Chapter 19
Hunter
The wind outside rattled the cabin windows, but I barely noticed. My focus was on the papers I was looking over until Jada got home from town—the proposal Lucas had sent about Warrior Security.
I had to admit it was impressive. The plan was well-thought-out. And Lucas was offering me a permanent position with it.
A team. Roots. Something I hadn’t let myself consider in a long time.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted it. Wasn’t sure if I could even do it.
The front door creaked open. When I looked up, Jada stood in the doorway, her arms wrapped around herself, her expression raw.
Not angry. Wrecked .
I was at her side in an instant. “Hey. What happened?”
She pulled away from me, shutting the door behind her, pressing her back against it for a second before exhaling hard. “I ran into Kenzie Hurst in town.”
Shit. I stepped back. “Are you okay?”
She let out a sharp, humorless breath. “I don’t think I get to be ‘okay’ about this, Hunter.” She crossed the room, dropping onto the couch like her legs couldn’t hold her up anymore. “I knew I did bad things, but hearing them come out of her mouth…” She shook her head, eyes fixed on a spot on the floor. “It’s worse than I thought.”
I sat beside her and leaned forward, forearms on my knees. “What’d she say?”
“That I left her threatening messages. Trashed her house. Hired someone to push her down. Locked her in her bathroom with a rattlesnake .” Her voice wavered, and she blinked rapidly, like she was trying to hold back tears.
I’d seen people carry guilt before. Knew how it could eat at you, make you feel like you didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as the people you’d hurt. But I also knew that getting stuck in that place didn’t do a damn thing to fix what was broken.
Jada exhaled shakily, rubbing at her arms like she was trying to warm herself up. “How could you bring me here?” she asked, her voice quieter now, more broken than angry. “Knowing she lives nearby?”
I didn’t answer right away, making sure she was looking at me before I spoke. “Because this was the safest place for you to heal,” I told her honestly. “This was somewhere we didn’t have to watch our backs every second. It was quiet. Secure.” I held her gaze. “You needed that. And Lucas let me know on the first day Kenzie and Jensen were out of town for a while. I knew they were getting back soon. That was one of the things I wanted to talk to you about.”
She swallowed hard, nodding slightly.
“I’m sorry. I was about to tell you yesterday when it started raining.” I exhaled slowly. “The important thing is that she’s not pressing charges. I confirmed that with Lachlan?—”
“Just because I’m not sitting in jail doesn’t mean I can forgive myself.” Jada pushed off the couch, pacing like she couldn’t stand still another second. She was unraveling, fists clenching and unclenching, her breaths sharp and uneven. “I can’t stay here. Not now. Not now that I know everything.”
I stayed where I was, keeping my body loose even though every instinct told me to pull her into my arms. “Jada?—”
“No, Hunter.” She spun to face me, her dark eyes tormented. “You don’t get it. I wasn’t just some desperate woman in a bad relationship—I was vicious .” Her breath hitched. “I left her threats. I trashed her house. I—” She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, like she could erase the memories she didn’t even have. “I poured animal blood on her walls.” Her arms wrapped tightly around herself. “Who the hell does that?”
I let the silence stretch, letting her burn through it, because I knew if I jumped in too soon, she’d shut down.
And then, barely above a whisper, she said, “I put a rattlesnake in her bathroom.”
A heavy pause settled between us. I let the weight of it sink in, absorbing it all.
“A devenomized snake,” I finally said, my voice rough. I only knew because Lachlan had sent me over the full file. Again, it had been one of the things I’d wanted to talk about with her tonight. She’d wanted to start tackling her life and figuring out a plan. She’d wanted as many details as possible.
She dropped her hands, eyes wet and glassy. “Does that make a difference?”
I stood, slow and deliberate, leveling her with a look. “Yeah. It does.”
She let out a humorless breath, shaking her head. “Hunter, don’t.”
“I’m serious, Jada.” I took a step closer. “You could’ve done worse. You didn’t . You made sure Kenzie wouldn’t be hurt.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “But it tells me something.”
She swallowed hard. “What? What does it tell you? That I was a lunatic? That’s what it tells me.”
“It tells me that, maybe, even at your worst, you were never vicious.” I studied her carefully. “You wanted Kenzie gone, but you didn’t want her dead . If you were truly that person, you wouldn’t have stopped where you did. And you definitely wouldn’t have stopped Alan from killing her.”
Her jaw clenched, her fingers gripping her sweater like it was the only thing holding her together. “I was still a terrible person, Hunter.”
“You were manipulated by a man who used you and made you think you had to do those things to keep him.”
Her eyes flashed. “That doesn’t change the fact that I did them.”
“No,” I admitted. There was no way around that, and I wouldn’t try to convince her otherwise.
“It doesn’t matter,” she murmured. “I can’t stay here. Not after everything.”
Something twisted in my chest. I’d spent three years drifting since I got out of the Army, taking jobs that kept me moving, avoiding anything permanent. I never needed a home base, never wished I had one.
Until now. Until this woman. For the first time in a long time, I wished I had something solid. A place I could take her that wasn’t here, where she could feel safe but also where she wouldn’t feel like she had to stare down her mistakes every second. I wished I had a house of my own and a support network to offer her, but I’d been running as fast as I could from those things.
My cell rang, breaking the heavy silence. I glanced at the screen. Jace. He was calling, as scheduled, with more info about Jada. I wasn’t sure this was the best time.
I swiped to answer and put it on speaker. “Hey, brother. We might need to reschedule.”
