“Then if it was so fuckin' important, why didn't you use the phone to reach me?”
“Because they're listening to our phones,” Missy hissed impatiently.
Hunter's eyes widened. “Bullshit.”
Missy shook her head. “It's not bullshit. It's how they've been able to know just about everything we do almost before we even do it. Think about it.”
Hunter considered this for a moment, blinking rapidly as he processed it. “How could they even do that? An' for that matter, how do you know they did?”
“It wouldn't be hard for them,” Missy said. “They've got all the money in the world, and buying surveillance gear online is easy. They've been following us already, so they've had their guys point their little microphones in our direction and intercept our calls while they're at it. As for how I know, I figured it out from talking to Christina.”
“The hairdresser? What the hell's she got to do with anything?”
“Her mother runs the Teepee,” she replied.
Hunter sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Motherfucker. This starts off with some beating, an' the next thing you know, we've got tapped phones an' all kinds of conspiracy shit.”
“Christina reached out to me. She sounded terrified. Whatever's going on, her mother's involved somehow and she wants to meet with me tomorrow to talk about it. I'm going to do it and find out what the fuck is happening. This could be big.”
Hunter shook his head. “Bullshit. You're not going.”
Missy's jaw dropped. “What?”
“Could be a trap, just like the Teepee was. I'll send some of the guys to talk to her instead...”
“No you fucking won't!” Missy answered, trying to keep her voice down. “She's already scared. You sending over a few gorillas with patches will only put her more on edge, and you won't get anything from her. Unless you're planning to cuff some innocent hairdresser to the bed frame at the Knife and run a few thousand volts through her until she talks, but I don't think even you could possibly be that much of a cruel asshole. No, you need me to handle this. I can find out what we need to know and maybe how to make a move against Gaspar that won't blow up in our faces.”
“But what about Cain?” Hunter pleaded.
“What about him?” Missy shot back. “If he wants someone around to yell at, he's got Keith and the other guys. They can heat up chili and help him wash his hair as well as I can.”
“But they can't, though,” Hunter insisted. “Look, I get what you're sayin', okay? Someone needs to get the info out of Christina, an' you're the only one for the job. I don't like it, but I get it. But 'til then, can't you just go back an' keep helpin' Cain out, just for a little while longer? You're wrong about Keith an' the guys...they're damn good at bein' outlaws, but they don't know about bein', y'know...” Hunter searched for the right word. “...nurturin'.”
Missy couldn't believe her ears. “'Nurturing?' You've got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Yeah, 'nurturing,'” Hunter nodded. Missy could see he was struggling with his words, and with his emotions. “Like you were to me when mom an' dad died. They don't know how to be like that. Fuck, I ain't never really known no one who was, 'cept for you. An' yeah, maybe it sounds stupid, but I want Cain to have that while he gets better. I couldn't stop him from gettin' beaten on, but I can at least do this for him. I owe 'im that.”
Missy covered her face with her hands for a moment, feeling frustrated. She still wanted to say no to Hunter, but after he'd conjured up so much honesty and earnestness to convince her, she didn't have the heart to do it.
“Okay,” she said. “But just until I meet with Christina tomorrow. After that, someone else can take crap from Cain and help him on and off the couch. Deal?”
Hunter looked relieved. “Thank you. I know this wasn't what you wanted, but I appreciate it. An' when this is over, if you still wanna play a more active role in the club...”
“When this is over, Hunter, we'll both be lucky if there even is a club. Until then, let's just stay focused.”
“What the fuck are we supposed to do about the phones, though?” Hunter asked. “If they've got 'em tapped...”
“There's nothing for us to do about them right now,” she answered, “except stop using them for anything important. We shouldn't let Gaspar know that we know about it, at least until we can figure out whether there's a way to use it against him...maybe we could feed him false information or something. But for now, I'd say set up some covert meeting places to pass important information to the other Eagles when you need to, and work out some codes to use in case phones are necessary.”