Heart of the Hunter (27 page)

I moved down the hall, holding myself steady on the walls as I fumbled toward the kitchen. Oddly, it reminded me of the first time Hunter and I were together. The confusion, the anticipation, the fear, all of it leading down a hall and into a kitchen. The feeling in my stomach this time was one of sickness though. Violence and evil poured in from all around me and I felt weighed down by the horror of it all.

I finally burst through the door to the kitchen.

“Lucas?” I screamed, hoping against hope to find him hiding in a corner. But I did not. I felt my heart drop and it was as if the room was tilting back and forth before my eyes.

“Kelly. So lovely to finally and officially make your acquaintance.”

My heart sank. Hunter’s evil father sat at a table. I could see his hand bleeding through a piece of fabric he’d wrapped around it. The other gripped a pistol that rested on the table in front of him. I backed away as fast as I could, but ran into the wall behind me, sliding down to the floor.

“Well, well, well, I see why the boy likes you. You’ve got a real shape to you, girl. I bet that pussy is nice and tight, isn’t it? Barely felt the touch of a man before.”

I looked down and realized my house coat had fallen open and left my body exposed. I quickly covered myself up and turned my head to look away from him.

“Oh, no, baby, don’t do that. Give an old man a thrill. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a pair of titties like that.”

I could hear him walking toward me and I did my best to stop the tears from coming. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me weep. I was beyond scared, but I wasn’t about to let him get that from me.

“What do you say, sweetie? You going to let me rub this Irish cock between those fat titties? I’m sure young Hunter broke you in nice for me.” He paused for a moment and listened. “But, by the sounds of it, he won’t be sticking that dick of his in you anymore. He’s a stupid fuck. Was useful, but never the smartest.”

I could smell him as he stood in front of me and ran his fingers through my hair. His cheap cologne, whatever grease he wore in his hair, it nauseated me. I felt his fingers slide down my face and then pain rushed through me. His ring cut my cheek as he backhanded me and sent me crashing to the floor.

“Look at me, you little bitch. Look me in the eyes and see what a man is.”

I looked up at him from the floor. He was repulsive. He was no man. The sick smile that crept across his face, his bloated belly that hung over his pants, the aura of entitlement and cowardice that surround him. He truly wasn’t Hunter’s father. He embodied everything that Hunter was not. They may have been in the same business, but they were not the same. You could see that as clear as day just looking at him.

“Oh, look at those pretty eyes,” he said as he leaned down and stroked my cheek. “Well, feast them on this, you little bitch.”

He started to undo his zipper.

Goddamn you. Goddamn you, don’t do this.

I could hear his perverted laugh as he was getting ready to violate me, when all of the sudden the front door came open with a crash. Footsteps began to make their way through each and every room. I could feel my stomach flutter and I looked up at the old man. He knew as well as I did who it was, coming through the house.

“Hunter,” I whispered in relief.

I could see the old man start to sweat.

“All right, you motherfucker, come to papa. I’m going to put a fucking bullet in your brain like I should have done the day I set eyes on you.”

He looked back down to me and pulled me up by my hair. I let out a scream.

I heard a furious roar from the hall as the footsteps began to stomp toward us. It was Hunter, and he was coming for me.

Like he always did.

“Come here, you fucking bitch,” the old man said. “Let’s get you in front of me just in case that boy comes in charging.” He held me tight and ran his hand between my legs as he pulled me back. “I really wish I could have tasted that pussy, sweetie. I bet it’s like a ripe piece of fruit, isn’t it?”

I could feel his hot breath on my ear as he panted heavily and waited for Hunter to come through the door.

“I’m going to kill you right in front of him, bitch,” the old man hissed.

I moved my head away as far as I could and then I saw a gun barrel slowly edge out from behind the wall and into the doorway, followed by the familiar tattooed arms of the man who loved me.

The old man cocked his gun. He pressed his face to mine as we both waited for Hunter to show himself.

