The Hunted Girls by Jenna Kernan (best book club books for discussion txt) 📕

“They aren’t biting me now?”

“I put sage on the fire. Smoke and scent keeps them off. I got us a mosquito net, too. No fire during the day. Too much chance of being spotted.”

Nadine immediately set her mind to work on how to set a daytime blaze.

“Where’s Jack?”

“I’ll get him.”

His smile gave her chills, but she kept her chin up until he stepped out of the cabin. The instant he left the shack, she hobbled to the cupboards. She found a rusted cast-iron skillet and a dented aluminum pot filled with mouse droppings, several tobacco tins and a rodent nest.

She turned to the stove, searching for a fire poker, but found nothing but stacked wood. Nadine wondered if a chunk of cypress would make a serviceable club.

One thing she knew for certain. She was not running blindly into a tangle of mangrove roots or trying to swim out of here. She was a weak swimmer, at best.

That left her one option. Stay alive until she had more options.

The banging of his feet on the rickety dock signaled his return. She hobbled back to the cot and sat. The door swung open and he stepped in, Jack thrown over his shoulder like a large bag of dog food.

He squatted before the stove and rolled Jack to his back before the fire. Nadine got her first good look at the agent and did not recognize him.

Involuntarily, she sucked in air.

“Not so pretty now. Is he?”

Jack’s purple face was dotted with welts from insect bites. His cracked lips, puffy swollen eyes and the dried blood turned his face into a ghastly mask of infection and pain.

She rose, resisting the urge to rush to his side weeping. That route would serve nothing. This was a hunter. He did not value weakness, and emotional attachment to Jack would only provoke her captor.

“Do you think the nails will grow back?” he asked, his tone conversational.

Nadine directed her attention to the hand that the Huntsman now held for her perusal. The tips of his bloody fingers were raw pulp.

She narrowed her eyes in banked fury. “How do I know that’s Jack?”

Now he was the one gaping. “That’s Agent Jack Skogen.”

Nadine shrugged. “Prove it.”

He tried and failed to rouse the agent. Finally he growled and turned to one of his packs, withdrawing a medical kit and a syringe. An injection later and Jack roused, roaring as he sat up, frantically blinking his eyes and turning his head.

“What’s your name?” asked the Huntsman.

“Jack Skogen.”

“Where do you work, Jack?”

“Federal agent. FBI. You need to call the police, right now.”

He couldn’t see. That much was clear. Had he been blinded?

“Satisfied?” asked Lionel.

“No.”

Jack turned his head in her direction, swaying. “Nadine?”

“Yes, Jack. It’s me.”

“He has you, too?” His voice had changed, turning flat with defeat.

She met Lionel’s intent green eyes. “Not yet, he doesn’t.”

Lionel kicked Jack, who sprawled onto the floor. He crossed the distance between them in two strides.

He wasn’t a big man, but he was bigger and stronger than she was. He grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her, thudding her against the wall so hard it shook dust from the rafters.

“You do as I say.”

“Do I? That’s not how this works.”

He dropped her and caught her before she fell, pinning her to the wall with one hand, now clasped around her throat.

“I could kill you right now.”

She lifted her chin, playing the card that had worked with her mother. Self-interest. That was what moved such monsters to action or restraint.

“You won’t.”

“Why is that?” he growled.

“I can’t bear your children if I’m dead.”

He leaned forward, his mouth beside her ear. “True. And I want you willing.”

“You can’t have either if he dies.”

His grip tightened and she gasped, the air just barely enough.

“You do love him.”

She shook her head, unable to speak. Strong fingers eased back. She gasped, grabbing greedy breaths of air.

Two things were clear. Decristofaro didn’t believe her prior declaration that Jack was the best that she could do. That meant Jack’s life was still in peril.

“I saw you together.” His voice low with fury.

She needed to convince him that Jack was not, and had never been, a love interest. The simplest way was the truth. She debated the wisdom of making that revelation until he released her and fixed on the real target of his rage.

Nadine raised her voice, redirecting him away from Jack. “Because that’s what I wanted.”

He turned back.

She pointed at Skogen. “It was my idea to introduce a love interest. His to play that part. I told him it was a horrible idea. But he wouldn’t listen.”

Lionel released her and she rocked, keeping herself upright only because of the wall behind her.

“It was a horrible idea.” He turned to look at Skogen. “An act?” Then he glared at her. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

“Prove it,” he said, repeating her earlier challenge.

She assumed an affectation of disdain as she counted off the reasons on her left hand, keeping the right hidden.

“He’s ex-military. I hate that. He’s a bully. He won’t take my advice or listen to my suggestions. He excludes me from important briefings. And most important of all, he allowed himself to be captured.”

“So did you.”

“Did I?”

His brow furrowed.

“Or was I expecting you?”

“I captured you.”

She stepped forward. “You did. Snatched me right out from under their noses. I would have loved to see their faces in the morning when they discovered what you had done. You’re everything that one is not. Brave, daring, smart and ruthless.”

“I’m all of that.”

“The complete package.”

“Like your mother,” he said, smiling.

“Like my grandfather. I wish you could have met him.”

“He was like us?” The eagerness in his expression made her stomach heave all over again.

“Yes. Like us.”

He grasped her by the back of the neck and yanked her to him, sweeping down to claim a kiss.

Nadine stifled the cry of disgust, managing only to keep herself from resisting.

When he pulled away, he glanced back to Jack, who appeared to have lost consciousness again. Nadine allowed herself