Page 1 of Hansen

Chapter One

––––––––

EVAN DIDN’T WANT TOdo this.Hereallydidn’t want to do this.

He’d been hurt enough in his life not to want to do the same to someone else.He wasn’t sure what was happening, but there weren’t a thousand reasons for a hunter to take him out of his cage and sneak him out while trying not to get anyone’s attention.

Evan was used to dealing with hunters.He had no idea how long he’d been a prisoner, but it had to have been years by now.He’d been moved from facility to facility, punched and beaten, laughed at and insulted.Nothing good ever came from hunters, and this one wouldn’t be any different.

For a moment after the hunter had taken Evan out of his cage, Evan had thought he was about to die.He was still torn about how he felt about that.Part of him just wanted all of this to be over, but another part didn’t want to give the hunters and the doctors the satisfaction of killing him.Evan was stronger than people thought—stronger than he thought sometimes.Thatwas why he was still alive.It was why he was finally out of his cage.

He didn’t know the reason why the hunter had taken him out, though.He’d stuffed Evan into a small box in the back of his van, and they’d driven for a while.If Evan had to choose, he’d pick a cage instead of a box.It was roomier and let in more light.

He’d snickered as he stumbled out of the box, and the hunter had stared at him like he was losing his mind.He felt it was better for him to laugh than to cry, even though it made him feel like he was nuts.It was probably a sign of how traumatized he was that he could see humor in all of this.What was he going to do, anyway?Scream for help?No one ever came, and he’d stopped doing that a long time ago.

Which was how he’d ended up standing in an alley.He looked around, then back at the hunter.“You want me to dowhat?”

The hunter glared.He smelled bad, but when Evan tried moving away, he tightened his hold on Evan’s arm and shook him.

“You heard me.You’re going to go to the door and knock and come up with an excuse to get Orion to step out of the bakery.”

“Are you going to hurt him?”It was obvious, but Evan needed to waste time.Maybe someone would walk by and notice them.Maybe they’d stop Evan before he could help the hunter hurt this Orion guy.

“None of your business.”The hunter reached behind himself and pulled out a gun from the waistband of his dirty jeans.“You better obey.You won’t like what happens if you don’t.”

Evan was tempted to tell him that nothing he could do with that gun could be worse than what had already been done to him in the labs, but he didn’t want to push it.Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing if the hunter shot him.He would never have to go back to the lab.He could finally rest.

“I won’t help you hurt him,” Evan said with more conviction than he felt.

He should have known better than to stand up to a hunter.The man didn’t shoot him.Instead, he raised his gun and hit Evan on the side of the face, right where Evan was already bruised.Pain exploded under Evan’s skin, and he stumbled back, reaching out to hold himself up against the wall.The alley wasn’t particularly dirty, but his stomach heaved anyway.

Of course, it wasn’t like he was clean.He couldn’t remember the last time he had a shower.The doctors in the lab kept him clean when they needed to poke at him, but beyond that, they didn’t care, and the hunters cared even less.Evan supposed it was hypocritical of him to judge the hunter for his stench when he probably smelled just as bad, but at least the hunter had access to a shower.Evan didn’t.

“You’re going to do what I tell you to do,” the hunter said through gritted teeth.His gaze flickered to the back door of the bakery.“I’ll kill you if you don’t.”

“Then kill me.”Pain pulsed in Evan’s face.He wasn’t sure he was bleeding, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he was.He reached up to clean whatever seeped there with the sleeve of his oversized hoodie.It was black, so it wouldn’t stain any more than it already was.

The hunter smiled.He was missing several teeth, and his breath smelled of beer and decay.Evan heaved, but he managed not to throw up, probably because he couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten something.

“I’ll kill you, then I’ll kill my son.Or maybe I’ll do it the other way around so you can see what happens when someone disobeys my orders.”

This Orion guy was the hunter’s son?Hunters really were monsters, weren’t they?“If you’re going to kill him anyway, you can get him out of the bakery without me.”

The hunter raised his gun again, but he didn’t hit Evan this time.He ran the muzzle of the gun down Evan’s cheek, then tapped it on Evan’s lower lip.“So you want to die.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

“There are worse things that I can do to you than kill you.Do you want to find out what those things are?”

Evan didn’t even want tothinkabout them.He thought he’d stopped feeling fear a long time ago, but he was starting to realize that wasn’t the case.He was terrified at the thought of what this man could do.The other hunters and the doctors had hurt him, but they’d never violated him.Something told Evan that was what this man was suggesting.

He couldn’t.If something like that happened to him, he’d fracture, and he wouldn’t be able to pull himself back together ever again.

He breathed out.“Fine.I’ll go.”

The hunter nodded.“Knock on the door and get him to step out in the alley.”

Evan hated himself for doing this, but he didn’t have an alternative.He’d hoped the hunter would kill him if he said no, but that wasn’t going to happen, and he couldn’t deal with anything else.

---