Chapter 15 #2
My cry scrapes at my vocal cords as I push against Hunter with all my strength and more. I only step back to create enough space to punch him in the stomach. He doubles up in agony, and I bring up my knee.
“You know she’s being manipulated!” I roar as he sinks to his knees. “Barrett’s been fixated on her since college. We never stood a chance back then!”
Grabbing Hunter by the hair, I go to push him onto his back, but he grabs my arm. He brings his leg forward and kicks my feet from under me. I’m the one on my back and Hunter dives on top of me.
“Do you think you stand a chance now?” he asks, spittle hitting my face.
I buck my hips to fling him off, but he keeps control. For now.
“Let me guess what just happened in there,” he says. “You told Belle to take Piper and leave Barrett, and she said no.”
My neck cords and I put every last drop of my anger into heaving Hunter off me. He yells, but I win as I flip him onto his back, pinning him to the ground.
“She’s not thinking straight. Barrett…” I pant hard. Just speaking his name ignites a limitless pool of fury. “That fucking bastard isn’t going to stop until he’s worn her down completely.”
The veins in Hunter’s temples throb. “She’s already been worn down! He’s had years to brainwash her, Ash.”
“Fuck you! You don’t know her!”
“The hell I don’t!” he yells loud enough to split my eardrums. “I’ve seen how she looks at you, brother!”
My heart rattles in my chest. I shouldn’t ask. “And how exactly does she look at me?”
For a second, Hunter stops fighting back. His next blow is going to be low. As is his voice.
“Like she sees a monster.”
I grunt out a sigh. “Well, guess what? I see a monster too,” I admit, quietly this time. “I killed for her. And I’d do it again.”
My strength ebbs as I recall the job I took in Las Vegas to save Belle’s distillery. I knew I was walking into trouble, but I hadn’t been prepared for how it would feel to take a life for the very first time.
Hunter pushes me off him and we both collapse onto our backs.
The fight has exhausted us both. He rests a hand on his heaving chest, his shirt torn and splattered in blood.
“I killed for Maddie, remember? And that asshole over there killed for Lily,” he says, pointing vaguely in Mace’s direction. “Even Reid…”
I rise up onto my elbows. “You did those things because I made killing normal for us. You followed me down that path. I led you there.”
“Our choice.”
I shake my head. “Even if that were true, I wasn’t the one to guide you back out.
You found your own way,” I tell him. “You kept your heart intact, Hunter, and you gave it to someone who can nurture it and keep you whole. What did I do? I tried to break you and Maddie up because I was happy for us all to lead bleak and miserable lives. I’m glad you got out, but I’m still there. ”
“The answer isn’t Belle. She won’t save you, Ash,” Hunter says softly. “All she’ll do is snuff out that last flicker of light.”
“She won’t,” I insist, but without conviction. Belle’s threats are still ringing in my ears. She doesn’t want my help, and she doesn’t want me seeing my daughter.
“She might. Maybe not deliberately, but if she leaves you again…” Hunter swallows loudly. “What if I can’t reach you this time?” He puts his hands over his face. “It fucking terrifies me. I don’t want to lose you, brother.”
“Then don’t stand in my way.”
I was already fighting for breath, but as my stomach twists into a tight knot, I can’t get air into my lungs.
He’s right to be scared. And if I had any sense, I’d take him up on the offer to protect Belle and Piper, allowing me to keep a safe distance.
But I’ve had enough distance separating me from Belle to last a life time.
There was no light except her, and now my daughter. I won’t lose them. I don’t dare.
“I need to be the one to protect her, Hunter, even if Belle doesn’t want me to.
What if something were to happen to her?
” I ask. The thought crushes me, but I need to appeal to Hunter in a way he’ll understand.
“Barrett’s fucking adopted Piper. He’d become her legal guardian, and I can tell you now, if I lost them both, I’d be dragged down into the deepest pits of hell where no one would be able to find me. ”
When my brother doesn’t hit me with a comeback, I swallow back the fear that prophecy has evoked and rise slowly to my feet. I hold out my hand, and after helping Hunter up, I pull him into a hug. I hold onto him, my head bowed so he can’t see the tears filming my eyes.
“Help me,” I whisper. “Stay by my side.”
We stand like that until a hand slaps between my shoulder blades, and I hear its echo on Hunter’s back. Mace rests his forehead next to mine.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask, straightening up.
“I thought this was a group thing.”
“Only if we get to punch your face first,” Hunter says with the grumble of a warning.
“Jeez, you two know how to ruin a moment.”
I try to smile, but wince from the cut on my lip. “Let’s go inside,” I say, putting an arm around each of my brothers’ shoulders, and steering them back towards the house where I expect Connie is waiting with her first aid kit.