We Found Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

to have lost all his fight, though. Funny. Must just be when someone had his back up against a wall. Hunter could understand that, he supposed. But damn. His ribs were aching, and he just wanted to go lie down, since his meat loaf was now on the floor and he’d not be eating tonight.
    “You boys finished, or do we need restraints?”
    Hunter nodded, Alvarez gave an annoyed grunt before wandering off, and Riley stood still and quiet. Mr. Clean—formerly known as Jerry, apparently—gave a disgusted sigh. “Just get back to your room. I’ll get new trays sent down to you. I don’t wanna see your face back in here tonight, understood?”
    “Yessir,” Hunter said. He didn’t intend to do anything other than sleep. Fuck this day, this week. Fuck the last six years of his life.
    Riley seemed much more demure as he passed Hunter and headed down the hall. Hunter followed him silently, thinking a damn thank-you might be nice. But he’d admit to himself, not having to see Riley get pummeled was thanks enough.

Chapter 4

     
     
    S ILENCE HAD a way of maddening strong minds, and in a place like Hartfield—where crazy came in abundance—silence had a way of wreaking havoc. It led to thinking, and thinking led to remembering. Remembering led to fearing, and….
    Swallowing hard, Riley burrowed his head deeper into his pillow. He lay flat on his back, corpse flat, with his arms crossed over his chest. That’s how he would’ve been tucked away in his coffin had that shower nineteen months ago worked the way he’d planned. Why couldn’t people just leave him the fuck alone?
    Speaking of….
    “Why did you try to help me?” he mumbled, not really sure if Hunter had fallen asleep. After all, they’d been lying in complete silence for over an hour already. And Riley didn’t dare look over and assess the situation. That’d make him look interested, and he most def wasn’t interested.
    “That’s a hell of a way of thanking someone, man,” Hunter eventually answered. Almost like he’d been lying on his side of the room calculating his response just to keep the peace. Riley sympathized.
    “Who said anything about being thankful?”
    The springs of Hunter’s bed creaked and squealed. A soft thud, thud followed. The sound nagged at Riley, begging him to glance over and do a little ocular investigation. Oh, but he didn’t want to. He knew good and damn well looking over would lead to conversation—conversation he didn’t want to have. Talking to people wasn’t his forte, not by a damn sight. And yet his head turned toward the distant bed before he had enough sense to make himself stop.
    “What the fuck is your problem?” Hunter asked, demanding and angry, body steely and rigid, shoulders squared, and honestly, kinda hot. “Someone does something nice for you, and you gotta shit all over it. Why?”
    The tone and volume of his voice took Riley right back to that house from his childhood: John standing over him while he hunkered down in a dark corner, Mimi pretending to cry in the background, Riley only wanting to be a good little boy. Riley wanted to shrink back in the corner of his bed, close his eyes, and pray the night away like he used to. He couldn’t, though. He couldn’t let this guy think he could walk all over him. This was Riley’s territory.
    Clenching his jaw, he raised his eyes to Hunter’s towering level. Their stares locked, and a million things passed through Riley’s head—from telling Hunter to fuck off, to pushing him back to his side of the room, to kissing him breathless. The last came as a huge shock. There was only one other guy he’d ever wanted to kiss. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t been turned on by men in the past. Oh, he had. He’d had more sex than he was proud to admit. But kissing, well, that took things to a whole new level, didn’t it?
    “Maybe I’m not thankful,” Riley settled on saying. It sounded a hell of a lot better than what he wanted to say. How about you get