Taken for the Hunt: A Dark Romantic Suspense Read online

  That’s the difference between the two of us. I always stop squeezing, but I don’t think that Nathan will. He loves killing rabbits, goes through them faster than the other three of us combined.

  I’ve had to tell him more than once that he needs to be careful about the rabbits he chooses —that you can’t just take any woman off the street. Only the ones who won’t be missed. Only the ones that you’ve done research on to ensure that they don’t have any family or friends who will raise a fuss.

  I didn’t do that with Natalia but it was only because I couldn’t handle the idea of giving her up. It was stupid and I know it, but it’s worked out for me.

  The last time we went out looking for a rabbit, Nathan almost took someone who would have ruined it all for us. A young mom, probably in her late twenties, had walked by us pushing a stroller. I have no idea how old the kid was, but that’s a rule.

  We don’t fuck with kids.

  Zach had to physically hold Nathan back to keep him from making a move for the mom. She was gorgeous, a long brunette ponytail that swung when she walked, curves for days honed from long hours at the gym.

  She wouldn’t have taken much training, if any, for the hunt.

  But we’d stopped him. Found him a whore standing on the side corner instead. The only person who was going to miss her was her pimp, and I don’t give a shit about those assholes.

  That had also been the time that Nathan broke one of our most important rules. We don’t fuck the rabbits. We don’t sleep with them, don’t make that connection with them. You want to get laid, you find a fucking girlfriend on the main land.

  The rabbits are off the menu.

  Except, from the way he’s looking at Natalia right now, she’s not off his menu. He can read what happened between the two of us and I can tell that he wants to get his dick wet.

  I can’t let that happen.

  “I’m taking the rabbit to dinner,” I say, jerking my head at Natalia to get her to step away from Nathan. “I’ll see you later.”

  “I’ll go with you,” he says, spinning abruptly to stay between the two of us as we walk down the hall. “I have to admit, it’s a relief to know that the two of you were just talking about what a shitty little rabbit she is, because I swear, I thought I saw something else. It almost looked like you were going to kiss her. Isn’t that funny?” He turns to me but doesn’t laugh, his eyes dark.

  “Fucking hysterical,” I tell him. “You need to get your eyes checked because you’re seeing shit.”

  We stop outside the cafeteria and Natalia walks into the room without looking at either one of us. I’m still pissed that she let Owen touch her, but right now I have to keep her safe from Nathan.

  As soon as she’s gone, he turns to me. “Tell me the truth, Marco. You’ve been fucking the rabbit.”

  I do my best to look surprised. “Not a fucking chance, Nathan. It’s against the rules and you know it.”

  “Sure, but it doesn’t have to be. You can’t deny that she’s a hot little rabbit. I bet she has a warm cunt that would feel so good to fuck.” The look on his face makes me want to smack him. He looks thrilled with himself, knowing full well that he’s pushing my buttons.

  But if he knows that I’ve been fucking Natalia then she gets hunted. Tonight. By the other three guys. It was the best system that we came up with to make sure that we we’re all being honest about not sleeping with our rabbits.

  No touching. No fucking. Or they die, and you don’t get the thrill of being the one to do it.

  “I think you’re projecting,” I tell him, throwing my arm around his shoulders to lead him away from the cafeteria. Nathan’s the kind of man who embodies out of sight, out of mind. If I can get him away from Natalia then he’ll forget this conversation. “Besides, aren’t you a little excited about tonight?”

  It’s his night to hunt. He’s been walking around like a fucking rooster all puffed up all afternoon just waiting for it to get dark enough to release his rabbit. I don’t know her name, don’t want to know her name.

  I just know that there’s no way she has a fighting chance to get off the island. Nathan doesn’t give his rabbits enough time to really train and get strong, so by the time they’re set loose, they’re exhausted from training, unsure of what to do, and easy prey.

  Like shooting fish in a barrel.

