Chapter Twenty-Seven
Hunter
Diesel arrives shortly after noon, his appearance preluded by the ominous thunder of his bike as it pulls into the driveway. Frowning, I stand and run to the front door, throwing it open and waving at him to kill the engine.
He steps off his bike, pulls off his helmet, and stares back at me, confused.
“Is this how you say hello now?” He shouts over the rumbling of his bike.
I point at it and run my finger across my throat in an unmistakable gesture.
He cocks his head. So I repeat the gesture. Then, when he doesn’t move fast enough, I draw my gun from the back of my waistband and point it right at his bike.
Finally, he kills it.
“What the fuck, Hunter?” He says.
“I finally got Charlie down for a nap. No fucking way am I going to let you wake him up.”
“Damn, sorry, brother. You’re really taking to this parental thing, huh?”
“I like the little guy,” I say. Then shake my head as the thought of how he looks while sleeping — how outright peaceful and beautiful the little guy is — crosses my mind. “No, I love him.”
“Hunter using the ‘l’ word, huh? This must be serious.”
“It is. I wouldn’t have called you if it wasn’t.”
“Oh, so I’m just a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ friend, huh?” Diesel says, smiling.
“I didn’t mean it like that. Sorry, Diesel. I meant that you’re one of the few people I’d trust enough to call.”
“Saying the s-word, too, huh? I like what the little kid’s done to you. I’m just sorry it came under these circumstances.” He cocks his head, giving me a long look. “Are you going to invite me inside or what? Don’t tell me I drove all the way out here just for you to yell at me for almost waking your kid.”
“Come on in. I got some cold ones in the fridge.”
We’re not even to the fridge before I’m grinning. Just having Diesel around makes everything feel different, like I have someone here who has my back, someone who has proved themselves repeatedly, both as a biker brother and a brother in the military. Someone who can cover me while I do the things I need to do to find and take out Moretti and his men. This is no longer just my fight, it’s our fight.
It’s good not to be alone .
Not that I was.
Even as I think that, I picture Emily’s face and know that, no matter what, I won’t be alone in this as long as I have her.
“What’s got you grinning? Because, from what you’ve told me, this is not a smiling situation,” Diesel says. He was always too perceptive for his own good.
“It isn’t. But I am. Charlie’s still asleep and you’re here. That’s two pieces of good news on the same day, while good news has been in short supply lately.”
“Still, pardon me for being shocked. I can’t recall a time where I’ve actually made you smile, Hunter.”
“Don’t go getting full of yourself, Diesel. And smiling or not, I will kick your ass if you wake Charlie up, so keep the noise down.”
“Sir, yes, sir,” he whispers, giving me a mock salute.
I grab two beers from the fridge and hand one to Diesel. We move to the living room, careful to keep our footsteps light. I gesture for him to take a seat on the couch while I lower myself into the armchair across from him.
"So, fill me in," Diesel says, his voice barely above a whisper. "What's the situation?"
I take a long pull from my beer, organizing my thoughts. "It's bad. After I found Tyler and Kate dead, after I took Charlie, I just ran. It seemed the safest course of action — to get the little guy out of there. It was four, five, six days, I don’t know, of just running, sleeping rough as one can with a baby, changing diapers at truck stops, trying to keep him comfortable, until we got here. This is the first place where I felt like I could settle for a moment. Charlie needs this. He’s exhausted, confused, and I know he knows something’s wrong.” I pause as several revelations hit me. One, that I know it’s true, that Charlie is hurt, even if he isn’t showing it much outright. And two, that I love him, that I’m learning how to read him enough that I can even recognize those signs means that, whether or not I thought I could, I’m growing as a parental figure for him. That makes me smile. Maybe, when things are safe, I can handle this being a dad thing. “So I need to make this place work for a while. It’s important. There’s another thing, too… And that is that I'm..." I trail off, not wanting to admit how close I am to losing it.
Diesel leans forward, his eyes intense. "You're what, Hunter?"
I sigh, running a hand through my hair. "I'm worried, alright? For the first time in my life, I've got something to lose. Something that matters more than anything else."
Diesel nods, understanding in his eyes. "That's why you called me. You need backup."
"Yeah," I admit. "I can't do this alone anymore. Not with them to protect.”
“Them?”
“There’s a girl, too.”
Diesel beams. “Tell me about her.”
I take a moment to sum up Emily, a fact that seems impossible to do in just a few words, even though I’ve only known her a short time. How do you just ‘sum up’ someone who, with their presence, just makes so much of life’s difficulties seem so much easier?
