The Hunt

Chapter 1

 

Chad Fields was a man on a mission. A determined man.  One who would not fail. 

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He was going to get Genesis Hiller. It was as simple as that. One way or the other.  

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She was his prey.  

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She had the information he was looking for.  

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His baby sister was missing. Chad was using every skill he had gained through his years working in medicine to not let the panic show. Chantal had been walking from his parents’ ranch to this one and had disappeared between them. And then the text had come. The threats. Someone had taken his sister to get back at their older brother Charlie—a cop. No one knew where she was now. But Charlie and his team were looking for her.

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He adored Chantal. She’d been his shadow for most of her childhood. Until he had left for college when she was just ten. They had grown apart then—but it didn’t change the fact that she was one of the two women in the world he loved more than anyone else. 

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Chantal and his mother.

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His mother was quietly freaking—something the fiery Jane Fields was not known to do. He didn’t know how to make it right. For any of them.  

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Instead, they just sat where they were in the Hillers’ damned living room. Waiting.  

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Except… for Genesis Hiller. 

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His sister’s friend. She was still dressed in the same pale pink scrubs she’d worn that day in the Barratt County Gen ED, and she was more agitated than he had ever seen her. Which was saying a lot.  

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Genesis was dramatic. Passionate.  

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About everything.  

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Now she was just terrified. 

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Well, so was he. But… she was hiding something. He was sure of it. Chad knew the little witch was holding something back. And they didn’t have time for that.  

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He waited until she wasn’t surrounded by her brothers.  

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That’s when he struck. 

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When no one was watching. Chad definitely wasn’t stupid—and there were four of the five Hiller brothers right there.  

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The fifth was missing. With Chad’s sister. Everyone thought Gene Hiller was out there with Chantal. Somewhere. In trouble. Or dead. Chances were high Gene was dead. But that was something no one was ready to put into words. If Genesis knew something… he was going to get her.  

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It was so easy to do. She was small, lightweight, and never expected him to do it. 

 

Chad wrapped his hands around her narrow waist and just lifted the girl he’d known her entire life right off her ridiculously little feet—and carried her into the small hallway powder room. He had her now.  

It was a tight fit—but he managed.  

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She wasn’t very big, after all.  

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Exactly what he’d wanted—her. Not able to escape. He trapped her against the back wall—right there between the toilet and the sink. Eyes of the purest hazel he had ever seen widened behind plastic-rimmed glasses, and she just stared up at him. Gawking.  

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“What… are you doing? Have you finally lost it? I mean, Chantal and I were certain you would eventually but… ”  

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“Shut up. I have questions.” He knew he was big and intimidating—he’d heard it before. And he was definitely coming on too forcefully at the moment. But… “My sister is missing. And there is something you aren’t telling me.”  

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“I told Charlie everything I know.” A stubborn look crossed her face. She wiggled in his hold—pressing flat against him and wiggling. “Let me go. I need to get out there.”  

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“What are you going to do, go rushing to her rescue?” He didn’t mean it to come out as harshly as it did, but damn it… Genesis wasn’t exactly the riding to the rescue type.  

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More like the one to need rescuing than anything.  

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“I’m going to be out there for the people I care about when they need me most. You should try it sometime.” She stomped on his foot, hard. But… she didn’t do much damage. “Get out of the way.”  

“You’re going to tell me what it is my sister has been hiding. I know you know exactly what I’m talking about. So… if you want out of here—spill it. Now.”  

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“Yes, Dr. Arrogance, whatever you say, Dr. Arrogance… Your every wish is my command, Dr. Arrogance… ” 

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“Quit deflecting. What do you know? What’s going on with my sister?”  

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“Besides the fact that she’s missing?” And there was the fear… 

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Genesis was almost panicking. He could see it now.  

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He wrapped his hands around her elbows, surprised at how soft her skin was. He brushed his thumbs over her inner elbows absently. “Genesis, tell me. She’s  my little sister. And she’s been hiding something for months.”  

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“It’s not my secret to tell.”  

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“Then you’re not getting out of here—until someone finds us.” 

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“What will you tell them then?”  

