Page 102 of Hunt for You

He didn’t yell, but the words were so aggressive, I blinked and my heart started to race.

I thought he’d back down and apologize, but instead his jaw got tighter.

“Bridget, I don’t donormalwell, but I live and work with these kinds of guys—right on the fringe of society. I used to be one! They’re real people, but they keep the veil over their true lives. Inside, most of them areanimals.It’s always only a matter of time before a guy like that goes too far.”

“I mean, hopefully.”

He gaped at me and I stared back, and I wanted to start moving again, but I was frozen in that gaze. Because it wasn’t angry or confused.

It was… sad. And that made me mad. “I was being cute. Donotpity me.”

Sam rubbed his face with one hand. “I wasn’t pitying you. I was—”

“You think I don’t know what these guys are like down deep? Hello,Gordon Reynolds was my dad.Trust me,no oneunderstands these kinds of men better than me!”

“Then why would you put yourself in their hands? Why would you let them destroy you? They aren’t worth it!”

“Because they’re the only ones whowill!”

“That makes no sense.”

“Bullshit, it makes every kind of sense. I can’t kill myself. I don’t want to. But I don’t want to be here anymore either. So finding someone else who has the balls I don’t have—”

“He’s got a lot more than balls you don’t have,” he scoffed. “And I’m sure that’s exactly what you’re going to find out. These guys aretoyingwith you, Bridget. You’ve already found one who wanted to cut you to ribbons—”

“I believe the exact quote was,open you like a zipper,”

Sam didn’t respond, just stared at me like he was mad.

“Why are you angry right now?” I asked him, genuinely curious. “Why do you even care? You don’t know me.”

“I know enough to know you’re worth more than dying in some alleyway in the hands of a monster.”

“That monster is going to be kinder to me than any man who was ever in my life before.”Except Richard.

“Then you’re meeting the wrong men,” Sam said bluntly.

I hacked a humorless laugh. “You’ll get no argument from me there.”

“But—then why? You said you went looking for these guys—”

“Because once one of them has fucked you, none of the good ones want anything to do with you!”

Sam frowned, but nowIwas mad.

“Don’t decide you know me—I knowyou.”

His brows popped up. “You do?”

“Yeah, I do—you’re the redeemed villain. You might get judgment from the Pearl Clutchers, but the rest of the worldloves you.You show up at the gym and you’re a beast. You go to college and you’re a man of hidden talents who turned his life around. You go for an interview and you’re the,did you see the new guy’s tattoos–hot!guy.”

Sam huffed. “That’s not entirely—”

“You know what happens when the high school slut turns up at the gym, or goes to college, or turns her life around?”

He went still. “What?”

“She’s still just a slut.”

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