Hunter Read online

  Table of Contents

  Hunter

  Copyright

  Other Books by Melody Anne

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Hunter

  7 Brides for 7 Brothers: Book Three

  by

  Melody Anne

  Copyright

  © 2016 Melody Anne

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Other Books by Melody Anne

  7 Brides for 7 Brothers (Multi-Author Series):

  Luke - Book One - Barbara Freethy

  Gabe - Book Two - Ruth Cardello

  Hunter - Book Three - Melody Anne

  Knox - Book Four - Christie Ridgway

  Max - Book Five - Lynn Raye Harris

  James - Book Six - Roxanne St. Clair

  Finn - Book Seven - JoAnn Ross

  Billionaire Bachelors:

  The Billionaire Wins the Game

  The Billionaire’s Dance

  The Billionaire Falls

  The Billionaire’s Marriage Proposal

  Blackmailing the Billionaire

  Run Away Heiress

  The Billionaire’s Final Stand

  The Lost Andersons:

  Unexpected Treasure

  Hidden Treasure

  Holiday Treasure

  Priceless Treasure

  The Ultimate Treasure - December 13th, 2016

  Baby for the Billionaire:

  The Tycoon’s Revenge

  The Tycoon’s Vacation

  The Tycoon’s Proposal

  The Tycoon’s Secret

  The Lost Tycoon

  Surrender Series:

  Surrender - Book One

  Submit - Book Two

  Seduced - Book Three

  Scorched - Book Four

  Forbidden Series:

  Bound -Book One

  Broken - Book Two

  Betrayed - Book Three

  Burned - Book Four

  The Midnight Series:

  Midnight Fire: Book One

  Midnight Moon: Book Two

  Midnight Storm: Book Three

  Midnight Eclipse: Book Four

  Unexpected Heroes:

  Her Unexpected Hero

  Her Hometown Hero

  Her Forever Hero

  Safe in His Arms - Novella - Baby, It’s Cold Outside Anthology

  Who I am With You - Novella

  Following Her - Novella

  All I Want for Christmas - Novella

  Becoming Elena:

  Stolen Innocence

  Forever Lost

  New Desires

  Dalton- Coming Soon

  Taken by a Trillionaire

  Collection of Three Novellas - Melody Anne, Ruth Cardello, J.S. Scott

  Novels and Novellas:

  Finding Forever - Novel

  Safe in His Arms - Novella

  Keep updated on all my newest releases, signing events, giveaways, and more! Click HERE to sign up for my mailing list.

  Come play with Melody on Twitter @authmelodyanne

  Visit with Melody on Facebook

  Check out my blog Live, Laugh, Love

  Find all the fun things out on Instagram

  Leave reviews on Goodreads

  Prologue

  Two Months Ago – Mid September

  Hunter Brannigan stepped from his rental car, a large black Escalade, and gazed ahead at the family home where he’d grown up with his six siblings. There were memories of good and bad times at the ranch, and the stories that could be told he hoped would stay securely locked in a vault. He’d been restless growing up away from the city and had fought hard to leave. He hadn’t wanted to come back. But that had all changed a couple weeks ago when he’d gotten a message from his twin brother, Gabe.

  He’d been on assignment in the Middle East, snapping photos as shots rang out overhead. There’d been a message waiting for him on his phone — one he hadn’t thought would come for a very long time. His father had died.

  Hunter had reread the message at least a dozen times, trying to process it. His father, media mogul Colin Brannigan had recently turned sixty-seven years old. Hunter hadn’t even realized the old man was ill. No matter how many times he read the text, he couldn’t find meaning behind the short script.

  What had happened to his dad? Was it an accident? He certainly couldn’t have been ill, or Hunter would have heard something sooner. The only thing Hunter had known for sure was that he wasn’t going to find the answers until he went back home. It had been years since he’d been at the ranch, but, oddly enough, after hearing of his father’s passing, it was the first place he’d wanted to go.

  And now he was there. His dad had been gone for weeks already, and Hunter found himself on shaky ground as he began his walk up the path to the family home his brother Gabe had inherited.

  Hunter knew his ripped blue jeans and worn leather coat seemed to suggest he’d shown up looking for a job instead of being a person who belonged there. He didn’t care. It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford new clothes — he could buy whatever he wanted with the money he’d made from his internationally acclaimed photos. He just didn’t care what anyone thought of him — family members included.

  It had been a while since he’d visited any of them. He talked to Gabe more than the others, but they hadn’t been in the same place for … heck, Hunter couldn’t remember the last time they’d sat down together. And now he was even more ragged than usual after his long flight, his body still coated in desert dust and sweat, his boots worn and his camera forever scarred.

  Standing at six-foot-two inches tall, Hunter easily stopped women in their tracks. His vibrant green eyes had an eternal sparkle to them, and his five o’ clock shadow was a permanent fixture. Did he notice his appeal? Of course he did. Hunter was vain enough to appreciate what he’d been blessed with.

