May 2025 #3
“Now, I thought he knew better than that,” George told my son.
“There is a rule that there is never to be any non-Sutter business on company time. In this instance, I can see where the lines got blurry, as they said whoever won would donate a percentage to the cause, but still, Finn should have called me if he wasn’t sure. ”
Kola nodded.
“We’re gonna have a talk about that, he and I.”
“Not a mean talk, though,” Hannah contradicted, wrapping both arms around his one.
George’s brows furrowed, but he didn’t argue. “Apparently Mr. Strood, visiting from Vegas, was quite taken with your boyfriend, and when Finn turned down his offer of drinks and a late-night dinner, he slipped some GHB into the club soda Finn was drinking.”
Hannah caught her breath.
“What?” Kola asked.
She bit her bottom lip.
George tipped his head at Kola, which was her cue to speak.
Hannah took a breath. “When you’re working in your capacity as a bodyguard, you’re only supposed to have bottled water unless it’s an event you’ve attended more than once, and even then, only on a case-by-case basis.”
“Why?” Anne asked her.
“For precisely this reason,” Hannah answered. “Finn shouldn’t have been drinking anything out of a glass or with a straw—that’s just not safe. It has to be a closed screw-top lid.”
“Correct,” George seconded. “Drops can be placed in a straw, and of course a pill or any kind of powder can be added to an open-bottle drink with or without a lid, and can go easily into a glass. Now, he was probably thirsty, and they didn’t have any bottles or whatever.
That’s not my problem. He could have excused himself or used his comms to ask someone to bring him a bottle.
As he didn’t follow protocol, that’s conversation number two we’re gonna have. ”
“Yes, but I’m sure he didn’t mean to not follow––”
Lifting his hand, George shook his head, interrupting Kola.
“I’m not firing him, but he needs to think about his safety and, even more importantly, that of others.
If he allows himself to become incapacitated, he can’t take care of anyone and definitely couldn’t keep them from being assaulted, kidnapped, or anything else.
Lots of scenarios that he needs to be aware of. ”
“I see,” Kola whispered.
“But what precisely happened with this Livingston whoever?” Sam asked, taking a seat again next to his son.
“When I got there, our third-shift guys had taken over, and the men in the back were still playing, though no one from our team was in the room with them anymore, as everyone else has been with us longer than Finn and knew that a personal game was beyond our scope. But when I got there, I went to speak to the men and asked what had been put into Finn’s drink. ”
“And they just told you?” Eammon asked, surprised.
“I suspect not,” Hannah said as George turned to look at her. “What did they say?”
“It was crude, and you don’t need to hear it, but I let them know that I needed my questions answered.”
“But why would they tell you?” Anne was still in the dark.
“I explained who I was,” George told her.
She was looking at the handsome younger man in the suit and tie and, I was guessing, wondering what in the world would have compelled the man to answer. “I don’t understand what that means.”
“I think I do,” Eammon said softly. “The way you took care of things at my brother’s house—you have a reputation for fixing things, don’t you, Mr. Hunt?”
“Yessir, I do,” he apprised him. “So, once I gave them that information, one of the men immediately called last hand, and another one pointed out that it had been Livingston Strood who had roofied Finn.”
“At least the other men were helpful.”
“They allowed your son to be drugged and said nothing, ma’am,” he told Anne. “They deserve what they get, which is to be banned from all further Sutter events, and worse, to be placed on a list that keeps them from interacting with Aaron Sutter himself.”
“Really?” Eammon asked him. “Mr. Sutter would do that?”
“No, sir,” George answered. “I placed them on a list, and I have that discretion to do so, just as Hannah does. We’re both trusted members of the Sutter family.”
Eammon turned to Hannah. “I had no idea you worked for Aaron Sutter,” he told her.
She nodded quickly, much too interested in the rest of the story. “So you asked Mr. Strood what exactly he dosed Finn with, and then what happened?”
George shrugged.
“He said oh, it was GHB, and here’s the packet I used,” she said flippantly.
“Something like that.”
“Is he here at the hospital?” she asked like she knew already.
“He is.”
Anne gasped, and Eammon appeared stunned.
“He endangered one of my employees and initially refused to give me information that could help with his possibly life-threatening care.”
“Police?”
“That’s up to Finn, but knowing him, he’ll just want to forget this ever happened. He won’t want anyone to know, and it’s not as though the confession from Strood wasn’t coerced.”
