LET YOU DOWN.
chapter twenty three.
"YOU READY TO DO THIS?"
Hunter nodded her head in response to the question presented by Kyle Dobbs. Leaning against her truck, she watched as Kyle shut the door of his rental car. "Where's Miranda?"
"On a plane... far away from this shit show," he answered, electing not to disclose her destination out of fear for her safety.
"Probably for the best," Hunter agreed, beginning to walk towards the entrance of Johnson and Hardwell's Storage Units, "she's not like us."
Hunter had quietly risen from that couch that she had shared with Buck that morning in Eddie's living room and slipped out unnoticeably as the man continued to sleep peacefully in the morning light.
"And what is she?" Kyle asked.
"Too innocent," Hunter answered, her eyes glancing over at the man next to her. Miranda was uncorrupted even after the horrors she had witnessed as a Sergeant in the Marines. Too pure and kind hearted to engage in a hunt for a ghost sniper around the city of LA. Besides, this wasn't her fight. Solotov wasn't hunting her. He was hunting Dobbs and Callahan.
Kyle nodded, reaching to open to door of the front office and allowed the blonde to walk in first. She pulled the keys out of her pocket and looked down at them, there was no unit number however a very distinctive written code, almost like a serial number, was on the key itself.
Hunter plastered a fake smile on her face as she looked at the young man working the front desk, easily ten years younger than her. "Hi, hon, I was wondering if you could help me find this storage unit..." she began to trail off, a lie sitting on her tongue as her eyes turned sad, "my father left these keys in his office and I found them after he passed, but he wasn't smart enough to leave the unit number."
"Well, dad's mind wasn't always in the right place those last couple years, but we were wondering if you could look up that number on the key," Kyle jumped in, placing a comforting hand on the arm of the woman he pretended to be his sister.
The kid nodded his head, extending his hand as he accepted the keys, "I'll have to look on the computer in the back... but it shouldn't take long."
Hunter and Kyle both nodded with wide smiles as the kid walked away, "what are the chances he finds the unit?" She asked, voice a whisper as she leaned her back against the counter and looked out the window.
"All I'm going to say is that I'm asking god for a favor right now," he retorted, looking down at the shorter woman.
Hunter snorted in amusement but froze, "did you hear that?" She asked, looking at Kyle who shook his head, "it was a click of a camera," she said, voice raising as she used her arms to lift herself up and over the counter, wincing slightly at the tension in her left arm. "Shit," Kyle muttered as he watched her feet landed solid on the ground, following closely behind as her he hoisted himself over the counter and they both pulled out their sidearms.
Standing on either side of the door, Kyle reached down and turned the knob, Hunter rushing in first as she looked at the kid who sat on his phone, panicking as he watched the two adults point guns at him. The Callahan woman grabbed the phone out of the boy's hands and sighed as she looked at the unsent text on the phone, "I really wish you hadn't of done that," Hunter said as she showed Kyle the message, they're asking about your unit which was followed by the picture of the two, "because now if you're gonna help us wether you like it or not."
Kyle took the phone and dropped it to the ground, slamming his boot into the screen of it as the kid yelled out, upset by the damage, "hey, play stupid games and win stupid prizes. Now get up and show us the unit," Kyle said sternly, gesturing between the boy and the phone with the barrel of his gun.
"He'll kill me," he whispered out, holding the key tight in his hand.
"I might save him the trouble," Hunter deadpanned, "Is it Solotov? What the hell does he have over your head."
"Nothing... he paid me to tip him off if anyone came looking for him," he said, looking at the blonde in the eyes. His own brown eyes held slight traces of tears as he began to shake.
"How much will it take for you to show us that unit?" Kyle asked.
"Stop, Kyle, this isn't a god damn negotiation," Hunter sternly said, "he's gonna walk us down there right now," she said as she stepped forward and grabbed the boy by the shirt of his collar and made him stand from the box he sat on. "Isn't that right, my friend," she rhetorically asked as the barrel of her gun made contact with his lower back.
The boy nodded frantically as he stepped forward and handed the keys back to Kyle before walking out of the small back room.
Maybe at one point Hunter would have felt bad for the fear she instilled in the young man. But not today, she didn't feel anything other than a sense of urgency. Holding a gun to a boy wasn't worse than things she had done before.
The halls of the storage unit were lonesome, the three passed white walls and grey doors to units one after another until eventually the boy halted in his steps, lip quivering as he gestured for Kyle to open the padlock.
"You have no idea the holy hell that's gonna rain down on you..." the boy warned, looking the Callahan woman in the eyes. She simply shrugged, enhancing a glance with Kyle, "we're marines, we like holy hell."
The blond man stepped forward, twisting the key and unlocking the unit before rolling to door open. Both marines eyes gazed over the unit, taking each detail in.
"This is oddly unsettling..." Hunter trailed off.
Kyle nodded, "it's just an office?"
