Huntsman by Cambria Hebert
29
Earth
“Will you tell me?”
I knew the post-coital bliss would wear off eventually. Hell, I hadn’t even planned on any postcoital bliss at all.
But holy hell.
My dick stayed in my pants the entire time, but as I lay there, I somehow felt as though I’d just had the fuck of my life.
Bringing her to ecstasy was better than any orgasm I’d had to date. Yeah, I said to date because sometime soon I was gonna get into her body, and then that fact would probably change.
Until then, I wouldn’t even be suffering over here because, like I said, holy hell.
I don’t know how long we lay there. The tears on my chest were long dried, the quivering of her body had ceased, and her sniffles had turned into even breathing. I thought perhaps she’d fallen asleep, but her question hung in the air, proving she was very much awake.
After silence stretched on and I still said nothing, her whisper filled the dimly lit room. “Say everything.”
Well, fuck.
“I tried to kill Ivory. More than once.”
Her body startled, and I winced as she used my chest to push herself up, planting her elbow practically in my sternum. Her eyes were so wide and round, the whites around the chestnut orbs glowed like stars in the dark. “What?”
“There’s bones in here, woman.” I grimaced, sliding my hand between her elbow and my chest.
“I need to sit up!” she said, pushing up. “Help me!”
“Give a girl the orgasm of her life, and then she thinks she can boss you all around,” I muttered.
Her gasp filled the room. “Forget it!” she declared. “Don’t help me.” Her hand practically punched into my stomach as she “helped” herself.
“Oomph!Now, sweetheart, I was just trying to lighten the mood,” I told her, grasping her gently to help her.
“Over there,” she instructed, and this time, I just did what she asked, sliding her body over so her back was to the wall and her legs were stretched out in front of her.
With a small sound, she grasped her legs and positioned them so she sat cross-legged, hands in her lap. The second she was settled, her eyes came back to mine, and I knew all distraction was over and now it was time to lay it all out.
“Say that again,” she requested.
“The huntsman that was after Ivory? It was me. I’m him—the Huntsman.”
“You’re the one her stepmother hired to kill her?”
“Yes.”
“But… how?”
“I’m a contract killer. I murder for money.” No point in making it sound pretty because it wasn’t. It was the cold truth, and even though I didn’t want to tell her, I would because there was no changing who I was.
Her body leaned heavier into the wall, her head tilting just slightly. Some of the hair in the braid wrapped around her head had come loose. Light-colored strands wisped around her cheeks and ears, making her look exactly like the sprite I had nicknamed her for.
Her eyes dipped to my hands, and I flexed them subconsciously. I knew what she was doing. Looking at the hands that killed men and women. Probably wondering how just a little while ago, she’d let these murderous hands give her pleasure when what they usually brought was pain.
“I don’t kill kids.” The words rushed out. Random, almost desperate, and completely unnecessary. But as she stared at the hands of a killer, perhaps imaging them covered in blood, I wanted to at least clarify even I had limits and I would never harm a child.
As if that detail made me a better man.
It didn’t.
If anything, it showed I had somewhat of a conscience, and that meant I should know better than to kill anyone at all.
“The huntsman Ivory was running from, the one my brother was trying to protect her from… it was you?”
“Yes.” I laughed, but it sounded more like a groan. “I told her to run away and never come back. And what did she do? Found her way onto my couch.”
“But you didn’t kill her.”
Ah, so we were going this way, were we? With her reasoning, I must not be bad because I couldn’t go through with it. Wrong.
“I’ve killed others. Many before her.”
She leaned forward, pure curiosity in her gaze. “How many?”
Why is she leaning closer instead of away? How unnerving.
“That’s a rude question.”
“Trying to kill my sister is also rude,” she countered. She was completely ridiculous.
“I’m not telling you.”
“Why?”
Because I don’t want you to know just how terrible I really am.
When it became apparent I wouldn’t answer, she changed her question. “So why not Ivory, then?”
“At first, it was because I felt I owed her father.”
She gasped. “You knew Ivory’s father?”
I nodded. “I met him many years ago when I’d come to this country and was trying to survive. I pickpocketed him, and he caught me.” I half smiled, thinking about what an inexperienced punk I was back then, thinking I knew it all.
“He didn’t turn me in. Instead, he helped me. Gave me a start. I own the Rotten Apple because of him.”
“And you knew Ivory was his daughter?”
“Rule number four: Do your research on your target. Rule number five: Finished your research? Do more.”
“There are rules for killing?” she echoed, more inquisitive than anything.
