1.20

"Oh!" Kaylee said with a nervous laugh. Her hand landed on her chest in surprise as she carefully turned around to face the man who had spoken. "I'm sorry! I didn't see you standing there. What did you say?"
He stared at her from bottomless ice blue eyes. "I said I believe you have something of mine."
"Really?" Kaylee started to shuffle through the mail, thinking that maybe he meant there mail had gotten mixed up by mistake, but suddenly froze. Slowly she brought her gaze back to the man standing in front of her. He was still staring unblinkingly at her. Her heart skipped a beat and then started to thunder in her chest. She slowly licked suddenly dry lips.
"Hunter." It wasn't a question and it was barely a whisper. Just a ghost of a sound that slipped through her lips. She watched as a small, humorless smile pulled at his lips. She took a hasty step back as his hand came up but he only tipped his hat at her.
"So, I see you know who I am. Good, I hate small talk. Like I said I think-" He stopped talking when a car drove by.

Looking around he motioned with a quick jerk of his head to a spot near the edge of the property. One that was out of the sight of any windows...or from the view of the security cameras.
"Let's move over there shall we?"
Before Kaylee could speak he took hold of her arm and started to drag her down the sidewalk.
Planting her feet Kaylee yanked her arm away from him. "Don't touch me," she hissed. "Don't ever touch me!"
His eyes narrowed then with a mockingly gallant motion with his hand motion for her to proceed ahead of him.
"Your mother could have used some of your spunk. Then she might not have gotten herself in the trouble she did."
"Don't compare me to Janet. I am nothing like her. Nothing."
"Yeah, I see that. At least that bitch knew when to close her mouth. Stop right there," he snapped when they were partially hidden by a tree.


"Who do you think you are coming here? What do you want? If you've come to take Gabe away then you have another thing coming. He's staying here, with me, where I can care for him. You'd only want him as a pawn. You-"
Suddenly Hunter started to laugh. It wasn't a joyful sound. It was rough and hollow. As if his vocal cords weren't used to the sound. It caused shivers to go up and down her spine.
"You're funny. You think you can tell me what I can and can't do? That's fucking hilarious!" He continued to laugh but then stopped as suddenly as he had started.

"You have no idea of what I'm capable of. You keep running your trap and I'll give you a small taste of what your mother got. Would you like that? I'm sure you would. Your mother did...at first. But then I grew bored with her and my friends wanted a go at her so I thought what the hell?" He shrugged his broad shoulders then flashed her what she thought was supposed to be a smile but looked more like a baring of the teeth.
He leaned closer to her. "But I don't think I'd share you...at least not until you begged me to."
"You think because your dressed like some want to be gangster and you roughed up a woman that I barely know that I'm going to be scared of you? That's my little brother in there. Why the hell would I just hand him off to you? So you can turn into a monster masquerading as a human being? So you can turn him into you?"
She knew she should be scared but all she could think about was Gabe growing up around this man, turning into this man and the thought sickened her enough to want to fight. To deny him the fear that he seemed to crave.

Hunter looked down at his suit. "This suit cost me a pretty penny. Besides, I enjoy wearing suits. It's my signature." Flicking imaginary lint from his label he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't want the brat...at least not yet. He's too young and too vulnerable. He can stay with you for all I care. Well, he can stay with you until he's eighteen," he qualified.
"What?"
He stared off somewhere over her right shoulder. "Look, I have enemies. Enemies that don't care that he's just a kid. They'd do anything to bring me down." He suddenly moved closer to her. "Promise me that you'll look out for him. Guard him for me until he's eighteen."
"And then what?" she snapped.
He stared down at her for a moment his face softened and his hand came up. It hovered near her cheek, as if he meant to caress it. "You remind me of her. She never backed down from me either. I would have married her but-" He seemed lost in another time, another place until he shook himself. His hand curled into a fist and dropped back down to his side.
"And then when he's eighteen he has responsibilities to the Hunter clan. He may not be mine but by the time I'm through grooming him no one will care about that."
"How am I supposed to raise him knowing what you have planned for him?"
"You better hope you instill some backbone into the boy and don't make him into a pansy. Besides that isn't the only thing I want from you."
"W-what?"
"Did you really think you were going to get off that easy? She brought him here knowing that I would look for him. She put you in the middle of this intentionally. Janet makes herself into a martyr when in reality she's the heathen. She's always searching for the easy way out. Someone to take on her responsibility. What story did she tell you? How she lost all her money at my table and how I used her for payment?"
At Kaylee's nod he let out a bark of laughter.
"She strolled into my club and demanded to see me. Said she had something she wanted to discuss. Dropped a name and I knew what it was about. We talked. She left but the next day she came sniffing around again. When I told her to leave well, things got a little nasty." He sneered. "Your mother doesn't take rejection easily. Anyways, she did lose at my table but that was months later. So, I gave her two options. She took the first to pay me back. Brought me the money two weeks later. I don't know where she got it from but then she lost some more money at my table and it was at her suggestion that we came to our current arrangement."

