A Hunter Within (The Alliance of Power Duology, Book 1) Read online

  His laugh rang out, and it was the most beautiful sound—full of joy—and I couldn’t help joining in.

  “So, what were you thinking about?” he said, taking a seat on one of the benches on the course.

  I approached and took a seat next to him. “Honestly, I don’t normally spend a lot of time with people outside of my few close friends. I have always had more important things going on, or at least things I thought were more important.” I paused, glancing over to see him watching me, looking like he was truly interested and listening to what I had to say, which gave me confidence to continue. “I’ve lived my life very focused on accomplishing the goals I set out for myself. It’s the only way I thought I could connect with my parents.

  “I’ve always believed this path would make them proud and that it would make me feel like I was part of them in a way I haven’t felt before. Something has always been missing from who I am, and I thought working hard and trying to get the best job possible was the one way I could fill that void.”

  “That’s a lot to be thinking about during a game of putt-putt,” he teased gently and leaned back against the bench. “But, I can tell you I know what you mean. It has been a very long time since I’ve done anything for myself. Normally, I’m only focused on my work. It’s all I have besides my brother, and it’s the most important thing. People depend on me, and there’s nothing more significant in my mind. Nothing has seemed to be worthy enough of my time besides that.” He looked over at me and gave me a sad smile.

  “Do you not enjoy what you do?” I watched as his eyes filled with something strange, not regret but perhaps loneliness.

  He quirked his eyebrow up at my question and tilted his head. “I do, it’s not that. I just struggle with it sometimes. Like I said, I know it’s important. I just don’t necessarily think I’m the best suited for the role,” he answered with an honesty in his voice that saddened me.

  “And who do you think is best suited?”

  He turned to study me again, and the corners of his lips rose. “You are full of questions. My hole in one was supposed to give me that honor.”

  “Sorry,” I responded but didn’t take it back.

  He considered me for a moment and then continued. “In my opinion, my brother would be better at the job. He’s extremely charismatic. People tend to like to be around him and they listen to him. I can be …” he said, pausing. He ran his fingers through his hair, staring out at the empty course for a minute before coming back to the conversation. “Reckless. I let my emotions take control sometimes without thinking. I can also be easily angered. I’ve been known to be too passionate if there’s a cause I believe in, which isn’t always the best way to handle things when you’re in charge.”

  I nodded thoughtfully. “Did your parents tell you they wanted you to take over?”

  “I’m the oldest so it falls to me naturally, and yes, they had talked about it before everything happened.”

  “Well, then maybe they saw something in you that you’re not seeing in yourself, yet,” I suggested.

  “Maybe, or they were just following tradition,” he countered, leaning his forearms onto his legs and clasping his hands in front of him.

  My eyebrows drew together as I watched this man who seemed so self-confident share something he probably didn’t talk about much, and I suddenly felt a strong need to understand why he felt the way he did. “Were your parents good at running the company?” I asked after a few moments of silence.

  “Some people say they were the greatest to have ever been in charge,” he said, almost wistfully.

  “Then perhaps you should trust their judgement a little more,” I suggested softly, and he turned his face slightly to look at me. “If they hadn’t wanted you to take over, I’d imagine they would have said something to you at some point, or left the company to your brother in the by-laws. Maybe the charismatic younger brother is exactly the kind of person they wanted at the side of their reckless older son. Besides, I don’t necessarily see what the problem is to be passionate, especially when you’re managing people. People need to see that you care.”

  “The problem comes when you make reckless choices that can destroy people’s lives,” he said, sounding more distant from me and from the conversation.

  “Are you doing things that affect people’s lives like that?”

  He just looked back to the ground, and my heart constricted. I wasn’t sure what it was about Seeley, but the more time we talked, the more it seemed like he was, in fact, lonely. Whatever burden was weighing on him was much heavier than he let on. He covered it well with a confident façade, but beneath it all, he was just a man and one who had some doubts about whatever path he was on. At the very least, I could relate to the weight of wanting desperately to make your parents proud and never knowing if you were really accomplishing that since they weren’t there to tell you.

  “I don’t know much about you, Seeley,” I said, placing my hand on his arm. “What I do know is that you had no idea who I was and you helped me, and maybe saved me from getting seriously hurt not once, but twice. If you would do that for a complete stranger, I can’t imagine how well you’d take care of the people that are invested in you and in your company.”

  He turned fully now, gazing at my face intently, and I felt the all-familiar blush that seemed to be forever around in his presence coming back to my cheeks. “I guess I haven’t ever looked at it that way before.”

  “Maybe you should,” I said, gently nudging him.

  “You are not what I expected, Jules Parker.”

  I laughed out loud, albeit a bit too loud from some of the nerves his smoldering look had brought up inside of me. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “You should.” Seeley leaned closer, and I immediately stopped breathing. We were frozen in place, and I searched his eyes, not knowing what was about to happen, but feeling a pull that I couldn’t explain.

