The day after Gunner and Tammy had sex in the shower at the gym, he left her sleeping and went for his workout. Raymond had him spar with four young guys, one right after the other. He was proud of himself when he didn’t start getting winded until the fourth one. Of course, Raymond had to remind him that his fourth fight on Saturday night was going to be the worst one. Raymond didn’t need to remind him. Gunner remembered all too well what that big Indian’s fist felt like when it slammed into him. He was working on the defensive technique that Raymond kept on his back about. Red Crow was big and tough, but if Gunner remembered correctly, he didn’t have all that much stamina. He figured the big guy was going to go in for the kill right away. Gunner would just have to be ready to out-dance him and wear him down.

When he got back to the clubhouse, Tammy was still sleeping. He smiled at how peaceful and beautiful she looked. He was tempted to wake her up. They’d had crazy sex in the locker room and then they’d come back and had more in their room before finally collapsing after midnight. She had every right to be tired. He was exhausted, but he needed a shower and something to eat. He decided to leave her alone, showered quietly, and slipped out to get something from the kitchen to eat. He was hoping the old ladies had cooked something for lunch, but he saw when he walked into the kitchen that he wasn’t going to be so lucky. There was nothing on the stove and Zack was sitting at the stainless-steel table, talking on the phone.

When he saw Gunner, he said:

“I’ll have to call you back,” and ended his call. “Hey, man.” Gunner hadn’t run into him since the day they went to the bar and he watched Zack shoot and kill a man. It was self-defense, Gunner told himself. He hated to admit it, but he had kind of a grudging respect for Zack after watching how quickly and coolly he’d put the guy down. But he was still confused about why he’d been there in the first place.

“Hey,” Gunner said, going over to the refrigerator. Zack got up out of his chair and went over to slap Gunner, way too hard, on his aching back.

“How’s it hanging?”

Gunner sighed, “Not really in the mood, Zack.” Zack chuckled, as usual. Gunner got what he needed out of the refrigerator to make a sandwich and took it over to the counter. While he was spreading the mayonnaise on his bread Zack said:

“So, how’s the training going? I haven’t talked to Raymond for a few days. You’re lucky, though, he’s the best. You should have seen him back in the day. He was a hell of a fighter…”

Gunner cut him off. “It’s going fine.”

Zack grinned. “Only three days left to train.”

Gunner tried to put a period at the end of his next statement that said he really didn’t want to make small talk with Zack. “Only two—I have Friday off.”

“Good deal. Are you ready?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“That wasn’t really the question.”

“I’m ready, okay?”

“Good. We both stand to make a bundle.”

“You stand to make a bundle. I stand to make enough to get the hell out of here.”

Gunner finished making his sandwich. Zack had fallen silent, and he was hoping he’d left the room. Gunner saw him sitting back at the table when he turned around. “I’m going to take this back to my room.”

“Where’s Tammy?”

None of your fucking business. “Asleep.”

“Good, she probably needs it. Let her sleep. Sit down and talk to me.” Gunner sighed wearily, but he sat down and took a bite of his sandwich. “Want a beer?”

Gunner wasn’t sure why Zack was trying to be nice suddenly, but a beer sounded good. “Sure, thanks.”

Zack went out into the bar and came back with two beers. He sat Gunner’s down in front of him and then twisted off his own cap and took a long drink before sitting back down. “Did Tammy tell you we talked the other day?”

Gunner was about to take a drink of his beer. He put it down and said, “About what?” He didn’t want to admit to Zack that she hadn’t told him, but he wanted to know what they had to talk about. Tammy had yet to tell Gunner about their history. He waffled back and forth about whether he wanted to hear it or not.

“About you. She was pissed off at me for taking you along on the ride the other day.”

“Why was that, Zack?”

“Why was she pissed?”

“No. Why was I there? What was the purpose of that?”

He raised an eyebrow. “So she didn’t tell you.”

“Can you not be a dick for five seconds and just tell me yourself?”

“Look, no matter how much hell Randall and Tommy bring into Tammy’s life, she’s never going to walk away from that mess without a hell of a lot of encouragement. Someone is out to destroy her family…put them all in an early grave. Going back there just paints a target on her forehead.”

“So that’s what you talked about? You told her this?”

“In so many words.”

“And what did that have to do with taking me to Kentucky with you?”