  “Fuck, you know that I’m excited,” he tells me, his loud voice booming down the hall. Even though Natalia has taken to eating in the cafeteria again, I’m sure that she can hear him bragging. All of the rabbits probably can, including the one he’s going to take down tonight.

  “She’s perfect, Marco. She’s the type of girl that I’d have wanted to pick up when I was younger but she would have turned me down. I want her, man, but I’ll settle with killing her.”

  For the first time since the idea about this island came to me in a daydream, I feel a bit queasy. I know what’s going to happen when Nathan chases his rabbit, but it’s different when I think about the same thing happening to Natalia.

  I’ve bought her a little more time by complaining to the guys about how she’s not progressing enough, but one day she will be the one getting pushed out the door with nothing but a knife for survival.

  The thought of chasing her and hunting her down thrills me, but the thought of doing that and then ending her life at the end of the chase makes me worried.

  I don’t like that feeling.

  “Did you hear a word I just said?” Nathan asks. He’s in front of me, staring at me like I’ve grown another head and I shake mine.

  “Sorry, got lost in my thoughts.”

  “About chasing down your rabbit? I don’t blame you. I know that you told us she needs more time, but I bet that she’s more ready than you’re giving her credit for. You can run her tonight if you want. Double rabbits.”

  He looks thrilled, like a kid given money to go on a shopping spree.

  I shake my head. “You know I like to hunt alone.”

  His face falls and he rolls his eyes. “Whatever. You coming to my party?”

  “Would I miss it?” I ask him, scoffing a little. Honestly, though, I don’t want to go to his pre-game party. I want to make sure that Natalia is okay, see what the fuck Owen was doing putting his hand on her, and then go to bed.

  Instead, though, I follow Nathan into the last room on the hall. The door shuts heavily behind us and Zach and Dale turn to greet us.

  “Are you ready!?” Zach yells, his voice reverberating in the small room. He’s been drinking already and has two shots in his hand. He presses one towards Nathan and one to me and we both take them, throwing them back.

  It burns my throat going down. We love the good whiskey, but on hunting nights it’s time to just drink. Shitty vodka, shitty rum, whatever we want to try while laughing about people actually drinking it on purpose.

  Helen’s made a steak dinner with all the trimmings, and the sight of the loaded baked potatoes and caramelized carrots make my stomach rumble. Grabbing another shot from Zach, I wander over to the table.

  “Let’s eat,” I yell, and the three men cheer.

  I just have to keep them from talking about Natalia. Now that the celebration is focused on Nathan and his rabbit, that should be an easy task. It’s the only way for me to protect her, so I’m willing to do what it takes, even if it means lying to my three best friends.

  Before I can think about the implications of what that means for our friendship, Nathan pounds the table.

  “I have an announcement!” He says, holding up his empty shot glass like a scepter. I watch him, horrified as I see what we’re doing through someone else’s eyes.

  This is insane.

  I love it. I love everything about the hunt.

  But it’s insane.

  “I’m going to kill my sixtieth rabbit tonight,” he crows, slamming his shot glass down on the table.

  Dale and Zach howl and drum the table. I join them, wanting to make sure that I look like I fit in. Th
ey can’t know the truth.

  They just can’t.

  “Sixty?” Dale cries, grabbing his knife and cutting into his steak. “Fucking sixty rabbits. Cleaning up the streets, aren’t you?”

  “I’m doing my best,” Nathan says. “But you boys are, too. Who’s next, by the way?”

  “I think it’s me,” Zach tells him. “Next month when the moon is full since Marco wanted to give his rabbit more time to train. I think mine will be ready.”

  “Marco,” Nathan says calming, taking a bite of steak and then talking around it. “I think that your rabbit is more than ready. You don’t want her to get too strong or cocky, you know. You don’t want her to actually win.”

  “She won’t.” I take a long drink of water, wanting to stay hydrated. I need to be able to think things clearly.

