AllFreeNovel
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When Hunter was a baby, it was an easy excuse to stay here. Traveling is hard enough without adding a toddler to the mix. But he's five so that excuse doesn't really work any longer.
I keep one eye on my boy and pull out the burner phone I snagged from the guest room closet earlier. We keep a healthy amount of burner phones around, because no matter how removed from the game we are, we still need them.
Hunter runs around the backyard, periodically stopping to bend down and grab “a treasure” as he calls it. He sets it inside his pale blue beach bucket and then jumps up and runs to find the next thing. Twenty minutes ago, he told me in his most serious voice that Eve told him he should start a backyard collection of all the things he finds interesting.
When the fuck they had that conversation, I have no idea.
But whatever, he's happy and it helps him burn off some energy. I love my son more than life itself, but that child is like one of those wind-up toys that never runs out of battery.
And there are some days where I feel the weight of single parenthood so acutely, it feels like someone slipped a knife between my ribs.
Nova, Bane, Ma—they're all family, and they love Hunter something fierce.
But it's not the same. At the end of the day, I'm his father. And his momma couldn't be fucked to stick around.
Not that I ever wanted her to, but there's going to come a day when Hunter starts asking about his momma more seriously. I won't be able to brush off his questions of where she is and why she isn't around.
And I fucking hate that forhim.
I expel a sigh and push thoughts of her out of my mind as I open a new text thread with the cleaners. I checked in with him yesterday, and he assured me everything was in order. But I can't shake this nagging feeling that I'm missing something. I type out the usual message.
Me: I'm thinking about picking up some food. You want anything?
I wait a few minutes, letting the hot breeze roll over me as I watch Hunter skip to the big tree on the left. It's the only big piece of landscaping in our backyard. It was too big to just cut down, and since the rest is basically open land, we left it.
Unknown Number: Double cheeseburger, ketchup and mustard, no onion, no tomato
Identified, running his prints, no official affiliation tattoos or markings.
“Motherfuck,” I bite out.
Me: Fries?
Does our guy have connected friends?
Unknown Number: Small
Okay, so small level criminal shit.
Me: When you wanna eat?
Unknown: 8
They already got rid of him. Good. I don't ask him anything else, deleting the text conversation, and popping the sim card out of the back. I drop it in the glass of water on the patio table next to me with a sigh.
“Here, thought you could use this,” Ma says from behind me.
A second later, a beer is in front of my face. I reach up and take it from her automatically.
“It's only eleven o'clock,” I grumble even as I take a long pull from the bottle.
“I'm having surgery soon. I'm allowed to indulge in a cocktail with lunch,” she says, smirking at me over the top of her own beer bottle.
I arch a brow as she sits down in the chair next to me. “Liquid lunch?”
She waves her hand in the air between us as she takes another drink. “Don't be ridiculous. I have fried chicken keeping warm in the oven.”
I sigh, sinking into the chair. “You didn't have to do that, Ma. I took the day off soyoucould take the day off.”
