Hunter, p.1
Hunter, page 1
Published by EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ® at Smashwords
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2024 Sam Crescent
ISBN: 978-0-3695-0972-7
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: Lisa Petrocelli
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
HUNTER
Hell’s Bastards MC, 5
Sam Crescent
Copyright © 2024
Prologue
“Fuck me, when did this get so fucking small?” George said as he made his way up into the tree house. There was a time he used to play in this stupid fucking thing, but not in a very, very long time. He had a lot more fun and enjoyable toys to play with. He didn’t believe any of his brothers played in the tree house anymore. They were all too old to enjoy it, but he knew this was exactly where he was going to find his baby sister.
Harlow was a unique person, had always been ever since she was born. He also knew that their mother lied when she claimed to have forgotten to mail out the birthday party invitations. Their mother never forgot something as important as a party, even if it was for Harlow.
It had been a long time since he had been home. In fact, he’d not stepped foot through his parents’ house since he left at eighteen years old to join the Hell’s Bastards MC—one of the best decisions he’d ever made, but one his parents despised him for. They didn’t want their son running with such a horrible gang. George couldn’t help but smile thinking about the insults they had thrown his way. His name wasn’t even George anymore, nope, he went by Big Dick.
“Get out, and you shouldn’t cuss around me. Mom says it will make me less of a lady.”
Big Dick smiled as he heard his baby sister’s voice, and then that smile was gone as he heard the sniffle that told him she’d been crying.
He didn’t like that.
Fuck, no. Not his baby sister.
Climbing up to the entrance of the tree house, he looked inside to find Harlow sitting in the corner, legs pulled up, wearing a pair of jeans, an old t-shirt, her brown hair in two pigtails, which he knew she hated, but their mother insisted on. She looked so adorable.
“Hey, Squirt.” He pulled himself into the tree house, aware of the creaking as he stayed right where he was. His parents would be pissed if he hurt Harlow and broke the tree house. He was shocked it was still standing.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Why not? You love it.”
“Erick said you’re calling me a shit.”
Big Dick smiled. “He said that, huh?”
She nodded.
“Let me guess, Mom didn’t tell him to shut his dirty mouth?” He looked at his sister to see her shrug.
“You know Erick, he always says stuff when she’s not near.”
Or she didn’t want to tell off her precious son. Big Dick didn’t give a fuck. Out of all his brothers, he hated Erick the most. He was a sniveling, conniving, manipulating little shit that pissed him off. He didn’t have any time for him, nor did he care to.
“What are you doing up here all alone?” he asked.
“No one came to my party.”
“Mom forgot to invite them, Squirt.”
“No, she didn’t. They just didn’t want to come because they don’t like me.” She looked down at her knees. “No one likes me.”
“I like you.”
“You’re my big brother, you’re supposed to like me.”
He rolled his eyes. “Actually, it’s a big brother’s prerogative to not like his baby sister. It’s the law. Trust me.” He winked at her.
Harlow smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Yeah, you do.”
Harlow pursed her lips and then looked over to him. “How do you make friends?”
“How do I make friends?” he asked, repeating the question.
“Yeah, how do you do it?”
He looked at Harlow and took a deep breath. “You’ve got to be yourself, Squirt.”
“No one likes me.”
“I like you.”
“But you’re not at school.” She pouted.
“Then you don’t need anyone. If no one can see how amazing you are, then they’re not worth your time.”
“Mom hates me.”
“Fuck her,” Big Dick said.
Harlow giggled and he ran a hand down his face.
“It doesn’t matter what anyone says or thinks. Friends are made as you get older. I don’t hang with any of the fuckers I went to school with. They went off and did their own shit and one day, you will as well.” He held his hands open. “And guess what, I’ll still be your friend. You’ve always got me, Squirt.”
“Promise?”
“Promise. Nothing is ever going to stop me from being your friend. I’ll take care of you. Look out for yourself, but don’t stop being you. You wear your jeans and say the shit you want. No matter what, got it?”
“Got it.”
She crawled across the tree house and curled up against his side. “Thank you.”
“Happy Birthday, Harlow.” He kissed the top of her head.
Big Dick loved his little sister. From the moment his mom gave birth, he had promised to take care of her, and he would do that.
Chapter One
“Ouch, motherfucker!” Harlow pulled her finger back and immediately stuck it in her mouth. She did not enjoy the metallic taste of her own blood. “Do you think if vampires existed, there would be one that was repulsed by the sight and taste of blood?” She turned toward Ava and saw her question made absolutely no sense to her friend and boss.
“Huh?”
“Cut myself is all.” It was on a cardboard box. She looked down at her finger to see a small cut, but the blood had stopped.
“And how do you go from cutting yourself to vampires?” Ava asked.
“Blood. You know the sustenance of our undead best friends.”
“I wonder at times.”
