Page 8 of UnFairest

Hunter

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway pulls my attention from the mess around me. Maxen peeks through the tightly closed blinds to check it out while I move to stand in the doorway between the kitchen where the worst of the mess is yet to be cleaned up and the front room.

“Uhh, boss, you’re not gonna like this.” Maxen’s warning is informal enough to alert me that whoever just arrived isn’t a threat doesn’t make my hackles settle. This was too close. Snow and Henry’s location should never have been compromised. If it hadn’t been for the younger man’s attention to detail, who knows how close the Grimalt family could have gotten to stealing Snow out from under our protection.

Glory trusted me to protect her stepdaughter, and from damn near the moment she said ‘I do,’ I’ve been busting my ass to do exactly that. Didn’t even get a chance to consummate the marriage for fuck’s sake. I knew the Grimalt’s were planning to make a move; they’ve been dogging our heels for scraps of territory for years.

I didn’t anticipate they’d be so bold as to send a crew to Florida to snatch Snow to force an alliance, at least not so soon. Selfishly, I’m glad Florian Grimalt, the bastard, didn’t think to target Glory instead. I can protect Snow. The girl’s a naive innocent, hardly more than a child, willing to accept the adults around her making decisions regarding the course of her life.

Had Florian approached Glory with an offer to merge the house Grimalt with the Kingston empire, she could well have taken his offer over mine. It wouldn’t have been the destruction of Kingston that bothered me. Not in the slightest, especially as I aim to erase even the memory of Xavier and his fucked up regime. No, it would have been the loss of Glory that took away any reason for my existence.

“I don’t like any of this. Deal with whoever is out there fast so we can finish this cleanup and I can let Henry know it’s safe for him to bring Snow out.” Deciding to keep Henry and Snow hidden in the safe room until this bloodbath is sanitized is an attempt to protect the girl even from the realities she conceptually understands exist in this life.

I know Glory would expect it from me, though the simple truth is that sooner or later the girl is going to be exposed to the harsh facts. She’s the child of a mob boss, stepdaughter to a mob queen, and one day wife to a lieutenant in the mafia family she was born into.

“Nah, boss. This is all you. Trade me places, sir. Can’t lie, she scares me more than you do. Fuck man, the missus is lookin’ real, real mean tonight.” He can only mean one woman. Only one female on earth could rattle my second in command.

I don’t know how the fuck she even knew about this situation much less how she got here so quickly. Maxen and I have been skulking around for days watching the Grimalt crew prepare to make their move. Glory is supposed to be tucked away at the estate in St. Louis picking out cabinet handles and looking at carpet samples.

“Glory, what are you-” That’s the furthest I get before my wife snaps my head back with a solid left hook. The impact sends me back a step and the woman capitalizes on my shock to push past me into the house.

“Where’s Snow? If even a drop of this blood is hers, so help me Hunter!” Her tiny feet in their spiked stiletto pumps, splash through a puddle of blood that most recently pumped in the chest of Grimalt’s nephew Gregory. Glory looks at the splatter of red on the shiny pink patent with disgust before marching to the sofa in the center of the room and rubbing her toe against it to wipe away the red mess.

“She’s in the safe room with Henry. Hasn’t even seen a bit of this. She’s fine. Settle down.” I know it’s the absolute wrong thing to say the moment the words leave my mouth. Even Maxen, who has as little experience with furious females as I do, knows to retreat. The coward squeezes past me into the kitchen and runs the water to hide from this conversation.

“Settle down? Settle. Down. Are you fucking kidding me?” Her voice is deathly calm, nearly a whisper that reaches me despite the cacophony all around us. She raises her arm and I’m only slightly surprised to see the same little twenty-two she aimed at me from under Xavier’s desk pointing square between my eyes.

And maybe I am just a brainless brute, but the sight doesn’t scare me. Instead of fear that she might pull the trigger and end me, my balls swell with desire and my heart races at the power radiating from her. This woman is Glory personified, and she can do whatever she pleases.

“Where is my daughter, Hunter? You’ve been incommunicado for nearly a week and now I find you here, in the place my daughter is supposed to be, cleaning up carnage and her nowhere in sight. Where is my daughter, Hunter?” The soft click of the safety of the trigger lock sounds like a cannon fired in the sudden silence in the room.

It occurs to me that maybe, just maybe, I should have paid more attention to the non-stop buzzing of the phone in my pocket this evening. If I’d only paused to check, even just once, I’d have had a head’s up that someone tipped my wife off about this clusterfuck. Then maybe she wouldn’t be standing with her shapely legs braced for the kickback even a small gun is liable to give such a petite woman. Maybe she wouldn’t be watching my chest like she’s ready to pump it with lead.

“She’s fine, Glory. I told you. She’s safe and sound in the panic room. I promised to protect her and that’s what I’ve done. What do you think I’ve been doing these past days?” I ask.

“How would I know, asshole? You bailed the minute the ink was dry on the marriage license and aside from a handful of messages I’ve had no communication from you at all. Did you really expect me to trust you to uphold your end of the bargain once the marriage was official?”

So it’s possible my lack of relationship history is working against me here, because the idea of keeping Glory in the loop about all this shit seemed like a bad idea. But now here I am getting bitten in the ass for not troubling her with all the bloody details.

“She’s safe, Glory. Can you put the gun down and I’ll get her for you?” I dunno, maybe seeing Snow will cool my wife’s bloodlust. I really don’t wanna get shot today, especially not by my own woman after avoiding the exact same from the Grimalt pricks.

Eleven

Glory

Snow tumbles out of the panic room behind the small home’s dining room and nearly flattens Henry with her pushing and rushing into my open arms. My precious girl, so innocent and sweet, doesn’t give the darkening spatters of blood a second glance. She just barrels into me, toppling me backward into Hunter’s study chest.

“It was so scary, mom. Henry barely made it inside before those men broke through the door. They were hacking at the safe room keypad to try to make it unlock! I was watching on the security monitors until Hunter and Maxen showed up. Then Henry made me turn around. He wouldn’t let me watch Hunter take those bad guys out. I was so scared, but then I knew it was gonna be okay. You got here so fast, mom! You didn’t have to rush here, but I’m so glad to see you. Is it safe to come home now? I miss you so much.”

Her words flood over themselves at warp speed, the high emotions of the day stripping away the facade of adulthood. My anger and despair wash away in the tide of her embrace and though I don’t want to give him any credit, I know Hunter deserves some of my gratitude.

His arms wrap around me from behind, holding me securely while I clasp Snow tight against me. Warmth from his breath dances over my skin when he tucks his face against my neck and breaks through the arctic cold fear that has gripped me for so long.

“I gave you vows, Glory. To protect you and Snow. I will never let you down. Eventually, you’re going to learn to trust me.” This is the first time Hunter has made the vow without it feeling completely impossible.

With Snow’s face pressed against one side of my neck, and Hunter’s tucked into the other, I’m free to look around the room over her shoulder. It’s obvious there was violence here and a shiver of dread passes through me. What if Hunter and Maxen hadn’t been here? I could have lost Snow forever.

I let my eyes meet Henry’s. He’s watching my daughter with such focus and consideration I can feel him weighing out her needs and anticipating her next thought. Hunter presses a soft kiss along the curve of my shoulder before resting his chin on the top of my head to look at my daughter’s lover. As strange as it is for my baby to be in a grown up relationship, He’s proven his devotion. I know it’s time for me to entrust her care and protection to him, though I can’t imagine what my life will look like without her as the center of my universe.

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