by Dale Mayer
She shrugged. “Let’s just say, he has his preferences.”
“So, do I pass muster?”
“You’re still alive,” she said succinctly. “So, I would say, yes, you do.”
Chapter 8
Hours later, down at the edge of the lake, Beth sat hidden in the brush beside the dock, a cup of tea in her hand, wondering how quickly her life had shifted and changed. But then it was the only reason she’d stayed alive. Hunter walked down the path onto the dock and out toward the end, as he studied the water and the horizon. He turned to look at her and said, “If you wanted to go fishing, right now is not a bad time.”
She frowned. Damn, she didn’t expect him to see her. “But I’m quite happy right here, with my tea.”
“When we go inside, I have hair dye for you, so you can change your hair color too.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “My hair doesn’t change color.”
He frowned at that.
“It’s jet-black,” she said, “very hard to change.”
“I was thinking of a blue.”
“You know what? That might work,” she said hesitantly. “I’ve tried to dye it various browns and blonde, but it never works.”
“I figured a blue-black might be okay,” he said, studying her. “It is almost too jet-black to be natural.”
She smiled. “And yet it is.”
“Your skin is almost too white to be natural too,” he said, standing in front of her, his arms across his chest, frowning, as if he didn’t like the color of her skin.
She shrugged. “It’s always been that way.”
“Bloodred lips too,” he said. “It looks like you’ve got on makeup, and yet I know there is none.”
She just stared at him steadily. If he dug deeper, he would find out some of the secrets she didn’t want anybody to know because, as soon as they got wind of it, it would mean more explanations, and she wasn’t up for that.
She waited until he turned to look out on the horizon again and said, “Depending on how long we’re here for, we can go fishing another day.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, and she saw he was almost itching to go out. “Are you a fisherman?”
He tossed her a casual grin. “I caught the bug a few years back,” he said. “And I promised myself I’d come here many times, but I just never managed to get here.”
“Work?”
He nodded. “Work.” But he didn’t offer anything else.
She had to wonder what somebody who worked for Stefan would do. “Does he pay you?” He stiffened ever-so-slightly and didn’t answer. She knew it wasn’t that he hadn’t heard but that he chose not to.
“We have more time to cook now. I’ll go put some meat in marinades for the barbecue.”
She nodded slowly. “Vegetables? I’m kind of a rabbit.”
“You’re not a vegetarian, are you?” he asked.
Such a note of shock was in his voice that she had to laugh. “You make it sound like that could be the absolute worst thing in the world.”
“For me, it would be,” he said candidly. “I am very much a carnivore.”
“Good for you,” she said, “but I’ve never been able to afford much meat.”
“Ah,” he said, “now that’s a different story.” She raised an eyebrow. “I can afford meat,” he said, “so I eat it.”
“Good, and I certainly won’t say no, if it’s there.” As a matter of fact, she felt her mouth watering at the thought of a good thick steak.
“Steak is food for the kings,” he said, as if echoing her thoughts.
“I can’t even remember the last time I had one.”
“When you were a captive, what did you eat?”
“For a long time, it wasn’t even food, at least not anything we would recognize as food. A gruel, with all kinds of supplements and nutrients in it. They kept us healthy, healthy, healthy, but with absolutely zero appreciation of what real food was, until our teeth weren’t developing properly. Then they suddenly gave us food to chew, bread to bite on, bones to gnaw on,” she said, shaking her head. “We had superhard baked crackers, just to give our digestion and our teeth and our jaws some practice. But most of the food was liquid.”
“That sounds disgusting.”
“Later,” she said, “we had some changes in diet. We would get things like oatmeal and puddings, soft foods, but they could mix whatever they wanted into it, without us having the ability to taste much of it.”
“Is that why they did it?”
“I think so. Some of us got more common food, but, if you resisted or caused them any trouble, you got mostly liquid food,” she said, with a half smile. “So I spent a good half of my life on liquid foods.”
