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Storee couldn’t have been any more uncomfortable around me if she’d tried—fidgeting, stuttering, and never meeting my eyes the entire time she was in my presence. She’d only gotten a little better about it since we’d been lunching.
I probably should have let her off the hook about the lunches, but I wanted to stay as close to Gabriel’s daughter as I could, and being with Storee reminded me, in a sad sort of way, what it was like to have someone you loved in your life. She was as close to family as I had. And I enjoyed the lunches, once I pulled her out of her shell. Storee was smart, and when she was comfortable, had a biting wit that I enjoyed. She had a look of purity but not blatantly so. She’d gotten her lovely, naturally curly hair directly from her father. If she was talking about something she was interested in—like her art—her face lit up from within.
She certainly had gotten more than her fair share of her father’s stubbornness, though, and adamantly refused to let me take her to lunch, or to go to dinner with me. I was so determined not to scare her off and lose any sense of normal that I had left, that I’d hesitated for a long time to put my foot down. But at our last lunch, I’d just decided that I wasn’t going to let her have her way.
She’d also gotten a heaping helping of Gabriel’s pride. She wouldn’t even let me pick up her lunch even though my paying for her food was a drop in the bucket compared to what I made in a day. She’d practically gotten into a physical fight with me the first time we went out because of that.
Apparently, my look of warning didn’t work on her. It sure as hell scared all the people who worked for me, but not Storee. She hadn’t so much as batted an eyelash at me.
She made me want to kiss her, and that impulse sent me reeling out of my chair, my back to the picture of Gabriel and his daughter, as if I couldn’t bear for the images within the frame to see my shame. I hadn’t had the impulse to kiss someone for so long, it physically hurt me to consider it. To say nothing of how guilty it made me feel. Not only was I contemplating kissing someone much younger than me, but I was contemplating kissing Gabriel’s daughter. His fucking daughter!
Forbidden.
Wrong.
So fucked up.
Once the idea formed in my mind, however, I found that I couldn’t let it go. It haunted me, sneaking into my consciousness when I least expected it. Visions of taking that little body and tugging it against mine, letting my hands sweep up into all that hair, bending her head back for my deep, passionate kiss, letting my lips slide slowly over hers—
I shook my head.
Fuck me. I had done a lot of bad things in my life. But these thoughts… nothing I’d ever done was as bad as this. She was still a damn kid. Legal age or not, this girl was no match for me. Angelic. Perfect. She had no business being pursued by the damn devil.
My thoughts were interrupted by my office door being thrown open.
“Locke, there’s something you need to see,” Braken said as he marched into my office without warning. He threw down a sheet of paper on my desk.
I cleared my throat and tried to focus my attention on the business he was presenting to me rather than where my mind had been.
“That’s the list of participants of The Hunt. I thought you’d like to know Storee Brooks is on the list.”
“What the fuck?” I stared down at her name in disbelief.
“You want me to remove her name?” Braken asked. “Although she already got the tests, signed the contract, and has the red light bulb. The Hunt’s tomorrow night. I’m not sure I can stop the ball that is already rolling.”
“Fuck!”
“Unless you go and get the light back from her, there’s no guarantee that someone won’t see it and act on it.”
I slammed my hand down on my desk. “Motherfucker.” I took a deep breath to control the rage coursing through me.
“I can get someone we trust to choose her to hunt. At least then you’ll know she’ll be… safe,” Braken offered.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“I don’t know Storee as well as you,” Braken continued, “but even if you stop this hunt, there is always next weekend and the weekend after. If she has her mind set on doing this…”
“I know.”
“You could forbid it. We could try to ban her.”
I shook my head. “I know Storee. There’s only so much she will take. She’s stubborn and if she feels we’re treating her like a kid or differently than any other woman on this island…” I took another deep breath. Picturing her with another man, even one hand-selected, gutted me. “She’s my responsibility. I’ll find someone. I’ll handle it.”
Braken nodded and made his way toward my door to leave, wise enough to pick up on the fact that I was in no mood for further conversation. “I’ll leave it with you then.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, feeling as if the man had just punched me in the gut.
When Braken closed the door behind himself, I quickly pulled up the security camera feed on my camera to see for myself. I wasn’t proud of the fact that I’d had it installed a year ago. A hidden camera that I had facing Storee’s front porch so I could watch her comings and goings. And I also wasn’t proud of the fact that the security camera footage only fed this urge to always watch over her.
