42 42. Undercurrents

'California girls really stepped up their game.' Hunter smiled faintly, genuinely amused and taken aback by her smoothness.

In the end, since he had already planned to leave the country, he didn't feel like ruining the moment. Though he still remained wary since she was a total stranger, and raised his hand to shake hers, formally greeting her for the first time. 

"I'm Hunter Hendrik."

Alice instantly responded, clasping her smaller hand with Hunter's, "Alice White, at yo—"

Hunter suddenly pulled his hand back from the handshake and took out his phone. He saw it was Susan's text message, that Annie had woken up and wanted to call quickly. 

"I'm sorry, Alice. I gotta make a call and show the statue to my sister," Hunter said, opening up the Facetime app to ring her up.

"Here, lemme hold the phone for you then. The back camera will give a wider and better view," Alice suggested, her tone friendly and excited, as she reached out to take his phone.

Finding sense in her words, Hunter quickly wore the earphones, flipped the camera to the back, and handed the phone to Alice. "Just keep me in the middle of the frame, alright?"

Quickly after the call connected, Annie's face appeared. Her eyes were still a little sleepy, and her hair was disheveled. She looked like she was sitting in her bed. "Hunter… where is it?" 

"You good?" Hunter asked first, worried for her, and unable to see her with the camera flipped. "You should've stayed sleeping if you weren't feelin' right."

"I'm good now. Where's the statue?" Annie asked again, bringing her screen closer to her face. "Oh, that view." 

Hunter nodded and walked around, Alice following him closely and keeping him in the middle. "Look at the view first. I can see the whole dang city from there, clear to the beach and beyond."

The camera panned around, capturing both sides of the mountain. The breeze was so strong that it buffeted the phone's microphone, giving off how windy it was.

Finally, Hunter turned and stood in front of the huge statue. "Well, here's what you wanted to see."

Annie's face was almost plastered on the screen, only her big eyes visible to Alice, "That thing's massive, Hunter! Bet the view from up there's even more somethin'."

"Yup, but you gotta have special permission to go up there," Hunter said, gesturing for Alice to crouch down and show the entire statue in one frame. Then, I'll be making my way down to the airport. Catch you in the morning."

"Wait!" Annie suddenly hollered, her face nearly plastered on the screen, leaving only her forehead in sight to Alice. "W-What was that? I just saw some hair... blonde hair... hold on a sec! Who's holdin' the phone?"

'Oh Lord,' Hunter frowned, scratching his head, 'She's gonna chew my ear off when I get home.'

"Hunter, did you go on a secret date?!" Annie barked, almost shouting, her breath audible, "Who is she? When did you meet? What does she look like…"

With a heavy heart, Hunter approached Alice, waving his hand, "Alright, I gotta catch a flight. Bye now, take care of yourself, Annie."

"Wai—"

Alice got the message and tapped the button to end the call. "She's so full of energy."

"You have no idea," Hunter muttered, a little more tired now, knowing Annie would have shouted everything to Susan and Marcus by now. "It's gonna be a loud welcome home."

Alice chuckled and, before handing the phone back, tapped around on the screen, "Since you're heading back, I'll put my digits in. Hit me up when you're in Dallas. Drinks on me."

Hunter took his phone back and saw her number saved there as 'Alice White' with a white flower emoji at the end of her name. He let out a genuine, intrigued smile and shook her hand again, "I might just take you up on that. Hope you have a fine holiday."

With that, Hunter turned around to leave and walked away without looking back. Not that he didn't want to, he just felt too preoccupied with the thoughts of things to do next. 

"Hey!" Alice shouted all of a sudden, grabbing Hunter's attention enough that he looked back, "I'll be waiting, handsome."

Then, with a big smile, she winked and waved her hand goodbye.

Hunter chuckled, waved back, and left. 'Gonna have to remind Annie to watch out for them California fellas.'

Walking down the stairs, Hunter hopped back into his rented taxi and headed for the airport. The flight still had a few hours to go, but he decided not to take any chances and went through all the security checks ahead of time. Upon entering the final terminal area, he strolled around, buying gifts for his family.

Even so, he didn't feel entirely at ease until he finally boarded the flight, and the plane soared into the skies. Once airborne, he simply slipped on a neck pillow and an eye mask, and then drifted off to sleep. The sky was one of the few places where people couldn't bother him unless they launched missiles.

Amidst the thoughts of what he had done, all the killing, the trash, and the strange girl, he drifted into slumber.

