Crying Wolf (Black River Pack Book 1) (3 page)

Her shoulders relaxed slightly and she looked like she was trying not to smile at my attempt at flirting. “Then you must be in the mood to be bored because I tried telling Parker I wouldn’t cause any problems. I’ll be here on time, work hard, and won’t date the customers.”

The very thought of any of my pack mates touching Grace had a growl creeping up my throat. “Damn straight you won’t,” I snapped.

“Not that it’s any of your concern,” she quipped back with a little bite in her voice—the first sign of a sassy spark lighting her pretty, brown eyes. “All you need to know is that, if you hire me, I won’t cause any trouble for you.”

“Job’s yours if you want it,” I offered.

She considered me for a moment, studying me with serious eyes before nodding her head. “Yes, I want the job.”

“Five nights a week okay with you? Four to midnight on Wednesdays through Sundays?” I asked, knowing damn well I was going to make sure her schedule matched the time I usually spent here. And on the occasions I couldn’t be here watching over her, I would make sure she had plenty of eyes on her to ensure that she was safe without me.

I’d already claimed her as mine. She was just going to be the last one to know it.

“Sure. I don’t know anyone in town yet, so I don’t have anything stopping me from working whenever you need help.”

“I think you’ll find the town very welcoming to you,” I reassured her. She didn’t need to know we would be the exact opposite to any other outsider. Then again, she wasn’t one anymore.

“There you go. Told you I’d be no trouble at all,” she said.

The instincts I’d long since learned to trust told me that she was definitely going to cause an uproar. Even if she didn’t mean to do it.

“Something to keep in mind: trouble can find us when we least expect it. Sometimes, it follows us even when we thought we left it all behind. If I had to guess, I’d say you know something about that already. Don’t you, Grace?”

CHAPTER 2

Grace

I’d allowed the instant attraction I felt for Hunter to lull me into a false sense of security when I met him—one any woman with half a brain wouldn’t have let themselves feel for a complete stranger, especially not after having gone through something like I had with Sam. But me? Nope. I just felt those walls crumbling down because there was something about him that made me melt a little on the inside.

I wasn’t able to explain it, but he’d instantly made me feel like he’d keep me safe and protected even if Sam managed to come after me. He gave me a sense of peace I hadn’t felt since my parents had died.

It was a short-lived sense of peace because it disappeared the instant he remarked about the trouble that very well could be nipping at my heels.

As bone-chilling fear crept up my spine, I was reminded once again why men could be so dangerous. It was like they could instinctively sense your weaknesses. Using them and exploiting you to get whatever they wanted. Sam had caught me at a low point when I had been dealing with the loss of my parents. I would forever wonder if I’d have fallen for him the way I had if my parents had still been alive or if more time had passed between their deaths and when we met. Ultimately, he’d abused my trust, and because of him, I’d had to run away from the only life I’d ever known.

Logic told me that I needed to learn from my mistake with Sam. I was at a low point once again, and starting something up with Hunter was the last thing I should have considered doing. Not only had he pegged me with one look, but he was my boss. He had control over my livelihood, and I didn’t want to be beholden to another man the way I had been with Sam.

For the next few weeks, I managed to pretend like he didn’t exist even though I was always aware of him. It wasn’t easy since he was at the bar for the vast majority of my shifts—something that seemed to surprise a lot of the customers at first and made me wonder if he used to spend so much time working before I had come to town. I maintained a professional distance with him and only spoke when he asked me a question or I needed something for a customer.

Assuming he was like most men, I figured he’d give up quickly and turn his attentions elsewhere. Little did I know how wrong I was. He let me get away with it for several days, although I felt his heated stare following me around the bar. The tension between us was thick, but he didn’t push things. Then, practically overnight, there was a shift I didn’t understand. Hunter seemed more at ease, like he had settled something that was bothering him. It was as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

His attention was directed towards me even more acutely than before. Now, he offered touches that probably seemed innocent to anyone looking on but felt anything but innocent to me. The slide of his fingers over mine as he handed me drinks sent tingles across my skin. The press of his hands on my hips when he caught me reaching too high for a bottle of expensive wine made me want to turn in his arms and kiss him senseless. But what almost sent me over the edge was the feel of his hardened cock against my ass when I gave in slightly to the madness between us and took one small step backwards as he reached over me when we were both behind the bar.

