12– Playmate

It was easy for Hunter to put two and two together now. The reason why he couldn't recognize her in the picture Angelo had brought was because she had make up on and she wasn't wearing the blonde curly wig. She looked older with make up on. In the club she wasn't wearing any make up, like now. Just the red lipstick. With the makeup, she looked like someone way out of Hunter's league. But natural, she just looked simple, innocent and beautiful. She was wearing dark blue flare jeans and a light blue cropped long sleeved top with white sneakers. Her hair pitch black, curly at the edges and loose.

“Lost your voice?” She asked Hunter as if she wasn't too happy with his presence.

Hunter looked at the billionaire and then back at Rebecca uncomfortably. “Uh... of cause not. Sorry ma'am... I’m Hunter.”

“I know.” She responded curt. “What I really want to know is what you are doing here.”

Hunter looked over at the billionaire, anxiety spiking. The billionaire too looked a little anxious.

“Honey,” Rob took Rebecca's hand quickly. She pulled away almost immediately. Looked at him as if he was some stranger who had no right to touch her.

“Is this some sick joke?” She asked Hunter.

“Hunter is here to keep you safe—”

“Keep me safe?” Rebecca's voice was shaking.

Her father babbled for a second and then found his words. “You know, I'm a business man, many people out there are against what I do. I just need to make sure that you don't get dragged in along the way.”

“What were you thinking?” She asked her father. “So, you pick some good-looking guy to seduce your daughter so she can finally accept having a bodyguard?”

“What?” Both Hunter and her father asked. Rob was just confused but Hunter couldn't believe she had just said so with no filter at all.

“You know dad, the reason why you hire strange men to follow me around all day has everything to do with who you are. Not my safety. Otherwise, you would never stoop so low.” Rebecca was tearing up.

“What are you talking about, sweety?” Rob asked her. He looked confused. “He is just here to look out for you.”

“So like a fuck-guard?”

“What is going on?” Rob looked from Rebecca to Hunter. “What is this?”

“Why don't you ask your bodyguard, here?”

Rob shook his head, doubting the possibility. “Have you two met before?”

“Uh...” Hunter couldn't find any words.

“Yes!” Rebecca cut in. “In a club, and guess what dad, we had sex.”

Rob's mouth hung open. “Rebecca!”

“We met in a club yes, but we didn't have sex. We just talked that night... at the bar while we were waiting for our drinks.” Hunter tried. “Just talked. Not even for long.”

Rebecca scoffed as she looked from looked from Hunter to her father. “I guess you're gonna have to find another person.”

“Okay, so you guys just talked?” Rob was trying to wrap his head around it.

“I swear, sir.” Hunter tried not to look guilty.

Rebecca gasped. “Such a lying piece of shit—”

“That's enough Rebecca!” Her father shouted. “I know you don't like having bodyguards but making such nonsense up just so the guy can leave... come on!”

“I'm the liar? I'm the liar when you got some man to sleep with your own daughter so you could get your way?”

Rob looked like he didn't have an answer for her. She then turned to Hunter and looked him up and down. “You, Hunter, undercover bodyguard, whatever you are, stay away from me, you psycho.”

She turned around and walked out of the office.

“She’s a tough one, I told you. I'm sorry.” Rob walked around his desk and stood behind it.

“I think she thinks that you sent me because she saw me at the same club that day. But I swear nothing happened.”

Rob then sighed. “I believe you.”

There was an awkward moment of Rob just staring at Hunter. If he believed him, why was he staring at him like that?

“You know, this is a little awkward, sir. I think it would be best if you found someone else.” Hunter was bailing. There was no way he'd work here like this. Angelo's soldier could replace him. He wasn't cut out for this much drama. He needed to be home throwing parties night after night, enjoying his position as underboss. Not this bullshit.

Rob looked thoughtful, after a few seconds he made up his mind. “You know what your job is. We already spoke.” Rob sounded like he was dismissing him. Did he just ignore Hunter's willingness to quit?

Hunter wasn't sure, but he nodded.

“Whenever she gets mad like that, she tends to leave the house. Sometimes I think she just gets mad to find an excuse to leave the house.” Rob said, taking a seat on his office chair. “Anyway, follow her.”

Hunter looked at the opened office door wavering whether or not following the angry sparrow was a good idea. Then again, this man was here. He didn't have much of a choice.

Hunter walked out of the office and caught a glimpse of her just as she turned the corner to the stairs. He jog-ran toward her. She was storming down the stairs. When she got to the bottom she looked up and saw Hunter following her.

She walked out of the mansion and then stopped to face Hunter as he approached. When Hunter reached her, he was almost out of breath. Again, a reminder that he needed to start working out again.

“Why are you running after me?” Rebecca asked him. “I told you to stay the fuck away from me.”

He bent over, trying to regain his breath. “Your father... he... whew! Just give me... a moment.”

