Page 3 of When He Hunts

She started to back away.

But he leaned in toward her. His hand rose and his fingers—slightly callused—pressed lightly to her cheek. His touch made her feel odd. A skittering tension slid through her. She’d noticed it the first time he’d touched her, but she’d attributed it to fear at the time.

Now, she realized that maybe…maybe that intense tension was attraction. Maybe she was attracted to the tall, dark stranger who’d saved her when no one else had?—

“I’m in the business of death,” he told her.

Her breath froze in her throat. “That’s not funny.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be.” His fingers slid down her cheek. Curled under her chin. “You had to know that you couldn’t run forever, Luna Black.”

He knows my last name.

No. No, no, no. Not him. Not the stranger in the dark. Not the one, tiny spot of goodness that she thought she’d found in this nightmare. She’d even had to give the vet a grand in order to stitch her up. Nearly all of her cash, but she hadn’t been able to go to a hospital and…

“Why couldn’t you be the good guy?” Luna asked softly, sadly.

His thumb brushed over her lips. “Because that would be far too boring.”

Her hand slid toward the front of her bag once again. She had to get that taser. “You’re here to kill me?” A crowd was close by. She could scream for help. Maybe they’d help. Maybe they’d ignore her. Hard to say with people.

“I can have you dead in my arms long before anyone hears any scream you might ever make.”

Okay, that was terrifying. Soul chilling. And?—

She yanked the taser out of her bag. She aimed it toward his stomach, but he moved wicked, wicked fast and knocked the taser out of her hand. His attack was jarring. Her whole hand seemed to go numb for a moment because of whatever he’d just done to her. The taser bounced toward the pavement. Utterly useless. Luna didn’t waste time screaming. She’d read a story once about how people ignored screams—seriouslyignored themunless you were yelling “Fire!” or something like that—and, by the time she screamed, like the jerk had just told her…she’d probably already be dead. Not like it took a lot of time to slit a person’s throat.

So instead of screaming, she just rammed her booted foot into his shin as hard as she could. He didn’t grunt or make any sound. He let her go, almost as if…as if he was curious to see what she would do next.

Oh, that’s easy. I’m gonna run like my life depends on it.Because her life did depend on it. She darted away from him and ran straight into the street. A car horn blared, and she caught the flash of blinding headlights as tires squealed, but she didn’t stop. Luna rushed forward. She shoved through the crowd that waited on the other side of the street. Then she was bursting into a restaurant—a seafood place with jazz music filling the air—and ducking out the side of the building a few moments later. Because of the open-air design so many restaurants had in New Orleans, she could go in one side and out the other…and she did that, several times. In several bars and restaurants.

She ran and twisted and hauled ass as she tried to snake her way to safety. In bars. Out restaurants. Through crowds. Past flirtatious men. And drinking women and she?—

An empty street.

Silence.

That was so the way of the city. The crowd one road over—on Bourbon—would be toasting the night away. Then…silence. An empty street. Too many shadows.

She hurried forward, jumping over puddles of water that had been left from the last rain and doing her best to avoid the myriad of cracks in the old sidewalk. Safety was at hand. She knew it. She’d managed to escape and survive another night and she?—

Was surrounded.

The men came from the darkness. Three shadows that loomed toward her with obvious evil intent. “We missed you at the Square,” the nearest man said. Tall and thin.

To the right, another shadow stepped forward. Also tall, but round. Stooped shoulders. Big chest. Thick hands that had fisted at his sides.

Then, shadow number three. He stepped under the lone light. A ski mask covered his face. The others weren’t wearing masks. And that was bad, wasn’t it? Because if they weren’t wearing masks, then they didn’t care if she saw their faces.Because they don’t intend for me to ever escape from them.No, they intended to kill her right then and there.

So why is this guy in a mask?

“You ran from Loverboy,” the man in the mask said. “Figured you’d ditch him soon enough. We knew where you were heading, you see. Easy enough to cut you off.”

They’d known about her safe house? Her heart thundered in her chest. “Guess you were just waiting for the perfect moment to kill me, huh?”

The masked man nodded. “Yes, we were.”

Words that withered her heart. She took a step back, but there was no safety behind her. There was no safety anywhere for her. “Why bother with the mask? Your buddies aren’t hiding who they are.”

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