I shrugged. “Every business has standards, and mine is no different.”
“Then what happened?”
Why was she so calm? Why wasn’t she smacking me and telling me how horrible I was? “You know this isn’t some fairy tale, right? This is real, and it all actually happened. Even if it was a fairy tale, I would be the villain. I am a villain.”
Her nod was sage. “I understand.”
I wasn’t so sure because she was still sitting here.
“I let her go. Told her to disappear and never come back.”
“And you cut off all her hair and ripped her nail off!” she said, reaching up to touch her own beautiful locks.
Why are women so attached to their hair? “I sent that stuff to her stepmother and told her I’d finished the job.”
“Ew! You put some hair and a bloody nail in a box and mailed it?”
“Better than a body,” I deadpanned.
Her lips pursed. I want to kiss her again. “Well. You have a point.”
“This conversation is ridiculous.”
She ignored my evaluation of this talk and continued as if she thought everything was wonderful. “But then Ivory ended up in the Grimms, at your house, and my brother fell in love with her.”
“I broke the rules.”
“Which rule?”
My eyes flashed up. “Never make it personal.”
Her quick intake of breath was filled with silent realization. The atmosphere around us shifted, the banter we had going disappeared, and the mood turned heavy. “And that’s why he can’t forgive you.”
I wasn’t surprised by the churning undercurrents in this room. I was more surprised they hadn’t shown up until now. That they blew in with the mention of things becoming personal for me.
Virginia was perceptive, though. Very, very perceptive to understand something not even Neo and I could entirely work out after so long. But after earlier, I wouldn’t even be able to deny what I knew she was likely about to say, the real reason he struggled to forgive. Uncomfortable, my jaw tightened as my eyes looked everywhere but at her.
“You love her,” she whispered, curling back against the wall, those words somehow much more heinous to her than the fact I was a killer.
If I wasn’t so caught off guard, I might have enjoyed her jealousy.
“No!” I refused, eyes flying up to hers. You should know better. “I don’t. I never did.”
“I wouldn’t blame you. Ivory is the fairest of them all.” Her voice was small.
“She isn’t you!” I burst out.
The confession hung between us, thick like humid air.
“Then why does my brother despise you so much?” she asked.
The guttural sound I made reflected how much I hated those words, words I never wanted to say out loud but would just to make this woman understand. “Because she made me feel. Somehow her stupid shrieking and ridiculous haughty behavior got under my skin. I saw the way my brothers fawned over her. I knew Neo was falling deep. And I just… I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill her. For the first time in forever, she made me hesitate to kill.”
“Sounds kinda like love.” Goddamn that insecurity in her voice, the doubt and hurt in her stare.
I leaned close, ferocious with my words. “Listen here, sprite. I’m a bad guy, but I’m loyal to a fault. If I loved her, there is no way in hell I would have done what I just did with you. Ivory is my family, but you… you have my heart.”
“Family doesn’t turn their back on family. Even if they turn their back on you,” she murmured almost as though she were coming to a realization.
I glowered. “Now is not the time for movie quotes, sprite. I’m trying to have a conversation.”
The room was so dim, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t conceal the brunet eyes gazing at me like I was some kind of puzzle she’d put together, missing that final piece.
“Neo said that to me. I thought he meant it was you who turned your back on him.”
“My whole life blew up because I didn’t.” I grumped. What an asshole. Couldn’t he at least give me some credit for not killing his girl?
“He meant him. He was the one who turned his back, but you stayed. You still came when he called. You waited for him to forgive you.”
“He still hasn’t.”
She made a soft sound. “My brother forgave you a long time ago for the lies and even the killing.”
“He can barely be in the same room with me.”
“But he never turned you in. He helped the rest of the family protect you.”
Something inside my gut squirmed. “I don’t need protecting.”
“Everyone needs protecting sometimes.”
That soft-spoken rebuttable sank into me like a pebble thrown into a bottomless sea. I felt it sink, traveling into my deepest depths to my most carefully guarded memories of another time and place.
A time when protection was also betrayal.
Her voice seemed far away at first, but even with the distance, I could hear every word. “Neo’s always considered you family, but he thought you were in love with Ivory. With the one woman he’s been able to open up to since our parents died. He couldn’t give her up, even thinking you wanted her. He was stuck. Looking at you probably made him feel guilty for taking something you wanted, so he blamed you instead. He turned his back, but he wasn’t able to cut you out of our lives.”
“He cut me out of yours.” I can’t even blame him for it.
“Maybe for a little while, but then he invited you back in. Because he trusts you. Even with me.”
