Dreadnought (Nemesis #1)(86)

Maybe after a drink or two.

Or five.

I wouldn’t listen to alcohol, though, because it led to lots of bad decisions.

“I …” I suddenly noticed the scenery change. Pine trees were exchanged for cement buildings, lampposts, and stores.

I turned to look out the windows and found myself surrounded. Fellpeak was all around me, and I had the horrible feeling it would never let me go again.



I’m going to hyperventilate. Or puke. Or both.

It hadn’t escaped my notice that Hunter had started a conversation to try to calm me down, and ever since I stopped talking, he had tried to restart it. I couldn’t reply, though, for fear it would be the cereal bar I had eaten at the last gas station.

Instead, my fingers bore down on the edges of his seat, not caring if I made holes in it. After all, it was his fault for kidnapping me.

It would have been better if the town had changed in the years I had been gone. But not even the yolk blotches on Mr. Jefferson’s house from when my friends had thrown eggs at it on Halloween had disappeared. Well, I didn’t do it. Even though it was amusing to see him all riled up, he was a nice man … to his cat, not other people, which was fine by me.

I watched the small market setting up under the cover of dawn. At least travelling in the early morning gave me some coverage. I hated the idea of being spotted by someone who would recognize me. Gossip spread fast in towns like these, and if someone saw me in Hunter’s truck, it wouldn’t take long to get to everyone I had ever known.

Despite the fact I hadn’t seen my friends or family in all the years I had been gone, I wasn’t keen to meet up with them. Therefore, I was overjoyed when Hunter continued past the center of town and then some, until there were only a few houses on the outskirts.

He pulled onto a small gravel road, parking in front of a house that screamed modern, yet was warm at the same time. It had dark-tinted glass windows with wood panels. The shape of the house was miss-matched with three different levels of roofing and an oak-stained chimney rising out of the lower roof. The roofing platforms came out over the edges of the building, providing shelter over the introverted doorway where marble stone spheres lined the steps up to the house.

I had been hoping he had a horrible house with beer and broken windows so I could complain about it enough to insist on having to move into a more “child-proof” and anti-broody men apartment. However, that would mean moving closer into the town, which I wasn’t ready for. Not to mention, my absence of money.

While my conscience battled between awe and disgruntlement, Hunter had already gotten out of the truck and was opening the boot, dragging the pink suitcase and bag out of the back.

I quickly undid my seatbelt, settling on the slight hope that the inside wasn’t as stunning as the outside, and slipped out of the truck. Adair had fallen asleep again, so I made sure to be quiet as I slipped the straps of his car seat over his arms and chest and scooped him up.

Unfortunately, Adair had been one of those chubby babies, and even now, his dead weight was only possible because of the mommy muscles I had built picking him up for the last three and a half years.

I kicked the door shut with my foot and almost unbalanced myself before following Hunter, who had long since reached the front door and was putting the keys into the lock.

He opened the door and marched in without waiting for me, leaving the door wide open so I didn’t have to use my hands, not that I could without dropping Adair. Although I wasn’t sure why Hunter was so mad at the world, I didn’t want to test out my theories on my baby boy.

Another Noble was a gift, and though I had only known Hunter for eighteen hours, I wasn’t exactly sure that another one of him would be quite as pleasant.

My hopes withered, as I expected them to, when I stepped into the architectural mastery of the interior. It had smooth black marble floors with a rug by the front door and carpet in the sitting area with a black leather couch and two smaller, wing-backed chairs adjacent. The kitchen was an open floorplan next to the sitting area with sleek marble tops and light oak cabinets with a huge double-sided stainless steel fridge. There was also another sitting area farther back, with a television and fireplace.

None of those were the best part. The best part was the glass hexagon greenhouse in the center of the house. It didn’t have roof, allowing the weather to seep in. The small light pods showed a wilderness of exotic flowers that budded in the dark, decorated with unusual colors.

And everything was super clean. Like, neat freak clean.

Hunter looked back at me as I tried to scoop my jaw off the floor. Then he turned toward the wooden steps, which doubled as a storage compartment, before gesturing for me to follow.

I was slow and careful going up the steps, trying to keep my balance steady as I lugged Adair up.

At the top was a simple wooden hallway with three doors. Two doors on one side, and one on the other side.

Hunter waited at the top, empty of any luggage, gesturing toward the first door. “That’s the bathroom you’ll be using. It has a shower and a bathtub.” Then he pointed at the last door. “That’s your room, as well as Adair’s. I’ve already put your stuff in there.” Which meant the other door was his.

Something about the bedroom taking up the expanse of one wall had all sort of ideas wandering through my head about what he kept in there. Maybe it was simply spacious … Maybe not.