Page 74 of Cruel Expectations

Livia shook her head. “No idea how it started. I just looked up when I heard a smashing noise.”

She looked around at the bar. “Did they break a chair?”

“No. Hunter smashed a guy’s face into the table.”

Her insides turned to water. “Shit!”

“The bouncer kicked them out and they took the fight to the parking lot. After that, nobody came back in.”

She shivered, envisioning all of it. Hunter taking offense to something a guy said and smashing his face off a table. Anger rising, somebody throwing punches. Glasses swiped off the table and hitting the floor, shattering.

The place was completely cleaned up, though, leaving no trace of what might have taken place.

“Who did they beat up and why?” Her voice was somewhat breathy—which it shouldn’t be. Her lover and her sister’s boyfriend couldn’t just go around picking fights with people.

Livia didn’t answer.

“Livia. Tell me.”

“I think it had something to do with the attacks.”

“You know about that?” She shouldn’t be so surprised, yet they were all keeping the matter so hushed that she didn’t think about another person catching wind of the attacks.

Livia nodded. “Word gets out. The cops were in here questioning a few people for an entire week after they found that guy in your pond.”

She inwardly groaned but managed to hold it together in front of her friend. “Is the food ready? I hate to hurry, but I’d like to find Hunter and talk to him.”

“Talk to him? You should be doing more than that, honey.”

“Livia!”

“That man is as fine as they come. Don’t pretend you haven’t noticed!”

With the mood lightened, they shared a small laugh. Livia told her she would grab the food, which must be finished by now.

When she emerged from the kitchen bearing two big shopping bags, Ivy took them with a quick squeeze and some thanks. She had to hurry home and talk to Hunter.

If he and Colton had gotten physical with a man, there had to be a good explanation. She just wondered if they’d gotten to the bottom of the bad business on the Gracey…or if it had been something simpler.

Pushing through the door with her hands full, she blinked in the bright sunlight. She took one step and never took another.

Out of nowhere, somebody knocked the food out of her hands. She opened her mouth to yell, but thick cloth locked over her lips, cutting off all sound but the small noises that could still project from her throat.

She screamed behind the gag. Kicking out, she attempted to strike her attacker. But they picked her up around the waist and tossed her on the floor of a van.

Her breath came in fast pants. When she saw stars shooting across her vision, she realized she was hyperventilating. If she didn’t stop—control her reaction—she’d pass out and wouldn’t be able to see where they were taking her.

Her kidnapper slammed the door before she could memorize his face. All she could remember was how his breath smelled like tacos and how his tough fingers bit into her skin and left bruises.

Then the van lurched forward. Ivy tried to catch herself from falling flat on her face, but they’d bound her wrists and ankles. She was helpless to stop her fall. When pain blasted up the side of her face, she cried out.

But just like when she was alone in the house, no one was around to hear.

Chapter Seventeen

“How’s the jaw?”

Hunter swung around at Colton’s question and skimmed his knuckles over his bruised face. He ticked his gaze up to the black and purple bruise spreading over Colton’s cheek.

---