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“I don’t know. That you are lying and know more than you are admitting? Or… that… ” He knew exactly what would stress her out the most and he played that card. Ruthlessly. “You lured me in here to distract me… by seducing me… and I was inclined to let you.” 

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The eyes widened even more. The cheeks beneath her childish freckles paled even more. “Don’t be disgusting. Like I would ever sink so low. I have standards, Chad. Standards.”  

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But she was shaking against him now, where she hadn’t been before. He held the power. Chad knew it. 

The whole guy-girl thing had always made her nervous. He had known that for years. This was the first time he’d ever used it against her, though. He tangled his fingers in her ponytail. “Tell me, Genesis. What do you know?”  

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“She… was diagnosed Type 1 seven months ago, Chad. She wears an insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor. She’s on ten-day sensors. I told Charlie, but… I didn’t want to worry your mom any more than necessary right now. Or your dad.”  

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Chad let her go. That wasn’t… what he’d expected to hear. He’d expected to hear about a secret boyfriend, or something. Not this. “Why would she keep that quiet?”

  

Genesis shrugged. They were pressed so close together, he felt her front shift with the movement. “She didn’t want to worry your family. Your mom—she’s hovered obsessively over Chan since Jaden died, and Charlotte was shot and then in that car accident. And what happened recently in Finley Creek to Charlotte and her friends. Then Rory and the twins… so much Chan can barely breathe sometimes.”  

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Jaden, his nephew, had passed away from a congenital health defect no one had known about shortly after his seventeenth birthday several years ago. He had been the only grandchild—until Chad’s older brother had remarried and had twins—at fifty. Well, the only known grandchild. Charlie had had an adult daughter from a one-night stand when he’d been twenty-one no one had known about. That was how they’d gotten Chad’s niece Charlotte. Though no one really knew her that well yet.

  

After Jaden’s death, Chantal had moved back home to help their parents get through. She hadn’t really left, though it had been almost six years now. His mom just freaked whenever Chantal talked about moving out. “But this isn’t something she should have hidden.”  

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“She was insistent. And… I made her agree I wouldn’t spill the beans, if she let me help her get things figured out.” Her fingers spread over his chest. “She is doing well. Healthy. We have it figured out. The pump and monitors work well for her. But… I don’t know when she changed the sensor last. She dates it in her log—and on her phone. I think it was eight days ago. But I don’t know for sure. And her infusion set… she changed it yesterday morning when I was there. It’s a three-day.” 

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So they had two days to find his sister. If they were lucky. And all they could do was hope and pray she had what she needed in the meantime. 

 

His fingers tightened on Genesis’s elbow. He looked at her as a rush of anger went through him. Chantal should have told him. He was her big brother. He was a doctor. He could have helped her get through the changes being diagnosed with a chronic health condition brought.  

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Instead, she’d kept it hidden, going to Genesis instead.  

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Chantal hadn’t told him. Why? Didn’t she know him, trust him, at all?  

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There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for his little sister. Maybe he hadn’t shown her that in recent years, but it was the truth. He adored her.  

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He just hoped he got the chance to tell her that. He looked down. Just as tears spilled over. Oh, hell. He’d made Genesis cry.  

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He pulled Genesis closer, and just held her while she cried, his head resting on her hair. She felt so… fragile against him right now. He wanted to make it better for her now, but knew he couldn’t. 

 

But he… could hold her. 

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That was just what he did.

 

 

Chapter 2

 

Genny couldn’t sit still. She’d just kept pacing around the living room of the house she’d shared with her brothers for the last two years.  

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She hadn’t intended to live with those dorks long-term, but the house she’d been renting with a roommate in Barrattville had been leveled in the tornado that had destroyed far too much of the area. She’d moved in with her brothers—temporarily—and had somehow gotten stuck there.  

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Even though she’d not admitted it to anyone but Chantal and Aubrey—she liked it. After the storm, her roommate had moved in with her new boyfriend. She and Genny decided not to get another place together, for obvious reasons. Genny had been lonely after that. She also liked being able to walk along the back fence between her brothers’ place and Chantal’s parents’ place to get to her best friend each and every day. 

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And she liked being there to drive her sweet little nephew to preschool on her way to work in Value, at the hospital there.  Or take him to soccer practice or T-ball, or… just be there when he needed her.

