While riding his steel, rumbling hog, Hunter led me a couple of miles away to his place – a small, single-story house off of a dirt road.

Flicking lights on as we entered, he directed me towards the den. “Coffee? Or another drink?”

“You pick,” I smirked. “It’s going to be a long night.”

“Well aren’t you optimistic,” Hunter noted coyly. “Give me a minute. Make yourself at home.”

I did as suggested, sitting down on the single sofa in the room. It brought back memories of that receded sofa in the strip club floor, and I wondered if he thought of that last night together every time that he sat here.

The wafting smell of fresh coffee came into the room, and I felt a little invigorated. Oh good, he’s behaving…

However, I knew Hunter. That’s why I wasn’t surprised when he came in with a pair of double-shot whiskey neats instead, impishly handing me one without a word.

“You just like the roasted coffee bean aroma for ambience, right?”

Hunter laughed. “Something like that.”

My former lover pulled the coffee table in the room closer, propping up his boots on it as he took a swing of the drink.

I followed his lead, watching how effortlessly he slid into this role. The last second that I’d seen him, he had looked like I’d ripped his heart to shreds… and then he’d ducked out of that window and out of my life. For all he’d known, the police could have been right on his tail…

If any of that was on the mind of this cool, confident man beside me, then he didn’t show an ounce of it. There was a scarily comfortable air between us, as if the pains of the last eight years had been nothing but a bad dream.

Worse than that, he knew it. His gaze fell upon me, transparently telling me that he could sense my apprehension and my fear…

“Well now, Detective…” he began, setting the drink down on the surface in front. “Let’s get business out of the way. What brings you out to El Paso?”

I blinked in confusion.

It hadn’t really occurred to me that he’d go straight for that. All these questions, all these concerns about the time we’d spent apart…

“Business…” I murmured, realizing that he was getting to me. His leather jacket was discarded again, and those rippling muscles were clearly out on display. I couldn’t help but trace his rugged, hardened physique with my gaze.

I wondered if coming here had been a mistake. Spit in the drinks or not, I was probably safer back at the bar…

“Yes, business…” He repeated, a faint smile curling at the edges of his lips. The smug bastard could see the effect he was having on me.

I swallowed quickly.

“You’ve come to my town for something, and we both know this isn’t a social visit. I want to know why you’re here, and how you found me.”

“Tell me you’re smarter than that,” I toyed.

“Right,” he answered calmly. “The girls.”

“The girls?” I asked, sipping my drink. Selfishly, I needed to know how useful Hunter would be to my case. My memories painted him as being particularly sharp and perceptive, but if he was going to be a proper ally in this case…

“You’re not the first detective to sit here asking me questions about our little investigation in Tucson, Sarah… I’m not interested in playing games here.”

“So, that was your investigation,” I confirmed aloud. I fought how my core warmed as his voice trickled over the syllables of my name. “But why you? Why them, and why now?”

“You know why,” he answered quietly, his eyes stern as he regarded me coolly. “That’s why you came here.”

“Your sister.”

“That’s right,” Hunter nodded calmly. “Eight years ago, the Devil’s Dragons MC helped me find her. In exchange, I joined the club as a junior enforcer…”

“You never told me much about her,” I pressed. “That might help me here, with this.”

Hunter’s haunted gaze turned inward.

“My sister… she was vacationing in Cancun when they took her. She was always so careful, always sticking to the safer, touristy places… The bastards took her and her best friend right out of their damn hotel room. We never found the other one, but we did find my sister…”

“Who took her?” I asked.

Hunter’s gaze darkened. “The fuckers call themselves Víboras Verde,” he explained. “The Vipers of the Green. They’re a Mexican cartel, one of the rougher ones. Until then, they’d only dabbled in kidnappings…”

“Sex trade?” I asked, as respectfully as I could.

“None other. Turns out, there’s plenty of money to be made in selling pussy to discerning buyers, and there’s a lot less overhead compared to the drug trade. No fields of illegal plants, no chemical labs, and if you set up somewhere nice the product comes to you…” Hunter laughed mirthlessly. “We found her before she could disappear into that particular hell… but she was never the same again.”

I reached forward, placing my hand on his. His posture didn’t change, but his fingers absentmindedly parted around mine.

“What did they do to her?”

“She never told me the details. Poor girl abandoned her life and disappeared into the world. I hear from her sometimes…”

I nodded, unsure of what to say.

“I… I’m sorry, Hunter.”

He smiled sadly, refocusing our topic.

“So, this cheerleader kidnapping thing absolutely stunk of their handiwork. I reached out to some contacts and confirmed my suspicions… With the new passport laws and all the goddamned violence there’s less tourists heading down into Mexico. The cartel has been getting bolder every day. They’d started placing manpower across the fence. Began abducting people from this side of the border…”

“So you went after them,” I stated.

Hunter nodded. “I grabbed my men, and we high-tailed it to Tucson. It’s a little outside my network, but we’ve got relations with the underground scene out there. I knocked on some doors, and we started our own investigation from our side of the law.”

“And you attracted attention.”

“Damn right we did,” he smiled nostalgically. “Police sure do have a tenuous grasp on logic… ‘Sure, these biker guys look suspicious. Showing up AFTER the disappearances and making a big ruckus… OBVIOUSLY they’re the culprits!’”

“You don’t think that looked a bit strange?” I asked, taking another swig of whiskey. “You guys came out of nowhere and started rattling cages.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Hunter chuckled. “Either way, we got results. Confirmed a few things. Got a few leads. Hell, I even approached the local authorities against the better judgment of the club… I was rewarded with a nice fat threat of an obstruction of justice arrest if I stayed in town.”

