His Regret by Bella J.
Chapter Six
With a loud thud,Scarlet slammed her apartment door shut behind her. Taking a deep breath, she reached for her ribs, cringing as she finally acknowledged the pain that radiated through her body. All she needed was a few seconds to gather herself—to calm her thoughts. But while she stood there listening to her erratic heartbeat echoing inside her head, hoping like hell the pain would subside, she knew time was a luxury she just didn’t have.
He found her, just like he always had in the past. The last three years had been the longest she was able to hide from him. And the best part was that she had been closer to home during the last few years than she had ever been since this game of cat and mouse started.
The day Scarlet decided to run, to disappear, she never thought it would all turn out like this. Not only did she have to leave behind the only kind of life she had ever known, but she lost so much more than that. If she had known that her running away would have had this kind of domino effect, she never would have done it. Never in a million years did she think it would go this far. She’d hoped that once she left, she would have been free of him. But apparently, she was really fucking wrong.
She pushed herself away from the door and grabbed the bottle of Jack on the kitchen counter before rushing to her bedroom. Alcohol was the only thing she had close enough to pain killers. Grabbing the duffel bag and pouring whiskey down her throat all happened at once, and then she started to shove a lot of shit in her bag. This was not the first time she’d had to disappear in just a matter of minutes, running yet again. So she knew exactly what she needed to take with her and what she could leave behind.
After grabbing the only gun she owned from her closet, she buried it between the clothes she had in the bag and headed out to the kitchen. She plucked the picture off the fridge and put it in her back pocket. That picture was the only thing she had left of her old life, and it was the one item she never left behind.
Scarlet emptied the bottle of Jack, desperate to take the edge off, then grabbed her keys and headed to the door.
The minute she opened the latch, the door got pushed open and she was met by one giant fucking brick wall.
“Ace? What the—”
He shoved her back into the apartment and slammed the door shut behind him. Scarlet tried to punch the bastard in the face while spitting out a string of profanities, but he grabbed her elbow, twisted her around, and pulled her back against his chest while clutching his hand over her mouth.
“You need to shut up.”
Her, shut up? Not happening.
She bit down on his hand and as soon as he let go of her mouth, she pulled her head forward slightly. “Fuck you, asshole.” Then with all her strength, she flung her head back, hitting him straight in the face.
“Fuck!” He let go of her arms and clutched his nose, allowing her to turn around and knee him in the groin. The son of bitch doubled over, now clutching both his nose and his nuts.
Scarlet grabbed her bag and tried to rush past him. But the bastard reached out, grabbed her waist, and lifted her off the ground while she pounded her fists into his back. She didn’t think about the pain in her ribs when she clawed and scratched and even tried to sink her teeth into him. All she wanted was to get away from him as fast as possible.
“I knew you were one of them.” She kept on slamming her fists into his back, his head—every place she could reach.
“Jesus. Calm the fuck down, Lucy Liu.” He tightened his grip around her waist and rushed toward the couch, where he dropped her like dead weight.
Within a split second she jumped over the back, leaving the couch between her and the man who had become a serious pain in her ass.
“See, I knew the minute I saw you tonight you were fucking trouble.” She never took her eyes off him.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, you had big flashing warning signs all over your fucking head too.” He touched his nose again. “Jesus, that hurt.”
“Serves you right. Touch me again and I’ll fucking break it.”
Scarlet slowly stepped to the side while he started pacing in the other direction, like they were both waiting for the other to make the first move.
“We need to leave before they get here, Scarlet.”
“Are you working for him? Is that why you’ve been coming to the club every day for the last two weeks? You were spying on me for him?”
Hunter shrugged. “Yes and no.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“I’ll fill you in on the deets later, but right now we need to get you the fuck out of here.”
She snorted. “You actually think I fucking trust you?”
“You actually think you have a fucking choice?”
By now she was standing by the armrest of the couch while he was standing on the opposite side, neither of them taking their eyes off each other. It was like the world’s ultimate stare-off going down and she had no intention of losing.
She leaned slightly over the armrest, glaring at him. “I always have a fucking choice.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m guessing the two SUVs that followed me here would disagree.”
Scarlet’s heart fell to the soles of her feet. Her spine instantly turned to ice and she knew her fear was plastered all over her face for him to see.
So much for a goddamn poker face.
She swallowed hard, trying her best to stay strong. “If you think for one second that I will go back to that son of bitch without a fight, you’ve never been more wrong.”
Hunter took a step toward her, but she instinctively backed up and shot him a warning glare.
He paused. “Listen to me. I don’t know what the fuck is going on. All I know is that this guy hired me to find his long lost cousin. All this shit that went down tonight, I had nothing to do with that.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have to. But right now I’m your only way out of here. Those SUVs are already parked downstairs and I’m willing to bet they have each and every entrance in and out of this place covered by now.”
Well, shit.
“Like I told you earlier, Ace, I can take care of myself.”
He snorted. “Yeah, my balls can vouch for that.” He reached down and cupped his balls protectively before focusing on her again. “But the way I see it is you have two choices here.” He moved closer, and this time Scarlet didn’t back up
“Oh yeah? And what might those two choices be, Ace?”
He held up his finger. “First of all, it’s Hunter. We’ve established that already.” He held up a second finger. “Secondly, your choices are this. You can either trust me and let me help you get out of here, or those SUV fuckers will have you on your way back to Wolfe within the next ten minutes.”
Scarlet felt a chill spread throughout her entire body at the mere mention of his name. That name had been the boogeyman in her nightmares for years, the devil ruling her hell, and hearing it out loud triggered all sorts of nasty feelings and emotions inside her.
She squared her shoulders. “For all I know you’ll have me on my way to him faster than those SUV fuckers.”
“If that’s the case,” he slanted his head to the side, “then no matter what you do here, you’re fucked. So you might as well trust me and see if that pays off.”
For a few seconds their gazes remained locked. His green eyes were so intently focused on her, she could almost feel his determination beam out of them. Even though Scarlet had a weird feeling about this guy, there was this faint little voice inside her head that told her he was right. She had no other choice but to trust him.
Dammit.She was so fucked.
Scarlet picked up her duffel bag and tossed it hard into his hands. “Fine. But I swear to God, if you fuck with me, Ace, you won’t have any balls left to vouch for anything ever again.”
His full lips curved into a roguish smile, and Scarlet cocked a brow. “And if you so much as think about touching me, I will make sure you breathe through a tube for the rest of your fucking life.”
“Lucky for you, you’re not my type, remember?” Hunter rushed over to the window, opened it, and stood to the side, gesturing for her to climb through. “Now if you’re done tossing your little ass kicking threats around, there are two guys outside your front door about to knock it down.”
A loud thud crashed against the door, and Scarlet jumped forward, out the window with Hunter shortly on her heels. When she glanced back into her apartment, she saw the two men crashing through her front door and all she could think about was getting away. There was just no way in hell she would go back to him.
She would rather die first.
