Sunshine & Ink

13. Raker （8 months later）

CHAPTER 13

Raker (8 months later)

E ight goddamn months later the bribe comes through and I’m out.

And all I can think about is one thing.

Getting Sunni back.

By any means necessary.

I was constantly on edge in prison, not because anyone would dare to fuck with me, but because there’s no word from Sunni.

No visits. No calls. No letters.

I can’t stand not knowing where she is. Or if she’s safe. For once, my brain isn’t consumed by my club. Teacher is a good VP, I knew he would take care of the club while I was in jail.

He keeps me informed about what’s happening. But I don’t give a shit about what’s happening unless it relates to Sunni.

That day she left and she didn’t come back. Nobody knows where she’s gone.

Where the fuck could she have gone?

And how come my men can’t find her?

Shit, the world is full of fucking assholes and danger, especially for someone sweet and bubbly like my girl.

And I’m not there to protect her.

For the first month I was in jail, I seethed with anger at Sunni.

She had no fucking right

She was told what her duties were

If she really had said that to Elizabeth. . .

But as the weeks went on and there was still no word from her, and Data hadn’t been able to track her down. . .

I started not giving a shit about anything except getting her back.

Her loss was a raw open wound, like hooks dug deep in my flesh, ripping me apart.

Where was she?

And when my brothers came to pick up me up from jail?

All I could think about was finding Sunni.

Teacher and Builder were talking about who could have ratted me out to the feds as a way to send a shot across the Saints’ bow. Their leading theory is that the Righteous did it to try to renegotiate my marriage settlement, or the Souls did it because of our rivalry.

But I know exactly who did it and why.

Sunni

At first I thought I only wanted to find her to punish her, but as each month passed I had to accept that I just wanted her . Any way I could get her.

Fucking hell

I was not a patient man. And I wanted things back the way they were.

And it was the first thing I demanded to know when I got out. I couldn’t even enjoy the feeling of handlebars under my palms again, my skin was still crawling so badly with the need to see Sunni. The club girls crowded around my bike when I got back to the clubhouse, a sea of perky tits, all ready to welcome the Prez back into the family.

But I can’t focus on any of them.

Nothing matters until I’ve gotten her back

I tried to go into my bedroom, but the sight of the empty bed, the cleared bathroom counter, the fact that she took every single trace of herself away with her, makes me want to hurl. I can’t stand it in there and I stomp back out.

“Where is Sunni?” I demanded. “I want to know why I have the best goddamn technology in Resurrected and you haven’t found her yet.”

Anger pulses under my skin and I can feel my muscles tensing up, ready to ride in any direction that will take me to her.

Teacher narrows his eyes as Tech glances uneasily at me.

“I—we are still looking for her,” Tech says.

“We didn’t know if you’d still care when you were out,” Teacher adds. “Plenty of other girls around.”

Rage crawls under each inch of my flesh and I have to choke it down because what goddamn indication have I ever given to Teacher that Sunni was important to me?

The last he saw me I had my cock buried in another whore’s pussy.

Of course I still care

It’s all I’ve fucking thought about for 8 months

Getting her back

“Have you forgotten what a fucking order is?” I asked harshly. “I want to find her.”

“All right Prez,” Teacher said, holding his hands up. “We’ve been looking for her. It’s like she’s fucking vanished, though.”

How is it possible that she cleaned all of her things out that quickly, without the boys knowing?

“Has no one heard from her?” I ask, my voice sounding raw and grating to my ears.

Silence

All of the club girls are brought in one by one and questioned. No one knows where she is.

“If you hear from Sunni, come tell me immediately,” I order Amira and Bridget.

Teacher rubs his chin impatiently, as I give each club girl the same admonitions.

But I don’t give a shit about how this looks.

“How many fucking places can she have gone?” I asked, my teeth grinding together. “She wouldn’t be permitted to leave the county. Not with my marks on her. Unless she were to cover up her whole goddamn body, she’d instantly identified as a Saints club whore.”

