Gunner got dressed quickly to follow Tammy. He had no idea how you take back those three little words, but he felt compelled to try to do some kind of damage control. He was almost out of the room when his phone rang. He debated letting it go to voice mail but when he looked at the face of it and saw that it was a San Antonio number, he was curious.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Davis, this is Detective Samuels.”

“Detective, what can I do for you?”

“I was actually looking for Miss Covey. She’s not answering her phone.”

“Is her brother okay?”

“He’s fine—well, as far as I know. I haven’t had any updates from the hospital. I just have a few more questions for her. You wouldn’t know anything about a ferry that exploded in Corpus Christie last week, would you?”

“Corpus Christie? I haven’t been up there since…”

“Since the night I arrested you?”

“Right, five years.”

“Hmm. Well, I have reason to believe that Miss Covey was there recently. I’d appreciate that call back ASAP.”

Fuck. “Sure, Detective, like I said, as soon as I see her.”

“Thank you, and Mr. Davis, one more thing…”

“What’s that?”

“I do a lot of work with gang task forces around the country and if I had to pick one to associate myself with…only if I had to pick one…I’d be in Massachusetts right now if I were you instead of Texas.”

“Thanks, Detective, I’ll keep that in mind.” Gunner ended the call and shook his head. Tammy wasn’t going to be thrilled about talking to the detective again. He suddenly remembered that he needed to find her, stuck the phone in his pocket, and headed out. He was almost to the great room when he heard Tammy’s voice. He stopped outside the door it was coming from and listened.

“My problem with being with a biker is that I already know they won’t ever tell me the full story, about anything. I swore to myself I’d never be with a club member for that reason. I hate always being in the dark. I hate that they expect me to be a part of all of this, but only the part they want, or allow me to be. Then I meet this guy and I start having feelings for him…shit. I’m so stupid. I let myself believe it was just fun…just good times to get me through all the bullshit that’s been going on. When Tommy got hurt, I swore that when he was better I was getting as far away from here as I could. How do I reconcile that with these fucking feelings I’m having?”

She was talking about him. She did have feelings for him, but she didn’t want to. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Another woman’s voice, one that sounded slightly familiar to him, said:

“Loving someone means trusting them, Tammy. Do you trust your daddy and your brother?”

“I don’t know. I always feel like there is so much they’re not telling me.”

“Everything this club does is for us…their family. We don’t need all the details of what they’re doing every minute. They do their job and keep us safe and they’d never do anything to hurt us.”

“I was kidnapped and nearly sold into white slavery and Tommy is lying in the hospital fighting for his life because of this ridiculous war. They might not mean for us to get hurt, but we do.”

“This war started the second Eddie and his goons put their hands on you. Randall held off for a long time, but he wasn’t going to stand for anyone hurting you.”

“Are you saying this war is my fault?”

“Of course not. But I am saying that your father and your brother and the rest of this club are fighting for you. Yet you still don’t trust them, or anyone else that wears a patch, or wants to.”

“Shouldn’t trust go both ways?” Tamara asked. “I’ve been a part of all of this for longer than a lot of Dad’s enforcers, and by your own admission, this has a lot to do with me, so how can anyone ask me to blindly trust people that don’t trust me enough to tell me what the hell is going on?”

The other woman sighed loudly. “The fact that you’ve been a part of this for so long, and you still refuse to get it, is what frustrates me and everyone else so badly. This is the way the club operates. It’s the way they have always operated. What happens here, stays here. They tell us, their wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, and old ladies, as much as they need to tell us to keep us safe. We don’t talk to outsiders and we don’t talk to the cops. It’s the way it has always been and will always be, and if you can’t get that then maybe you do need to go somewhere far away and take that man with you before he gets a patch of his own, because I guarantee you that once he does, his loyalty will be to this club first.” She paused for a second and then said, “Don’t look at me like that, you’re the one that said it in the first place. You’re obviously not going to be happy with a man that puts club first because you can’t seem to understand that club first means family first…and family means you.”

