Page 9 of Under Pressure

“I don’t know.”

Hunter stopped a few feet in front of her, trapping her against the car. “Tell me what the fuck he said to you.”

“To be careful,” she said, biting her lip, holding her tote to her chest. “To not let my guard down.”

“Was that before or after he dropped his glove?”

Kendra opened her mouth to respond, as she considered his question.

Hunter’s furious tone grew suspicious. “I want to know everything that asshole said to you. He’s up to something—and you’ve played right into his hands, contaminating our lab.”

“What was I supposed to do? Leave his glove there?” Kendra stepped back farther into the parking structure, tightening her hand on her bag. “There was blood on it. I had to eliminate his DNA.”

Blood. Hunter’s eyes drilled into her. She watched his jaw twitch, his neck pulse. Clearly, the mention of Delta’s blood was a bridge too far.

“Where is it? Give it to me,” Hunter demanded, lunging forward to search. He grabbed at her tote, trying to get into it. “Give it to me!”

“No,” she cried, pulling to the side. She had to get to her own car as fast as fucking possible and get the hell away. The situation was moving from bad to worse.

This is all a big mistake.

“Hand it over!”

“I’m sorry— I should have never brought it here. I’ll give it back,” she apologized to her boss, quickly looking over her shoulder to where her blue sedan was parked.

Hunter grabbed her hands. “No!”

It was in that split second that Kendra saw what she should have seen before—a desperation in his eyes.

“Stay the fuck away from him,” he snarled, his grasp tightening on her. “Do not go to him. I swear to God.”

“Hunter, please.” She tried to tug her hands away.

He seethed, his panicked eyes flitting back and forth over her face. “He’s trying to manipulate you. He wants you to go back to him, Kendra. Don’t you fucking do it.”

She blinked back, trying to withhold tears. “He wants nothing from me. He never has.”

As the words filled the space between them, a perplexed expression crossed Hunter’s face, stilling his attack. Using the moment’s pause, Kendra slipped out from under him. She sped off to her car, her heart pounding through her chest. She felt short of breath, spiraling into a deep panic.

Without hesitation, she peeled out of the lot, as far away as she could get from Hunter. His unbelievable, uncontrollable desperation had been so shocking. She knew he hated Delta, but this? What was she missing? Her trembling hands white-knuckle-gripping the steering wheel, she pulled out of the parking structure into the open air of the mounting evening. A thousand thoughts should have been at the forefront of her mind, but one important question took over.

What am I going to do with this glove?

Like a bad omen, she sensed it burning a hole in her bag—and into the shell she’d formed.

Chapter Four

On her way home, Kendra’s nerves were still running high, in shock from what had just happened. She had no words for Hunter’s behavior and didn’t know what the hell to do. Her mind spun at a thousand miles per hour, and she was beating herself up for her continued inaction. She’d always been certain that she’d be the woman who wouldn’t put up with bullshit. She was strong. She’d stand up for herself. But there she was—shaking in her seat, doing nothing about it.

I just have to get home.

Chewing at her quivering mouth, she blitzed around a steep corner in the heart of the Malibu hills on autopilot. LA traffic out of the basin had been predictably terrible. As she climbed from the oceanside up the side of the rocky hill, the sunset finally fell below the horizon. Dusk was upon her, making the drive a little less relaxed and a little more perilous. Drunken celebrities and millionaires sometimes sped around the unguarded hills, and crashes down the encampment occurred all-too-often.

It had taken hours of sitting in LA traffic and listening to her mindfulness app to finally get her to breathe properly. Was she crazy or had Hunter attacked her? She had to report Hunter for his belligerence and abuse. She paused, thinking. Then again, she didn’t want anyone looking into what she was doing with Delta’s glove. If she complained about Hunter, they’d find her out.

She didn’t know what to think, nor did she want to. Her judgment was growing impaired, more and more so. It was too damn hard to be on her game when her whole day had been thrown off since that morning. A reprieve would be nice to process, as opposed to drinking from a firehose.

It seemed like every man professing to ‘protect her’ was prepared to hurt her. Her head was pounding. Seeing Delta again was the worst thing that could have happened. It had drummed up all the emotions she’d gone through the past year, trying to get over that damn fling. She’d never forget that guilty look on his face when she’d seen him at the hospital when his friend Carrick had been shot then caught him at Carrick’s wedding, weeks after they’d hooked up. She’d finally accepted he was never going to call. She was never going to see him again.

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