Hunter might have tried to answer Claire’s questions if it weren’t for the fact that Larry wouldn’t stop talking…or whining, anyways. He told Claire that Hunter was a bounty hunter and if he wasn’t mistaken, Claire looked as relieved as Larry did earlier when he found out that Hunter was working for Chase and not Street Chaos. They were on the path between the main house and Claire’s cottage when she said:

“Can we do this in my cottage and not in front of my guests?” Hunter was going to say no. He didn’t know if he should trust her or not. She could have a gun inside, or another pipe. But as soon as he opened his mouth, he realized that saying no to her wouldn’t be as easy as it sounded.

“Well, little lady, I’m not sure if we can do that or not,” he said, knowing full well already that he was going to agree. “I mean, what’s to stop you from cracking my skull wide open this time?”

She looked embarrassed, or ashamed. Her face colored red and she looked at her father before saying, “I’m sorry about that. You know, when it comes to family sometimes people get emotional. I thought you were working for the street gang. I would have never hit you if I knew who you really were…honest.” Hunter wasn’t a gullible guy and he wasn’t going to fall for a lie on the off chance of getting some pussy either. But she seemed genuine and he had a gut feeling that she was telling him the truth

“Okay, but you go in first, we stay in the same room at all times, and remember, it doesn’t matter how pretty you are, I’ll shoot you to save my own ass.” He wouldn’t. He had never been in the position of shooting a woman, but he honestly didn’t think he could…especially this woman. God, she’s gorgeous.

“Okay,” she agreed. Hunter and Larry followed her to the door of the cottage. She opened it and went inside and the men followed her. The place looked like a typical beach house with white wicker furniture, glass tables, and seashell décor on the walls. The floors were wood and so finely polished that a reflection could almost be seen in them. Hunter wondered what time she got up in the morning to be able to take care of two houses and at least ten other people. She wasn’t just hot, she was a businesswoman, and a hard-working one at that. Damn. It was getting harder by the minute for him to accept that it was never going to happen.

“Sit down on the couch,” he told her. Larry started to sit next to her and Hunter said, “No! You sit in that chair there.” He waited until they both sat down and then he took a seat where he could see them both easily and the door to his left as well. “Now, start talking,” he said to Larry. Larry looked at Claire. “Don’t look at her. I want to hear your story and without all the whining and begging.”

“I won’t involve Claire,” he said.

“Dad, this is over, okay? You have to tell someone what’s going on. Maybe this guy can help you.”

“He’s not even a cop. How’s he going to help?”

“That’s right, I’m not a cop. I’m here to collect my bounty and that’s you. I have you now and all that’s really left to do is to deliver you to my cousin in Dorchester. So, you can talk or not. I don’t give a shit. If you’re not going to talk, let’s get started because I haven’t had my coffee or breakfast and when I get hungry and low on caffeine, I’m an ornery son of a bitch.”

“Dad, just tell him the truth,” Claire said. “Please.”

“What’s the truth, Larry? You told me you skipped bail because you were scared for your life if you went to jail. Is that the truth?” Larry nodded and Hunter asked, “What is it Street Chaos wants with you?”

“They want me dead,” Larry said in a defeated voice. “They’ll do it too, as soon as I get locked up in general population.”

“Why, Larry? What did you do to them?”

“It was an accident. I didn’t know what I was doing…”

“Stop with the fucking excuses and just tell me what happened. I’m already wasting way too much time here.”

Larry sighed and went on, “I was in this bar one night.” Hunter groaned. In his experience, stories that started like that were usually long, and at least half lies. He didn’t interrupt however, and he didn’t let himself look sideways at Claire. He couldn’t concentrate when he looked at her. He was already going to be treading water with Chase once he found out that he’d even listened to the two of them. “This guy was sitting next to me. He started bullshitting with me, asking me where I was from and what I did and shit like that and then he bought me a drink, or two. It was slow in the bar…”

“What bar was this?”

“It’s in Southie…” Hunter rolled his eyes. Southie was the worst end of Boston and sitting in a bar there was just looking for trouble. “It’s called Crazy Charlie’s or something like that. I got dropped off in Southie by one of my buddies that night and was looking for a ride home….”

“Anyways…”

“Yeah, anyways, I was drinking with this guy and feeling pretty good when he started asking me questions about Dorchester and the Southside and if I knew the Skulls or Street Chaos. I told him of course I knew ’em. Everyone on the Southside knows the Skulls, right?” Hunter didn’t say anything so he went on again. “So he tells me that he knows the president of the Skulls. He says they go way back…”

“He mentioned Dax Marshall by name?”

“Nah, he kept calling him ‘Doc’s kid.’ But everyone knows that’s Dax, right? So anyways I said I saw him around a lot and he said he hadn’t seen him in a while. He started asking me what the Skulls were into these days. I told him I didn’t know, I thought boosting cars and shit…and then I mentioned something I wish I never would have.” He stopped talking for several minutes, and finally Hunter cleared his throat and Larry snapped back from wherever he’d gone in his head. “I was just talkin’, you know? The alcohol was making me feel good and a guy like me don’t have too many people to talk to. So’s anyways I told him something I’d heard on the streets not long before that. I told him that Street Chaos was jacking cars in Skulls’ territory and I’d also heard there was a war brewing between them. You know, I just said what everyone already knew, that there was bad blood there. We talked about that for a while,” he sighed and said, “then he pulled out this wad of cash…” Hunter groaned. Larry had been that man’s target and he had been too drunk or stupid that night to figure that out, obviously. Hell, Hunter doubted that he was even smart enough to know it now. It was no accident that man met him in that bar. “You know I have this bad back and I haven’t been able to work…I’m tired of sponging off my little girl…”

“Just tell me what you agreed to do, Larry.”

