Page 38 of Banshee
“She was a fucking kid,” I grumbled.
“Was that really it? ’Cause you didn’t have an issue voting Haizley in as my old lady. She’s only twenty-eight; I’m thirty-six.”
I stopped and turned toward Gunner. His hand dropped from my neck, and I stared at him.
“I was almost fucking forty, and she was barely out of college. Eight years is nothing. I was fifteen when Aspen was born. A year younger than her mother was when she had Zeus.”
“So what’s different now?”
“She’s older.”
“The age difference is still the same,” he argued.
“What the fuck is your point?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest so I wouldn’t hit the motherfucker.
Gunner took a deep breath and looked out over the land. He was stalling. Whatever he had to say wasn’t something he wanted to tell me.
“What happened to her isn’t your fault.”
“The fuck it isn’t. If I’d said yes, she never would have married that cocksucker. She would have been with me, and the other shitbag wouldn’t have raped her.”
“She’s not your sister.”
My arms dropped, and I stepped forward, getting in his face. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”
Gunner held his ground. There wasn’t much that made him back down, aside from his baby sister and his old lady. The only other person who had that power over him was King. Gunner was loyal to a fault.
Which was why it made no sense that he was pulling this bullshit with me now.
“You are not responsible for what happened to your sister, and you are not responsible for what happened to Aspen,” he said. “King wants to make sure you aren’t doing this out of some false sense of guilt.”
I shoved at his chest, and he took a step back. “Fuck you, Gunner. And fuck King.”
“Banshee.”
“She was supposed to be mine,” I said, slamming my fist against my chest. “Now she is.”
“She’s married.”
I glared at the son of a bitch who had the nerve to question me. The man who fucking stalked his old lady until she’d given in.
“She won’t be once I find the motherfucker.”
“You can’t kill him without cause; you’ll start a fucking war.”
“Without cause?” I shouted, my arm pointing back toward the cabin. “He beat the shit out of her and put her in the fucking hospital. There’s my fucking cause!”
“Banshee—”
“She is the daughter of one of our allies. A former president’s daughter. Wars have been started for a hell of a lot less, brother.”
“And we came here to get away from that shit.”
“Well, it fucking found us anyway!” I yelled, throwing my arms out at my sides.
“Look,brother,I need to know you’re in this for the right reasons. Aspen has been through more shit than any woman should have to endure. She doesn’t need another man claiming her for the wrong reasons.”
I turned my head from side to side, my neck cracking to release the tension that was building. I paused for a minute, not wanting to answer right away. I knew Gunner was only looking out for me, and more importantly, Aspen.
