Page 31 of Hunter (Hell's Bastards MC)

Knocking on the door, he heard someone callout that they would be right there. A large man in a stained shirtopened the door. He had messy hair that hadn’t been cut or washed,and layers of grease had accumulated, giving it an almost mattedlook.

“Who are you?” the landlord asked, looking him up anddown.

“We’ve got to talk.” He pressed his palmagainst the door, and the other guy was no match for him as hepushed his way into the apartment. The stench of sweat,piss, and shit was heavyin the air.

“I got no problem with you. What do youwant?” the landlord asked.

“HarlowErickson. Does the name ring a bell?” Hunterasked.

“What the fuck has she done?”

Hunter tutted. “It’s not what the fuck hasshe done, butyou.”

This man—no, not man, piece of filth—had taken advantage of Harlow’s naivete. Big Dick had toldthem at Christmas that life for Harlow wasn’t always easy with herparents. She had gotten out as soon as she could, tried to beindependent, and fucking assholes like this man made life way toohard for her to cope, and it sickened him.

“How much do you charge her rent?” Hunterasked.

The man gave a figure, and that was a lie.Swinging out, the first blow landed to the face. The landlordcollapsed on the sofa,which Hunter was pretty sure something crawled out of whenhe touched it.

“Get up,” Hunter said.

He tried to stay down, but after severalminutes, he was on his feet again, and Hunterpunched him.

“Tell me how much you charge herfor rent.”

It took several blows, but finally thelandlord told him the fee. Not onlydid he charge her rent, the landlord alsoconfessed to charging her an additional fee for utilities. Harlowhad been paying double for everything. Hunter was tempted to putthe knife through his neck.

“You’re going to giveall that money back, because if you don’t,I’ll be coming for you, do you understand me?” The landlord was onthe floor at this point, whimpering. Blood came from his mouth,nose, and one of his eyes was already swelling shut.

He didn’t give a shit. Men like thissickened him.There weremany of them through all walks of life, preying on the innocent andthe weak. He made it a skill to find them, to hurt them. He lovedto hunt men who thought they were powerful. Never did he go afterthe weak.

He leftthe landlord, after taking all the money thebastard had on him, and Hunter had a feeling he was going to haveno choice but to pay him another visit soon. He made his way up toHarlow’s apartment. He already had her key from the landlord, sonow he didn’t have to worry about the sick fuck snooping throughher stuff.

Stepping foot inside the apartment, helooked around and saw Harlow barely had anything. The apartment wassmall and clean, but she didn’t have anything. There was achair,no television, afew books on the floor were neatly placed.

There was no decaying stench in the air,but he saw she’d placed air-fresheners around. He hadn’trealizedhow she wasliving. Her kitchen was tiny. The fridge wasn’t working and therewas nothing inside it. She didn’t have any electricity and when hetested the gas, he saw that wasn’t working either.

Now he was getting pissed off. None of thisshit was good. He took a seat on the single chair and looked towardthe door.

It was getting late so Harlow would bearriving home soon. Hehad thought she’d been losing weight. He was also pretty sure hesaw her wrapping up leftovers from Christmas, but she’d hidden itand he’d not really given a shit.

This was no way to live. And he wasn’t goingto allow Harlow to live it either.

****

Harlow didn’t know how the club managed toget people moving, but she was grateful to them, seeing as thebakery had no choice but to close for most of the day. With thedamage to the window, Ava hadopted to keep the shop closed and for them to only fulfillthe pre-orders for lunches. This was unfortunate seeing as sheliked to sneak a cookie or two. Instead, she had gone most of theday without food. It was only when Raven had stopped by with lunchthat she had gotten anything to eat.

Raven hadn’t taken any money from hereither, which she was thankful for. She didn’t have a cent to hername.Things weregetting tough and Harlow knew she was going to need to make adecision. Going back home to her parents was out of the questionbut she didn’t know what else she could do. Time was runningout.

She walked up to the apartment building.There had been no call or text from Hunter, not that she had beenexpecting one. Hoping for one, but it hadn’t arrived.

She typed in the code on the keypad andlet herself in the building. She had a horrible feeling thesecurity lock on the main door didn’t work. Theelevator wasn’t working, so she went tothe stairs, tensing up, waiting for the landlord to come out andaccuse her of not paying the full rent, but nothinghappened.

There was no way she was going to look agift horse in the mouth, and she took the steps, two at a time, tomake her way toward her apartment. Pulling out her key, she slid itin the lock, flicked it open, and then stepped inside.

She had been able to charge her cell phoneatwork, so she’d usethat for light. The electricity had been turned off a couple ofweeks ago.

She had worked on the theory that for manyyears humans lived without light or gas, so she could as well. Itwould makeher valuethem when she was able to afford them again. So far, she hadn’tbeen able to afford anything.

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