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She liked being with her family. Fear for her brother was just as strong as for Chantal. No one knew what had happened out there. Just the vague letter delivered to Charlie’s office. Saying… a sister for a sister. And Chantal’s phone, with a photo of her bound as the screen saver.  

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Her best friend might already be dead. Why would whoever took her keep her alive?  

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And Gene … Gene was out there somewhere. They had teams searching the ranch—for her older brother’s body.  

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Everyone knew… Chantal had been the target. Gene had just been out there working the fences. Probably in the way. If nothing had happened to him—then where was he?  

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His horse had come back to the barn without him… hours ago. 

 

Genesis fought tears. Tears didn’t help anyone. She had to do what she had to do.

  

That meant being there for Chantal’s mom and dad, and her own. And for Gene’s little boy, Calvin.

 

Because if Gene didn’t come home, Genny would most likely be raising that little boy from now on.  

Chantal would want that more than anything. Their parents to be taken care of. And Gene would want Calvin to be okay. So that was what Genny was going to do. Take care of their parents, take care of Calvin, no matter what.  

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She was closest to Charlie when his phone rang. Genny waited, holding her breath, while he spoke. 

When he said, “We’ll be right there,” she knew.

  

Something had happened. 

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He disconnected. His big blue eyes closed and he muttered something. When he looked at the people surrounding him, his eyes were wet. “They are at the Barratt County hospital. She’s getting treated now. Gene’s there with her. Let’s roll.”  

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Just like that. But what it meant… treated meant alive. And Gene was with her. “Are they going to be okay?” 

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“That was the head of Barratt County Gen personally,” Charlie looked at his daughter for a moment. Genny had avoided looking at the other woman—she looked a bit too much like Chantal right now. “He said she’s… starting… to come around now. She’s most likely going to be fine. And Gene… he’s okay, Genesis. Or he will be. We have them both back.”  

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Genny just stood there like an idiot, and burst into tears. Arms went around her, but she didn’t really pay much attention to who they belonged to. It quite possibly could have been Chad—he had been sticking close to her since he’d captured her in the bathroom earlier.  

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All she knew was that the arms holding her were strong. And everything was going to be okay.  

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Then they were in the trucks and SUVs and headed back to the hospital where she spent every working moment each week. Her brother and her best friend were safe. Genny could breathe again now.  

 

Everything was going to be okay now.

 

 

Chapter 3

 

She was looking at him again. Even though he knew she was trying to pretend otherwise. He was an important man around this place. All of the women watched him.  

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Including her. 

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Dr. Doug Hodges had worked for years to make his way to the top of the food chain at Barratt County General Hospital. He’d even put in for the Chief of Medicine position when it had been open. He’d lost it, to a man a year younger, who’d just gotten out of the damned military—where he’d run hospitals overseas.  

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The powers-that-be thought the hospital needed a COM who could whip the place into shape better than civilians. So they’d hired that big behemoth who ran it now. Junkyard dog was a more apt description.  

Dr. Caine Alvaro was good at his job, no denying that, but Doug would have been so much better. He’d known the hospital staff, the way things were ran before. Doug would have been the better choice.  

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Of course, Alvaro had married Jordan Carrington’s daughter—before the older man had even bought the hospital. They’d probably planned it from the beginning. Doug’s good friend Justin Michaels thought Caine Alvaro was most likely a plant. Doug’s theory was that Jordan Carrington had been looking for a place to dump off his loser son-in-law and had settled on Barratt County since the man’s daughter worked at the larger, more prestigious Finley Creek Gen one county north.

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Doug could feel Caine Alvaro watching him sometimes, too. Judging him.  

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Planning to get rid of him somehow.  

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He felt threatened by Doug. Doug knew that.  

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It was in the man’s eyes. 

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He could see Caine Alvaro right there. Talking to her.

  

That nurse.  

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Doug’s favorite nurse. The one who mattered most.  

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Doug hadn’t thought she was so special when she’d first hired on a year or so before Alvaro had invaded. She’d been so young and small and mousy and had seemed a bit squeaky. Nerdy, dramatic and irritating. Easily overlooked.  

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Until the last year or so. 

