My heart almost bursts as I lace my fingers through Hunter’s. To some, this is too fast. To me? I just know my heart lies here with this man.
I think that’s the truest form of love. The one that just hits you round the head. The one you can’t walk away from after one night in the back of a truck. This is the kind of love that feels as though you’ve found home in another person.
That is what I feel next to Hunter. And that other part of my heart, I think that’s reserved for the little boy opposite.
I may not be his mom, nor anywhere close. But I know, I’d protect him with my life. Just like everyone around this table would.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
HUNTER
Song- Here To Bleed,Zero 9:36
We pull up outside the apartment complex at ten. Two trucks. Three Sterlings. And one very nervous redhead in my passenger seat who hasn’t stopped twisting her rings since we left the ranch.
“He won’t be here,” I tell her. “I made sure of that.”
She nods, but her eyes are scanning the parking lot like she’s expecting him to step out from behind a pillar.
“Lola!”
The scream comes from across the lot. A small, dark-haired woman is sprinting toward us at a speed that seems medically inadvisable in heeled boots. She’s followed at a jog by a guy in a chef’s apron who I’m guessing is Luke.
Lola barely gets out of the truck before Violet slams into her.
The hug is instant and fierce. Violet’s arms lock around Lola’s neck, and she’s talking a mile a minute. Half of it questions, halfof it profanity, all of it delivered at a volume that makes Ace raise an eyebrow from across the lot.
“Let me see.” Violet pulls back, grabs Lola’s hand gently, and tilts it side to side.
Her face goes white. Then red.
“I’m going to kill him,” she says.
“It’s handled,” Lola says quietly.
“Handled how?”
Lola glances at me over Violet’s shoulder.
“Handled,” she repeats.
Violet turns. And sees me properly. Her eyes narrow, tracking from my boots to my hat, taking my measure the way a woman does when she’s deciding whether to trust a man or stab him.
I give her a nod.
“Good to see you again.” I greet her.
She gives me a tight lipped smile. “Yeah. And you, Mr. Sterling.”
“Please, call me Hunter.”
She glances between me and Lola, and then her shoulders relax. “Okay. Hunter.”
Lola steps between us. “V, Hunter’s helping us move out. He’s offered us a place on his ranch. Both of us. You’ll have your own house.”
Violet blinks. Looks at Lola. Looks at me. Looks at the two trucks full of Sterlings parked behind me.
“I’m sorry, what?”