  “I should get you home before it gets too late,” he said, breaking the tension that had been building between us. He suddenly seemed extremely uncomfortable being here. He straightened up but turned back and offered me his hand. I took it and was shocked by the electric current I felt when our fingers touched, one I’d felt with him before when we first met. I let go as soon as I was on my feet. I noticed him frowning slightly and wondered if I had said something wrong.

  We headed back to his car, and I remembered I needed to make a stop.

  “Shoot,” I said. “Henry is saving a book for me at the library. I need it to finish a paper that’s due tomorrow. Can you just drop me off there?”

  “I’ll go with you. It’s really not safe to be out walking alone at night,” he scolded.

  Didn’t I know it?

  We drove in silence for a few minutes longer, and I wondered how to start talking about everything I’d learned at Falcone and the pieces of this puzzle I had yet to solve. Seeley had opened up to me, and I wanted to confide in him with this.

  “Is there something on your mind?” he asked with a stolen glance, and his lips turned upward, showing off a dimple. Whatever strangeness had been present before had faded again, and he seemed back to normal.

  I was surprised he had noticed my need to talk; then again, I had been ringing my hands together and biting my cheek again. I guess it wouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist to figure out something was on my mind.

  “Yes, actually,” I quickly replied, glad he gave me the opening I needed. “I just don’t want to sound like I’m being too dramatic for nothing.”

  “Well, we won’t know until you start talking,” he said, urging me to open up.

  So, I did.

  “The man from last week is bothering me,” I blurted out and watched Seeley’s face as he drove. He didn’t give anything away that might let me know what he thought about all of it, so I continued, easing into it. “He seemed distressed, and I don’t understand what kind of testing he would have been a part of that would have allowed someone to become th
at upset,” I said.

  I shook my head, suddenly nervous to share so much with him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t bore you with my work stuff.”

  “Jules, you just gave me a pep talk about my entire life.” He laughed. “I’m here and I’m all ears. Tell me what’s bothering you. I’m a good listener.” He smiled and held out his hand.

  I stared at it for a second and felt silly at how comforting the promise of simply holding his hand was. I took it in mine and felt some strength from the action. For some reason, I had a sneaking suspicion Seeley wouldn’t think I was losing my mind.

  As we made our way to the library, I told him everything. Things I had kept inside since the first incident occurred at Falcone came pouring out—from the blood sample and the folder contents, to what I saw in the room. I knew I shouldn’t be sharing all of it, but Seeley saw the man himself. What harm could it really do? I didn’t pay attention to his reactions and got caught up in unloading all of my emotions from the past few weeks. When I finally stopped and caught my breath, I looked at him.

  His features had darkened. His eyes changed, almost looking blackened instead of their normal blue, even though I knew that wasn’t possible. When he realized I had stopped talking, he looked at me and softened his gaze.

  “Today I found something that really is eating at me, though,” I continued, ignoring the glimpse of emotion that had flashed on his face.

  He pulled into the parking lot behind the library, and we got out of the car. Side by side, we slowly made our way toward the library building.

  “In his file in the official system, there’s an entry from last Friday, after he left the facility. It said subject success, trial complete. Seeley, they marked his case as a success!” I started to get a bit worked up and stopped our progress toward the building. We weren’t that far away anyway, and I paced back and forth.

  He watched me as I continued my rant.

  “What kind of organization would do that? Obviously, it wasn’t a success. He could have hurt himself or others. But if anyone sees that note tied to the trial, they’ll use that drug on others. There’s nothing in there that says it’s dangerous, or any side effects, and they aren’t mentioning he fled and never came back.” I took some deep breaths as Seeley just watched me. He had a look in his eyes that encouraged me to continue. His presence reassured me in a way I hadn’t expected.

  “I thought this would make my parents proud, and I’ve convinced myself this was where I should be, but then I’m there and have this strange nagging in my gut that maybe I’m not around as many good people as I think, or thought, I would be. And the feeling of being complete that I thought I’d have is still missing, and I’m sure it’s because this isn’t sitting right with me.”

  “That would be a hard situation for anyone to deal with, especially after seeing what you did,” Seeley said with a sudden steeled grimace set on his face. I wasn’t sure what he was actually thinking.

  I started my nervous habit of chewing on my cheek again. “So what do I do?” I asked, confused and now, exasperated. “Am I a bad person if I work for a company that might be doing bad things?”

  “If you had asked me that question before tonight, I would have said yes,” he replied, but he reached over and titled my chin up so I was looking at him. “Now, I don’t know the answer. I don’t think you could be a bad person if you tried, Parker. But Falcone is not a good company,” he said with determination.

  His eyes looked deep into mine, searching for something that I wasn’t sure of. I had no idea what he meant by that, but right now all I could think about was the pair of blue eyes and the handsome face that was only inches from mine.

  “We’re here,” I said, almost in a whisper as I realized we were in a very public area outside the library.

  He nodded but didn’t peel his gaze away from me. “I guess you should go in and get what you need, then.”

  Despite his words, his face got closer to mine, and I bit my bottom lip. I turned to head inside when he grabbed my hand and pulled me back toward him.

