Get your shit together, pal. Get this broad off you and figure this shit out.
“You ok, sweetheart?” I asked Kelly. “I was just walking back to see if I left my wallet here and then,” I swept my hand in front of the scene of destruction all around us.
“I’m okay,” she said, “thanks to you.”
Thanks to me? Yeah, fucking thanks to me. I couldn’t be trusted to lay low even when my life depended on it.
I cleared my throat.
“Yeah, like I was saying, I was just walking back to see if I left my wallet and I saw that puke reaching for you and I, I, I just lost it.”
“You stopped them,” she said, gazing up at me with those same green, doe eyes I’d been mesmerized by earlier.
Now they were filled with tears. Goddamn, she was beautiful. I wanted to take her right then and there, throw her against the wall, and fuck her so she could feel what an animal I was, not just see what I could do, but feel it inside her. My cock was aching more by the second and I wanted to pull her close so she could feel it grow against her body.
“Stopped them? Stopped them?” Dennis said. “I’ll say. Is that one even breathing? Who in the hell are you, Hunter?”
He slowly pulled his doughy body off the ground. Goodbye, hard on. Nothing like watching that man struggle to kill a good fuck me moment.
“Fuck, Dennis, I’m sorry, pal. I just saw the guy with his hand where it shouldn’t be and I lost it. I did some boxing back in Boston and sometimes I forget my strength.”
Pretty fucking smooth, kid. Maybe not as dumb as you thought.
“Well, I’ve seen boxing and I’ve surely never seen that. You’re damn right you lost it, boy. You okay, Kelly? Grace? Grace, dear, where are you? Are you okay?”
“I, I, I,” Grace stammered, as she made her way through the human rubble I had scattered across her diner floor. “I just, I don’t, what in the world happened? I was downstairs for two minutes and I come back to all hell breaking loose.”
“I know, Grace,” I said, “fuck, I’m sorry.”
“Language, young man. You’ve turned my diner into some sort of war zone and I won’t have you cursing in my face on top of it,” she said. “I’m calling the sheriff. What the devil happened here? Are they dead? What did you do?”
Control yourself, Hunter.
That’s what I told myself as I watched Grace call the sheriff. This could be it. This could be the thing that ran me out of town, or worse, brought my problems from home down on me. I could feel my chest tensing again, and Kelly placed her palms harder against me. It was almost like she could read my mind.
“Grace, it’s okay,” she said. “Those men were trying to, to do something, they grabbed me, Grace. Grabbed me and touched me, and I don’t know what else would have happened if Hunter hadn’t come back and stopped them. Call the sheriff, but not on Hunter. He’s not the bad guy, he’s the good guy.”
Well, that’s a fucking first. I had been called every name in the book, but good guy sure as shit wasn’t one of them.
Just go with this, Hunter, I told myself. Be the good guy.
“I’m so sorry, Grace. Call the sheriff and we’ll get this mess sorted out. Dennis, I don’t think I’ll be back into the shop today. I’m sorry, pal.”
“No need to apologize to me, boy. Apparently, you did a good thing here. The sheriff might not feel the same, but I’ll do my best to stand up for you. Kelly, I’m so sorry I wasn’t here. And Hunter, I’m just sorry I couldn’t have helped you out. There’s no room for dirtbags like these in Stone Peak. No room at all.”
Helped me out? You’re a shit mechanic, Dennis, and a worse fucking liar. You couldn’t have kept that fat ass of yours on the ground harder if you tried.
I kept my mouth shut.
Dennis took Grace’s arm and led her to the phone to call the sheriff. I was in deep shit here, but I didn’t know how much. I was ready for whatever storm was coming with the law. It wouldn’t be the first time I had police troubles, and it wouldn’t be the last. Besides, I had bigger troubles.
My biggest problem stood right in front of me, with curves in all the right places and a pair of green eyes that were staring up at me like I was all she needed in the world.
What the fuck had I just gotten myself into?
Chapter 6
Hunter