11. I’ll Pay You Double
Chapter 11
I’ll Pay You Double
HUNTER
A man I knew from my days as an underling in the organization carefully approaches my Mercedes Benz truck, a gun carried somewhat discreetly on his hip under his leather blazer.
I lower my window slowly down, aviator shades on my face to hide the little sleep I’ve been getting since Megan moved out.
“Hey, Jack.”
“Hunter.”
“It’s been a long time.”
“It really has. Thank you for meeting me here instead of the club.”
“No problem.”
I invite him to sit in the back seat of the truck alongside me so we can chat privately.
“So, how can I help you?”
“I have a situation that could use some of your magical mediation skills. You know how I like to stay low, not make any waves. I have a small boutique business with a very particular clientele.”
“Sure, I get that.”
Jack has moved up since the early days of us running the streets as well. He runs guns but only specific ones to a very exclusive clientele.
“Over the last two weeks, there’s been a new faction poaching some of my clients. Promising them more at better prices.”
“Capitalism,” I shrug.
“No, they’re not sanctioned by the organization to make these kinds of moves. They’re trying to put me out of business and before I start a war, I want to try and have a sit down. Maybe they don’t understand how things work here.”
“Who are they?”
“The Fabre Family. They’re out of New Orleans.”
Fuck.
“I’m not interested in any sort of mediation situation with those people, Jack. I’m sorry.”
Jack’s disappointment is palpable. I understand that he’s been waiting well over a week for this meeting with me. I don’t make it easy for people I don’t have a relationship with to contact me. If I did, I’d get calls from every Tom, Dick and Harry. This isn’t the outcome he was hoping for.
“I’ll pay you ten percent extra your normal rate.”
“It’s not the money.”
“Fifteen.”
“Jack, you’re not listening.”
My new driver, Brian, raises his eyes to glance at us through the rearview mirror when the tone of my voice changes. A good sign that he’s paying attention in case anything goes sideways.
He grows more frustrated. “Hunter, it’s no secret that the Fabres are making a move out here. They flew across the damn country and took your woman right from under your nose to prove a point. I shouldn’t have to beg you to handle this for me. You should be jumping at the chance.”
“Respectfully, Jack, you’re in no position to tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing when it comes to my business. I’m worth ten times what you are and built it up from the dirt. Everything you have is what the organization has allowed you to have.”
“I’m not disputing that. All I’m saying is that there’s a code that we all follow and the Fabres are not. I’m just asking for someone to step in and explain it to them.”
“I don’t know that those people can be taught anything.”
Jack sighs heavily. “What can I do to convince you to take me on as a client?”
“I’ll tell you this, attempting to shame me into the job was not a good fucking way to start.”
A call from Vaughn comes through my phone, but I press decline. I know what he wants and I’m not in the mood to talk. That’s the problem when your friends work for you. They always think that everything is up for discussion.
“I’ll pay you double,” he says in an apologetic tone. “To compensate you for the disrespect, which by the way was not intentional.”
Before he even got inside the car, I fully intended to pass on the offer but once he brought up Fabre’s name, I had to consider it.
Not that I needed this guy to tell me but I have unfinished business with Fabre, not to mention that no matter what I think about his liar of a daughter, a part of me knows that if I save her from being handed over in marriage like she’s a piece of meat, Megan will forgive me.
Fuck me.
I need to take the job.
“The way I work is half the fee as a deposit and the other half once I set the meeting.”
“Mmm, but what if the meeting goes south?”
My phone buzzes again.
“Do you need to get that?” Jack asks.
I press the decline button.
“It’s not my job to settle your business,” I tell him. “It’s my job to set the meeting.”
“I think for double the fee you could at least guarantee the safety of an old friend.”
“You’re a big boy. You can guarantee your own safety, plus you’re pushing it, Jack. You’re lucky I’m even entertaining this. Protecting your business is not in my self-interest.”
“But preventing a war is, and you know it’s not just going to end with me. Fabre is coming for all of us.”
“I don’t run guns.”
“Yeah, but he seems like the kind of guy looking to run everything, not just one thing.”
“I will arrange the meet, and I’ll make sure you leave it breathing, but that’s my final offer.”
Jack extends his hand. “Deal.”
“Payment is in cash,” I tell him before I commit to the handshake.
“Any idea on how long this meet will take?”
“It will take however long it’s going to take, Jack.”
“When did you become such a hardass, Hunter?”
“I’ve always been a hardass.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Jack jeers. “So where should I bring the money? Should we arrange another meet like this?”
“You don’t have the cash on you?”
“I don’t roll like you, man. I need a minute to get that kind of money together.”
“You don’t have a minute. Come to the club tomorrow at noon with the cash and I’ll get started. Arrive even one minute after twelve and the deal is off.”
“Damn, Hunt, okay. Why are you so uptight?”
“Get out of my car, Jack.”
