Page 23 of Altered

"Goddammit to hell!" Swinging around to glare at Hunter, Noah hissed, "Over my dead fucking body, Lucky."

"That's what I said," I shot back in full agreement, shaking from head to toe. "He's not going down for this."

"She needs a goddamn doctor, Noah!" Hunter shot back, pacing the kitchen like a caged animal. "If you honestly think I would put myself before her needs then you don’t know me as well as you think, man."

"Well, the break from crazy was nice while it lasted," Noah finally said with a resigned sigh. I watched as he pulled his cell out of his pocket, swiped a thumb across the screen, and then pressed the phone to his ear. "G? Yeah, it's me." He glanced down at the body then and shook his head. "I need a favor."

"I don’t want you involved with those men again, Noah," I began to sob, but Noah cut me off with one lethal glare.

"Do you want to keep him out of prison?" he demanded, covering his cell with his hand. When I nodded, Noah hissed, "Then shut your mouth, and let me handle my business."

"Real fucking tactful, Messina," Hunter snarled, shoving past Noah to come stand beside me. Without thinking twice about it, I sprang to my feet and barreled into his arms. "She's been through hell tonight, so watch your goddamn mouth," he added, wrapping me up in his arms. "It's going to be okay," Hunter coaxed as he stroked my back and kept his eyes on Noah the entire time. "I promise."

Noah stared hard at Hunter before turning his back on us and returning to his phone call. Muttering a string of curse words under his breath, he stalked out of the kitchen, returning a couple of minutes later.

"Put your coat on," he ordered, brown eyes locked on me. "Max is home. He'll be able to do something forthat."

"No." Shaking my head, I tightened my hold on Hunter's waist. "I don’t trust him."

"Well I do," Noah shot back impatiently. "You're going."

"No," I hissed as a frantic feeling of paranoia and fear attacked my body. "I'm not leaving him." I glanced up at Hunter, who was looking at me like he knew this was what had to happen, and the fear inside my body exploded. "I'm not –"

"Jesus Christ, Hope!" Noah roared, losing his temper. "Stop questioning this and do what your goddamn told!" Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair and added, "You wanna keep him safe? Me, too. So pull yourself together, sweetheart, andlistento me!"

Biting down hard on my quivering lip, I turned to Hunter and said, "Come back for me, 'kay?"

His blue eyes blazed with heat. Cupping my neck with his hand, he leaned down and pressed a hard kiss to my lips. "You can bet your ass I'm coming back for you."

Everything inside of my body was screamingdon’t go, but I released him all the same, putting my trust in Noah as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and guided me across the street to the house I'd spent most of senior year skulking around in.

"I didn’t plan any of this," I heard myself try to explain, voice hoarse, as we stood on the porch steps. "I didn’t wantanyof this to happen."

"Nobody's blaming you, Hope," Noah replied calmly, tightening his arm around me. "Luck filled me in, and this shit's been brewing long before any of us were born. We're all just collateral fucking damage in a lifelong war between father and son, sweetheart."

"She's going to blame me," I whispered, Teagan's face flashing through my mind, making it hard to breathe. "You're back in this mess and she's going to hate me for it."

I watched as a vein in Noah's neck ticked, but he didn’t respond.

He knew as well as I did that when his wife got wind of this, she was going to kick my ass.

"What the hell are we going to do?" I added, feeling like the weight of the world had landed on our shoulders. "David's still out there. He won't go away, Noah. He's a fucking psychopath..." My voice broke off as I struggled to reign in my turbulent emotions. "He won't stop until he gets what he wants."And he wants me dead."I'm the target now," I sobbed, trembling violently. "And we all know this doesn’t end until he gets what he wants."

"That's not happening this time," Noah growled. "This time, he's gonna lose."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because he doesn’t know who he's fucking with," Noah shot back angrily. "We'll figure it out," he added, tone soothing. "I promise."

"Okay," I whispered, swallowing down the feeling of dread rising in my stomach.

Noah stepped forward then and knocked on the door.

I wasn’t sure of the response we were going to get, but I trusted Noah.

Ihadto.

When Max opened the door and saw us standing on his porch, he exhaled a sigh of disappointment. "This is becoming a habit, Messina."

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