Hunting the Hunter (Second in Lone Wolf series)

Chapter Six

　

“Ella!” Little Maggie leapt from her spot at the table and ran as quickly as her legs could carry her across the small, crowded dining room. She limped heavily because of her birth defect. She had been born with a crooked foot. No doctor knew what had caused it and no doctor knew how to fix it. It caused her shoes to have to be specially made and she could not keep up with the other children when they played.

It also meant no parent wanted to adopt the girl, given her daily need for pain medication.

The little girl wrapped herself around Ella’s legs and Ella patted her messy brown hair awkwardly.

“Hello, Maggie.” she replied as she stood there stiffly and looked around. Tender physical contact just wasn’t something she was familiar or comfortable with. Abuse she knew how to handle. Punches, slaps, tight grasps and cruel words were normal for her. But the tenderness this little girl always showed to her was foreign and……

Addicting. That was why she was really here risking not only her own welfare but the welfare of all of these children. Of Widow Callahan.

“I knew you’d come back! I just knew it!” Maggie said with a happy smile as she pulled away and looked up at Ella. Ella had no idea why this girl was so taken with her but the thought of breaking her fragile heart was enough to rip out her own hardened one.

“You should go back and finish your lunch now, Maggie.” she urged the girl.

“Will you come sit with me?” Maggie asked as she bounced up and down and Ella nodded.

“Of course.” Ella replied with a tip of her head. As she walked back to the young girls table she couldn’t help but notice a group of boys gathered around a table in the corner. A scent came to her as she scented the air. The scent of a man and it was familiar somehow.

Sweat, horse, soap and something alluring… Sandalwood, she realized. He smelled like sandalwood. It was the man from the day before. The one she had run into as she’d come out of the store.

She hadn’t thought about him anymore since then but now her mind was full of questions. Who was he? Why was he here? Was he following her or was she just being paranoid?

Ella took her seat beside Maggie and while she tried to concentrate on the little girls excited conversation about the loss of her newest tooth, she found her eyes kept being drawn to that group of boys. She wished she could see the man with the scent that seemed to draw her in.

She had been too distracted the day before to pay attention to what he looked like but now she wanted to know. That scent continued to tease her nostrils, awakening her curiosity and stirring her blood.

Unable to stop herself, her legs moving of their own accord, Ella rose to her feet and made her way across the dining room. She approached the table and heard the strangers voice, it was deep, accented like a true Texan outlaw and it caused a tremble to wash over her, passing down her spine and rendering her speechless with shock.

Who was he?

He was entertaining the group of boys with a story, a story about a man battling a kings army in a castle. Swordfights and near death scares had the boys avidly glued to their seats with nothing but the occasional gasp passing through their lips.

Ella knew it was the quietest and most still this particular group of rowdy boys had ever been.

She edged closer still, hoping to catch a view when one of the boys moved and suddenly she saw him.

Ella didn’t understand the increase in her pulse, the way her body was drawn toward this man and why her mind instantly said ‘mine’ when she looked at him. Ella didn’t like men. She didn’t trust men. No man had ever shown her anything other than lust, hate, pain and suffering.