Chapter 23 #2
“And that’s fine. Don’t get mad when I call someone else for help though. Can’t you see that Hunter’s just helping? He didn’t have to call me, Skeet. He saw that Ty was in trouble and told me straight away.”
“The psycho stalker only knew because he’d set up fucking cameras! How long has he been watching you get railed at Ty’s? Overhearing conversations? Don’t paint him as a hero, Aurora. He’s anything but that.”
I jerked from his hold, giving him a shove. “Like you don’t stalk me.”
“I’m allowed. I’m your boyfriend.”
“You’re not allowed to stalk me!”
“I’ll do whatever I want. Either way, I do it to keep you safe. He’s doing it for intel and to keep tabs on your every move for bad reasons. If he had Ty’s place bugged, then he’s probably bugged the rest too. I’m going to have to go through fucking everything.”
“Or I could just ask him,” I offered, a huff of humorous laughter leaving him.
“And you’d trust him to tell you the truth? He’d tell you about some and not others. I’m checking myself. He’s probably listening right now. Hey, asshole. You bugging shit? I’m going to fucking—”
My phone rang, and I pulled it from my pocket, seeing Hunter’s name on the screen.
I hit answer and put it on speaker, Skeeter snatching it from my hand before I could say anything.
I never should have changed his name from A to Hunter a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn’t like Skeeter didn’t know we talked now, so I didn’t think it would be an issue anymore.
“You sly piece of—”
“I’ll tell you where they all are, if you ask nicely,” Hunter drawled, and I heard Marco snickering in the background. “There’s not a lot at Caden’s. His house is harder to break into and set them up with so many people around all the time.”
“Doesn’t usually stop you from breaking in,” I muttered, taking the phone back from Skeeter. “You seriously bugged the bedrooms? What about the bathrooms?”
“I draw the line at bathrooms. It’s not my fault you fuckers boink all over the place.”
“We fuck in the bedrooms, asshole.”
“We didn’t bug the bedrooms either.”
“You must have to have heard us talking, so there’s one in here somewhere,” Skeeter grunted, his eyes already scanning the room.
“You’re paranoid. There’s already enough electronic shit in the bedrooms if I wanted to check in. I can hack the phones to listen in.”
“Can you teach me how to do that?” I asked dryly, hearing him chuckle.
“Of course I can. You want to hack me back? What a cute little stalker relationship we’d have. I’ll leave my computer set up in my bedroom for you so you can hack the camera and watch me jerk off.”
“Pass. Watching you diddle yourself for twenty seconds sounds awful,” I deadpanned. “Where are they all, Hunter? You want me to trust you? Then tell me the truth.”
Skeeter was glaring daggers at me, but I ignored him and started a new notes page in my phone, writing down everywhere Hunter claimed had a camera.
The second he was done, Skeeter snatched the phone and hung up, starting to go over the notes I’d made so he could find them all.
It took a while, but he found all the bugs that were where Hunter claimed they’d be, only seeming to get angrier that Hunter had been telling the truth after all.
It was almost amusing.
Until Skeeter seemed to focus on what I was wearing and lost his ever loving mind. He yanked Marco’s clothes off me right there in the middle of the den since it was the last room we’d checked for cameras, pulling his jacket off so he could remove his shirt, and forced me into it.
“Piss on her, why don’t you?” Jensen snorted as Tyler took Marco’s clothes.
“Burn them,” Skeeter snapped, but Tyler sighed.
“I’ll wash them and return them. Stop being a caveman. They were a big help today.”
They bickered for a while, but Skeeter definitely seemed less murderous now that the cameras were dealt with and I had his shirt on.
Jensen was right, he might as well have pissed on me.
Hunter
Watching Skeeter run around like a psychopath finding all my cameras was totally worth giving them up. It wasn’t like they were the only way I could access Rory anyway.
They went to Jensen’s house next to find those bugs, and I watched from the cameras that were still there until they were removed one at a time.
I could always put new ones in after I’d had some time to let things cool off.
We were at the warehouse now, Marco dealing with some asshole in the cells, while I monitored a guy we’d been following for a while. He’d been selling weed in our territory, which I was fine with, as long as it was only weed.
Keeping an eye on him was important. I wasn’t allowing bad drugs on my streets.
Our shit was pure, not cut with anything, so if someone fucked themselves up on ours, it was because they were stupid.
