Page 42 of Gunner

The next morning, I was up early, showered, and on the road by seven. Aspen had asked me to come at eight. She wanted to talk to me alone before the sheriff arrived at nine.

I stopped at The Coffee Shoppe and grabbed two coffees and a bag of muffins. I never had the chance to say goodnight to Audrey, and I wanted to apologize, though she said it wasn’t necessary.

I was almost at my car, ready to head back to the hospital, when a large hand grabbed my arm, spinning me around.

“Where the fuck were you last night?”

I looked into the angry eyes of Gunner. So stunned by his anger, I stood there staring at him, unable to utter a word.

“Well, Haizley?”

“Well, what?”

“Where the fuck were you all night?”

“I was home.”

Gunner leaned down in my face and in a voice I hadn’t heard in our limited communication, he said, “Don’t fucking lie to me.”

Taking a step back, I narrowed my eyes. “How dare you?”

“I know you weren’t fucking home. So, I will ask you again. Where the fuck were you?”

“How?” I asked him, cocking my head to the side. He was adamant that he knew I wasn’t home. But how would he know that?

“How what?”

“How do you know I wasn’t home?” I hissed back at him.

“Haizley—”

“Oh my God! You are following me, aren’t you?”

He looked away down the street toward his shop. And I waited for his answer.

“If I was following you, I would know where you were last night.”

Shit, he had a point.

“You didn’t answer the question,” I reminded him. “You know what? I don’t care. I have somewhere I need to be.”

I turned away from him and he grabbed my arm again.

“Take your hand off me,” I growled.

When he didn’t listen, I dropped the bag of muffins on the ground, and taking one of the coffee cups from the tray in thehand of the arm he held, I lifted it high and for the briefest moment I almost regretted what I was about to do.

Then he opened his mouth.

“Where were you?”

I quickly sunk my teeth into the lid on my coffee and yanked it off. Then, I twisted around and threw the hot coffee at him.

This time, I purposely aimed for his chest.

I wasn’t a sadist. I didn’t want to burn and possibly scar his beautiful face. I enjoyed looking at it occasionally.

“FUCK!”

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