Blindsight: The Series (Complete Erotic Suspense STANDALONE) (26 page)

``He loves my ass,'' she stated and then arched her lithe form against a window that looked out over Central Park.
 

Hunter's eyes widened for a moment, then he slipped into photographer mode and began trailing his gaze across her, taking in the light and the angles. Moments later his camera went to his face and he began clicking.
 

The model arched and pushed her hips at every odd angle she could think of to accentuate her slight curves while Hunter's eyes flared with exasperation. He hated ego, and it was ironic that his career depended on the very people that had the biggest heads.
 

``Let's try something else,'' he said before zooming in on her sharp, angular profile. ``Just to the side.'' His thumb tipped her chin at a slight angle. ``Open your lips.'' Hunter pulled her lower lip down and his intense eyes flicked across her face before he straightened a few hairs, tucking them behind her ear. ``Perfect,'' he whispered then lifted the camera and clicked.
 

I swallowed as I watched him shoot, feeling jealousy twist my stomach. I hated that he touched her. The model in Portugal hadn't bothered me, but this one--she was professional, graced magazine covers like US Weekly and inTouch. She was beautiful, with full lips and striking platinum hair that shone in the natural light. How could someone like me ever compete?
 

``That's enough! I didn't hire you for head shots.'' The model sneered and broke the pose Hunter had so artfully composed.
 

Hunter's eyebrow shot up before he glanced at me. His eyes rolled for a moment before he plastered a compliant grin on his face and then gestured to the piano bench. ``Let's try the baby grand,'' and was off to the opposite corner of the suite. I trailed after him, thinking how meeting her had shattered my formerly shiny image of her. She was a bitch.
 

``You doing good, Princess?'' Hunter's little finger looped with mine when I reached him. I smiled and shook my head, feeling the familiar warmth of his touch circulating my bloodstream. Hunter and I had something that she could never touch, something precious, like a diamond at the bottom of a dark, cold mine. Difficult to excavate, but so much more valuable for it.

six

By four pm that afternoon we were back on a plane and flying home to Chicago.
 

``She wasn't easy,'' I huffed in reference to the model.
 

``The professional ones never are.'' Hunter opened his laptop, his fingers rapidly punching keys.
 

``Is there anything I can help you with?'' I leaned over and started working the tight muscles of his shoulders.
 

``No, just trying to stay one step ahead of JW. I have guys keeping their eyes open, guys he knows and trusts.''
 

``What happens if we don't catch him first?''
 

``We?'' Hunter's eyes flicked to mine and lit with merriment. ``You're cute.'' His finger tapped my nose before he placed a soft kiss on my lips. ``If
I
don't catch him first...I don't know what happens.''
 

``Hunter?'' I paused, working over something JW had said back at the warehouse. ``What he said about your mom...do you think it's true?''
 

I watched Hunter take a slow swallow before his gaze glanced out the window. ``Probably.''
 

``But, that means--''
 

``I know what it means, Erin. It means shit. She's long dead, nothing good can come of revisiting that file.''
 

``But he just flaunted it--``
 

``And I'm sure he was waiting for the right time, after all the evidence was lost, the case long forgotten. My mom was a nobody, Erin. I am a nobody, JW saved me and then he ruined my fucking life. I'm getting us out, and getting out means we don't look back.''
 

``But that seems so wrong. What about justice?''
 

``Justice is an illusion, babe. Along with safety and privacy. Don't dig up old skeletons. He may have done it, or maybe he just said that to get to me. He knows all the right buttons to push...''
 

``Family always does,'' I said, curling against Hunter's broad shoulder, my eyes falling closed as I finally allowed exhaustion to overtake me.
 

