Prologue
“Is hunter coming over? Is he, is he, is he?” Dove followed her brother around the house. All she heard was Hunter.
“Yeah he’s coming over but you aren’t hanging with us,” her brother glared at her.
“But why?” She wanted to play with them, she wanted to see Hunter.
“Mom! Dove won’t leave me alone!”
Dove stood there, her eyes watering. “Youra liar!” she screamed.
Dove saw her mama walk into the hallway and glare at her, “Leave your brother alone, I meant it Dove. I don’t want to hear it, not today.”
Dove’s lips trembled, her eyes watered and she ran outside. She bounced off of something hard and fell to the ground, her head hurt, her elbows hurt. What happened?
“What’s wrong little red?”
Dove wiped her eyes with her sleeves and sniffled, she licked her lips and told him what happened.
“Slow down, I can’t understand you.”
No one understood her, she told him again but much slower.
“Awe you don’t need to cry little Dovey. When I’m done hanging out with Carter I’ll come play with you, okay?” Hunter wiped her tears and dried her face off before checking her elbows and feeling her head for a bump, she was okay.
Dove nodded and smiled as Hunter picked her up, they walked into the house and went into her room.
“Clean up your room and have it ready so we can play later, alright?”
Dove nodded but lifted her arms, Hunter kneeled down and hugged her. “I’m going to marry you some day,” she whispered to him, she kissed his cheek.
“Why’s that little red?”
“Your nice,” she smiled.
Hunter laughed and ruffled her red little curls, “You’ll be waiting quite a long time.”
Chapter one
Twelve years later…..
Dove laid in bed, browsing through her new Xbox One that her brother bought her. She had never asked him for much, just his time since he was always away for long periods of time. Her brother had sworn up and down that she needed an upgrade from her GameCube and Nintendo, she herself didn’t like it. She had to confess that she liked playing online though, it amazed her how much technology was different now a days.
She had a new message, she looked at the time and smiled.
RogueSniper89: Wanna play?
RogueWarriorXhexania: You know I do.
That was the only messages they exchanged, everyday around the same time. She’d never admit that she waited for him to get on, not even confess to who she was. She knew who he was though.
She selected her Call of Duty and waited for it to load. She had spent the past month every day after school learning this game and Halo.
Even though RogueSniper89 wanted to play there was nothing but shit talking. Why? Cause Dove Hill kicked ass.
RogueSniper89: Ready?
Hell yeah she was ready and she told him that by killing him execution style.
She always killed him, no matter where he was, no matter where he hid, no matter where he ran. She was on his ass.
Dove heard a knock on her door, “Come in,” she yelled.
“Hunter’s coming over in a bit, you still going over to Alex’s?”
Dove paused the game and checked her phone real quick, “Yup, still going.”
She resumed her game and laughed as she killed him once again.
“You’re really good at that now, aren’t you?” Carter leaned against her door frame and watched her play.
As soon as RogueSniper89 reappeared she killed him again. “Yeah,” she snickered.
“Well I’m glad you are enjoying it. I won’t tell Hunter you are the one who keeps killing him, poor bastard. You should hear him rant about that shit.” Carter shook his head and laughed. Hunter’s pride would be hurt to learn that little Dovie was kicking his ass in Call of Duty.
They lived their own Call of Duty and he had no idea why Hunter would want to play it.
“Are you going to keep standing there?” Dove peeked at her brother, saw him texting and as soon as he looked up RogueSniper89 signed off.
“Boo! I was having fun.” Dove turned off the console and grabbed her duffle out of her closet. “So what are you guys up to tonight?”
“Nothing to crazy,” he smirked.
“Bar hopping, bringing back one nighters?” Dove didn’t want to think about that. Thinking about Hunter with a girl, having sex. Not going to go there.
“No, just a guy’s night. We haven’t did anything since we got back.”
“Sounds fun,” she zipped up her duffle and threw it by her door.
“What are you and Alex going to do tonight?”
Dove watched her brother get comfortable on her bed and she honestly didn’t want to lie to him but she was going to have to.
“Just a girl’s night before we cram for finals, you know? After that there’s graduation and then the summer, packing and moving and bam, college!”
“Gotcha. I’ll leave the key in the pot for you.”
“Actually,” she looked up at her brother and nervously bit her lip. “Do you think I could barrow the car?”
Carter opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out, the doorbell rang and we both knew who that was. Carter looked at her before leaving her sight, to let her know that they weren’t done talking.
She looked at the clock on her nightstand and jumped, she had to get ready!
After showering and blow drying her hair and having it curl around her face she was done. She felt fucking great, she was so ready for tonight.
Dove cleaned up her room because she knew the boys would highly most likely be here some time tonight and she wanted it presentable and not slobish.
She walked into the kitchen and smiled as she saw her brother eye her up and down. Okay, maybe she looked too nice for a sleep over.
