Page 17 of Bounty Hunter's Obsession

“You can change whatever you want if you want to stay here. Once we get everything settled. You’ll have to decide what to do with your house. You can live there, sell it, rent it.”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead,” I confess.

Hayden walks toward me, taking my face in his hands. He kisses me on the forehead. “You don’t have to make any choices right now, baby girl.”

“Do you have steaks here?” I ask him.

He chuckles and backs up, “I have some in the freezer. I didn’t plan on staying here this week.”

“Shoot,” I mumble. “Um, potatoes?”

“I have to check, but probably. What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?” He tosses a dark blue bag onto the counter.

“Mack, the cook, he showed me how to cook a good steak, the way you liked it the other night. Side of hash and everything. You’ve been doing so much for me, I wanted to cook for you. I can’t exactly pay you back for all of this.”

“How about this, baby girl? Let’s order some takeout since it’s still early. We can go through this bag and I’ll make sure those steaks are defrosted for you to cook ‘em up tomorrow. You want to grill them or use the cast iron?”

“I guess the cast iron is as close to the flat top at the diner. What’s in the bag?” I ask him.

“This is what Tony’s looking for,” he says with a smirk.

“The sleazebag had it? And he just gave it to you?”

Hayden shrugs and goes into a drawer where he pulls out a stack of menus and tosses them on the counter in front of me. “I paid him for it. We’ll get a day or two before Tony squeezes the info out of him that we actually have it. We need to know what’s inside so we can have some leverage against him.”

After sorting through the menus, we put an order for Chinese in and hunker down in his living room, where we begin to sort through the bag and its contents.

There’s a pile of cash alongside a notebook with a bunch of random papers stuffed inside of it. Hayden separates everything and looks at me. “You want to count the money or figure out what this book is for?”

“I don’t want to touch his filthy money. I’ll look through the book.”

It doesn’t take long for me to get into a rhythm, putting papers into my own sorting system. By the time the food arrives, I’m so deep into Tony’s books I barely notice until Hayden sets the boxes and utensils down in front of me.

“You should eat, baby girl.”

It’s hard peeling my eyes away from the numbers in front of me, but the savory aroma reminds my stomach that I need to eat. When I look up, Hayden has the money sitting in the bag.

“How much is there?” I ask him, taking a bite of some chicken and vegetables.

“A little over 300 grand. He’s definitely going to hang around your place.”

“If I actually stole that money, why does he think I’d hang around Conklin?”

“Because of your grandmother’s house,” he says with a shrug.

I shake my head, “I’m sentimental but not stupid. I might take a few pictures, but I definitely wouldn’t hang around waiting for that shoe to fall. He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.”

“You don’t have to be smart to run an organization like Tony’s. You just have to be ruthless, and that he has in spades. What do you make of that book?”

I find myself getting excited because I understand something that has nothing to do with waitressing or checking coats. “Actually, it’s fairly easy to put these receipts here against the entries in this book. Tony’s not paying off people outright, but he’s keeping track of gifts exchanged for favors. I’ve been looking up some of these names on my phone. There’s a bunch of lawyers and politicians in this book. What are we going to do? Blackmail him to leave me alone?”

Hayden smirks, “Not at all, baby girl. You can't blackmail men like that. He’ll find that more offensive than stealing the bag. We’re going to turn it in to the DA. We just needed to know what was in it, so when Tony does cross my path again, I’ll know how to handle him.”

“Wow,” I murmur. Hayden’s such a man’s man. He just takes care of things and this is the way it’s supposed to be. I don’t have to worry about anything with him. I feel safe. I can trust Hayden with my life.

11

HAYDEN

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