Heart of the Hunter Read online

  Heart of the Hunter

  Chance Carter

  Copyright © 2016 Chance Carter

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  This work is presented by the author.

  To get in touch please contact: [email protected]

  ISBN 978‐1‐927947‐57‐9

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Quote

  Author Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Bonus Book - Bad Boy Daddy

  Bonus Book - Wife Me Bad Boy

  Bonus Book - Most Eligible Baby Daddy

  Back Matter

  *

  “EVERY ATOM OF YOUR FLESH IS AS DEAR TO ME AS MY OWN: IN PAIN AND SICKNESS IT WOULD STILL BE DEAR.”

  Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

  *

  “EACH TIME YOU HAPPEN TO ME ALL OVER AGAIN.”

  Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

  *

  “I WANT TO DO WITH YOU WHAT SPRING DOES WITH THE CHERRY TREES.”

  Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

  *

  “TO LOVE OR HAVE LOVED, THAT IS ENOUGH. ASK NOTHING FURTHER. THERE IS NO OTHER PEARL IN THE DARK FOLDS OF LIFE.”

  Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

  *

  “ONE IS LOVED BECAUSE ONE IS LOVED. NO REASON IS NEEDED FOR LOVING.”

  Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

  *

  “I LOVE YOU LIKE A MAN LOVES A WOMAN HE NEVER TOUCHES, ONLY WRITES TO, KEEPS LITTLE PHOTOGRAPHS OF.”

  Charles Bukowski, Love is a Dog from Hell

  *

  “IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO YOU ARE OR WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE, SO LONG AS SOMEBODY LOVES YOU.”

  Roald Dahl, The Witches

  *

  Note from the Author

  Bonus Content

  THANK YOU FOR READING HEART OF THE HUNTER. I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it. Hunter is by far the baddest bad boy in my series yet. He’s got some real issues, he’s pretty messed up, but he loves Kelly and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to protect her.

  As you are probably aware, all of my books are full, stand-alone novels. However, they tie together to build up a series of interwoven stories. While each story stands independently, you will understand the characters better if you read all of the books in order. It is for this reason that I have attached the other books in the series as special, exclusive, bonus content for a limited time.

  This means that four books are included in this purchase. They are all the same length, and will finish at around the twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, and hundred percent marks of your Kindle. I’m just letting you know this as a courtesy because a lot of people, myself included, like to know how far they are in the book and don’t like the ending to come as a surprise.

  Please feel free to give me feedback on any aspect of my work. I’m always available and read every email that I receive. My contact details and email address are in the copyright information at the beginning of the book.

  If you haven’t read my other books, and would like to read the series in order, the reading order is as follows:

  Book One: Bad Boy Daddy

  Book Two: Wife Me Bad Boy

  Book Three: Most Eligible Baby Daddy

  Book Four: Heart of the Hunter

  You can navigate to any book from the table of contents. If you would just like to get started with Heart of the Hunter, then simply turn the page and the story will begin.

  Thank you for your support, love, and encouragement. Without you, I would not be able to pursue this passion of mine for writing. I owe you everything and I never forget that for a single second.

  Happy reading,

  Chance Carter

  Chapter 1

  Hunter

  I DIDN’T KNOW WHERE OR who I was anymore. Maybe it was the rotating set of lies I’d been telling every random person I came into contact with in every shit town I stopped in, or maybe it was that those lies I now lived by made me seem like a stranger to myself. Working nine to five, making small talk, having a beer with some guy I didn’t even like, just because we were at the same bar at quitting time, that wasn’t me. I don’t know that person. I don’t know myself.

  For as long as I could remember, I had been part of something. That something was who I was. A Donnelly. A bad seed from a bad tree that stood tall and cast a shadow on the south side of Boston. But that something was gone now. I’d lost it all.

  People knew us.

  People knew me.

  And they left me the fuck alone.

  Family? I don’t know if that’s the word for them. I didn’t have my old man’s brains or my brother’s charm. Probably because we weren’t blood. They took me in. I was just some stray that got stamped with the brand because the wife took pity on me, may she rest in peace. They did their best to give me a chance and bring me up as their own, but I never was. Tough as a brick, and better looking than the lot of them combined, I wasn’t one of them.

  Couldn’t even cut it in school like my brothers. Only good that place ever did was give me a chance to pick up pussy and kill time in shop class. I’m sure the old bastard would have kicked me to the curb as a kid if he hadn’t discovered early on that what I lacked in social graces, I made up for in brute strength and complete disregard for rules of any kind. He never saw me as a son and sure as shit didn’t treat me like one. To him, I was more like an animal he’d found and could uncage when the situation got too unpleasant to be dealt with personally. I didn’t know any better so I didn’t care. We’ve all got to make a living.

