Page 44 of Her Passionate Hero

“I need more than that.”

“Want, want, want. Need, need, need. It’s never-ending.”

“I take it you have daughters?”

“Yep, you guessed it,” LL laughed. “Five of them. Lorenzo is my only boy. So, what do you need?”

“I need all the information you have on a guy named Mateo and how he fits into Los Demonios hierarchy.”

“I can get that information. I should have it tomorrow night, Friday at the latest.”

“Sounds good.”

“Do you need a ride somewhere? You grandmother’s place?”

Hunter hated that LL knew where Mamie lived, but that was the problem when you had people who’d known you since grade school. “Yeah, I could use a lift.”

“Martin!” LL yelled. The door immediately opened. The gatekeeper walked in, he must have been standing at the top of the stairs. “You drive my friend Hunter to where he wants to go. I don’t want those other idiots knowing too much about my old friend.”

“Got it, boss.”

“Hunter, give me your number. I might have some information about you, but that I don’t have.”

Hunter rattled it off, and LL gave him his.

“I’ll be calling,” LL said.

“Appreciate it.”

“If you come through, we’ll be even. Even for your desertion fourteen years ago.”

How was it that LL saw it as desertion, and Hunter saw it as the smartest move he’d ever made? The one in the wheelchair? The one in the state pen? The dead one? Or God forbid, LL’s lieutenant. Nope, it was the smartest move in the world.

Chapter Six

Oh God her head felt like it was inside a church bell on Sunday morning with Quasimodo ringing the damn thing. She did not have a concussion. She did not have a concussion. She did not have a concussion.

She raised her head off the pillow and realized it was probably for the best her grandmother had checked on her as often as she had throughout the night. Dammit, she didn’t like this, but the doctor said this would be the worst day, and by Saturday, she should be feeling better.

Okay, now where was the aspirin? She got up gingerly from the bed and tiptoed down the hallway to the bathroom. Opening the medicine cabinet, she found some extra strength Tylenol. Thank the Lord. She didn’t even bother going to the kitchen, she swallowed them dry.

She tiptoed past her grandmother’s room on the way back to her own, laid back down, and considered yesterday’s events. First had been the calls with the police detectives and the insurance adjusters. Then, she considered the call with her principal, Bill, they just discussed when she would return to work. She had plenty of sick time, and Bill wanted to wait for her bruising to clear up. When she protested, they agreed she could call in, and they would send over a new laptop since hers was destroyed in the bombing, so she could work online. That conversation was pretty mundane. But the conversation with Hunter? That was an earthquake.

She’d replayed those minutes in the kitchen over and over in her head all night long, which is probably the real reason for her headache, she hadn’t gotten any sleep. During the night she’d made up her mind to talk to Hunter about Nicolas. She needed to protect her mother and grandmother and she knew in her heart that Hunter would figure out a way to help her help the young man as well.

But that wasn’t the real reason she couldn’t sleep. Now that she had decided to rely on Hunter, that meant that he would be in her life for the time it took to resolve things, and it scared her. She’d told him to leave, just like she had thirteen years ago, but he wouldn’t listen. She knew the woman he would eventually find beneath the surface, and she was a hell of a lot more scarred than the one her dad had found to be such a unimaginable hardship. She really wanted Hunter to leave with good memories of her. The fact that he saw her as beautiful told her how flawed his thinking was. What was she going to do?

“Láska, do you want breakfast?”

“I’ll be out in a moment, Babička.” She got up and dressed. Thank God Lottie had finally come to her senses and brought over something loose for her to wear.

It wasn’t until she was down the hall and face-to-face with Hunter that she realized her grandmother had been speaking in English.

“Hunter?” It was as if her thoughts had conjured him.

“I told you I was going to stay and watch over you and your grandmother. I’m going to look in after your mom later on today.”

“But―”