  He was now thirty-three years old and had been capturing images on his camera for the past fifteen years since he’d decided to skip college. He’d been to war-ravaged cities, places where natural disasters had torn buildings from their foundations, and countries he’d never heard of until he’d set out to capture the best and worst of what the world had to offer.

  He and Gabe might be fraternal twins, but they were about as opposite as two brothers could possibly be. Hunter smiled as he thought about Gabe, his incredibly uptight corporate brother, who preferred wearing
suits and ties and thought a stain was a national emergency. There was certainly a family resemblance between them, but that’s where the similarities stopped.

  While Gabe kept his hair short, his appearance neat, Hunter was in constant need of a haircut and shave and his clothes looked like they came out of a Goodwill bin. Hunter liked it that way though. He didn’t have strangers always trying to get something from him. They assumed he’d have nothing to offer. That was their loss.

  Hunter bounded up the steps and over the large front porch before grabbing the doorknob. It turned without a problem. Seemed his brother wasn’t too worried about safety in this neck of the woods.

  Opening the door, the smell that greeted him stopped him in his tracks, and his stomach rumbled. That’s when he realized he hadn’t eaten in the past eighteen hours. He’d managed to grab a bag of chips from the airport on his way out after his twenty-hour flight had ended, but he’d been in a hurry to get home, and he’d munched on those in the rental car.

  Now he was starving. He let his nose lead him through the house to the kitchen he’d only been in a few times during his youth, as he’d had no interest in learning how to cook. An older man was cleaning up what looked like the remains of a good dinner and Hunter was hoping there were leftovers. He moved up behind the man without even thinking about startling him.

  When the guy realized he wasn’t alone, he turned, saw Hunter, then let out an ear-piercing scream that had Hunter stumbling back a few steps as he held up his hands in surrender. He wasn’t sure how the windows hadn’t shattered, or how a guy could hit that pitch. Even the local bats’ sonar had been activated.

  Hunter’s fingers twitched with the need to capture the look on the man’s face on camera. He couldn’t pay someone for a shot like that. Hunter heard footsteps rapidly approaching as he turned around, watching as his brother burst through the kitchen doorway, his mouth grim as he did a quick visual for danger. When their eyes met, Hunter gave him a crooked smile and a shrug of his shoulders. Gabe sent him a frustrated stare.

  “I see you’ve come in with a bang as usual, Brother,” Gabe said.

  “Good to see you too, Gabe,” Hunter replied as he moved to the kitchen island and took a seat. They both turned to look at the frightened man whose eyes flashed between the two of them. Gabe gave him a reassuring smile.

  “I’m sorry, Mandel, this is just my brother, though you couldn’t tell from the homeless appearance he’s sporting,” Gabe assured the staffer.

  “I’ve been traveling a long way to get here. I wouldn’t mind if you passed along some leftovers,” Hunter told him with his most disarming smile.

  The man was clutching his chest and looking at Hunter as if he’d lost his mind. Hunter wanted to tell him that ship had sailed a very long time ago — that he’d given up on living a life of sanity when he’d begun traveling the world. He thought it might not be the best idea to say it out loud though.

  “It’s nice to see you’ve grown up during your travels,” Gabe told him.

  Hunter smiled at his brother. “And I’m glad to see you’ve still got a stick nicely wedged up your ass,” he responded with a wink.

  Gabe’s expression never altered as he stood there. He wasn’t going to sit down and be on an equal level with his brother — Gabe had to be the boss. It had been that way since they were young. But while Gabe might have a need to keep control, Hunter had managed to talk his brother into some fun adventures anyway.

  “You have staff here for just you?” Hunter asked. He still hadn’t been passed any food.

  “No, I just finished a meal with Josie — the groundskeeper,” Gabe told him.

  That instantly piqued Hunter’s interest. “Josie?” he said with a grin. “She must be one heck of a groundskeeper for you to bring a chef and cleaning crew in.”

  “I just arrived here today,” Gabe told him. “And she was here. I thought it would be good for us to talk.”

  “Where’s she staying?” Hunter asked.

  “In one of the guest houses,” Gabe said.

  “I wonder for how long,” Hunter told him with a laugh that had Gabe rolling his eyes.

  “I think that’s not your business,” Gabe told him before looking over Hunter’s appearance. “And don’t you think you’re a bit too old to be wearing ripped jeans?”

  Hunter’s fingers rubbed against his thighs. “I need the air flow the rips give me. You know I’ve always run pretty damn hot,” he said with a wink.

  “Come on, Hunter. It’s definitely time to grow up,” Gabe said, obviously losing patience with the banter.

