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From the panic in her voice, it didn't sound like she was in the mood for any of the two right now. I opened the door immediately, worry etched on my face. She rushed into my arms. Her heart was going at a million a minute.
"Hey, hey, hey, you're safe. You're safe," I crooned into her soft, silken hair.
She calmed down after a couple of minutes. "It's too late for me," she finally said, her eyes brimming with tears. "I'm about to go off the deep end."
She handed over her phone, open to a few very unsavory messages from an unknown number.
"Who are these from?" I asked, already knowing full well what she'd say.
32
Miguel
"Aguy called Hunter who used to be my best friend in another life."
Then, over the next hour, she told us everything in between swigs of the beer I handed to her.
"I met Hunter when I was working in the Oakmont Central library. Funny thing. In retrospect, I'd say he came with a plan in his damned mind, and I fell right into it."
"But?" I prompted her.
Asher scowled at me again.Let her pace herself, you twat.That was what he'd tell me if I let him speak right now, but I feigned ignorance and refused to meet his eyes.
"But, it wasn't what he wanted to do with me. In fact, there wasn't a lot that I didn't tell the man. I trusted him with all my secrets because, of course, I'm stupid, and I wear my fucking heart on my sleeve."
Reed shuffled his feet guiltily. The Cap looked like he was about to spill some secrets of his own, so I shot him a look of warning. Now was not the time.
We'd scare her away for good. The last thing she needed to know was that we were working for the very man who'd caused her so much grief.
"I told him everything," she whispered, thick tears falling down her beautiful face. I swore to God then and there if Hunter were within my arm's reach, I'd rip his throat out with my bare hands for the pain he'd caused our girl.
Because Juniper belonged with us, she was ours to take care of, to safeguard and protect. And he'd almost led us to believe something different.
"So, one day, he called me. He sounded devastated. He told me he had grown up with his abusive aunt and uncle after his father passed and that he had a little nephew.
“The nephew was sick, and he needed money for his treatment. Money that the kid's own family wouldn't shell out."
It was very like Juniper to trust what Hunter had said, although I could see a hundred fucking holes in the story.
It was like he'd found the perfect target—someone who'd just hear the panic in the voice of someone she loved and do everything to ameliorate it without second-guessing anything.
She'd acted on impulse, and that came from her heart.
"Did he ask you for cash?" Asher asked quietly.
She shook her head. "No. That wouldn't have gotten me to this point. He asked for my credit card info. And I was so pressed to help him—I was also at a very rocky phase at the time.
“I'd enrolled for my Masters a little late, and I had my exams in a few days, and I didn't want to go through any of it with any bad feelings in my heart. So I just gave him the info and told him to take care of his nephew."
"And?"
"And then," she replied, breaking down, "he paid me back in cash. So I never suspected anything.
“I told him he could hold on to the money a little longer, but he insisted that I'd done enough. About a week later, when my exams were over, I'd started wondering why he wasn't answering any of my calls or requests to meet up. Then, the packages started pouring in."
"Packages?"
"My whole basement is chock-full of them," she whispered. "Golf clubs. Clothes from Louis Vuitton. A couple of Louboutins. And so many first editions, each more expensive than the other. It was like life was playing the cruelest joke on me—and showing me just how much of a damned fool I'd been."
