Page 54 of Submission

“You can stay with me tonight, and then I can help you move into Hunter’s place tomorrow.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders. “Is that okay?”

“I have to live with you?” She looks warily at Hunter.

“You don’t have to do any of this, but it would be a good idea if you did,” he tells her in a steady voice. “I will get you your own apartment, maybe in our building if you like it, but for now, it’s safer that you stay with me until things settle down. I have a guest room that will be perfect.”

“What do I call you?” she softly questions, and I see that the realization of who she is now may be starting to sink in. It may not be a full understanding because who can actually grasp the fact that they’re the baby sister of one of the most dangerous men in Los Angeles in ten minutes?

“Hunter, you can call me Hunter.”

“Why don’t you go wait in my office?” I suggest to her when it seems that the conversation has fizzled out. Both she and Hunter seem to be struggling to find anything more to say, and we’ve all had a harrowing night. God knows I need a good shower and maybe a shot of something from the bar. “When I’m finished up for the night, we can go home together.”

Christian is still waiting outside, and I realize that Hunter has basically assigned his friend to shadow Lacy for the time being.

“How are things on the floor?” he asks Christian, referring to the club, which surprisingly is still open for business. It’s as if nothing in the back of the building ever happened.

“Normal.”

“How could things be normal when there was just a series of gunshots in the back?” I ask, dumbfounded.

“The main walls of the club are soundproofed to meet the requirements of city ordinances. Between that and the decibel level of the music, no one could hear a thing that happened outside,” Christian explains.

Incredible.

No wonder so many crimes go unnoticed around here.

“Take care of her,” Hunter tells Christian.

“Like a newborn baby.” He smiles.

I realize that we’ve monopolized the kitchen for far too long, and the staff needs to get back in here if we’re going to serve food tonight, so Hunter and I finish talking in his office. When it’s finally just the two of us, I ask him cautiously, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he mutters, but his expression is anything but fine.

I don’t like assuming what other people are feeling but I also cannot just turn a blind eye toward Hunter. I care about him, and without knowing much about his childhood, I know that his finding Lacy has had a tremendous effect on him. He’s moved in a way that I’ve never seen. A way that I thought him incapable of feeling.

Hoping that he won’t snub me, I say, “You probably expected this to go in a completely different way, but you have to keep in mind that she doesn’t remember her life before foster care at all. Not many people remember things from the age of three or four years old. You basically just informed her that not only does she have a brother but that she is also no longer broke and that she now has opportunities in front of her that she never expected to get. Living in a plush Los Angeles apartment and going to college were probably never things she ever considered. Give her some time to adjust to it.”

I step towards him, and he wraps his arms around me as if seeking my warmth. I do the same, wrapping my arms around his waist and tilting my head up to meet his stormy grey eyes.

“You can be pretty smart sometimes,” he says with a smile.

“I have my moments.”

“I don’t want her to have to work. Have you looked into her eyes, Megan? She looks so tired, and she’s not even thirty yet.”

“Don’t try and control her that much. Give her some breathing space, or she’ll just resent you. You can watch over her from a distance and let her cover that distance herself.”

“I wasn’t always rich.” I feel the sigh that leaves Hunter. “When I was just graduating high school, my mother had Lena with some inconsequential man she met at a bar. She couldn’t afford to feed us both, so I did what I could to keep the lights on and food in the fridge. I became a man on the streets of LA, butthe way the streets are set up, it was destined for me to lose my family.”

Hunter mindlessly plays in my hair as he continues a story that I know must be difficult for him to share.

“I got involved with a gang, and I was framed for something I didn’t do. Nobody cared about the truth; they just needed to prove a point so they wouldn’t look weak, so they dragged me to my house and made me watch as they set it on fire. They told me stories of all the horrific things they’d supposedly done to my baby sister and my mother and then held me back from rushing inside to save them.”

Hunter’s words are soft as he walks through memories of his past, and I listen with bated breath. I want to cry.

“A part of me died as I watched the flames of that fire. The protective son and brother disappeared, but out of those ashes rose a Phoenix. It took me years, but once I consolidated power and made something of myself, I tracked down all of those who were still alive and killed them slowly, one by one. Of course, it never brought my family back to me.”

My eyes feel like they’re burning. “You have Lena back.”

---