  “She won’t.” Nathan repeats what I say, chewing and then swallowing. There’s a little bit of food on the corner of his mouth and I can’t stop staring at it. “How do you know? How can you be sure?”

  “Marco’s never steered us wrong,” Dale interjects, obviously noticing that something’s up between the two of us but unable to put his finger on it.

  “No,” Nathan says slowly. “He hasn’t, has he? Not yet, anyway.”

  I feel my stomach twist as I meet his gaze.

  He knows and he’s not going to let this go.

  Chapter 23

  Natalia

  I ate everything on my plate to try to push myself over into a food coma so that I could fall asleep tonight and not hear a fucking thing, but ,of course, I can’t sleep.

  It’s like my eyes are pinned awake as I stretch out in bed, moonlight falling straight on my face. I could roll over and try to hide from the light, but it won’t do any good.

  Besides, I almost feel like I need to bear witness.

  I don’t know the woman’s name, don’t even know which of the three are going to be hunted tonight, but I want to be awake for her. It’s the least that I can do on this hell island where nobody is looking out for you and you have to try to keep your wits about you.

  Annoyed that I can’t sleep, I throw back the covers and walk over to the window. The moon is full and swollen, hanging low in the sky and lighting up the entire island. At least she’ll be able to see where she’s going but, on the other hand, so will her hunter.

  Fuck.

  Reaching out, I grab the bars and take a deep breath, leaning my head against them. I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t survive the fall down to the ground if there weren’t bars and I jumped, which makes me wonder — has someone done that?

  Were the bars a later addition to keep rabbits from throwing themselves to their deaths?

  Tears stream down my face as the gravity of my situation once more settles heavy on my shoulders. I feel horrified, unable to dig myself out of the hole I’m in.

  I can’t help her. Can’t help myself. The only people who can help us are the four men and they’re all so fucked up that they think this is a good idea. I squeeze the bars tighter, enjoying the bit of pain that shoots through my arm when I do.

  They all deserve to burn for what they’re doing, even Marco.

  His face swims through my mind and I push it away. I don’t want to think about him, don’t want to think about what it’s like to have his hands on me. He’s kind to me, which is fucked up. He’s protective of me, which I love.

  I hate that I like it. I hate that there’s something about him that I find so sexy. Any normal woman would want to push him away, but I can’t help but want to pull him closer. If we weren’t in this situation, I know that I’d want him. I’d want him to fuck me, claim me, save me.

  I just can’t reconcile the fact that I want the exact same thing right now. I should hate him, and I think that part of me does, but at the same time…

  I want him.

  “Fuck!” I scream, shaking the bars on my window. They don’t rattle, don’t even give way a little bit. “I hate you!” I scream, even though it’s not true.

  I don’t hate Marco.

  I hate the other three men. I hate Becky and Helen and anyone else who cut out their tongue to be a part of this fucking mess. I hate Owen and the other trainers. I hate myself for getting fired, for letting Marco lure me in with his eyes and his tattoos.

  Hate Dina for the way she made me strip off my apron in the middle of the restaurant. I hate every single person who has affected me and pushed me to where I am now. My parents. The people I thought were my friends. Every man who has tried to grope me up when it was dark and they thought I wouldn’t say anything.

  But, try as I might, I don’t hate Marco.

  My feelings for him are confusing and swirling through my mind. I can’t put my finger on them, but I know that it’s not hate.

  It’s something else, maybe even something more dangerous.

  Before I can think about what it is, someone runs by the building and I press my face up against the bars to look down. It’s the woman. She’s dressed in the same black clothes we wear for training and I can see the glint of something in her hand as she runs.

  A knife. She’s holding a knife, running slightly bent over, her arms pumping as she tries to put as much distance between herself and the building as possible.

  “Go, go, go,” I whisper, watching her run across the sand, slowing a little as she loses momentum. She’s not in great shape, and I wonder why they’re hunting her tonight without more training.

  Then I remember Nathan. He just wants to kill.

