Hunted (2 page)

It wasn’t fair.  That one horrible act had already changed things for everyone.  It had only been a few hours and people were already suspicious of one another, they were whispering behind their hands and glancing around as if they thought they could spot the person responsible sitting at the table across the way.  People had never regarded their friends and neighbors with anything less than light hearted cordiality and fondness.  But, it was all…different now.  And a little piece of Lanie feared that it might never go back to the way it used to be.

Lanie hoped her dad found the person responsible and she hoped he threw them
under
the jailhouse.  Not just for what they’d done to Stacy Miller, but for what they’d done to everyone else along with her.

“Hey!  Who’s that!” Johnna’s voice sounded out just as her elbow landed in Lanie’s ribs.

Lanie let out a loud
oof
! and brought her gaze up to Johnna, who was looking straight ahead, across the bar.  Glancing in that direction, and trying to ignore the fact that she might now have a fractured rib and a punctured lung, it took Lanie a second to spot the person Johnna was referring to.  And when she did, she heard herself let out a little gasp of surprise.

The person, a young man, was sitting at a small table in the far corner of the bar, away from the pool tables and the bustle of the main floor.  The table was nearly hidden in the shadows and if Lanie hadn’t had her attention brought in that direction, she wouldn’t have seen him at all.  And that would have been a shame because the young man actually took her breath away.

Even from across the room and through the dim light Lanie could see just how…staggeringly handsome he was.  He was the most…
staggeringly handsome
…person Lanie had ever seen! 

His features were a study in rugged perfection.  His jaw was square, his chin strong and proud, his nose straight, but not perfectly so.  His mouth was full and hard, his cheekbones were high, his forehead broad.  He had a headful of unruly wheat colored hair that was just mussed enough to look appealing, and thick, wheat colored brows that sat low over his eyes, giving him a rather somber, brooding sort of look.  He had matching wheat colored stubble covering his chin and jaw, and there was something about his look that she couldn’t put her finger on, but which gave him a very outdoorsy, masculine, capable sort of air.  Lanie couldn’t see what color his almond shaped eyes were from that distance, but she could see that he was on the pale side, though still healthy looking, which sort of spoke against that rugged, hardy, outdoorsy vibe.  He wasn’t exactly dressed like someone who spent a lot of time in the outdoors hiking or camping, either.  On the contrary, his clothes would imply that he was very…urban and had probably never even seen a tree up close before.  He was wearing dark jeans, tall combat boots that seemed to be only half laced up, a dark red shirt, and over that a dark brown, obviously well-worn leather coat that, even from a sitting position, Lanie could see must at least hang down past his knees.

Everything added together, the young man—who looked to be in his early twenties—struck a very handsome picture. 
Staggeringly handsome
! 

Yet, once Lanie managed to get over the initial shock of just how good looking the young man was, she began to notice other things about him, things that gave her the impression that he perhaps wasn’t exactly…well off.  His mussed hair was maybe a bit too long.  His wheat colored stubbled maybe a bit too untrimmed.  His red shirt appeared slightly rumpled, his leather coat maybe a bit too well-worn.  He sat slightly slumped in his chair, the only thing on his table a white coffee cup and saucer.  He was gazing alertly around, his eyes scanning the people coming and going from the bar, but there was a weariness about him that was unmistakable, that made Lanie think he was on the brink of falling asleep right there in his chair.

“
Who
is that!” Johnna repeated, again elbowing Lanie in the ribs and causing her to let out another pained
oof
!  “He’s cute!”

Devyn and the boys all turned to glance at the young man half hidden in the shadows, the boys shrugging their shoulders and quickly turning back to the plate of chili cheese fries.

“Oooh!  He
is
cute!” Devyn agreed heartily, looking the young man up and down.  “And he’s certainly not from town.  He’s probably passing through on his way to Richmond or someplace.”

Lanie agreed.  He certainly wasn’t from town.  And they did get their fair share of people stopping by to refuel before heading onto bigger places like Richmond or Virginia Beach.

“Humph,” Brady stated, reaching for another fry.  “He’s not that cute.  And he looks like a bum.”

Brady had a thing for Devyn, which was why he was so opposed to her finding another man attractive.

Devyn narrowed her eyes at the young man, a slightly unpleasant expression wafting across her features.  “He is a little…
nebbish
,” she said, turning her attention back to the table.  “Moving on.”

Lanie tried not to roll her eyes.  Devyn Barnes was about as white bred Southern Baptist as a girl could get, yet she seemed to think she was Jewish and never missed an opportunity to toss out a Yiddish phrase or two.  Lanie had known Devyn her entire life and had learned to translate; therefore she knew
nebbish
meant a person who was less than, a loser, in essence.

“You’re not Jewish, Devyn,” Finn reminded the girl, appearing vastly more interested in the chili cheese fries than the young man at the table in the corner.

Johnna let out a sigh and brought her own gaze back to the table.  “It’s too bad.  He’s really,
really
cute.”

Lanie, still regarding the young man, saw him pick up his coffee cup and drain the last swallow, then place the cup back onto the saucer and run his hands through his mussed hair.  A waitress came out of the door that led to the kitchen and walked by his table, carrying a plate heaped with chili cheese fries and his eyes went to the plate, freezing there for a second before dropping back down to his obviously empty coffee cup.

