Chapter 18

It was nice having Hunter as company. As usual he had calmed me down. I did feel embarrassed for crying like a baby. It was not an attractive trait and it made me look weak. It shouldn’t bother me, but it did. I didn’t want to look weak in front of him, I blamed my school girl crush for that. As we ate, I put the show we both had been watching on the TV. We ate the pizza, even if I still felt a little uneasy about it, and made comments on the show. My body relaxed and I let my legs curl up beside me instead of having them against my body. As we finished eating, Hunter lifted my feet and placed them in his lap. I froze.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked in a worried voice. I wanted to laugh, he was one of the most gentle people I knew.

“No, it’s fine,” I told him. He nodded and pulled off my socks, which made me blush. Why I don’t really know. But the thought of him stripping my clothes off me took my mind to places it didn’t need to go, especially with Hunter sitting next to me. But he had pure thoughts. He inspected the dressings on my heels and grunted. I tried to twist myself to see what he was unhappy about. “What?” I asked.

“You have been bleeding,” he told me. He placed my feet back on the couch and walked into the bathroom. He came back with new dressings.

“You don’t have to,” I objected but a stern look from him as he sat down again, stopped me. “Thank you,” I instead said as he put my feet back into his lap.

“You need to stop thanking me, Hana.”

“You keep doing kind things for me,” I told him. He smiled and started to change the dressing on the first foot. I flinched a little as he peeled the dressings off.

“When I spoke to Denny, my friend at the police, he promised me he would let me know the next time he was sending his men. You don’t have to be alone when you meet them. But I think you need to talk to them, sweetness,” he said. I was almost convinced he started the conversation to distract me.

“But I don’t know anything,” I said by pure reflex. Then I stopped to think about it. That was true the first time the detectives stopped by, but it wasn’t anymore. I knew about the mafia, I knew I had money that probably was illegal and I knew that Hunter knew where Simon was. “If they find out about the money they will take it from me, right?” I asked him. He looked at me, sighed and nodded.

“Probably. I could probably have made a deal if it was just Denny. But this is big, Denny is just a cog in a much bigger wheel this time. I wouldn’t be surprised if the feds are involved. Things will be run by the book and any thing that can get them an in will be taken,” he explained. I nodded.

“So I should lie when I talk to them?” I asked. I wasn’t sure I would be able to do so. I could try, but I feared I wouldn’t be convincing.

“I’m not a lawyer so I can’t give you legal advice. If you want I can book a meeting tomorrow with the company’s lawyer, he is good at what he does. But I can tell you that I don’t like the idea of you lying to the cops. I would suggest avoiding it. Our meeting with Aksakov is tomorrow, with some luck the detectives won’t be sniffing around before that,” Hunter said.

“Okay,” I agreed. As we had been talking, he had been tending to my feet and he now inspected his work. He nodded and placed my feet back on the couch and went to throw the trash away, put the remainder of the dressings back and wash his hands. When he returned I half expected him to say he needed to leave, but he sat down next to me again and placed my feet in his lap and focused on the TV. It was hard to hide the smile that appeared on my face. I liked having him next to me. It wasn’t often I enjoyed the company of other people. My life has shown me that you never could trust others. It meant that I always kept my guard up around others. The only other people I had let my guard down around was Wictor and Simon. And Simon had proven to be the biggest mistake. But Hunter had somehow just slid right underneath that shield I always had up. He made me feel safe. He made me feel other things as well, but those were not appropriate. Or where they? Okay, he was Simon’s father. But would it really be such a big thing to just give in to the pull? Maybe not now, in the middle of everything, but when things were over. I wouldn’t expect a relationship or something like that. I would settle for one night of fun. The attraction I felt for him made it feel like we could have a lot of fun, steamy, hot, passionate fun. I glanced at Hunter. He had to feel it too, right? Those kinds of questions occupied my brain more than the TV-show. When my phone pinged we both startled. It was as if it had burst our bubble of peace. It was a text from Wictor, asking when he should come by. Hunter stood up and stretched.

“I think I need to head home,” he said.

“Of course, it’s getting late,” I agreed. On the tip of my tongue was an invite for him to stay. But I chickened out.

“I’ll just put this in the trash,” he said and collected the empty pizza box and our tissues.

“You don’t have to do that. You have already been so helpful. Coming over here, taking care of that detective, cleaning up, taking care of my feet and buying pizza,” I told him.

“No problem, Hana. It’s all part of the service we provide,” he said with a smile. I froze. Part of the service? “Are you okay?” he asked. He must have seen the change in my demeanour.

“Y-yeah, I’m okay. I just touched my heel to the couch,” I lied. I felt like an idiot and I was horrified at how close I had come to make an absolute fool of myself. Hunter’s friendliness was all part of the service his company provided. I felt my shield slide into place. It wasn’t his fault I had jumped to conclusions. Hopefully we would take the meeting tomorrow and then everything would be over. I could put Simon and his father behind me and instead focus on my new, new life. Version 3.0. I walked Hunter to the door, he handed me the spare key he had used.

“Are you sure you’re okay staying here?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” I told him. He looked at me for a long while and then nodded.

“Call me if something happens, anything. Jason and I will pick you up tomorrow at seven. Do you think your feet will be okay?”

“They will be fine. I’ll use my trainers, they are soft and I’m thinking it’s a good choice when going to a secret rendezvous with a gangster. At least I can run in them,” I joked. Hunter smiled.

“Smart thinking,” he agreed. We said goodnight and as usual he waited outside my door until he heard me lock everything. I went into the kitchen and started putting things away as I thought about things. I decided there wasn’t much I could do about my feelings towards Hunter. They were there, but that didn’t mean I had to act on them. He had been nice to me, helped me more than he had to. I could do this one thing for him and not put him in an awkward position. It was fine, I would just try my best to see him as someone doing me a favour. I could do that. I spent the rest of the evening texting with Wictor. It kept my mind from straying into the darker corners of itself. As I got ready for bed I had an internal struggle about whether I should send a text to Hunter or not. There was no good reason to do so. But the last couple of days he had always sent me a good night text, and it felt rude to always make him initiate it. Even if it was just professional courtesy.

Me: Thank you again for everything today. I hope you sleep well.

H: Good night, Hana. I will see you tomorrow.