Page 94 of Hunter or Hunted

“I can lay with you.” I smiled. “Sebastian can take my car back up to the cabin. We can watch the New Year’s Eve party in Times Square, and listen to music, and⁠—”

“You’re not bailing on him for me.” She managed a smile too, but it couldn’t disguise the sadness in her eyes. “I’m okay, Gwen.”

“Then he can come up too,” I said. “I’ll lay in the middle. It won’t be weird.”

She laughed. A real laugh. “I’m okay. Really. Go ring in the New Year with your man. Kiss at midnight. Toast to the future. We’ll catch up tomorrow.”

I frowned. “Are you sure?”

“A hundred percent.” Lifting Junie higher, she nodded toward the double glass doors. “Just open that for me, would you?”

And so, I did.

I gave her a hug at the entrance, Junie a kiss, and reminded her to call me if she needed anything. She said she would and reminded me to have some fun.

When I plopped back into the driver’s seat, a grunt of exasperation escaped me.

“Yeah, that sucked,” Sebastian said.

“A lot,” I agreed. “I guess you were right about that too. Angela’s a problem.”

“Yep.”

“But Simone’s already agreed to get a restraining order,” I said. “Rhiannon’s handling it when everything opens back up after the holiday.”

“That’ll keep something like tonight from happening again.” He settled back into the passenger seat. “As long as a judge signs off on it. But I still don’t think she’ll go quietly.”

A deep breath lifted my shoulder and eased from my nostrils. “Probably right about that too.”

He pressed his lips together, shaking his head. “I can try and run damage control with Mallory. She’ll get word around about Angela. I was kind of a dick to her before we left though. But Lizzie loves Simone, and Mallory loves Lizzie, so that’ll help.”

“Speaking of which.” I glanced at the clock, reading 11:18. “Do you need me to get you back to your truck? To pick her up?”

“Actually, I was thinking about stopping somewhere else first.” Another one of those half smiles. “Lizzie won’t be ready ’til one-ish. Are you in a rush to get home?”

“No?” I squinted him over. “But where did you wanna go?”

His smile widened. “Our second location.”

30

SEBASTIAN

Isounded too excited.

I was excited.

But not because of the kill room we planned to build.

Gwen told me to lead the way. I asked if I could drive. She made a joke about the irony of it as we swapped places. That she’d always been told not to let a man bring her to a second location, and now she did it with a smile on her face.

A few weeks ago, I would’ve stressed about that comment. The implication of it. Had that meant she was afraid of me?

Now, I had the feeling we both knew she was the one to fear in this couple.

Five minutes out of the ranch, she said, “Isn’t this the way to your house?”

“Kinda, yeah,” I said.