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“Huh.”Hunter turned his head and stared into the night.“Huh.”His head tilted to the right.
In the distance, thunder seemed to rumble.The chirps of the insects grew louder, but even over their calls, Eb could practically hear Hunter’s thoughts grinding along.“You got something to say?”
“I’m not some fancy profiler.Don’t have a fistful of degrees.I’m just a former soldier who knows how to kill really well.”A shrug.“Guess we all have our talents, am I right?”
“You’re right,” Naomi responded from behind Eb.
Eb had known she was there.He’d heard the faint opening of the back door.The squeak of the porch beneath her feet.And as crazy as it might seem, he’d felt the charge in the air shift the moment she’d joined them.
Thunder rumbled again.Sounded closer.
“We do all have our talents,” she agreed.“You two are apparently talented when it comes to protection and keeping people alive.After some careful consideration, I’ve decided that means we should all work together.”
They both turned toward her.
“Uh, Naomi,” Hunter began, voice amused, “you’re already at the safe house with us.That means weareworking together.”
“I debated leaving right after the meal.Sneaking over and hot-wiring the Impala while you two were out here throwing back beers.”
They were not throwing back beers.He’d had maybe three sips and Hunter’s bottle was three-fourths full.
“I have experience hot-wiring.Did it back when I was a kid.”
“The joy rides,” Eb said.His gaze drank her in.She’d changed clothes.Put on leg-hugging jeans.A top that flowed lightly over her breasts.Sneakers.All clothes that had come courtesy of Hunter because the guy had gotten bags prepared for them both.Bags that had been waiting at the safe house.
“I’m not surprised that you dipped into my past to learn all my naughty secrets,” she retorted, voice tight.“I’m also not surprised that—when it comes to me—you only learned part of the truth.”
He leaned his hip against the porch railing.The thunder came again.Louder.
“I stole a car when I was fifteen.Had to do it.The foster home I was at—there was this real jerk named Paxton who also lived at the place—he liked to sneak into my bedroom at night.”
Eb lunged away from the railing.“What?”
“He was two years older than me.Therealkid in the family, you know?The biological one.I was just the extra they’d taken in.Paxton didn’t get why I wasn’t totally into him.Girls had always liked him.Fallen at his feet.I didn’t fall.”
“Naomi…”
“Guy didn’t take rejection well.So he’d come in, he’d scare the hell out of me, and he’d try to touch me.”Flat words.Fast words.“I wasn’t in the mood to be touched, so I swiped a knife from the kitchen.I kept it with me.One night, he came in again, and I sliced his hand.He screamed, and I ran, and I jumped in that car and…” She walked toward the railing.Didn’t look at Eb or Hunter as she stared into the night.“It was easy for the parents to just tell everyone I was a troublemaker who’d taken the car for a joy ride.Better to say that than to reveal that their precious high school quarterback son was a creep who’d had a finger nearly sliced away when he touched someone that he shouldn’t have touched.”
Paxton.Eb would not forget the name.He’d be finding the creep.
“I was the villain back then.I’m the villain now.Played the role a few times actually.Because it’s all about the story that gets the most attention, isn’t it?It’s about who gets to tell the story first, too.”She slanted a glance his way.“By the way, I made sure to wreck that car.It was Paxton’s.It really pissed him off when he found it slammed into a tree.”
He wanted to reach out to her.Wanted to hold her and make everything better, only he was one of the people making life worse for her.
Thunder quaked once again.Still distant but…
“Must be one hell of a storm coming,” Naomi murmured.A long sigh.“Detective Anderson found out about Paxton.Told me I had a history of using a knife on my lovers.Just made me look guiltier.”
“Paxton talked to Anderson?”Hunter asked.
She nodded.“He came to town.”
“Fuck,” Hunter breathed.“Hello, suspect.”
Her hair slid over her shoulder.Her focus had shifted away from the darkness of the night and onto Eb.“You’re not saying anything.”
Because rage choked him.He wanted to get his hands on Paxton.Teach the SOB that you didn’t touch what did not belong to you.