Gunner

 

Pounding. All I heard was pounding on the goddamn front door. Shit, my head was fucking killing me . . . I looked at the clock and it said 1:30 a.m. I left Rebels at 10:00, came straight home, and started drinking hard. I must have passed out around 12:30 a.m. At least that’s the last time I looked at the clock.

Pounding again. Fuck, make it fucking stop!

“I’m fucking coming, Jesus Christ.”

I opened the door and saw Brad standing there. What the fuck was he doing here?

“Jesus, Gunner, are you drunk?” he said as he pushed his way in.

I let out a laugh. “Not nearly drunk enough, dude, not nearly enough.”

“Where the fuck is your cell phone?” He looked around and saw it sitting on the coffee table. I turned it off around midnight when Ari kept fucking calling me over and over.

Brad turned it on while I walked over the kitchen to get a beer.

“You want a beer, man, or something harder?” I said with a laugh.

Just then I heard my phone beeping like crazy with notifications. What the hell?

“Gunner, I need you to listen to me.” He took the beer from my hand and looked at me. It was the first time I ever saw fear in his eyes.

“Oh my God, did something happen to my cousin?”

Brad shook his head at me.

“Your cousin is fine, Gunner, she and James are back at their hotel. But there’s been an accident.”

My heart started to pound . . . oh God, please no.

“Who?”

Brad swallowed hard. He ran his hand through his hair and when he looked at me again he had tears in his eyes. Holy fuck, this was going to be bad.

“It’s . . . it’s Ellie, Gunner. She was in a car accident earlier and is at Brackenridge Hospital. Jeff got a call around midnight, and we’ve been trying to call you. I left the hospital to come find you.”

Ellie . . . in an accident. I felt like I was going to pass out.

“Whoa, Gunner, sit down, man. Take it easy for a second.”

I was instantly sober. I needed to get to her . . .

Now!

“No, I need to get to her now, Brad! Is she going to be okay? What happened? Who was driving?”

I was going to fucking kill Jon Baker if that asshole was driving.

Brad grabbed my wallet and we headed out to his truck. Once we got in his truck, I started asking if she was okay again.

“I don’t know how she’s doing. They had her in surgery when I left.”

Surgery?

“Surgery? What did she need surgery for?” Oh my God, my heart was pounding and my chest was killing me. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. What if something happened to her? I didn’t tell her I loved her, I told her we were done. She thought I walked away from her. She thought I left her, and I had promised I would never leave her or hurt her. I thought I was going to throw up.

“Brad, what happened?”

“Um, they think she might have swerved to miss a deer but she ended up hitting a tree—”

“Wait. Ellie was driving? Where the hell was she going?”

“She was coming here, Gunner, to find you. After you left Rebels, all fucking hell broke loose. It turns out that Ari and Ellie were at the Driskill with Amanda. They were there looking at ballrooms and shit for the wedding. Ari and Ellie saw you standing outside a room and then saw some girl jump into your arms and y’all kissed and then you walked into the room with her. That’s when Ellie flipped out, Gunner, and thought you were cheating. She had no idea that was your cousin Shannon. She thought you were meeting James. Then when they saw Shannon at Rebels and Jeff told them she was your cousin, Ellie just lost it. Ari said she was screaming for Ari to give her the car keys so she could go after you. I guess Jon was not having it and kept trying to pull Ellie back on the dance floor before Jeff got sick of it and punched the shit out of him. Then Jon went after Jeff, and while that was all going down, Ellie got the keys from Ari and she took off.”

Holy fuck. It was all making sense. No wonder Ellie freaked out. Shannon had surprised the shit out of me and jumped into my arms and wrapped her legs around me like she always did when we saw each other. Did she kiss me?

Fuck, she did. It was quick, but it was a kiss on the lips.

“Brad, please get there.” I leaned my head back on the seat. My Ellie, I needed to be with her. She was coming after me. Oh God, please don’t take her away from me.

Please . . .