Page 68 of Hunt

That was before I discovered Rourke. My stalker was Gunner Kaiser, and now that I knew who he was, I needed his attention even more. But it was important to keep a perspective. The Kaisers were my enemies. That will never change. There was no benefit in falling in love again with Gunner and no point in falling in love with the Kaiser's right-hand man, Ronan Byrne.

Either way I looked at it, I was screwed, which was why I had to have a defined plan. However, it was challenging to execute this plan without someone knowing.

“You need to try harder,” she barked. “Look, are you working tonight?”

“Yes,” I sighed as frustration stirred in my stomach, making me nauseous.

“Tonight is when you will plant those cameras. Do you understand?” she asserted brusquely. “No excuses. Got it.”

“I’ll try,” I resigned, even though I doubted it was possible.

“Who the hell is that?” she blasted. I glanced up to see who she was looking at, and it was Cheetos, probably walking back to her dorm. Except she was dithering under the canopy of hanging branches and didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

The silent officer at the wheel shook his head and finally spoke for the first time in like, ever. “She’s been there for the last few minutes.”

“Watching us?” The interruption aggravated Bitchtective.

“Yeah, I don’t know what she is doing, but she doesn’t look like a problem,” the officer said.

“She isn’t,” I added. “She’s probably looking for me.”

“She’s your friend?” Bitchtective seemed surprised that I had a friend. Miracles sometimes happen.

“Yes, and she’s not a problem,” I agreed with the officer, suppressing my smile at the weird girl peering behind the tree trunk.

I had no idea why she was there, but it felt like she had my back and was ensuring I was okay. Spying was a good hobby for a bored, shy girl to pursue after she appeared when Bitchtective visited me in my dorm room and revealed who she was.

“Fine,” Bitchtective waved her hand dismissively at the encroaching geeky girl and focused back on me. “Tonight. Do you understand? Plant the camerastonight.No excuses. No chickening out. Tonight.”

The pressure from her demands felt like someone was sitting on my chest, and I struggled to breathe. “Yes, I will do it,” I promised, so she would unlock the car and let me out. I needed to get out now. “I will do it.”

“Good,” she retorted. Then she hesitated for several seconds to show me who was in charge before finally releasing the car's locks in a way that tormented me.

Once out into the fresh air, I could breathe again, despite the weight of the mission I was instructed to pursue. I walked past the Cheetos hiding place, heard a “Psssst,” and looked back.

“Cheetos? What are you doing here?” I played dumb. I’d become pretty good at being the pretender.

“Police?” she said, pointing to an unmarked police vehicle pulling out of the car park.

“Huh, no, just…ah, people, they’re family. That’s what they are, family checking up on me,” I fumbled, trying to find an explanation, but my life was not her business anyway. I owed Cheetos nothing, just like I owed nothing to everyone else in my sordid shit show of a life.

“Oh, she looked like that cop that came into your room that day,” she said, wedging me between a rock and a hard place.

“No,” I laughed it off as she was being ridiculous, then changed the subject. “Anyway, I have to get to class.”

I stepped ahead of her, only a hand to seize my forearm in an attempt to pull me back. “I have to show you something,” she breathed as her eyes flicked about nervously with every sound and every movement behind glasses.

I was eager to move away from this area because it had a bad smell figuratively, due to the dirty cops. Even though I was free from their restraints, I wasn’t free from their demands.

“Wait. I have something for you,” Cheetos flatly, still casting her eyes about apprehensively.

“What is it?” I wasn’t in the mood for this; the stress was getting to me, and I just wanted to escape it. “I need to go to class, Kat.”

“Wait. I have something,” she said, backing away into the cover of the hanging branches and then waving me over.

“Okay,” I succumbed and stepped off the path into the shadows of the tree.

“It’ll be two hundred dollars,” she breathed anxiously as she plunged her hand inside her bag, signaling that she wanted to peer inside.

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