things that would probably haunt her for years to come.
“No, I’m sure that you’re more than capable of having the house cleaned and put back together before tomorrow morning,” her new boss said with an evil smile that told her exactly what she should expect for the next twelve months.
Hell, pure hell.
Chapter 4
The first day of hell, Hunter told himself, and only three hundred and sixty-four more days to go. With that really fucking depressing thought, he threw his covers aside, sat up, and switched the alarm clock off before it had a chance to go off.
Rubbing his hands down his face, Hunter climbed out of bed and walked to the bathroom, noting the time and wishing that getting up at five every morning was a habit that he could break, but his years as a Marine had guaranteed that he’d be getting up every morning before five until the day he died. When he was a kid, he used to sleep well past noon no matter if it was a school day or the weekend, it never mattered, because no one had fucking cared enough to bother with him.
His parents had been too busy with their fucked-up marriage to notice him and his teachers were always relieved when he didn’t show up for school. Hunter did what he wanted, when he wanted until he was seventeen and convinced his parents that they’d all be better off if he left home. He’d appreciated the fact that they’d pretended to care and even put in a little effort to try and convince him that they wanted him to stay. But, in the end, they’d simply agreed that there was no real future for him at home and signed the papers so that he could join the Marines.
It was probably the smartest and dumbest thing that he’d ever done in his life, but it made him the man that he was today. Unfortunately, it hadn’t helped with his temper. If anything, his years in the Marines seemed to have honed his anger into something that he could use to push himself harder and faster so that nothing and no one could fucking touch him.
At times, Hunter felt invincible, and other times like now, when he’d fucked up his life once again, he felt like the biggest fucking loser alive. Pushing away those negative thoughts, because he knew that they wouldn’t do anything but hold him back, he grabbed a pair of gym shorts, socks, and his running shoes and got dressed.
Five minutes later, he was in the home gym that he’d set up last week, running on the treadmill and going numb as he pushed himself through his routine. He ran five miles on the treadmill, lifted weights for thirty minutes, and drank a protein shake he’d grabbed from the mini-fridge as he headed back to his room. After a hot shower, he changed his clothes, headed downstairs and frowned when he spotted the cute little thing that he was stuck with dragging a large black trash bag towards the front door.
Hunter noted that her hair was a mess and that her clothes were wrinkled and stained with God only knows what as she continued to drag that bag down the hallway through the surprisingly clean foyer. There was still damage to the walls, but he hadn’t really expected miracles. Actually, he hadn’t expected much at all. He’d figured that she’d throw a fit, bitch and whine, and say the hell with this job and split.
Okay, so if he was actually going to be honest with himself, he’d admit that he’d completely forgotten about her and his asinine orders for her to clean the house. Hunter stood on the stairs for another minute wondering if he should tell her that the cleaning crew that he’d hired before he’d decided to throw his farewell to freedom party would be here in less than two hours to clean the house from top to bottom and fix any damage the assholes that he’d invited into his house had caused last night.
As he watched her struggling to drag that overfilled trash bag to the door that had to weigh more than she did, he simply shrugged and headed towards his office, reminding himself that he really didn’t fucking care if she’d wasted her entire night cleaning up after him.
*-*-*-*
She could not afford a ten-thousand dollar fine…
She could not afford a ten-thousand dollar fine…
She could not afford a ten-thousand dollar fine, Kylie kept chanting in her head