Curtis (14 page)

“I’m Curtis Hunter. I’ve told you that
three times. As well as given you a copy of the deed and title. I also told you
that the insurance is up to date, as it is on all our buildings. The only
reason your company is still on the rider is because Mr. Washington, my future
father-in-law, liked you.” Curtis took a step toward him. “I, however, do not.”

The man took a step back and nearly
tripped over a large part of the wall that had been broken during the break in.
Curtis looked at the wall again. Whoever had been attempting to break in hadn’t
had a great deal of time or they were a novice with the equipment. Curtis was
pretty sure it was both.

The wall in question had been knocked
down. Luckily, it wasn’t a load bearing one or there would have been a great
deal more damage. As it was, all there seemed to be was some loose bricks, a
large hole, and dust everywhere. Also, there was the jackhammer as well as a
sundry of other tools that made Curtis believe that the guy hadn’t had a great
deal of knowledge about taking down a wall. He was looking at the hacksaw when
his brother walked in. He grinned when he saw the person who came with him. The
insurance adjuster was going to wet himself.

“Hello. I’m Jesse Hunter and this is my
mother Annemarie Hunter. She’s here to keep us from knocking you on your butt.”
Jesse put out his hand and Baker took another step back. “I’m not going to bite
you. Well, not yet at any rate. What seems to be the problem?”

“The firm knows that I’m here. I’ve told
my wife as well…you think this is funny? You’ve just threatened me.” Jesse
laughed harder at Baker. “I do not have to be treated this way. I’m here on
behalf of the owner and I will not—”

“Then start saying things like ‘the
policy is up to date and there will not be a problem with the claim.’ Or better
yet, ‘I’m sorry for your loss, Mr. Hunter, but we will make sure that the claim
is expedited for you.’”

“I cannot pay out a claim until I have
all my notes.” Baker’s gaze took in their mother and she smiled at him. “You
understand, don’t you. Mrs. Hunter? These things take time. We need to ensure
that all parties are—”

“Oh cut the crap. Either you pay up as
your policy says you will or we sue.” She took a step toward him and pointed
her finger at him. “You don’t want to screw with my family, Mr. Hacker. If you
do then you’ll—”

“It’s Baker.”

She raised a brow at him.

“My name isn’t Hacker, it’s Baker. I
should give you my card.”

While he looked for his business card,
their mom turned to them with the most incredulous look on her face. As if to
say “is he for real?” She turned back to him as he held out his card. “I know
who you are. And Hacker was something I’ve always called insurance companies
that try their best to take advantage of people.” She pushed his hand back at
him. “I don’t want your card. After today, it won’t mean a great deal to
anyone. Either do what’s right or you’ll need that card to get yourself a
lawyer. Do I make myself clear?”

He looked around at the mess again. “Someone
broke in, but how do we know that someone from your family didn’t—”

“I’d think very hard on that if you plan
to finish that statement.” Jesse had gone from a relaxed man to a pissed off
lawyer in a heartbeat. “Those are defamatory things you’re about to spew from
your mouth. And I, for one, would love to see the look on your face when you
end up in prison for it.”

The man didn’t have a clue who he was
fucking with until that moment. He nodded once then pulled out his phone. The
words payout as well as immediacy were what they all wanted to hear. As soon as
he wrote out the check and handed it to Curtis, he told the man to get off his
property. Baker couldn’t leave fast enough.

“Did the police get any prints off the
equipment?” Curtis shook his head at his mom. “Shame. But I’m betting they can
figure out who rented this stuff. The name of the rental company is everywhere.”

It was too.
Coleman Large Equipment
Rental
was stenciled on the blade of the saw as well. But he told her that
wasn’t going to help them either. “It had been reported stolen from another job
site two days ago. Whoever took it was careful that there were no prints on it.
As well as stealing this crap, it doesn’t give us a great deal to go on.” Curtis
tossed the nail gun to the floor. “What was he planning to do? Break the wall
down and rebuild it? Does he think we wouldn’t notice?”

Jesse laughed. “What he figured on was
coming in and breaking into the wall and,
voila
, there was his stash. I
wonder if the money is really in here somewhere.”

Curtis thought it unlikely. He didn’t
doubt that the money was somewhere close, but not in here. It had been a very
long time and someone sometime would have come across it at some point. He
looked at the wall that had been started on. He thought about the plans that
were in his office at home and tried to remember if this was the wall they were
taking out to enlarge this area or not. He didn’t think it had been.

“Have you thought about using one of
those metal detector things? The report said that there were metal locks on the
bags they took out.”

He shook his head at his mom. “The walls
are too thick. And with the brick all around it, the only way we’re going to
find anything in here is to tear the building down.” He stood as he continued.
“I’m thinking that this building is worth more to me up than in pieces. If
Kylie doesn’t want to move back in after we get her and the paper in the new
building then I’ll try and convert it into apartments.”

His mom looked around, as did Jesse. “I
can see that. An apartment on each level would bring in a nice, tidy sum. It
would be something that would be good for someone who worked downtown and
wanted to live closer.”

He moved to the other wall and looked at
the bank of windows. The view was perfect too. A perfect angle to see the
entire park from here as well as the main street and all the activities that
would be going on in the summer months. He looked up when Kylie walked in. And
suddenly, everything was perfect.

“The insurance company just called. They
said that someone has just canceled the policy on the building. You know
anything about that?” She smiled at him and he grinned back. “They also said that
someone from here was threatening one of their employees? What have you been
doing, Curtis Hunter?”

