Hunter (Riders of Apollo #2)

Chapter 38: Julian Atlas

We head back to the clubhouse around midday the next day and I laugh as I spot Gem in the midst of a game of pool. She's on Breaker's shoulders and grips tightly as he leans down to hit the ball, she squeals excitedly when it's potted. "Daddy, mommy, look! I can play pool!" Breaker chuckles and helps her off of his shoulders so she can run towards us. "Me and B won three rounds!"

She pronounces three as thwee and puts up two fingers with a grin on her face. Adorable. I swing her into my arms and look down at the pink cheeked toddler with adoration. You never realise how much you can love someone until you have a child. "Did you have fun?" I ask her, tickling her as she squeals. I always want her to be this happy and it'll be my life's mission to protect her from everything, no dating until I'm six feet under.

And then hopefully we would've had a son who could continue that on when I'm dead. So, no dating, ever. No one is good enough for her. "Yeah, I played hide and seek and tag with Runner. Auntie Pay took me to the park and B read me a bedtime story." Her words are a little garbled as she tells us all of this, she still hasn't got full control of her language, so it was hard to understand, you start to get it when you've been around her for long enough.

I'm surprised at Breaker reading her a story though, I've never actually heard his voice and nor has anyone else - besides Bear - since he got here around ten years ago. Romeo is probably closest to him here and Bear obviously needed to interrogate him before allowing him to prospect and Breaker had to swear his loyalty before receiving the patch so we know he can talk; he just doesn't like to.

"That sounds good, princess." I turn to talk to Mari only to find her at the bar with the girls with pink cheeks and fluttering hand motions. The looks on Lexie and Saviour's face tells me everything I need to know; she's telling them about last night. I roll my eyes and head into Bear's office, surprised that he's separated from his wife considering they're normally glued together. "Alright boss?" I ask him, Gem sits on the desk and plays with a pen as Bear watches her with soft eyes.

"Yeah, just need to clean this whole thing up with the cops. Saviour got the feds off of us and Matías helped us with clean up, just need to make sure the cops don't try and take this into their own hands since they're about as useful as a chocolate fireguard."

"I'll call Cap up for a meeting later, do you wanna go or do you want me to deal with it?"

"Lex and I will go, she's been wanting to get her hands on those cops since they arrested a pregnant woman by slamming her into the wall."

"They didn't know that though."

"Try telling her that, apparently it doesn't matter. No one should be arrested like that anyway."

"Okay, Prez. I'll make it for five." He gives me a thumbs up and kisses Gem's head as I head back out to the bar, my daughter squirming in my embrace. "You excited to go back to school next week?" We've been trying to teach her as much as possible here so that she can go back to school without falling too far behind and it's been really hard, especially because we keep changing her surroundings and it's confusing her.

"Yeah! Gonna miss B and Runner." She grumbles, gripping my cut in her little hands.

"You can see them whenever you want." She squeals, perking back up and wiggling herself out of my grip to take off towards the lounge where all the other guys are. I head to Romeo's office and find him bent over the laptop slamming the keys angrily. "You okay, brother?"

"I'm fucking dandy!" He growls, he doesn't even turn to look at me as he grumbles unhappily.

"You sound it, what's up? Is it that guy you were talking about the other day?" I make sure to close the door first just so that no one can overhear us. Even though I've told him that the guys would accept him he wants to keep it private for now so I'm honouring his wish and checking on him as often as I can.

"Not yet, I just have a bad feeling that's all."

"We've just finished one war; I really can't be bothered for another one."

"I'm hacking through all their shit and I'm pissed that an actual decent hacker has been killed because of Slasher the dickhead. The firewalls are hard, and the coding is confusing, it's frustrating the fuck out of me."

"Ask Sav for help." I suggest, looking over his shoulder at the code on the screens. It just looks like someone threw up a number sequence and the alphabet before blending it. Gibberish basically. I never understand how people can be smart enough to understand this, I understand people and what they want out of life, easy to predict and idiotic but coding is a whole other world.

"What about the baby?" He looks up at me with worry on his face and I roll my eyes. We all understand that she has to take it easy, but she is easily the strongest person here and can handle sitting at a desk hacking things. She has been put there by Bear anyway.

"I'm sure the baby will be fine, just don't fill her with energy drinks and lollipops and it'll be safe."

"Okay, I'll ask her later." I nod and turn to leave, stopping when he grips my wrist. "Thank you, Hunter."

"No problem, just stop worrying so much, you're gonna get sick." He agrees with me and I head into the kitchen for a snack, I can hear the music blaring from the gym and head in there with a packet of chips in my hand. I find Runner beating the living shit out the bag, his forehead creased and posture tense as he splits the bag, watching as the beans fall onto the floor with exasperation.

He's been enjoying his new abilities but he's not okay, at least not completely. Him and Saviour have been going up to the diner all the time when he gets angry and frustrated, shouting in Spanish as he gets riled up. He's normally considered the chill one of the MC, always thinks things through and talks to people before going Chernobyl. Only problem is when he does get pissed off, he goes through the roof.

And he's been doing it a lot lately.

"I'm fine, Hunter. Do not look at me with those eyes."

"What do you mean?"

"The-the-the la pena, que es eso en ingles? Ay, dios mío... Pity!" (the pity, what is that in English? My God)

"I'm not looking at you with pity, Runner, I'm worried."

"I'm fine."

"I'll go get Sav." I say, waiting for his nod in affirmation before heading upstairs to do just that.

What is wrong with everyone today?