Page 1 of Hunted

Chapter one

Weston

Staring at the burning remains of not one, but two helicopters, my heart beats wildly in my chest.

When the mercenary shot down the beach at Reece, he must have hit at least one of the choppers. My guess is the gas was leaking and something in the control panel sparked, causing the explosion, which then made the second helicopter explode.

I push to my feet and look around to make sure nobody is injured.

Bower and King are slowly standing and thankfully, they seem to be unharmed.

I glance to where Reece is getting to his feet, pulling Zee up with him.

She’s covered in blood and my mind flashes to her, bashing the mercenary's head in. It’s not the first time she’s had to kill someone in self-defense. Last time, she was stuck dealing with the physical and emotional aftermath on her own. But this time… This time, she has us.

I gently grab her wrist and turn her towards me, inspecting her face for injury. There are traces of blood in her hair and streaked across her face and down her neck, reminding me of the horror of what she just went through… again.

“Weston?” she asks, her hand reaching up to caress my cheek. “Are you okay?”

“AmIokay? Fuck, baby. I was so scared he was going to hurt you.” I hug her tightly, just wanting to feel her and know she’s okay.

When I release her, I notice Reece watching us from over her shoulder, a frown on his face. Not ready to delve into the fact that he seems to know her, I look back down at her and see she’s looking at her blood-stained hands.

“Don’t look.” I quickly scoop her up and head to the ocean, careful to keep the dead bodies out of her eye line.

“I’m going to clean her up. Take care of the mess before I bring her back,” I call over my shoulder as I march towards the water.

The last thing she needs is another panic attack, and right now, she’s surrounded by triggers.

“Zee?” I ask, seeing her staring down at her hands. “Zee, look at me.” She doesn’t react, so I hurry my pace through the shallow water until it’s waist deep on me.

“Come on, baby. Look at me.” I spin her around, pushing her legs around my waist so I can grab her hands between us.

I step a little deeper so the water covers our hands and start scrubbing. The movement of the ocean helps to push the red water away from us as I continue scrubbing up her arms and removing any trace of what happened.

I let go of her hands and reach up and grab her face, tilting it up to mine as I try to get her to look at me. She’s not trembling, thankfully, but she seems frozen in place, as if in shock.

“Baby? Can you look at me? Let me see those beautiful green eyes.” She blinks once, then her eyes change as if she’s been asleep and now the world is coming back into focus.

“There you are. I’ve got you, okay? Just stay with me.”

She swallows heavily and nods her head.

“Tell me two things you can hear,” I ask her, keeping her focus on me.

She licks her lips as her eyes bounce back and forth between mine. “The waves.”

“Good, what else?”

“Me. My breathing.”

“Good girl, now tell me two things you can smell,” I ask, trying to keep her grounded in the present.

“The water and… fire.”

“Now, what are two things you can feel?”

Her eyes flick down to her hands as her fingers dig into my chest. “Your shirt, it’s wet.”