Page 8 of Hunter

“Please. I don’t want anyone knowing.”

“You’d rather I lie to all my brothers and tell them what? That this is just some kid I picked up?”

“No,” she said, looking back and forth up the street as if to inspire her with an idea. Then she looked back at me, her eyes locking onto mine. When they softened, I recognized the look.

“No,” I said before she could open her mouth.

“But you have the same eyes!” she pressed.

“I’m not claiming him as mine. I won’t take that away from Noble.”

“Please.” Her voice was growing more desperate as she stepped into my space. “It’s not forever … I just … I want to protect him.”

“And lying about his dead father will put him danger?”

“I—”

“No.”

“I’ll run,” she promised. “I’ll run every chance I get unless you do this for me. For Adair.”

I gazed into her eyes, and God be damned if I didn’t see the absolute truth in them. I could say I would keep her locked up, not letting her out of my sight, but I also knew I couldn’t do that to Adair. He was my nephew, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t take him away from his mother. Every kid needed a mother, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, the tenants I had tracked down had told me Mallory was a damn good mother, despite her terrible life choices.

I clamped my hands down at my sides, sure the horrible taste in my mouth was acid when I spat the single word I would probably regret. “Fine.”

I could see relief flood her eyes, but I wouldn’t let her live in it for long.

“Only until I find out what it is you’re fuckin’ hiding from me,” I growled, stepping into her space, watching her eyes jump up to mine in panic. She was so close I could feel her nipples grazing my chest, and as much as I would have been interested, I was too pissed to care. “You ran for a reason. And Iwillfind out what it is. You hear me?”

She swallowed. “Yeah, I hear you.”

She breathed a sigh of relief as I stepped out of her space and stormed around the truck, swinging the door open. I jumped in, turning the keys in the ignition and firing the truck to life.

Mallory slowly got into the truck, her eyes fixed on the road ahead.

“Seatbelt,” I snapped.

She flinched, jerking around to fumble the clip into the lock. After a third failed attempt at getting the damn thing in, I grabbed it from her and pushed it in until it clicked.

“Thanks,” she whispered, pressed as close to the door as she could get.

Putting the truck into drive and getting the hell away from this neighborhood, not looking at her as I turned onto the interstate heading home, I said, “By the way, the name’s Hunter.”

Chapter Two

Mallory

As I watchedthe grass banks of the interstate disappear behind us, I felt as if my heart was disappearing along with it. I looked at Adair sleeping in the car seat that had been installed in the back.

I didn’t have a car. I couldn’t afford one after mine broke at the Denver border. It was a problem I would have had to face if I had stuck to my plans to carry on into Omaha. Looked like that problem was out the window, along with my mind.

Going back to Fellpeak? Staying with Hunter, who said nothing the entire journey? Lying about him being Adair’s father? It was ridiculous. And stupid. Even so, there was no way I could let Adair go into child protective services at the cost of fighting Hunter.

It was true that choosing that house had been the last resort when my car had given up. And I had to put Adair in that daycare to work. It was that or the streets, and there was no way I would let my baby starve.

Adair gurgled, catching my attention. I couldn’t stop the smile pulling on my lips. He was a smaller replica of his father. I had to admit I felt a little lonesome, struggling to see my features in his face; but seeing the amount of Noble in him, I had no doubt he would grow up to be just like him: kind, generous, and beautiful inside and out.

Even if our last moments were bitter, I couldn’t find a bone in my body to hate the man who had given me a child. And as time went by, I found myself loving him more each time I looked at my son’s face and saw him smile.

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