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She’d matured. Her hair had grown out, her body had curved a small bit more. Though she was still quite petite. He liked that about her, though.  

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She always smelled nice. Doug would smell her over the antiseptic and institutional scent of the hospital around them. He knew… she used that particular scented shampoo… for him. 

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It was like a secret code between them. A signal.

 

He should ask her again, if she was ready for him. He’d been giving her space. To grow, to mature. When he had first noticed her six months ago, she had been hurting from a bad breakup from the hospital attorney.  

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That man had broken her heart. Everyone in the hospital had been gossiping about that.  

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Doug had hurt him. It had taken little for him to drive up behind Randall Brown and run that asshole off the road. Randall had had a broken leg and a massive concussion after that. Doug had felt mildly guilty for that, he had once considered Randall a friend, but he had had to do it.  

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Randall shouldn’t have hurt Genny like that. No one should hurt her like that. 

 

She was hurting now. Because of what had happened to her closest friend.

  

Dr. Chad Fields’s sister—he had known that woman was good friends with Genny. That redheaded Fields woman, and that blonde, Dr. Fisher.  

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Dr. Fisher—Caine Alvaro’s side piece. They weren’t the right kind of people. They infuriated him.  

They… had no business being anywhere near Genny. 

 

Especially that Fields woman. Genny was too pure to ever be associated with Chad Fields’s family in any way.  

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He knew that. He had seen that for himself.

  

She was too good for people like that. Genny just was. 

 

It was going to be up to him to help her see that.

 

 

Chapter 4

 

Gene had been pulled away to a small conference room in the hospital to be questioned by Major Crimes. Chantal was going to be fine. She’d missed too many meals and was dehydrated, and her insulin levels had dropped dangerously low, but Gene had gotten her to help in time. Chad had never been more grateful for anything in his life than he was now. Gene had had the tar beaten out of him, but he had somehow managed to get them to the highway near the W-Deane Ranch.  

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Travis Worthington-Deane and his wife had seen Gene walking along that highway, carrying a semi-conscious Chantal in his arms. Travis’s wife was a doctor. She’d helped Chantal. Chad would owe the Deanes for life for what they’d done for his sister out there. 

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If Chad ever got his hands on those assholes who hurt his baby sister—and there had been two men, brothers, from what Gene had been able to piece together—he was going to kill them himself.  

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Hippocratic oath or not. 

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Had Gene not been with her, Chantal wouldn’t have been able to make it to the highway alone. Everyone was well aware of that.  

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Chad finally got his chance to go in with his sister after Dr. Fisher stepped out of Chantal’s room. 

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He slipped into the hospital room. Only to stop short when he saw the woman curled up in the big recliner next to the hospital bed. Sound asleep and looking like a kid, tear streaks on her delicate face. There was one Genesis Hiller. Like she wasn’t about to go anywhere.  

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But… she wasn’t a kid now. Having her pressed against him hours ago had made that extremely clear. Seeing how she’d handled taking care of everyone had shown him the woman she actually was now.  

Now that the fear and worry were over, he could think about other things.  

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Intriguing things. Things he hadn’t realized before. Things he could use to distract himself from the fear he’d felt over the long hours while they waited, useless to help.  

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Genesis was the perfect place to start.  

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Genesis was a full-grown woman now. He’d always thought of her as being just a girl. Young. Innocent. Like Chantal. Needing her five older brothers to swoop in and rescue her from the darkness of life like they had when Genesis had been a kid.  

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Even more than the others, Genesis was the sensitive one. The one who had needed protecting.  

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The one they all wanted to protect. Even him. When she wasn’t breathing fire at him, anyway.  

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He did the math quickly. Her sister Giavonna was older. She was six months or so older than Chantal. Then two years later came this one. Genesis had to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight now. Close to thirty. All grown up and tempting.  

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She really had grown up when he hadn’t been paying attention. 

 

Just like his sister had. 

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He turned to his sister while that thought sank in. His sister looked defenseless in the hospital bed. But beautiful. She had one of the sweetest souls of anyone he had ever known. 

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Someone had deliberately hurt Chantal. He would never forgive that. Or understand it.