Hunter shrugged, tucking her gun back into its holster that laid on the inside of waist band. "Guess we go through every inch of this... after we explain to the boy here what happens if he tells anyone."
"No-no I won't say anything," he spoke quickly, holding his hands up, shaking, "I promise."
"Then run along," she told him, waving him away with her hand, "and don't forget, I can still squeeze a shot off before the cops take me down."
Hunter watched as the boy all but ran down the hallway, retreating back to where he had originally come from, "was that really necessary?"
"Do you want Solotov to kill us?" Hunter sarcastically asked, stepping into the unit as she headed for the desk that sat against a wall while Kyle made way towards filing cabinets.
Opening each door, she looked over every single paper for something that could help her, "it bothers me how organized he is... I'd rather a physco hunt me down."
"He is a physco," Kyle retorted, looking back at the girl as he rolled his eyes.
Hunter shrugged, "but at least he isn't a hoarder— it's oddly comforting," she told him honestly but paused as she sat up straight in the chair she had taken a seat in before looking at Kyle, "organized enough to keep a list of all his passwords."
"He's not that dumb," Kyle said, his voice weary as he walked over, not believing that someone would do that.
Hunter smiled, turning on the computer that sat on the desk and scanning the list in the pocket notebook for the password, "it would be really helpful to know Chechen right now."
Kyle scoffed, "try the first one."
Hunter sighed, typing in the letters to form a word that she didn't understand but rolled her eyes as the lock screen disappeared into a desktop, "alright, that was a lucky guess."
"Oh, English... goodie," Hunter mumbled as she looked at the desktop files that were all organized by words she understood.
Kyle leaned forward, "open that program," he said, noticing the one icon that stood out amongst the tan files. Hunter nodded, double clicking the thing he had pointed to and waited for it to load.
"What is it?" Hunter asked, looking at the numbers that littered the screen.
Kyle squinted his eyes, "I think it's all his bank accounts," he said, picking up the small notebook that had been placed down on the desk and flipping the page, "here, each account number and another password is listed."
"God, he's so stupid... this is literally a ledger," Hunter laughed, but shook her head, "it's still not gonna help us find the fucker."
"Well, if we can't find him... we can always make him come to us," kyle said with a shrug, looking down at the blonde who held a ghost of a grin as she understood his idea.
"You want to draw him out," she spoke his thoughts aloud.
Kyle nodded, "Money is a man's best friend... so we take it away."
Hunter took the small notebook as she clicked on the first account, she recognized the French flag in the other, assuming each account was connected to a different country rather than just a different bank. She scanned the list for the password that corresponded.
Abdurakhman, she typed, watching as the account opened up. Her eyes gazed over the screen, clicking on the blue phrase freeze use of funds. "What account are you putting the money in?"
Hunter shrugged, "would you believe me if I said an offshore account?"
"No," Kyle deadpanned, "you're not cool enough."
Hunter glared at the man standing above her, "Would you believe me if I said I'm only freezing his accounts and taking the ledger?"
"Yes," he hummed, watching as Solotov's accounts reached zero one after another, "You are really good making scenarios to piss people off."
"It's an acquired skill," Hunter mumbled, "he'll need this book back if we wants to unfreeze his accounts," Hunter knew that the only way Solotov would be able to survive is with money. That's how someone becomes a ghost, how they stay of the radar of the government— she knew that much.
"I don't know the ratio of these accounts to American dollars, but shit, he's rich."
"Not anymore," Hunter muttered with a smirk, hitting confirm on the last account, freezing the last of Solotov's funds.
"That'll piss him off," Kyle said, standing to his full height as he began to walk away while Hunter stuck the ledger into her back pocket, "we should probably run before someone else shows up— Solotov or cops."
"Not my fault he had a kid on his payroll," hunter murmured as she stepped out of the storage unit, closing the rolling door and quickly locking it.
Maybe the idea of drawing an slightly insane long distance marksman out of hiding was a bad idea. But Hunter wanted to resolve this conflict as quickly as possible, even if that meant escalating the danger.
Four years, almost five, she had been out of the marines. But before that, for almost almost nine years she was a member of the 8113, from seventeen to twenty six. And of those nine years, she had known the name Solotov since her first deployment, for eight straight years she found herself hunting that man as he killed marine after marine and innocent bystanders.
Her anger had boiled to a point, she wanted to end the duel, not thinking of how the effect that it would have on her.
god I was rereading a draft
for a book I never published
and when I tell you I fucking
gasped at a sex scene I did
not remember writing at all.
also I hate pregnancy tropes but
I want to make at least one
of my OC's pregnant and
I don't think it'll be Hunter
but I need your guy's input.
I'm leaning towards Brooke from
godless to get knocked up by
Walker as of now.
lastly would any of you
guys that read this book
like a Parker mccollum or
Zach bryan fic? Have drafts
for both but don't
think they'd get that many
reads. Ik some of my girls
here love ZB