“Everything okay?” Jace’s voice was somber.
“Yeah, just have some other things we need to take care of.”
Jada shook her head. “Is he calling about me?”
“Yes, but?—”
“It’s okay, Jace,” she interrupted. “Tell us what you found. I’m done hiding from myself.”
“All right, let’s start with the good news,” Jace said. “You’ve got a decent savings account. Nothing huge, but enough to float you for a couple of months if you keep expenses low. Longer if you don’t have many bills.”
Jada blinked, clearly caught off guard. “I didn’t expect that.”
“Yep,” Jace confirmed. “Also, your car is fully paid off. And your apartment lease? Month-to-month.” A brief pause. “From the looks of things, you were planning on moving soon.”
Jada tightened her arms around herself. “I was?”
“That’s what it looks like,” Jace said. “You hadn’t put down a deposit anywhere else yet, but you were definitely in the process of shutting things down.”
Jada let out a breath, her expression unreadable. “Okay,” she said slowly. I could tell she was trying to process it, trying to hold on to something solid.
But then Jace sighed. “That’s where the good news ends. The hotel you worked public relations for fired you. I didn’t dig into that since I’m assuming that happened because of not showing up for work.”
“Makes sense.”
“And…you had a shared checking account with Alan Ard.”
“I guess that shouldn’t surprise me since I was willing to kidnap for him.” Jada’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“Back when you first started dating him, you opened a joint account.” Jace’s tone was careful, measured, like he was trying to soften the blow. “Alan drained it the day he got out of prison.”
Jada didn’t move.
I did. Pushed off the counter and took a step closer, watching her. She stood rigid, her arms crossed so tightly over her stomach it looked like she was bracing for a hit.
“How much?” she asked, voice hollow.
Jace hesitated again. “A lot. Five figures. It looks like you’d been putting into the account regularly from your paycheck. I’m sorry, Jada, but it’s gone. There’s no way to get it back.”
She blinked rapidly, her mouth pressing into a thin line. “Of course it’s gone.”
Her voice was empty. Flat.
I took another step forward, lowering my voice. “Hey…”
She shook her head quickly, staring at the floor. “He used me,” she said. “Again.” A bitter laugh scraped out of her throat. “God, I was so stupid .”
“You weren’t?—”
“I was,” she snapped, eyes flashing up to mine. “Don’t try to say I wasn’t, because I was. I gave him money. I trusted him.” She let out a sharp breath, hands gripping her arms tighter. “I was gullible. I don’t need memories to know that I blindly followed someone who used me.”
She needed to talk this out more. “Jace, do you think we can continue this tomorrow?” I asked. “We’ve got a lot to process here.”
“Absolutely, but there’s one more thing I think you’ll want to know about right away. I found a lead on the memory-loss drug.”
That got both our attention.
Jace continued. “Guy who developed it? Name’s Dr. Anthony Beckett. He used to be a big deal—one of the world’s top biochemists. Discovery after discovery. Then, a couple years ago, he just…vanished.”
“Vanished?” I repeated.
“Well, not completely ,” Jace said. “He’s off the grid, but I managed to track him down. He’s living in a trailer park near Spokane. I’ll send you everything I have. I don’t know if he’ll be of any assistance, but it’s at least something. Maybe he’ll know about an antidote.”
Jada’s fingers twitched against her arms. I met her eyes. She was still pale, still shaken, but there was something else there now. Something sharp.
Determination. She was already making up her mind.
I turned back to the phone. “Appreciate it, Jace.”
“No problem. The Citadel Solutions team is on pop star babysitting duty right now. So I’ve got to pass the time somehow.”
“Pop star babysitting?” Jada echoed.
Jace snorted. “Bodyguard duty for Nova Rivers. She’s got a stalker of the quite inventive kind.”
Even I had heard of Nova Rivers. “Thanks for helping, Jace. It means a lot.”
“I’ll keep digging. Let me know if you need anything else. All I’ve got is time until Nova goes back on tour.”
“Will do.” I ended the call.
Silence settled between us before Jada exhaled slowly, dragging a hand through her hair. “I want to go talk to this Dr. Beckett. See if he knows anything about an antidote.”
I wasn’t surprised to hear her say that. But I wanted to make sure she thought it through first. I leaned back against the counter, crossing my arms. “Are you sure that’s the route you want to take? You said yourself back at the picnic—that maybe you wouldn’t take it even if it existed.”
“That was before I knew everything.” She let out a slow, controlled breath. “Before I knew exactly what I did. Who I was.” She swallowed hard. “If there’s an antidote, I have to take it.”
I studied her, trying to read between the lines. “Even if it brings you more pain?”
She didn’t hesitate. “I deserve the pain.”
I went still. Jada’s eyes burned with something raw, something that made my chest tighten.
“I was stupid,” she said, voice rough. “Gullible. I let Alan manipulate me, and because of that, I hurt people. Kenzie. Maybe others. I don’t even know the full extent of the damage I caused, and I should know. I should remember every single thing I did so I can live with it for the rest of my life.”
I exhaled slowly. I could see the guilt she carried was ripping her up inside, bleeding through. Jada was already teetering on the edge.
She straightened, her chin lifting. “I’m going.”
I wasn’t letting her go alone.
I nodded once. “Then I’m going with you.”
Her lips parted slightly, like she hadn’t expected me to say it, but I didn’t give her time to argue.
“You want the truth?” I pushed off the counter and closed the space between us. “Then we go get it. Together.”