Page 1 of Hidden With You

Prologue

I’m no stranger to being alone. To being surrounded by people, but entirely by myself. Wrapped in darkness, yet hiding it with bright smiles and bubbly laughter. Faking a life in the hope it will become real but knowing that won’t ever happen.

Then he entered my world, stepping past the walls that surround me. Filling the dark, small place in which I hide with light and hope.

He’s here and he’s real. He’s sunshine and joy. Light and love.

But that is only an illusion. The truth is he belongs in the darkness. It feeds him. Fuels him.

He’s horrible.

A monster. A bastard.

I look at him and know that’s what I should think now that I know what he planned. What he wanted.

And yet there’s warmth under his icy exterior. There’s hope in his eyes.

I see it. I crave it. And somehow the monster turns beautiful in my sight.

But the more his heat engulfs me, the more I am afraid.

Because I know better than anyone that fire destroys everything, and all I can hope is that love can still bloom from the ashes of those flames.

ChapterOne

Jasper Kent sat on the bottom step of Jamie and Ryan Hunter’s back porch, his toes in the sand as he watched the sun slip away. A few clouds hung low in the sky, now illuminated in vibrant shades of purple and orange as Mother Nature painted yet another masterpiece on the Malibu horizon.

This was what he’d dreamed of so many years ago. A home outside of London with a beautiful view where he could grow old with Sandra. A house where Bonnie could grow up, huge and roomy and ready to be filled with sisters and brothers for her. A fairytale life wherein he and Sandra would sit on the porch and watch their children play and laugh and grow. The world would continue to turn with its horrors and tragedies, but his family would stay warm and safe in the protective bubble of a loving home.

And how much of a crock had that turned out to be?

Instead of London, he was living in Los Angeles.

Instead of a family, he was all alone.

Instead of a home, he had a hotel room.

Instead of a life, he’d become a ghost.

No. Not a ghost. A hunter. For ten years, he’d been chasing the monster who’d murdered his family. That was his quest. His mission. That was why he’d left MI6 and gone freelance, sliding into a dark world where he killed for both money and information, taking out evil as he pursued his own vendetta.

For ten years, he’d chased lead after lead, but his efforts had led nowhere. Now, though, he had another. Thin, true, but it was all he had, and he would tug on this thread to the end.

That was why he’d come back to the States. Why he’d accepted the offer from Stark Security. He needed access to the well-funded agency’s databases. He needed resources. Because with a decade of misses piled up behind him, he knew damn well that this was his last shot at finding the bastard who’d ripped Sandra and Bonnie from him. Screw this up and there’d be no retribution. No closure.

They’d be gone. Finally and truly gone.

Then he really would be a ghost. A haunted man, moving through the world, stripped of purpose and desire.

But not yet, dammit. Not quite yet.

He stiffened at the footsteps behind him, his training kicking in, then immediately relaxed as he recognized the gait. Ryan Hunter, the director of Stark Security and his new boss.

“You have an incredible house,” Jasper said without turning around.

Ryan chuckled, then sat beside him. “And that’s why we hired you. A man with eyes in the back of his head is handy in our business.”

Jasper glanced over his shoulder and met the other man’s piercing blue eyes. “And here I thought it was my good looks and sharp humor.”