Page 38 of Her Passionate Hero

“So the patrols are going to be more frequent?”

“Yep, and not just because of Los Demonios. Seems to me, we need to keep an eye on you.”

“Yeah, I got that.” Geez, couldn’t the guy go already?

“You staying here tonight?”

“Until a friend of mine shows up. Then I’m going to take a little break.”

“What should I tell the patrol to be on the lookout for?”

Please God, say Dalton wouldn’t be driving his Corvette. “A beat-up, rusted, baby blue, 1990 Chevy truck.”

Ernie wrote it down in his notebook, “I take it being a SEAL doesn’t pay well?”

“Nope.”

“I’ll see you around.”

Not if he saw him first. Hunter got back into his grandmother’s car and watched Ernie pull away from the curb. Now he just had to wait for Dalton to show up.

***

Hunter heard the truck before he saw it. It might look like a piece of shit, but Dalton had put in a cat-back exhaust system and a supercharger. The damn thing was hell on wheels. The only thing that made people realize there was more than meets the eye to the truck were the high-performance tires. Hunter got out of his car, confident in the knowledge Dalton would spot him in the dark. His friend found the one open parking spot on the street half a block back. Hunter watched Dalton’s tall, sleekly muscled frame prowl towards him.

“Nice car. Not as nice as my truck, but nice,” Dalton said, nodding at the Buick.

“Don’t be making fun of my Mamie’s car, you bastardo.”

Dalton chuckled. “So, what’s the scoop with Aliana. Is she finally speaking to you?” he asked kindly.

“Hell, Dalton, I’m not sure, but I think I’m making some headway, but it’s definitely going to be an uphill climb.”

“Well, at least it’s you and not me. You have the ability to play all the angles.”

“You used to,” Hunter reminded his friend.

“That was a century ago, I’m not that man anymore. What you see is what you get.” God, he hoped not. Dalton hadn’t been truly happy in years. “Hunter, we’re not about to have a heart to heart in the middle of the street when we’re supposed to be guarding your high school sweetheart and her grandmother, are we?”

“Huh? What are you talking about? Aliana was never my girlfriend. She was just a friend.” He remembered the last time he had seen Aliana when she’d been sixteen. The moon bathing her face in through her bedroom window as she yelled at him. Even then, there was the hint of the beauty she was going to become.

“Come on Hunter, admit it. You talked about her all the time the first year we served. Then after her father died, I remember what a wreck you were each time you got back an unopened letter.”

Dalton was right, he had been.

“You’ve got it all wrong. I never saw her like that.”

“Fine, she wasn’t your girlfriend. What is she now? Or better yet, what could she be?”

“Damn, man, today was the first time I saw her in thirteen years. You must think I work as fast as Wyatt.”

“I’m not talking about bedding somebody. I’m talking about leading with your heart. I’m saying you were gone over this girl thirteen years ago. I’m saying you swore you were never coming back here except for short little visits to your grandmother, and here you are in the middle of gang business for this woman. I’d say you’re leading with your heart, not your head.”

“So, you are comparing me to Wyatt,” Hunter said.

“Fuck no, he leads with his dick.”

Hunter snorted. It was so true. That boy needed a couple more years of seasoning.