Hunter's Heart (25 page)

“Stanley’s been around the block and he’s a good guy. The cops understand. This isn’t TV. The DC cops have seen this before. There are rules in place and we’re all following them.”

Hunter looked at the men.
Or, making them up as they went along.
Didn’t matter. “I want to be clear. I may not know who you are but if I learn anything happened to that woman. I will find out who you are and you’ll wish you didn’t know who I am. Am I clear?”

“Take it easy. Again, this isn’t TV. We aren’t assholes. We’re not playing games. I’m sure the woman is being taken care of.”

“Can I leave now?” He was coming down from the adrenalin high and his arm was hurting like a son of a bitch.

“Yes, we’ll get you away from here.”

“My truck is a block over. Drop me there.”

He stood beside his truck and watched the van disappear before reaching under the front bumper for the key box. A click on the fob and the driver’s side door unlocked. He hesitated, hoping she would still be inside, knowing she wouldn’t. He got inside the rig, closed the door and was assailed with her scent. He turned in the seat, willing her to be sitting in the back. She wasn’t.

The throbbing pain in his arm had moved into his head. He went for the ibuprofen in the console between the seats and found a crumpled card—he was sure it hadn’t been there before—resting on top. He picked it up and turned it over. It was his card. His name with his cell number. The one he’d left in Celia’s Nissan that day in the rain. Now it had additional writing. An address, written in her neat hand followed with, ‘come now,’ printed in capital letters.

Chapter 17

Even if I’d never met you, I’d miss you
.

The walk to her door felt like the longest he’d ever made. A swell of apprehension filled him.
What was he going to say? What was she going to say?
He took a good breath, and let it go, hoping to drain the intensity from his mind and body. It didn’t work. He pushed the button, heard the bell chimes then rapped on the door.

“It’s Hunter.”

A long moment passed. Long enough for him to think she wasn’t going to answer. The doorknob turned but the door didn’t open. Several moments passed….

“You asked me to come.” Nothing. “I’m leaving. My cell number hasn’t changed.” The door inched open and a rush of cool air hit him.

Then he saw her and a rush of totally unexpected emotions hit.

“Come in.” Celia stood back.

He took off his glasses, stepped in then closed the door and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dim room.

She backed into the living room and he did a visual on the space, checking the layout. The floor plan was the same as the townhouse she left but, great Caesar’s ghost, everything—lamps, tables, chairs, sofa—was new. Some things were the same. The art she loved was on the walls. Except—he checked again—the one he’d bought for her.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded “My minders took me to a doctor. I’m sure there will be bruising where the seat belt grabbed and here.” She touched her temple where a round bruise showed on her fair skin. “Where the barrel was.”

He let his gaze cruise over her. She looked good, but different, with the short dark hair and brown contacts.
And
, there was something else he couldn’t nail. “I didn’t expect this.”

She tipped her head and an eyebrow arched. “This?”

“To be asked here after I…killed—”

“Killed Sarenko Taljuk? A war criminal linked to terrorist cells. Whose only loyalty was to who paid him the most? Who had every intention of killing me?”

“Geesus.” He cringed internally, imagining what her life had been like and remembering he’d thought she’d lied about her father.

“You saved my life today. I wanted to thank you.”

“You could have called.”
Shit.
He needed to leave the sarcasm at the curb.

She ignored the comment. “Will this create a problem for you?”

“Whoever you work for has already talked to my command and it’s taken care of.”

She gave him a sad smile. “I meant your arm. Will it be okay?”

He shrugged. He’d had worse. “Yeah.”

“By the way, I work for the Department of Defense, and it wasn’t them who helped today.” She extended an arm. “Please come in and sit down.”

He didn’t move. She went to one of the large chairs, arranged the pillows and sat. “Please Hunter. I have so many things to say. To explain.”

“There’s blood on my jeans.” He glanced down to his left leg. “It’s dried…. I don’t want to ruin your furniture.” He’d changed his shirt but had no pants in the truck.

“You’re fine.”

He sat as far from her as possible and took a moment to gather his thoughts. Before he came in he’d been cock sure of what he’d say.
Do
. The moment he saw her, every feeling he’d been pushing back, trying to erase for weeks, exploded like an IED and rushed to the surface. He found his voice. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

Celia shifted her position. “I’d planned on contacting you soon to talk.”

“Then why did you run when you saw Gia? You could have told her that.”

“I wasn’t ready.”

“I don’t get it. I understand you being shaken up now, but before, what did I do that you couldn’t talk to me?”

She started to talk then stopped. “Yes. Right now my thoughts and feelings are all jumbled. Feeling relief my father is dead. That you….” She shuddered. “It’s not easy to assimilate and put into perspective.”

“Look—”

“Please don’t interrupt.” She closed her eyes and opened them slowly.

Geesus.
Sitting quietly when he was about to come out of his skin was no easy thing.

“Hunter, my personal world has been far from perfect. Today you saw the reason I ran. I couldn’t expose you, your friends and family to that. And I didn’t have the courage to tell you why. That night, at the party, your friends, your
family
told me about your mother, your brothers and sisters…. And yes, I was angry you’d kept things from me. But seeing that life, I knew I didn’t belong. I grasped that as a reason to break it off.”

He started to speak but she put up a hand, warning him to be quiet.

“What we had was nice. But….” She paused and looked away, taking several deep breaths before she turned back. “You deserve better.” She looked down at her lap. “Letting you think I was angry because you didn’t tell me about your family was wrong—”

“It wasn’t my intention for you to learn about my family that way. I fucked up. I was so damned happy about you meeting my friends,
my brothers
, and their families. I didn’t think.”

