AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“If you say slutty, I am going to punch you in the crotch again.”
“Confident!” he said. “I was going to say confident.”
“Look, just because I like what I look like doesn’t mean I sleep around.”
Now he couldn’t tell if he was offending her or if she was just yanking his chain. “No one said you were sleeping around.”
“Ah, I seem to recall a little comment about my inability to say no.”
Okay, maybe he had said that. He put his cheek against hers and whispered into her ear. “I apologize. Forgive me?”
Her fingers raked through his hair again, and she shifted closer to him, pulling the blanket higher to block out the stars. “Not yet. You’ll just have to make it up to me.”
And Hunter realized that maybe a little distraction wasn’t out of line after all.
Hunter awoke at dawn and found himself alone in the blankets. The fire was banked, the water far down the beach at low tide.
No Kate.
He sat straight up. His heart went from zero to sixty.
But then he breathed. She was in the jeep, wearing the spare jeans and bright pink T-shirt Bill had brought, fiddling with her cell phone.
Hunter rubbed a hand over his face, wishing he had access to a bar of soap and a razor. He made do with a swig of water from one of the bottles, pulled his jeans on under the blanket, and headed over to the car in bare feet.
Whatever had changed overnight had him wanting to pull her into his arms and keep her safe forever.
roked a hand over her hair. “Why?” he said softly. “Why are you crying?”
She didn’t answer him, and he just shifted until he was holding her more fully. She was such a creature of . . . of strength, that he wasn’t sure how to respond to this. He kissed her temple, whispering silly assurances.
Finally she stopped, and her breath was warm through his shirt.
Hunter held very still, feeling the tension in her body.
“I didn’t tell you the whole truth about my mother,” she finally said.
He waited, knowing this admission hung on a thin line, not wanting to upset the precarious balance of whether she’d keep talking.
“I knew she was going on an assignment,” said Kate. “I wanted to go. She said I needed to keep training.”
Hunter nodded and kissed her temple again. He knew a story just like this one.
His own.
“I went anyway,” said Kate. “I hacked her computer . . . found out what flights she was taking . . . I booked different flights for myself. I found out what her mission was. I followed her everywhere. She had no idea I was there.” Kate sniffed and swiped at her eyes.
“But then I saw who she was after,” she continued. “It was this little restaurant owner, up at one of the fishing towns in Maine. Tiny diner, right on the water. He was using his powers to draw the best seafood. Silly, right?”
She was still crying, and Hunter wasn’t sure what to say to that.
The bad parts were coming, though. He could feel it.
“I didn’t even think it was a big deal,” said Kate. “I mean—is that any different from having a gift that makes you a better cook? I kept waiting to see if he was hurting people at night, or if there was anything worse than that. Mom was learning his routine, so I learned it, too. She had no idea I was there.”
“And what did you learn?” asked Hunter.
“I learned that he had five kids,” she said. “I learned that he was a good man who gave restaurant leftovers to the homeless people in town. I kept waiting for him to do something wrong, and at the same time, I kept waiting for my mother to do the right thing and leave him alone.”
