Page 8 of The Hunter

“Is it? Or are we just trained to see what we’re told to?”

I didn’t know how to respond, so I opted for a slight change of subject. “You don’t strike me as someone who notices broken fences.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?”

She finally turned her head, meeting my gaze. Her crystal blue eyes were sharp. Intelligent. A little sad. And nothing like I anticipated. I’d expected them to be cold and calculating with a touch of superiority. Instead, they were pained and tired, as if she was exhausted from carrying too much for too long.

They reminded me of the expression my mother wore in her final days.

“No one thinks women like me notice anything. But we see everything.”

“Like what?”

“Like how you’ve been watching me all night.”

This pulled a low sound from my throat, half a laugh, half a curse. “You noticed.”

If she noticed, who else did?

“You’re hardnotto notice.”

“Is that right?”

I was supposed to hate this woman. She wore designer gowns paid for with blood. But the things she said didn’t add up to the woman I thought her to be.

“You don’t move like the rest of them,” she explained. “Everyone else here is playing a part.”

“And you’re not?”

She shook her head. “I’m not playing. I’m surviving.”

The words weren’t dramatic. Just simple. Plain. And they wrapped around something inside me like wire. I moved even closer, drawn to her in a way I couldn’t begin to explain.

“What are you surviving, Mrs. Kane?”

A heavy silence stretched between us as I looked at her.Reallylooked at her.

Right now, she wasn’t the woman in all the photographs. The poised, smiling society wife. She was something else. Something cracked and raw, yet still fighting to keep the pieces together.

She parted her lips, but before she could respond, footsteps cut through like a bullet.

In a heartbeat, she recoiled from me, slipping her mask back into place with surgical precision as Victor stepped into the gallery, his expression dark and tight.

But when he saw Ariana wasn’t alone, he plastered a smile on his face, looking between his wife and me.

“You had me worried, my love,” he crooned in a slick voice that made me want to cut out his voice box.

But that was better than he deserved.

When his time came, it wouldn’t be a quick death. I’d make him suffer. And I’d enjoy every excruciating second.

“I had no idea where you’d run off to.” He wrapped an arm around Ariana’s waist and pulled her against him.

A strange feeling ripped through me as I watched him. Something red and hot that felt a lot like jealousy, but I quicklypushed it down. I wasn’t jealous of Victor Kane. I was angry at him for still breathing while Sarah didn’t. That was all this was.

“Well, you found me.”

“I always will.” He tightened his hold on Ariana, and I could have sworn I noticed her wince slightly before fixing her expression once more. Then he focused his attention on me. “Who’s your new friend?”