Page 4 of Torment

“I’m your father, Blanchette.”

Scarlet froze. “How do you—”

The sound of screeching tires coming from outside the house interrupted her. “Hunter?”

“Yeah, I heard.”

The man claiming to be her dad didn’t move. “We have exactly ten seconds before they come storming in here looking for her, so I suggest we work together to get her out of here safely, and then we can continue this face-off.” His voice was eerily calm, like there wasn’t a bunch of SUV fuckers outside about to rush in and probably point a few guns at all of their faces.

Scarlet glanced from the front door to where Hunter and Bruce stood, neither of them even fucking blinking. She gave a step closer. “Hunter, I think we should listen to him.”

“I don’t trust him.”

“Neither do I, but I don’t think we really have a choice here.”

Bruce’s lips curved into a grin. “You should listen to her. She’s a smart girl.”

“And I happen to know that not everything that comes out of her mouth makes sense all the time.”

“Sir?” The guy behind Bruce stood to the side of the door, finger on his earpiece. “We’re out of time. They’re on their way in.”

“Guard the door, Riggs.” Brucestepped forward, Hunter’s gun now pushed against his forehead. “And you listen to me, son. I don’t care if you trust me or not, but right now, all I care about is getting my daughter out of here. And right now, you are the only thing keeping me from doing exactly that.”

Scarlet saw the twitch in Hunter’s jaw and the way his eyes remained trained on Bruce’s face like he had the power to incinerate him with a stare of death.

Hunter narrowed his eyes, slanting his head to the side. “Fine. As long as you know that I will not hesitate to put a bullet in your chest. I don’t care if you’re her father or not.”

“I expect nothing less.” Bruceslowly lowered his gun, and so did Hunter.

The moment both of their weapons were pointing at the floor rather than at each other’s heads, Scarlet let out a breath.

And then all hell broke loose.

The front door burst open and everything started to happen in slow motion. Men came rushing through the door with guns pointed at them. Scarlet couldn’t move. Whether it was panic, shock, or a what-the-fuck-is-happening reaction, she didn’t know. But her feet felt like they had been cemented to the goddamn floor.

Both Hunter and Bruce reacted at the same time. In a split second their guns were pointed at the intruders, and all Scarlet could think was that this was about to turn in to a bloodbath.

“Get her out of here!” Bruce yelled.

Hunter grabbed her arm and pulled her down the hall toward the kitchen. Everything was happening so fast, she had no time to register what the hell was going on. Adrenaline kicked in and it was like everything around her went on mute, the only sound that of her blood swooshing through her veins.

Just as they were about to reach the glass door leading out to the deck, one of the SUV fuckers jumped over the deck rail, coming straight toward them.

Hunter stopped dead in his tracks, aimed his gun, and then all Scarlet heard was the shatter of broken glass. She instinctively covered her face with her arms. When she looked up, she froze and watched as the guy in front of them went down with blood gushing out of his chest.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

“Come on!” Hunter didn’t even give her a second to process that she’d just witnessed a guy get shot. He grabbed her hand and they rushed out the door, stepping over the shattered glass and around the man laying eerily still on the deck in a pool of blood. “Don’t look, Scar.”

Scarlet jerked her head to the front. “You couldn’t have warned me not to look two seconds ago, could you?”

“Not now.”

Just as they reached the bottom of the stairs, the guy Bruce referred to as Riggs came running around the corner. Hunter let go of her arm and aimed his gun, almost pulling the trigger.

“Jesus Christ, Robin. I almost fucking shot you.”

Riggs didn’t even blink, like he was used to coming within seconds of dying. Who were these people? The Russian Mob?

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