Page 19 of Gunner

Dread filled my stomach. I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat. “How did you get in here?”

“Relax. It’s not like I broke the window and let myself in.”

I glanced at the single window in the room. He was too broad to fit through, which meant…

“One of my officers let you in here?”

He shrugged. “I informed them I had urgent news to share with the acting chief, and they told me I was free to wait for you inside your office. I must say, Witter, your staff doesn’t seem to like you. Why else would they have let me in here when they know who I am?”

“I am not here to be liked.”

I stalked over to the file cabinet, unlocked it, and jammed the file into the front, not checking it was in its rightful place. A slurping sound echoed behind me. Gunner was guzzling down my grape soda.

“Ah,” he said. “How refreshing, though that’s a lot of sugar on the job, don’t you think? Must be some fat underneath that uniform of yours.”

“Get out of my chair!” I thundered, not caring if the whole office heard me. “You have no right barging into my office when I’m not here.”

As if I hadn’t spoken, Gunner grabbed the paper bag and dug up a handful of fries. “I just followed instructions. You have a problem with me being here, take it up with your staff. They told me I could wait here.” He gestured at the bag. “Soda, fries, burger? This how you eat every day? That’s some unhealthy shit right there.”

Dear god, after enforcing the law for the past eighteen years, I was about to commit my first murder.

“Now wait one damn minute.” Gunner jumped to his feet as though sensing he was a second away from death. “You’d better direct that anger rightfully. How is it my fault they let me in? I think that’s a bigger problem than me.”

I loathed how right he was. How could they have escorted him into my office and left him alone? They weren’t even hiding how little regard they had for me anymore.

“Why are you here? Do you have the list?”

Gunner held up a finger. “One second.” He took my burger from the paper bag, unwrapped it, and took a bite. “Hmm.” His moan was of deep satisfaction, seeming to ripple through me. “You don’t mind me having another bite, do you?”

Without a word, I waited out all this pettiness and childish behavior. When he’d consumed all but a single bite, he wrapped it up and dropped it into the paper bag. He took another long slurp of the drink that ended with a loud burp.

“’Cuse me.” He patted his stomach. “You’ve been an amazing host.”

“The list.” How I managed to make my voice neutral when all I wanted was to throttle him was beyond me. We were basically the same height, but I was a little wider in the shoulders.

I could take him.

“Like I said, I can’t give you a list.” I reached for my holster.

“But I have a name.”

I dropped my hand.

He grinned. “Got your attention now, did I?”

“Look, you prick. I know all this bullshitting you’ve been doing is to get back at me for picking you up years ago. You can take it out on me all you want, but I won’t play your game when it comes to this case. Too many lives are at risk. The longer you fuck around, the more likely one more child is being sold.”

Gunner walked around my desk and perched his ass on the edge. “You have the nicest way to ask for something while calling me names.”

“Calling you names?” I laughed. “Prick is the least of the things I would like to call you.”

“By all means, call me them.” He walked past me, deliberately putting very little distance between us so our shoulders bumped. “Pick me up at the club at nine tonight.” He marched to the door.

“Wait. You still haven’t given me a name.”

“So you can be done with me? Well, I’m not through with you yet, Witter. Pick me up like I said, and I’ll take you to the source.”

Gunner closed the door behind him. I smacked my fist into the palm of my other hand, over and over, until the flesh turned numb. I imagined my palm as Gunner’s face and what I wanted to do to it, but I would have to wait until I got answers from him. And when I had no more use for him, he would wish he’d never met me.

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