“They just make it so hard. Other men go to work and come home and their women don’t have to worry about what they did, who they hurt, or who is looking to hurt them while they’re gone. I’ve seen way too many young women made into widows and kids made into orphans because their man was loyal to this or some other club; because he put this club first.”

Mona! That’s the voice. “His family,” Mona said. “This club is his family and that includes the widow and the orphan for life. Putting club first means putting family first.”

“Can I ask you a personal question, Mona?”

“Sure.”

“Let’s put aside the secrecy for a minute. How do you live with what you know Swinger is capable of? They might not tell us everything, but we both know from what we see and hear around here that they are capable of some really bad stuff. And when that bad stuff is all over for the night, they’ll come back here and celebrate by drinking, smoking, and fucking. I don’t know how they can simply put aside torture and murder, and act like nothing ever happened. How do you make love to a man at night knowing he’s probably alive because someone else is dead?”

“Like I said, I trust him. I trust him to do whatever he has to do, to come home to me in one piece. I guess where you and I differ is that I genuinely don’t care what that is, as long as in the end he’s here with me and we’re all safe. Listen, Tammy, I’ve said this before: if you had grown up here, your views would probably be different, but you grew up in an entirely different world so understandably, you’re confused. We are all capable of doing bad things if our family or our lifestyle is threatened. Swinger is a good man and so was my son.”

Tammy sighed. “Mona, please don’t make this about Zack…”

“You never made anything about Zack. That’s why he left.”

Tammy laughed. “Zack’s leaving didn’t have a thing to do with me and you know it. That was all on Swinger.”

“He loved you, and a woman who loves her man keeps him satisfied so that he doesn’t need to stray. His issues with Swinger could have been resolved if he would have stayed. He left because of you.”

“I’m not going to…” Her next words were cut off as Gunner was grabbed from behind. The arm around his throat was huge and he knew right away that it belonged to 8Ball before the man spoke:

“Eavesdropping, you little rat?”

Gunner swung back with his elbow and connected with the big SOB’s ribs. 8Ball let go of his throat as he doubled over and Gunner turned around swinging. His fist connected with the side of 8Ball’s face, and blood flew from his nose and sprayed the wall.

“What’s going on?” Tamara pulled open the door, and she and Mona stood gaping. 8Ball didn’t stay doubled over long and he came back at Gunner, who met him with an uppercut that snapped his head back. Gunner was moving in for the knockout punch when 8Ball reached into his vest and pulled out his gun.

“8Ball, what the fuck are you doing?” Mona yelled. “Put that away.”

With blood streaming out of his nose, and down the side of his mouth, he looked at Gunner with dark, feral eyes and said, “I’m going to kill you, you little fuck.”

“Go ahead,” Gunner said with more bravado than he was feeling. “You can’t fight me like a fucking man so go ahead and shoot me like the pussy you are.”

8Ball slid the safety off the gun. “Stop this!” Tamara screamed. “Have you lost your mind? You’re going to just murder him in cold blood right in front of us?”

“Stay out of it, Tammy,” 8Ball told her. “You don’t know what’s been going on around here. We have a fucking rat in this club and the smell of it right now is making me sick. You, boy, are going to turn around and walk down that hall and outside, or I’ll shoot your rat bastard ass right here.”

8Ball thought he was a rat? At least that made more sense than still being pissed about him fucking his skank of a girlfriend, Gunner supposed. “I’m not going anywhere with you as long as you have that gun pointed at me. You can either walk outside and fight me like a fucking man, or you can shoot me right here.”

“Gunner…”

“I’m sorry Tammy, but he and I need to finish this once and for all, one way or the other.” Gunner was banking on the fact that he didn’t believe 8Ball would shoot him there in the clubhouse with the women watching and the old ladies and kids in the next room. If he was a praying man, he might have said a prayer that he was right. 8Ball kept the gun pointed at him long enough for Gunner to realize he’d probably made a mistake. 8Ball looked like he wouldn’t have any qualms about dropping him where he stood. Gunner would never know for sure, thankfully, because Swinger came around the corner just in time.