“I thought you said it was a girl’s night, which in your case consists of romantic movies, late night talks, and painting each other’s nails.” Carter leaned back against the counter and took a sip of his beer. What was little Dovie up to and was she really trying to sneak one on him? Of all people.
Hunter didn’t want to turn around and look, Carters expression was enough. Carters little sister was up to something, he could see it in Carters eyes, so much for guys’ night.
He saw the resolve in his eyes as Carter gave Dovey the keys, he had snuck a peek and he wished he hadn’t. He had hated with what she did with her hair because she looked better with her natural curls, Dove wanted to be like everybody else though so she straightened her hair like any teenage girl and she curled the ends of it.
Her hazel eyes looked his way and quickly relocated, he watched as a hint of pink blossomed beneath her skin. He had never known a girl other than Dovey who turned bright red. It was a dead giveaway when she was embarrassed or shy.
“Drive safe, okay? And if it’s too much don’t drive anywhere, I don’t want you stranded in the snow.”
“Got it, don’t get stranded.” Dove rolled her eyes, they were having a girl’s night out. Not driving out of state.
Dove threw her duffle in the back seat of the cab and smiled as motor purred to life, she absolutely loved her brother’s truck. Someday she’d buy one for herself or maybe if Carter got a new one she could buy this baby off of him.
She merged onto their street and kept checking her mirrors, no sign of Carter. She made a few more turns and was happy that Alex lived a few blocks from her, this snow was no joke. She didn’t think it would be this bad.
“Fuck its cold out there,” Alex slid into the cab.
“Damn you look hot!” they said together, then they both squealed.
“Are we still heading to the diner?”
“Yup! I’m so excited, I can’t wait. Today couldn’t have come any faster.”
Dove drove as fast and as slow as she could, unfortunately the diner was ten minutes away.
***
Okay, so this is not what she expected. Not what she expected at all. Oh that felt nice. Joey Anderson was making out with her, she should be happy right? Hottest guy on the football team and here she was, in her brothers truck making out with someone she wanted to kiss but not wanted to kiss.
Dove wiped her mouth, she had did that quite a few times and she found it disgusting, did boys really kiss like this? Or was it just Joey Anderson? But when he touched her chest and rubbed his fingers against her nipples she loved it, it did foreign things to her body and she wanted more of his touch.
She wasn’t in a really comfortable position to really enjoy this like she should and she had no intention of doing this tonight, she had somehow got tricked into this. Her head hurt because it was up against the door and at a weird angle, she just wanted to stop but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him. She didn’t want to be the girl they talked about, the one who didn’t put out. Plus he was hot. She could always lie and say they went all the way but she wasn’t sure if that worked on boy’s ends too.
“We both know she’s in there,” Hunter and Carter stood mere feet from the truck.
“Yeah I know, what if she’s naked already. I don’t want to see that.” Carter played with the keys in his hand as he thought.
“Neither do I,” Carter would lose it if she was naked with a guy in there.
“We both know that’s a lie. You handle it. See you back at the house, take your car. I’ll grab Alex.” Carter doubled clicked the button on his clicker and walked away.
Dove heard the doors unlock at the same time her head fell against the seat and the nights cold air washed over her body, she opened her eyes to see Hunter grab Joey off of her and out of the truck and toss him into the snow. Oh why me?
“You stay the fuck away from her, you hear me?”
“Yes,” was all the kid could say.
Wimp, Dove thought.
She grabbed her jacket and stomped her way to the diner and saw Alex leave with her brother and heading in her direction. Which meant two cars, Carter heading this way meant him taking his truck and that meant she was stuck with Hunter, great. Just great.
Dove heard the sound of snow crunch behind her and knew Hunter was right behind her.
“Dovie-”
“Shhhhh!” Dove heard something in the alley, a rustling sound and a faint cry.
She took a step towards it but was stopped, Hunter pulled out his gun and slowly walked toward the dumpster.
“Who walks around with a gun? Are you crazy!” she whispered.
Dove was right behind him, he sighed as he put his gun away and kneeled down to grab a ball of black fur.
Dove’s eyes watered as Hunter handed her the little tiny ball of fur. “We have to help it,” she cried.
“Dovey, it was probably left here on purpose, it’s probably sick.” He looked down at the tiny kitten and wondered why it wasn’t already dead, it had to be at least in the low thirty’s already and if it was sick then it probably didn’t have that much time left.
“I don’t care!” She sniffled and took off her jacket to wrap the kitten in it, she needed to heat it up. It must be freezing and hungry.
“Okay, let’s head to Petco before they close.”
***
Dove hurried through the different aisles grabbing more than one can of milk, a couple of baby bottles, cat toys, a litter box and sand. She was going to buy a bed but thought against it since it was most likely going be with her while it slept.
She returned to the truck and immediately grabbed the kitten to put it in her lap, she lightly petted it as they drove home. She really hoped it’d be okay.