Page 20 of Gunnar

I huffed out an exasperated breath, rolling my eyes. “I took college courses in high school and was fortunate enough to go to a high school with a veterinary pathway. My senior year, I took night classes. Plus, I got in a full semester before this happy horseshit happened. So I’m greener than goose shit, but recognizing an apex predator for me would be like you recognizing a lethal heart rhythm. It’s pretty basic stuff in the field.”

Pops barked out a laugh before sitting down on the couch, his stout body shaking with humor. When everyone stopped to look at him, he guffawed outright, wiping tears from his eyes as they streamed down his cheeks.

“I don’t see anything so very Goddamned funny.” Mama crossed her arms over her chest, looking for all the world like a pissed-off cat.

“She got you that time but good, Mama. You don’t admit it, I’ll call you a liar in every language I know.”

“You don’t speak anything other than English!” Mama barked at him. Had she used that tone of voice with me, I’d probably have scurried away and hid.

Pops just shrugged. “Stupid smart phone has a translator on it. I’m sure I can fumble through several different languages.”

Mama finally gave up trying to look stern and gave a small chuckle as she shook her head. “Fuck all y’all.”

“Well, what do you expect when you automatically jump to conclusions about someone?” Pops still wiped tears from his eyes and occasionally shook with quiet laughter, but his declaration was clearly a point of contention between the couple.

“It’s happened before! I’d rather piss someone off and apologize later than get caught with our pants down.”

“Christ.” Ice scrubbed a hand over his face. “You thought she’d infiltrated the club. What? Did you think she was CIA again?”

“The woman is scarily good at profiling. At least, she’s got your brother pegged better than me or Pops ever could.”

Gunnar’s gaze shifted to me. “You do?”

I shook my head, not liking the attention focused so completely on me. “I know animals. You just reminded me of some traits of animals at the top of the food chain.”

“Humans are at the top of the food chain.” Gunnar waved me off but didn’t dismiss me outright.

I studied him for several seconds, trying to figure out his angle. “You want to know what my response to that statement is?” I raised my eyebrows. “Fine. No. Humans aren’t at the top of the food chain. At least not with all things being equal. Technology allows us to be at the top. Technology we invented but have become so dependent on we can’t survive without it. You take a small group of people and put them in the wild. Even give them decent shelter, but make them go without any sort of technology, and they might last a short while, but the environment will get them every time. And that’s not with a big cat hunting them. There aren’t many people who can survive on their own in the wild for long. Maybe a few months. Maybe as long as a year. The skills to do that are no longer bred into us.” I lifted my chin at him. “That’s your answer. The more feral a person is, the farther up the food chain he goes.”

Gunnar cocked his head, amusement on his face. “You sayin’ I’m feral?”

“Tell me you didn’t feel feral at times when you were in prison, and I’ll take it back.”

That got his attention. He glanced from me to Mama and back. “All right. I see your point. She is good.” He grinned. “Ought to make life interesting.”

Chapter Eight

Gunnar

Surprisingly, my father didn’t make an appearance before me and Pippa took off with Chains and Hawk. I sat in the back with Pippa and she’d leaned against my shoulder and slept most of the two-and-a-half-hour drive. If the situation had been different, I’d have loved to have made this ride with Pippa on the back of my bike. You know. If I had a bike. Something I’d have to make a top priority if I was gonna live in an active MC.

The sun was just peeking over the horizon when we rolled into the Kiss of Death compound. I had no idea how the club had acquired this area or how much land and construction it owned, but the compound consisted of fenced-in city blocks. Multiple blocks. Nothing but three-story warehouses occupied the spaces. Not in neat rows to maximize the space, but set up seemingly at random. Each building looked exactly alike, though each building had a different purpose. You couldn’t tell from the outside what was on the inside. From what I could tell, Torpedo ran a tight ship. There wasn’t a vehicle outside on the paths or in any kind of parking lot not under cover. Even the paths were camouflaged from above. Once someone entered the compound, it was impossible to see where they went, even from the air.

Hawk wound his way under the fixed camouflage netting, the Humvee barely fitting between some of the buildings. He drove the vehicle like he’d driven this same route a million times, never hesitating when I just knew he was going to take off a mirror or get a wheel wedged at a corner.

“Fuck,” I grumbled. “I only had my driver’s license like three months before I went to prison.”

Hawk barked out a laugh. Chains raised an eyebrow at Hawk but said nothing. “Don’t worry, kid. I’ll give you a crash course, so to speak.”

“You know, I’m not afraid to go back to prison.”

“And miss your honey? I don’t think so. I’ll take my chances today. Tomorrow might be another story.”

“Fucker,” I muttered under my breath. And yeah, those two bastards heard me. Even Chains snorted this time.

“I never learned to drive,” Pippa offered, lifting her chin. If I hadn’t already been in love with the woman, I’d have fallen then.

I leaned in on impulse and gently nipped her earlobe. “Remind me to tell you what you just did to me when we’re alone.”

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