Page 11 of Torment

Boy, talk about being vague. “Okay. But I have another question.”

James snorted. “Why am I not surprised?”

“You mentioned that due tocircumstances,you and Scarlet’s mother were unable to be together. What circumstances exactly?”

Hunter felt Scarlet straighten next to him. He knew she was burning for answers, yet too stubborn to ask questions. Asking questions would mean she actually cared about getting answers, and heaven forbid Scarlet should seem like she cared about anything.

James looked at Scarlet and finally answered, “The nature of my work doesn’t exactly allow me to have…people I care about.”

Hunter rubbed his fingers along his jaw. “So, in other words, the nature of your work is—”

“Dangerous, yes.”

“How dangerous?”

“Extremely.”

Well, that certainly put Hunter at ease.Not.

“Sir, we’re here.” Riggs moved to the door when the SUV came to a stop in front of huge iron gates. When the gates opened, Hunter glanced at Scarlet. She was looking out the window as they drove up the driveway. There wasn’t much to see. Just huge oak trees that seemed to never end.

Scarlet had been weirdly quiet the entire way. Hunter wasn’t used to her keeping her mouth shut longer than a few seconds—which rarely fucking happened.

“You okay?” he whispered.

“I’m fine.” And that answer told him that she was everything but fine. Not that he could blame her.

The SUV came to a stop and Riggs got out first. As Scarlet was about to follow James out, Hunter grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

“Stay close, okay?”

Scarlet studied his face for a few seconds, and he couldn’t help but find all the similarities between her and Blue—similarities he never noticed before. Like the same heart-shaped mouth and beautiful full lips. And the same button nose with tiny little freckles you would only notice when you looked at them—really looked at them. And then, of course, the blue eyes. Iced blue eyes that seemed as if they had the brilliance of heaven burning behind them. He always said that Blue’s eyes made him believe in magic—made a believer out of him. And now that he was staring into almost the exact same eyes, he couldn’t help but wonder if that was what he had been feeling all along. Was that strange pull he felt toward Scarlet for the last few weeks because there really wassomethingthere…or was it because his soul was sensingher? Blue.

“You’re thinking of her, aren’t you?” Scarlet narrowed her eyes. “You’re thinking of my sister.”

“Scarlet, don’t—”

“Don’t worry. I’ll stay close.” And with that, she got out of the car.

“Fuck,” he muttered while pulling his hand through his hair. This really was one fucked-up situation.

With a deep breath Hunter stepped out of the car, and when he glanced up at the house—the motherfucker castle of all houses—he balked.

“What is this place?” he asked as he stared at the huge double-story, European styled, Georgion brick mansion. If he thought Adam had a big house, he was so wrong.

“Welcome to House Haven.” James stepped to the front while two more vans pulled up and parked next to them. He looked at Scarlet, who stood about ten feet from Hunter.So much for staying close.

“You will be safe here until we can figure this thing out with Brent.”

Scarlet crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Please enlighten me. What things exactly?”

James grinned. “Once we get you settled in, we can talk.”

“Excuse me.” Hunter waved his hand to get James’s attention. “Who said anything about getting us settled in? We agreed to come here with you, but no one said anything about staying.”

“Like I said, you will be safe here.She—” he glanced at Scarlet “—will be safe here.”

“That’s still to be determined. So I would prefer we have thattalkbefore anyone gets settled in.” Hunter squared his shoulders while keeping James’s gaze. Did this guy actually think Hunter would just trust anyone when it came to Scarlet? Did Hunter not already make his trust issues clear toward this guy?

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