Page 39 of Hunter

I instantly know at that moment, that said job is the one Javier has offered to him. Uncle John is my dad’s younger foster brother and was equally destroyed when my mother was killed, or so Phoenix tells me. He’s never stayed in the same place for more than a month. The last thing he wants to do is lay down roots and form special attachments, which is most likely the very reason why we haven’t seen him much.

“Ah-huh,” I say more to Phoenix than to John. “You’ve decided to take it then?”

“Take what, Lou?” Phoenix feigns innocence with a smug smirk on his face.

“You know what!” I snap and then make my way back to the bar to grab my bag. I rummage around inside of it to try and find my phone so I can text Daniel about my uneventful apartment hunting. I begin typing out a message when I hear the door open and close, causing me to glance around to see who has ventured into the bar so early in the evening.

Tony’s now manly figure stands in the entranceway, eyes dead set on me before glancing over to Phoenix and my uncle. Phoenix looks unimpressed by his appearance but makes no attempt to move. He merely sneers and then returns his attention back to John. I guess now he has teamed up with Javier he can’t really go around threatening his little brother anymore. Tony grins to himself before pacing slowly but determinedly across the floor toward me. I huff and then turn back to press send on my message.

“I’m watching, Ortega!” Phoenix growls from behind Tony’s approaching figure. I hear Tony chuckle softly until his presence has me freezing on my stool. He still makes me feel intimidated, tingly, and anxious, all at once, and I could curse myself for it.

“Mi corazon,” he purrs softly inside of my ear, leaning so close, I can feel his heat.

Tony and I were always the same sort of height until the age of fourteen, after which, he suddenly shot up at least a foot taller than me. By the time he was eighteen, he had grown into the manly figure he is today, a figure I used to swoon at until I saw that same figure pummelling into someone else behind my brother’s bar.

“Tony,” I voice without turning to look at him.

“Turn around, Lou,” he instructs me with an air of authority behind his voice, no longer the childhood friend I remember him being. “I need to talk to you.”

“The time for that was two years ago, but it would seem you found someone else to talk to,” I reply bitterly while Jake smirks from his position behind the bar. Jake had been with me when I discovered Tony cheating, and it was Jake who had had to comfort me until Phoenix returned from one of Javier’s ‘jobs’. It was the last ‘job’ Phoenix did for the Ortega brothers. When he found out how Tony had betrayed me, he vowed never to do anything for them again.

I feel his hands slip onto my shoulders before sliding down my arms to where my hands are resting on top of the bar. Once over the shock of it, I jump off my stool and scowl, but he just looks at me with a patronizing smile. I grab my bag and storm off into the apartment out back, hoping to rid myself of all these masculine hormones buzzing around the place.

“Lou, mija, please listen to me,” the bastard says as he invites himself into my personal living space. I know better than to throw him out, it will only encourage him to keep trying. Antonio Ortega has always been a stubborn asshole, and for some reason, Phoenix is choosing to not step in, which is weird in itself.

“Five minutes,” I make a show of setting the alarm on my phone and then look at him to begin. Being Tony, he merely paces slowly around the room, taking his time with a smug expression on his face. “Four minutes.”

“Ok, ok, Lou,” he says in his thick accent, stepping up so that he’s a mere few inches away from me. His scent hits me, bringing back nostalgia and old emotions I so dearly miss. But I will not show any weakness, so I look him straight in the eye without moving. “I want you back. I want what he had back.”

He reaches out to cup my face, somehow thinking he only has to say those words and I’ll be putty in his hands.

“Nope,” I reply bluntly and begin to turn away. However, before I can step in the opposite direction, he reaches down and presses his lips onto mine, reigniting memories I have been trying so hard to forget. It brings back images of childhood and puppy love, losing my virginity to him, sneaking in kisses when no one was looking, and laughing at everything and nothing under the stars while the bar blasted out music late at night. For just a moment, I lean into it, but when a split second of a memory of him grunting behind another woman re-enters my mind, of the man who attacked me holding me down by my wrists as he sank into me against my will, I suddenly cry out and push him back with aggression. He refuses to move away but does break our kiss. He takes hold of my hands and presses his forehead against mine as I try to hold back the onslaught of tears that are threatening to spill.

“Lou,” he whispers, “mi corazon, I am sorry. Please, ti amo.”

“No more, Tony,” I whisper, “I can’t deal with this right now…please go.”

“Ortega, time to go,” I hear Phoenix’s voice growling from behind us. Tony presses something into my palm, nods his head against mine, and finally releases me. A few seconds later, I allow myself to open my wet eyelids and watch him walk away. Phoenix looks at me with sympathy before turning back toward the bar. However, Tony stops just before the doorway, turns back and juts his chin out toward my hand, the one in which he just planted something. Cautiously, I peer down to see what it is - a ring.

“You know what I’m asking, mi corazon,” Tony says with a serious expression on his face, “think about it, mija.”

I sniff back some wayward tears and then nod once before he leaves altogether.

As soon as he’s gone and I hear the door out front close behind him, Phoenix bridges the gap between us and folds me up inside of his massive arms. He allows me to cry against his shoulder, no doubt covering his shirt in wet and snot.

“You knew. You knew he was going to do that, didn’t you?” I ask accusingly. He doesn’t respond, just nods his head, and then kisses the top of mine. “Take it, Phoenix,” I tell him, placing the traitorous ring inside of his shirt pocket. “Take it and keep it for me. I can’t deal with it right now.”

“Sure thing, baby sister,” he whispers.

“I loved him so much and he, he, he…” I can’t finish that sentence because it’s too hard to voice how much he betrayed me.

“I know, Lou, he fucked up big time.”

I nod at the same time as I hear my phone ping back a message. It breaks me from my brother’s hold, and I step back to pick it up and look at it.

Don’t be disheartened, Lou, we’ll find you somewhere. I have some things to discuss with you. You up for dinner tonight? Daniel, x.

I sigh before replying with a simple confirmation but choose not to tell my brother about it. Instead, I fake smile, try to reassure him that I’ll be ok, and then go to my room to get ready.

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