A shard of conscience pierced Lanie and she was suddenly glad she hadn’t eaten any of the chili cheese fries.  As one of the waitresses happen to pass by, Lanie shot out a hand and grabbed hold of her arm, stopping her short and nearly causing her to slosh the glass of soda she was carrying all over the both of them.

“Crap!  If you want something you could just
ask
for it!” the buxom girl snapped, shooting Lanie a hateful glare.

“Uh, sorry,” Lanie said off handedly, keeping her gaze on the young man, who was now sitting with his head in his hands.  “I want to order some food for that table over there.”  She pointed at the young man and the waitress followed her finger, her brows shooting upwards in surprise. 

“He looks like he could use it,” the waitress said, looking back to Lanie.  “What do you want to give him?”

“Uh, a cheeseburger with the works, the biggest plate of chili fries you have, and whatever soda he wants to drink,” she answered, picking her purse up from beside her and pulling out her wallet.  She removed a few bills and handed them to the waitress.  “This should cover it.”

“Do you want me to tell him it’s from you?” the girl asked, stuffing the bills into her apron pocket.

“No,” she answered, thinking that the young man might be embarrassed if he knew the person who had bought his meal was sitting right across the room, watching him eat it.

“Well, this is very nice of you.  I’m sure he’ll appreciate it,” the waitress stated, hurrying off to deliver the soda to a booth before going to place the order for the young man’s food.

Lanie put her wallet back into her bag and then looked back to her friends, who were all watching her with raised eyebrows.  “What?” she demanded, suddenly feeling defensive.  “He looks hungry.”

Brady gave her a suspicious glare.  “You’ve never cared who looked hungry before.  Why do you care now?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged, casting the young man a quick glance and feeling her stomach clench. 

Mercy, he really was the most ruggedly handsome person she had ever laid eyes on!  Even sitting there half asleep he looked so good that it almost hurt her!

“She cares because he’s hot!” Johnna pointed out with a huge smile.  “She wouldn’t even think about buying him food if he didn’t look…like that!”

Lanie declined to comment on the truth or falsehood of that accusation and instead took a sip of her soda, which
she
could do with a clear conscience, unlike the rest of the people at the table.

“So, back to the subject at hand,” Finn began, giving his head a disappointed shake, “I’ll talk to the team this evening and see who’s up for helping out at Mr. Miller’s feed store.”

Lanie couldn’t exactly remember if they’d already settled that matter or not, so she just nodded and kept quiet.  Seeing the staggeringly handsome young man in the corner had thrown off her train of thought completely, which actually made her think a little bit less of herself.

“Right.  And Lanie, you can call me if you decide to come to the field,” Brady stated.

“We already decided that,” Johnna pointed out, flipping her long black hair over her shoulder.

“Oh.  Well, then,” Brady huffed, shoving another fry into his mouth.

“Do you guys think we should set up a memorial for Stacy in the park?  Where she was…you know?” Devyn wondered seriously.  “That way everyone around town can…say goodbye without having to bother her family.”

“That’s a good idea, Dev,” Finn told the girl with a smile.  “I’ll have my mom call Mayor Wylie to make sure it’s alright.”

Finn’s mother, Mary Gellar, was the head of the Town Council, thereby was one of the privileged few who had the Mayor’s personal number, which was seen as a fairly big deal around Fells Pointe.

“Alright, well, if he says it’s okay then we’ll need some poster board and a few candles to start with,” Devyn began and Lanie turned her attention back to the young man sitting in the corner.

She didn’t want to be involved in the planning of the memorial for her friend.  She just…couldn’t.  It had been hard enough going to visit her family.  She felt as if that was all she could handle for one morning.

While the others discussed flowers and where to find the right kind of candles, Lanie let her gaze settle on the young man, who honestly was
staggeringly handsome
!  His unkempt mop of wheat colored hair, his stubble covered chin, the strong planes and angles of his face, the whole rugged, masculine air he had about him.  He was…well, staggeringly handsome, which she knew was repetitive, but she couldn’t think of another way to describe him.  Just looking at him actually made her
ache
!

As she was watching him practically nodding off in his seat, the waitress she’d waylaid approached the table with a tray of food, setting the plates down in front of the young man, which seemed to startle him into wakefulness.  He glanced down at the food, his eyes growing wide as he opened his mouth to tell the waitress he hadn’t ordered it, but she held up a hand to stop him.  After a few brief words from the woman, the young man let his gaze slide around the restaurant and though Lanie tried to drop her eyes to the table, she couldn’t quite manage it.  It was hard to look away from someone who was that…
staggering
!

The young man’s gaze suddenly landed on Lanie, locking with hers, and she felt her entire body go rigid and her heart leap up into her throat and for a split second, she found that she couldn’t remember how to breathe.  But, then the young man’s gaze moved on and Lanie felt her taut muscles relax and her heart fall back into its rightful place.  She instantly felt silly for getting all…
clenched
just because someone had made eye contact with her, but that still wasn’t enough to force her to look away from him.

He really was beautiful.  Yes, beautiful.  Ruggedly beautiful, if that was even possible.

The young man’s gaze returned to the waitress and then to the food in front of him and without hesitation, he picked up the burger and took a huge bite.  Seeing that made Lanie feel…better.