  “Better be careful, Gabe, you’re getting upset which will mess up your pretty appearance,” Hunter said with a laugh. “Damn, I think a hair might even be out of place,” he added dramatically as he ran his own fingers through his mussed up trusses, which were about an inch past the point of desperately needing a haircut.

  He might not want to be as clean-cut as his brother, but he also didn’t enjoy long hair. It got in his face and drove him crazy. He wasn’t going to admit that at the moment, though.

  “Dammit, Hunter. You’re here for a serious reason. This isn’t the time to be irresponsible or reckless. It’s time to have a bit of respect for the passing of our father.”

  Hunter’s smirk was wiped away. “I might not have been the daddy’s boy like you’ve been, but I’m not happy he died,” Hunter told him. Oddly, he felt a bit of remorse he hadn’t come back to visit more than he had.

  “Just because I loved our father didn’t make me his puppet,” Gabe told Hunter. “That job was reserved for James.”

  “You and James have always followed the rules, even if it didn’t make you very happy. I think you’re just upset with me because I dared to do what I love instead of allowing a corrupt world to lock me down.”

  “Believe me, I love my life,” Gabe said.

  “Prove it then. Take off the tie, mess up your hair, and let yourself go. I’ll take you on the adventure of a lifetime,” Hunter said.

  He was surprised by how much he wanted his brother to tell him yes. He had to admit, if only to himself, that he envied his twin the slightest bit. There were times Hunter felt the smallest twinge of jealousy that Gabe had roots, friends, a real life. Hunter was a nomad, living for the moment. It was the life he’d chosen for himself, but being back in their childhood home almost made him want to stay.

  That was more terrifying than just about anything else he could feel. He enjoyed his life, loved being in a certain country one day and then another the next. Why would he give up that freedom? Certainly not to put on a suit and contribute to the all-American dream.

  “I’m happy with my life and I have nothing to prove, Hunter,” Gabe told him. “Besides, your adventures always end up with me in a cast.” He smiled after saying that and a slew of memories flashed through Hunter’s mind of some of the crazy things he’d done with his siblings when they were younger.

  When they’d been young, life had been so much simpler. They had always been competitive, but it hadn’t ever gotten out of hand. They both had their strengths … and if Hunter were being completely honest with himself … their weaknesses. He wasn’t going to say that out loud either.

  “Okay, well you’ve gotten me here, so when’s the funeral?” Hunter asked. The sooner they got this over with, the more quickly he could get back on the road.

  “Dad didn’t want a funeral,” Gabe told him with a sigh.

  “I guess I really didn’t need to come back then,” Hunter said.

  Gabe sighed. Hunter felt guilty. He might be able to harden his heart to a certain extent but he had loved his father, even if he hadn’t always agreed with the old man, or his brothers, for that matter.

  “Dad left us each something. I got the ranch,” Gabe said, his voice filled with disgust.

  That made Hunter smile. “Ha, that’s perfect. You
going to sell it off?” It was a question, but Hunter already knew Gabe wouldn’t want the ranch. He was a city boy, through and through.

  “That’s the plan,” Gabe said. Hunter didn’t know why it bothered him that Gabe was doing exactly what he knew he would. It wasn’t as if Hunter would live there even if his father had given it to him.

  “You know I don’t want to be locked down, so I’m damn glad he didn’t leave it to me,” Hunter told him.

  “Come with me to Dad’s old office. Your inheritance is in there.”

  “What? You get this place and I get something that fits inside the office?” Hunter said with a laugh.

  He did rise and follow his brother though; suddenly realizing he’d never been fed. Dang it. He had no idea what the old man had left him, but it didn’t really matter. Hunter had plenty of money of his own and he didn’t care about possessions. They just held a person down.

  He and his brother stepped into the dark-paneled office and Hunter felt a stab of nostalgia as he looked around the room. It hadn’t changed one little bit in all the years since he’d last been there. In this spot, more than any other, he felt the pang of his loss. He’d never again sit across from his dad as the old man smoked a fine cigar and they shared a drink.

  Gabe moved over to the desk and picked up a small box, holding it out. Hunter’s fingers traced over the top of it as he fought emotion he didn’t understand. Once he opened it he wouldn’t have to wonder anymore what his father’s last wishes were. He almost didn’t want to find out, didn’t want to read his dad’s last words.

  Gabe said nothing, seeming to know he needed a little bit of time. Because he didn’t want to appear to be a sentimental fool, he tore open the box and looked at the items inside. On top, there was a yellowed piece of paper, with a folded note attached, but he was confused as he looked at the words and lines.

  Opening it up, he laid it out on the desk.

  “What in the hell is this?” he asked Gabe, who was looking at it with confusion as well.

  “I have no idea,” Gabe told him. They both leaned over as they looked. “It appears to be a … a map.”

  “My inheritance is a map?” Hunter asked, looking over at Gabe. Gabe shrugged.