Page 21 of Art of the Hunt
Hunter sat hunched over his desk, staring at the computer screen but not seeing the email he’d opened shortly after Artemis dropped him off a couple hours ago.
Artemis. That was the reason he couldn’t focus long enough to reply, or better yet, stand up and head to the captain’s office. He couldn’t stop thinking about her.
About how she’d felt, seated between his thighs. About her laughter. Her willingness to try vegetarian food despite her obvious love of all things greasy and sugary and unhealthy. The way she’d helped that couple out at the dunes.
Her weird belief that she was a Greek god notwithstanding, she was a pretty cool woman. She was a tad literal, but to be honest, that was refreshing. In a way.
In a weird way.
So what was this all about? Hunter now had a thing for peculiar women? Had he been out of the dating game for so long that he was attracted to quirkiness now?
And what was he supposed to do about it, anyway? Ask her out?
He choked on the sip of water he’d just taken.
“You okay there, James?” Skip asked from where he was sitting at his desk, sucking down pale brown coffee and typing out his latest report.
Hunter wheezed. “Fine. Went down the wrong pipe.”
“Happens sometimes.”
Hunter positioned his fingers over the keyboard.Type the email, James. Tell the captain you’d be happy to discuss with him the promotion that is a natural progression in your career. The promotion that will take you off the street, and you won’t have a direct impact on people’s lives anymore.
“Man, it takes all kinds,” Skip said, and Hunter glanced over to see him reading something on his phone. Skip waved the device. “Buddy of mine works at another precinct. They got a call about a fight at a bar on Chicago Ave. Claims there’s a woman there with a bow and arrow, shooting the customers.”
“What?” Hunter was already out of his seat, rushing for the door. And then he skidded to a stop. “Which bar?”
Skip furrowed his brow, glanced at his phone, and then stated the name of the place. “Why?”
“No reason.” Hunter practically ran to his crappy sedan. No reason at all. None.
Other than he knew damn well the woman in question was Artemis.
What had she done now?
Turned out, she’d shot two guys in the women’s restroom.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he demanded when he found her sitting in the back of a police car, her wrists in handcuffs. Her eyes lit up like Christmas, and for a hot minute, he wanted to be her savior, to protect her from all the bad things in this world.
But she’d allegedly started a bar fight.
The bow and arrow incident had kicked off a tsunami, and the place had turned into a WWE match for a few minutes, until that same someone with a bow and arrow managed to pull everyone under control, moments before the police arrived.
When the cops did get there, patrons were busy helping the staff return tables and chairs to their rightful places, sweep up the broken glass and splintered wood, and even administer first aid to a few broken noses, split lips, and cuts and bruises. The two guys who had allegedly been shot had been barricaded in the restroom, and no one had offered first aid, so they were pretty well pissed when they were finally rescued.
Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose. “Artemis, you can’t do things like this.”
“What? Save a woman from being forced to sell drugs? Sorry, Hunter, but I’ve been saving women for three thousand years. Not about to stop now.”
There she went with the god stuff again. Hopefully, she hadn’t told anyone else here that she was a god. Spouting stuff like that sure wouldn’t help her case.
“So you’re saying this whole thing started because you were being a Good Samaritan?”
She lifted one shoulder. “If that’s the label you want to put on it.”
“And I assume the two guys who have arrows sticking out of their thighs are the ones who were forcing someone to sell drugs?”
Her eyes narrowed. “They’re both lucky I didn’t shoot them where I really wanted to.”