“Well, it seemed easy, really. All he wanted me to do was drive this car over to the Skulls’ territory and park it, and then let Chaos know it was there and that there was something in the trunk they might be interested in. He gave me five hundred dollars cash and I got the ride home I was looking for…”

So, it was no accident that Trayvon ended up with the car and the evidence that could bring Dax to his knees. Somehow, Hunter wasn’t surprised by that. “So, you just walked up to Trayvon and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you steal this car, there’s something in it for you’?”

“Not exactly. See, I know this old man that used to be a big fish in the gang. He’s a homeless old crackhead now, but they still give him respect. I found him after I parked the car and I told him I had some information that Trayvon might want, about Dax Marshall. This old guy set up a meeting with one of Trayvon’s lieutenants…and I gave them the information.”

“For free?”

“Nah,” he said, sniffling and wiping his nose on the shoulder of his shirt. “I asked for money. They laughed at me, but they made me tell them where the car was at. I wasn’t too disappointed since I already had the money from the guy at the bar…it was later, when I talked to the old guy on the street again, when I got worried.”

“About?”

“Street Chaos. They stole that car, but there were undercover police watching. They chased them and…”

“Fuck! That shoot-out that Chaos had with the cops a few months ago…that was over this car?” The news reports hadn’t mentioned the make or model of the car or even where they’d stolen it from. All they’d really said was that one of the officers had been killed in an accident caused by the high-speed chase and they were seeking members of a “local street gang” for questioning.

“Yeah. Trayvon lost one of his guys and those cops got in a wreck chasing them and one of them died.”

Hunter was nodding. He didn’t know Street Chaos had lost a man too, but he wasn’t privy to information from inside the gang and that information had obviously not made it to the mass media. What Hunter did know suddenly was that this thing went much deeper than one man looking to bring Dax down. He was looking to start a war that would bring down the whole MC…but why? “Did the guy in the bar ever give you a name?”

“Chuck.”

Hunter snorted. “That was it? Chuck?”

“I didn’t think I needed any more than that,” Larry said.

“What did he look like?” Hunter stuck his free hand in his pocket and pulled out his wallet. While Larry was talking, he fished out a photo of Jeffrey McCallister. It was an employee photo from the firm he’d worked for over ten years ago, but it was all he had.

“He was a tall, good-looking guy with brown hair and dark eyes. He was dressed nicely, khaki pants and a polo shirt…”

“This wasn’t him, was it?” Hunter held out the photo. McCallister looked nothing like Larry’s description.

“No. That guy is bald. The guy I talked to had lots of hair, thick, and styled on top.”

“What if this guy was wearing a wig, or toupee?”

Larry shook his head. “No, the guy I was talking to was younger. He couldn’t have been more than thirty. He had a nice smile too…that guy looks mean.”

Hunter shook his head. “Larry, the guy set you up.”

“Yeah, I know,” Larry said with a pout. “Anyways, that picture is not him.”

Hunter sat the photo down and said, “Okay, back to your reason for bailing. Trayvon now thinks you set them up that night. How did you manage to avoid the whole gang until you got arrested?”

“Word on the street was that I was a dead motherfucker,” Larry said. “I came here and Claire did what she could to help me, but I knew I couldn’t stay here forever, just hiding. That’s why I tried to boost that bracelet from the pawnshop. I needed cash. I went to Dorchester to do it in case I got caught.” He looked at Claire and said, “I really was trying to keep you out of it.”

She nodded and Hunter said, “Yet, after you skipped bail, you stuck around and bought a prostitute instead of leaving town right away.”

Larry looked at his daughter again and his face colored as he said, “A man has got his needs…you know?”

Claire looked embarrassed again and said, “Let’s talk about what we can do now. Can I pay his bail so your boss doesn’t lose any money? I could probably get a loan for the full fifty thousand…”

Hunter was shaking his head. “His bail was set at fifty grand, but at this point, counting the fees for him not showing up in court and the fees Chase would charge, you’d be looking at upwards of a hundred grand.”

Claire’s face was pale as she looked over at Larry. “I don’t have that kind of money, Dad. If the Inn was in my name I would mortgage it…”

“Seriously?” Hunter said. He couldn’t control himself. “You would mortgage your livelihood for this loser? He’s a petty crook and he doesn’t have the brains that God gave a goat…”

“He’s my father!” she said, getting to her feet. Her eyes were blazing as she looked at Hunter and said, “I can’t stop you from doing your job, but you won’t talk about my father that way in my home.”

Hunter looked at Larry and back at Claire and said, “Are you sure he’s your father? I mean, did you have a DNA test?” For the second time since he met her, Claire hit him.