  

They’d considered doing a sexual assault kit until Gene had told him it was unnecessary. Gene had been watching her the entire time, thankfully. Waiting for the right moment to rescue her, as safely for both of them as possible.  

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No one had touched her, hurt her, that way. Gene had sworn to it.  

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They’d just left her to die instead.  

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Genesis shifted in the recliner, the blanket falling to the floor. Chad picked it up, tucked it around his closest friend’s baby sister carefully. He tilted her head to one side slightly, to be more comfortable. He slipped the plastic-framed glasses off her face and placed them on the nearby table.  

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He let his hand linger on the ponytail.  

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Genesis had the softest hair he had ever touched. Easily as soft as those angora rabbits Chantal loved so much.  

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This was a woman a man would love to touch. Wouldn’t be able to get enough of her, either. A man could just ouch her for a lifetime and never tire of it. Of her.  

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He had never realized that before.

 

 

Chapter 5

 

Chad was leaning over her when her eyes popped open. Genesis yelped and tried to jump up. His hands wrapped around her arms and he held her still. Had she always been so skittish?  

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“Shh. You’re okay. I was just fixing the blanket.”

  

“Is she okay?” Worry shot across her face as she looked toward Chantal. “Does she need me?”  

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“She’s fine. Sleeping. She’ll be out of here in the morning.” And Genesis needed to go home, herself. Rest. But Chad honestly wasn’t ready to let her out of his sight yet, either. Just not tonight.  

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“Where’s Gene? Is he okay?” 

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“He’s fine. I sent him down to the cafeteria. He needed a break.” Her brother had refused to leave Chantal’s hospital room. Chad had had to threaten to ban him from the hospital entirely if Gene didn’t at least take a walk to the cafeteria and eat something. 

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There was a wildness in Gene right now that Chad didn’t fully understand yet. Everyone had known it would take a SWAT team to get him out. Something had certainly changed in Gene out there.  

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“I should… ” Genesis tried to stand, rubbing at her eyes. She grabbed the glasses off the table and slipped them onto her cute little nose. And blinked up at him like an owl. Heat hit her cheeks as one small feminine hand spread against his chest. “Yikes. Not much personal space in here?”  

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He didn’t want there to be. Chad wanted to pull her straight into his arms and taste that sassy mouth of hers. He bet the woman kissed as passionately as she did everything else. 

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Something had snapped between them in her powder room. Some wall or barrier, or something that had kept him… apart… from her for years. He hadn’t let himself notice it when he’d been so worried about his sister and Gene, now he could.

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Chad wanted her. It hit him like a ton of bricks that he wanted the passion that was Genesis Hiller. 

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Passion for anything had been missing in his life lately.  

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He just… had a routine. A life that was exactly what he’d planned it to be. Lately, it had started to feel like something was missing.  

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At least since his brother Charlie had remarried, anyway. Charlie was happy now. In a way Chad’s brother hadn’t been in decades. It was hard not to envy that. 

 

Chad had felt empty lately. Maybe even for years now. 

 

He didn’t feel that way at the moment. At all. 

 

There was passion in him now. The lusty kind.  

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He wanted to carry Genesis off somewhere they could be alone, strip her naked, and do things to her he doubted any man had ever done to her before. And then start all over again. 

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Genesis had an innocence about her. One that told him volumes. Even at her age. And had his body tightening with the hunger to be the one to debauch that innocence.  

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He couldn’t help himself. He used his hold on her elbows to pull her up, out of the chair. And against him. It was late, they were almost completely alone, and he was so curious… 

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“You should… what?” The fingers of his left hand tangled in her ponytail. He pulled her closer. Until every inch of her was pressed against him. “Genesis… You… ” 

 

“What? And what exactly are you doing? Do you just need a hug or something?”  

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“That’s not what I want from you.”  

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Innocent hazel eyes stared into his. For the longest time. Like she didn’t have a clue what he meant. It hit him like a ton of bricks right then.  

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Hell, she didn’t get it. 

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She was almost nine years younger than he was—but she wasn’t a child. There had been men in her life before. He knew that; had met at least one or two of her exes before.  

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He seriously doubted those had been platonic relationships at all.  

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Did she seriously not realize he was turned on by her?  

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“Genesis… damn…”