After a few seconds he stood up straight, feeling a lot better now.

“If you knew you were working with my father, why did you—” She couldn't finish her words, she looked away trying to hold the emotion in, she looked heartbroken.

“No, Becca.” He answered. “I wasn't working with him at the time. This is my first day, I swear.”

She ran her fingers through her hair and let out a heavy sigh, which was accompanied by tears.

“I swear. I know it looks like it looks but I swear I had no idea who you were until now.”

“So you're trying to tell me that all of this...” She gestured, “is just a coincidence?”

Hunter just stared at her, not knowing what to say to her that would make this coincidence sound realistic, because as he thought about it himself, all this felt so unreal. Why in the world did she have to be the same damn girl he took to his house that night?

“It's a coincidence that we met in the club that Saturday, and then almost a week later you pop up in our house and my bodyguard gets swopped for you?”

Hunter shrugged lightly. “I wasn't swopped. I am just relieving John for a couple of weeks.”

“That's not the point. Why did you have sex with me if you knew that you'd be working as my bodyguard a few days after that?”

Hunter looked around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. “I swear to God I had no idea. I only got the job offer a few days after that night.”

She stared at him like she wasn't sure he was telling the truth. “You know, that's funny because back there you were swearing that I was lying too...”

“Yes!” He shook his head, looking at her like she was insane. “Because, why in the world would you tell your father that? Seriously!”

Rebecca frowned. “Look, this is not okay! You sound so casual about all of this but it's not okay at all. This is not some movie, okay. We spent the night together and now I just have to pretend that I don't know how your dick looks like?”

“Technically we didn't spend the night together, you ran away at flipping 2am. Who even does that? And you don't even leave the guy your number? Seriously?”

Rebecca was speechless for a few seconds, and then, “That's not the point. Gosh, what's it with you missing every point I'm trying to make?”

“No, I know. You're the one that mentioned my dick.” Hunter told her.

“We're having a serious conversation, asshole.”

“I'm very serious.” Hunter loosened his tie, it was suffocating him under that hot sun. “I tried to quit a few seconds ago but your father didn't even think about my request. You think I like acting as your bodyguard after that crazy night we had? You've been on my mind every damn day since that night, you think I want to follow you around as some bodyguard all day?”

Rebecca was upset, but she couldn't help feeling just a ping of pleasure finally hearing that she was not the only one stuck on that night. And the way he just loosened his tie in front of her, what kind of bodyguard does that? She couldn't help thinking he was really cute right now. Maybe it was not that bad that he was here right now and not some other bodyguard that she's never met.

“Look, I promise to keep this as professional as possible. I'm here to do my job and that's all.” He told her, raising his hands in surrender. “I'll even call you ma'am, and miss, and all that shit.”

“Well that's what you're supposed to call me.” She said bluntly, trying to sound bossy. It was clear that Hunter wasn't as scared of her as a new bodyguard would have been at this moment. “I am going to my room, don't follow me around.” She then walked past him and back into the mansion.

Hunter stood there for a few seconds thinking about how he just dodged this bullet. He sighed heavily and placed his palm over his chest. “Gosh…”

He walked around the mansion to the wendy house where he had kept his things. He went to the locker and took his backpack and suit out. He then walked back into the mansion using the back entrance. There was only one bodyguard at the back entrance. He greeted Hunter as Hunter passed him. Hunter felt relief, forgetting that at this moment he was one with these people. He could walk in and out the house and no one would ask him anything because he worked here.

He found his way around the mansion to the room where he was supposed to be sleeping in. The rooms were marked in letters. His was F. It looked like a small motel room. Single bed, a little walking space, one closet, a small bathroom and that was it. He sat at the corner of the bed. It was not comfortable at all. If he had had military training like most of the other bodyguards, he'd think otherwise. But no, he was used to his soft queen sized bed. He shook his head and sat with his elbows on his thighs and sighed. Rebecca was not like the sweet nonchalant Becca he spent a night with, she was rude, had no filter and mean like John had told him and he could tell she would be a nightmare. Then again, these few weeks didn't have anything to do with how Rebecca would treat him or the level of comfort he'd experience on this bed at night, it had to do with the one million dollar sitting in Robert Holland's safe upstairs. Hunter looked around the bedroom for any cameras and wires. He spent a good ten minutes making sure he wasn't being spied on or anything. All was clear. He took off his suit jacket and took out his cell phone from the inside pocket. He walked to the wardrobe and opened it. There was only one hanger in there. He used it to hang his suit jacket. He then took his other suit jacket which he had brought with him and hanged it over the new one. He went back to the bed and sat down. He opened up his backpack. He took out two sweaters, two underpants, two pair of shorts, some cologne, roll-on, earphones and his laptop. As he took the things out, he laid it on his bed, one by one, neatly. He then felt a couple of stitches along the back of the inside of his backpack. He tore it apart with his hands. He stuck his hand in there blindly and felt the metal device. He pulled it out and ran his fingers around it. With this device, he could control all the cameras in this mansion. He would be able to see exactly what the team upstairs, watching the cameras, saw and he would have access to the storage of all the recordings of the camera from the time the device was connected, well, according to Hew. Of cause Hunter had no idea how to connect it or how it worked, he was no IT specialist.