Harlow laughed. Hearing Ava say stuff like that was funny, now if it came from her mother, that would be a whole other story. Thinking about her mother would risk putting her in a bad mood, and she didn’t want to be upset so she quickly cut those thoughts from her mind.
She looked over toward Ava who pressed the back of her hand against her mouth as if she couldn’t quite handle the potential sickness.
“Are you still feeling queasy after eating Abriana’s pumpkin pie?” Harlow asked. She felt herself feeling sick just at the thought. For Christmas, she’d been invited to hang out at the Hell’s Bastards MC clubhouse, provided she helped Smokey set up the perfect Christmas for Ava.
Everything was going smoothly, apart from the whole Hunter-being-a-dick problem, but she could handle dickless assholes, even ones that were not her six brothers. No, what started to make everything fall apart was Ava being convinced she and Smokey were having an affair. Ew, gross.
She did not think of Smokey in a sexual way. She knew there were a lot of women who would do anything to get with Smokey. However, she knew for a fact that after Smokey’s ginormous fuck-up the first time around—not that she knows a lot about it—he’d never do that to Ava. That guy loved her. There was no denying it.
Glancing over at her best friend, she saw Ava’s eyes were closed.
“If you could just give me a moment,” Ava said. She stepped away from the counter and quickly disappeared into the bathroom.
The front of Ava’s Bakery was unmanned, and her boss was currently throwing her guts up. They ate the pie a week ago. It was now the new year, and she didn’t understand how her friend could still be feeling ill. Glancing through the door, she saw there was no customers and there didn’t seem to be anyone waiting to come into the bakery. She rushed toward the bathroom, swung open the door, and then tried to help Ava the best way she could.
The smell was gross, no doubt about it. Swooping up the woman’s hair, she held it out of the way, and tried to help without causing more trouble. She was so close to throwing up herself. Harlow gritted her teeth and rubbed at the woman’s back.
“It’s okay. I promise you, it’s going to be okay.” She had no idea what she was saying, but it felt like the right thing. “I won’t tell Abriana, but I tell you what, with how bad her pie has affected us, it does make me wonder, how is Ugly Beast not, like, super thin? Is he eating someone else’s pie, and I don’t mean that to be cruel.”
Ava pulled away, dropped the toilet lid, and then reached up to flush. Harlow still held onto her hair.
“It’s okay, Harlow. It’s fine.”
“If it’s not the pie, then what could it be? Are you ill? Sick? I don’t know what to do. Should I call Smokey? He gave me his number and told me not to fucking bother him, but you’re like his wife, and you know, I think he would want to know if you’re sick. Maybe I should call you an ambulance!”
“Stop,” Ava said, and laughed. “It’s fine. It is all fine. If you just give me a minute, everything will be fine.” She sat on the floor but had moved to lean up against the wall. “Will you go and keep an eye on the main coun ter? I don’t want anyone to think they can come and steal our cream buns.”
Harlow looked back toward the main counter. She hadn’t heard anyone come through the main door, but then she wasn’t paying much attention to it, because she was more focused on her bestie and not allowing anything bad to happen to her. If something hurt Ava, it didn’t matter that her brother was part of the MC club, that would be a certain death sentence. Smokey would kill her. She would want to kill herself but that didn’t matter.
“I’m fine, Harlow. Really, I just need a moment.”
Harlow wanted to argue, but she heard the doorbell ring, which alerted her to someone entering the shop. She had no choice but to go and do what her boss was telling her, even though it was the last thing she wanted.
Stepping toward the counter, she had every intention of upsetting the customer, only to find a mother and young daughter. The small girl had her hands pressed against the glass, and she looked inside at all the bake treats as if they were some kind of miracle. There was no way she was going to be rude to this woman, or upset that little girl.
She smiled at the two, and then asked them politely what they wanted. The girl couldn’t decide if she wanted a cookie or a muffin or a slice of cake.
It took a good ten minutes, and then, finally, the young girl picked a double-chocolate-chip muffin, while the mother went for a cookie. She bagged the items, rang them up, and as she finished serving, Ava came out of the bathroom, looking a hell of a lot better than when she went in.
“How are you feeling?” Harlow asked. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Truly, I’m fine. I will be.”
“You know people don’t just randomly throw up, and then you know, seem okay.” Harlow frowned and then glanced down at Ava’s stomach. “Unless…”
“Don’t worry about it, Harlow.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“I don’t know what I am,” Ava said, pushing some hair off her face.
Harlow didn’t know what to say, which was rare. She normally had something to say about everything. “Are you happy to be pregnant?”
“I don’t know if I am pregnant.”
“You don’t know? How can you not know?” Harlow was getting even more confused. Actually, this was helping her to not think about another problem.
“I’ve not taken a test. I … I’m not sure. It might be a stomach bug or something.”
