Chapter 21

As soon as Jason drove away from the restaurant I turned to Hana. I knew Jason and our men would be on high alert for anyone following us, I could take the time to focus on her. I had hated every moment she had been in the presence of the scum inside that restaurant. I had hated that I didn’t have a choice but to bring her into a situation like that. But she had been fucking amazing. She had acted like she negotiated with mob bosses every Thursday and twice on Saturdays. But I had seen the way Aksakov had looked at her, the hunger in his eyes. He had the fucking audacity to have two women practically humping him in front of us and at the same time looking at Hana like she was his next meal. Not on my watch. The feeling in my chest was new to me and a quick assessment of them told me I should look closer. I looked at her sitting next to me in the backseat and she looked drained. The colour had gone from her face and I was afraid she would faint on me. I reached back into the bag in the trunk and pulled out a bottle of soda. I opened it and put it into her hand.

“Drink,” I said. She looked at me for a moment, but I could tell she didn’t see me. then she looked down at the soda and took a sip. She then tried to hand it back to me. “No, you need to finish it. You look like you could use the sugar,” I told her. She nodded and kept sipping the drink. I couldn’t blame her for zoning out. It would have taken a lot of willpower to be as strong as she was when facing Aksakov. And he had thrown a couple of curve balls at her, and at me even though he didn’t know it. Learning that Simon was ensnared in the mafia to the extent which Aksakov had told us was a painful surprise. I needed to sit down and think that one through when I had the time. I put my hand over Hana’s, the one she didn’t hold the soda with. Her hand was cold and it had a slight tremble to it. “Are you okay?” I asked, she hadn’t spoken since we had got back to the car.

“Yeah.” The answer came as a long exhale. I saw Jason looking at her first, then me in the rearview mirror.

“The hard part is over,” I said and she nodded and forced a smile. I could see how unnatural it was, but I let her think it fooled me.

“What happens now?” she asked. She had emptied the soda and was now fiddling with the can in her hand.

“Now we transfer the money. We have a software that we use so we can verify that the transfer is completed and that can act as evidence if Aksakov tries to claim he hasn’t received the money. I’ll come by tomorrow and pick you up and we can do the transfer at our office, would that be okay?” I asked. She nodded.

“Thank you. Both of you. I don’t think I could have done this without you,” she told us. Jason smiled at her in the mirror, which threw me off. He never smiled, but he had done a lot of it tonight.

“It’s our pleasure,” he reassured her. He parked the car in front of her apartment building and I got out and held the door open for her. I followed her up to her door. I didn’t think Aksakov would send someone after her. But I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.

“Are you okay with what he told you?” I asked. I didn’t need to elaborate, we both knew what I was talking about.

“It was a bit of a shock. But I’m fine. It’s not as if we are still married,” she told me. But I could see the hurt in her eyes. It made me wonder what feelings she had for my son. They were divorced, but that didn’t mean her feelings for him had gone. Was she still in love with Simon? The thought sent pulses of pain through my being which I did my best to ignore. We hadn’t talked about it. I hadn’t asked because it was none of my business. No, I corrected myself, I hadn’t asked because I didn’t want to know.

“Will you be okay on your own? I could stay a while if you want to,” I offered. She gave me another smile, this one was genuine.

“Thank you. But Jason is waiting for you. I will be fine. I will make some tea and curl up on the couch and do some thinking.” I sighed and nodded.

“Okay. Call me if you need me. Whether it’s because you feel unsafe or just need someone to talk to,” I told her and put my hand on her shoulder.

“I will. Thank you for being there for me,” she said.

“Don’t thank me. Now go inside and lock the door. I’ll wait here until you are safe. I’ll come by around lunch tomorrow if that is okay?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. Good night, Hunter,” she said and went inside. I waited until all the locks were engaged and then I walked back down, suppressing my need to demand that she let me stay. I got into the passenger seat next to Jason and he drove off. We sat in silence for a while, he shot me some side glances every now and then. The man saw too much.

“What?” I finally asked in an irritated tone.

“I like her,” he said.

“She is likeable,” I agreed in what I hoped was a neutral voice. Jason burst out laughing.

“She is likeable?” he wheezed between fits of laughter. “She is likeable?”

“What? She is!” I exclaimed.

“Sure, buddy. I’m not disagreeing. She seems sweet and … likeable. But we both know that isn’t the first adjective that pops into your mind when you think of her,” he said after calming down a little.