“Everything. You have your sights set on riding with the Southside Skulls one day. I travel a lot. I’ve been to that ranch Dax Marshall has set up out there and it’s a damned fine place. He’s taking that club in a direction that will keep the deaths and arrests to a minimum. That’s the kind of place Tammy needs to be.”

“Again, what does that have to do with taking me to that bar?”

“I wanted you to see what your life would be like riding with the Head Hunters. My father is a cruel, ruthless son of a bitch. He has no qualms about ordering someone dead, and once he does that, they’re dead. He lives for the power and glory that bloodshed brings him. If you’re a part of his club, you have to learn how to be as ruthless as he is.”

“I saw you shoot a man between the eyes and not even break a sweat.”

“Like I said, you have to learn to be cold and ruthless. I learned from the best, at an early age. Did Tammy tell you why I left?”

“No. I heard her and Mona…your mother…talking about it one day. Your mother seems to think it was because Tammy broke up with you.”

He shook his head. This was the first conversation Gunner had with him where he wasn’t smiling. The look on his face when Gunner talked about his mother was eerie, and Gunner wasn’t sure he liked it better. “She’s full of shit. She knows why I left, she just doesn’t want to admit it. She’s as cold-hearted as he is. It’s why they’ve been together for thirty years. I started riding with the club at sixteen. I was a prospect at eighteen. It was all I’d ever known. I loved motorcycles and the idea of being this badass biker. For the first couple of years I wasn’t privy to most of the club’s business, but when I turned twenty and I had my patch, Dad sent me on a run with some of the guys. My understanding was that we were delivering guns and picking up a payment. When we got there, these guys…a gang out of the city…they were told to go to the back of the van to see the merchandise. The doors opened and the gunfire almost completely deafened me. They killed six men. When it was over, the sergeant at arms and road captain took the cash the guys had brought, and ordered the rest of us to get rid of the bodies. I won’t go into details, but nobody will ever find them. That was my initiation. It only got worse from there. My father’s way of doing business is at the end of the barrel of a gun, and if anyone objects to that, he disappears just like those bodies did that day.”

Gunner had lost his appetite as he listened. He wasn’t naïve about club life, but he hadn’t imagined that Tamara lived around that kind of violence. She’d talked about patching up gunshots and stab wounds, but she hadn’t let on how often she had to do that. Zack drank more of his beer while Gunner searched for something to say. Finally, Zack went on:

“Tammy and I became a ‘thing’ when she got out of high school and lived permanently at the compound. My dad and Randall were both thrilled. I think they’d planned that since we were babies. When she was twenty-one she decided she wanted to go to nursing school. I tried to discourage her from doing that. I knew if she did, they’d just use the hell out of her and she’d never be able to leave. We got in a big fight over it and I got drunk and I fucked her best friend. That’s why we broke up. It wasn’t her fault. It was about six months later that I watched my father kill a woman. She was a club girl with an expensive addiction, and he caught her stealing. While I agreed she deserved some kind of punishment, I did not agree with the punishment he chose for her. She was tied to a tree in the woods, raped, and murdered. I left the next day. Look, Gunner, I think my father is behind these attacks on Tammy’s family. I want you to convince her to stay out of Texas. I want you to take her back east with you. If Randall dies, trust me, the world will not mourn. Tommy’s not so bad, but his fate is already hanging in the balance. But Tammy is better than that. She’s better than all of them. You’re her chance to escape. Don’t fuck it up.” Zack drained his beer while Gunner tried to process all of that. He stood up then and, morphing back into the Zack Gunner had come to know, he smiled and said, “Just so we’re clear, I really don’t like you. I’m looking forward to Saturday for more than one reason. I want my money, but I also can’t wait to see you get the shit kicked out of you.” Gunner watched him walk away. He picked up his beer and then put it down before picking up his paper plate and taking it over and depositing it in the trash. He had no idea how to talk Tammy into not going back home. She called the hospital every day and checked in with her dad as often as she could. She bitched and moaned about them, but they were her family. Coming from a place of not having one, Gunner could appreciate how hard that might be to give up. With a sigh, he tossed his beer bottle in the trash too and headed back to their room. He had three days to convince her she was in love with him and couldn’t live without him. He smiled and thought that it was a damned good thing he was so hot and good in bed. That was something to build on.