“Wait. Don’t you want to take photos of this?” I ask.
She turns around. “No, no photos. We are familiar with Marco. The deceased. And we need to focus on how he died. I feel for the driver. This probably won’t end well for him.”
“What do you mean?” I ask. “It was an accident.”
The officer glances at Hunter. “I’ll let you explain.” She turns and walks out the front door.
“Peter killed a member of the cartel,” Hunter says. “They’ll target him because they’ll assume it was some kind of orchestrated hit.”
“But that’s not right. Can we warn him?”
“Warn Peter? Do we want to?” Hunter asks. He’s serious.
“Of course we do,” I say.
Hunter takes a deep breath and stares at the glass on the floor. “I don’t mean to sound heartless, but I’m not exactly a big fan of Peter. He’s trying to profit off of something that hurt my boss, my coworkers, and me.”
“Okay, so he’s not a great guy, but he doesn’t deserve to be murdered,” I say.
“You’re right. And we can warn him. But unless he hires protection, it likely won’t end well for him,” Hunter says.
I can’t be hearing this right. “So, what? Just let him die since he can’t prevent it? That’s cold.”
“After I clean up, we’ll call him and let him know the danger he’s in and see if he has a place to go,” Hunter says.
“Thank you,” I say.
He sweeps up the glass as I stare out the front window. A police officer is questioning the neighbors.
Just weeks ago, I was closing listings and arguing about HVAC systems. Now I’m dodging hitmen.
Marco is dead. Will someone else take his place and come after me? How do you get out of something like this? And am I putting Hunter and his friends in danger, too? Maybe the cartel won’t stop at me. They might go after anyone they have seen me with. Would they go after Maggie? She did work for Bob. What if she knows something? I should warn her.
My head is spinning.
“Hey, you okay?” Hunter asks.
I shake my head. He moves quickly to stand next to me and has his arms around me.
“A lot has happened. But we’ll get through it. I promise.”
I nod and bury my head in his chest. When I’m withHunter, I do feel like we can get through this. But at what cost to him and everyone around us?
“It feels like it will never end,” I say.
“It’s almost over.”
I pull away from him. “How can you know that? Someone else will come after me next. And if not someone from the cartel, someone from the press following up on that damn story.”
“I’m so sorry you are going through all of this. I really don’t think anyone else is coming for you. As for the press, they’ll move on soon. We need to lie low a little longer.”
I wish I could be as optimistic as he is. Even if the story does go away tomorrow, anyone searching my name will always be able to find it. That’s not good for business. Neither is not showing up for work for days on end. I have to hope Susan is understanding.
“I should call Susan. I just vanished on her,” I say as I grab my phone.
Hunter puts his hands on mine. “She knows you were kidnapped. She’s not expecting to hear from you for another few days. It’s okay.”
I’m not used to a man taking care of me like this. I hug him.
