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He carries on. “Ryder filled me in on what happened. When he ran some checks, the leak was coming from Dexter’s organization. While he was distracted by that, you received a text supposedly from him.”
I nod, thinking back to the moment I got the text. “It was one of the worst moments of my life. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Your name swam before my eyes and it took me a moment to realize it wasn’t as it looked.”
“How come?”
Hunter looks at me with sympathy as I laugh softly. “When I get a mission, it’s sent to my pseudonym, Eliza. I never use my real name, hell none of us do, and Ryder certainly never signs his. If names are used, it tells the recipient something is wrong and to operate a dummy run. Make it look believable and carry it out as if it was real. I carried out the request to the letter, but I drugged you with the whiskey and then injected you with a sleeping formula designed to knock you out for twelve hours. The message I sent to Chase was in code, 11.11 is that code telling the person receiving it we’ve been compromised. When Chase and the Reapers came to clear away the body, they made sure to leave the bag unzipped. I’m guessing they treated you like valuable cargo and took you as the person who wanted you dead would have expected, to dispose of the body. The video I sent Ryder was obviously going to be intercepted, so we had to make it look real. There was no other way.”
Hunter nods. “They still won’t tell me who is behind all this. I think Ryder knows, but he’s at Media Corp setting things in place.”
I gaze at Hunter and still can’t quite believe he’s here at all.
“So, what’s the story back home? I mean, you never leave your desk, how will you explain this absence without mysteriously rising from the dead.”
Hunter grins. “It’s not unusual for me to be absent from public life. Miss. Baxter would rather slit her own throat than tell anyone my whereabouts, and the same for Dobson. I will work from here and keep my empire running remotely and just enjoy the vacation I won at the charity auction.”
“That seems like forever ago.”
“It certainly does.”
We share a smile as our worlds collide and fuse together in one satisfying moment of destiny. We carry on eating and just look forward to enjoying this unexpected break from reality. It’s an unexpected pleasure and having Hunter to myself for two weeks is worth more than the billions he makes on a daily basis.
As we settle down to a rare domesticated treat, I have to pinch myself that I’m here at all. It feels good to drop my guard and I am only just realizing it was because I was waiting for him. Yes, Hunter was written in the stars for me, but we’re not safe yet.