“They didn’t believe you?”

“I don’t know what the fuck is going on with that police department, but they instantly dismissed my findings. Maybe they couldn’t get over the fact that a bunch of renegades could run a better investigation than their prized officers…”

Hunter glanced at our empty drinks and stood up, stretching briefly. A moment later, he returned with an open bottle of Jack Daniels, halfway refilling our glasses before setting it down on the coffee table.

We ceremoniously clinked glasses together, both taking heavy swigs of the whiskey.

“So, what did you do then?” I asked.

Hunter thought on his answer for a moment. “With all the police and media attention in Arizona the Cartel shifted their focus east. We chased our lead, caught wind of their people nosing around the border in New Mexico and Texas. Figured we could do some good work back here…”

“So this is your usual base of operations?” I asked, glancing around the house. “And the bar? That’s yours?”

“Both temporary gifts, thanks to some free bodyguarding to a pair of clients with real estate out here,” he noted. “It’s a temporary situation. Texas isn’t exactly where the Devil’s Dragons want to call home.”

I wanted to ask about that, but there were more pressing things to know. “You’ve been chasing these people for a while,” I thought aloud. “It’s a lot to risk when you don’t have the support of the law.”

“I don’t give a flying fuck about the law,” Hunter answered with conviction. “Not since the law intervened in club operations and took away the love of my life…”

Involuntarily, I swallowed.

I was the love of his life?

He seemed to realize what he’d said, because Hunter immediately downed another mouthful of his liquor.

“I told myself that I didn’t need them,” he quickly followed up, adjusting the topic at hand. “If they weren’t willing to have my back when I practically brought them the answers to their problems, then I figured they could at least stay the fuck out of my way.”

I leaned forward, unable to clear my head of what he’d just said. Hunter thought I was the love of his life…

“But now you’re here,” he whispered.

With a glance, he read my thoughts.

A sly smirk crossed his lips.

“I knew you still carried a torch for me,” he murmured as he leaned forward as well. “There hasn’t been a goddamn day that I haven’t thought about you, Sarah…”

I felt a pressure in my chest as I maintained my ground, unwilling to pull away from him. Our gazes were locked onto one another, our lips tantalizingly only a foot away…

All those years that we’d been separated by distance, mystery, and the hardships of life… and now, my beloved Hunter was right here, achingly close…

“You know that I never stopped loving you.”

I dug down deep, finding the strength to move past that comment… no matter how hard it was to do so. I tried to steer my headspace back to the case at hand, back to business.

“You know where the cheerleaders are?” I asked him matter-of-factly.

For a split second, Hunter almost looked disappointed. His eyes mischievously flickered with something hidden, and he leaned back slightly.

“No, Detective, I have no idea where your missing pretty little white cheerleaders are,” he quipped. “Although it’s safe to say that you probably won’t find them by now… I think they’re long gone… Used up… Dead, if they’re lucky.”

I always knew when Hunter was hiding something from me, and it was written all over his eyes. As cool and apathetic as he was trying to play this, I could tell that he was holding something back…

And it made me angry.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I insisted.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play this game with me, Hunter,” I warned him, the glass of whiskey long forgotten on the coffee table. “You’re sitting on something solid, something that can turn this thing around for me. I know you are. Why won’t you tell me?”

His eyes darkened. “Sarah, I’m only doing what I’ve always tried to do… protect you. Whatever you think I do or don’t know, it’s for your own good. I won’t let you get hurt out here.”

I jumped up from the couch, my hands in the air. “This is classic you, isn’t it?” I shouted. “I try to reach out to you, to be real with you, and you just wall me out. I told you last time that you’re a damned big block of ice…”

“Ah yes, I remember that one. You did always have such a way with metaphors,” Hunter observed slyly.

“It’s like when we were kids, and you were joining the Devil’s Dragons! I tried to convince you I could handle it, and you tried to shut me out… just like you are now!”

Hunter rose from the couch, his eyes fierce and uncompromising. “Everything that I have ever done between us has been to keep you safe,” he told me. “You’re playing with matches in an oil field, Sarah. This road you’re on, trying to find out what happened to those girls… you’re gonna get burned out here. For fucks sake you’re pretty enough that they’ll probably take you too, and if you think what they do to women is bad, you should see what they do to cops… I can’t let you go walking into danger like this.”

“What aren’t you telling me?” I demanded, flashing him my angriest look. “I’ve come all this way to see you again, and I’m not leaving without answers even if it means I drag you out of here in handcuffs. Tell me everything.”

Hunter drew close.

“Fine. If it matters so much to you… if that’s the real reason you’re here… then I’ll do it. I’ll tell you everything I know. On one condition.”

I steeled myself. “What’s the condition?”

Before I could react, his lips crashed against mine. I felt myself swept into the heavy embrace of his hard, comforting arms, and for just that kiss, I gave in.

I gave in hard.

After what felt like years, I pulled back, gazing at him with a glance that was meant to be scathing. However, I suspected it was more vulnerable than anything else.

“I can’t do this,” I told him.

“That hasn’t stopped you before…”

Indignantly, my surprised eyes narrowed to slits. “Fuck you, Hunter.”

Hunter drew closer, his arms wrapping around me again. I felt my resolve weaken against the warmth of his body, and the pleasure of being in his embrace again…

With a savage grin, he whispered:

“That’s the idea.”