Page 64 of Hunt Me
Vish claps his hands together,‘I’ll pack up, won’t take long.’
Confusion must show on my face because Liam claps me on the shoulder,‘We’re helping you, dumb ass.’
‘He,’I jerk my chin in the prick’s direction,‘has helped enough.’
Hands held in the air, Vish backs out of the room,‘let me help, man. It’s the least I can do since my sexy face made your girl question who she chose to be with so much she decided to—’
He squeals out the door as I begin charging towards him. Rage thundering in my ears.
‘Guy has a death wish, but I don’t blame him. He’s been waiting years for this opportunity.’Liam laughs.
Vish has always been a windup, constantly pushing everyone’s boundaries to see how far someone will go before they snap on him. Usually, he has nothing on me; I’ve never had anything for him to use as ammunition. And I don’t wind up easily.
Liam’s right. Vish has been waiting for this opportunity, so he acted the way he did, teasing Fauna like that earlier. Only it all falls flat right now since she’s gone. It’s not funny because she has chosen to leave me. But her decision does not matter because she clearly isn’t in the right mind to make the correct one so I will do it for her.
And my mind is made up.
‘We’ll find her, Ru. She can’t have gotten far.’
I look to my best friend, the one I met after I lost my sister all those years ago. He’s just as much of a dafty as Vish, probably more so, but he’s been there for me through some of the hardest days of my life. And he is here now.
‘She left,’I admit, only being about to show this small vulnerability to him.
‘And she will come back,’he states before continuing with a chuckle.‘Plus, you’re one of the most persuasive bastards I know. And judging by what we heard last night, there is no way that girl isn’t into you. She’ll just be scared. Give her time. I almost guarantee it’s not you. It’s what she’s seen. It’s the world we live in that is getting in the way.’
His words have a deeper meaning, an unspoken one that he often tells himself. Liam has been looking for the woman he met on a scouting mission months ago — the one he fell in love with and has been obsessed with ever since — the one who got away and he has been searching for since.
‘We will find your girl, brother,’he promises.
‘Then we will find yours,’I answer, meaning it.
A sad smile quirks the side of his lip upwards. It has been months and with each one that passes, his hope remains. But I can see it taking a toll on him mentally, how his imagination runs wild, creating different scenarios about how the world has played him. Shown him a glimpse at what he could have had but let go. How he’d agreed to a one-off, no names affair. He didn’t even take his mask off, but now it has left him with an infinite number of what-ifs.
‘She’s the one man,’I admit to my best mate, repeating the words he had said to me when he’d returned months ago.
‘Then we will stop at nothing to get her. Did she tell you anything about where she was staying?’
I rack my memories of what we had spoken about, most of the information being from our drunken conversation.
My head shakes,‘we were drunk, so it’s hazy, but she’d mentioned a group of women. How they’d not been in the city long and were heading somewhere else, but something’s got in the way, changing their plans. Something about a school, one near a park.’
‘That maybe explains why she left.’
‘What do you mean?’
Liam gives me a look as if to say isn’t it obvious dumb ass.‘She is part of a group of girls, who, if I put two and two together, from what Vish said when I got here, it was clear she puts their needs before her own. She bumps into one of Scotland’s most notoriously violent groups leader, known for all of the awful shit we have done to keep our community safe.’
I nod, still questioning where he’s going with this. Fauna and I had spoken about The Skulls, about our reputation and where it came from.
‘Jesus, Ru. For the one in charge of us assholes, you’re being dumb as fuck.’He begins to spell it out for me and my stomach sinks,‘a group of women in a lawless society and a group of men known for their brutality inviting them into a gated stadium that has walls higher than most would feel comfortable climbing. She’s probably terrified of what might happen to her group.’
‘But she knows I would never hurt her, never let anyone hurt her.’
‘You may be a scary mother fucker Ru, but you’re still one man. Plus, she has no idea how well respected you are by any of us. Not to mention how you could, if you wanted to, slaughter every last one of us. For all she knows is you want her all to yourself, and her friends can be handed off to us.’
I feel the blood drain from my face.
‘See why she might have been spooked and ran off now?’
