Page 18 of Bounty Hunter's Obsession

Halo sitting in my living room with her legs folded under her as she makes sense of Tony’s illegal activities feels right to me in so many ways. She’s brilliant and patient to tackle the numbers. That’s never been my strong suit, which is why Beatrice manages the office.

We’re going to have to play this right to keep her safe. The first thing I want to do is make sure her home is secured. It’s like my mind has magical abilities. One minute, I’m thinking about securing her home, and the next, there’s a knock at the door.

I already know who it is, and my kid brother Hendrix never lets me down. It’s clear as day that he’s exhausted, his black hair shorter than mine and in desperate need of a shave as he dips his head to enter my house.

“Hendrix, this is Halo,” I introduce them and she stands up immediately to come over and shake his hand.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she says with a smile. “You must be one of those Haven boys my customer was talking about.”

“What customer?” I ask her.

She rubs my arm, “Relax, babe. Some old guy at the counter who saw you leave the diner. Said I should stay away from you because y’all don’t do nothin’ but chase criminals around and stay in trouble.”

Hendrix smiles and nods, “Yeah, we were a bit wild in our hay day.”

I step in, wrapping my arm around her shoulder, and Halo leans into me with her hand, rubbing the small of my back. I tell her, “Hendrix is going to look over your place and see what we can do about stopping strangers from breaking in.”

“Yeah. I got your message and I gotta tell you, Hayden, I need a bit more notice next time. I got the doors and window gates you wanted. Those will be temporary until I can put in new triple-pane windows. Shit ain’t cheap either.” Hendrix sighs and rubs his eyes.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have gone through all the trouble,” Halo begins protesting.

I kiss her on top of her head, “Listen, go on and finish your food. You’re worth every ounce of trouble I’m getting into. I’ll take care of it.”

She reaches up to kiss me on the cheek, telling Hendrix, “I truly don’t know what I’d do if your brother hadn’t come along. Thank you guys both.”

“It’s no problem, ma’am.” Hendrix tips his head as she makes her way back into the living room. He turns to me and motions for us to head outside.

“I’ll be right back, baby girl,” I shout to Halo before stepping onto my porch.

“Tighter than a virgin’s pussy, huh?” he asks with a crooked smile, peering over my shoulder.

I move into his line of sight. “Did you need me to go with you to the house? There’s this guy, Tony Manchester. He runs a strip joint outside of town that got raided. He planted evidence in Halo’s car and broke into her house thinking she found it.”

“Did she find it?” he asks.

“No, I did. We’ve sorted through it and are gonna turn it in.”

“Sorted through it? Are you trying to catch a tampering charge?” Hendrix runs his fingers through his hair.

“Listen, that’s the least of my concern. I needed to know what was so important to this Tony guy. He’s willing to do anything to get his hands on that bag, and I’m going to make sure that breaking into her house doesn’t happen again.”

Hendrix nods. “How dangerous is he?”

“Dangerous enough that I don’t want you over there by yourself. You got any guys who can do this job with you tonight?”

“Brody’s on an assignment out of town, but I think I can get some of the other fellas on it since you’re willing to pay double the fee.”

As he mentions his fee, I pull out my phone and send a payment to his business account. “If I come and help out, can I cut your fee in half? I’ll still pay your guys theirs.”

Hendrix looks over my shoulder with a sheepish grin. “Do you really want to leaveheralone tonight? I think I got it covered, especially since you already paid. I’ll head over there now and wait for the fellas to come before I go inside or anything. Worst case scenario, I’ll call the cops if Tony shows up.”

“Thanks, bro.”

“Family first, man. And Hayden?”

“Yeah?”

He smiles with pride. “I like this for you, man. It’s good to see you not alone. It gives me hope.”

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