26. Hunter
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
hunter
Emma squirmed in front of me, avoiding eye contact.
I’d known her long enough to know that this was going to be hard. I didn’t like that this was happening after the mind blowing sex we’d just had, since it was already hard to wade through the emotions I was feeling. More than anything, I wanted to soothe her, but I needed answers first.
Emma was like a porcupine when she was pissed. I could already feel the sting of her quills digging into me. She was stubborn, but I was stubborn too.
Her hiding this from me felt like a slap in the face.
All I could think was that we’d fucked up more than we’d realized. The pain of finding out she could have been in danger mirrored the pain the rest of our loved ones would feel when they discovered the truth.
I was angry, because she was in danger and no one fucking knew. After everything we’d seen our loved ones go through, I felt like a failure for not noticing something was wrong. I’d read through the letters and each one of them was strange and alarming, even without the photos.
And with the photos, they were terrifying.
“Emma,” I said softly. “I’m worried. This scares me. This scares me for you and for everyone else. These are pictures of you .” I looked back at the photos and letters, shaking my head. “And there’s one of us. This isn’t okay.”
I already knew who to call. I could have the whole fucking police department here in five minutes. Bud would bend over backwards to try to help, especially after the bullshit job they’d done in the past with Sarah and Haley. The police never helped the way we needed them to.
Emma blew out a breath and threw up her hands. “I don’t have a good answer to this right now.”
“Walk me through what you know. Why didn’t you tell me about this? When did you get them?”
“I don’t always check my mail,” Emma said defensively. “I don’t know exactly when it started, but it’s been a couple of weeks, I think. I opened them a few days ago, but I couldn’t deal with it. It’s been too much.”
I forced myself to take a deep breath. “Could it be Josh?”
She didn’t immediately answer. She chewed on her bottom lip nervously and looked away again.
“Emma,” I pleaded. “Please look at me.”
“I don’t want to right now.”
“We need to call Bud,” I said. “This isn’t okay. Whoever is doing this, they’re unhinged. I’ll call him right now, we can get them updated on what you do know, and then we can go from there.”
“I don’t want to,” she said. “I don’t want anything to happen. I don’t want to call the police, especially after they were so unhelpful with Haley and Sarah. I just want to be left alone. It seems harmless, right?”
“No,” I said. “It doesn’t. Someone sent you three threatening letters and they took photos of you without your consent. That’s not harmless, Emma. That’s obsessed.”
“It’s fine,” she said. “It’ll be fine. I don’t need your help.”
“You can’t just let this go on,” I said. “And it’s not even just about you. I’m in one of those photos, too. And the last letter was clearly about me.”
“I don’t want to do this,” she said.
Goddammit. “ Emma , for fuck’s sake?—”
“Don’t take that tone with me,” she snapped.
I bit the inside of my mouth and crossed my arms, looking away from her. Every single part of me demanded that I protect her. I had resources. I knew every single person in this entire town. I could figure out who was doing this and make sure they never did again.
“Could it be Josh?” I asked again. This time I couldn’t hide the irritation in my voice.
“Maybe? I don’t know. This is crazy. This is probably just someone being stupid and weird. I don’t think he would do this.”
Time to find the fucker. He was probably staying in the bed and breakfast downtown. It was a little more his style, unlike the couple of two-star hotels between here and Austin.
“I already punched him once,” I said. “The fucker clearly didn’t get the message.”
“I don’t need your help with this.”
“Well, that’s too bad.”
“You’re not actually my fiancé,” she said. “I don’t want your help.”
“Well, everyone sure believes I’m your fiancé. So if we’re going to keep up this stupid lie, we’re doing this my way.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she said. “That’s not how this works.”
“It is when you’re being unreasonable.”
She scoffed and glared at me. I glared back.
“This is exactly why we’d never work.”
Ouch. My temper flared, and I crossed the kitchen to her, pinning her against the counter. Her eyes widened and she planted her hands on my chest.
“You can’t get rid of me now,” I said. “Don’t you fucking get that?”
“I can get rid of you just as easily as I let you into my life,” she snapped. “Leave. I don’t want you here anymore. I don’t need your help, I’ll take care of it myself.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” I said. “I’m trying to help! I’m trying to protect you.”
“I don’t want your protection!” she yelled. “I’m not one of your projects. You don’t need to protect me.”
“I clearly do if you’re not going to tell the police, at least.”
“What the fuck would they even do, Hunter? They wouldn’t do anything. You know that. These are vague, threatening letters, and that’s all they’ll see them as. It’s not illegal to send someone a letter. Anytime a woman reports something big, you know what we’re told? Unless we’re fucking assaulted, they can’t do shit. That’s the reality.” She shrugged her shoulders angrily. “I’m not a man, so they’re not going to listen. They won’t care.”
“Emma,” I choked out. “We have to do something?—”
“I’m done. Get. Out.”
She meant it. I stood frozen, my heart thumping. I hated this. I hated the look on her face, the stress.
“Please let me help,” I whispered. “Please. It’s one of the only things I’m good at.”
“No,” she said. “Get out. Get out . I don’t want you here right now.”
I took a step back and grabbed my tool bag. “If you’d stop acting like you’re the only one in this, you’d see that a lot of people care about you and want to see you safe.”
“And if you’d stop thinking it was your god-given right to always get in other people’s business, you’d see why you’re burned out and bitter.”
My jaw stiffened. Her words fucking hurt. “You’re so fucking stubborn all the time. It’s exhausting to deal with.”
“If I exhaust you so much, we can just go back to how it was before all of this. I never asked you to deal with me.”
“You did when you told your ex-husband I was your boyfriend.”
“You’re the one who told him you were my fiancé!” she exclaimed. Her voice wavered, and she shook her head, crossing her arms. “Goddammit, Hunter! I’m so sick of you! You can’t just take control of my life!”
Fuck. I was fucking up. I knew I was fucking up, but I couldn’t find the right words.
“I just want to help you,” I insisted. “That’s all I’m trying to do. That’s all I want to do.”
“You’re no better than Josh. He was the same way, always trying to control me.”
“I don’t want to control you,” I argued. “I want you to be safe. That’s all I want, Emma. I just want?—”
“What about what I want?”
I scoffed. “This isn’t about what anyone wants. This is about keeping you safe. Keeping us safe.”
“There is no us. Not anymore.” Emma threw up her hands. “Get out. Go. I’m not doing this. I’m not going to let you, of all people, tell me what to do.”
“Fine.”
“ Fine .”
“Call me next time you need me to pretend to be your fucking fiancé.”
I headed to the doorway and paused. I felt like I needed to do something, to say something. I couldn’t just let her drive me away, but…
“There won’t be a next time,” she said softly.
My heart ached. I didn’t look back at her the way I wanted to. I didn’t apologize the way I wanted to or say all the things that sat on the tip of my tongue.
This was for the best, I reminded myself. It was better for her to hate me.
I tightened my grip on my bag and made my way to the door. I left quickly and climbed into my truck.
It wasn’t until I reached the end of the street that the first tear finally fell.