Page 120 of Gunner

“I don’t know, Gunner. I mean, if he’d wanted you to know, he would’ve told you.”

I groaned. “Fuck that, Jamie. I’m worried about him, okay?”

“You are?”

“Yes. I…I care about him. I just want to know he’s okay.”

“He’s in the hospital,” he said. “Uncle Ben was attacked while he was trying to interrogate that biker, Fox. Someone posed as a doctor and suffocated Fox to shut him up, and Uncle Ben walked in on it. He was stabbed in the side.”

Someone had stabbed my Ben? “How is he?”

“He’s doing fine. The knife didn’t nick anything important, and considering he was already at the hospital, we were able to give him medical attention quickly. We needed to monitor him overnight, but he should be discharged sometime today.”

Thank fuck.

“Is he dead?”

“Who? Fox? Pretty much.”

“The one who stabbed Ben.”

“Oh. Him? No. He’s in police custody.” In other words protected by the system. I could still get my message across while he was in lockup, but I needed him to say Ben’s name before he took his last breath.

“I see.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to see Ben.”

“And then?”

“And then I’m going to kill the bastard who hurt him.”

“Good. Uncle Ben means a lot to me, Gunner. I won’t stand for anyone hurting him. That includes you.”

For a second, I heard his father in him. Jamie thought he was so different from Mason, but he wasn’t. Not really. He had a sense of justice but would still kill for the people he cared about.

“I won’t hurt him,” I said. Not again.

“You really care about him, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“That makes me happy. You’re just what he needs. Take good care of him.”

It should make no difference to me what Jamie thought, but him giving his blessings strengthened my resolve. Ben and I would get through this. We had to.

When I walked out of the clubhouse, Zeus whined in protest, but Chris distracted him so I could leave. I hopped onto my motorcycle and sped off to the hospital. Finding Ben wasn’t hard. The cop stationed at his room door insisted I couldn’t see him. Would knocking him out with my fist be worth it?

A heavily pregnant woman walked out of Ben’s room.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Nothing for you to worry about, Mrs. Boone,” the cop said. “Everything is under control here. No one is going to get past me.”

“Who are you?” she asked. “I’m Ben’s sister.”

“I’m Gunner. Ben’s…” I glanced at the cop, not wanting to voice what I was to Ben in front of him. He might be pissed at me, but I refused to ruin his career.

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