Page 88 of Hunt Me

‘Threatening me with a good time, I see,’Liam hoots, giving me a wink.

‘Don’t wink at her,’Ruaridh scolds, tightening his grip on me.

I pat his shoulder, reaching for a kiss,‘it’s okay.’

‘No, it’s not.’

‘He’s funny,’I motion for Ruaridh to let me down finally, and he reluctantly does, not without a squeeze of my ass though. If he had it his way he would probably carry me the entire time.‘Do you know where we are? I want to get back to the girls — is Isla alright? Did you see her? When I was taken, she had been hurt.’

Ruaridh tucks a hair behind my ear,‘I left her with Vish. She was breathing fine but still knocked out. If she’s anywhere near as much of a hard case as she was when we were kids, she’ll be fine.’Seeing that I’m about to protest he continues,‘we’re not far from the school though. That’s what took us longer to get out of the tunnels, was making sure we got back here.’

‘Why not just get up top straight away?’

‘It’s safer down there right now. We knew no one was left, but up here, there might be. Might be anyone around.’

‘So you both killed all of those psychos?’

Liam snorts,‘more like this psycho killed them all.’

I gape at Liam’s words.

‘You what?’I ask, not sure I’ve heard him right.

There were dozens and dozens of dead bodies, sometimes piled up in a room.

Ruaridh doesn’t respond, so Liam must take it as his cue to finish.‘Ru killed them all, Fauna. The most I did was hold one or two down so that he could do what he does best.’

Ruaridh killed them all.

Every single one.

‘Why?’I ask.

‘They took you, and I promised you that no one would ever hurt you and live.’

There’s no apology in his words, and he doesn’t shy away from the reality of what he has done. He almost wears it like a piece of armour, just not one against me but one for me to have. Like a nonverbal warning to every single survivor in this city that ifsomeone so much as touches me, he will personally obliterate them.

I lunge, and he catches me as I press a fierce kiss to his lips.‘Thank you.’

Ruaridh shakes his head,‘you looked like you had a pretty good handle on it anyway. My mischievous little deer has a violent side, and I love witnessing it. I just wish you weren’t forced into a situation where you had to show it.’

‘Told you I’m not some defenceless thing.’

‘I never doubted it for a second,’Ruaridh kisses me again, and Liam clears his throat.

‘Still here.’

I huff a chuckle as Ruaridh practically growls in response.‘Let’s go before he starts crying or something equally annoying.’Then he turns to Liam,‘You’re a dead man walking, you know that.’

‘Hey, I have a free pass for helping you get your girl,’he holds his hands up in mock surrender.‘I don’t make the rules, just live by them.’

I laugh while Ruaridh grinds his molars at Liam, who walks away with a sassy sway of his hips.

‘He’s a bit of a diva,’I observe.

‘You’re right about that. A lot of them are like that. Something about having nothing to entertain themselves with has made them… a little strange.’

‘In what way?’