by Nikki Wild
“Pulled them out two weeks ago,” he replied. “It was time that I looked at the past again.”
“Why is that?”
He ignored the question.
Instead, my father grumbled and waved me towards the den. “Have a seat.” He bitterly added: “After all, you’re pregnant…”
“I’m getting something to drink first.”
“I’ll bring it to you.”
“Nonsense, I’m a grown ass woman, right?” I walked around him and headed over towards the kitchen. “Don’t worry about me, Dad. I can get my own, remember?”
“The kitchen’s a disaster,” he told me. “You’ll hurt yourself. Sit your ass down and let me get you the drink.”
“Why is the kitchen a disaster?”
He paused. “I was drunk. Angry. After you two left, I lost my temper. Go sit down and I’ll bring you back something. What do you want?”
“Not beer,” I sneered.
“Yeah,” Dad glanced down at my womb. Since there was no point in hiding it anymore, I didn’t bother with anything to conceal the secret. “One ‘Not Beer’, coming right up…”
I went back to the den and sat down on the couch. Disgruntled, I reached for his remote and shut the television off.
The attention needed to be on whatever had fucking happened. I knew he was going to just blow up at me if I pushed too hard, so maybe if I could find a diplomatic solution…
He came back with a glass of water.
“Here.” He thrust it into my hands.
I took a deep sip as he wandered back in the direction of the kitchen. Before I could get too angry, he was coming back with a chair, which he plunked down in front of me. He took a seat…
It felt like two opponents sitting at a game.
But the stakes were higher than I could grasp. This was no ordinary game of verbal chess; the future of my family hung in the balance…
“He’s just going to ruin you, Sarah.”
I had just about had it with this.
“What on earth has Hunter done that would make you think he’d ruin me? For God’s sakes, Dad, he’s saved my fucking life! More than once!”
My father narrowed his eyes.
“What are you talking about?”
I realized, as I threw my hands up in disgust, that it was time I came clean to him. Hunter had tried to tell me at the start to lay it all out on the table for my father… Maybe if I’d listened from the start, we all wouldn’t be in this position.
I didn’t have anything else to lose.
“It’s time I told you about Hunter.”
“Sarah, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Well, you’re going to,” I glared at him. “I’m going to tell you everything that I’ve been hiding from you the last year, and when I’m done… well, we’ll see what you think.”
Dad chuckled.
“Oh, this should be good…” He stroked at his throat again. “Fine. Go on, then, if you must. Tell me about Hunter…”
I thought of where to begin.
It had been foolish to think I could just get the two of them to reconcile, out of the blue. There was such bad blood between them, and I would never forgive myself for underestimating how much my father truly hated the man I loved… and the danger I’d put him in.
But maybe, just maybe…
Telling him the truth might change his mind.
“Hunter isn’t just some rebel bad boy biker, Dad. He’s so much more important than that. Do you remember that motorcycle club he joined, a few weeks before you pulled that raid that drove him away?”
“Of course I remember them,” he grunted. “Those fuckers thought they were hot shit. They called themselves the Devil’s Dragons. Caused me a lot of grief, back in the day… I tried to crush them wherever they turned up.”
I remembered those days.
“Hunter’s their club president now.”
My father scoffed. “Hunter Hargreaves, the president of a biker club? Leader of the Devil’s Dragons? Christ, he’s even worse than I thought!”
“He turned them around,” I went on. “When you knew them, they were smuggling guns, arming local gangs, and causing nonstop trouble for the locals…”
“Don’t try and read me their rap sheet,” he grunted. “I remember precisely what types of lawless mischief they were getting into. I booked and arrested half the club that morning.”
Yes, I thought bitterly.
Yes you did…
“Under Hunter’s influence, the club left all of that behind. They found other, better ways of making their money.”
“Oh? Did they go goody-two-shoes, then?”
“In a sense. They offer armed protection now. They make their livelihoods defending innocent people who can’t go to the police.”
“Sarah,” he muttered condescendingly. “Any innocent person can go to the police.”
“Then you’ve forgotten what it’s like. That, or you never really knew from the start,” I replied coolly. “If you think that there aren’t people out there who are afraid of police corruption, or who know they’re being blackmailed from contacting the police… then you’re a goddamn fool.”
“Okay, fine,” Dad scowled. “For the sake of the argument, let’s say I buy into that. Are you seriously trying to tell me that Hunter is some sort of heroic goddamn protector on a bike?
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to tell you,” I snarked back, letting pride slip into my voice. “He and his club keep the peace when the cops can’t, and they drive out any thugs who stir up too much shit in their territory.”
“Bullshit.”
“I’ve seen it with my own two eyes.”
“He’s put you in danger?”
“The opposite, actually. He’s tried to keep me out of danger… but I always seem to find a way to go barreling back in, pistol at the ready.”