He chuckled at that. “Not surprised at that, but I am surprised that you have any enzymes to digest food at all.”
“It’s one of the things I did when I left. I struggled with supplementation to eat naturally. But I survived,” she said. “And beef hasn’t been cost-effective enough for me to eat.”
“Well, you get it now,” he said. “Let’s go take a look.” He reached out a hand toward her.
She nodded, and, using his hand to pull herself up, she managed to straighten without too much pain digging into her.
“How is the wound?” he asked.
“Healing,” she said, keeping her response short. She led the way up the hill, finding it a little bit of a climb. By the time she made it to the lower-level deck, he said, “We can go inside, if you want.”
She shook her head and kept on going up the staircase to the left until she got to the upper deck. There she slowly sagged into one of the outdoor chairs. “You’re blessed to have something like this,” she said wistfully.
“How much understanding do you have of the real world? I don’t mean to offend. It’s a sincere question.”
“Thank you for that. I understand quite a bit,” she said. “We had to take lessons in economy and how the actual banking system works. How society worked. It’s a good thing we did because, when I was finally free, it’s one of the few ways that I could put my education to use.”
“That makes sense,” he said.
She wasn’t sure when she closed her eyes, but sitting here in the sun in the late afternoon, as he sat beside her, waiting on the steaks, she felt her eyes drift closed. She would force them open, and then they would drift closed again, and finally she just dozed. Awake, asleep, awake, asleep. Somewhere in the distance, she heard a man talking.
“No, she’s here. … I know. I know it’s a dangerous time.”
She frowned at that, opening her eyes and turning on her senses. She thought she recognized Hunter’s voice, coming off from the side. She shifted her head to look around, and, sure enough, he walked a pathway on the opposite side from where the vehicle was parked, toward a neighbor’s property. But Hunter was talking on his phone. His voice was picked up by the wind and moving for added clarity. She strained to hear, but, by then, he was too far away, until he started walking back. She tried hard to listen, but she still hadn’t healed enough to do the job properly.
“Oh, I know. I don’t want to tell her. … Yes, I know. I will. … No, I’ll let you know if anything changes. … Yeah, okay. I’ll expect him.” With that, he hung up.
She sagged back in her chair, and she wondered just what that all meant. Who had he just talked to? Was it Stefan or somebody completely different? She didn’t want to be so nervous and so worried about everything but hard not to be when it sounded like he was talking about her to somebody she didn’t know. He came up on the deck a few minutes later. She studied his energy.
He smiled at her. “You’re awake again, huh?”
She nodded slowly. “So, are we alone here?” she asked bluntly.
He nodded. “I mean, people are in other houses,” he said, motioning at the neighbors. “But we’re alone here.”
“Does anybody know where we are?”
His response was instantaneous. “Stefan.”
She
let out her breath, feeling something inside her untwist. “Is that all?” she asked cautiously. And then she saw the shadow that crossed in front of his face. And inside her, everything tensed, as she waited for his answer.
“No one else knows that I know of,” he said. He gave her a bright smile. “I’ll go check on the steaks.”
She nodded, irate that he wouldn’t tell her about the phone call and now must kiss the steaks goodbye. As soon as he was inside and out of sight, she got up and walked, as if going to the bathroom, then snuck around the corner of the cabin and headed for the vehicle.
As soon as she slipped inside, she released the brake and let it roll down the driveway ever-so-slightly, enough that she could direct where it would go. Then, as soon as she hit the bottom of the driveway, she turned on the engine, circled around, and tore out of there. She had no idea where she was going; she just knew she had to get away.
She raced back to the highway, not even sure where she was, but, without a phone or any navigation equipment, it would be a case of just getting as far away as she could, as fast as she could. She hit the gas as soon as she reached the highway, putting her speed well over one hundred, going back the way they had come. She didn’t know how long it would be before Hunter noticed that she was gone or how long until he rousted a set of wheels, but it wouldn’t be very long before he was on to her. She needed to exchange his vehicle for another one soon. She drove up to where they got the groceries, then pulled around to the parking area in back and checked the glove box for money or anything of use to her.