“Oh poop. That man was an idiot. And I
called the insurance company before we came inside. Never trust a man who
drives a foreign car. My late husband told me that.” His mom kissed Kylie’s
cheek as she pulled her coat around her. “I need to get going now. Come along,
Jesse. I have to go to that dinner thing and I need you to come with me as my
date.”

“Mom, I told you on the way over, I
have—” Their mom simply looked at Jesse and he sighed. “I guess I have to
cancel my plans. See you later, bro, and let me know what plans you have for
this thing. I think I know a couple of firms that would give you twice what you
have in it right now.”

~~~

Kylie walked around the debris on the
floor. She was trying to think how to ask Curtis something and didn’t want to
sound like she was whining. She looked up at him when he laughed.

“Say it. Or ask it.”

She tried to look confused, but knew she’d
not been able to pull it off.

“You have a terrible poker face. I can
read you like a book. What is it, Kylie?”

“I didn’t know you were planning to sell
it.” She flushed. “I know that I don’t have any say over it, but—”

“Yes, you do.” She looked at him,
confused. “You have every right. Or will as soon as we’re married. I won’t make
a decision about our lives without consulting you. If you don’t want the
building sold then we won’t sell them. The operative word there is ‘
we.’
We’ll
own the building, make decisions based on
us,
and
we’ll
have whatever comes of it. Understand?”

“But you will own this before we marry.
Isn’t that the way the law works?”

He shook his head.

“You would give me half of everything
because we’re married.”

It wasn’t a question, but he answered
her anyway. “No. I give you everything now. Everything. Because of the fact
that I love you, none of this has meaning without you.” He walked to her and
pulled her into his arms. “What do you think we should do with this if we don’t
use it for the paper?”

She looked around the spacious room. It
had paper equipment, printers that had long since served their purpose but
still worked. Binding machines from when they had offered a service to a book
dealer to rebind books. There were desks, oak and cherry that had been scarred over
the decades that still stood strong and would for many more to come. She looked
at the floors, knotty pine, dulled now by years of feet and printer ink. She
looked out the window, the one that faced the pretty park that had been built
so many years ago, one that she’d played in as a child. “What would it take to
make this a place for children to come?” She looked at him. “A sort of stopping
place between the streets and someplace to come for safety and security? We
could sort of show them a trade. I don’t know, maybe a place where they can
learn what all this stuff can be used for.”

He looked at her. She had half expected
him to laugh at her or to tell her no. “You mean like a shelter. I like it. We
could have someone run it and I know a lot of people who could come here and
help out, retired folks with nothing but time on their hands.”

She could see that he was warming to the
idea. And because of that, so was she. She took out an ever present notebook
and started to jot down ideas, people, and things they could do. By the time it
was growing dark she had filled four pages of notes. And had several more ideas
in her head. She and Curtis would make this work, she knew it. It would be a
place they could both put their hands deep into. He called his brother Royce
and pitched the idea to him. Before they were halfway home they already had the
backing of nine large companies to donate not only time, but the manpower to
fix the building up to code, and donations. And his mom said she’d make it her
priority to get even more money. Things were rolling from a simple idea.

“What do you think it should be called?”

His question startled her out of her
thoughts of putting in a small kitchen so that some of the kids could learn to
cook if they wanted to.

“It will have to have a name worthy of
it. What should it be?”

She didn’t have a clue, but told him she’d
think about it. And her first thought was his father. She had always liked Mr.
Hunter and his soft voice and slow ways of getting to his point, but didn’t
know how Curtis would feel about that. So she changed the subject until she
could talk to Kasey and the others. “I’ve been thinking about your house.” He
laughed as he turned onto the highway toward it. “What if I told you that it’s
in need of an overhaul?”

“It is. I bought it used and never
really got around to fixing the things that it needed. What did you have in
mind? Because if it’s moving, I’m all for that too.” She nearly told him yes,
then hell yes.

The house was an older house. Nothing
too much about it to recommend them doing much to it. It was a two-story house
that sat in the middle of a little lot. She didn’t want to go bigger, just…she
didn’t know, but this house was not what she thought she could raise children
in. First off, there was no yard and there was only a bathroom on each floor. It
would never do if they had more than one child.

“Why don’t we look around for something so
that when we have kids, we’ll have a house with a bigger yard and more than one
bathroom on each floor?” She thought about the neighborhoods and thought of the
one her dad lived on. “There are some houses on Dad’s street. We could look
there.”

He nodded and smiled. She had a feeling
he already had a house in mind. She only smiled. She knew that whatever he had
picked out, she was going to love it. She thought a smaller three-bedroom house
on the street where she’d grown up would be great. And modestly priced as well.

They both were so tired by the time they
got to the house that neither of them felt like eating much. After ordering a
pizza and eating it, they went up to bed. She was going to go over and
supervise the move in the morning and he had some things to do at the Hunter
building. By the time she had showered, she was exhausted and couldn’t do more
than thank him for having her things brought over from her other house. Yawning
hugely, she kissed both her dad and Curtis good night and fell asleep only
seconds after her head hit the pillow.

Chapter 12

Eric tried to calm himself. It had been
two days and he was still terrified of what had nearly been the death of him. The
fucking place had lit up like a fucking Christmas tree the moment he’d made the
first hole. And who fucking knew there was so much more involved in the shit he’d
stolen than turning it on and putting it to the wall? He’d been nearly knocked
on his ass the moment the thing had been turned on. He glared at the bruise on
his arm. And the fucking thing had thrown him against the wall as if he wasn’t
a grown man.