He leaned in close once again. "Seems as if your mother wants to kill me. And I don't blame her after what I did. But she's like a druggie. She keeps coming back to the source of her disease. It's a twisted dance we engage in but it seems as if neither one of us can break away. Anyways," he said leaning back. "That's not what I meant to tell you. What I want to know is how Hannah is staying so young. Most of her people don't last nearly as many cycles as she has. There's a rumor going on down in Sim City, that she's doing some sort of experiments in her labs. I heard you worked for her. It should be a snap for you to find out something for me."
"What? You want me to find out what her fountain of youth is?"
"I'm not getting any younger. I still have people to kill and money to get. I want that formula."
"And if I don't get it?"
He did that laugh again before he moved around her and started down the sidewalk. "If you don't then you might wake up one morning and not only find Gabe missing but your precious husband laying cold and lifeless next to you. How was that honeymoon by the way?"
Kaylee's heart stuttered and she quickly hurried after him. "Wait!"
He stopped then slowly turning around stared at her underneath the brim of his hat.
"Do we have a deal?"

"Promise me you won't hurt Ty or his family? Promise me you won't try and snatch Gabe before his eighteen?"
"I don't have to promise you anything...but I'll do it all the same. Tell you what, just because I'm in a generous mood, I'll leave some of my men here with you. As a token of faith."
"No!" she said horrified. She pictured some great hulking men following her every step and quickly shook her head.
"It wasn't really an option. You won't even see my men. And they have to stick around just in case."
"In case I don't stick to my end of the deal?" she snapped.
"In case those enemies I mentioned earlier come sniffing around your door. Now, do we have a deal?"
Kaylee slipped her hand into his his. He gave her hand a tight squeeze. "Don't even think of backstabbing me."
"I could say the same about you."
He gave a bark of laughter and it seemed to surprise him as he studied her. "God, you're just like her. If this wasn't between us I think I might have liked you. As it stands I don't dislike you either. I want reports every month. No matter how small. Got it?"Before she could reply he walked around her and walked the opposite way again.
She frowned. It was like he was trying to keep her off balance with his direction of travel. "Where are you going? How will I get in contact with you?"

"We'll talk about that later. Your husband is on his way out of the house now. And I don't want my men to put a bullet in his head because he's coming after me. I like his speed on the field."
Kaylee peered around her but couldn't see those 'men' that he kept talking about.
"Hey Kaylee?"
She realized that it was the first time he had said her name. "What?" she yelled down the sidewalk as she heard the front door slam open.
"Tell your grandfather I said hi. I did a favor for him a long time ago. I was just starting out you know. I needed some kinda revenue and it seemed like easy money to run over a man."
Feeling the bile rise in her throat Kaylee spun around and placed a trembling hand over her face.

"Kaylee! What's going on? Who was that? Babe? Babe?!"
It seemed as if Ty's voice was coming from the end of a tunnel as the sidewalk rushed up to met her. At the last moment she felt Ty's arms wrap around her. She looked up into his worried face.
"I think I just entered into a deal with the devil. I think I just agreed to help the man that killed my father."