Page 10 of Torment

“Yeah, but that was before—”

“Come on.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the van before she could finish her sentence. Truth was he knew what she wanted to say, and he didn’t want to hear it. The fact that she was Willow’s sister was not something he could afford to be distracted by.

As they approached the black SUV waiting for them, Hunter let go of Scarlet’s hand and grabbed James by the collar before pushing him up against the vehicle.

“You listen to me, and you listen carefully.”

Riggs reached for his gun, but James held up his hand to stop him yet again.

“I don’t trust you. In fact, when it comes to Scarlet, I don’t trust anyone. So if I catch you just looking at her the wrong way, I will feed you your balls. Do I make myself clear?”

James kept his gaze and nodded with a subtle grin spreading over his face. “Crystal.”

“Good.” Hunter let go of James’s collar and turned to Riggs. “And you, try to reach for your weapon one more time when it comes to Scarlet or me and I will push you even further up Baxter’s ass than you already are. You feel me?”

Hunter heard James snort behind him, but he was too busy glaring holes through Riggs’s forehead. By the way Riggs squared his shoulders, his eyes darkening, Hunter got the feeling this man had the potential to be a huge pain in his ass.

“Come on, boys. Let’s play nice.” James placed a hand on Riggs’s shoulder, silently telling him to back off—which the good soldier boy did.

Hunter walked back to where Scarlet was standing with her arms crossed in front of her chest, foot tapping on the ground, staring at him with narrowed eyes.

Hunter shrugged. “What?”

“Was that really necessary?”

“Absolutely.”

She shook her head and stomped off to get into the SUV while Hunter stared after her. That was when he noticed Riggs staring at her, watching her as she climbed into the vehicle. The bastard probably felt Hunter’s glare of pain because he looked up, straight at Hunter.

Yeah, that man was going to be a pain in Hunter’s ass for sure.

Before Riggs could get in after Scarlet, Hunter intercepted and pushed him to the side.

“Good view?”

Riggs just narrowed his eyes and glared at him.

Hunter leaned closer. “Whatever the hell you’re thinking…stop thinking it, Robin.”

After everyone took a seat and they finally pulled out of the underground parking lot and onto the street, Hunter wanted to put his arm around Scarlet’s shoulders. But he knew better. Earlier, when he tried to give her just a little support by taking her hand, she’d rejected it, which was exactly like Scarlet. She hated showing her vulnerable side, which she kept hidden under all those layers of bravery and smart-mouth comebacks.

So he did the next best thing, he inconspicuously moved his leg just an inch so that it touched hers. When she looked up at him, her blue eyes dark with uncertainty, he got hit right in the gut with reality. Those blue eyes seemed so hauntingly familiar to him from the first day he looked into them. And now he knew why. Now he knew why Willow had haunted him more during the last few weeks than she ever had. It was because of Scarlet. She triggered all those memories, all those flashing images of Willow that taunted him so fucking much. It all made sense now…unfortunately.

Everyone sat in silence for the majority of the trip to Davenport. Probably mostly because the air was so thick with tension it was almost too hard to breathe. Talking would just make it even harder to take a breath.

After what seemed like hours of the most uncomfortable silence Hunter had ever endured, he cleared his throat and looked at James sitting across from him.

“So you said we were going to a safe house? What kind of safe house?”

“You’ll see when we get there.”

“I’d like to know before we get there.”

James sat up straighter, never taking his eyes off Hunter. “It’s a safe house for girls we manage to save.”

“Save from what?”

James glanced at Riggs, then back at Hunter. “We can discuss that when we get to Davenport.”

---