“What the fuck is going on?” 8Ball was the one with the gun, yet Swinger’s eyes were focused on Gunner’s face.

“8Ball was thinking about blowing my head off in front of the ladies here. Whoever gave him his road name obviously wasn’t aware that he has no balls at all.”

Swinger narrowed his eyes at Gunner and then finally turned his attention on 8Ball. “Put the gun away.”

“Swinger, he’s your rat. Think about it. After he showed up Malcolm ended up dead and Tamara was taken. Then he knows right where to go and find her when the rest of the club is tearing up the city looking. Then he saves her and acts like the fucking hero. What better way to get a woman to want you, huh? Save her life and she’s yours forever. Especially if you’re feeding information to club enemies that gets her brother shot and her father almost run down. Hell, maybe he’s thinking he’ll get a spot on your executive board after it’s all over.”

“My father? What happened to my father? What the hell are you talking about?” Tammy was confused.

Swinger was still staring at 8Ball, who finally lowered the gun, before he turned to Tammy and said, “Your father and his enforcers were leaving the hospital last night when a black Mercedes barreled up, took out his bike, and just narrowly missed taking him out.”

“Oh my God. He’s okay though?”

“He got a little road burn, but he’s fine. He refused to be seen in the ER and cleared out before the law showed up. He still went along on the ride last night. He’s only interested in finding the man that shot Tommy, or Eddie Martini, or both.”

Before Tamara could say anything else 8Ball said, “Don’t you see? This ‘war’ is supposed to be between Eddie and the club yet the only people being targeted here is your family. You ever known the club to be in a war when you weren’t patching up one gunshot wound after the other? They’re not even aiming for the rest of us, just your dad and Tommy.”

“You’re off base about Gunner,” Tammy said softly. Gunner got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. She didn’t really sound like she believed that.

“8Ball might be off base, blaming your boyfriend…” Swinger started.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Tammy interrupted him.

She might as well have punched Gunner in the gut. For her to protest that strongly in the middle of the conversation that he wasn’t her boyfriend said a lot. “Whatever,” Swinger said, making it obvious he didn’t give a shit. “As I was saying, off base or not, I can understand his concern. That ambush on Tommy was carried out with precision. They knew when our boys would be at the front gates and they knew what position Tommy would be riding in. The same thing with the attempt to run Randall down. That car was ready to roll the very second he stepped outside, and you, Tamara, your dad told me that the day they snatched you was the first time you’d been alone in that house in over a week.” He looked back at 8Ball. “You know this isn’t the way to handle it. If this is the way your chapter in Brownsville handles shit, then you can just get your stuff together and ride on home today. If you suspect him, you bring it to the table…to me. This is my club. Nobody makes a decision to take anyone out without going through me first.”

8Ball actually looked remorseful. “I’m sorry, Swinger. He just really pisses me off, especially when I see Tammy falling for his bullshit.”

“Who or what I ‘fall for’ is none of your business, 8Ball.”

“Enough,” Swinger said. “Both of you.” He looked at Gunner and said, “Randall and the men are on their way back in now. When they get here I’ll send for you. Stay in your room until then.” Gunner’s first impulse was to try to defend himself. Their accusations were ridiculous. He looked at Tammy and she almost imperceptibly shook her head. She knew what he was thinking, but she obviously knew Swinger well enough to know he’d just be making matters worse. He kept his mouth shut and shoved past 8Ball on his way to his room. He was almost there when Swinger said, “Hey!” Gunner stopped and turned around. “I need your phone.”

“My phone? Why?”

Swinger didn’t answer him. He didn’t even change his expression. Gunner knew why. If he was ratting on them and they’d found out, he’d want his phone to make arrangements to get away from the clubhouse. They were probably also hoping to find evidence on his phone that he had called someone that worked for Eddie. They could look. There was nothing for them to find. Gunner was handing the phone to Swinger before he remembered the call to the detective. Swinger pulled it out of his hand before he could do or say anything else. He swallowed the lump in his throat, looked at Tammy one more time, and went back into his own room. As soon as he closed the door he said, “Fuck!” out loud.