Page 16 of Regret

She leaned slightly over the armrest, glaring at him. “I always have a fucking choice.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m guessing the two SUVs that followed me here would disagree.”

Scarlet’s heart fell to the soles of her feet. Her spine instantly turned to ice and she knew her fear was plastered all over her face for him to see.

So much for a goddamn poker face.

She swallowed hard, trying her best to stay strong. “If you think for one second that I will go back to that son of bitch without a fight, you’ve never been more wrong.”

Hunter took a step toward her, but she instinctively backed up and shot him a warning glare.

He paused. “Listen to me. I don’t know what the fuck is going on. All I know is that this guy hired me to find his long lost cousin. All this shit that went down tonight, I had nothing to do with that.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t have to. But right now I’m your only way out of here. Those SUVs are already parked downstairs and I’m willing to bet they have each and every entrance in and out of this place covered by now.”

Well, shit.

“Like I told you earlier, Ace, I can take care of myself.”

He snorted. “Yeah, my balls can vouch for that.” He reached down and cupped his balls protectively before focusing on her again. “But the way I see it is you have two choices here.” He moved closer, and this time Scarlet didn’t back up

“Oh yeah? And what might those two choices be, Ace?”

He held up his finger. “First of all, it’s Hunter. We’ve established that already.” He held up a second finger. “Secondly, your choices are this. You can either trust me and let me help you get out of here, or those SUV fuckers will have you on your way back to Wolfe within the next ten minutes.”

Scarlet felt a chill spread throughout her entire body at the mere mention of his name. That name had been the boogeyman in her nightmares for years, the devil ruling her hell, and hearing it out loud triggered all sorts of nasty feelings and emotions inside her.

She squared her shoulders. “For all I know you’ll have me on my way to him faster than those SUV fuckers.”

“If that’s the case,” he slanted his head to the side, “then no matter what you do here, you’re fucked. So you might as well trust me and see if that pays off.”

For a few seconds their gazes remained locked. His green eyes were so intently focused on her, she could almost feel his determination beam out of them. Even though Scarlet had a weird feeling about this guy, there was this faint little voice inside her head that told her he was right. She had no other choice but to trust him.

Dammit.She was so fucked.

Scarlet picked up her duffel bag and tossed it hard into his hands. “Fine. But I swear to God, if you fuck with me, Ace, you won’t have any balls left to vouch for anything ever again.”

His full lips curved into a roguish smile, and Scarlet cocked a brow. “And if you so much as think about touching me, I will make sure you breathe through a tube for the rest of your fucking life.”

“Lucky for you, you’re not my type, remember?” Hunter rushed over to the window, opened it, and stood to the side, gesturing for her to climb through. “Now if you’re done tossing your little ass kicking threats around, there are two guys outside your front door about to knock it down.”

A loud thud crashed against the door, and Scarlet jumped forward, out the window with Hunter shortly on her heels. When she glanced back into her apartment, she saw the two men crashing through her front door and all she could think about was getting away. There was just no way in hell she would go back to him.

She would rather die first.

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