He took his phone and called up the mafias IT guy. The hacker. Hew.

“What's good, four eyes, I've got the device and my laptop in my hands right now.” Hunter said, opening up his lap top, he switched it on and placed it next to him on the bed.

“Cool, are you within at least three thousand feet of the camera room?” Hew asked.

“Uh... I don't know, I'm down in the room they gave me.” Hunter looked around the room. “How far exactly is three thousand feet?”

“Well, is the device on?”

“I don't know, did you give it to me on?”

“It's off.” Hew sounded a little impatient. “Turn it on, there's a button on the side, just press and hold it until a white light comes up.”

Hunter looked around the device, using his one hand to tilt and turn it around. He found a rectangle button and pressed it for long.

“I'm pressing it.”

“You see the USB cable on the device?”

“Yeah.” Hunter was looking at the black coiled cable attached to the device.

“Cool.”

A white light beeped twice on the device and then disappeared.

“I saw a white light, but it went off.”

“Yeah, it's on.” Hew said. “Now keep your laptop off and connect it to the USB cable from the device.”

“Can't I just plug it in while it's on?”

“Do you want your laptop to freeze and never turn back on?” Hew asked Hunter.

Hunter turned off his laptop and waited. Damn hackers, always sounding like they knew every damn thing in the world, Hunter thought. He then took the USB cable attached to the device and connected it to his laptop. The screen turned on: showing only a white blank screen that went on and off.

“I think your thing killed my laptop.”

“Is the screen turning on and off?” Hew asked.

“Yeah.”

“That just means that it's connecting. Once the screen on your laptop stays white then the paring is complete.”

“How long is it going to take?” Hunter looked up at the alarm clock on the headboard of the bed.

“Not long. What takes long is connecting the cameras to the laptop.”

The screen stopped blinking and stayed white.

“Okay, they're connected.” Hunter said.

A mixture of letters, numbers and punctuation marks began going up the screen.

“Okay now there's just a bunch of stuff showing on the screen.” Hunter said.

“What?”

“Letters, numbers. Just weird shit that don't make any sense.”

“Hit F4 and the letter J on your keyboard.”

Hunter did as he was told and a block popped up, requesting a pin.

“The pin is eight, two, nine, four.” Hew told him.

As Hunter finished entering the last number the screen went black and the device beeped twice, emitting a red light that kept blinking every two seconds.

“It just went blank.” Hunter stared at the blank screen.

Hew didn't answer.

“Shit. Did I fuck it up?” Hunter asked him.

Hew didn't answer.

“Four eyes?”

“Relax, boss.” He said through a sigh. “With computers and shit you need to learn the art of patience.”

“Unfortunately, I don't have much patience. How long is this gonna take?” Hunter asked.

“The device is trying to locate all the cameras within three thousand feet from it.” Hew responded. “It's going to take a while. Minimum forty to sixty minutes.”

Knock! Knock!

Hunter heard someone knocking on his door.

“Shit. I gotta go.” Hunter closed his laptop clumsily and stashed both the laptop and the device in his backpack and threw the backpack under his bed.

His room door opened slowly. It was Rebecca standing at the door way. Her hair was in a curly bun now.

“Why do you look so scared?” She asked him, glad that he was falling in line now.

He placed his phone on the bed, faced down and got up. He stood with his hands behind his back.

Rebecca chuckled and shook her head. She then walked up to him. When she got before him, she put her fingernail at the bottom of his chin and lifted his head to look into her eyes. Hunter felt the tip of her nail poking against his skin. “Do I scare you?”

She was standing too close to him. Hunter couldn't resist looking from her eyes to her lips. Plump, like he remembered. He also remembered how sweet and warm they tasted that night on his couch. He looked away as he felt the uncontrollable urge to taste them at least one last time.

“Look at me.” She titled her head to the side that he was facing.

Hunter looked her in the eye. He could smell that subtle perfume of hers. His head was going crazy with things he wished he could do to her right now, things he'd been thinking about all week.

She bit her bottom lip and then went on her tip toes and brought her face closer to his, in an attempt to kiss him.

It took a lot of effort, but Hunter stepped away, making her heels touch the ground. Short little woman she was. “Ma'am...”

Rebecca watched him for a while, a smile on her face. She then ran a warm soft palm down his cheek and walked out backwards not letting him off her naughty gaze. Hunter watched her leave his room satisfied, as if she had just found a new playmate in their huge quiet mansion...