She put a finger to the bruise on her temple and sighed. “I am sorry. There’s no way I can ever make up for how I treated you. What you did today made me see how horribly I’ve messed everything up.” She went silent.

“The worst part was thinking you were a test.”

“A test? I don’t…. What do you mean?”

“A test, like we talked about the first night at Pappy’s. I was being tested—with you as bait.”

“Why would you think that? You asked me out.
Remember?
”

“Yeah. After I did, you could have reported me.”

“I was never testing, investigating you for anyone,” she said.

“Did you plan to dump me that night? I figured for you to have vanished that fast it was planned.”

“It wasn’t. I had no plans to move before that night. I knew how to do it because of my life with my father. I’ve done it many times.”

“When I went in your place and found it empty. What was I supposed to think?”

“I thought you’d think it was over. I didn’t want you to find me.”

“Yeah. Over.” He shook his head. “If you knew from the beginning you wouldn’t stay, did it ever begin?” His frustration built.

She said nothing.

“I tried everything to reach you.” He might as well let it all hang out. “I was out of town,
for work.
I get back, I go to your place.” His voice broke, hurting with the memory. “Your
empty
,
cleaned
place.”

She was remarkably still. It was hard to tell if she was breathing. Finally, she blinked and he went on.

“I spent every off-duty moment looking for you. Called in every favor owed me.”
Fuck.
He didn’t want to get pissy, but he had to know. “I have this habit of expecting the truth. Tell me and I’ll walk out that door and never bother you again. I need to know if any part of us was real. You weren’t using me until you moved on.”

Finally, emotion flared in her eyes, in her expression.

“I deserve the truth Celia. I loved you.”

Her jaw quivered and she shook her head. She lowered her gaze to her lap and it was a long moment before she looked back.

“I…. I don’t know what to say.”

He nodded with resignation then leaned back and dug the tiny black velvet pouch he carried every day, from his pocket. “That night I was going to give you this.” He turned the pouch over in his fingers. I waited until I thought you were ready. After the day on the boat, I thought you were. Seems like I was wrong. You were never going to be ready.” He put the tiny bag on the coffee table and pushed it to her. “It’s yours.”

“I can’t take it.” She glanced at the table. “Whatever it is.”

He retrieved the bag. His big fingers fumbled with the narrow black ribbon securing the bag. A shake, and the ring fell into his palm. Even in this light, the yellow diamonds on either side of the four-carat emerald were brilliant. With great care, he placed the ring on the bag and once again pushed it across the polished tabletop.

“I had it made for you.” In his travels, he’d picked up precious and semi-precious stones with the intention of having jewelry made for his mother, sisters and nieces. The moment he saw the emerald in Colombia and diamonds in South Africa he knew they would be for the woman he loved. “The thought of anyone else wearing it…. No. It’s yours. Please, keep it.” He rose and gave her a serious nod. “I’ll leave now. You don’t have to do the bug out thing and move again. I won’t come back. I’m not good with upsetting you.”

He didn’t expect her to mount a protest. He also didn’t expect it to take a truckload of courage to walk to the fucking door.

“Sit down.” That wasn’t a protest. That was a command. “I have more to say.”

“Celia.”

“Sit and let me do this.” Sheer determination filled her eyes.

“Okay.” He sat.

“There is more you need to know about my father. Are you ready?”

What the fuck?
How much more could there be? “I’m ready.”

“I didn’t ever want to tell you the whole truth about what I did. But you
need
to know.” She shivered. A sadness filled her expression. “The night I left, I stabbed him. I thought, I hoped he was dead. But, I was terrified he wasn’t.”

His brain winced. “You wanted to kill him?”

“Yes. I. Wanted. Him. Dead.”

He believed she meant it.

“I knew if he was alive he’d never give up trying to find me. Hurt me. I’ve moved several times because of that fear. I put that knife in him as far as it would go. He killed my mother. Beat her to death. In that moment, I wanted revenge for her.”

“
Geesus.”
He saw hate in her eyes like he’d seen in the eyes of other exploited people. “How could the people who brought you here leave a kid with a bastard like that?”

She grew thoughtful. “I’m sure we were brought here because he had classified information about people, governments. If it was known what he’d done, the crimes he committed, before we came, it was conveniently overlooked.”

“Fuckers let you be abused to gain information.”

“In fairness, they didn’t know about my situation here. I was terrified of being sent back. I never told them a thing and I’m a very good liar when it comes to protecting myself.” She eyed him carefully.

“When I finally did speak up and told them he wanted to take me away they acted immediately. Our protection was separated so we weren’t privy to each other’s info. They could do nothing
about
him. Only terminate his protection, which they did when his involvement in certain activities could no longer be tolerated. Even so, they kept a watch on him until he disappeared. I knew none of this until today. I only knew if he were alive, one day he would find me. And…and what happened today—”

“Why didn’t he tell the agency you tried to kill him?”

“He’d never do that.” She gave him a humorless smile.

“Why?”

“He wanted the money. When I left, I cleaned him out. Took everything. Almost seven-hundred-thousand dollars. If I was in jail, he’d never get it.”

He said nothing.

“Today, he said he’d come for his money and to do to me what he’d done to my mother.” Her hand went to her stomach. “Then you were there and—”

Great Caesar’s ghost, the color left her face.

“Celia.” He stood and went to her. Before he reached her she waved him off.

“Please, get me some water. There’re bottles on the kitchen counter.”