A rude noise filled the room. “The bruises on my face say otherwise.”
He thought I was going after you because I couldn’t have Ivory. That thought—those words Neo gave voice to—burned in the back of my throat like acrid stomach acid, tossing itself up my esophagus, making me feel like my insides were on fire.
I’d never tell her what he said. I’d never put that doubt in her mind. It wasn’t true, not even just a little. And to be honest, it still one hundred percent pissed me off Neo would even think that. That he would think V wasn’t better than that.
Dude can’t see past Ivory.
Everything revolves around her, even his own sister. And that’s how I knew what Virginia was saying right now was right. That stone of knowledge V tossed into my sea settled inside me, rippling with truth.
I couldn’t even be mad for any of it. I understood. Because now, for me, everything revolved around Virginia.
“He’s very protective.”
“He’s an asshole.”
“So are you.”
I barked a laugh. “Touché.”
“He’ll come around. If he really was dead set against us, he would have gotten rid of you already.”
I snorted. “Like he could.”
“He’s done it before.”
My spine snapped up, and a cold feeling I recognized well unfurled within me. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing,” V murmured, glancing down into her lap.
“Virginia,” I commanded, absolutely unwilling to let that go.
“We’re talking about you.”
Despite the murderous way I felt and the fact I wanted answers yesterday, I was still gentle when I pushed her chin up so I could look into her eyes. “What did Neo do, sweetheart?”
The tip of her small pink tongue darted out to wet her lips, a nervous reaction that made my gut tighten and the pads of my fingers jolt lightly against the underside of her jaw.
“There was this physical therapist that used to work here,” she said. “Maybe you remember seeing him around. His name was Jake.”
I searched my memory, thinking back to the times we’d all be here and how sometimes a nurse would come in to get her for PT. The vague memory of a tall guy in khakis and a polo came to mind, and my eyes narrowed.
“He’s the one that called you sprite.” My voice was a mere rumble.
She nodded. “We, ah, got close. I liked him, and he liked me. One day after PT, he was going to kiss me.”
A low growl vibrated my lips at the idea of anyone touching what was mine.
“Neo walked in and saw us. You can imagine his reaction.”
My upper lip curled. “I hope he decked him.”
“Not only did he deck him, but he accused him of sexually harassing a disabled patient, taking advantage of me, and he got him fired.”
I made a gruff sound. For once, I agreed with Neo on something. “Good.”
V gasped, crossing her arms over her chest. “It is not! That man lost his PT license because of my brother’s accusations! And no one would listen to me, the girl in the wheelchair. As if my legs not working somehow make it so my brain and heart can’t work too.”
“You liked him,” I observed, keeping my voice neutral even though the idea made the poison in my veins bubble up.
“Yes.” Her voice was small. “And I thought he liked me.”
“He didn’t fight for you, though, did he? He let Neo chase him off, and he never looked back.”
Coward.
“Guess I wasn’t worth the fight.”
Her light squeak was kinda cute when I jolted forward to slide my hands under her arms to drag her forward.
Holding her up like a rag doll, I pinned her with a hard gaze. “He wasn’t worthy of you.”
Her eyes bounced between mine, her lower lip quivering slightly. “Are you?”
“No,” I said immediately because it was the truth.
Her lashes swept downward, fanning across her cheeks and hiding the hurt in her gaze. I wouldn’t apologize, though, because it was the truth. Virginia was way too good for me, and it was wrong I was still here. But I wouldn’t walk away. I wouldn’t leave her behind to sit and think she wasn’t worth the fight.
“Help me.” I beckoned softly, pulling her into my lap. Her eyes reopened, gaze shuttered. But she helped me settle her, positioning her so she was straddling my lap and I was leaning against the wall.
When both her legs were on either side of me, my hands slipped up to her waist, fingers splaying out high enough so she could feel me holding her.
“Okay?” I asked, making sure the position was comfortable.
She nodded.
“Eyes on me.”
She listened immediately, making my chest feel tight with pride.
“I’m not good enough for you, sweetheart. I never will be.” Her lips parted, but I placed a finger against them, keeping her quiet. “But I want you anyway, and I’m not honorable enough to let you go. I will fight for you. I will kill for you. I will hurt you. The only person on this planet that could make me walk away from you is you. Tell me to go. Tell me to just love you from afar. It’s safer for us both.”
One glistening tear fell from her eyelashes to slide gracefully down her cheek. “I don’t want you to go. I won’t send you away.”
“Fifteen.”
“What?”
“That’s how many people I’ve killed. And I’ve hurt and nearly killed many more.”