“Her name’s Emily. She was Charlie’s babysitter…”
“Oh, bro,” Diesel says. “The babysitter? Are you going after high schoolers, now? She’s at least over the age of consent, I hope.”
“Fuck you, it’s not like that,” I say, laughing. “She’s studying to be a pharmacist and nearly has her degree. She’s still younger than me, yeah, but it’s not like I’m robbing the cradle.”
“Good, because I want to be here to support you, Hunter, not keep you off some sex offender watchlist.” He takes a long drink of beer and keeps his eyes on me the entire time, probing. “But you still haven’t filled me in on the whole situation.”
“Moretti has men hunting for me, I’m sure of it. There’ve been signs. Yesterday, I found death threats carved into Emily’s car, so I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before his men locate where I’m holed up, even though I’ve been doing my best to keep a low profile and cover our tracks. It’s still too soon to move, and I’d rather not, if I can avoid it. I like it here, and Charlie does, too.”
“You still haven’t told me everything.”
Sometimes, I think about calling Diesel something other than Diesel, like Canine or Pitbull, because he’s like a dog with a bone once he gets an idea in his head.
“What are you talking about?”
Another deep look, like he’s trying to drink me in as much as the beer in his hand. “How are you doing, Hunter?”
“Me?” I shrug. “What do you mean?”
“You saw your brother and your sister-in-law get murdered and you’re now a dad. That’s a whole fucking lot to go through. How are you holding up? What’s going on in your head?”
I’m wondering if it was a mistake to invite Diesel here. Is his help worth the cost of his invasive probing?
I take a long swig of my beer, avoiding Diesel's gaze. He's right, of course. I've been so focused on keeping Charlie safe, on staying one step ahead of Moretti's men, that I haven't allowed myself to process what happened. The grief, the anger, the fear—it's all there, bubbling just beneath the surface.
"I'm fine," I lie, my voice gruff.
Diesel snorts. "Bullshit. I've known you too long, Hunter. You're not fine."
I clench my jaw, feeling the familiar tension building in my shoulders. "What do you want me to say, Diesel? That I'm barely holding it together? That every time I look at Charlie, I see Tyler and Kate? That I wake up in a cold sweat every night, reliving the moment I found their bodies?"
My voice cracks on the last word, and I take another drink to hide it. Diesel waits, silent, giving me space to continue.
"I'm terrified," I admit quietly. "Not for myself, but for Charlie. For Emily. I've never had anyone depend on me like this before. What if I fuck it up? What if…” I pause, my thoughts circling Charlie, then circling her. Despite the seriousness, I can’t help a momentary smile. Those two, they could make me smile even as the world falls apart. “I’m not just living for me. Charlie, Emily, they’re as important as anything. They’ve given me this hope that, maybe, I can have this new life here in Ironwood Falls with the two of them. A kind of life that I never thought I’d have before. But I’m also putting them in danger, too, just being around them. It means I have to keep them safe. Because if anything goes wrong, if they get hurt… I won’t just feel like I’m losing this shot at a new life, I’ll feel like, what’s the point of even living at all?”
“I hear you, brother.”
“I love Charlie, man. That little guy, he can make my day just by giggling and shitting his diaper. Never thought I’d fucking say that, but it’s true. And Emily, she’s smart, she’s capable. She steps in and just handles things that I never thought I could handle and makes it seem so easy, too. I need her, man. I need her, and I think that, maybe I…”
“You what?”
I shake my head. I’d been about to say something that’s best said to Emily, first. “Nevermind. What you need to know is that I need your help to track down whatever men Moretti’s sent after me. Because, until I’m in with the MC and can call on them for protection, I’m flying solo here without your help.”
Diesel nods, as if he understands everything I just said and didn’t say.
“Don’t worry, Hunter. Now that I’m here, you and I will tear this town apart until we find Moretti’s men.”
“There’s just one problem.”
“What’s that?”
“We can’t say a word of this to Emily.”
“What the fuck? Why?”
“I don’t want to risk sending her running because of the shit that I’m mixed up in. I need her. And I need you to swear to me you’ll keep all the Moretti situation between us.”
Diesel hesitates and gives me a look that silently voices every accusation and objection that exists in the entire English language.
But then he nods his head.
“Fine, Hunter. It’s the biggest fucking mistake in the world, but I swear, I’ll keep your secret.”