  It was more than that, though. Truth is, I liked it. I can’t remember when I got the taste for violence. Maybe it was just in me. I ain’t ever been much good at anything in my life except hurting other people, but I’m damn good at that. Debts to collect? Some gang of pukes is fucking with the wrong shopkeep? Send Hunter to straighten it out. I usually leave a pretty big mess, but the problem always gets straightened up. Not much of a job, but I’m not much of a guy. Or at least, that’s what I thought.

  One day can change your whole fucking life. Take you from beating, drinking and fucking whatever you want in your city, to just trying to blend in somewhere else.

  A few months back, m
y old man was having issues with a business partner, so he sent me and the new kid to put an end to the issue. And the partner. I knew this sad excuse for a man and he wouldn’t be trouble. Good chance for the kid to get his feet wet and for me to show him how it was done. We wheeled up, kicked in the front door, and found the poor son of bitch passed out in his recliner, holding a half empty scotch glass. The kid looked at me with a question in his eyes and the dead he saw in mine gave him the answer. He put two bullets in sleeping beauty’s chest and then one in his skull to be sure. It was a proud moment for me. Turning to leave, we heard a clatter from the kitchen and the kid took off down the hall. No witnesses. He was learning quick.

  I checked the side rooms as he made his way toward the sound. I heard fighting. He was kicking the shit out of someone.

  I nodded in approval. I’m ashamed to admit it now, but that’s what I did.

  When I got to the kitchen, I saw the guy’s wife and kid huddled up in the corner with new guy’s barrel staring them down. He had no question in his eyes this time, just a small smirk that crept across his mouth. I don’t know what it was about the look of terror on that broad’s face as she cradled her son in her arms, but something inside me snapped. I broke the cardinal rule of the Donnelly Clan. I broke the cardinal rule of any Boston crime gang.

  I let my heart influence my thinking. For one moment, the first maybe in my entire life, I was human.

  I looked at the new kid. He was going to kill this woman and child and get a hard on doing it. I cleared my throat and he turned to me, a crazy, frenzied look in his eyes. I gave him a chance. I shook my head. That was it. That’s all I gave him.

  Don’t do it.

  But he just gave me back that crazy grin. He wanted to kill them, and he was going to enjoy it. Something inside me broke.

  I lifted my arm, pointed my gun at his face, and, well, I don’t want to say what I did next. Just know, before you judge me, that I didn’t do it because of a love of violence. I didn’t do it because I hated the new kid. I’d trained him. I liked him, even. I did it because, for the first time, I saw that someone had to do something. There’s only so much crime and violence that this world can take. Sooner or later, a man, a real man, has got to take a stand.

  And just like that, I ended the only life I’d ever known. From that moment on, my days in Boston were numbered. My life was cheap. I was a target to every lowlife bounty hunter in six counties. The Donnelly Clan would see to it.

  It was a stupid fucking move. That’s what you get for growing a conscience in my line of work. I had to skip town fast, and I knew it.

  Luckily the wheels we took to the job had a duffle bag with a substantial debt collection sitting in the back seat. I knew I was fucking the family over as I drove off, not knowing where I was going. But like I said, they ain’t my family. Family means more than that. Family is something that touches you somewhere inside. I mean, I’ve never experienced it, I’ve never even got the faintest whiff of it, but sometimes you’re allowed to believe in a thing you’ve never seen, aren’t you?

  Now, sitting here, living off that duffle bag in a haze of shit beer and the day-to-day grind, I wonder if I lost my mind that night. As it turns out, it wouldn’t be the last time some broad and a kid made me go fucking crazy. One day can change your life. That day began, the morning I met Kelly.

  Chapter 2

  Kelly

  AT LEAST THE SUN WAS SHINING. If there’s one thing you can count on in the town of Stone Peak, Montana, it’s the beauty of nature. The view over the mountain range, the miles and miles of pine trees in the valley, the way the clouds gather around the snowy peaks, it’s enough to take a girl’s breath away. It’s enough to make you feel safe and secure in the world. It’s enough to give you a little hope.

  When I was a little girl, I thought I wanted to get out of this place. I thought I was headed for the big city. I never understood the people in the town who said they’d stay there their whole lives. The same faces, the same stories, each day the exact copy of the one before. I saw the sameness of it all as a way of rocking yourself to sleep, singing you a sweet, carefree lullaby until, before you knew it, you’d slept away the best years of your life.

  I didn’t want to wake up some cold morning and discover that I was just another familiar face, living out my days just like the rest of them. I thought I was headed for bigger things. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to be someone. I wanted to find my destiny.

  Destiny.

  Life has a way of getting in the way of silly things like that. I know better now. I’m not foolish enough to think I have some great destiny in the world. I’m just an ordinary girl, scraping by as best she can, and I do it on my terms. I live the life I created, the life I built for myself through my own sweat and hard work, and for that, I will always be grateful.

