But any time someone talked about that mission, they said that his dad was coming here to kill the Merricks.
Had his father’s mission been reconnaissance, in advance of killing the Merricks?
Or had he never intended to kill them at all?
And what did all the folders mean?
And if he’d never meant to kill the Merricks, what was he planning on doing?
Too many questions. Hunter rubbed at his eyes again.
Kate put a hand on his wrist. “Will Becca’s dad help us?”
Hunter snorted. “This is it. Blankets and food. He wouldn’t even let us come in the house.”
“Weird.”
“Not weird. He’s an asshole.”
“We can’t stay here forever.”
“We can’t just drive around, either. I’m worried the police are looking for me. A white jeep is pretty easy to identify.” His voice turned wry. “The bullet hole in the rear quarter panel isn’t exactly subtle, either.”
“My mom used to say that things look better in the morning.”
Hunter started to say that he didn’t see how that would be possible, but Kate moved closer and laid her head on his shoulder.
It put the line of her body against his.
He kept trying to tell his own body that she was injured, that she was seeking warmth, that this had nothing to do with anything.
His body was replying, DUDE. SHE IS NOT WEARING PANTS.
“I’m glad you took me for a drive this afternoon,” she said.
“You are?” he asked in surprise. “But that’s why the day went to shit.”
“I don’t think so.” She breathed against him for a long moment. “If we hadn’t left, Silver might have come to the Merricks’ house while everyone was still there.”
Hunter froze. He hadn’t considered that.
“You’re a good person, Hunter,” she said. “I know you care about them. I know you see it as a weakness, but it’s not. You’re trying to save them.”
“Kate.” He shifted to try to see her face. “Kate, are you crying?”
“No.” But she was. She’d pressed closer to him, as if that were possible, burying her face in his chest.
He stroked 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.”
“She didn’t.” Not even a question.
“No. She went after him.”
“And he killed her.”
Kate shook her head fiercely. “She waited until he was alone in the restaurant, and she confronted him.” Now she was crying in earnest. “And you know what he said? He said he understood, and he wouldn’t put up a fight if she promised to leave his family alone. Then he put his hands up and said, ‘Do it.’
“He was willing to sacrifice himself for his family,” she said. “Just like that. He was going to lie down and die to protect them. And my mom was going to take a father away from that family. She was going to kill a good man because it was her duty.”
Hunter’s brain was spinning, trying to figure out how this man had gone from being ready to sacrifice himself for his family to murdering Kate’s mother.
Kate swiped at her eyes again. “She pulled out her gun and told him she appreciated his willingness to do what was right.” A short, harsh laugh through the tears. “Can you believe that? His willingness to do what was right.”
“How did he kill her?” said Hunter.
“He didn’t,” said Kate. She sat up, moving away from him, pressing her hands to her eyes, sobbing into her fingers. “I did.”
“You? But—”
“I shot her. I shot her in the shoulder just to keep her from killing him. And she turned her gun on me, then fired.”
Hunter knelt in front of her, wanting to touch her, not knowing how she’d take it. “Did she know it was you?”
“Maybe not when she fired the first shot. But she aimed at me again. Twice. She knew it was me. I fired back. I didn’t—it was all too fast. I’d been through all that training—I just—it was me or her. She died, right there on the floor of his restaurant.” Kate looked up at Hunter, tears shining on her lashes. “And if I told anyone I did it, they’d kill me. If I told anyone the Water Elemental had done it, they’d send more Guides after him and probably destroy his whole family.”
“So you told them he killed her, and that you killed him.” He paused. “You let him go.”
She took a shuddering breath. “Yeah.” Another breath, steadier this time. “Do you think I’m a horrible person?”
Hunter reached out and stroked the hair back from her face. “I think you’re an amazing person who had to make a terrible choice at a terrible time.”
“I’m a failure. I should have let her finish.”
“No, you’re human, and you did what was right.”
“I don’t know what’s right anymore.”
