Page 9 of Torment

Hunter cocked his head. “You’re a well-informed man, aren’t you, Mr. Baxter?”

“I assure you that when it comes to my daughter, I always make sure I’m in the know.”

Abruptly, Hunter launched himself forward and grabbed James by the throat. Riggs reacted, but James held out his hand, stopping him.

Scarlet reached out to grab Hunter’s elbow, but he jerked his arm away from her. The way his shoulders were moving up and down, and by the pulsing vein in his neck, Scarlet knew Hunter was close to losing his shit. He was seething.

“For a well-informed man, I can assure you that when it comes to this woman,” Hunter pointed at Scarlet, “you don’t know shit.”

The van stopped, but Hunter didn’t stop his threatening stance toward James, and he didn’t loosen his hold around James’s throat either. Scarlet still couldn’t decide whether he was acting like this because he was protecting her or protecting himself.

She placed a hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “Hunter, what are you doing?”

“I’m going to see if I can choke the truth out of him.”

James wrapped his hand around Hunter’s wrist. “I promise to tell you everything as soon as we get her to a safe place.”

“What makes you think I’m going to let you take her anywhere?”

“Because you and I have something in common.”

Hunter tightened his grip around James’s throat. “Yeah, and what’s that?”

“We both want to keep her safe, and make sure that son of a bitch doesn’t lay another hand on her.”

Hunter and James glared at each other, and Scarlet held her breath, not sure what Hunter’s next move would be. But after a few more seconds, Hunter finally let go of James.

“Sir, we need to make the switch.” Riggs remained still by the side door.

Hunter glanced from James, to Riggs, and then back to James. “What switch?”

James swallowed while rubbing his throat. “We need to switch vehicles in case we were followed. We’re taking her to a safe house and can’t risk being followed there.”

“What safe house?”

James straightened his leather jacket. “It’s a safe house in Davenport. Brent won’t be able to find her there.”

Hunter straightened out as Riggs opened the door. “Just so you know, I’m not letting her out of my sight. Where she goes, I go.”

It was hard to ignore how good it felt to hear Hunter say that, to hear that he wasn’t planning on leaving her. What she didn’t know was whether she wanted him to stay…or not.

Chapter 3

The way Hunter saw it, he had two choices. He could either take Scarlet and run, go hide away somewhere until he found a way to sort out this mess. Or he could follow his gut instinct and stick around this James Baxter character for a while and see how it played out.

Did he trust the guy? No.

Would he trust anyone when it came to Scarlet? That was a negative.

He was a very observant individual, and he saw Scarlet’s reaction to James. Yes, her normal I-don’t-need-anyoneattitude did not disappoint, but Hunter saw through it. She seemed curious, perhaps even a little hopeful while she stared at James as he told the story of him and her mother.

Scarlet tugged on his arm and leaned closer. “Hunter, what the hell are you doing?”

“Oh, come on, Scar. Don’t tell me you’re not the least bit curious about this man.”

“Curious, yes. But stupid? No. I don’t trust him.”

“Neither do I.” He reached behind her and placed his hand around the back of her neck, leaning closer to her ear. “I made you a promise, didn’t I?”

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