A Hunted Man (The Men of Halfway House) (20 page)

Hunter lowered his head and exhaled heavily. A firearm charge would have forced a mandatory minimum of twenty-five years.

Something wasn't right. The bruising on Cam's face, the gun not belonging to him, any lawyer with a fraction of skill could have easily attributed the death to self-defense.

Cam was charged with weapons possession because he had a "blade-like object" in his back pocket that day as well as a long list of charges including petty theft, violent personal crimes, and a drug charge. Hunter looked at the evidence photos. A fucking two dollar pocket knife key chain.

"Shit." Hunter exhaled and rubbed his temples. The headache pulsing behind his eyelids tried to push forward.

He continued to read the additional pages of transcripts, noticing some of the pages were redacted while others were highlighted. Hunter stretched his neck from side to side. None of the dots were connecting in this case, and he couldn't understand how a call to come to a sister's aid could end in a ridiculous checklist of charges and a ten year prison term.

He read the pages, then read them again, flipping each sheet of paper sharply as he yanked the next page. He stepped away from the table and began to pace the room.

Cam was guarded, but he wasn't the kind of guy who would do everything reported in that case file. Hell, he was probably wary of people because of all this and who knows what he'd had to go through during the last ten years.

Hunter sat back in the chair and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Shit!" he yelled and threw the file across the room, sending the papers flying through the air.

He leaned forward and lowered his head onto his crossed arms. He thought of Cam, the smile that made his heart skip a beat, the laugh that made his chest tighten. The tension began to ease from his body. The frustration replaced by determination.

In a short amount of time, he'd gotten to know Cam. The person described on paper was not the man he'd come to love.

He wouldn't deny it to himself. Cam had stolen his heart from the start.

He stood and began collecting the scattered sheets of paper. He sat and willed himself to focus on solving the puzzle he had been handed. No statement from his sister had been taken that day. He searched the additional memos, and after a few torturous minutes of his heartbeat echoing in his ears, he found the sister's boyfriend's name, Bradley Mackler.

"Son of a bitch," he said under his breath.

He pulled out his laptop and launched a browser search window to confirm.

Buried within a news archive dated the same as Cam's report, he found a headline.

Bradley Mackler, son of Judge Kevin Mackler, killed by an intruder
.

"An intruder?" he said to himself.

He searched for information on the home where Cam and his sister had been, the homeowner's last name on record was not Mackler. He returned to the redacted documents. Most of the information was blacked out, but there, on a document citing a specific Florida statute protecting information from public record, was the same address listed on Cam's crime report with "K. Mackler" several paragraphs below. The house was titled under an alias for Mackler. Even Hunter kept his home address confidential on the county records to protect against retaliation from someone unhappy with a verdict.

There was something missing, and it was obviously a critical piece to the puzzle. He looked at the picture of Cam. There was so much anger and pain in those eyes. He needed to find out why someone was now targeting him. He knew Cam was wary of new people, so that added another element to the puzzle.

He remembered their conversation the other night.
His sister.
She hadn't spoken to him in about ten years.
Her decision
. He opened the file again and searched for any information on her. After a few minutes, there, in an obscure sticky note was Cam's sister's current married name and address.

With renewed vigor, he stuffed the files back into his briefcase then grabbed some clothes from his duffle and quickly dressed. He knew there was no way in hell he'd get any sleep and figured he owed Cam's sister a visit since she was only a few hours away. He checked out of the hotel and raced over to his car.

He was going to get to the bottom of this and save the one man who had managed to awaken hope for something more and the desire to fight for it.

Hunter shielded his tired eyes when the sun rose behind the small suburban home. The lack of sleep had zapped his energy and had him running on pure determination and several cups of rest stop coffee. The crappy coffee in lieu of his latte was just another reminder of how much he missed Cam.

He finally exited his vehicle and stretched before making his way to the front door. After the second round of door knocks, a young woman answered—with striking blue eyes just like Cam's.

"Can I help you?" she asked through the narrow opening of the door.

"Are you Jasmine Brooke, formerly Jasmine Pierce," Hunter asked in a soft, gentle tone, hoping to counteract his ragged appearance.

"Who are you?"

"I need to ask you about that day ten years ago."

Jasmine straightened. "I don't want to talk about that." She pushed the door closed.

Hunter stopped the door with his shoe. "Please. Cam might be in trouble and I need to know what happened." Screw the soft tone, he needed answers.

She paused. "Have you seen him?"

"Yes. If you have a few minutes, I need to talk to you."

She worried her bottom lip and gripped the door tightly. "Give me a minute. Come around back and we'll talk outside." This time, Hunter let the door close.

Hunter walked around to the back porch and slowly paced the walkway. Jasmine reappeared within minutes with a man by her side. "This is my husband. I only have a few minutes."

He extended his hand in greeting. "This shouldn't take long."

Her husband shook his hand then retreated to one of the seats on the porch.

Hunter was too tired for a cordial exchange, and he was on a tight time table. "Can you tell me what happened that day?"

Jasmine twisted her hands together then sat in one of the rocking chairs. "I don't know where to start."

"How about we start from the moment you called Cameron."

Jasmine took a deep breath. "I had gone out with my boyfriend on a date, and he said he needed to go by his house because he had forgotten something."

"Your boyfriend, what was his name?" Hunter knew from the red file pages, but not the official report.

"Brad."

"Bradley Mackler?"