Hannah nodded. “Did it take a lot to gain his cooperation?”
“Only the threat of broken bones and some bruises.”
“Holy crap,” Anne barely got out.
In response, George only shrugged. Unlike the rest of us, I suspected that George did not have a crisis of conscience when he thought he was right.
“Did you have him sign an NDA?”
George scowled at Hannah. “You already heard me say I did. Are you going deaf?”
“That’s charming,” she snapped at him. “And I was just making sure.”
“You never have to do that with me and you know it,” he said pointedly.
“I do. I apologize,” she said softly. “And I’m very proud of you for showing such restraint.”
“Restraint?” Poor Anne appeared flustered.
Hannah nodded. “A year ago, I was walking back from the bathroom at the Drake, and this man had his bodyguard grab and hold me while he tried to…let me think of a nice way to put—disrobe me,” she rushed out, looking pleased with herself.
“I’m sorry, what?” Sam asked sharply.
“When was this?” Jake’s voice cracked as he took hold of her arm.
She patted Jake’s hand. “It was a case of mistaken identity. The man thought I was this other girl who had gone into the bathroom and hidden in one of the stalls. I never saw her, and she only heard me come in and out, but never peeked out to say anything. Also, the guy and his bodyguard didn’t see me go in because I had come through the kitchen area. ”
“Hannah,” Sam snapped at her.
She smiled at him. “Anyway, as soon as they stepped into the light in this little alcove, the bodyguard says oh shit, and when I looked at the man, he was also surprised, at which point he spun around and probably would have had his guy let me go, but it was too late.”
“Too late?” Anne sounded worried.
Sam turned to George.
“Sometimes, even though a mistake is made, a lesson still needs to be learned,” George pointed out. “Because no, they would have never put their hands on Hannah, too many people know she works at Sutter now, but the other girl, that Hannah found in the bathroom later, would have been…hurt.”
He was being gentle with his language.
“What lesson did they learn, George?” I asked him.
“That if you touch other people without permission, then there is a chance that you will end up both bruised and broken.”
All of us but Anne and Eammon understood what he was really saying.
Sam had to know more, though. “The man who had his hands on my daughter?”
“Lost the use of his jaw for a couple months, sir.”
My husband nodded, appreciating that.
“I thought you had to be a professional fighter to break another man’s jaw with just your fist,” Eammon stated.
“No,” Kola told him. “It’s about training. I mean, your son has.”
“My son has what?”
“Broken a man’s jaw,” Kola answered.
“Finn has broken someone’s jaw?” I could hear both unease and pride in Eammon’s voice.
Kola nodded. “A year ago on New Year’s Eve, we went to get tacos after my sister’s party, and these guys picked a fight with him—well, us really, and I got hurt saving Finn from being blindsided.
That guy could have crippled him, and it was all so stupid and unnecessary, but I thought at the time that he was angry because the guy could have hurt him.
It turned out, though, he was angry because I got hurt. ”
Anne smiled at him. “He already cared for you. He called and asked for one of my bread recipes, and I knew he was on his way to see you.”
“He wanted to stay that night,” Kola told all of us. “But he wasn’t sure if I would allow that.” He was quiet a moment. “He was scared, but he should have known better.”
“He knows now, love,” I soothed him, taking a seat beside him and leaning sideways to squeeze him. His smile was my reward.
“So,” George began, wrapping up. “This won’t ever happen again, we’ll make sure.” He then turned to Hannah. “Text me when he’s up.”
She nodded.
Kola stood up and offered George his hand. “Thank you for finding out everything so they could treat him to the best of their ability.”
“Of course,” George replied, shaking his hand.
Anne turned to him, but George was much too fast, stepping free of our little cluster of concern before Finn’s mother could even lift her arms to try and hug him. I’d noticed that about him, and had noted it even more at his wedding. The man was really not much of a hugger.
He put up with Hannah hanging on him, flinging herself at him, and leaning until he wrapped her in his arms. Ian Doyle, Sam’s deputy director, he’d stepped into and soaked up the contact, eyes closed, the contentment there for a moment to trust enough to let down his guard.
It was really something to witness. He did the same with his mentor, Christopher Mancuso.
It was evident that both men were dear to him.
And of course, Kurt was clutched to his heart, and I saw him take several breaths to keep himself, I suspected, from crying.
There could be no doubt that George Hunt was madly in love with his husband.