A few hours later we were taxiing down the runway at O'Hare and stuffing our few weekend bags into a car. Tucked under Hunter's arm, we rode the fifteen minutes to his house in silence as I thought maybe tonight was the time to tell him. My stomach had been on the verge of upheaval for much of the weekend, as if the little life inside me was nagging me the only way he knew how, via morning sickness. I had to tell him. I could light candles and maybe we could take a bath and I would confess to Hunter what the nurses had confirmed at the hospital.
Congratulations, we're expecting!
 

I glanced up at his rugged profile as we sped through the evening light and wondered how he would take the news. Fear that he'd be angry had been my first worry, but looking into his verdant green depths, I had faith that he would save us.
 

``You look beautiful,'' Hunter pulled me from my thoughts.
 

``Thank you.''
 

``I can't wait to get you in my arms tonight in our bed.'' His fingers locked with mine.
 

``Our?'' I grinned as my heart swelled.
 

``Couldn't imagine a night without you in it.'' Hunter kissed my nose before the car pulled to a slow stop at his front door. ``Welcome home, Princess.'' Hunter's rasp licked at my insides and had me more excited than ever to get our things unpacked and into a warm tub with him.
 

He pulled the keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. ``Ladies, first.'' Hunter winked and slapped at my ass as I walked by. I giggled and turned as I backed into his foyer, wrapping my arms around his neck, ready to kiss him until my lips were bruised.
 

His body stiffened, his hands sliding to my shoulders where he tightened painfully. ``Hunter?'' I backed away from his punishing force. He never recognized his own strength. ``What's wrong?'' I turned to see his home exactly as we'd left it except for the closet door next to his office thrown wide open, boxes and paperwork spread across the floor.
 

``What's wrong?'' I asked again before Hunter was striding across the hallway, his eyes intent on the small closet that he always kept locked. Hunter hunched and began rifling through boxes as I approached. He turned and I was startled to find an automatic weapon clutched in one hand.
 

My mouth dropped and fear stung my eyes as I looked from the glaring gunmetal to Hunter's angry eyes, then to the closet. More weapons stacked against the wall, boxes and electronics of all sorts, a Kevlar vest hung on one wall, well-organized shelves of surveillance items on the other. I took another step towards the closet as my eyes focused on photos pinned to the back wall hidden in shadow.
 

``Don't go in there.'' Hunter's voice, thick with warning, boomed from behind me.
 

But it was too late. Fuck his warnings. Fuck all his talk of safety and protection.
 

``Hunter?'' I choked on the one word running through my head at lightning speed. ``How could you?''
 

Staring back at me were dozens of surveillance photos of myself. Some from just days ago as I was out running errands around the city. I recognized another from the morning we'd met, many of my mom and I at lunch, more of my mom alone, at her house and out, and me. Me. I was everywhere. ``What the fuck is this?!'' I shrieked as I stepped in, disregarding the tight grip at my elbow.
 

``Erin--''
 

``What is this?!'' I tore the photos off the wall, another large stack falling from a box to my feet. More of me at the coffee shop, the library, shopping, my lawyer's office.
 

Every single step the last few months he'd been watching. He'd been with me every minute of every day and I'd never even known. Fuck, I'd been such a fool. I thought he'd only been keeping tabs on Brant, and if Brant wasn't in town, Hunter was off the clock. ``You're a bastard.'' I yanked a stack of photos off a shelf and threw them at his face before I turned and rushed around him, sprinting down the hallway. Pulling my bag from where I’d dropped it at his front door, I barreled out onto the sidewalk. I had to leave, had to escape. He'd been a liar the entire time, following me. Watching me.
Stalking
me.
 

Without knowing where I was going, I bolted down the sidewalk to a taxi idling at the curb.
 

``733 Colfax,'' I sobbed as I locked the door behind me, twisting to find Hunter bolting down the path, a desperation ravaging his beautiful face. ``Go, please hurry,'' I urged before the cab driver caught my frantic gaze in the mirror and gunned it.
 

``You need to go to the hospital?'' the driver questioned with concern.
 