  My face heats as I press it against the bars. He’s a monster, even more so than Marco. I know that I’m just trying to rationalize what’s happening, but I can’t help it. I can’t help the fact that part of me wants Marco to be a good guy.

  As I watch, a man steps out from the building. He’s dressed all in black, just like the woman, but unlike her, he walks slowly. He’s sure of himself, taking his time as he looks down at the sand, kneeling for a moment to stand back up.

  A chill runs over my body. He’s tracking her and doing a damn good job of it. I feel lightheaded as he takes off in the same direction she did, not slowing down as he goes.

  On his back I can see that he has a long rifle, the barrel of it painted black so that it won’t reflect any of the moonlight as he hunts. He has things strapped to his hips, which I assume are pistols.

  Once I think that he’s going to turn away from the path where she ran, but that’s folly. It’s like he’s following a rope leading straight to the woman. I know in my heart that this isn’t going to take very long, and even though I want to go back to bed, I continue to stand there.

  It doesn’t take very long before I hear a gunshot go off and then he cries out, whooping as he celebrates over her body. They’re out of sight but I can see it happening when I close my eyes.

  I can see him celebrating as he bends over her, making sure that she’s really dead.I don’t want to see him bringing her body back to the building, so that’s when I call it a night and crawl under my blanket.

  I don’t sleep, though.

  I don’t know that I’m ever going to sleep again.

  I don’t want to do yoga, but I contort my body anyway, trying not to pay attention to the two other women in the yoga class. Just like all of the other staff on the island except for the trainers, our yoga teacher has no tongue, so the three of us have to keep an eye on her as she moves through the poses.

  My entire body hurts. I feel like I got hit by a truck but I know that the only reason I feel so bad is because I couldn’t sleep. From the look on the other women’s faces, I’m not the only one in this boat.

  We all look exhausted.

  I stretch my arms over my head, exhaling hard, trying to ground myself. All I can think about is the gunshot last night and how my stomach had dropped like a rock. Marco chased me through the woods that one time and I can’t even begin to imagine the terror that the other woman faced.

  She knew that it was going to end in her death. Just fro
m looking at her I could tell that she didn’t really have a chance.

  Anger rises in me and I exhale hard enough to make the teacher look at me. She tilts her head at me, obviously wondering what my problem is, but because she can’t ask me, I don’t feel like I have to answer her.

  I just have to get through this, have lunch, and get my massage.

  I can do this. All of the feelings I’m having just need to be locked away so that I can focus on survival. I can’t think about the woman who was killed.

  I can’t think about the other women in the room with me. The woman they’re going to go snatch for another hunt.

  I especially can’t think about Marco.

  Of course, he’s who I’m thinking about when the door flies open and he walks in.

  Chapter 24

  Marco

  “It’s my yoga session time,” Natalia had snapped at me, obviously irritated that I’d walk in and pull her out of monkey pose or donkey pose or whatever the fuck they’re doing. Yoga for the rabbits wasn’t my idea and I think it’s stupid, but I was overruled and finally just gave in.

  I told the guys that if they could find a certified yoga teacher who was willing to cut out her tongue for us then we could have classes.

  She’d started a week later, after she’d had a little time to heal from her self-surgery.

  Yoga. It’s a fucking waste.

  “You don’t give a shit about yoga and I know it,” I’d told her, grabbing her by the arm and yanking her out of the room, ignoring the way the teacher looked at me.

  Fuck her. Fuck them all.

  Now Natalia won’t look at me. She’s gazing over my shoulder at something like it’s the most fucking interesting thing she’s ever seen, but it’s just the white wall. She’s just being stubborn.

  “They can’t do that,” she finally tells me after I’ve waited her out. “Owen said that I had months to live. To train.”

  My blood pressure goes up when I hear her mention Owen’s name. My name is supposed to be the only one on her lips. I want to make sure that she only ever says my name, only ever takes my cock into her mouth.