The Deadly Thief (Stolen Hearts Book 7) Read online

  So he turned up the asshole level. “I’ve been out of jail for years, honey, and I never came back here for a reason. This town is part of my really shitty history. I have money, power, and connections now, and I don’t need any part of my past dragging me down. Got it?”

  Gabby’s tears vanished, replaced by a cold, hard look of rage. He was half expecting her to punch him, but instead she just gave him a cool look. “Get out,” she ordered.

  It was exactly the reaction he was going for, but it didn’t make him happy to come out of this one victorious. But it wasn’t the first time he’d done what he thought needed to be done, even if he didn’t like it.

  He tried to remember how Gabby had looked as she’d fallen into his arms and realized he was there. Her eyes had lit up with happiness and excitement. That was the Gabby he wanted to remember. Not the one who was looking at him as though he’d somehow betrayed her. As though he’d let her down.

  So Hunter did the only thing he could do. He backed away from her and walked away without even a glance behind him.

  Gabby wasn’t proud about the fact that she immediately broke into tears as Hunter left out the front door, but she was happy that she’d managed to hold her breakdown off until he was gone. The only thing more embarrassing than throwing herself at Hunter only to be rejected would be to turn into some blathering idiot in front of him.

  Oh God. Of all the ways she knew this could go bad, the complete and utter rejection wasn’t even on her radar. She was still on the floor, her entire body shaking with sobs, when her phone started to ring. Gabby had every intention of ignoring the noise when she remembered that she was supposed to be at work and this could very well be Edna calling to yell at her for bailing.

  Wait, no. She was on her lunch hour. Edna wouldn’t care. Hunter had stayed just long enough to break her heart. Their meeting hadn’t been long enough to raise the ire of her boss.

  Which left pretty much only two options: telemarketers or....

  “Hey Kate,” she said with a dry voice as she answered. Apparently all the moisture in her body had transferred to tears.

  “Hey girl. Where are you? You need to see this Facebook photo Hot Realtor posted over the weekend. I’m talking beach photo. Just the man bits are covered....”

  Not even the lure of seeing Hot Realtor in just his bathing suit was enough to break her out of her self-pity fest. “I’m busy.”

  “Psh. Not too busy for this. Where are you eating lunch?”

  Gabby looked around her and debated lying. “My living room floor.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’m just.... I’m not in a good mood.” She hung up the phone and threw it across the room. At the last minute, she realized that she might break the phone, so she only gave a half-hearted toss onto the carpeting, somehow making the entire scene a tad more pathetic.

  Her head fell back and pounded against the glass. Really, what could make this day worse?

  “Sir.” Trey ran through the house. “Sir!”

  Without warning, something hard shot out in front of him and slammed into his chest. Trey went sprawling on the floor, and for a moment he thought somehow the blow was going to kill him. Finally he realized that he wasn’t dying. It was just the wind that had been knocked out of him. He forced his eyes open to see his boss standing over him in some fancy Hugh Hefner-looking robe and holding a crowbar to his lips in a “be quiet” motion.

  Trey suddenly remembered how to breathe and let out a wheezing-like sound.

  “You can’t even follow one simple instruction,” said the man in a mocking tone as he moved forward to set his foot on Trey’s chest. Not stomping, but an obvious warning that if he made one wrong move, the situation would be much worse. “My wife had a very long night and she requires her beauty rest. It would be a shame if you were to wake her up.”

  All he had to do was tell his boss what he knew and this would be over. He’d be rewarded. He’d be thanked!

  He frantically shook his head. “You need to hear what I know.” The man over him started to say something, but Trey just spat out the information. “Hunter Cornell is back. I heard he was with Gabby Cooper. Hunter is back.”

  All of a sudden, his boss lifted his foot from Trey’s neck. “Hunter is back in town? Well, that’s earlier than expected. I have a special job for you, Trey....”

  Kate poured another large glass of wine and pushed it toward Gabby. Gabby wasn’t in the mood to drink and kept on telling Kate that, but somehow she found herself drinking it in just a few gulps and setting the empty glass down.