“You don’t suddenly feel fine and then vomit and feel fine with a stomach bug. Do you want me to go and get you a test? I can.”
Ava held her hand up and laughed. “And how long before Big Dick turns up, asking who the father is?”
Harlow frowned. “Why would my brother care if you’re pregnant?”
“Not me, you.”
Harlow took a second, and then she understood what her best friend was saying. “Ah, right, because of the town gossip and crap like that. “Yeah, yeah, I totally get it.” She let out a chuckle. She hadn’t even considered people gossiping about her. Other than working for Ava, she hadn’t done anything of significance. She was just the crazy daughter of the Erickson clan, which was kind of funny to her. She had a brother called Erick Erickson. Always made her laugh, which pissed him off.
She’d not seen Erick in a few months. The last time had been at the hospital, where he had shown genuine concern for her. She hated him. Out of all her brothers, he was the one she disliked the most. The others were just selfish assholes, while George—Big Dick—she had always been close to.
“I’m not pregnant. I’m not even dating anyone.” She refused to think about him. The one man she couldn’t quite seem to help herself from thinking about. A certain MC VP who goes by the name of Hunter.
The last time she had seen him it had been … her lips tingled just remembering, and the words he spoke to her. They held a promise. “I want so fucking bad to see just how sweet that mouth of yours is. To know if your cunt is as tight as I figure it would be, and your ass, I want to know if you want to be dirty with me as I take your ass.”
Then Christmas had come, and for some reason, they hadn’t been able to talk, or do anything. Just that one kiss, which was actually her first kiss, but she wasn’t going to let him know that. He didn’t need to know that she never went on dates, nor enjoyed chasing boys, or that kind of stuff.
“But your brother might think you’re hiding something and I don’t want to cause any trouble.”
She wanted to argue that it was no trouble at all, but Big Dick could be a giant pain in the ass when he wanted to be.
“I still think I should call Smokey.”
Ava sighed. “I intend to go and get a pregnancy test after work. Smokey is watching Umberto at the moment.”
“I can watch the shop while you go and check.”
Her boss winced.
Harlow rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to the local pharmacy, are you?”
“I can’t sneeze without Smokey knowing about it, and if I am pregnant, then I want to … you know, I want to be prepared and maybe even tell him. The last time I found out I was pregnant, it was so different.” Ava wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t want this time to be like that.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
There was no time to talk anymore as the lunch rush hour started, and both of them were swamped. Harlow was thankful for the distraction. She didn’t want to think about what Hunter was doing, and it was nice to worry about her friend. She adored Ava.
She considered Ava, Raven, and Abriana close friends, and in recent days, she had also gotten close to Larissa. She was the preacher’s daughter, who was so sweet and fun to be around.
Harlow wasn’t used to having friends. She wasn’t used to being close to anyone. After the lunch hour, she was exhausted, and it was also her break, which Ava sent her on. Normally, she stuck around, ate her lunch, and talked with Ava. Today, she didn’t have time to make any lunch.
After getting a job with Ava, she had kind of rushed things at home. She didn’t want to live with her parents anymore, and as soon as she could, she’d rented a place, only … it sucked. The other problem was the rent was so high that she was already behind, running up debt, and her whole paycheck was going toward trying to stay out of her mother’s home. Food was not much of an option.
She refused to tell Big Dick, and she would never go home and ask for help.
Harlow had gotten herself into the bind, and she’d get herself out of it. So far, she’d avoided the landlord, and had been trying to make her wage stretch by paying him every week.
She didn’t have any food at home, and the leftovers she’d taken from the clubhouse had run out. She wasn’t due to get paid until Friday. She shouldn’t eat, but she was starving, so she made her way across the street, toward the diner. Being a vegan had its perks, as she knew a large plate of fries was cheap and vegan, and suited her diet. If her mother learned of her predicament, she’d complain that her diet was too extravagant, and not about the ridiculous rental fee.
There had been several times she’d looked at her brother and wondered if she should ask him for advice. She didn’t want him to deal with it, but advice would be good as she didn’t know if the rental fee was fair or not. But she knew he would just take over and handle it for her, which she didn’t want. She could take care of herself, and she didn’t need anyone to do that for her.
Stepping into the diner, she saw it was still busy but she was able to find a small table. She took a seat, ordered a large plate of fries, and then waited, pulling out her cell phone. Finding Smokey’s number, she was tempted to text him but immediately shot that idea down, and then dropped her phone.
She glanced around the diner, not really paying attention to anyone or anything. Every time the door opened, a gust of cold air circled her ankles. She was tempted to pull her jacket on, but she instead folded her arms and waited.
As she sat waiting, she couldn’t help but think about Hunter. He was wrong for her in so many ways, she knew that, and she had a feeling he knew that as well. They were wrong for one another, but that didn’t stop her from fantasizing about him.
