Page 44 of Hunter

He pivoted, worried by the sudden panic in her voice. “What is wrong?”

She looked embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I only want to know what you’d like for dinner.”

“Oh.” He thought about the things he liked. “Could we have cherry pie with vanilla ice cream?”

“I’ll see if they have it at the grocery store.”

“And more steak. With a baked potato and lots of butter.”

“Yes.”

He paused, wondering how much he could request. “Something else I had once. Something good. A doughnut. With a honey glaze.”

“Would you like some?”

“Yes.”

He wanted to pull her close against him. Devour her mouth with his. He only said, “Thank you. For everything.” Then he turned and left to go with the waiting security men.

###

He was reassembling a sniper rifle when Granger planted himself a couple of feet away and looked around to see that nobody else was in the vicinity.

“Heard about your new living arrangement,” he said in a conversational voice. “You’re a lucky SOB.”

He went on with the job at hand.

“So, did you get any last night?” Granger asked with a smirk on his face.

From the talk he’d heard among the men, he was pretty sure he knew what that meant. He chose to give him an innocent look. “Any what?”

“I guess if you don’t know, the answer is negative.” The comment was followed by a nasty laugh.

He bent over the rifle, as much to hide his expression as to finish with the weapon.

“She’s one good-looking babe,” Granger insisted. “I like those sexy headlights of hers. A real nice pair. And she’s got a great ass, too. If I was living with her, I’d get in her pants, all right.”

It took all his willpower not to surge up off the bench and sock Granger in the jaw. But he knew that would be a bad move. He’d already taken out his feelings on Beckton. He couldn’t afford any more mistakes. So he kept blandly working, pretending that he wasn’t seething inside.

Was Granger the man who had attacked him last night, he wondered, as he surreptitiously examined the man’s muscular build? The attacker had been strong enough to wrench himself away. And he’d been a skilled fighter. Granger was a possibility.

The man made a few more choice remarks about Kathryn Kelley’s body. When that failed to get a reaction, he switched to Beckton.

“I see the chief of training is keeping away from you.”

He didn’t answer.

“He’s afraid of you now.”

He shrugged, determined not to get into any more trouble, because now he knew his behavior could affect Kathryn Kelley. When Granger didn’t get any reaction from his victim, he lost interest and drifted away.

###

As she cleaned up the kitchen, Kathryn wondered what Hunter was doing. She had just finished washing the breakfast dishes when she heard a noise in the dining room and whirled. McCourt was standing by the table watching her.

“It’s customary to knock before entering someone’s home,” she said.

“I did. I guess with the water running, you didn’t hear me.”

---