rise out of the girls here. My apologies, sweetheart, if I offended your delicate self.”
“My name’s Kelly, not sweetheart. Here’s your coffee,” I said firmly, as I placed the coffee down, trying not to give this guy anything else to work with.
But the harder I fought, the more I felt it. That power he had over me, the feeling he gave me in the pit of my stomach, just by his mere presence. What was happening? Why was I letting him get under my skin? I hadn’t even allowed myself to look at his face yet. I slowly let my eyes rise from the cup of coffee on the counter, to see his hard chest and broad shoulders, hugged by a white tank top stained from a morning’s work. The shirt wrapped the body so tightly I could see every angle and ridge underneath, and I found myself wishing I could run my fingers over them and take them in with my touch. I snapped back to reality quickly enough to gather myself and keep my feet on the ground.
Get a hold of yourself, Kelly. What are you, fourteen?
Almost as if he sensed my new found grip on myself, the man stood up. It was as if he wanted to show me just how much his body dwarfed mine. As if he was reminding me that he could knock me off balance at any time. My eyes shot back to the countertop and it was all I could do to keep them there and not look up.
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