A change of connecting flight later, and another long session of sleep, Hunter finally woke up with a start as the plane landed back in San Antonio in the morning. He felt very refreshed, and quickly got back into his old truck in the parking lot, and zoomed off home.

With classic tunes playing on the radio, he got home a few hours later. It was the same familiar town, but it felt lifeless, especially outside the main market street. He could now see why most young people wanted to leave the town—he used to feel the same way once.

Bam!

"The fuck you mean leave the darn house? I done paid ya the rent, and that dang lease ain't runnin' out 'til three months from no—"

Hunter heard the booming voice of a man yelling from within the tattoo parlor, so he quickly darted inside, only to discover Susan standing behind the counter, arms crossed and a scowl etched on her face, while a man in his forties shouted at her.

Standing right behind the man, Hunter towered over him by a huge margin, "You keep disrespectin' my mom, I'm gonna carve you a couple more holes in your body."

The man looked back and jumped sideways in fright. "Y-you oughta know better. I'll take you to court!"

Hunter glared at the man and picked up the leash document from the counter, "Well, here's the deal. I'm willing to fork over three months' rent, but you gotta clear out within a day. If you ain't keen on takin' up my generous offer, well, I might just have to call in a favor or two from some buddies of mine."

Hunter lied. He didn't didn't have any friends left in law enforcement. But people didn't know that he was removed from service.

"Three months' rent?" the man asked, just to be sure. "You ain't lying?"

"That's right," Hunter nodded. 

"I'll go on and pack up my things," the man turned around and quickly left. "I'll be back for my money before I haul my stuff out."

"Sure." 

Finally, with the man gone, Hunter glanced at his mom. He was well acquainted with her temper, and he figured there was probably a shotgun stashed under the table that she was dying to grab. But since the leash was lawful, she held back.

"What 'bout the family?" Hunter asked about the other apartment upstairs. "Did they kick up a fuss?"

"No, but they're askin' for some time to look for another place first," Susan said, her anger slowly fading. "They got a little girl. Give 'em some time, Hunter."

"Give 'em the same offer as that loudmouth. I made a decent haul down in Brazil this time," Hunter replied, taking out his phone and showing her his current bank account, which revealed the money he got from selling Bitcoin. "See."

Susan covered her mouth, taken aback by the amount. It wasn't that she saw that much for the first time. She was just worried about where Hunter got it. "How did yo—"

"It's legal and taxed," Hunter said, giving Susan's arm a pat. "Annie's asleep? I need to borrow her computer."

Susan kept on staring at Hunter's face for a while, her eyes narrowed. She could sense that Hunter was hiding something, always steering the conversations where he wanted them to go. But she knew her son enough to trust him.

Susan looked at the wall clock, "It's 'bout time. You go and wake her up, I gotta get breakfast goin'. She gave me and Marcus a headache at dinner last night about some gal you were hangin' with."

Hunter sighed, "Just some tourist askin' me to take pictures."

"You go deal with it. I got no energy left," Susan retreated and went to the kitchen. 

Aware of the risks, Hunter cautiously entered the tigress's lair. He moved stealthily, carefully pulling a plastic chair over to the computer table before powering up the machine. With the air conditioning's hum drowning out any noise from the computer, he noticed no indication of her stirring just yet.

'Good girl,' Hunter softly tapped on the keyboard and started searching for any city or town in the United States looking to renew their landfill contract and ask for bids. It was finally time to play the big game. 

Bzzzz~

Just then, he felt his phone vibrate, the name 'Hector' appearing on the screen. 

Hunter scowled and picked it up, speaking in a hushed voice, "What?"

"Hunter, don't you leave your dang house! I'm tellin' you again, don't step outside."

'Why's he shouting?' 

Annoyed, Hunter got up and left Annie's room to talk openly, "What happened?" 

"Captain Gonzales was shot dead this mornin'. Bullet went straight to the face while he was in his car," Hector replied, his tone urgent. 

But Hunter didn't take it too seriously, "He had plenty of enemies."

"I know, but I got attacked, too, in a different spot at the same time," Hector revealed. "But I was quicker with my gun."

Hunter frowned, connecting the dots, "You mean someone's trying t—"

"Don't!" Hector interrupted. "Let's meet later." 

'Someone's listenin' in?' Hunter deduced as he looked at his phone for a moment, then his head turned to the kitchen where Susan worked while talking on her phone. 'Dammit, I've only got one day left.'

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A/N: This is the last non-premium chapter of this book. Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you all can continue to read further. 

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