Page 182 of Gunner

As Gunner and I entered the mess hall of the Blood Hounds clubhouse, the heavy scent of booze and cigarette smoke greeted us. Today was our wedding day, and we hadn’t told anyone save for Gerald and Bay, who we’d asked to be our witnesses. We’d done everything as planned, buying the rings and getting the marriage license. Now we were about to pretend the whole thing never happened.

The chatter and laughs died down. Was my conscience making me feel guilty about not inviting them, or had we just stepped onto a minefield of silent judgments? The hush falling over the room wasn’t characteristic of the normal rowdy mess hall.

“Is it me, or do they know?” I whispered.

“How could they?” Gunner whispered back. “What’s up?” He grinned, but the response was a lackluster “hey, man,” followed by mumbles. Something wasn’t right.

“What are you all doing?” Gunner asked. “Why are the Reapers here?”

“For no reason,” Grimm said. “Just thought we’d hang out, catch up. What’s up with you and Ben? Are those new jeans you’re wearing?”

“He cleaned his shoes too, Grimm,” Crowe said. “Look how shiny they are.”

“He even got a trim,” Saint said.

“If you ask me,” Jamie piped up from where he sat on Grimm’s lap. “He’s looking like somebody’s husband. I’ve never seen him looking this decent. And you, Uncle Ben. You’re wearing a tie.”

Gunner slapped his hand over his mouth and coughed. “Told you the tie was a bit much,” he whispered fiercely.

I glared at him. “You told me it looked great right before you—”

“Yeah, around your wrists when I fucked you before we left.”

“But then you waited for me to iron it again.”

He shrugged. “You wanted to wear the tie, so I didn’t want to say anything.”

“Trouble in paradise already?” Crowe asked. “Is the ink even dry yet?”

Gunner scowled. “Cut the crap. From all your reactions, you already know.”

“You better fucking believe we do.” Crowe rose to his feet, his eyes flashing with irritation and disappointment. “How could you get married without any of us? I thought you’d started seeing us like your brothers.”

Grimm was right behind him. “After everything, you don’t invite me to your wedding?”

“Uncle Ben, how could you? To think I asked you to walk me down the aisle!”

Gunner and I took a step back at the accusations. He held up an arm. “Back the hell up. First of all, we didn’t go through with it, and second, how the hell did you all know?”

“Doesn’t matter how we found out,” Crowe said. “What the hell do you mean you didn’t go through with it?”

Jamie gasped. “Oh no. Don’t tell me you broke up!”

“If you all would give us a moment, we’ll explain,” I said. “But you gotta give us the chance to speak. Damn.” I nudged Gunner in the ribs. “You tell them.”

“Coward,” he said, and I grinned. “Okay, so it’s true. We planned to get married at the courthouse today. We agreed to it two days ago and decided on something small and that we’d tell you after. But then Bay called us this morning saying that Gift had an ear infection so he and Gerald couldn’t be our witnesses.”

“So, you really were gonna get married without us there?” Tango asked. “I know we gave you hell, Chief, but I thought we’d worked that shit out.”

“Yes, we wanted it to be just us,” I said, rescuing Gunner from doing all the explaining. “It seemed easier at the time, but we didn’t go through with it.”

“When we got there this morning, we realized getting married without the club members present didn’t feel right, so we left.”

The tension in the room seemed to dissipate. Crowe nodded. “Good. We didn’t say anything because we wanted to respect your decision, but you’re the president of the club. Gotta at least have a bachelor party.”

I cleared my throat loudly, and they laughed.

“Don’t worry, Chief. You’ll be in on it too,” Crowe said.

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