“Then he’s too soft on you,” Dad grunted. “If he honestly cared about you, he would keep you out of the fire, no matter what…”
“He trusts me. More than you ever did.”
“Trust gets people hurt, Sarah,” he told me point-blank. “Trust gets people killed.”
I was getting exasperated.
Suddenly, something dawned on me.
“Do you know how Hunter and I reunited? Has it even occurred to you to ask?”
My father shrugged.
“Nope. Didn’t care.”
“It was my very first case after they promoted me to detective,” I remembered warmly. “Do you remember what the assignment was?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “You had to hunt down and find three cheerleaders that had gone missing…”
“That’s right. It was a cold case without any leads, but my boss needed to put some kind of activity on it, no matter how hopeless.”
“You would never tell me how the case went,” my father leaned forward. “Now this, I want to hear about…”
“Hunter and the Devil’s Dragons club were in the case file,” I told him.
He looked disappointed.
“What? Why?”
“Because they had been conducting their own investigation,” I responded. “He knew something about those girls that nobody else did…”
“And he didn’t go to the police? Typical.”
“He did, actually. The police department not only didn’t listen to him, but they tossed him in the slammer for a day on trumped up charges just to make a point…
“So, Hunter took his club and left town. They set up shop a few hours away in El Paso, because that was the closest he could get to the girls.”
“Oh?”
“The kidnapped cheerleaders weren’t the only missing girls. Their abductors had gotten a lot of national heat, so they laid low a few months and started kidnapping the ones nobody would care about… the ones the police wouldn’t go after.”
My father’s suspension of disbelief looked totally broken. “Nonsense. The police will follow up on any missing case.”
“Not if they’re undocumented immigrants, they won’t…or, at least they won’t put their best and brightest on the trail.” I leaned forward. “Go ahead, Dad. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Dad’s expression said it all.
He couldn’t argue the point.
“So, what are you telling me, then? Hunter did what the police couldn’t?”
“Yes and no. He did what they wouldn’t, which was to think outside the box. They were looking in all the wrong places, whereas he took his club and searched the local underworld. When he learned who had taken them…
“Let’s just say it turned personal.”
“Who was it, then?”
“A Mexican cartel that calls themselves Viboras Verde.”
My father’s face paled.
“Wait,” I studied his eyes. “You know them?”
“Of course I know them,” he gasped. “I know all the cartels who have been pushing against the southern border. You’re telling me that those fuckers came here?”
“Over and over. They took those cheerleaders, and they kept taking Mexican teenagers who had crossed the border. There was less money in sex trafficking them, but a lot less attention, too…
“Hunter was out to destroy them. When I finally found his club in El Paso, he explained to me that my case was a lot bigger than anyone was willing to admit. He promised to help me look for my cheerleaders if we joined forces to go after the kidnapped immigrants, so we attacked the cartel as they tried it again.
“But we failed.”
My father was stoic, listening intently.
“Luck persevered. We were given one shot to strike them on their own turf, and after that they would be gone forever.”
“On their own turf?”
“Yes. In Mexico.”
“Are you telling me that Hunter…”
“Not just Hunter. He led the Devil’s Dragons and round up maybe sixty bikers from rival clubs, heading down into hell to save those girls by force. He found all of them…he even found the missing cheerleaders. After saving them, he had all the girls dropped off at a local hospital and pulled back into the shadows, taking none of the glory or the fame.”
“How do I know any of that is true?”
“Trust me,” I told him. “I was there.”
My father looked ready to faint.
“Hunter Hargreaves let you accompany him, illegally crossing a United States border to…fight Viboras Verde? To attack the cartels?”
“I didn’t give him any choice.”
My father sat there in silence.
“Like I said, it was personal for Hunter. In his vengeance, he struck down the cartel and crushed most of the organization in one night…and ever since, he’s been attacking them anywhere they’ve tried to come back. Now he thinks that they’re gone for good.”
My father was shaking his head.
“The entire cartel…? They were a thorn in my side decades ago, and they’ve been lashing out in other districts every few years…”
“The entire cartel,” I clarified.
Dad quietly tried to process all of this.
“Of course, there was no goddamn way I could tell my bosses about this,” I pointed out the obvious. “That’s why that was my first, and last, case as a formal detective. But the chief read between the lines. He trusted me. He pulled some strings and got me positioned as a private eye.”
“Assuming I believe this… that I believe any of this… you said this was personal for him?”
“Of course it was.”
“Why?”
The reality dawned on me.
“You… you don’t know?”
He looked agitated. “Know what?”
“The reason he joined the Devil’s Dragons in the first place, just a few weeks before your raid forced him to disappear!” I insisted in complete disbelief. “Are you telling me, after all the trouble you’ve caused that man… you didn’t know that Viboras Verde took his goddamn sister?”
The look of shock was unmistakable.
“He went to the police!” I exclaimed.