  “Morning, Kelly,” a voice called as I walked absently along the sidewalk toward the diner, chewing my healthy breakfast Snickers bar.

  I looked up. It was Grace, the one person in my life I knew I could always count on.

  “Morning, Grace.”

  “Did you remember to pick up the ice from Harry’s?”

  “Oh, shoot,” I said, slapping my forehead. I’d been so preoccupied that morning it had totally slipped my mind.

  Grace shook her head. “Well, don’t worry about it. I know you’re doing your best with what the Good Lord gave you.”

  I grinned at her. She was always teasing me.

  “And why are you eating that crap so early in the morning? You know I like to cook you breakfast. Candy bars are going to be the death of you.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Sorry, my mind was off wandering.”

  “Oh, hush. It wasn’t Elle and Forrester you were thinking about, was it?”

  I shrugged. “Do you think something like that will ever happen to me, Grace?”

  “What? Some handsome, rich guy with a mansion in California rides into town and sweeps you off your feet?”

  “Something like that,” I said, realizing how ridiculous it sounded.

  Grace smiled. “You never know, kid. It happened to Elle.”

  “It happened to Elle,” I repeated to myself.

  She’d called me the day before, telling me how great things were, inviting me up to the vineyard. I sighed.

  “You really do have your head in the clouds today,” Grace said. “But now, let’s get your head on serving some people breakfast, since that’s what I’m paying you the big bucks for.”

  I love Grace. She’d been like a mother to me since I lost my folks when I was seventeen. She took me in, gave me a roof and three square meals every day. Eventually, she gave me this job waiting tables when I finished high school.

  If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have ever made it this far. I owed her everything.

  “I will, Grace. What’s the special going to be today?”

  “I was thinking eggs. Sound good to you, baby?” she asked with a grin.

  “Sounds great,” I said. “Same special as every other day.”

  This was our routine and had been for the last six years of my life. We used to make the walk to work together every morning when I lived with her, but that changed when I got with Phil, the sheriff’s son, and we moved into our own apartment. I didn’t see as much of Grace during that period. She was never far away, but living with Phil, I felt as if she was a million miles away.

  Phil wasn’t ever one for either of us leaving the house much, except for work, and Grace was never his biggest fan. He wasn’t a bad man by any means, just not much of one. I really did care for him for a time, but I can’t say my heart was broken when he skipped town to be with some other girl. It was more of a surprise to me than anything else, as I didn’t think he had the courage to do something that bold. Grace said it was a coward’s move and that there shouldn’t be any room in my life for cowards. I knew she was right, except when I get lonely and think about what it would be like to have a man, any man, even a man as cowar
dly as Phil, in my bed at night.

  Anyway, I survived that break up. I kept strong and it turned out fine. I settled into a halfway decent little house close to work and my life returned to normal in every other way. The sun kept shining. The mountains looked as beautiful as ever, more beautiful in fact. Phil ended up returning to town a year after he left, but I didn’t succumb to my loneliness and get back with him. I’d realized that he wasn’t the man for me. I deserved better. I didn’t deserve to be dumped for some other girl. I deserved a man who chose me, and only me, and stood by that decision every day of his life.

  Phil still gives me some trouble in Harry’s bar from time to time, he tries to hit on me, or does something stupid to get a laugh out of his friends, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. For the most part, I ignore him. When he gets really drunk, he says he wants me back. He’d never do anything about it though. And I guess that’s the reason I don’t go back. If he’s not man enough to step up to the plate and take what he wants, then he’s not man enough to have me.

  I was polishing cutlery when the bell over the door chimed for the day’s first customer. Like yesterday and tomorrow, it was Dennis.

  “Morning, ladies. How is everyone’s health today?”

  “Oh, good morning, Dennis,” Grace called out from the grill. “We’re still ticking here. You going to surprise us today, or just stick with the usual eggs and bacon?”

  “Nobody burns it like you, Grace. I’d be a fool to get anything else.”

  “Cup of coffee, Denny, or you had your fill at the shop?” I asked.

  “Never enough, babe. The new guy drinks it as much as me, so I have to rush my way through to get some before it’s all gone. I’m not used to fighting for it, and he’s got more than a few inches on me. Pick your battles, right?”

  I didn’t exactly love it when he called me babe, but I let it go because he was a good man. He didn’t mean anything by it. And he was the fairest mechanic in town. He’d never charged me for the work he did on my beat up excuse for a car after Phil left, and I haven’t charged him for a coffee since. Never the arrangement, I just couldn’t think of a better way to return the favor. I don’t think Grace knew, but if she did, she wouldn’t care. Dennis was in every morning for breakfast and it was a pleasant way for everyone’s day to start.