Page 49 of Hunter

“Wait,” I said. “You can do that?”

Anna only answered with a smile.

The mood was cut short when the sound of shattering glass resounded through the house. An echoing bang made my heart drop. I recognized the noise. The cliché movie sound effects had the noise down to a tee.

Gun fire.

“Get down.Now!” Kay hissed, pushing Anna and me out of our chairs. She pressed her hands down on our backs, keeping us low as she shoved us away from the windows. “Faster.”

I had no idea what was going on. I could hear men shouting outside, and then more glass breaking and more guns going off. I didn’t know how many of them were out there. All I could think about was my little boy as a horrible panic took hold in my chest.

Simply reacting, I ran for the stairs, not bothering to duck under the window’s view as I hurtled over the child gates, up the steps, and down the hall toward my room.

I shoved the door open, finding Adair’s bed empty.

I couldn’t breathe. My world seemed to stop. My heart didn’t beat. My brain didn’t function. My lungs didn’t work. I was numb from the top of my head down to the tips of my toes.

I was certain I had died.

“Momma?”

My soul came crashing back to earth when Adair’s little blond head peeked out from under the bed.

“Adair!” I cried out, rushing toward him and scooping him into my arms. I squeezed my face into his neck, needing to feel the sound of his pulse, feel his breath on my cheek.

He is here. He isn’t hurt. He is okay.

“Momma, what’s going on?” Adair said with a hiccup.

I pulled him away and saw the small tears gathered at the edge of his eyes and his trembling bottom lip.

“I—”

The door burst open, and when I turned, expecting to find Kay or Anna there, I didn’t.

A tall man in black stood in the doorway. He was massive, filling the entire doorframe in a stance that looked everything but friendly. His face was covered with a balaclava, but that wasn’t what held my attention. In his hand was a gun. A gun pointing right at us.

I had a second. A small fraction of a moment to turn away from the danger and wrap my body tight around my son before I would hear the echoing crash of the gun.

I prayed the bullet wouldn’t go straight through me. Prayed that my body could be a shield and protect my little boy from harm. I prayed the bullet would miss completely.

What I hadn’t prayed for was for a different gun to go off first.

A few seconds after the sound of the bang, I realized no pain had followed. I considered being in shock or the adrenaline flooding my system had numbed the pain, but when I turned toward the doorway and saw the unmistakable Black Angel emblem scrambling on the floor with the man in black, I realized I had been saved.

Adair was a rigid board against my still curled form; my head only turned enough to see a fist fly and the man in black finally go limp.

The Black Angel turned, and I could finally see the face of my savior. At first, I thought it was Hunter, but that would have been too convenient. This Angel had dark hair, deep eyes, inked skin across his body, and a look of fury that made my blood run cold.

“Wipe that stupid look off your face, Jax,” Anna snapped, lightly slapping his cheek as she barged into the room, followed by Kay and another biker. I remembered meeting Jax and the other biker, who had introduced himself as being the one to find me when I had knocked myself unconscious at the playground.

“My bad.” Jax shrugged, that southern accent peeking out as his face melted into a reassuring smile that instantly put me at ease. I didn’t like the way he was forced to bury the angry emotion, and I couldn’t help the shiver that ran up my spine as I thought about it.

“Hey,” Anna said, crouching down in front of me and softly touching my knee. “You okay?”

I turned to look at her and saw Kay assess me and Adair for injuries. Luckily, we had none.

“I think so,” I said. Even I could hear how weak my voice was.

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