Her eyes widened.
“The kills I’ve made were not accidents. They were choices I made. I like the control I feel when I make a kill, the freedom that comes after. I like living on my own terms, by my own rules.”
“My spine is shattered. I’ll never be able to walk. I’ve been living trapped up in a tower for over seven years. I don’t have much self-confidence. I don’t have any money, and I don’t even know if I can hold down a job. Having a romantic relationship with someone like me might be unsatisfying because I can’t feel like a normal woman. Everything takes me twice as long, and I need special equipment and wheelchair-accessible places. Going to the bathroom takes extra time, and to be honest, it’s gross the things I have to do. My life will always be filled with doctor visits, therapy, and everywhere I go, someone will stare and might even say something rude.”
“I’ll kill them,” I intoned, deadly calm.
“You can’t. I won’t let you.” She went on. “And then there’s my bossy brother. He’ll always be a huge part of my life.”
“What are you doing right now?” I asked.
“Aren’t you trying to scare me off with a list of your bad qualities? I have a list too.”
This was absolutely ridiculous. “Being a murderer is a lot different than being paralyzed. They don’t compare.”
“Well, you can stop, but I can’t.”
I stilled. “Are you asking me to stop killing?” Are you saying you would be with me?
The request was small and timid. “Would you?”
I swallowed. “And if I did that, you could just forget about the fifteen other people I told you about?”
“Maybe not forget them, but I could forgive.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d rather love you than hate you.”
A broken sound filled the room, and I crushed her to me, merging our lips and refusing to let go. I kissed with a passion greater than the venom in my veins, wishing I could crawl inside her and live beneath her skin.
I was a man who lived and breathed nothing but hate, a man who, up until recently, didn’t understand he could choose something else.
Until her.
Until Virginia smiled in the face of my grumbling, found solace in my cold heart, and looked at me with eyes filled with everything but fear.
She made me feel like it didn’t matter I was poison because she could be my antidote. With her, I wanted to be better, but even if I wasn’t, she would accept me the way I was.
I pulled back abruptly, but her sound of surprise made me lean back in to kiss her quickly. My fingers tried to bury themselves in her silky hair, but that damn braid was in the way.
Digging in, I loosened the style, pulling out the clips and pins holding it in place and watching it tumble in very long waves over her shoulders to curl into our laps.
“God, you are so fucking beautiful,” I swore, pulling my fingers through the freed strands. They clung and curled around my digits, making me feel even more possessive. Golden-hued waves framed her small face, making her eyes seem even larger.
Her cheek nuzzled toward my hand, and I cupped it, caressing her softness with my thumb.
“I stopped taking jobs after Ivory.” I spoke quietly, not wanting to ruin the magic swirling around us with a loud voice.
Her perky nose turned up with the news. “Really?”
“Really.” I promised. “I would stop if you asked me to, but I already have.”
This time, her palms landed on either side of my face, holding me prone so she could kiss me. I could taste the smile on her lips.
“That means so much more because you did it for you and no one else.”
I cleared my throat.
She tilted her head. “Someone else asked you to stop?”
“Fletcher was pretty upset…”
She giggled.
“What’s so funny?” I demanded, instantly annoyed.
“You really do have such a soft spot for him.”
My annoyance faded, and I tugged on a piece of her hair. “Not as soft as the one I have for you.”
She snuggled into my chest, curling both arms between us, resting her cheek on my shoulder, and gently rubbing her nose against my throat.
“I knew I was done before anyone asked,” I whispered softly, dragging my palm down her back. “I just couldn’t stay detached anymore.”
“Because of Ivory.”
“Because the idea of telling the family who I really was made me ashamed. You know, if Neo hadn’t told you… I probably wouldn’t have.”
“You thought I would hate you?” Her lips tickled against my neck with every word she spoke. It brought on a sense of calm, a sense of rightness.
“I didn’t want to be the villain in your story, but lying about it only made me more of the villain I pretended not to be.”
“What about our story?”
I stopped stroking her back. Her body rose and fell with the deep breath I took. “Our story?”
“What if I don’t want to have my own story? What if I want to have one with you?”
As I tugged her away from my chest, cool air whooshed between our bodies, trying to chill the heat between us. Pushing her hair back from her face, I held her head, staring intently into her shy expression.
“You’d really accept me?” I whispered, awe grabbing my heart, squeezing until it could barely beat.
“I already have.”
“Be careful what you ask for, sprite. I don’t let go, and I don’t play fair. Once you’re mine, I won’t ever let you go.”