Chapter 52

Hunter

I
COULD HEAR THE OLD
fucker wheezing from around the corner. I knew he was in there and I knew he had his clammy hands all over Kelly. All over the one pure thing in my life. I was going to take pleasure in gutting the motherfucker. For every lowdown thing he ever did to me, and for what he was planning to do to Kelly just now.

“Hunter boy. Come on in, son. I was just getting to know this sweet little lady of yours here.”

Kelly was struggling. I could hear her trying to break free from the bastard.

“Toss that fucking gun out, pop. If you think I’m coming around that corner with you barreling down on me, you are out of your fucking mind,” I called from behind the wall. I had to get a look around that corner.

I slowly poked my head out and three quick shots bit into the wall. I heard Kelly scream and the old man laugh.

“Come on, Hunter. Drop that fucking gun. Be a man.”

He fired more shots and I crouched down and took cover.

Fuck me. Was that five or six shots? Goddamn it.

The old man never carried anything but a six shooter. With all the money in the world, he’d been carrying the same fucking piece for as long as I could remember. That was the gun he was aiming at my fucking skull. I just couldn’t remember if he had squeezed all his shots yet.

Only one fucking way to find out, motherfucker. You’ve been making stupid fucking calls your whole goddamn life. What’s one more?

I let my pistol drop to my side, took a deep breath, and walked around the corner. If he was going to kill me, he was going to have to look me in the eye as he did it.

As I stepped out, I saw the two of them there. The old man was bleeding from the hand he had wrapped around Kelly’s throat and it was dripping down her barely covered chest. I saw her eyes, her beautiful green eyes, full of beautiful tears. But she wasn’t crying.

That’s my fucking girl. You don’t let that cocksucker think he’s got you. I’ve got you. And I’m going to have you back in my arms soon.

I looked deep into her eyes so she could see all the anger and fury I was about to unleash on that son of a bitch. I wanted her to know that she was safe. Even if the old bastard unloaded a bullet into me, I wasn’t going to die until he drew his last breath and she was out of harm’s way. I stared into her and fucking made that promise.

“Well. That was fucking easy,” the old man said, as he pulled the trigger of his trusty six shooter. I braced for the unmistakable pop of the shot and the white hot pain of a bullet digging into my flesh, but neither came. The gun just clicked and I saw the bastard’s eyes go wide in disbelief. Then he burst into laughter.

“Well, I’ll be goddamned. Ain’t that just the way, hey Hunter?” he was laughing maniacally.

“Let the girl go, you fucking cocksucker,” I said flatly as I brought the barrel of my gun back up and aimed it straight at his head.

He tightened his grip around Kelly and moved himself behind her.

Fucking coward. What kind of a man would use a woman for cover?

“No, no, I think I won’t, Hunter.” He pulled out his blade and placed it to Kelly’s throat. “I think your little lady and I are going to stay just like this until you drop that fucking weapon.”

I stared back at him and kept the gun zeroed in on his fucking skull.

“Not a goddamn chance. Let her go and I’ll put you out of your misery quick.”

His eyes went wide and he started to cackle again. I hated that fucking sound. He had the loudest, most disgusting laugh in the world, and I took pleasure in knowing this would be the last goddamn time I ever heard it.

He stopped his laughing and looked back at me as he stuck the tip of the knife into Kelly’s throat, ever so slightly, just to scare her. She squirmed. Tears were beginning to stream down her cheeks. She couldn’t hold them in any longer. I tightened my grip on the gun and eased onto the trigger.

Just give me one clear shot, motherfucker. Stick that ugly fucking face out for one goddamn second and I’ll blow it clean off.

“Let her go,” I said, as he bobbed his head back and forth behind Kelly’s.

“Hunter. What the fuck is wrong with you, my boy? This pussy really has you spun doesn’t it? What happened to the man I raised? You know a bitch isn’t worth it. The old you would have blasted a shot through those perky tits just in hopes of hitting me. What happened, Hunter? She’s made you weak.”

He kept laughing, taunting me, like I was some fucking kid. He knew what I was capable of, he just wanted to see me suffer. That was all he ever wanted.

“Does she taste as good as she looks, Hunter? I bet she fucking does.”