"Yes," she said as she tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear. "We went to his place and…um…he was very aggressive with me. I freaked out, he was my first boyfriend and it was our third date. He kept pushing and I kept resisting. I finally got away from him and locked myself in the closet in his house. I called Cam from there and asked him to come get me."

Jasmine wrung her shaky hands.

"What happened when Cam arrived?"

"Brad had managed to break into the closet. I was fighting him off in the living room when Cam showed up. I guess he pushed open the front door because he was there with us seconds later. He pulled Brad off me and was getting ready to punch Brad but he stopped when he saw him. They started arguing."

Hunter cocked his head. "They argued?"

Jasmine twisted the edge of her shirt. "I didn't know." She looked up at Hunter with pleading eyes. "I didn't know Brad was Cam's boyfriend."

Hunter closed his eyes and shook his head. "Wait. Cam's boyfriend?"

"Brad had been dating Cam for months but I didn't know. I swear it! I knew Cam was gay, but I didn't know he and Brad were together. I didn't know," she added weakly as tears began to spill.

"What happened next?"

"It got really ugly. They were punching and yelling at each other. Then Brad grabbed me by the arm and Cam lost it. I broke free of his hold but he kept punching and yelling at Cam. Brad was so much bigger and he wouldn't stop. He just kept hitting him over and over again." She rocked herself in the chair with her head in her hands.

"Brad was yelling louder with each punch. I saw Brad pull out a gun and Cam fought harder, trying to keep the gun away."

She became very quiet and distant.

"I didn't know Brad had a gun with him. Brad pointed the gun at Cam's face and they fought for the gun. A shot went off. That's when Brad stopped fighting back."

"So it was just one shot?"

Jasmine nodded. "It was horrible, there was blood everywhere. I was so stupid." Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"You didn't know they were dating and you didn't know Brad had a gun."

"No, not that."

"What?"
For fuck's sake, there's more?

"I was mad at Cam. I was a stupid kid who was pissed that her brother had stolen her boyfriend and I said things to him I can't take back." She looked at him pleadingly. "I told him how much I hated him and how I didn't want to see him again."

Hunter closed his eyes and exhaled. Cameron had been the big brother, and she had turned him away when he probably needed her most. "He must have known you were upset at the time."

"I kept telling him the same thing over and over that day. I didn't realize how hurtful that was until a few years later. All I kept hearing was Brad telling Cam how he had only hooked up with me because of his father and how the only reason he could stand
me
was because I had Cam's eyes," she mumbled.

"You two do have the same eyes."

She nodded. "I wonder how he's doing, if he's okay, if he hates me. I hated myself so much for the things I said to him. He was alone in there and it was my fault," she finished on a sob.

"What about your father?"

Jasmine looked up at him. "I never saw him again. He showed up that day after I called him and told him what happened. He left after they took Cam. I was all by myself there. The police took me home. My father never came back and I didn't know what was going on with Cam. The next day, there was a knock at the door. That's when two cops told me my dad had disappeared and my brother was arrested. Since we didn't have any other family, I was put in a foster home until I was eighteen."

"You were fifteen at the time. Why didn't you go see him after you were eighteen?"

"I tried to visit him once, a few years ago, after I finally got the nerve up to face him. I didn't think he'd want to see me again. So I didn't push. And I know it would have been too hard to see him like that. I was so stupid. I was so consumed with the thought of Brad cheating on
me
with Cam that I didn't realize it was the other way around. That Cam had walked in on
his
sister and cheating boyfriend."

Hunter had heard enough. He clenched his jaw repeatedly. Why hadn't she tried harder all these years to offer Cam any sort of support in what was probably the worst set of years of his life?

"I need to go."

She stood quickly. "When you see Cam, please tell him I want to apologize…that I want to see him if…if he'd let me," she finished quietly. "I can't make up for what I said or those lost years. I don't expect him to forgive me. But I need him to know that I
am
sorry for the things I said and for how much I hurt him."

"They never took your statement. Would you be available to come down to Miami if needed?"

"Absolutely."

Hunter nodded. "I'm going to hold you to that," he said sternly.

He thanked them for their time and headed back to his car.

With this last minute detour, home was now a day's drive. He sighed. He couldn't do that trip even if he wanted to in his current state. Instead, he drove to a nearby hotel just outside of town.

Later that night as the fatigue seeped into his soul, Hunter knew one thing with the greatest of certainty.

If someone was going to try to take Cam away from Hunter, then they damn sure had one hell of a fight coming.

Hunter sat in his car at eight in the morning the next day and battled with himself on how best to approach Cameron with what he had learned. He needed to understand. Cameron was guarded and it was obvious he had a little bit of a temper simmering just beneath the surface—but he wasn't the criminal his case made him out to be.

He ran his hands through his hair. He was exhausted, mentally and physically. He hadn't been able to get more than a few hours' sleep in the hotel.

He drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel. He'd played this out a thousand different ways but nothing sounded right. He pushed his head back against the head rest.

"Damn it," he muttered. There was no perfect way to talk about this.

"Fuck it." He straightened and switched off the engine of his car. He looked over to the diner and saw three men dressed in suits at the counter. Hunter stiffened. He didn't need to distinguish their faces to know they were the same three men, the attorneys, who had accompanied Carlos Ortega during his case.

Hunter intently watched as they spoke with Lucy. His heart pounded madly in his chest watching each shake of Lucy's head in response. Moments later, Bill joined her, with crossed arms. The three men left the diner, said a few words to each other, then went their separate ways.