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“Is that a question or suggestion?”
“Maybe both,” he said and squeezed her knee. “But like I told you yesterday, you set the pace. So why don’t we talk about today. What happened when you woke up?”
“Wow, we are really going there. Okay, well, the girls showed up and grilled me about our date.”
“What did you tell them?”
“It didn’t matter what I told them, they watched our little make out session from our surveillance system.”
“Bet that was awkward.”
“Yeppers. Anyway, I eventually kicked them out and we’re having an ice cream party tonight. They are determined to cheer me up.”
“Well, I’m determined to cheer you up also. I don’t have ice cream, but I do have some pizza left from Friday night.”
“Yum, that sounds great. I couldn’t eat this morning and I’m starving.”
Hunter stood and grabbed her hand and led her to the barstool tucked under his island.
“Sit and talk to me while I warm up the pizza and make a salad.”
“Well, the long and short of it is that she’s not my mother.”
“You mean you’ve decided to cut her out of your life?”
“No. I mean, she’s not my mother. Not my biological mother nor my adoptive mother.”
“Well, I didn’t expect that.”
“I know, right. Apparently, she was shacking up with my father and raised me, but I was a job, or I guess my father was.”
“Job? I don’t understand.”
“Oh, I guess I left off a pretty big bit of information. My mother, I mean, Rosemary, is with the ATF. She was undercover trying to track a drug ring, which is why my father became her lead. I just happened to be in the crossfire.”
Hunter stopped chopping the lettuce and looked up in disbelief. Byte’s life was a complete one-eighty from his. He’d thought earlier that he was living a scene from a Jason Bourne movie, but for Byte and her employers, it wasn’t a fictional situation… it was their everyday life.
“And your real mother?”
“Dead.”
“Killed by your father?”
“No, she was killed by an intoxicated driver who was high as a kite. According to Rosemary, that was the pivotal point that had my father turn to a life of crime. From what I gathered, he wasn’t a drug pusher before then.”
“I don’t understand why he’d sell drugs if they cost him his wife.”
“Yeah, me neither. Anyway, she told me about the case she was working, the bond she felt toward me, and being blindsided when she learned of my father’s arrest and me being picked up by DHS.”
“And she couldn’t get you because she wasn’t legally your guardian.”
“And the Feds ordered her not to. That’s just another reason why I hate the Feds. Anyway, she answered my questions. I told her she was cleared of any wrongdoing and could go back to her life.”
“Cleared of wrongdoing. I feel like I’m missing something.”
“Sorry. I forget you weren’t in on our meetings. Basically, I knew someone was looking for me… well, for Danielle. I had enough on my plate and couldn’t look over my shoulder every minute of every day, so I fabricated a few things and made sure the Feds saw it. Unfortunately, that meant that both the Feds and a gang were looking for her. It was an oops-a-daisy moment. But everything is cleared up now and she’s able to return to her life.”
“Is that what you want?”