He’d said those exact words to Gabriel, what felt like a lifetime ago.
So he told Kate the same thing Gabriel had said to him. “Yes,” he said softly. “You do.”
CHAPTER 30
The blankets were warm, and the sound of the water was hypnotic, stealing tension from the air. Kate was pressed against him again, her head on his shoulder, an arm across his chest. Hunter stroked her hair absently, keeping still otherwise, sure she was asleep.
His father had been wrong. This trust felt a million times better than the walls Hunter had built around himself.
“Are you asleep?” Kate whispered, her voice barely carrying above the sound of the waves.
“No.” He turned his head and brushed a kiss against her hair.
She shifted until she was braced on his chest, looking down at him. The moon overhead caught her hair and filled it with golden sparks, leaving her eyes in darkness and her features in shadow. Her voice was full of sorrow. “I’ve never told anyone all . . . all that.”
He touched her face. “I’ll keep your
secret.”
“I know you will. That’s why I told you.” She turned her head and kissed the inside of his wrist.
Then she lowered her head to kiss him on the lips.
It was different now, with no secrets between them, just the night sky to bear witness. Sweeter, somehow. Quieter. She tasted like strawberries and peanut butter, and the feeling of her weight on his chest was just about the greatest thing in the whole entire world.
She teased at his mouth with her tongue, sliding her hand under his shirt and tracing lines on his chest with her nails until he was sure she’d set the night on fire.
He broke the kiss, and it took just about every ounce of self-control he had. “Kate—you’re hurt—”
“Please,” she said, kissing along his jaw, finding his neck. She spoke into his skin. “Please. I need the distraction. Please, Hunter.”
She was crying again.
“Kate,” he whispered. “Kate.” He brushed a thumb across her cheek, stealing the tears.
“Just kiss me,” she said.
Then she didn’t give him a choice. She was straddling his waist, her mouth consuming his every thought, her tongue alive in his mouth.
His hands went immediately to her waist, but that skimpy tank top barely stretched past her rib cage, and he found bare skin, soft and warm and supple.
“Take your shirt off,” she said in a whispered rush—and before he could even consider it, she was already pulling at the hem, dragging it up his body and wrestling it over his head.
And she was sitting on his stomach, her bare legs practically wrapped around him.
He focused really hard on breathing.
Tough, since every breath made her move fractionally, and he was very conscious of every inch of warm skin resting against him.
“Kate—I don’t want to hurt you—”
She leaned down close, putting her forehead against his, the way she had when they’d wrestled around behind the carnival. “So don’t.”
Then she pulled the tank top over her head, and she was in nothing but a bra and panties.
All the breath left his body.
He couldn’t think with her straddling him like this.
Hunter caught her waist and rolled her gently, putting her back in the blankets, then caging her upper body with his arms. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Are you complaining?”
“Ah . . . no.” He kissed her lips, her cheek, her neck. His hand stroked the safe area around her navel, the base of her ribs. When his fingers brushed the thin line of lace along her hip, she drew a quick intake of breath.
He liked that sound. A lot.
He ran his finger under the lace, tracing along the front of her body. She stretched under him, and he bent to run his mouth over her stomach, breathing in the scent of her.
Her hands were in his hair. “You’re killing me,” she whispered.
“In a good way?”
“Yes.”
That made him pause. His hand went still on her stomach, and he rose up to look down at her. “I owe you a full truth, too.”
She dragged a finger down the center of his chest in a way that made his breath shudder and his eyes fall closed.
“Maybe you can tell me later,” she said.
He caught her wrist and smiled ruefully. “At school—when I kissed you in the parking lot—”
“I remember.”
“I told you I’d know exactly what to do if you jumped me.”
“Evidenced by what you’re doing right now, you mean?” That made him blush, which made her laugh.
But then she sobered. “I won’t tease. What’s your deep, dark truth?”
This was harder to tell her than anything else had been. It probably would have been easier if they weren’t both half-naked. He wished he could stop blushing for god’s sake. “I’ve never—ah—”
“Hunter Garrity.”
