Page 2 of Gunnar

After this, I’d never make my father proud, but maybe he wouldn’t be ashamed of me.

Chapter One

Gunnar -- Present Day

“This the day?”

I glanced at my cellmate, now a close friend. I was packing up my personals in our cell, getting ready to leave prison after serving fifteen years of a twenty-year sentence. “Yep.”

“Thought you had a few more years left.”

I shrugged. “I did.”

“Interesting.” Knuckles leaned against the end of the bunk. I paused in my packing to find him watching me intently.

“Yeah,” I drawled slowly. “Thought so myself.”

“You think it was your old man?” Knuckles knew about Cain and ExFil and Bones. He knew my dad had some pull and was likely thinking I’d held out on him.

“If you’re implyin’ I’ve been down-playin’ people I know, I haven’t been. This is as much a surprise for me as it is you.”

“I know.”

OK, now I stopped what I was doing altogether and took a step toward Knuckles. “What’s goin’ on?” Clearly, I’d missed something important.

“You’re a solid guy, Gunnar. I had an… opportunity.”

“What kind of opportunity?” I was preparing myself for a fight, but I had no idea who’d I’d be fighting. Knuckles didn’t usually play politics inside, but one thing I’d learned while in USP Terre Haute was that there wasn’t much men wouldn’t do for a few amenities.

“The kind where I had to make a choice.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are we gettin’ ready to try to kill each other, Knuckles?”

“Depends on your answer.”

I held my arms out from my side slightly so he could see I wasn’t armed. “Gotta know the question first, man.”

“I was told there was a one-time opportunity for me to get myself or one person of my choosing out early. Call it a favor from someone in the position to make this happen.”

“What’s that got to do with me?”

“If you agree to do something for me, you get to go back to your life a couple years early.”

“I suppose it depends on what it is you want. There are things I won’t do. Even for my freedom. I take it me getting this early parole wasn’t my father’s doing.”

“Even for the man who kept you alive when you first got to the real prison outta Camp Hilton?”

There was nothing easy about the camp and the bastard knew it. He also knew I’d agree with him I was alive now because of him. “Yeah, Knuckles. Even for you. But I hope you know I’d never deny you something without a fuckin’ good reason.”

Knuckles studied me for several seconds before nodding his head slowly. “Yeah. I do know. It’s why I went ahead and pushed the order through. You’re a good man, Gunnar. Of all the people here, I believe you are the one man who has never been a danger to society. Anyone who fucks with your family isn’t considered society and is asking for whatever you dish out.” He snorted out a laugh. “You’re leaving whether you agree to help me or not.”

“What’s the ask, Knuckles?”

“My daughter,” he said. “She’s been taken. One of my enemies found out who she was and used her to get revenge on me.” Knuckles handed me a few photos of a young woman bound and gagged with an expression of abject terror on her face. The thing striking me most about her were her bright green eyes. They shimmered with tears, but there was something about them. A quiet acceptance of what was about to happen, maybe? Not in the sense that she’d given up, but like she’d accepted the experience wasn’t going to be pleasant, and was determined to make it through so the task was complete.

“Pippa?” Knuckles had told me of her often enough. He was so proud of his baby girl. He’d managed a fling with one of the nurses in the prison before I got here and the woman had kept in touch over the years, even going so far as to let the girl meet Knuckles. The visit had gone well, but Knuckles had come back to the cell angry and agitated, afraid his enemies might use her to get revenge. That had been about five years ago. I knew there was nothing in the Goddamned world Knuckles wouldn’t do for Pippa, whether it be killing or dying for her.

“Yeah. I’ve had some stuff sent to the Bones MC clubhouse for you. I can’t rescue Pippa on my own and I have no idea if my own club would back me after what happened. The fallout of killin’ those bastards put Kiss of Death in a pretty bad position.”

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