She found a twenty stashed inside and grabbed it, then tossed the keys under the floormat, where she’d found them, hopped out of his car, and raced into the store. As she walked in, she checked out the energy, looking to see if she were being followed. Nothing was here, not even any energy from Hunter. She moved through to the other side, grabbed a big sandwich, walked through the checkout aisle, and, as she stepped outside, her hoodie pulled down low, she shuffled off to the last row of vehicles.
As she moved down, she watched one guy walk off, without locking his vehicle. As he entered the store, she waited for the electronic click to say he’d locked it, but there wasn’t one. As soon as he went inside, she moved forward, opened the door, and slid in, smiling. It took her way longer than it should have to hot-wire it, but she got it going, managed to put it in Reverse.
It was a standard transmission, which was a bit of a challenge, as she hadn’t driven one in a while, but she pulled forward and headed back out onto the highway, feeling much better. It wouldn’t be long before an APB was out for this one, and she’d be watching for cops on the lookout for a stolen vehicle, but that was a whole different story. She kept to the highway, going as far and as fast as she could, and eventually she felt herself falling asleep, so she pulled into a cheesy motel, wondering if it were safe, deciding the parking lot was probably a better deal.
She pulled in, parked the vehicle, but this shiny new edition would stick out like a sore thumb here. She checked the truck right next to her and, sure enough, found it unlocked. She crawled onto the bench seat of the old cab and crashed. She woke up when she heard noises outside, and cops were all around the parking lot. She winced because, of course, they were after the nearby vehicle she stole. Just as she opened the driver’s side door to slide out of the dilapidated truck, she was grabbed from behind and pulled up tight, as a hand clapped over her mouth.
Hunter’s voice whispered in her ear, “Don’t scream. We have to get you away from here.”
She sagged against him, then turned and shot him an angry look. He gave her a beaming smile. “Hey, a little bit of exercise is good for the soul.”
She shook her head, but he picked her up and said, “Now, you better throw your arms around me and make this look good.”
She glared at him and hissed, “Why?”
“Well, unless you want to go to jail as a car thief,” he said, “you better do what I tell you.”
She slid her arms up around his neck and burrowed her face against it. Inside, her heart was slamming. She knew he was a hunter, but this was pretty amazing. She asked, “How long did it take you?”
“About three minutes,” he said. “Long enough for me to grab the motorcycle in my garage that I keep here for dirt biking around the hills.”
She groaned, as he led her to the bike, yet was happy to see a spare helmet.
He put it on her head and said, “No funny stuff.” He got onto the front and said, “Climb on.” She slid onto the back, wrapped her arms around his waist, and he said, “Look. I know you don’t like the scenario, and I know you don’t want to be with me,” he said, “but I’m still your best chance.”
And, with that, he fired it up and pulled onto the highway.
*
Hunter deserved a damn medal. He hadn’t smacked her silly, and he hadn’t roared at her. When he saw the cops surround the vehicle that she’d somehow hot-wired and got going, he thought he was too late. The fact that she’d boosted the vehicle had shocked him because he thought, No way she’d get it running, but she had. He’d been on his bike and after her, as soon as she hit the road. He should have grabbed her there at the grocery store, but she was too far ahead, and he was afraid of making a scene and getting them both in trouble.
She hadn’t gotten too much farther ahead of him, but, after a good hour’s drive, he was sweating it because he was on the wrong vehicle for a chase and didn’t have tons of gas in his tank. Even now he needed to fuel up. With her securely on behind him and willingly with him, he soon pulled into the same gas station, where they’d fueled up before and close to where she’d lifted the car.
When they got back to the cabin, he got off the bike, without a word, and so did she. He motioned to the front door. She stepped forward, and he followed.
