Free The Hunted by Kristy Berridge Page A

and a reason to fight.
    I switched the television off when I heard Kayla pull up into the drive way and beep twice.
    I grabbed my bag off the floor, swiped my keys off the bureau by the door and then locked up the house behind me.
    ‘Hey,’ she said as I got into the car beside her.
    I tossed my back pack over my shoulder and onto the back seat. ‘Hey.’
    She threw the car into reverse and swung back out onto the road. ‘So how was your trip, anyway? You didn’t really say too much about it.’
    I grinned. ‘Probably because you were too busy getting up me about cell coverage to listen.’
    She smiled back, turning left onto the main road. ‘You were only gone for what? Four days? What’s the point of driving all the way down to Brisbane for only a few hours?’
    ‘Susan and George had some work to do.’
    ‘What? They couldn’t leave you and Lucas at home?’
    I shrugged. ‘I guess not. But in case this vital fact escaped your attention, I’m not exactly trustworthy, am I?’
    She grinned and then, refocusing on her thoughts, frowned slightly. ‘Why didn’t you all just fly down if it was for a job? Why drive all that way?’
    ‘Susan’s afraid of flying,’ I lied, not exactly sure why. After all it was a legitimate question. But I couldn’t tell her that we scoped out every major town along the way to ensure that the Vân â tors hadn’t moved on from the suspected point of contact. It wasn’t like we could do that if we had direct flights.
    Kayla’s eyes narrowed and she gripped the steering wheel a little tighter before glancing at me with disbelieving eyes. ‘But all of you flew to Melbourne last year for the Christmas holidays.’
    Ah, whoops. How did I forget that? I guess that’s what happens when you spend all of your time lying to people.
    I shrugged again. ‘We had some pretty bad turbulence on that flight and she vowed never to get on an aeroplane again if she could help it.’
    ‘Oh,’ Kayla said, staring back out the windscreen. ‘So what did you do when you got—’
    ‘Hey!’ I said, interrupting. ‘You didn’t tell me about that cute guy that you mentioned.’
    She broke out into a grin. ‘I didn’t, did I?’
    It was so easy to distract Kayla. All you had to do was bring up her favourite subject and all else would be forgotten.
    I listened to her ramble on about this one particular guy for the whole twenty minutes during the trip into town. I nodded at all the appropriate sections and also chipped in a few words of encouragement when required. Apparently there hadn’t been any interaction between either of them other than a brief moment of eye contact. This of course meant we had to spend at least fifteen minutes of the twenty minute conversation dissecting just exactly what it meant when he fluttered his eyelashes a certain way or smiled at her with slightly upturned lips.
    I was mentally exhausted before I even got to work. Kayla always wondered why I didn’t bother with boys. It was just far too much effort to expend on one species. Plus I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was dubious about the direction her latest crush’s sexuality swung in. I mean, the guy was wearing designer threads and was hanging around in a furniture and accessory store. He was more likely to have been checking out Glen the store manager than Kayla.
    ‘So, to sum up, we think that by him giving me an almost wink, a quick, but also lingering glance in my direction … oh yeah, and the slight upturn of his lips into a smile, he was definitely interested?’
    Yeah, in the Laura Ashley bed linen.
    I sighed. ‘I don’t know, Kayla. Do you even know who he is?’
    She frowned. ‘What does that matter?’
    She pulled the car into one of the car parks behind the store and switched the engine off.
    I unbuckled my seat belt and reached around into the back seat for my back pack. ‘Well, if you don’t know who he is, where he works, if he lives in Cairns, or even what his name is—what does it