Page 95 of Bargain with the Bachelor
Hunter.The sound of his voice sent literal pain spiraling through my chest.
“I know you probably don’t want to hear from me,” he said, “but there’s something important going on here…”
My heart hammered with a blend of excitement and fear.
My first thought was that something must have happened to Cinda or one of the dwarves for Hunter to be calling me and speaking in such an ominous tone.
“Everyone’s okay, so don’t panic,” he continued, and my pulse dropped to a more normal level.
“It’s good news, actually. Well, good news/bad news. There’s a new lead on your trust fund. You might be able to recover the money. The bad news is who the suspects are. Well… I don’t want to leave any more of this on a recording. Just call me back when you get a chance, okay?”
I replayed the message once more then got up and crossed my office on shaky legs to shut the door.
Then I went back to my desk, pulled out my cell phone, and dialed the number Hunter left at the end of his message.
He answered on the first ring. “Hello? Kristal?”
For a moment I couldn’t answer. It seemed all the oxygen had evaporated from the room, and there was apparently a large moth trapped in my chest, frantic to escape.
Oh god, do I miss him.
The two months apart had done exactly nothing to dull the longing I felt for Hunter.
I swallowed and managed to take a breath. “Yes. It’s me. Hi Hunter.”
“Hi.” He sounded nervous too. “How are you?”
“I’m… okay. I got your message.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry to bother you. I know you’re at work, and I know the last time we talked, I wasn’t exactly my ‘best self.’”
“It’s okay,” I assured him. “It sounded like you had a good reason to call.”
Unfortunately, the reason had something to do with my trust fund instead of oh, him calling to say he loved me and desperately wanted me to come back.
Not that I’d pull up my shallow roots here, quit my new job, and high-tail it back to Eastport Bay if he asked.
Would I?
“Yeah, like I said, there’s been a development in the trust fund case. I’m not really sure how to say this, so I’m just gonna say it… it looks like it was Harry and Margot.”
“Harry and Margot what?” My heart raced so hard it was making my head spin.
Had Harry and Margot somehow gained some new information that had broken the case?
“They did it. They were caught on video talking about draining the trust fund and splitting it.” There was a long pause. “I’m so sorry, Kristal. I know this has to hurt.”
“Hurt” wasn’t the word I would have chosen. “Hurt” was a stubbed toe or burning your ear with a straightening iron. This was more on the scale of falling face-first into lava.
I felt like I was broiling all over. I stripped off the sweater I always wore at work due to the frigid air conditioning.
“Kristal? You still there? You okay?”
I nodded rapidly, then realizing Hunter couldn’t hear me, croaked, “Yes. I’m here.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I’m sure you’ll be hearing from the investigator soon. He called this morning, looking for a phone number or forwarding address for you. I didn’t have an address, but I did give him your work number. Hope that’s okay.”
“Sure. Yes. Of course.”