``No, no, I just need to go home,'' I squeaked and pressed my hands at my stomach as bile churned and threatened to expunge itself. Such a fool. Hunter had heavy artillery, top notch security, surveillance capabilities that rivaled any major military, and he had photos of me. I had been his target.

seven

I stood outside in the darkened night, hovering like a creep in her backyard, waiting for her to stir inside. She'd been quiet for hours, hiding out in her bedroom with just a single lamp light on.
 

If I knew her at all, she would be up and headed downstairs for her evening cup of coffee soon. My Princess liked her habits, and she wasn't one to acclimate well to change or upheaval.
 

 
Which is why finding a fucking arsenal of weapons and top-secret surveillance photos sprawled on my floor earlier today had probably destroyed her. A cleaver laced with poison had sliced my heart wide when she'd run down the sidewalk earlier today and rushed away in that yellow cab. I'd known exactly where she was headed; she had no other place to go in this city.
 

The second she'd pulled away, I'd darted up the stairs and headed straight for the garage and my car. I would give her time alone if she needed it, but not without first ensuring her safety. I peeled out onto the street and drove to her home, the house I'd been camping out at for months. This was a ride I'd taken countless mornings before, just like when she slipped out on me the day she was kidnapped. The front door opening had sent an alert to my phone, waking me from my restless sleep to find Erin gone. A quick trace with my GPS app had shown her at the corner of Waverly and Beacon where I knew she often met her mother for coffee. I'd been there, watching them before. And so I'd launched into action, arriving only minutes in advance of her abduction. That's how I'd known where to find her, how I always knew where to find her. The day that stopped was the day I would lose a vast portion of my heart.
 

I shook my head, exasperated, feeling the shame of my own deceit weighing me down. Maybe it was time to explain all of that to her. Tell her what I couldn't before--that Agent Peters of the FBI had infiltrated JW's gang, and if not for that guy, I'd be dead right now. He'd been one more body protecting her when I couldn't, another secret I'd been forced to keep.
 

The entire raid had followed an intricate plan that required getting JW alone, but when he'd taken Erin into that office with him, my mind had fried. That was as close to losing her as I'd ever come.
 

My eyes darted up to the imposing brick house that occupied one full corner of the quiet street. I couldn't imagine how she was feeling right now, but if I knew her at all, betrayal would probably be the first reaction on her mind.
 

But she would come to her senses. I hadn't betrayed her, not for a second. I'd kept secrets close to my chest out of necessity, for her own safety and mine, but betraying her was something I would never do. She was everything. Maybe she didn't see it, but I saw the love that shone in her eyes. She was the only human that had ever loved me without condition or malice. I'd throw my own body in front of a tank before anyone would hurt a hair on her head, even if that person was me.
 

A light flickered on then, bringing me back to the present and catching my attention as, just like I'd predicted, her soft silhouette came into the kitchen. She was a vision. I'd never stood a chance, from the day I'd first pulled up to her house and seen her rushing up the steps, tight ass in dark jeans and a curtain of dark hair falling down her back.
 

She'd seen me that first time, she just didn't know it. Her head had turned quickly, her dainty profile lit in bright golden sunlight. Her eyes darted up to the sky, before eyelashes fanned across her face as she seemed to soak up the light. Her chin wavered, and then her sensual, dark eyes flickered open, her gaze landing directly on me, sitting across the street. She was bewitching.
 

Time ceased, the world vanished, and I fell into dark depths I'd never find myself free of again. Like being caught in a vortex, I sat rooted and unblinking, stunned with something I'd never felt before and hadn't been able to place. Love.
 

From day one I'd loved her. I just hadn't known it.

eight

After dead-bolting all the doors and making sure every window in the house was locked tight, I curled into my cold bed in the house I'd shared with my husband. I hadn't slept here in weeks, the house now feeling emptier than it ever had. The police tape was gone, the Feds having hauled out every box of paperwork with Brant's name on it, and now here I was.
 

Stunned and numb.