Chapter 3
Gunner
I headed to Church. After being around them enough, I knew the Bad Disciples called their meetings that. My dad and older brother, Bryce, had attended enough of them through my lifetime for me to be familiar with the term. But I wasn’t sure what it exactly entailed. I was just following orders.
The Rusty Pelican was the Bad Disciples’ haunt, a motorcycle bar in Long Beach and when I entered, I instantly realized that the bar had been cleared of everyone except members. I still couldn’t understand why they wanted me there, why Axel had asked me here specifically. I had nothing to give them.
Axel’s hair had considerably whitened since I last saw him. He’d been good friends with dad and now he was sitting on a high stool in the middle of the bar. Some of the others were playing pool nearby, while others were sitting around drinking. The lighting was too low in the place for me to see their eyes. I preferred looking into people’s eyes. It gave me the upper hand.
“Gunner!” Glock appeared out of nowhere and thumped my back and when he said my name, an immediate hush fell in the room. I thumped Glock’s back too, glad to see my friend…but I couldn’t shake off the feeling either. The feeling that there was something not quite right.
“Axel’s been waiting to talk to you,” Glock said and I looked up at the older man. He was stocky, muscular, with a long beard that used to be dark but was turning gray now. Various tattoos snaked up his arms, and he was clad in leather vest, white shirt and worn jeans. He had fixed a cold stare on me and I looked back at him, holding his gaze.
“Axel,” I tipped my head at him, while the other members of the Bad Disciples surrounded me in a tight circle.
“Gunner,” Axel said my name in a quiet calm voice and I clenched my jaw. “What makes you think you can come back to town? Right under my nose,” he added and a deathly silence had descended upon us in the bar. I fisted my palms on my side. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I knew it couldn’t be good. Had Glock knowingly led me into a trap? I was severely outnumbered and even though I was a highly-trained killing machine, even I wouldn’t have survived an attack from all these men singlehandedly.
Axel burst out in a loud laugh, and everyone around me started laughing too.
“You should see the look on your face!” Axel laughed, slapping his knee. Glock thumped my back again and I grinned. Feeling a rush of relief flooding my body. This was their idea of a joke? They had a pretty twisted sense of humor in that case.
“Welcome home, Gunner,” Axel said and threw open his arms. Glock gave me a push and I walked to Axel and we hugged.
“Your father and brother would be so proud of you. You followed in your brother’s footsteps and served your country like a real man,” Axel said, holding me at a distance like a proud father.
“Yeah, except that Bryce never made it out of there alive,” I said, trying to keep my emotions in check. Axel stopped smiling and then quietly nodded his head.
“Your brother is missed. You know he was our brother. Just like your father was our leader. But you’ve honored their memory. You’ve lived up to their name and now we want to welcome you in,” he said and released my arms.
With my brows crossed, I looked around at the men surrounding me. Glock was standing to my side, beaming happily and with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Welcome me where?” I asked, looking at Axel again.
“Into the club, of course!” he replied and another round of laughter followed.
“I was never a part of this club, Axel. It was always just dad and Bryce,” I said and every time I said my brother’s name; I nearly winced.
“Yes, and now you have to carry on their legacy. Am I right?” Axel said and I glared at him from under my heavy eyelids.
“You have it all wrong, Axel. I don’t know what Glock has been telling you, but being a part of the Bad Disciples was never a part of my plan,” I told him and Axel took in a deep breath. The smile from his face had vanished again. A cold stern look replaced it.
“Glock didn’t have to tell me. I know whose son you are, whose brother…you have their blood running in your veins. You were always meant to be a part of this family,” Axel said and looked around at his men.
I clenched my jaw and stuck my hands into the pockets of my jeans.
“Why do you even want me here?” I asked and Axel was studying my face.
“Because you’re ready, my son. And now you have the military training that we can utilize. What will you do now, Gunner? Get a job bagging groceries? You need to use your skills how your father and brother used theirs before you. Don’t you think that is what they would have wanted for you?” He continued and my brain was working a mile a minute.
Joining the MC that dad and Bryce belonged to was never my plan. Even though I had grown up with its influence around me, I didn’t know how to operate in that environment. Bryce was heavily involved. He was just a few months away from getting patched and being made a full member of the club. He was hoping to be patched before he left for his next tour in Iraq but things didn’t work out like he wanted. I’d stayed away from the club. I wanted an education. I wanted a career. But when Bryce died, everything changed. I felt a need to follow his footsteps in the military, so I enlisted shortly after his funeral. What would he have wanted from me now? I bit back a laugh. He probably would have wanted me to join the club. Axel had brought up a good point.