“You need to find new ways of getting your rocks off, Pretty Boy,” Rory murmured into the camera as she found the one I’d stashed in the living room at Jensen’s, her eyes burning into me as if she could see me. “I’m trusting you with this. This better be all of them.”
I pulled my phone out to text her, flicking my gaze back to the screen once it sent.
Hunter: I promise. I’ll miss the shows you put on.
She checked her phone, returning her eyes to the camera when she read it.
“You need to get laid. Go to the whorehouse or something if you can’t find someone willing to fuck you for free.”
I laughed, and it was like she heard me from the way she smiled.
“If you’re going to stalk anyone, stalk Max for me. Help me end it.”
Hunter: You should let me take you for a beer if I help you.
“You’ll help me anyway,” she answered, dropping the little camera on the ground and stomping on it, making me cringe as the audio screeched.
There were a couple more cameras up, and I enjoyed listening to Skeeter curse me out as he found them.
Once all the cameras were removed, I returned my attention to the guy I was observing, my eyes catching on a familiar car.
It was at the gas station in the Heights, parked off to the side as if someone was just buying a drink, and I was already texting Rory when Max stepped out with Razor beside him.
Hunter: Standby. We might be having that beer before bedtime.
I scrambled to my feet and headed down the stairs, calling out to Faris that I’d be back soon.
Taking the van, just in case I needed to deal with a body problem, I drove straight to the gas station, my phone on the stand as I tried to keep tabs on where the fuck they were going.
Rory called, and I answered as I drove towards Pine Valley, taking the quickest route to the Heights.
“You found him?” she blurted out, and I tsked.
“I can’t discuss this over the phone, babe. I’ll come to you when I know more.”
“I can meet you.”
“No, you stay put. He’s got company,” I warned, hoping she understood what kind of company I was referring to.
She huffed with annoyance but agreed to talk to me later, hanging up so I could concentrate.
The car hadn’t popped up on a camera for the last five minutes, and I slowed with a frustrated growl when I turned into the last street I’d seen it in, finding it ablaze.
“Smart motherfuckers,” I said to myself as I drove past, hoping to see them on foot, but finding nothing.
I had no idea how they were hiding so easily, I had both their faces in the system, but every time it went off, they vanished again.
With no sign of them, I had no choice but to head to Ashburn, checking my tracker app to see where Rory was before heading straight to Caden’s to break the bad news to her.
I shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up until I had him in the back.
I hadn’t even gotten out of the damn van before she was jogging down the stairs, the hope fading from her face when I shook my head.
“Sorry, babe. He knew he was being watched, he torched the car.”
“Come inside. The paparazzi might not appear to be around, but someone’s always lurking,” she grumbled, not happy with my news.
I got four steps towards the house before gunfire sounded, and I instinctively grabbed Rory and shoved her to the ground. I probably squashed her as I used my body as a shield to cover hers, but I’d rather her squashed than shot.
The amount of bullets meant whoever it was, most likely the Soldiers, had their hands on fucking machine guns.
In her panic, Rory tried to get up to run, but I held her tighter.
“Stay down. Shuffle towards the van more. Do not get up,” I ordered over the noise, moving with her as the gunfire continued. Windows smashed as the whole front of the house was riddled with bullets, the van giving us better shelter as we waited it out.
She went to lift her head but I gently pushed it back down to the ground, tucking her in against me more to make sure she was covered.
Tires screeched as the car took off, and I carefully looked around before slowly getting to my feet, motioning for her to stay down while I made sure. Thankfully, she listened and waited until I offered her a hand to pull her up, my heartbeat hammering as I automatically started inspecting her.
“I’m fine. You’re not,” she growled, her hands pushing my jacket off my shoulders to get a better look at me. A bullet had grazed me, but it looked a lot worse than it was.
“Aurora!” Skeeter barked as he came barreling out of the house, his hands instantly running over her like mine had. “Are you hit?”
“No, Hunter—”
“It’s a graze,” I promised, motioning to the house. “Inside. They could come back and we don’t want to be out here if they do.”
“Caden!” I heard Josie scream, looking towards the house to find Caden running over to us.
“Everyone’s fine. Get inside, stop scaring your mother,” I snapped, getting a dirty look in return, but he followed us back to the house.
I could tell that Josie wasn’t happy to see me as she ushered us all deeper into the house where it was safe.
“Police are coming. Did you see who it was? Did you lead them here?” she asked me directly.