“I have no clue what you are talking about.”

“Oh come on, Hunter. You hid it well during the meeting but anyone can see that you like her,” Jason said.

“Excuse me?”

“You know, you like her. Like kissy kissy, and some touchy touchy. Come on, it can be that long since you were interested in a woman that you have forgotten how it works?”

“She is Simon's wife,” I objected.

“Ex-wife. And I know he’s your son but I get the impression he didn’t treat her right,” Jason told me. I grunted, Simon was a touchy subject for me. I suspected the same thing as Jason did, but it was another topic Hana and I stayed clear of. “All in all, I don’t see why you shouldn’t go for it.”

“Drop it, Jason. It’s not like that. And even if it were, she is almost twenty years my junior,” I said. If he was trying to piss me off, he was doing a good job.

“Oh come on. How bad can it be? You were like fifteen when you had Simon?” he asked.

“Seventeen,” I corrected him.

“Right,” Jason said, as if that proved his point.

“She is one year his junior,” I added.

“Okay, so eighteen years. It may be off putting if you had been thirty, but you’re like fifty?” Jason asked with a smirk. Instinctively I smacked the back of his head.

“Forty five, you idiot,” I corrected him, knowing full well he knew as he was only six months younger than me.

“My point is; You are both adults. If there is a spark, then why not?”

“First off, there is no spark. Second off, there is a long list of reasons. Her connection with Simon, she’s our client, the age difference, she needs someone better.” I started listing the points that always ran through my head when my heart or my body whispered; maybe.

“Yeah, I see it now,” Jason said. I nodded, content that I had made him see reason, it wasn’t often he changed his mind. “You are a pussy, so scared that you can’t face reality. Cool man,” he continued. I just glared at him.

“I. Am. Not. Scared.”

“Sure you are. We have discussed the Simon thing, it’s a non issue. Age gap, come on. Denny is like twenty two years older than his wife. Sure he is closer to fifty than both of us, but still. They seem happy. Married for like four or five years? A kid and another one on the way. So the client thing. Sure, I can see that. But from tomorrow on, that won’t be an issue any longer. The rest are just things you made up because you are a pussy,” Jason told me.

“Whatever,” I said.

“Hey, I’m serious. You deserve to be happy. So what if you didn’t get you happy ever after on the first go. The two of you were kids and if you ask me, you dodged a bullet getting away from Simon’s mom. There is still time to do it the right way.” Jason had become serious, he meant what he was saying. I sighed and rubbed my hand over my face.

“I don’t know. I don’t think she sees me that way. And I’m convinced it’s a bad idea. It would be the final nail in the coffin of my relationship with my son.”

“Feel free to punch me when I stop the car, but isn’t that nail already in place? How much shit are you willing to take from him?” Jason asked.

“He’s my son. I wasn’t there when he needed me and this time I won’t let him down,” I stubbornly told him.

“You need to get it into that fucking thick scull of yours that you not being there when he was a kid isn’t all your fault. Sure, your job made it hard to do regular visits. But his mother did her best to make sure you couldn’t see him even when you were stateside. And it’s not like you can just walk up to your superior officer and tell them you had a change of heart and want to go home.” Jason was getting worked up. “You have dedicated your life to that boy. You enlisted to put food on the table and a roof over his head. All the shit we went through, you did it so you could send him money. And don’t think I don’t know that he is the only reason you decided to start this company with me. I did it as I saw an opportunity to get rich and still do some good. You did it so you would have a steady income to support your son. And what does he do? Nothing! He can’t even keep his fucking nose clean. Stop taking responsibility for the stupid things he does. He needs to be a man and man the fuck up!” There was a long silence, we were almost at the office.

“Did it make you feel better?” I asked.

“Fuck yeah. I have been holding that in for a while now,” Jason huffed. We looked at each other and then laughed. “We don’t say it to you, because we know he’s your son. But we all think so. Don’t sell yourself cheap, okay?”

“Thanks man,” I told him and patted him on the shoulder.

“Okay, okay. Enough of this mushy shit. Are you joining me and the boys for a beer?” Jason asked.

“I’ll take a rain check on that,” I told him. A smirk appeared on his face.

“Going to go home and wait for her to call?” he asked.

“Shut up,” I said. But he wasn’t entirely wrong. I didn’t want to drink in case Hana needed me.