“Grace,” he growled in that rumbly voice of his that sent shivers up my spine. “Don’t start something you don’t intend to finish.”

I wanted so desperately to be able to say that I fully intended to follow through with what my action had implied, but the words dried up in my throat. Deep in my soul, I knew that this thing between us wasn’t just going to go away, but still, I hesitated out of the fear Sam had instilled in me.

Hunter’s hands grabbed my hips and tightened for a moment when I started to move away from him. Hearing his deep sigh, I turned to see him with his head tilted back, his eyes clenched shut, and his hands fisted so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.

“Hunter,” I whispered.

“Go!” he barked out. “Now. Go home for the night before I change my mind and take what’s mine even if you’re not ready to give it to me yet.”

I hesitated a moment before I scurried away. Grabbing my purse and coat from the counter in the back, I glanced back at him one more time to find his eyes burning with lust as he stared at me. There was no room for doubt when it came to how much Hunter wanted me. He wasn’t shy about showing me that I was desired.

It was strange being the recipient of public acts of affection when we weren’t even in a relationship. Sam had been my first adult relationship and he’d never been demonstrative in front of others. Then again, I didn’t think he was the rule with which I should measure other men. That was a lesson I was slowly learning.

Since my arrival in Wolf’s Pointe, I had studied Hunter just as closely as he seemed to watch me. Worried that my taste in men was horrible, I looked for signs that he would hurt me if I allowed myself to get involved with him. On the surface, Sam should have been the perfect boyfriend. He was charming, good-looking in the all-American boy-next-door kind of way, and a police officer. He should have been a safe choice. Someone who would protect the woman he loved.

In contrast, Hunter seemed dangerous. He was often surly, had the dark looks of the bad boy mothers warned their daughters about, and owned a bar. Many women would expect him to be the kind of man who would leave a string of broken-hearted women behind him.

What I found was the exact opposite. People trusted Hunter. At least one person came to him with a problem every day, and I never saw him turn them away. It didn’t matter how busy we were or how tired he appeared. He always made time when someone needed him. If I had been paying the same kind of attention to Sam back when I had met him, maybe I would have noticed that he never really seemed interested in anyone else’s troubles unless he benefitted in some way from helping him. Meanwhile, from what I had observed so far, Hunter worked endlessly to improve the lives of those around him without expecting anything in return.

By the time I made it back to the motel, I’d bounced back and forth in my head with what I should do about Hunter. My resolve was weakening, and sooner or later, I would give in to the desire between us.

Maybe I was just delaying the inevitable, I mused as I unlocked the door to my room. I was distracted enough that I almost missed the sign that someone had been in my room while I was out. I’d learned to be cautious during the months I’d been running from Sam, and one of those tricks was marking the door of my hotel rooms. The tape I’d left on the doorframe when I left for work was disturbed even though the staff knew not to clean my room while I was out. I slowly backed out as I realized that it could very well mean Sam had found me.

Walking down the stairwell and up to the check-in desk, I tried to stop myself from panicking. There could be a perfectly innocent explanation. Just because someone had been in my room didn’t mean that the person was Sam.

The same girl who’d checked me in was working tonight. She worked most nightshifts, so we’d gotten to know each other a little.

“Heather, do you know if housekeeping was in my room while I was out?” I asked her while glancing around to make sure I didn’t see anything suspicious.

“No way, Grace,” she replied. “We don’t have many rooms in use right now, so they were done before my shift even started. Why? Did you need more towels or something? I can grab them for you.”

My heart dropped at her words. I could think of no reason why anyone else would be in my room. Which meant Sam really could have found me. I shook my head wildly, and Heather was looking at me strangely. I couldn’t seem to get any air in my lungs.