  How many glasses was that now? Three? Four? Maybe the fact that she couldn’t remember was a sign that she’d had too much. But then Kate was pouring more and Gabby was once again drinking. And it wasn’t for nothing. Her mind was turning fuzzy, and the terrible day was becoming funnier and funnier.

  “No, you have to tell me again,” said Kate. “Did you literally jump into his arms when you kissed him?”

  Gabby snorted. “No! There was no jumping. Just... forceful leaning.” Both of the girls broke into giggles at the thought. “You don’t understand,” said Gabby while still giggling. “It was sooooo bad. Like, I knew it could be bad, but this was just... bad.”

  “Are you telling me... it was bad?” asked Kate.

  “So bad.” They both laughed again as Kate dropped the empty bottle into the trash can, where it was surrounded by stems.

  Gabby had finally made it back to the shop by mid-afternoon, but she’d hardly been in a working mood. Kate had gotten off work at four and after a bit of talking and crying, Kate had decided that this situation called for drinks. As soon as she’d come back with the bottles of cheap wine, Gabby had flipped the sign to Closed and they had immediately started to self-medicate. Gabby rarely drank, so it didn’t take long for the wine to kick in.

  “So, I need to tell you something,” said Kate in a soft voice, as though there were someone right behind them.

  Gabby looked behind her at the empty back room, but it must’ve been the wine making her paranoid. “What?” she asked, also in a whisper.

  “I saw him. I saw Hunter.”

  “No.... He was only here for half a second.”

  “You’re right across the street, hun. When I’m bored, I always check in on you through the window. When I saw you walk out of here with that sexy hunk of man, it got my attention.”

  Gabby rolled her eyes. “He was wearing a sweatshirt. You didn’t see him.”

  “I stare at enough guys to know what a sexy one looks like, even if he is wearing a hoodie. And the hood up didn’t make him less conspicuous, by the way. You’re lucky I didn’t follow you home to see all the sparks fly.”

  Gabby snorted. “I am lucky. If you’d followed me, you would’ve seen my complete and utter humiliation.” At the reminder, she let her head fall into her hands. “I can’t believe I did that. I put myself totally out there and what was the point? To get shot down? To have all of my childhood dreams shattered? What the hell?”

  Kate reached over and rubbed her hand over Gabby’s back. “It’s okay. I’m sure it’s terrible and embarrassing, and I’ve embarrassed myself so many times, I’m surprised there isn’t a sitcom based off my shitty dating life. And tomorrow you’ll still feel like shit and even the day after that. But eventually, it’s going to be a funny story in your past.”

  “My past sucks,” moaned Gabby. “My past can suck it.”

  “I know, honey. But I’m here for you and I will be your loyal wine supplier until you feel better.”

  Gabby smiled. It was nice to have Kate in her life. She was so used to people being flaky and unreliable. It was pretty easy to trace back to the moment she’d lost her trust in people. Right around the time she’d realized just how little she knew about her father and the police had screwed her over. After all, if your own family was willing to kill you, what hope was there?

  The only little bit of hope that had kept her from giving up on humanity was all that Hunter
had sacrificed to save her. Slowly, being surrounded by good souls like Kate and Edna had helped, but Hunter had been so important to her. So important. And now she didn’t have that happy memory of him. She had this twisted version of him. The kind that had been manhandled and manipulated by a hard life into the monster he was now. Goodness, how did she get herself into this?

  There was a knock on the glass door, and she raised her head questioningly. Sure, she’d closed early, but it was well past the official closing time now.

  There was a man she didn’t recognize outside. Not too unsurprising. Brighton was big enough so she didn’t know most people. So whatever this poor sap did to piss off the woman in his life, he’d have to go somewhere else to get his flowers. She shook her head as she approached the door and pointed to the hours listed very clearly on the door. “We’re closed,” she said, really clearly so even if he couldn’t hear her, he would be able to read her lips.