“You want me to join as a full member?” I asked him and he stepped towards me again. He placed his hands on my shoulders and smiled at me, reminding me of the way dad used to smile proudly at me. I looked around the bar slightly. Being in the club was going to be the closest I could be to my family.
“We can patch you in right now if you agree, Gunner. Given your lineage, you wouldn’t need to prove yourself during the initiation process. We’ve been waiting for you to return from your tour. We’ve been waiting to have another Alton in the Club. This is what your father would have wanted for all of us,” Axel said and he pinched the flesh on my shoulders with his hands. Then he let me go, stepping back to look at me some more.
“Gunner, you don’t need to think about this. This is your destiny, man,” Glock said beside me and when I looked at him, he had an encouraging expression on his face.
I turned to Axel again and took in a deep breath. When I was younger I had fought to stay away from the club, because of what I thought it would make me become. But now, that I had been to war, and have killed, maybe this was the right path for me. Maybe it was the distraction from my thoughts that I desperately needed.
“Okay, let’s do it,” I said and a cackle of congratulations erupted in the bar. As though all these men were waiting around to hear my response.
People thumped my back, hugs were exchanged and Glock didn’t leave my side. Axel followed my every movement with his watchful eyes as I took steps into my new role as a full member of the Bad Disciples.
“C’mon men, let’s get him patched up,” Axel finally interrupted the celebrations and I nodded. Might as well strike while the iron is hot, I thought.
***
“You’re finally one of us,” Glock was saying, as we all sat around the bar drinking. The patching ceremony was over and now it was time to celebrate.
“He was one of us since he was born,” Tank said, crushing the can of beer in his hand as he emptied the last drop down his throat. I’d known these guys as acquaintances because of their association with dad and Bryce, but now I was getting to know them personally. They all respected dad, he was the one who had brought them under his wings as young new members of the club when they were in their late teens. They owed their lives to dad and were treating me like royalty.
Tank’s long brown hair shook, which he had tied into a ponytail, as he shook his head while guzzling another can of beer.
“You must have so many stories from before our time!” Hunter said, looking at me eagerly with his baby-blue eyes. He was the youngest one in the group, barely twenty-six. I was grateful for Hunter, it meant that I wasn’t going to be the youngest one around. I was older than him by a year.
“Dad didn’t talk much about the MC with me. He probably never thought I would join the group,” I said, sipping on my own beer.
“Bet he’s smiling now!” Sniper said with a laugh and Glock thumped my back encouragingly again.
“We all knew and loved your dad, Gunner. He was an inspiration,” Tank spoke again and I wondered if this guy ever smiled. He had a consistent poker face, which made him the perfect bouncer for the bar.
“And your brother…Bryce was a brother to us too,” Glock added and I nodded my head at them. I hadn’t spoken about dad and Bryce this much in a very long time…long enough for me to replace the wounds of their memories with new fresh ones.
“We’re heading out to another bar,” Sniper stood up and I noticed that the others in the bar, including Axel were picking up their leather jackets and preparing to leave.
“Let’s go, Gunner,” Glock said as he stood up and I emptied the remaining beer down my throat.
“You guys go ahead. I’m going to hit the sack early tonight,” I said and tried to smile at them so they wouldn’t see just how weird I was feeling. At Church, with people who knew dad and Bryce so well. It was like I was walking around their ghosts. I needed some time and space to straighten out my thoughts.
“Are you kidding?” Hunter said and it was Axel who stepped in then.
“Let him be, boys. Gunner, we’ll see you when we see you. You’re dismissed for the night,” Axel said and I tipped my head at him again.
“Night,” I said and left the bar, thankful to be able to step outside again. I watched as the others got on their noisy motorcycles and started riding away. I smiled and waved at Glock as I put on my own helmet and jumped up on my bike.
Even though dad and Bryce had kept me away from the club, they had damn well taught me the biker way of life. Hell, I had been on my first bike before I even knew how to walk. Maybe this was what I needed. I had the tattoos, I had the bike and I had a family legacy…maybe joining the Bad Disciples was what was missing from my life and I just didn’t know it.
I rode away from the bar, in the direction of my apartment, with the voices of the men ringing in my ears. This had to be for the best. I could feel close to my family again, especially since they had welcomed me in with open arms.
I slowed down just a block away from my apartment, when I noticed that PJ’s was still open. It was a small dive bar I used to frequent before I left for Afghanistan. It was a quiet place with a crowd who liked to keep themselves to themselves.
Who was I kidding? There was no way I was getting any sleep. I decided to stop and have a drink by myself before I went back to the apartment.
Parking my bike along the pavement, I walked into the bar with my helmet still on. I took it off my head as I went straight towards the counter, and that was when I saw her. Our eyes met and I knew she was the sexiest thing I had ever set my eyes on.