“Grace,” Heather said as she quickly came around the counter and nudged me into a chair. Her hands pushed on my back until my head was between my knees and I was gasping for air. “Take deep, slow breaths. Whatever’s going on, it’s going to be okay.”

When I finally lifted my head, I noticed that she was holding her cell phone in her hands and typing out a message.

“I’m sorry for scaring you,” I whispered since she was looking at me with a furrowed brow and her lips tilted down in a frown.

“No worries as long as you’re okay,” she reassured me.

Breathing deeply, I pushed up and out of the chair and swayed for a moment as I saw spots. “I need to go.”

“No, you need to sit back down before you pass out,” she disagreed. “Besides, Hunter will be pissed at me if you’re gone when he gets here. You don’t want to get me into trouble, do you?”

“You texted Hunter?” I asked, surprised since I’d expected that she would have contacted Spencer instead.

Hunter’s other brother was the town’s sheriff, after all. I hadn’t spent much time around him since men in uniform made me uneasy, but I’d seen him talking to Heather several times in the last month when I was coming or going.

“Yeah,” she replied in a tone that clearly indicated I was an idiot for even asking such a question.

“Hunter? Not Spencer?” I reiterated.

“I’m sure Hunter will call Spencer to get him over here so they can figure out whatever it was about your room that has you so spooked,” she explained.

“But it’s Spencer’s job to come out, not Hunter’s.”

“Oh, sweetie. If you think wild horses could keep him away from you when you need help, then you’re just plain crazy!” she argued. “Besides which, Spencer might be sheriff, but we all know who’s the boss in this town.”

Before I had a chance to ask Heather what she meant by that comment, Hunter came storming into the motel with Spencer and Parker trailing behind him. His dark gaze surveyed the room almost as if he were looking for danger before it rested on me. Then he scanned up and down my body and his relief at finding me unharmed crossed his face, leaving me with a strange feeling in my chest at the visual proof of his concern for me.

“I’m okay,” I promised as he strode towards me.

He didn’t pause and instead lifted me up into his arms and carried me out to the truck waiting outside. After depositing me gently into the passenger’s seat, he reached across to buckle me in. When I turned my head so I could look up at him, Hunter’s lips swept down and captured mine in a brutal kiss. His palms cradled my face as his fingers clenched in my hair, holding me in place while he plundered my mouth. I gasped at the sensation his harsh gentleness evoked in me, and he used that opportunity to his full advantage. His tongue swept inside, tangling with mine as he practically inhaled me.

Time seemed to stand still as we kissed. When Hunter pulled away from me, I blinked my eyes, hazily trying to regain my focus.

“What happened?” he asked huskily.

“Someone was in my room while I was gone. When Heather confirmed that it couldn’t have been the housekeeping staff, I freaked out,” I said, explaining the bare facts, unwilling to talk about Sam yet.

Hunter searched my eyes, and I saw disappointment flare in his momentarily before he masked it from me. His gaze lifted over my shoulder, and I finally noticed that Parker had climbed into the driver’s seat. The engine was running, so he must have already started it while I had been distracted by Hunter’s kiss.

“Take her to the big house,” Hunter instructed him. “Get her settled for the night. You know which room.”

“But, Hunter—” I complained, not understanding why he was sending me with his brother and staying behind.

His face softened as he looked down at me once again. I shivered at the feel of his fingertips gently swiping across my swollen lips.

“You’ll be safe with Parker. I promise.”

“Come with me,” I pleaded. “I want you to be safe too.”

Hunter chuckled darkly at my request and his face hardened into a mask of fury, but it wasn’t directed towards me. “Don’t worry about me, Gracie-mine. There’s nothing here that can harm me.”

“You don’t know that, Hunter. Please.”

“One of these days, we’ll have a long talk and you’ll understand what I mean when I swear to you that I’m not in any danger. For now, just know that I have Spencer with me and he’ll make sure I come back to you unharmed,” he promised. “After all, I’ve trusted my brother with something far more precious than my life these last few weeks.”