When I'm With You (Little Hollow Series, #2)(67)

His chest heaves up and down and I take Keeley’s wheelchair off the terrified looking nurse. I eye the two cops standing with hands ready to grab their guns at any sign of trouble and tip my head to them. “How about we take this somewhere private?”

“There’s a room just up here,” Keeley sighs out.

I turn my back to Pres against my better judgement, and start wheeling Keeley away from the stares of them all.

“I can talk for myself.”

“I know that but the situation needed defusing. You’re either real stupid for coming out here or real brave.”

“We’ll go with both,” she quips.

Her lip curls up and I shake my head at her ability to make jokes at a time like this.





I’m putting on a brave front, but all I want to do is find somewhere to hide until this all blows over. Everyone looked furious when I rolled up, the only thing stopping them from doing something to me was the two cops who turned up at the right time. In the past hour, I’d found out that Hunter was alive, that he still really cared for me even after nearly four years, and that my feelings for him haven’t diminished any either. And on top of that, I’m just about to face my dad again for the first time since he eighty-sixed me from the club, his house, my work, the whole fucking area I only ever knew.

Hunter wheels me into the room the cops took my statement in and Hernandez and Daniels stand out in the hallway, giving me a look that says they’re not going anywhere if I need them.

He takes us into the far corner and chooses to stand next to me. My fingers grip my knee as my dad files in but he tried to stop the other guys from following him in. “This is a private matter.”

“The hell it is! This is club business, we all were fuckin’ interrogated, not just you!” Grim sneers.

My brow furrows, what is he talking about?

“Let them stay,” I say, sounding braver than I feel.

I feel Hunters eyes on me but I ignore his questioning look, may as well get this over and done with. I tense as Jacques’ eyes meet mine, a pitiful expression crosses his features. He must only be… eighteen now but he’s so tired looking it makes him look a lot older than he is. The club pressure is obviously getting to him like it did Hunter. I should feel nothing but hatred toward him, but he looks like nothing more than a frightened boy in a man’s body.

I specifically left out the part in my statement that I knew it wasn’t my Uncle who had taken me, they’d just assumed it was, so I never corrected them. I knew what club life was like, you had to do things you didn’t want to do at times, and I can tell looking at him now that he feels nothing but remorse and guilt.

Everyone chooses to stand apart from Jojo who sits in a chair on the left side of the room and gives me a quick wink, he’s always been one of the only ones that I liked out of all of the brothers. He’s like the class clown that all the ladies love to hate. He’d never settled down, well, he hadn’t when I was still about, and it doesn’t look like he’s changed one bit apart from a rounder belly.

Hunter’s voice breaks my thoughts. “Y’all just gonna stand there like a pack of wolves, or you gonna sit the fuck down?”

I’m impressed at how authoritative he sounds and everyone but my dad sits down.

They seem to be in a staring contest and I roll my eyes. “For fuck sake, this isn’t a pissing contest. If you’ve come to say something to me, just say it.”

Dad’s eyes linger on Hunter for a couple more seconds before he looks at me and his face softens ever so slightly. “You look a mess.”

I roll my eyes. “Ever the confidence builder, now let’s get to what you’re really here for.”

“You killed my brother,” he states, but he doesn’t seem angry.

He knows the answer but he wants to hear me say it. I puff out my chest as my eyes bore straight into his. “I did. And I’d do it again.”

His eyes flit over my body and back to my face. “How?”

He says it as if someone as small as me could never overpower someone his size. I can see his fists are clenching and unclenching as he uses his peripheral vision to eye Hunter beside me. It clicks, he thinks I’m covering for him, fine, I’ll give him what he wants.

“While he was too busy groping me, whispering how he was going to gut me and kill me just like he did mom, he got sloppy. I noticed a knife sheathed in his belt and decided I wasn’t going down without a fight. I grabbed it, broke his nose, and dug that knife deep to the hilt, right into his chest. His blood ran down my arm as I watched every inch of his worthless life drain out of his eyes. That what you wanted to hear, dad?”

His face pales and everyone in the room is deathly silent apart from Hunter that releases a low growl.

“Your mom?” Dad whispers.

I nod and squeeze my eyes shut, I still haven’t processed that properly. “I’m not talking about this in front of everyone.”

Trent, Hunter’s dad, walks up and grasps Hunter on the shoulder. “Proud of you, Bear.”

Even Hunter looks confused at that but doesn’t say anything as he watches his dad walk out of the room, Jacques and Jojo following behind them. My dad turns to the other three men. “Means you too.”

They stand up warily but eventually leave the room so there’s only me and my dad with Hunter standing over me like a guard dog.