Page 2 of The Prey
Well. He’d always thought Giavonna was the spawn of Satan. Every weekday rather reinforced that idea. He’d probably told her that a dozen times this year alone, too.
He had known theoretically that she was a somewhat physically attractive woman…he thought…behind the nondescript business suits she wore five days a week. He had known her for two decades or so, after all. Her hair was always ruthlessly scraped back into a tight bun, and she wore plain jewelry at the most.
She was rather robotic, he’d thought in one of his unkinder moments. A machine spouting case law and obscure facts right at him—usually to counter everything he’d said. To challenge him every time.
The way she argued—it was guaranteed to get right under his skin. But he was stuck with her. There were four attorneys in the county attorney’s office. She was the one with the next amount of seniority right under him. He’d started off in private practiceand made a damned good amount of money, but working for the county attorney’s office was where his heart lay.
It was a hard job and the turnover rate was high.
Except forher.
Sometimes he’d thought she stuck with him just to give him hell. She’d be better off going into private practice with her brother George. With just George and Giavonna practicing in the county seat of Value, she could make a nice living, if she wanted. She didn’tneedto be there tormenting Hudson every day.
Barratt County paid well—they were funded by property taxes paid for by the billionaires who lived in the top corner of the county, after all—but the money for assistant prosecutors wasn’t that great. Not that she needed it—she was a Hiller, and that meant affluence in this area. Giavonna would never want for anything; she probably didn’t need to work at all.
The woman rocking his son now was nothing at all like the woman he worked with every day. She stood and adjusted his son competently in her arms, even with the heavy cast on Ryan’s leg.
Hudson met her at the end of the hall. “I thought I heard him out here.”
“He had a nightmare. About the crash,” she said, in a hushed, guarded tone. She wasn’t too happy with him in her home—he hadn’t missed that at all. “I was up…working…on some things.”
“What cases were you working on at midnight?”
“They are personal projects, Hanan. I thought he was Calvin at first. And I thought you were probably still out from the pain pills.” Ryan slept on her shoulder, drooling down the pink silk covering her. Giavonna, inpinksilk? He never would have believed it if he hadn’t seen it for himself. She held Hudson’s son almost like a barrier between them. “I’ll just put him in his bed. There are drinks in the fridge, help yourself.”
Hudson didn’t know what made him do it, but he blocked her path. The scent of warm woman and roses surrounded him. Her lotion—he’d noticed that many times before. She kept a small bottle of it on her desk at the office. “I can take him.”
“Not one-handed. At least you shouldn’t. Don’t worry, this demon isn’t out to steal anyone’s soul tonight.” She skirted around him quickly and headed down the hall. Hudson followed. “I’ll put him back in bed and leave you to…whatever you are doing inmyhome right now.”
Yes, hard to miss how she felt about having him there.
She carried his son in her arms as if Ryan had been there a thousand times.
ThisGiavonnawasn’t one he thought he had seen before.
2
Hudson Hanan wasdefinitelythe devil, Gia decided, as she lowered the man’s son to the second twin bed that was in her nephew Calvin’s room. Calvin was beyond thrilled to have another little boy from the same preschool bunking over for a few days. He had missed the seriousness of the situation that had brought her brothers’ friend Hudson and his son Ryan to the ranch to recuperate. Calvin and Ryan were best buddies forever. They would tell someone that, too. Just like their daddies were. Forever and ever.
Gene’s best friend Hudson, though,hewas Gia’s number one nemesis. Forever and ever. The man was enough to give her an ulcer at times—and she was almost certain he had. Now he was invading her safe place, and she didn’t like it.
She had just about found her balance again when everything had changed.
This was herhome.Hudson had no business invading her space.
The stress of dealing with Hudson ate at her, far more than she wanted to admit. Especially after what had happened thelast time she’d been at the courthouse, after she’d seen…she was beyond the point of freaking out right now.
Gia was about to slide into full-on panic mode at a moment’s notice.
The last thing she’d been prepared for was Hudson being in her safe space. And she really needed that safe place right now. More than she had ever needed anything in a long, long time.
Hudson Hanan despised her, after all. She had never once figured out what it was that she had ever done to him to make him hate her so much. Not in the three years she’d worked for the attorney’s office of Barratt County.
Except…what had happened before.
With hisfriend,a man who was a monster inside. Gia could still feel that man’s hands around her neck. She dreamed at night of him choking her again. Of him hurting her, touching her. And beinghelplessto stop him.
Jason Clarke—the man of her nightmares.