After Jack leaves, Brian finally tears himself away from whatever he was doing on his cell phone. “Where to next, boss?”
“Beverly Hills.”
I want to buy something obnoxiously expensive for Megan. I know it’s not going to get her to move back to where she belongs, but it’s a show of good faith. A gesture from me, at least trying to say I’m sorry.
“Sure.”
I give Vaughn a call back since he’s called me three times in the last hour. It could be important, although I doubt it.
“It’s about time,” he yells.
“Excuse me?”
“When I call you, you should pick up.”
“Is Megan okay?” My chest tightens.
“This isn’t about Megan. As far as I know, she’s perfectly fine.”
“Then what’s so urgent? I’m working.”
“Christian and I have made an executive decision.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?”
“We’re letting Parker go.”
“The fuck you are.”
“He’s not the reason that your life has gone to shit, and Megan’s left the apartment. You fucked that up all on your own.”
“And what the hell would either of you know about what’s going on between me and my fiancee?”
“You’ve been sulking for a week. We both know she’s back in her old apartment because you accused her of carrying Parker’s baby.”
“I’m not having this conversation with you. Keep Parker exactly where he is. His accommodations are better than a fucking Four Seasons penthouse.”
“Hunter…it’s been too long.”
“I put a bed down there, and he’s eating three square meals a day. What else do you want? You want me to braid his hair, too?”
“Megan has been snooping around and asking questions. Do you want her to find out that you still have Parker in the basement of the club? Do you think she’ll ever forgive you and move back into your place once she finds out that you’re holding her friend hostage?”
“He is not her friend! He was my employee who sold me out for a hospital bill.”
“Hunter, in this situation, you’re the boss, but you’re also my friend, and I’m telling you this can’t continue. The kid made one bad decision.”
“A decision that got Megan and my baby kidnapped!”
“You’re angry. I get it. If I still loved my ex half as much as you love Megan, I’d probably be the same way. But I’m telling you what nobody else around you will say. This is not the first time Megan has gotten hurt on your watch, and you’re mad at yourself, so you’re taking it out on him.”
“Vaughn–”
“Listen to me, you hardheaded son of a bitch, the snatch was random. Megan was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you know it. Fabre was only here for the daughter.”
“Everybody has a soft spot for this traitor,” I mutter.
“What’s the endgame, Hunt? If you don’t want Christian and me to make the call, then you make it. You either need to kill Parker or let him go. What’s it going to be?”
“You don’t make the fucking demands. I do!” I roar.
“One thing you’ve always been is careful. That’s what makes you who you are. Parker has a mother in a hospital somewhere who’s going to call the police if she doesn’t hear from him or the morgue soon.”
I sit in silence for a moment and dwell on the fact that I know that Vaughn’s right. I just hate that he is. I have connections in the force, but I also have plenty of enemies. Enemies who have known me since I was a teenager and who have been trying to pin a felony charge on me for years.
“Are you at the club?”
“Yeah.”
“Go down there and put him on the phone.”
After a few minutes or so, Parker’s scratchy voice is on the other end of the line.
“Boss?”
“When will you stop calling me that? You’re sitting in the hole of the club.”
“But you can’t be that mad at me. I just had a medium rare rib eye steak and a loaded baked potato.”
Fucking Vaughn.
“Let me be crystal clear, Parker. You no longer work for me, and you never will again, but I won’t leave you empty-handed. I’ll pay for your mother’s care as long as she needs it and for you to relocate.”
“You want me to move?”
“Out of California for good.”
“But my mom.”
“She can go, too.”
“But all her doctors are here.”
This guy is unbelievable.
“Parker, I’m giving you a pass. Something I never give to people who betray me. I understand you didn’t realize the gravity of what your betrayal would mean, but that doesn’t negate that it led to someone I love being hurt.”
“Can I talk to Megan before I leave? I need to apologize.”
“The best apology you can give her is to do exactly what I tell you to do. Leave town and stay out of her orbit. Now put Vaughn back on the phone.”
“Thanks, Mr. Middleton.”
When Vaughn gets back on the phone, I give him a directive. “Pay for the mother’s care and let him go. Don’t let anyone see you do it, especially Lena.”
“Anything else?”
“Find him somewhere to go. I want him out of California in the next 48 hours.”
“A place where we have eyes?”
“Yeah.”
“Hunt, I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but this is the right call.”
“Your approval was not needed or asked for, asshole.”
The last thing I hear is Vaughn’s audible laughter as he hangs up.
God, he gets on my nerves.
“Any particular store, Mr. Middleton?” Brian asks from the front. “We’re here.”
I open the location feature on my phone under Megan’s contact to see where she is. It’s something I do several times a day to help me curb the urge to call her. It helps me maintain my sanity since she demanded I take the security detail off of her. While normally I would have ignored that ridiculous request, I’m doing what I can to keep the rest of her pregnancy stress-free.
But once my beloved delivers our little bundle of joy.
All bets are off.