Love's Paradox

Chapter 22: With a Side of Devilish Charm

When I leave the office, the squad car is gone, and there's a note on my windshield. It reads: "Ms. Zachery, Ian Stevenson was found this afternoon at his friend's apartment. He's been apprehended. I hope you can find some peace in this." It's signed: "BGPD."

This puts a huge smile on my face. Finally, I can enjoy a date with Parker without fear of Ian following us around or leaving strange gifts in my bedroom. Now that I think about it, how had he gotten inside my apartment? From what I could tell, there was no forced entry. Did Ian know how to pick locks now? Or had he somehow copied my keys? Well, that's a disturbing and terrifying thought.

Hunter's chilling on the couch in his boxers when I walk into our apartment. The TV is turned to ESPN, and the commentators are debating the statuses of football players or whatever it is they discuss on that station. All I see are big, muscular athletes. Hunter mutes the TV and sits up. "Did they find Ian?"

"Yup. And Parker's letting me use Livingston Oil's lawyers."

"That's great news," he says, relieved.

Uneasiness tenses my shoulders. I'm still not a hundred percent comfortable with using their lawyers. So, I change the subject. "Why are you still in your boxers?" I ask, amused.

"Don't I deserve a day off too?"

I nod and join him on the couch. "Anything exciting happen while I was at work?"

"My mom stopped by," he informs, tone souring.

"What did she want this time?" I ask with an overstated sigh.

Hunter's mom isn't exactly the mothering type. She never calls or visits just to check up on her son, and drama follows her like a storm-cursed cloud of misery. Once, she was so desperate for a fix, she stole my jar full of coins and hightailed it to the nearest liquor store on foot. Another time she attacked Hunter when he refused to let her move in with us. I'd come home to find bloodstains and dents all over the walls, and a knife protruding from Hunter's shoulder. She'd conked him on the head and left him there to bleed out. But he was too nice of a person to tell the police who stabbed him.

To say I didn't care if Hunter's momma fell into a pit of venomous snakes is putting it mildly.

"She wanted money," he says with a note of duh in his voice.

I look him over, but he appears to be in one piece. "No knife wounds this time, I see."

"Nope. She told me she was getting clean and that she needed the money for rehab." His head falls back against the couch. "I offered to write a check to the rehab facility, and then she went batshit crazy on me. She tore through the apartment, searching for money. Calling me names. Shouting. Being a selfish bitch, as usual."

"I'm sorry."

"You know, I used to tell myself as a kid that I'd get out of that trailer and make millions of dollars so we didn't have to live there anymore. Even now I want to save my brother from living in that hellhole, but Bubba's much kinder than me and will let Mom move in with him wherever he goes. I know now that anything my mom touches turns to shit. If she knew how, she'd probably sell any spare organs she had to buy drugs and alcohol. I'm even sure she'd sell me if she could."

I hate how desolate and down he sounds, but I know there's nothing I can do but be an ear for him. "Will she go into rehab if you paid for it?"

"She won't stay in, and they can't forcibly keep her there without a court order. The cops don't have time to waste on people like her when they're busy protecting productive, useful citizens like you. I just wish she'd want to be a better person."