Hunter - Blaire Drake Page 0,27

showed me a voicemail.

I frowned and unlocked it, then dialed to retrieve it.

“One new message, left today, at two twenty seven, p.m.” Beep, and then the voice I didn't expect to hear traveled down the line. “We need to talk. Meet me at El Matador beach at nine o'clock tonight. It's just north of Malibu. And secluded, so if you want to kill me, it's the perfect location.”

I shook my head, but my lips twitched. Damn—she'd always been ballsy, but now Adriana Romano was staring death in the face, and she was fucking taunting him.

Of course she was. It was in her blood.

I went into the call log and tapped her number, then hit 'message' on the menu.

Hunter: You're playing with fire, Principessa.

Her reply was instant. Almost as if she'd been waiting for me.

Adriana: Wrong. I AM fire. Try not to get burned, Cacciatore.

Cacciatore. Hunter.

I put my phone face down as the word echoed in my mind. She was the only person who ever called me Cacciatore.

Just like I was the only person who ever called her Principessa.

If any part of my dark soul wasn't tainted with blood, I was sure it was the part that still loved her.

***

The sun was just beginning its descent toward the horizon as I turned off the Pacific Highway. The sky was currently painted with a golden glow that hinted at hues of red and pink and even purple, and I was thankful for my dark glasses.

The sun always seemed brightest as it gave way to darkness.

Ironic.

I pulled up near El Matador and killed the engine of the bike I'd rented after Adriana left me that message. I'd heard a million times that the best and only way to drive the coast of California was on the back of a bike, and I was fully aware I may never get to do it again.

I kicked the stand down and got off the bike. The steps that lead down to the tiny cove were only feet away from me, and I could see a sleek, red Audi parked next to them. That had to be Adriana's car, so I walked to the steps and started down them.

I saw her instantly.

She was sitting on one of the rocks with her back to me. Her hair blew in the gentle breeze that carried in off the Pacific, and she reached up several times to push it away from her face. By the time I reached the bottom of the steps, she'd swept it all around one side of her neck and was turned slightly into the wind.

My cock throbbed at the memory of my shower earlier that day. I was even more disgusted in myself as I watched her sitting in complete silence.

She looked like... peace. I knew she was anything but. She was chaos and danger and temptation threaded with darkness.

Adriana. Darkness. Scuro.

It made no sense that the sweetest person I'd ever known meant darkness.

Yet my name, Carlo, meant free man, and I was the furthest thing from it. I was owned in my entirety by the man whose darkness bled into the girl sitting a few meters away from me.

I didn't want to speak to her. I wanted to stand here and stare at her. Just stare. She calmed the tornado that was my soul, and she had no idea.

Her name meant darkness, but she was gray compared to me. I was darker than she knew.

I didn't want to taint her with my damaged existence.

“I know you're there.” Her voice carried over the quiet crashing of the waves. “For an assassin, your approach resembles an angry toddler's.”

Chapter Seven – Adriana

I watched as nature took hold of its sun-shaped paintbrush and dragged it down the sky toward the sea. Each inch painted the blue sky in shades of yellow, orange, red, and pink. They all mingled together like a watercolor painting, except this one glowed. It reflected up off the ocean and across the billions and billions of grains of sand that coated the beach.

The gentle lapping of the waves against the shore calmed me. I knew sitting with my back to the entrance to the beach was risky, but if Carlo was coming with a gun, I didn't want to see it. I didn't want the opportunity to look into his eyes and see the very thing I'd feared he'd become.

I'd told everyone I wasn't scared, but I was. Just not of the things they thought.

Death? No. I didn't fear death. A part of me