“What?”
“Are you trying to tell me you’re a virgin?”
If her voice had carried any amount of mockery, he would have denied it. But it didn’t, and he didn’t.
“Yes,” he said.
“I figured.”
“Hey!”
She didn’t smile. Her cheeks appeared extra pink in the firelight now. “No—I meant . . . I am, too.”
“You are?”
She nodded.
He couldn’t stop staring at her. “But . . . you’re so . . . so—”
“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.
Especially when she looked up at him and blushed.
“Hey,” he said gently. He bent down to kiss her on the neck.
“Hey.” She leaned into him. He let her.
“What are you doing?”
“My phone was dead. I plugged into your charger. Is that okay?”
“Sure.” He could see she had the browser open. “Anything interesting?”
“I was looking for tunnels.” She glanced up. “Did you know there are two highway tunnels that lead into Baltimore?”
He took the phone and looked at the map. “Highway tunnels?”
“Well, they go under the harbor.”
Hunter thought about that but couldn’t make it line up in his head. “She’s a Fire Elemental. What’s she going to do, start a fire in the tunnel?”
“What if she had a Water Elemental working with her? Or an Earth?”
Hunter thought about it. “Collapsing a highway tunnel would definitely draw a lot of attention.” Then he shook his head. “They’re kids. They don’t have that kind of power yet.”
“But she’s looking for a reaction. They’re afraid. They’re—”
Casper growled.
Hunter whipped his head up. The dog was staring at the woods.
Kate was completely still, but he could practically hear her heartbeat. Or maybe that was his own. The house was dark and still; the trees quiet except for the slight breeze.
Casper was still on high alert.
Hunter took her hand. “Come on.”
She unplugged the phone and followed him. He brushed sand from his feet and yanked shoes on, not bothering to tie the laces. The gun slipped into his waistband. He pulled an olive-green shirt over his head as they walked toward the opposite tree line. Casper bolted into the woods, and Hunter didn’t dare raise his voice to call him back. His dog could take care of himself.
He didn’t have to tell Kate to be quiet. She was simply a shadow at his side, alert and prepared.
A branch snapped somewher
e off in the woods, and her back pressed against a tree.
His did, too. They’d gone in opposite directions and now stood ten feet apart, staring at each other.
Another snap, a heavy one. Malice in the air. Someone was definitely in the woods.
Kate’s eyes were wide and locked on his. Their trees were too far apart to risk talking.
Then she had her cell phone in her hand, her fingers sliding across the screen.
What was she doing?
Then she looked up and tossed the slim black phone to him.
He read the words she’d typed.
You go northeast. I go southeast. Set 2 trails.
Like he’d split up now. He looked up and very clearly mouthed No!
She clearly mouthed back Yes!
Then she took off.
Damn her and all that independence! Hunter ran. Northeast, like she’d wanted.
Only now he did it with no caution at all. He ran full out, not bothering to hide his tracks or be stealthy. He needed noise, so he’d be the target.
So Kate could get away.
She was fast, like a sprinter, flying through the trees somewhere off to his right. Then he realized he could see her, that bright pink T-shirt flashing through the trees.
Shit.
Something cracked. That pink beacon crashed to the ground.
Hunter skidded to a stop. He said a prayer in his head, hoping she’d simply stumbled. At this distance, the pink was almost a blur, but he saw it lift from the ground. Keep running. Keep running. Keep running.
But he was already running toward her.
Only to skid to another stop and duck behind a tree.
Silver had an arm around Kate’s neck. She was struggling against him.
An arrow protruded from one thigh, and Silver had a crossbow pressed up tight against her neck.
“Come on, Hunter,” he called. “Come get your girlfriend.”
“He’s gone,” Kate yelled, and Hunter could hear her fury from here. “He ran the other way, you idiot.”
“I’d say the idiotic move was turning on your cell phone, Kathryn.”