Page 6 of Gunner

I glanced around the room. Had he gone mad?

The package twitched. I jumped to my feet, my hand on my weapon as I crept closer. What the fuck was going on?

A sharp instrument poked through the tape at the top of the box and ran seamlessly along the sealed flaps. Was someone inthe box? Logan narrowed his eyes, his face a bright red and his lips flattened into a straight line.

Slender hands pushed through the opened flaps. I tightened my grip on the gun. A dark head rose from a foam of packing peanuts, which spilled out onto the floor. Long, black hair obscured the person’s face, but then Logan’s “package” straightened.

Dear god, his torso was bare.

Bloom. One of the enforcers for the Blood Hounds Smoky Vale chapter. The peculiar one who always wore black and mostly kept to himself.

“Surprise!” he cried with his arms stretched upward. His motion rocked the box, however, and the whole thing threatened to topple over with him still inside it.

I rushed forward. And ended up with a naked boy in my arms. He wasbucknaked from his toes to his neck. Well, he wore a black choker and some armbands, but that was it. He didn’t have a stitch of clothes on.

Stunned, I looked. Maybe out of curiosity or something else, but I swept my gaze over him and felt almost guilty for it. He looked so young, his pale limbs slender but with ropy muscles.

“I’ve got him.”

Logan shoved his way toward me and took the boy from my arms. I had no reason to object, given how eagerly Bloom went. He had a wide smile on his face as he wrapped his arms around Logan’s neck, looking smug with himself.

The young man’s behavior didn’t shock me. These bikers could scarcely do anything I didn’t expect from them, but Logan’s reaction, yanking the boy from my arms, raised so many questions. Were they a thing?

“Didn’t I tell you not to come here anymore?” Logan snapped. He shrugged out of his lab coat and draped it over the young man.

“That’s why I had to improvise and disguise myself.” Bloom tilted his head back. “Did you know your security guards will no longer allow me in here?”

“Yes, that’s because I told them to bar you from the hospital. Why did you insist on doing something this ridiculous?”

Bloom pouted. “I missed you.”

Their interaction only left me more confused. The boy seemed completely besotted with Logan, but the latter responded to him tersely as if he couldn’t stand the sight of the boy.

But the way Logan had wrestled Bloom from my arms left a niggle of doubt. What the hell was going on here?

“This is beyond ridiculous.” Logan stepped back from Bloom. “I already told you I don’t want you. Why is that so difficult for you to comprehend?”

“It’s not so difficult.” The boy shrugged. “It’s just that it doesn’t matter because I’ve decided I want you.”

“Insufferable.” Logan spun around to me. Did Bloom give up? Nope. He wrapped his arms around the doctor’s middle from behind. Logan spoke to me as if the boy wasn’t clinging to him like a vine. “I’m sorry, Ben, but I need to deal with this situation once and for all. I’ll get in touch if there’s additional news.”

I nodded. “You know, if you really want to get rid of him, I can walk you through filing for a restraining order against him.”

Bloom’s expression changed from soft to hard in a flash. His face, so animated earlier when seeing Logan, turned cold, his eyebrows wrinkled, and his lips twisted in anger.

“Who asked you?” he said way too calmly for my liking. “Don’t think because Gunner is working with you, it’ll save you when the time comes. Dr. Collier is my business and has nothing to do with you.”

My hackles rose, and I opened my mouth.

“Ben, he’s not… It’s useless arguing with him.” Logan took Bloom by the wrist. To my trained eye, it seemed like a warning,but Bloom took it as an invitation to cuddle up under the doctor’s arm. “Don’t take the things he says to heart. I’ll deal with it.”

Logan spoke with conviction, but something about how he treated the boy didn’t sit right with me. Why hadn’t he taken up my offer to use a restraining order against Bloom if he really hated the attention the boy paid him?

“You have my number if anything changes.” I walked to the door and couldn’t help looking over my shoulder. “Be careful of pretty faces, Logan. He’s one of them and can’t be trusted.”

Something fierce flashed across the boy’s face, but I didn’t stick around to hear his retort. I closed the door quietly behind me. I didn’t leave immediately but waited for a couple of minutes. The boy didn’t come out. Neither did Logan. Shaking my head, I took my leave.

I’d tried to warn him.

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