Page 54 of Secret Vendettay

I expected to hear relief. Instead, it was still anger.

“Problem is, the van I drove here is kind of a…crime scene. So, I’m sort of stuck at Joliet Prison, and I was wondering if…” Ugh, barf tasted better than asking Hunter for help. “Well, I was kind of…”

“Stay there,” he growled. “I’m coming to get you.”

The line went dead.

Yellow tape now wrapped around the area, and folded numbers lay next to evidence while an officer finished documenting it all, her camera clicking.

Tires screeched nearby, followed by the abrupt sound of a car door slamming. Quick footsteps struck the ground with sharp, heavy thuds, just before Hunter Lockwood appeared on the outskirts of the scene. His gaze swept over the circus of police and crime scene tape until it finally zeroed in on me.

Ignoring the police calling his name, Hunter stormed over to where I stood and scanned me up and down.

With clenched fists.

“Hey, thanks for coming to—”

“Is Luna dismissed?” Hunter asked the detective without letting me finish. Or taking his eyes off me.

The detective raised a brow as he glanced at Hunter, then back at me. “We have your statement. I’ll be in touch if we have any follow-up questions.”

Hunter grabbed my hand and began tugging me toward his car.

“Hunter…”

He didn’t stop or look back at me over his shoulder, just stomped through the parking lot, dragging me like a child. By the time we reached his Aston Martin, my confusion gave way to a fiery rage that burned up my core and wrapped around my neck.

Hunter opened his passenger door and glared at me.

“Get in.”

I didn’t appreciate the way he was talking to me, his tone growling and angry. I didn’t appreciate the way he was looking at me, like his gaze could stab daggers through my eye sockets, and I didn’t appreciate his body language, which was possessive and controlling.

And callous.

“Why are you acting like this?” I demanded.

An icy fury frosted through his eyes.

“Get. In.”

I yanked my hand away from his, nearly falling over from the effort it took.

“I thought you’d want to know what happened, but maybe I shouldn’t have called you.”

I took a step around him, but he shot his hand out onto the roof of the car, blocking my path.

“Get in, Luna.” His voice boomed through my skin to my bones. I swear to criminy he hadn’t blinked in, like…ever.

“In case you forgot, I don’t respond well to someone ordering me around.”

Hunter stepped closer until I could smell mint gum on his breath, and could see deeper into his eyes than I ever had before.

I hated that when he was this close to me, it disrupted my normal flow of emotions, like hijacking a frequency and changing its channel. I hated that somethingotherthan anger flashed through me, that my lower belly warmed, curious what he was about to do next.

If he was about to yell at me.

Or kiss me so hard, it’d bruise my lips.