Page 88 of Gunner

“Oh, God, babydoll. I was so worried. Are you all right? Did he hurt you? Were you scared? Of course you were scared. Some idiot held a gun to your head. It’s gonna be alright. I’ll find you the best therapist around. I’ll get you all the help you need. You can tell me anything. I’m never leaving your side again. I promise.”

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” I heard her say, just as she bent forward and threw up all over my nice clean shirt.

“Oh, come on, Babydoll!” I groaned. “I just cleaned this shirt.”

“Shut up, Gunner,” she moaned, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “I think I need to sit down.”

“Get my daughter out of here or the next bullet will be for you,” Mike ordered, walking past me with his sniper rifle in his hand towards the local Sheriff.

Gathering Sarah in my arms, I did just that.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sarah

It had been two days since Carter showed up with a gun and took me and others hostage at the drugstore. The crazed fool never thought anything through. Always thinking in the moment without fear of consequences because his dad always bailed him out. I knew he wouldn’t walk out alive the second he fired off the first shot, scaring the hell out of everyone.

His appearance shocked me. He shocked me with his disheveled and messy appearance, which was a stark contrast to the clean-cut, preppy person I remembered. He looked scared, almost as if he was running on adrenaline and pure fear. Those two combinations were never good.

At least that was what my dad said.

But when he started talking stupidly about some buyer hunting him, I knew he lost the plot. Apparently, I fucked up his life and now someone was after him. Like I had anything to do with his perversions and shit. I told him so several times, which seemed to only agitate him further. In the end, it was Scribe who reached for my hand, lightly shaking his head as he told me not to reason with him.

Scribe was right.

I couldn’t reason with stupid.

Then the idiot grew a pair of balls, yanked me towards him, just as Scribe threw a knife, hitting him directly in his thigh. The pussy screamed out, shooting off another round, which bolted everyone in the drugstore into action as they all ran for the doors. I would have made it too, if that bitch Holly hadn’t pushed me out of the way, right into Carter’s arms.

The shot Carter shot off, ricocheted, hitting Scribe in the shoulder. In a matter of seconds, Scribe was lying on the floor, bleeding out, and I was in the arms of a crazed motherfucker.

Everything happened fast after that.

One minute I had a gun to my head, the next I was in Gunner’s arms as he whisked me away. After a brief stay in the emergency room, where Gunner hovered over me like a protective mother hen, Claudia sent me home with strict instructions to rest.

If only that were possible.

Did she not know Gunner at all?

I thought when we left the hospital, he would take me to his house, so I could rest, but no. He took me straight to the clubhouse, where, for the last two days, he’s never left my side.

I can’t even go to the bathroom alone because he thinks I’m some fragile doll that is about to break.

Oh, I was about to break all right.

Just not in the way, he thought.

I’ve never been one of those girls who crumbled at the first sign of trouble. I may act a fool on occasion, but when I’m put in a position where danger reigns, an eerie calm rushes over me. Maybe it was because my dad drilled it into me from birth that I can survive anything if I just stop and think. That acting irrationally will only get me killed. Then there were all the self-defense classes and shit he insisted I attend, where they drilled the same message home.

I don’t get rattled.

I don’t panic.

It’s only after the drama subsides that my adrenaline releases its hold on me and my nerves take over. When that happens, one of two things happen. I either cry or I throw up.

So for the last two days, while Gunner’s been hovering, waiting for me to break, crumble into a pile of goo, I was perfectly fine.

“Babydoll, you ain’t leaving this room.”

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