Page 14 of Gunner

I saw her turn down an aisle and walked in the other direction. Entering the aisle from the opposite end, I pretended to be searching the shelves, my phone in my hand, while keeping her in my peripheral vision.

The moment she caught sight of me, I heard her loud sigh.

“You are following me,” she hissed.

I slowly turned to face the woman who had become my fixation. I held up my phone with the list of items from Beck and informed her, “I’m actually here shopping. Which last timeI checked was available to everyone at any time they were open. Has that changed?”

“Every time I leave my house, I mysteriously run into you. Why is that?”

Tilting my head, I gave her a look of confusion before asking, “I have run into you three times over the last week. Are you saying you’ve only left your house three times in the last week?”

I knew she was home a lot. I had hoped she was just going out while I was at work. Why didn’t she leave the house?

“That is none of your business.”

She moved her cart to walk past me, and I stepped in front of it.

“Why don’t you leave the house?”

“What I do or don’t do is none of your concern.”

I growled, “Haizley.”

Her eyes snapped to mine, and I swear I saw something swirling around. It was gone before I could put a name to it.

“Leave me alone.” She turned her cart to return the way she came, and I grabbed her arm.

Fuck, she was tiny. My fingers overlapped around her bicep. She was tall, but so thin she felt like she might break in my hand.

I immediately let go, not wanting to hurt her.

She let out a huff and walked away.

I watched her leave, her back stiff like she had something lodged up her ass, preventing her from relaxing. Which made sense. She was a shrink after all.

Suddenly, I thought about my sister Mellie. She was a therapist, too. Was she stuck up like Haizley? She worked with children, so maybe she didn’t think she was better than everyone else. Though most people in the medical field did.

Hell, Patch thought we all were beneath him.

And maybe we were. He was a hell of a lot smarter than the rest of us. Him and Matlock both. And surprisingly, Romeo. Thethree of them would sit and discuss bullshit none of the rest of us understood.

Letting Haizley go for now, I got the items on Beck’s list and drove back to the clubhouse. I decided to hang out there for a bit with my brothers before driving back over to watch Haizley.

I knew I was crossing a line, but I didn’t care. There was something nagging me about her, and I was determined to find out what.

Another two days had gone by and Haizley still barely left the house. It appeared as though she only went out every few days. The rest of the time, she holed up inside doing God knows what to pass the time.

How did people live like that?

She said she was a therapist, but I never witnessed clients going into her home, and it was clear she didn’t have an office she went to.

How was she making money? How did she pay her bills? How was she not going stir crazy about being alone all the goddamn time?

“Gunner.”

“Yea, Prez?”

“You wanna contribute?”

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