Don’t you fucking dare, cocksucker.

I looked on in pure, uncontrollable rage as the motherfucker stuck out his tongue and ran it up the side of Kelly’s face. She pulled away, but he held her there, tasting the tears that rolled down her cheeks.

I roared as I fired three shots just missing his head and smashing the glass of the door behind him. He cowered back behind her and chuckled to himself.

“Good lord, Hunter, I see what you mean? She’s like a fucking delicious peach.”

That’s when I fucking lost it. There was no more. This ended here and now and it ended with my fist going through that fucker’s skull. I threw my gun to the floor.

“Fucking fight me like a man,” I said.

The old man just laughed as he stared back. He was going to fucking die. Now.

My jaw tensed as I got ready to pounce and tear the motherfucker, limb from limb. I was about to jump, but right at that moment, Lucas came flying out of the pantry and started pounding his fists into the old man’s side.

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” the old man sneered as he stared down at Lucas and knocked him to the ground with the back of his hand.

Kelly shook herself free and threw herself to the ground on top of Lucas. They both lay there terrified as my fucking puke of an adoptive father stared down at them with murder in his eyes.

There they were, my family, and that cocksucker was going to hurt them? Fuck no.

Suddenly, everything stilled, the room fell silent, and time seemed to slow down.

No one, no fucking one, threatened my family.

As I stood there, looking at him tower over them with all his false power and arrogance, it was like my entire life flashed before my eyes. Thoughts of him beating me as a kid, standing over his sweet wife after knocking her to the ground, the image of the mother and son I saved on the night I left Boston, I realized I had witnessed this scene too many times in my life. Bad motherfuckers get bad things done to them, that was the law of the game, but I would be goddamned if one more innocent civilian got swallowed up by his evil and greed.

He was bringing the knife down as my body plowed into his. I drove him through the back door and onto the lawn. I heard the wind leave his lungs as we crashed to the ground. I saw the fear in the motherfucker’s eyes as I stared down at him. I knew what he was seeing. He was seeing what real power looked like. What a real man looked like. My vision was black except for his bloated, sweaty face and I could feel my chest heaving as I balled my hands and gritted my teeth.

“Hunter. Hunter boy. You don’t have to do this, son. We’re fucking family.”

He was pleading for his life. I drank it in for all it was worth.

“We’re fucking family. We’re fucking family,” he kept screaming. It was no use.

This is it, you fuck. Shut up and look at me.

The old man fell silent except for the labored breath sputtering out of his mouth. I stared down at him and said the words we both knew to be true.

“You’re not my fucking blood.”

I knelt there over him for what felt like an eternity and then watched his eyes go wide in pure fucking terror as I brought my fists down on his skull. Again. And again. And again.

With every crunch of his skull against my knuckles I was more and more free. I couldn’t stop. This was a beating that had been welling up inside me for decades and it wasn’t going to end until I goddamn said so. It didn’t matter if he was already dead. He was getting off easy as far as I was concerned.

As the old man’s blood covered my body with every crash of my fist, I heard nothing else, I saw nothing else. The animal was uncaged and there was no one to hold him back.

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder and a voice calling me calmly back from hell.

“Hunter. Hunter, that’s enough. It’s done.”

I pulled myself back and knelt over the mangled body that used to be my piece of shit father. All the hate and violence in my bones had just been unleashed on him and there was barely anything left recognizable.

“Hunter, baby. Come here.”

I looked up to see Kelly standing beside me.

She wasn’t scared and there were no more tears in her eyes. She stared down at me and placed her hand on my head.

She was just as fucking beautiful as the moment I set eyes on her.

I let my body fall backwards, sat on the ground, and pulled out a cigarette. Kelly sat next to me and I put my arm around her as she let her head fall on my chest. I lit my cigarette and exhaled toward the sun. Lucas sat down on my other side and just stared at the body of the old man who lay destroyed in front of him.

I wish there would have been someone alive to take our fucking picture.

It was a goddamn beautiful moment.

A new family had been created, had been fused together, in the blood of the old.

Chapter 53

Kelly