AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hunter
ThemomentIgot a call from my informant, I was on the first plane ride here from Beirut. My sister, my baby sister, was not only hurt but had been missing. They didn’t know where she was.
Once again, when she was taken, I wasn’t able to be reached. I was dark because I had a mission to complete, but once I found out, nothing else mattered to me. No one else matters but her.
I called our mother and chewed her head off, but she said she had nothing to do with it. Once I heard about what she did to my sister, that was the end.
After our father died, I wanted to be there for Everie, but I couldn’t be. I was angry. I lost myself when I couldn’t find her, even though I was a damned Navy Seal. Yes, I was young, but that didn’t matter. None of it did. All that mattered was finding Everie. Six months, six crucial months and then came the Morse code I taught her. Just one phone call. No words. Nothing else but that.
I knew it was her, and when we traced the call, that was it.
That fucking clown was castrated in prison, and I did it. Even if I knew, the consequences would get me into shit with my superiors. After that, I didn’t get much of a chance to see my baby sister. Mom wouldn’t pass her or Abuelita on the phone. The less I talked to Everest, the angrier and more reclusive I became.
Over the years, I became a machine for the government and then I moved to practically being a shadow. That’s what I am now, a shadow. Hunter Bautista doesn’t exist anymore. He’s dead and there’s only one person who keeps his memory alive, and it’s Everest.
If I told her how I kept our mother and her family from bothering her, she would’ve tried to give me back everything I gave mom. Seeing her online posts and her being happy is all that I care about.
But now, I’m pissed again. Angry as I make my way into her private hospital suite. It’s hard to be seen, even with the many men that are protecting her. They may be mafia from my research and the looks of it, but I am a shadow. I am someone that you can never see unless I want to be seen.
Just like now, when I step into the room without making a sound. I smile at how much she’s loved. They’re all asleep around her; her family. The people that love her and are willing to give her everything. Tears fill my eyes, but they won’t depart the lids.
I make a slight noise so that one of them can wake up. I’m not in the business of freaking people out. I don’t speak to my targets.
“What the fuck!” I hear her husband exclaim. He stands out of his chair and walks right up to me. We’re about the same height and while he’s got more of a slimmer, swimmer’s physique, I am stealthy, combat ready and trained to kill. I can tell that he isn’t some rich motherfucker that’s all bark from the second he decided to lift his fist and swing at me.
He didn’t swing because I’m a stranger. I know he’s swinging because I’m her brother. Everest and I are the spitting image of our father.
“Where the fuck were you?” He growls. “Why are you here now?”
I would laugh if the situation wasn’t like this. He sounds like he’s my brother instead of Everest being my sister, and he’s more upset with me. Maybe he’s mad for the both of them because Everie wouldn’t be mad at me. She’d just hug me and want me to hold her in my arms. Her being fifteen years younger than me proved only one thing; Everie is like my daughter, a daughter that I had at a young age but granted, she’s someone that I love and would give up the world for.
“The first one is free.” I warn and look around the large room as the others watch us two.
Her husband glares at me, but I ignore his threatening look as I walk up to my sister and look over her. The slight twitch in my finger is the only sign that I’m affected by the way she looks. One eye is much more swollen than the other while bruises pepper her face. Her fingers are in bandages covering her hands and there’s a bandage wrapped around her head.
“Who the fuck is that?” I hear one of them.
“That’s Hunter, Everest’s brother.” Her husband answers.
“Her brother was alive all these years?” That’s the voice of the younger teenager. I’ve heard him talking about her IG stories. He’s the kid who has made my baby sister a mother in a special way.
There are secrets and information about this family that I’m privy to. I didn’t care at first, but when Everest posted Walton Cambridge; I knew I had to check into them. To get something so deep that if he asked me to, I could’ve told him every little detail to a T about what happened to each and every one of them.
I know they won’t get who I am. How I am, and that’s all right. I’m never leaving her again.
“I’m here now, Sunflower. Your big brother is here to fight your battles. Just like I’ve always done.” I whisper, not able to say it aloud for fear it’s too late for her to hear it. “I love you, Sunflower. I’ll always protect you.”
