Unfinished Hero 03 Raid (20 page)

Therefore I had the phone to my ear when I opened the door to Raiden holding a pizza
box in one hand and a six pack of Fat Tire in the other.

He grinned at me.

I rolled my eyes, let him in and did my best to get rid of my caller as Raiden dropped
the box on the coffee table in the living room. He sauntered to the kitchen like he’d
lived in my house
since birth, came out with two plates, napkins and two opened beers. He’d already
dug into a slice by the time I beeped the off button on my phone and joined him.

All this activity meant I didn’t have time to freak out about the upcoming talk with
Raiden, which was good.

What was bad was that he drank and ate
. He
asked about the call, the rest of the calls (once he’d learned of them) and my nap
. B
ut he did not do what I’d hoped.

And that was launch right into the conversation we needed to have that included me
freaking
,
then dealing with learning about whatever he did for a living.

So I gave it until there was only that awkward sliver of pizza left and Raiden got
up to get another beer, asking me if I wanted one. I was sipping, keeping my wits
about me
.
Raiden was taking long, manly pulls
,
therefore I had half a beer left and I declined.

He got his beer and was putting it on the coffee table, not going for the last slice,
which I decided indicated he was done eating, so I also decided it was time.

As he was settling back in the couch, I prompted cautiously, “Raiden, you were going
to tell me some things.”

He wasn’t fully back
,
and at my words he stopped, his head turned to me and he studied me for long moments
that made me fight to keep myself from squirming on the couch with worry and impatience.

Then he sat back and spread his arms out. One he draped on the armrest, the other
on the back, claiming my frou-frou, girlie sofa so thoroughly with his sexy, masculine
vibe that for a second my mind blanked.

Then his deep voice announced, “I’m a bounty hunter.”

My mind came back into the room.

Was that
it?

A bounty hunter?

Sweet relief swept through me.

Sure. Raiden had been right. Being a bounty hunter was unconventional.

It was also
totally cool.

Therefore I grinned huge and cried, “That’s totally cool!”

He took in my grin, his face blank, and shook his head.

“No, Hanna, not the badge carrying, having arrest warrants, extension of law enforcement
kind of bounty hunting. Cash under the table, getting a fuckuva lot more money kind
of bounty hunting.”

I didn’t know what to do with that since I had no idea what he was talking about.

“I don’t get it,” I told him.

“I hunt fugitives and they definitely act outside the law,” he explained. “But, when
I find them, I don’t deliver them to the police so they can do jacked shit, get caught,
get bonded out, do more jacked shit, go on the run, get caught
,
then some bondsmen bonds them out again so they can do more jacked shit. I deliver
them to people who are willing to pay a lot of money to have them delivered.”

This didn’t sound good
,
but I still didn’t get it.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” I said softly. “I’m still not following.”

He didn’t move and his eyes never left my face as he kept talking.

“Then I’ll explain. Right now, I got several jobs goin’, the primary one bein’ Knight’s.
He’s a buddy of mine
. H
e’s got an enemy who keeps gettin’ bested but won’t let his grudge go. Knight had
some shit happen to his business because of this guy and he asked me to do him a favor
. A
favor he’s payin’ me to do. And that favor is find the man who infiltrated his business,
injecting dope into it. This guy is doin’ a favor for the
other
guy who’s tryin’ to fuck with Knight. But when I find him, I won’t turn him and any
evidence I have as pertains to his criminal activities into the police. I’ll deliver
him to Knight and walk away. When I do that, what Knight does with this guy and the
shit I give him is not my business. I just walk away. I
always
walk away.”

This didn’t sound good
,
either. In fact, it sounded worse
,
and the stuff before it already sounded bad.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to know and was leaning towards not wanting to know
,
but still, I asked, “So this Knight person asks you to find someone. You find him
and give him to Knight, he pays you in cash then your part is done?”

“Yep,” he answered.

“And you don’t just do this for Knight
. I
t’s your job and you do it for other people?”

“Yep.”

“Is that legal?” I queried.

His body moved minutely
.
I almost didn’t catch it
,
but I did and then he sat there looking at me like he had been
. N
o change, except I felt it.

He was tense.

“Strictly speaking,” he began, paused
,
then finished, “no.”

Oh God.

“I… you… is it…?” I stammered, pulled myself together and went on, “Are you telling
me you’re engaged in criminal activities?”

The tension started pouring off him in waves, making me tense. Big time tense.

In fact, wired.

“Strictly speaking,” he began, paused
,
then finished, “yes.”

Oh God!

I’d put my plate on the coffee table
,
which was fortunate. It freed me to lift my feet to the seat of the couch and curve
my arms protectively around my shins, hugging my legs to my chest.

Raiden’s eyes dropped to my posture. He closed them slowly
,
then opened them and looked at me.

“Told you yesterday, years ago, I tracked down my Dad. To this day, I don’t know how
it came to me how to do it. We hadn’t heard from him in two years. He lived two hours
away. I had no resources, no experience, no money, not that first fuckin’ thing to
go on
,
and I was a minor. But it took me a week to find him. It just came natural, askin’
questions to the right people, bein’ smart about it, turnin’ over rocks. Same went
for when I drove my ass up there and found his house empty. Didn’t know that town,
didn’t know his MO
. S
till tracked his ass down at his bitches’ houses. Same went for me breakin’ in. Bought
a lock at the hardware store, examined it, fucked with it for hours until I figured
out how to pick it. All this came natural. Some people are good with numbers. Others
good with their hands. I’m good with this shit.”