  Our lips met in a swift, perfect collision. He brought one hand up to my cheek as he slowly pushed me back against the wall of the building, deepening our kiss.

  His lips were gentle, but a spark ignited between us that held a dangerous amount of passion I’d never felt before. His other hand snaked under my shirt and around to my back as he pulled me closer to him. His fingers on my bare skin left a trail of fire everywhere they touched. My entire body felt weak as that spark spread from low in my stomach and into the rest of me like a slow burning flame.

  I brought my arms around his neck, not thinking there was any space to close between us, but needing to be closer, still. His tongue gently caressed mine, and I shivered, shocked at the pleasure such a small movement could bring.

  The sound of giggling broke me out of our moment. I opened my eyes and saw two girls snickering as they left the building. They walked quickly past us, but their stares lingered. I let out a deep breath as my cheeks flared red.

  I looked down at our entangled bodies. Seeley’s hand hadn’t left me face and his other was pulling me closer to him. I looked up into his eyes. There was confusion there, a sort of guilt. But also a passion I knew my own eyes held as well.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, pulling back completely from me.

  I gulped. “I should…”

  “Right.” Seeley swallowed hard and backed away farther, making sure there was plenty of space between us, and opened the library doors for me. I walked in, trying to regain my composure. I wasn’t sure what he was looking so guilty about. If this was a date, I figured a kiss wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened.

  I tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other as my body threatened to fall back into the man trailing a few steps behind me.

  CHAPTER 5

  I walked over to the information desk where Henry was sitting once we entered the library. He looked up, and his eyes lit up but then immediately changed to a grimace when he saw I wasn’t alone.

  “I actually didn’t get a chance to pull that book yet, Jules. Sorry,” he apologized, looking back down at whatever held his attention before I walked in.

  I frowned, but it was only to myself since Henry refused to make eye contact with me. “That’s okay. I’ll just run and grab it now,” I said, before turning to Seeley. “Do you mind?”

  “Of course not,” he answered with a slight smile and a nod.

  I walked hurriedly toward the direction where I knew my reference material would be. This shouldn’t take more than a minute I thought to myself. Hopefully, at least, otherwise it would be awkward for Seeley since Henry was apparently still insisting on acting like a man-child around him.

  I grabbed the book off the shelf and started heading back. I was in the last hallway before the main entrance when I was stopped dead in my tracks.

  Henry’s angry voice came to me as loudly as if he was standing right next to me. “If you don’t tell her what you are, I will.”

  “And how is that you seem to know so much about what you think I am?” Seeley answered him, sounding incredibly angry as well.

  “Don’t test me. If you’re using her for information, she has no idea…” Henry’s voice faded away as I refocused on being in the hallway, and the fact that they weren’t right next to me.

  I frowned as I looked around, wondering if I was going mad. How was I able to hear Henry and Seeley’s voices? And what the hell were they talking about?

  I was still alone in the long, deserted hallway.

  Where were they that I could hear them so clearly? I started walking slowly, peeking around lines of bookshelves expecting to see them at any moment.

  When I finally came around the corner to the main entrance, I saw them standing right where I had left them, all the way across the library at the Information Desk in an intense debate. I froze, staring at them.

  They were in a heated discussion about me. For who knows what rea
son, these two men in my life were angry at each other. Seeley looked completely agitated with Henry. I couldn’t see Henry’s face because he was standing with his back to me, but the disdain in his voice was evidence enough.

  Seeley noticed me first since he was facing my direction. He looked at me with an intense curiosity, and then back to Henry.

  “Can you hear me?” I asked, speaking no louder than I would have if they had been right next me. Ignoring why they were fighting and focusing more on the incredible fact that I could hear them so clearly from so far away.

  There had to be some sort of echo. Maybe the science department was testing out some new theory of sound traveling through some unseen objects. The ever-rationalizing side of my brain was working on overdrive trying to comprehend what was going on.

  Seeley nodded slowly, frowning but never breaking eye contact. “Yes,” his voice came again sounding like he was right next to me, as if I was a part of their conversation—but that was impossible.

  He didn’t look like he had shouted, but I was a good half a building’s length away from him. My eyes widened, and my breath quickened.

  Henry turned to face me and looked worried for a minute as he ran his hand over his face.

  I walked toward them both, slowly. “How could I hear you?” I asked, louder this time, making sure I had their attention, not that I needed it. They were both watching me. Henry with fear, Seeley with surprised curiosity.

  Henry suddenly had a total shift in his facial features. His worried, fearful look from mere seconds before shifted to a look of dumfounded curiosity. “What are you talking about? The echo in here is awful, you know that.” He laughed.

  Seeley’s eyes narrowed at Henry before he looked back to me.

  I furrowed my brows, looking around again to see if maybe there was something I was missing. Nothing instantly jumped out at me, so I shook my head and pushed the worry aside. No matter how odd this sound situation was, their actual conversation was what demanded my attention again to see if maybe there was something I was missing. My hearing issues would just have to wait.