Gunner
My first stop in town is the mattress store. It’s fucking ridiculous, all the kinds of mattresses they have, I finally chose a medium firm one and pay extra to get the California King delivered the next day. I may be leaving town for a few days but I want Riley to be able to stay at her new place and not go back to the house she was raised in.
Next, I head towards the clubhouse. It’s surprisingly dead; Betsy, one of the Girlies, is upfront cleaning and quietly greets me.
“Who’s in back?” I ask, stopping to get a Coke at the bar.
“Jas came in a little while ago. It was crazy here last night so I don’t know if Vice is up yet. Where’ve you been Gunner?” She asks giving me a smile and a wink. “Deb’s been keeping an eye out…”
“I’m taken now, Betsy, so knock that shit off and tell the others,” I growl as I walk past her, not missing the shocked expression on her overly made-up face and it occurs to me I haven’t seen Riley in makeup yet.
Heading back to Jasper’s office, I knock even as I’m walking through the door. He’s alone and does not look happy.
“Good. Gotta talk to you. Sit the fuck down.” He starts.
“What’s up, Boss?” Expecting fallout from hitting Frank, it actually turns out to be worse.
“Someone’s skimming. I know Flint was always good with the books and I either need him to check these out or get someone voted in as Treasurer.”
“Yeah, but we can’t get anyone in as Treasurer until we know who’s cheating us.” I put in, addressing the downside first.
“Bingo. And why the Fuck did you hit Frank? I didn’t need to hear about that shit on top of dealing with this.” He grins at me, letting me know he doesn’t give a shit that Frank got hit.
“He touched my…my Riley. I was out of line, I’ll talk to him.” I quickly concede defeat about that topic.
“You claim someone I don’t know about, Gunner? Then we will have a big fucking problem.” Jas sits back in his chair.
“Not yet. I’m going to claim her in the next month or so, depending on how we are. I was going to talk to you today. Can I lay it out?” At his nod, I start to tell him the short version. Including whom her family is and that she came here the other day not knowing the score and that lead to Frank thinking she was fair game. Before I can tell him about her Gram, I notice Jasper’s head goes back and he stares at the ceiling like he’s begging for patience, so I stop talking.
“Get the FUCK out of here.” He finally says. “After all the shit that went down with the Spiders, now we’re short nearly ten grand and you come in here wanting to claim fucking Maddock’s daughter as your goddamn Ol’ Lady?” Slamming his hand on the desk when I try to speak, “Don’t say a motherfucking word right now or I will fucking ban her ass from the clubhouse.” Jasper seethes.
I sit back in my seat, keeping eye contact. Jasper and I have always been close, even more so since I handled Emma’s ex-husband; so his goddamned threat pisses me off.
Flint enters the room without knocking. “Got your message, what’s happening?” He starts before taking in the angry looks on both our faces. Then he pats me on the back in greeting and sits beside me. “Bree told me she met your girl the other night; she thinks you’ll do well together.”
Jasper pushes back from the desk, leaning over it.
“Yeah, let’s start with that, Flint.” He bites out. “Did Bree happen to mention that the girl’s father is the Special Attorney investigating our asses? That the parts of this town the MC doesn’t own, her family does? Because I am not fucking amused right now.”
Flint’s jaw drops open and he stares at me like he’s never seen me before.
“Fuck. Gunner.” I’ve always looked towards Flint as a father figure, but even he looks like he wants to skin me right now. “Tell me you didn’t knock her up. Tell me you aren’t that stupid.”
“Can I talk?” I ask, lifting an eyebrow in Jasper’s direction. With his nod, I continue. “My Riley isn’t pregnant and her Gram knows about us. I’ve known Eileen Riley since I was a child and went to her to ask for fucking permission to be with her granddaughter nearly a year ago. I had to wait until she turned eighteen,” I pause while Flint and Jas start swearing again. Louder and getting more pissed by the minute, I carry on.
“She’s smart, in her second year at the University already. She’s not close to her parents and moving into her own place this week, her Gram actually set up a way to help her become independent of them. And I trust her. I trust her with my life.”
Jas leans across the desk, “Just so we’re crystal. Fucking. Clear on this one point: you didn’t lay a goddamn finger on her before she turned eighteen, did you?”
“Fuck you for asking me that!” I snarl, lunging towards him before Flint gets between us.
Flint glares us back to our seats. “Jasper, you and I both know Gunner wouldn’t do that.” He sighs, running his hand over his face. “This is a whole new world of trouble, Gunner. Shitty relationship with her parents or not, when they find out you’re banging their princess, they WILL come after us harder. All of us.”
I sit silently, refusing to mention that we haven’t actually had sex yet. Suddenly worried they’d order me away from her if they knew. “I’ve been loyal to the MC since the day I walked in. I’ve never asked for anything.” I keep my tone even and sit looking back and forth between them. “I need her.”
Jasper exhales. “Let’s table this for now.” Looking between Flint and me, he smirks and says, “The next issue doesn’t seem so bad anymore.”
Then he fills Flint and me in on what he has found, what he’s done to try to track it and gets Flint on board to audit the numbers. Handing me a list of Brothers to look into, and ordering us not to discuss either topic outside the room, he points to the door.
Flint claps me on the back again, asking me to stay for a drink. Knowing it wasn’t really a question, I head to the bar with him. Getting straight to the point, he leads with: “You know, she wouldn’t be the first girl who ran after the bad boy to get back at her parents, that’s what it was with my ex. You sure she’s worth it?”
“I’m sure,” I order a draft from the probie behind the bar and drink half of it before turning back to Flint. “I’ve talked myself in and out of this relationship a hundred times since I met her. The one thing I know is that it’s real. For both of us.”
“No one mentioned Frank getting a swing in at you, so where’d you get your shiner?” Flint asks, probably trying for a safer subject. I accept a smoke from the probie and light up, fingering the lighter Riley sent me for Christmas.
“She’s too fucking good for the likes of me, Man. I tried quitting her last night; stopping this, and she got a little pissed at me. Then we made up.” I smile over at him, enjoying the rush of nicotine through my system.
Flint starts laughing until he sees my face, then turning my head to inspect the bruise, he whistles. “You’re not shitting me, are you?”
Grinning at him, I shake my head; making him laugh harder as he finishes his drink and orders another. “Huh. Princess or not, I think I may like her.”
Vice comes out from the hall leading to the rooms, “Hey Gunner! Girlies are chattering about you; any of that shit true?”
“Leave it alone Vice, everyone knows I got a bigger dick than you.” I shoot back at him.
“That’ll be the day,” He comes up to the bar and motions for a beer. “What is it with all you assholes settling down?”
I nod at him; remembering something key, I set a reminder in my phone to order a ‘Property of Gunner’ cut for her when I leave here. Fucking gonna keep her wrapped up in that whenever she leaves the house.
“Well, better you than me, man.” I smile at his sympathetic tone, he has no idea how lucky I got. “Bring her by when you’re back, we’ll tell her how great you are.” Shit, my face goes pale at the thought.