Page 37 of Hunter
“And why’s that,pendejo?” Her eyes come back to mine, and I can tell this is a make-or-break moment to prove to her that I’m serious. And I’ve never been more serious in my life.
“Because I’m gonna show you, that’s why. I’m gonna prove it to you. And not just with words, but with action. I’m playing the long game here, Ed, I’m not going anywhere.” Her eyebrows knit together over her eyes as she digests what I’m saying.
“Is that why your ass is stuck to that chair?” she says and lifts her chin. Defiant little shit.
“It is. Now eat your lunch, you demon. Don’t let your soup get cold.” She looks down at her tray, and her face is softer when she looks up again. I think I’m getting somewhere, and it makes me feel like I just scored a game-winning goal.
And when her body relaxes in her seat, and she lifts her soup and crouton-filled spoon to her sweet and spicy mouth, I feel fucking victorious.
EIGHTEEN
The first thingthat I did after Edison answered my questions was check my app to ensure Amy had stayed put at the shelter. It wasn’t sitting well with me that this girl had gone through all of this tonight, and that mine was within a fucking block of gunfire, an attempted rape, and a dead gangbanger in the alleyway that runs behind our establishments.
I was taking it as a personal offense that these fuckers were not only on Rossi territory but also putting my lady in danger by just breathing within a thirty-foot radius of her.
Amy never disconnected herself from my location tracker five years ago when we were forced to end things between us. She’s the slimeball Mayor’s only daughter, and I’m Vincenzo Rossi’s youngest grandson. Politics and organized crime usually go together like sauce and meatballs on Sundays, but in this case, our families are like oil and water.
I like to think that she wants me to keep an eye on her to make sure that she’s safe, and I do. I’d die for that woman. I’ll protect her forever, in this lifetime and the next. She’s the love of my life, even if we’re not together in this one.
And just to be sure, I had a tracker put on her car and had one of our guys “sell’ her a state-of-the-art home security system that I backed when she called me about it. Her monthly payment was “waived” since she’s a “community support,” and she didn’t hesitate to sign up.
I know where she is at all times. From my phone, I can monitor her home, her car, and all of her movements. Not that she does much. My lady has the biggest heart and has a bad habit of working eighteen-hour days, seven days a week. It’s gotten so bad that most of the time she sleeps in her office when she’s too tired to go home. So I do too. I stay at the shop when she stays at the shelter. It keeps me closer to her.
And when she goes home, I do too. Especially because I bought the house that butts up against her backyard on the street behind hers. She has no idea that my bedroom faces her bedroom. It’s as close to her as I can get.
It’s been five years too long since I’ve held her, kissed her, told her that I love her, and heard her say it back. I miss my lady every minute of every day.
After I checked up on her, I sent a message to our guys to go and clean up the back alley. I told them to hose it down and get rid of anything they needed to. They knew what to do, and an hour later, they texted me to say that the job was done. Then I sent them out to find out as much as they could about this new gang that’s moved in. Whoever they are, they’re on Rossi soil and need to pack it up and move elsewhere. Otherwise, I’ll have to kill ‘em all.
Shit has really started to escalate in town, and I’ll be damned if danger ends up on her doorstep. There’s been more and more activity here, and I don’t want her getting caught up in it if I can help it.
Her piece of shit old man is a major part of the problem. He’s doing everything he can to push hard-working lower and middle-class folks out and attract as many wealthy people as he possibly can. He’s made shady deals with real-estate developers to bulldoze subsidized housing and build luxury homes that most locals could never afford.
He looked at his precious daughter in her beautiful blue eyes and struck down her proposal to renovate the new community center, and then expected her for dinner that night. He’s in bed with the President of HU and gently encourages, aka demands, that the admissions committee continue to accept a certain caliber of incoming students. He wants Havenwood to be a city full of folks like him. Rich assholes with no regard for anyone but themselves.
He doesn’t give a fuck that his actions overload and overwhelm his selfless daughter at the shelter, the soup kitchen, and the community center. She spends all of her time caring for and managing as many people as her programs can safely handle.
Amy works all day and most nights to stretch every hour that she has. She’ll stay up all night researching grants to apply forfunding and then will draft countless letters to local businesses asking for partnership and support. My girl’s a fucking gem.
He’s hoping that she’ll just quit. Joke's on him because Amy doesn’t give up easily.Except when it came to us.
He’s also banking on the Rossis getting greedy enough that we all move out of town and relocate west to Nevada full-time. Not gonna happen. My uncles and cousins out there have things under control. The rest of us are doing just fine here, and I’ve got no plans to leave.
My old man is one of five boys, and each of my uncles has taken on a branch of the empire that my grandfather and his brothers built after returning home from killing off Nazis overseas. That’s how long the Rossi name has been in business here in Havenwood. This is our fucking town.
Even after my uncles left to set up shop in Vegas, we kept shit going. And by shop, I mean a sports betting empire. It was around the same time that my other uncle retired from pro baseball. And now we’ve gone from one pro ball player to four. My uncle’s got three sons who have gone from HU to the big leagues, and having these connections has paid off for all of us.
My grandparents wanted to stay put here in Havenwood and maintain our family’s interests and investments locally when we discussed expanding. In addition to my shop, we own or co-own a shit ton of local businesses and land.
Part of my job is to make sure that shit stays civil out here and to keep the neighborhood running smoothly. This used to be my old man’s, and as soon as I was done with my apprenticeship, he handed me the keys. The next day, he headed out to meet my uncle out west.
My grandfather built a community around us. He demands respect and has no problem giving it back. He believes in working hard and playing hard. He maintains a sense of order and adheres to a routine. If you gamble and lose, you'd betterpay up. If you cause trouble in town, you’ll face consequences. If you shoot first, we’ll shoot back. They’re simple rules, and if you break them, the Rossis will fucking break you.
I’m working on a theory that Amy’s father is ignoring these low-life gangsters on purpose. It’s obvious he’s trying to scare and trap the folks who are hanging on by a thread.
He also knows it’ll get our attention. And it has. He’s hiked up taxes, spent city taxpayer dollars on money pit projects that he has no intention of finishing, and he’s cut funding to a ton of programs that our community relies on. I’d bet my shop that he’s trying to get people caught in the crosshairs of drugs, bad loans, and drama, so that they either go to jail or end up leaving before having to end up in Amy’s shelter to sleep or in the soup kitchen to eat. He’s trying to fucking run her into the ground, too, over my fucking dead body.
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the way Hunt looked at Edison as she came barreling through the shop. I saw his whole future flash before his eyes. It’s the same way that I looked at Amy all those years ago. We officially met at HU, but I’ve known who she was for as long as I can remember. I loved her from day one, and not a night has gone by that I don’t miss her like hell.
