Page 112 of Altered

And all along, he had been putting his junkie hands on her?

Hurting my goddamn woman?

Hell fucking no.

"I had no choice," Hope continued to say over and over, as the biggest teardrops I'd ever seen dripped down her cheeks. "I was so afraid for you… the thought of you going back to prison for protecting me? I couldn’t live with that. I needed to protect you. I needed to keep yousafe."

"You should have told me, sweetheart," I bit out through clenched teeth, battling to reign in my temper. It wasn’t easy though, and grew damn near impossible when she looked at me with those big, scared eyes. "I would have fixed this for you, HC."

"I knew what you'd do if I did – how you'dfixit," she countered shakily. "It's what you're thinking of doing right now, but youcan't,Hunter. You can't hurt him."

"Hurt him?" I snarled, practically choking on my fury. "I'm not going to hurt him, Hope. I'm going to fucking end him."

"See," she cried, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "This is exactly why I couldn’t tell you." Twisting in her seat to face me, Hope begged, "Don’t do anything, Hunter. I'm handling it now, so it's okay. He won't rat. I know he won't. Not anymore. So just…just stay away from him. Please –"

"If you think I'm capable of letting him get away with this, then you don’t know me," I told her. She flinched at my words, but it was the truth. "Ican't, Hope. That's not how I work, baby," I growled. " An eye for a motherfucking eye."

"Then I went through all of it fornothing," she hiccupped. "That's what you'll do if you hurt him," she whispered. "You'll make it all for nothing."

"What kind of man would I be if I let him get away with this?" I demanded, torn between vengeance and pleasing her. "He put his goddamn hands on you, Hope. That bastardhurtyou."

****

Hope

I watched with my heart in my mouth as Hunter digested everything I told him.

Shame and guilt crashed against my conscience the entire time, but I forced myself to be honest.

To tell him.

Because it would come out.

I realized that now.

Secrets never stayed buried for long.

That was the only inevitability in my world now.

Everything else had beenaltered.

Every possible emotion flashed across Hunter's face as I spoke, until finally settling on pure, unadulterated rage.

There was only one thing I held back, one revelation I couldn’t find the words to confess, because I knew that once he knew, all bets were off.

Somehow, I had managed to convince Hunter to stay right here with me and not go looking for trouble, but if I told him what happened that night, it would be a very different situation.

I could see it right now, right there in his storm-filled, blue eyes, that he was seconds away from hunting Jordan down.

I couldn’t allow that to happen.

Sure, I no longer felt the emotions inside of my heart tostayand try and help him.

But that didn’t mean I wanted him dead.

Fear threatened to smother me, rendering it impossible for me to tell him about the pregnancy.

I couldn’t tell him about the baby.

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