“I didn’t know! I never heard about this!”
“No,” I shook my head bitterly. “Based on your instructions, your fucking department just wouldn’t listen to him. That’s what really happened. So he turned to the only other people he could, the other authority in town…
“It worked. They got his sister back, but part of the price was Hunter proving himself as a prospect, and then patching into the club for life.”
“And then the raid…”
“Yes, then came your raid. You arrested half the club, killed some of the others, and whoever was left disappeared into the desert.” I quietly glared at him. “Including my fiancé.”
We sat in silence for a moment together. My father was gazing off into space, and he looked almost regretful.
“That’s not the only incredible thing that man has done,” I told him firmly. “It’s certainly not the only impossible feat I’ve seen him pull off…
“Whatever your reasons for hating him from the fucking start, Hunter Hargreaves is one of the most heroic men I’ve ever met. I’ve seen my fiancé stare down everyone from vicious sex traffickers to international criminals…
“You can spit on his shadow all you want, but every fucking night, I rest easy knowing that I’m protected. I couldn’t have picked a better father for my son. Whether you want to think it or not, you couldn’t have a better son-in-law…”
My father looked at me.
“Sarah, tell me…” He spoke, his tone almost apologetic. “Do you really love him?”
I smiled knowingly.
“Of course I love him, Dad. I’ve always known that he was capable of great things, that he was too hard on himself…” I flashed back to peaceful memories from our time together. “Oh, the way that he looks at me, nobody else can compare. There’s such warmth and caring in his heart. He just doesn’t let anyone see it… nobody but me.”
I bit my bottom lip.
“Dad… I love Hunter with all my heart, just as he loves me. And after all these years apart, it’s as if our feelings never dropped an inch…”
My father nodded to himself, suppressing a coughing fit. I was concerned for a moment, but he waved that he was fine.
“If that’s so,” he muttered, “then I have to ask you one final question. All these unbelievable things you’ve told me about this man, and the things he’s done…”
His eyes were tender now.
“Don’t lie to me: is all of it true?”
I leaned forward; I let him search deep into my fierce eyes. There could be no shadow of a doubt in my conviction.
“Every goddamn word.”
His expression fell.
“Then I have made a terrible mistake.”
Those words chilled me to the bone. A shiver as I’ve never felt slid down my spine, sending goosebumps across my skin.
I held his gaze, my ferocity crumbling.
“…What did you do?”
For the first time in my life, my father’s face slowly clouded with shame. His grave eyes turned remorseful, as if begging me for forgiveness.
“Dad…” I pleaded. “Where is my fiancé?”
He sighed regretfully.
“Sarah, we need to leave right now.”
Twenty
Hunter
Twelve Hours Earlier
“Tell me everything…”
Jack watched me coolly.
The longer that he held back whatever he was about to say, the stronger my impulse became to punch him in the goddamn face.
“Your father…” he started speaking again, his gaze firmly on mine. “Maybe you don’t know this, but there was a point in time when your father and I were close.”
“Close?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Yes,” his eyes averted sorrowfully.
I didn’t know much about my father. Never really spe
nt a lot of time thinking about him, since the rat bastard walked out on Ma and me.
But if he knew Jack Buchanan…
If they had been allies, once…
Jack chose his words carefully. “He and I first met in the police academy. We were rivals first. His skill challenged mine. I had to discipline myself harder than ever just to keep up with him… but our rivalry was a friendly one. It wasn’t long before we became fast friends.”
I couldn’t believe this.
“You’re telling me… my father was a cop?”
“One of our best,” Jack chuckled bitterly. “Not that I like to admit it, but Gabriel Hargreaves was always a better cop that I ever was.”
“You’re shitting me.”
He pulled himself up from his seat and took his cane. I tried to rise to steady him, but Jack’s pride made him wave my help away. With a few shaky, drunken steps, he crossed over to a counter and sifted through the debris. From the mess he pulled out a broken picture frame…
He hobbled back with it, setting it down in front of me as he returned to his seat.
“Dug this out after you two left,” he grunted. “Don’t keep it with the rest. There’s enough pain on that wall already…”
I tore my eyes from him to the frame.
I was staring back in time forty years.
There stood a group of four uniformed officers, all with their arms threaded along each other’s shoulders and laughter across their faces.
In the center were two in particular.
One was clearly a younger Jack.
The other…
My heart swelled with conflicted emotion. When my old man walked out on us, I was too young to remember much about him. There were only brief flashes of his face, a few scraps of things he might have said…
“You recognize that face, then.”
Jack swished his liquor as I held my father’s gaze through the broken glass.
I leaned back in my chair.
“My dad… the cop…?”
“For a while, yes.” Jack noted, taking a swig of his whiskey. “With a great career built upon great results. But after a few years… detective.”
Even with the evidence right here, clear as day at my fingertips, I could still only barely believe what I was hearing.