Hunter
The lights and sounds of a car rolling down Lottie’s dirt road had roused me from sle ep.
Clumsily, I fumbled for the seat adjuster, forcing myself upright as my eyes slowly adjusted. I
hadn’t been able to bring myself to leave her all alone and thank fuck for that.
The moment I noticed it was Jared who st epped out of the car, I reached for my phone,
hastily dialing nine-one-one. I wasn’t sure if Lottie had a restraining order against him, but just
in case she did, I didn’t want to throw away the one chance I had to get him out of the goddamn
picture.
“Police, fire, or ambulance?” “Police,” I said, kicking open my door the second I saw Jared
shut the front door behind him.
“What’s the emergency?” “My wife’s stalker has just entered our home,” I said. I made my
way up the front porch st eps as silently as I could while rattling off Lottie’s address. “I can’t stay
on the phone. Come quickly.”
I hung up and shoved my phone in my pocket, hoping they showed up before I beat the
ever-living daylight out of him.
“Please just leave,” I heard Lottie say, her voice muffled through the crack in the door. My
fists shook, my body pulsing with rage, but I held out. I didn’t need a murder charge.
“I’m not leaving until you understand that everything I did was for you!” Jared barked.
Something rattled just inside the door. I hoped to God he wouldn’t do anything stupid, but
considering he already was, that hope seemed lost. “Why can’t you take two seconds to see
that, Charlotte?”
“Because I don’t care about anything you did, whether it was for me or not,” she snapped. “I
don’t want you. You have to come to terms with that.”
“I can’t!” “That’s not my fucking problem!” I shifted to the window, heart racing, and peered in
through the small bit of space between the curtains. Jared looked absolutely feral—wild eyes,
greasy hair, overgrown beard. His hands were in fists beside his hips, his body leaned forward
toward her.
“You’ve ruined me,” he hissed. “Your fucking husband has ruined me. You owe me,
Charlotte. My father doesn’t trust me anymore because of what I did, what I did for you, do you
know that? I’ve been exiled. Any hope of a future is gone if you’re not in it.”
“I don’t owe you anything,” Lottie said, taking a st ep back. He only pressed forward.
“You owe me everything!” he choked. “You wouldn’t be where you are now without me. You
wouldn’t have a husband without me. None of this, none of the life you now have would have
been possible without me!”
“Please leave,” Lottie said again, taking another st ep back, her body curling in on itself. I
glanced back at the dirt road, hoping for red and blue lights, but came up empty.
“Your father would still be alive if you hadn’t married him,” Jared scolded, taking an
unprovoked st ep toward her. Acid burned the back of my throat, anger boiling my blood. I was
going to fucking kill him. Damn the consequences. “Probably dropped dead at the sight of you
giving your life to some fuckwit who doesn’t give two shits about you—”
I saw red. Time seemed to stop between me standing at the window and my fist colliding
with his face. I didn’t remember it, didn’t recall if either of them had reacted, tried to stop me.
The door hung loose on its hinges, dangling just inches from Jared’s bloody face.
“You should have fucking left when she asked you to,” I growled, spittle flying into his face.
Surprisingly, Jared could pack a punch. Something hard collided with my jaw, knocking my
head back enough for him to crawl out from under me.
Lottie shrieked, her hands flying toward me, but Jared st epped between us and kicked me
down as my head still spun from the crack of it. “You
weren’t a part of this conversation,” Jared hissed.
I scrambled to my feet at the same moment the sirens reached my ears. My fingers wrapped
tightly around his throat, shoving him back into the wall and knocking his skull against it.
Everything in my body told me to squeeze my fingers, to take any oxygen he had away. “You
have done nothing but damage her. That makes me a part of this.”
The blood from his nose pooled between his lips, coating his teeth. “Like you’re any better,”
he laughed.
“Hunter, stop,” Lottie pleaded, her hands gripping onto my jacket and pulling. “Please. He’s
not worth this.”
In the half a second it took for me to look at her, Jared’s hand whipped out, his nails
scratching along my cheek. Pain bloomed immediately, warmth tainting my skin and dripping
down. Asshole.
“Ay, ay, ay! Let him go!” I dropped my hand the moment two police officers walked through
the front door, their guns raised and pointed at the two of us. They st epped toward me and I
raised my palms, backing up, but Lottie st epped in front of me. “It’s not him,” she panted,
blinking rapidly as she looked between them. “He’s the one who called. He’s my husband.”
They turned their guns to Jared instead, his blood-covered grin tempting me to beat it off his
face.
My breaths were coming fast and heavy. My jaw ached, my cheek burned, and Lottie stayed
firm in front of me, my arm around her, her back against my chest. I should have st epped in
sooner, before he could get in those words about her dad. I should have beaten him harder. I
should have broken his fucking skull.
I pulled Lottie closer. He deserved every hit and more. He had to pay for every bit of pain
he’d caused her, had to offer that in blood. I wanted to do it again. Wanted to do it better.
For her. Always for her.