“Y-you would want someone like me?”
“You are the only one I want.”
More tears spilled over her cheeks, and I brushed them away. My heart was beating heavily. The urge to claim and own was the rhythm by which it beat. I never thought such darkness could be attracted to such light, but the way I wanted her was completely undeniable.
Her teeth sank into her lower lip, worrying the flesh I’d just loved with my tongue. Reaching up, I tugged it free. “What is it?”
“I really do accept you. It’s just—”
“Say everything,” I reminded her softly, stroking the length of her hair in hopes of reassuring her.
“You won’t take any more jobs like that? I just… I don’t…” Her sigh trembled, and it made my heart turn over. It made me want to rip apart the world to give her whatever she asked for. “The thought of you out there doing that. You’re so much better, Earth, so much better than death.”
She wanted assurance I wouldn’t start killing again, but she felt guilty asking for it because she wanted to accept me as I was.
I wasn’t offended. How could I be? I knew she accepted me. Hell, I would even go so far as to suspect she loved me. She fell before she knew I stopped. She called me even after Neo told her what I was.
Virginia had every right to ask me to stop. She had every right to help write our story. I couldn’t even blame her for not wanting it to be a murder book.
I didn’t blindly promise. Instead, I took a moment to look deep.
I thought about the craving I still sometimes got to kill. About the way my eyes would sometimes stray to that ringing secret phone. I thought about the pollution in my veins and how running away hadn’t kept me from the life I was born into.
“Eyes on me.” I beckoned, and hers were there instantly, filled with yearning and apprehension.
I smiled, rubbing my thumb along the underside of her lower lip.
“I swear I won’t take any more jobs. I won’t kill for money. I’ll toss out my contact phone and never get another.”
“You have a contact phone?” She wondered.
I shrugged. “How else would I get jobs?”
Her nose wrinkled, and it made my heart turn over. “What kind of people hire someone to kill for them?”
“Cowards.”
“You really will stop?”
“I swear.”
She smiled, and my heart leaped down into my stomach. She is saying yes. She is mine.
Her face leaned in, but I leaned back. Her eyes widened, and then she scowled. “Did you change your mind already?”
I laughed. “Oh no, sprite, I’m forever yours.”
She tried to kiss me again.
Again, I fended her off. “I want to make something clear.”
She sat back, hands falling between us.
“I won’t take any more jobs. I’ll keep my hands as clean as I can.”
Her eyes narrowed. “But?”
“But I will do anything to protect you. And I mean anything.”
She rolled her eyes. “You act like I live some wild, dangerous life.”
“Not you. Me.”
Her breath caught.
“Being around me comes with a certain kind of risk. I thought about disappearing—”
“No!” She flung herself against my chest, arms winding tightly around my neck. “You can’t leave.” Her voice cracked, arms quivering. “You can’t. Promise me.”
Possessiveness swelled along with an amazing sense of satisfaction that the idea of me leaving made her so distraught. I’d never been wanted before. I’d never been needed.
Sure, my brothers relied on me, but this was entirely different.
It felt good. Better than I ever thought it could.
“I’m not leaving, sweetheart. I promise.”
She pushed up, her eyelashes damp and strands of hair clinging to her cheeks. “I’ve lost so many people in my life. My world is very small, Earth. Most of it is just inside this windowless room. You make my world bigger, and I’m already very attached to you. Please don’t take that away from me. Please.”
My back left the wall, my body pushing into her space, claiming it as my own. When I licked across her lips, she parted with a sigh, and I delved deep into the warm cavern of her mouth, kissing until my lungs nearly collapsed from lack of air.
“Try and get rid of me,” I whispered, nudging her nose with mine.
Her hands came up to rest over my ears, her fingers playing in the strands of my hair.
“But just know that when it comes to protecting what’s mine, I don’t have limits. I will kill, and I won’t think twice.”
“Okay.” She accepted, wrapping her arms around me and pressing close.
“Okay?”
“Mm-hmm.” She agreed, tugging on my neck. “Closer, E. I want closer.”
Tingles erupted over my scalp. I fucking loved the way she clung to me. I loved that she was mine and mine alone.
Honoring her request, I dragged her closer, making it so our fronts were pressed together. She sighed, resting her chin on my shoulder. Her hair was so long it was like a blanket covering us both.
“Mine,” I whispered roughly, taking her with me as I leaned back against the wall.
“Yours,” she purred beside my ear, making hot desire nearly dissolve my skin.
I just hoped she didn’t regret this when I had to prove just how serious I was about doing anything to protect her.