  The guy didn’t walk away as expected. He shook his head and pointed to the lock. “Open the door,” he said, loud enough for her to hear him.

  She raised a brow and eyed him. Was he crazy? “Go away!”

  And that was when he took out the gun. For a moment, Gabby was frozen. It wasn’t even fear that got her. It was pure shock that this guy had the audacity to pull a gun on her. Who even does that?

  But then her mind shot to action, and she dove down until the line of various bouquets against the windows blocked her. “Get out the back!” she screamed as a bullet crashed through the glass and the sound of the gunshot seemed to reverberate through her body. Gabby’s arms instinctively came up to protect her face even though she was well away from the falling glass. “Get out!” she yelled, only hoping that Kate had taken her warnings seriously.

  She heard more glass breaking, but this wasn’t from a bullet. He seemed to be pushing the shards away, and then she heard the deafening sound of a boot stepping on the glass. This crazy man was coming in. Her breaths suddenly seemed much too loud, and she realized that if he walked in and glanced to his right, he’d see her immediately.

  She tried to scoot over to the other side of the center aisle. The shop wasn’t large. It was basically a big rectangle with floral arrangements everywhere except the sales counter, which separated the main shop from the back room, and the door, which was currently obliterated. The only thing blocking her from this crazy man was the center aisle, which had a bunch of small knickknacks for sale. Unfortunately, the shelving unit had a fair bit of space between each shelf, and it offered little to no protection. If she had any hope of escaping, she’d have to make it into the back or out the now broken door. Except there was one big fucking problem in her way.

  She held her body flat against the cold glass of the refrigerators and willed herself to be as small as possible. She wanted to be cold and logical as she figured out how to get out of this, but she knew the panic was starting to set in. She remembered the only other time she’d been this scared, and all the trouble that had come with it.

  She was supposed to be stronger now. Smarter. But as she looked at the short distance between her and safety, she knew it might as well be an eternity. Her hope slipped away even as this man’s footsteps started to get closer. She couldn’t just sit here and wait for this bastard to find her. If she was going to die, she was going to die trying to get away and not sitting here and hoping for her situation to change.

  After sucking in one deep breath, Gabby pushed herself up and made a run for it. She was sure that after her first step, the guy would hear her, so she’d only have a few seconds before the bullet—

  She ran into something so hard and solid that it knocked the breath from her lungs. Before she could even see what it was, a loud bang sounded from right next to her ear. She jumped at the sound and her ears started to ring. The next thing she knew, the room was spinning, and she was overcome by a feeling of weightlessness. No, not weightlessness. She was being carried. She finally managed to pry her eyes open to see the last person she expected and the only person she expected to save her. Hunter.

  She was aware that he was moving her, but it wasn’t until he bent to set her in the front seat of a car did she realize they’d left the shop. Gabby looked around to see a gathering crowd of people who had been drawn by the ruckus. People she knew. People who she’d worked next to for years. Other local business owners who had never seen a shooting so close to home.

  Wait.... Shooting? She knew she was out of it, but she was fairly certain she hadn’t been shot. Hunter sat in the driver’s seat and in one quick motion, shut the door while inserting the key into the ignition and starting the car. Before the door was even closed, he was slamming on the gas and the car was screeching down Main Street. If she didn’t get shot and he didn’t get shot.... “What the hell happened back there?” Surprisingly, her voice came out normal, as if this were something she dealt with all the time. She was sure the panic would catch up to her soon.

  Hunter spared her a glance before he turned back to the road. “He was sent there to stir up trouble. I saved you.”

  Gabby shook her head and winced in confusion. “That makes no sense. Why would someone come after me? I’m nobody.”

  “They were waiting for me to come back, Gabby. Now they’re coming after me again.”

  “No. You’ve been in prison all this time. What could you possibly do to hurt them, now? And what them? My father was the ringleader.” Before he could answer any of her questions, a much more important situation hit her. “Wait. We have to go back.”

  “And wait for that asshat’s backup to show?”