None of this made me feel any better.

Raiden wasn’t done sharing.

“I went into the Marines and I did it as a career choice. What I mean by that is I
never intended to get out. Had no Dad who could help guide the way, never had any
dreams of wantin’ to be a cop or a fireman or an astronaut. But I examined my life
to that point and knew where I was comfortable. I figured I needed discipline and
someone to guide me, tell me what to do. I was good on a team, playin’ sports, gettin’
coached. I thought that was a natural progression.
Once I got a directive, if I was trained how to do it, I went all out. And I was right.
At first, the Corps worked for me.”

His face changed, went hard and his eyes started burning.

“Then it didn’t,” he stated.

I understood why and understanding it killed me, but I stayed silent.

Raiden continued talking.

“I got out and remembered trackin’ Dad. Figured I’d be good at bounty hunting, better
at it after what I learned in the Corps. So I looked into that. Didn’t like the way
it played out. It was
part of a system that was totally fucked. Lots of rules. Lots of paperwork. But absolutely
no reason to any of it. It was a dysfunctional cycle. To be successful, I had to write
bonds, put my own fuckin’ money on the line and live a life filled with lying scum,
most of them intent on fuckin’ me over. A buddy from the Corps came to town. We went
out for beer, I shared this shit with him, he told me about a man he knew named Deacon.”

When he stopped and didn’t carry on, I asked, “Deacon?”

“Bounty hunter, like I am now. But a cold motherfucker. A six foot two, two hundred
twenty pound wall of sheer ice. He got into it like I got into it. His wife went missin’,
the cops couldn’t find her
,
so he descended into a world that was not his to find her. What he found was that
he fit in that world. It was on the periphery
,
but he had talents in it, he had a place, so he stayed.”

“Did he find his wife?”

His gaze, already locked on mine, bonded with it.

“Yeah.”

Whatever this Deacon person found was not good and I didn’t want to know.

Luckily, Raiden didn’t tell me.

Unluckily, he continued to tell me other things.

“My buddy hooked me up with Deacon. He’s a loner
,
but he’s also the best in the business. Lots of work, not enough of him to go around.
The thing was he didn’t have anyone he respected enough to punt business to. He must
have liked the feel of me ‘cause he took me on a couple jobs before he let me loose
and started referring work to me. I did the jobs, established a reputation, got more
work. So much I had to recruit and train a crew. I did. All the men left from my unit
in the Corps who got out like me and found, also like me, they didn’t fit back into
the world they left when they entered the Corps. But they fit into this other world.”

Suddenly, it came clear to me.

And it broke my heart.

“Raiden, this sounds like
—
”

“Save it,” he bit off, interrupting me. “They don’t know all this I’m tellin’ you
,
but they know me and I figure they can guess. Not the specifics
,
but enough to tweak them
,
so I got that shit from Mom. Got it from Rache. Didn’t listen to it from them either.
I live it, Hanna
.
I get it and I know my place, where I’m comfortable, where I fit and this is it.”

“I’m not sure you’re right,” I told him carefully.

“You watch a friend you thought would be a friend for life
—
who’d stand up at your wedding, who you’d name your kid after, who you’d watch go
gray while listenin’ to him bitch for the next forty years about his wife spending
too much money
—
get blown to fuckin’
bits
by a landmine, babe, you’ll be in a place to say. Since that shit will thankfully
never happen to you, you aren’t.”

My heart broke more,
but after that I stayed silent.

“You know all that, I’ll give you the rest,” he declared. “All of this is sorted.
Knight’s a buddy because Knight’s connected to Deacon, Deacon connected me with Knight
and Knight did me a favor. I get paid cash. None of that is on any books
,
but Knight’s got a business and he cleans my money. I use a bogus partnership with
him, which means I use his accounts to pay myself, my boys, make investments and pay
taxes. It’s all above board and legal as far as the government knows. We do legitimate
jobs that have no results in a way no one will ever cotton on that the jobs we do
are not legitimate. IRS takes their cut, turns the other way. I got an address. I
vote. I got a license. Plates on my car. An honorable discharge from the Corps. As
far as anyone’s concerned I’m a respectable citizen, a veteran and a small business
owner and the shit me and my crew do is buried so deep under that respectability,
it’ll never be dug out.”

“Paul Moyer said you were off the grid,” I blurted
,
and his eyes got scary sharp before he appeared to relax.

“Paul Moyer talks smack because he wants to sound cool. For all intents and purposes,
I operate off the grid
,
but I’m not off the grid. You meet Deacon, you’ll understand off the grid. That is
not me. I come home for a few days at Christmas
,
but don’t reestablish life in Willow after gettin’ out, he knows what went down with
my unit, Moyer thinks he knows his shit and runs his mouth. He doesn’t know his shit.
He doesn’t know anything.”

“You said this was unsafe,” I reminded him.

“Men who want men hunted and are willin’ to pay tens of thousands of dollars to have
them delivered
,
and the men who are runnin’ from them tend not to be people you wanna ask to dinner,”
Raiden remarked.