Page 94 of Her Passionate Hero

“So leave town,” Dalton said over his shoulder. Hunter knew his teammate would be back soon with anything fire related the convenience store had to offer. It wouldn’t be necessary, Rafael would talk before then.

“Tell me. You know he’s after Aliana, you don’t want him to get his hands on her.”

“Man, it’s inevitable. He knows everything. He knows where her mom is, her grandma even that damn shrink with the killer shoes.”

Hunter froze. Goddammit, they hadn’t been watching Lottie. Hunter picked the kid up by the front of his sky blue valet jacket.

“Tell me where he lives. I need an address, Rafael, or so help me God, I really will set you on fire.”

“I don’t know where he lives, but he does all his business out of a tattoo parlor on El Fenix and Seabreeze. He keeps like office hours.”

Hunter moved his wrist and saw that it was a little past eleven p.m. “Will he be there now?”

“Guaranteed.”

He pulled out his phone, called Zed, and told him to get to Lottie’s place.

Hunter looked across the street at the long-term parking lot. It would work. He called Dalton.

“Get duct tape.”

***

Aliana looked down at her cell phone and smiled. She had so much to share with her friend, and the snoopy, shrinky part of Lottie would be all agog at the information.

“It’s about time you called me back,” Aliana smiled.

“Hi, Ms. Novak, it’s Mark. Were you expecting your friend Carlotta?” he asked in Spanish.

Aliana had to bring up her other hand and use both of them to keep the phone next to her ear, otherwise, she would have dropped it. She took a calming breath.

“Hello, Mark, may I please speak with my friend?” she asked pleasantly.

“So polite, I like that about you. You’ve taught my son so many good qualities. I appreciate that. You’ve also taught him some undesirable ones as well. We talked about that Ms. Novak, or can I call you Aliana?”

“Ms. Novak is fine.”

“Aliana, I told you to stay away from my son. I told you not to fill his head with ideas that wouldn’t help him in this world, but what did you do? You turned him into a goddamned revolutionary.”

“Let me talk to Lottie.”

“No. I’m not going to give you that courtesy because you didn’t give me the courtesy of doing what I asked.”

“Then what is the point of this call?” she asked politely.

She just had to keep it together for just a moment, then she would call Hunter. Hunter would know what to do.

“I want us to have a little visit.”

She opened her mouth to tell him she knew about his plans for her, but then shut it. Was she supposed to know? Was there an informant involved?

“I don’t trust you. Mateo threatened my mother. He said he would cut her up into pieces. I was almost killed when my townhome was blown up. Nope. I think I’ll pass on your little invite.”

She might be many things, but she refused to be in the too stupid to live camp.

“If you don’t meet with me, I’ll kill your friend.”

“Let me talk to her.”