  Somehow “asshat” seemed like an oddly tame insult for him to throw out.... “No, because we need to find Kate.”

  “He wasn’t there for Kate. He was there for you. The second he got in there, he went right for you.”

  Just how long had he been watching her? “I don’t care if he was there for me. We left her alone with that psycho, and I need to make sure she got away.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about her.”

  “She’s my best friend! Of course I’m worried!”

  “I mean because the guy is dead. I shot him.”

  Her mouth fell at the oh-so-obvious answer. The gunshot hadn’t been for her or Hunter.... “You killed him?” she asked finally even though he’d already admitted it.

  “It’s what I do,” he said solemnly.

  Hunter shot him. He was a murderer. No, he’d done it to protect her. It was self-defense. Or protection. Was that illegal? It couldn’t be illegal. But Hunter had killed for her before, and all it had done was cause him a world of trouble. This was history repeating. “I’m so sorry.” She fell back into the seat. Whoever that crazy man was, he was gone from her life now, and that knowledge somehow filled her with a sense of peace. There was no one following them with guns blazing. The last thing she needed was a car chase tonight.

  She looked out the window and verified that no one was chasing them, but Hunter sure seemed to be in a hurry. “Where are we going?”

  “Somewhere I can keep a closer eye on you.”

  As nice as it sounded to have Hunter keeping an eye on her, the vagueness of his answer took away all the peace she’d just had. “I need to go back. The police will be there. Edna will have to arrange to have her door fixed. And I thought you wanted nothing to do with me.”

  “I don’t want anything to do with you. I don’t want to be in this car breathing in the same air as you. But apparently you can’t go two seconds without needing a bodyguard and I’m stuck with you,” he grumbled.

  Oh, for fuck’s sake. “I don’t need a bodyguard. The only time I seem to need any help at all is when you’re around.”

  Hunter didn’t say anything, but a muscle in his jaw seemed to tick. He might not say so, but part of him agreed that he’d put her in danger. But he hadn’t. She was the one who led him here. She was the one who drew him. If anything, she’d put him into trouble. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.

&n
bsp; He glanced over to her with a look of confusion on his face. “What are you sorry for?”

  “I thought the town had moved on. I thought everyone forgot about you. They sure as hell forgot about me. It was stupid for me to think that we’d ever get past that.”

  “So what’s the plan now? You’re just going to drive me randomly across the country?”

  Hunter didn’t look at her. He kept his eyes firmly on the road as he said, “I know where I’m going to take you.”

  She shook her head in disbelief. “You can’t take me anywhere! I have to go back home and deal with whatever the hell just happened. The police are going to want to talk to me. Edna is going to want to talk to me.”

  “Who the hell is Edna?”

  “My boss, and the owner of that very lovely shop that just got torn apart tonight.”

  “I’m sure Edna will just be happy that you’re safe.”

  Gabby was sure that Edna would care a lot more about her safety than the shop being destroyed, but she wasn’t going to point that out. Ever since the incident, Gabby had kept a firm handle on her life. She got good grades, married a safe man, and cut all ties with the more criminal-oriented members of her family. But somehow everything had still gone to shit anyway. Her safe husband left her for the town floozy, and now her safe job was totally in jeopardy. And all because she’d done one unsafe thing. She should’ve never contacted Hunter. She should’ve let bygones be bygones and kept her mental image of him as her teenage knight in shining armor. Now she had people shooting at her, and her knight in shining armor was... well, something else.

  It was just like history repeating. She’d been in danger, and Hunter swooped in and shot the man hunting her. But this wasn’t like before. Gabby had never forgotten that night. Not even the small details. Everything was burned into her mind as though it happened yesterday.

  She’d been curled up in a corner like the coward she was at the time, eyes closed and hands over her head as she just waited to die. But then she heard the door slam open, and Hunter was there. Gabby could tell by his wide-eyed stare that he was just as shocked as her over what was happening. After that brief second, he hadn’t hesitated. He ran right for the guy her father had sent to kill her and tackled him to the ground.