Page 59 of Hunter
“I’m going back to the shop. I need to hole up in that office and start calling to see if he’s still locked up or if he's paroled out. And if he did get out, I need to know where he is. I also need to figure out when and why she’s here.De todas las malditas escuelas, ¿Cómo terminamos en la misma?Of all the fucking schools, how’d we end up at the same one?”
“Let’s go back to the house, let me help you,” I say while I grab onto the loop of her bag. “Fucking gimme this.” She stops walking and looks at me like she’s considering my offer as she relaxes, letting me take some of the weight off her shoulders.
“Come on, Ed, let me fucking take care of you.” I throw her bag on my back and can tell it’s heavier with the laptop inside. This shit is getting cleaned out as soon as I get her in my room. I’ll give her my fucking closet if it means that she doesn’t carry around all of her belongings anymore. Her stuff belongs with me.
“You can shower, and I’ll stand out on the sidewalk until you’re done if that’s what you want. Then we can talk this all out.”
“Are you sure?” Her voice is small, and I know this isn’t fucking easy for her. It fucking tears me apart when I look into her wide and questioning eyes. I know she’s only giving in to me because that cunt bitch just drained the fight outta her body. My little demon’s all tapped out.
It’s seriously like this girl has never known kindness, and that makes me feel fucking sad to think that no one has gone out of their way to care about her needs. Until me. I’m here now.
“Yeah,hermosa, I’m sure.” I touch her pretty face with the back of my hand, and my knuckles drift down her soft cheek. “Let me take you home.”
TRENTA Y CUATRO
As soon asI agreed to go back to his house, he linked our fingers together and didn’t let go until he had to dig through his pockets for his keys to open the front door. I let him lead the wayand didn’t say a word the whole walk here. I don’t know where to start.
“I want you to be comfortable here,” he says while we stand in the entryway to his big-ass house. There’s a pile of coats, sneakers, a black helmet, and weird-looking sports equipment on the floor. “Take a seat, Ed,” he says as he motions to the couch in a nice-ass living room before he drops my bag on the floor next to a chair.
“I’m gonna make sure we’re here alone, gimme one sec,” he says and walks around the first floor of the house. “I think they’re all out, but I’ll check upstairs,” he adds when he circles back to me standing in the entryway. “I want you to shower and have peace of mind, like p-e-a-c-e.”
I swear this man continues to surprise me. His caring about my comfort like this is something I didn’t know existed.O creía que era capaz de hacerlo. Or thought he was capable of.
“What do you want to eat? I think my brother has peanut butter if you'd like that, or I can order a pizza or boil some pasta. You pick.”He runs up the stairs, and he’s yelling back down to me between knocking on doors. It’s like he wants me to know he’s still here and that I’m not alone.
“All good, Ed, it’s just us,” he says while coming down the stairs. “I also sent them a text and told them to stay the fuck out.”
“I mean, they live here, you can’t tell them they can’t come home.” He’s got a look on his face like he could give a shit about his roommates. “That’s fucked up,” I add, as his hands wrap around my waist.
“Don’t care. They’ll be fine.” He pulls me into his body, and my head lands on his chest. “Your comfort matters more to me than there's. Now hug me back, Ed.”
“I don’t really hug,cabrón.” My arms are stuck at my sides, and I’m not sure what to do. I’ve never sought out affection from someone before. I never wanted their body pressed up againstmine like ours are right now. But I like it with this man, and I like it so much that my eyes close while I lean up against him.
“Try for me, little demon.” My arms wrap around his waist, and my body relaxes into his. “There you go, I’ve got you, Ed. I’m gonna stay just like this and show you that no matter what you say, I’ve got you. Now, tell me what’s going on. I want you to start from the beginning.”
“You sure?” I exhale a breath and really hope he means it, because I want to stay right here like this with him.
“About you, Ed? Yeah, I’m a hundred percent sure.” His voice is steady, like he means it, and for once, my silence isn’t because I’m busy analyzing the bullshit people say. It’s because I believe him and I trust his words. I’m not doubting anything that he’s saying. “Don’t be afraid of trusting this,hermosa.” I’m not. I’m not afraid at all.
“My name’s Valentine Garcia, and I’m from the Bronx, down in New York. I grew up in the LatinX gang and lived in the fucking projects. I met Payton at Kings Prep, a private high school I went to on a full ride.” I hate every single fucking word I just said. I hate who I was, where I’m from, and that this is my story.
“She started going with my cousin, Gabe, who was a soldier in the X, and my fucking escort back and forth to Kings. He was in charge of me. He’s also the only blood relative that I ever knew about. I never knew my parents or any other family, and I only met his ass on the first day of high school. He met Payton that week, and that was fucking that.”
His chin is resting on top of my head and keeping me in place. It’s like he’s grounding me, and it gives me what I need to keep spilling my guts, and it helps that I can’t see his face while I talk about my dirty fucking past.
“He would walk me back and forth and get the supply I needed. It was my job to sell in school, and we kept Kings stocked up. I didn’t just sell to students, though. I also sold to the teachers, some staff, and of course, the fucking Headmaster.” I can see his nasty-ass in my head and squeeze my eyes shut to force his fucking face outta my brain. “That motherfucker was addicted to coke, pills, and underage girls. He was also Princess Payton’s father.”
If I’m gonna be honest, then I’m gonna tell him everything. I take a deep breath and let it all out. “He’d lock me in his office,” I pause to think about how I want to say this. I’ve never actually said the words out loud before. “And that motherfucker would force himself on me.” He squeezes me in his arms, and it’s only a part of the reason I can’t breathe right now.
“He would –,” I heard his voice crack in half, and I cut him off. I don’t want him to say the words. I don’t want to hear him say that I was raped. I know I was.
“He wasn’t the only one. The priests in the territory, the OG’s who ran the X, soldiers, whoever.”
“Fuck, Ed.”
“That’s why, when I saw a fucking way out, I took it. I couldn’t take all the fucked up shit they were doing to me anymore. So over a period of time, I took enough money to buy a new name, papers, and for me to get here after graduation. And before I left, I gave those motherfuckers up. I gave the NYPD Gang Unit a whole fucking list of shit. Names, locations, dates. All of it. They’d been watching them for months, and the info I gave them was enough for them to make their case. They arrested the OG’s, Gabe, and Payton's father, all of them. ”
“You’re fucking brave as hell, Ed. You got out. You saved yourself.” I feel his pointer finger glide over my back like he’s writing on me again. “You’re fighting for a better life.”