She unclipped her helmet and handed it to him, walked right through the house and back out to the deck where he’d seen her last and slumped down into the same damn chair. He walked out beside her, still so furious that he didn’t trust his voice, when she said, “Does this mean you won’t share your steak with me?”
Hunter stared at her, still fighting for control, but losing, and said, “What were you thinking?” And then that same fury roiled through him again. “You expended so much of your energy that could have helped you heal. Instead you fled, where you could have been captured. You could have been killed,” he said. “Any number of terrible things could have happened to you,” he roared. “Is it so bad to accept protection from somebody sometime?”
She gave a minuscule shake of her head.
Still not enough of a response for him. He wanted to wring her neck or shake her shoulders, until he got the response he was looking for. But not only did she not hear what he was saying but it could easily have been that she didn’t know how to comprehend it. All the heavy emotions drained from him, and he sagged into a chair across from her. “Seriously? Do you not understand the danger you’re in?”
Her eyebrows shot up. “I think I understand the danger more than anybody,” she said succinctly, her own ire spreading through her voice. “How could you even ask that of me?”
“You seem to have very little care for your life at the moment,” he said. “Your actions make it very hard to believe your story.”
At that, she glared at him. “And your actions,” she snapped, “make it very hard to believe that you’re the safe haven that you’re proclaiming to be. I heard you on the phone.”
His heart stopped, before slamming forward again. “My call to Stefan? Meaning, you don’t feel like you can trust me?”
“Who says I can trust you? Stefan? His wife? I mean, who says I can trust any of you,” she said. “I spent the last five years keeping everybody at arm’s length to make sure that I knew who to trust and who not to trust, and I damn well needed to learn and to learn fast.” She leaned forward and glared at him. “Just because you’re sitting there in that physically fit body with whatever weird psychosis you
’ve got going on in your mind that makes you think you’re some hunter and savior doesn’t mean I’m sucked into the same psychosis.”
He settled back and looked at her, wondering just how damaged her own mind-set was. “So, you don’t believe that I’m here to help,” he murmured, “or you don’t believe anybody is?”
She stared at him for a moment and then shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, does it?”
“Yes, it does,” he said, quietly understanding. “You don’t think you’re lovable, and you’re not even sure you know what love is.”
“Oh, wow,” she said, “that is not fair.”
“I think Stefan leaving was very hard on you.”
“So what?” she said. “That doesn’t mean he’s responsible for what happened to me.”
“And, just so you know, as much as I appreciate the fact that you were happy to let him off the hook, I’m not sure he’s so happy.”
“He’s moved on, hasn’t he?” she snapped.
“You know that he did everything he could to break down that whole group, right?”
“Whatever,” she said, with a wave of her hand, and then turned to stare glumly out at the world.
“Wow. You’re incapable of accepting help or accepting love because you’ve deemed yourself unlovable, because you’re so damaged no one could love you, right?” he guessed.
And bam, if that arrow didn’t find a home. It slammed into her chest, like a physical blow. She sank back, taking the force, letting it flatten her against the chair, but she didn’t say a word.
“You know that you’re wrong, right?”
She turned to look at him, and once again that mocking look was in her eye.
He was starting to hate it. Yes, it was her defense against the world. He understood that, but it irritated him. He shook his head very slowly. “You know that just being obnoxious doesn’t mean you get away with this crap.”
She snorted at that. “Being obnoxious doesn’t mean you get away with it either.”
“What kind of a crazy world do you live in that you would even say something like that? I get that I didn’t have the same terrible life that you did, growing up,” he murmured, “and I get that there’s probably a lot of anger and hatred inside you over all this.” As she stared at him, he wanted to shake her out of her complacency or break through that protective shield. Even knowing that she was so damaged and had been through what she had, he wanted to believe that something normal was inside, something that looked outward with hope to find a world where she could live normally. He sagged back, stared around him, and said, “Nobody can understand what you went through,” he said. “I get that. But not everybody is the same. And not everybody is to blame.”