Hunger's Mate by A. C. Arthur Read Free Book Online

dark glasses Thurgood wore. She blinked once, holding her eyes closed for a few seconds, begging for strength to do this just one more time. Then she opened her eyes and stared into her father’s blank and glassy orbs.
    â€œSee, Daddy? You can see the gold now,” she said, daring her voice to crack.
    Thurgood blinked and his thin lips lifted into a full smile. “Beautiful, baby girl. Just beautiful,” he told her.
    She looked away then, hating the lie that was their life. Hating that her father was completely blind, a result of his diabetes, and that he was in this home, thousands of miles away from the house he’d paid for after forty years of hard work at that factory. She hated that he couldn’t sit on his own back porch the way he used to before her mother died, hated that she sat in front of him, once every week, wearing a wig and contact lenses to protect them both, and lied to him every time she opened her mouth to speak.
    In short, Jewel hated herself, every second of this new life she’d had no choice but to build for them.
    *   *   *
    Two hours later when she pulled up at the back entrance of Perryville, Jewel felt worse than she had when she’d left the resort earlier. The feeling was a combination of the time spent with her father and the eerie sensation that she was being followed.
    She had taken the long route back to the resort because the moment she stepped out of the nursing home facility doors, the feeling that she was not alone enveloped her. As she’d moved to her car she’d been flanked by a wariness that hadn’t ceased, even when she’d looked around the entire parking lot and saw no one. Making sure her glasses were in place and her wig was on straight, she’d climbed into her car, started the engine, and drove.
    Ten minutes after turning onto the main highway she’d spotted a dark sedan two cars behind her. Half an hour later the same sedan was still a couple of cars back. With sweating palms she’d made the appropriate detours, winding in and out of traffic as much as possible, even stopping at a diner where she sat nursing a cup of coffee for an additional half hour. When she left she hadn’t seen the black sedan.
    Still, she drove a roundabout route back to the resort and parked in a different spot than she was used to when she returned. Sitting in her car a few minutes longer than necessary, Jewel tried to calm her nerves. She hadn’t seen the sedan for the last twenty or so miles and wanted to convince herself that she’d lost the tail, but didn’t dare.
    When sitting in her car in the dark parking lot was beginning to make her just as nervous as realizing someone had been following her, she finally stepped out, locked her car doors, and began to walk toward the building.
    That’s when she heard it.
    Footsteps.
    They were behind her and so she moved faster, not quite running but almost. The footsteps continued, picking up speed with her. She began to run and was just about to reach for the back door when she thought someone touched her back. Stopping abruptly to turn around, her ankles twisted and the next thing she knew, she was falling.
    And then she wasn’t.
    She was being held in strong arms, her body instantly reacting to the closeness of this male, warmth spreading quickly throughout, settling cozily in her center. She blinked and before she could open her eyes to confirm her suspicions, he spoke.
    â€œWhoa, there. What’s got you so spooked?”
    Her heart was hammering in her chest. When she did open her eyes all she could see were his, calm and soothing. She felt him holding her up, his fingers splayed over her arm and her waist. For a minute Jewel just wanted to sigh into his embrace, to take a second just to let the fear that had been strangling her these last couple of hours settle and dissipate. But she couldn’t do that, not here, not while he was holding her and looking