Page 155 of Hunters and Prey

“I know,” I told him, lifting my knife up in front of me as a warning.

“You’re protecting this vamp now?” Alec scoffed and glanced between Rem and me. He seemed to put two and two together pretty quickly. “Oh, I get it. He’s one of your toys, is that it?”

I glanced back at Remington and saw the evidence of our kiss still smeared on his face. My own lipstick probably was quite a sight as well, but I wasn’t going to give Alec the satisfaction of seeing me fix it for him.

“So, what if he was?” I snapped back without thinking about it. I didn’t know why I did it. Rem and I were far from dating, let alone fucking, but I didn’t like how Alec thought he could just follow me and then take over my operation without asking. I wasn’t one of his hunters he could bark orders at.

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room as the other hunters crowded around us, waiting and watching for how he would respond. Instead of responding to me, he turned to one of the hunters who had come in through the foyer. “Did you find the director?”

Shaking his head, the hunter, I think his name was Larry, crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ve searched the whole house. All targets have been eliminated with no sign of the director.”

“Where is he?” Alec’s head whipped back around to glared at Remington.

Rem didn’t even look the slightest bit worried, amused maybe but not worried. “Now, why would I tell you that?”

Alec tried to move past me, but I stopped him again with my presence. Letting out a huff of annoyance, Alec bit out, “Because you are surrounded, and all of your flunkies are dead. You have no choice.”

I snorted a laugh.

“You think this is funny?” Alec growled, getting close enough to me I could feel his body heat. “He kidnapped your father and here you are, making moon eyes at him. Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised. You always did have a soft spot for the undead.”

I didn’t take offense. I just sighed, a long, drawn-out dramatic sigh. “Well, I’m not the one who busted in on someone else’s plan without warning and fucked everything up, now am I?” Alec opened his mouth to argue but I cut him off. “I had it under control.”

“It didn’t look like it to me,” Alec snapped, anger boiling in his eyes. “It looked like you were about to get naked with this evil monster.”

“Really?” I arched a brow and peered over my shoulder at Rem. “Because so far, from the outside viewer, it looks like you’re the one who broke into his house and killed all his friends who only fought you in self-defense.”

“But they’re vampires,” Ned said hesitantly, almost as if he wasn’t sure despite his training.

My eyes jerked over to Ned’s confused face. “Sure they are, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to die just because of what they are, now does it?”

Ned’s face filled with even more confusion, and he looked to Alec for guidance.

Jaw clenched, Alec rumbled, “That’s not how we do things. You know that.”

“And therein lies the problem.” I held my hands out to my sides with a small smile. “You are all shoot first, ask later, or in your case, you don’t care enough to even ask. But I’ll have you know,” I tapped Alec’s chest with my finger, making him fall back a bit at the force I put into it, “Rem here was just about to show me to dad before you ruined everything, and I never once had to resort to violence.”

“Only dry humping him,” Alec spat out.

My lips curled up in a nasty grin. “No, that was just fun.”

Remington stood behind me, making the hunters around us shift and point all their toward him. Adjusting the cuffs of his jacket, Remington lifted his eyes to the heavens. “Now that our evening is ruined as well as my Persian rug, I’d like to get this over with and head to bed.”

“Then tell us where the director is,” Alec demanded, trying once more to push past me.

“Why?” Rem smirked. “So, you can kill me right after? I don’t think so. He’s locked in a steel room that only opens with my thumb print. If you kill me, then he’ll stay locked in there forever.”

My lips quirked at the sides. He’d thought of everything. Alec and the guild couldn’t use force to get Remington to do what they wanted, because he simply didn’t care enough about dying to give them what they wanted, or maybe he just didn’t like them that much. I could understand that.

“Fine.” Alec jerked his head up and down. “Then lead the way.”

“Oh, no.” Rem smiled, tucking his hands into his pockets. “We’re doing this my way, not yours. Send all your hunters out of here and then I’ll show…” he trailed off as his eyes moved to me. “… Adara where her father is.”

Alec moved so quick that I didn’t have the chance to block him as he shoved me past me and pointed the barrel of his gun at Remington’s heart. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Well, then I guess you’ll have to take that up with our girl because those are my terms.” Rem wasn’t looking at Alec but me, trying to make me understand what he was trying to show me.

The Phoenix Hunter Guild were killers. They lived for the hunt and would never choose the easy way out. I knew that. I was once one of them. I think Remington was trying to make me understand that in his strange twisted way.

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