Page 99 of The Hunted
Santino sat at his desk. His leg bouncing a mile a minute while his fingers drummed against his desk. The office was a buzz of activity, but he drowned it all out. His mind was a kaleidoscope of images he wasn’t sure were real but given how he finally knew who the Reaper was, he was sure those little snapshots were of a time he’d forgotten.
His brain had been protecting him from the horrors he experienced and in doing so, he had completely forgotten about Silva—or Shea.
“You’ll be okay, Saint. I promise. As long as it’s me and you, we’re going to be okay.”
He cursed under his breath. He was pissed that he still had no tangible memory of his time before his guardian found him. But the images of the two little kids thick as thieves going through things no child should ever go through was suffocating him. He tried to remember that he escaped, but he hadn’t escaped alone.
Your guardian is a liar. You weren’t alone when she scooped you up out of the pool of blood.
Why had his guardian left her behind and lied about it? If there was a way to bring the old bat back to life he’d do it in a heartbeat. How could someone save one child and not the other? Did she think Silva wasn’t like him? It wasn’t like he and his guardian were upstanding citizens. There would have been room for her.
Santino pitched forward, his chest was tight making it hard for him to breathe. His foundation was shifting, and he couldn’t hold on to anything to keep himself up right. He wasn’t going to sympathize with the Reaper. Not after how he’d been played.
This entire game because of a slight he had no control over?
She didn’t have to do all of this.
She didn’t….
Have to make me want her.
Santino dropped his head in his hands. His chest hurt and so did his pride. He rubbed the top of his head, trying to work through what he was feeling. They were like a million threads, all different colors coursing through him. Some colors he knew right away.
He was familiar with anger; he lived with it most of his life. Grief he understood, he felt it when his guardian finally died. But the other threads felt foreign to him. He was just learning what it meant to be intimate and enjoy someone when it came to her. His delight and happiness seemed to be wrapped up in the pretty package she presented to him. His body still flushed hot—a fire she sparked when they first ran into each other hadn’t died down once he found out her true identity.
Even now, even through his anger, all he wanted to do was bury his face in between her legs and make her scream his name until it became a whispered prayer.
“Fuck me.” He shifted in his seat, sitting up and cracking his neck. He looked around the office, watching everyone move around.
Sarah Brown’s body had sent everyone into a frenzy. The back-to-back bodies in the short time frame were making civilians and local government antsy for answers. He’d like to say this was the last of it, but there was still the matter of the Coffee Shop Killer, but he didn’t have the brain capacity to deal with that right now.
He didn’t see Martin, which wasn’t surprising, but he realized Amra wasn’t in her office either. He wondered where she ran off too. He needed to be careful around her when he dealt with the Reaper. It was because of her Silva wasn’t tucked away in his cabin waiting for him. He actually had no fucking clue where she was either. He wasn’t sure if she knew that he knew her true identity, but he could imagine once she figured out her contacts were missing it wasn’t a hard leap to conclude she’d been caught.
A single hit and that’s all it took for me to see the truth.
If he hadn’t landed that hit to the face. He’d still be in the dark. He’d still be wrapped up under her spell, being led by his nose like a damn dog with a leash.
“Was any of it real?” he drummed his fingers on the desk. He wondered if his connection to her had meant something or was it all manufactured?
Had that run in at the café between them been by chance or planned?
She was so perfect for him, and he’d been a fool.
Should have stuck to my first instinct to kill her and maybe I wouldn’t be here.
“Was what real?” The sound of Bates’ voice startled him. He never heard her approach. “You good?”
He nodded. “You need something?” He hoped whatever it was could wait. He was no use to anyone until he found Silva.
Bates had a box in her hand, and he remembered the package that had been dropped off by the Reaper early in the game.
How had Silva ducked in and out of here without him feeling her or without anyone seeing her?
She stood out to him the moment he met her. His body had locked in on her and refused to let it go. How had no one been charmed by her presence enough to remember her slipping in and out of here?
“Nah, brought you this. Someone just delivered it to the front desk.” She handed him the box. “Heads up, we scanned it before bringing it here, just in case. You sure you’re good? You look like someone flushed your fish.”
Santino snorted. “Nothing that drastic.” He took the box. “Just this case, well, all of them really. I think….” He let his words die out. He was already planting the seeds for his exit strategy. Being an agent gave him the cover he needed, but he knew this was the end of the line for him here.