Raker, is there no way? I replayed her soft little voice in my ear, her eyes looking beseechingly up at me.

No way I could ever be your wife and have your baby?

Stop this foolishness, I had replied.

If I could just find her, I could explain things.

I need to figure out where Sunni is, find her, and tell her to come home. I have to finish the wedding negotiations and get married in a few weeks, and I know I won’t be able to do shit until I find Sunni.

“You pent-up or something, Prez?” Teacher asks. “Go out and fucking ride a whore. You’re acting fucking rough.”

He opens the door and Angel is there, big tits straining against a tiny tank top, her fingers smoothing the mini skirt over her hips, brushing past her pussy, which I know is going to be wet and ready for me.

But I have zero fucking interest in seeing her.

Zero fucking twitches in my cock.

“No,” I said. “I need to find Sunni.”

My fists curl on the desk and my breath is hollow and ragged in my chest.

Not knowing where Sunnis is now that I’m on the outside is somehow worse.

She’s supposed to be here , waiting in my room for me whenever I want her, ready to go for a ride on my motorcycle, big brown eyes looking up at me, right there any time I want to run my fingers down her skin, see the marks I’ve made in her flesh.

The Desert Viper owns you

Angel looks down at my cock, like she could prove me wrong, but when she doesn’t see a boner, she pouts.

“Why are you more interested in hunting down her over seeing me?” she asks, her voice rising in a whine.

“Because the rest of you can go to fucking hell if I can’t find her!”

Teacher wants me to work on going around our borders, making sure our rivals know I’m back. There have been brief incursions on our borders, some light testing of the boundaries. And usually that would mean immediate bloody retribution by me.

But instead I put all the Club’s goddamn resources into finding Sunni.

The brothers were to ride up and down every street in Resurrected until we found her, no matter if they were in our MC territory or not. Teacher was positive she wasn’t in our boundaries.

Leaving my protective boundaries?

It was like a thousand nails all digging into my skin.

I could not stop replaying what had happened, trying to figure out what had gone wrong and when Sunni had made the decision to leave.

But no matter which way I spun it in my head, it was sucking Apostle’s dick.

I had always thought of my cousin as a soft, gentle man, someone kept by family loyalty in the most powerful MC.

But now I started to watch him more closely.

Why would she have been so afraid of him?

I had told her there was no danger there.

And I wasn’t goddamn eating, I sure as fuck wasn’t sleeping.

I could not sleep in that bed without her.

What the absolute fuck was wrong with me?

I went up and down the streets, too, even though Teacher told me it was fucking stupid to go into rival territory like that. If I got caught alone, without backup, it would absolutely mean a dogfight. But I couldn’t stop.

Up and down the streets, my eyes scanning the faces that almost blurred together. Blonde women going into coffee shops, doing yoga at the park, heading into apartment buildings. I walked through bars, grocery shops, my cut and patches making people twist around and drop their jaws to see the MC Prez.

All the wrong ones. None of them the only woman I wanted to see.

For days

And days

Failure after failure, until I was afraid I would be driven mad with the loss, going back over streets I’d already been down.

What if I’d missed her?

And one day I lit my dozenth cigarette and rubbed my aching head as we looked through possible sightings of her.

And then everything changed.

“Prez, I think we found her,” Tech said and I felt a painful clenching in my gut as I saw her face on the screen.

It’s blurry and the picture quality is shit, with Sunni standing behind a car with a cup of coffee in her hand.

But that bright red-gold of her hair and those pink plush lips are unmistakable.

My stomach tightened with such an immediate raw, painful need that my head throbbed.

Bingo

Found you, baby girl.

And now that I’ve found you, I’m not letting you go again.

“Want backup?” Builder called, scratching his red beard in confusion.

“Stay here!” I ordered.

I had zero hesitation as I strode toward my motorcycle and hopped on.

I was going to find Sunni and apologize for telling her to suck Apostle’s dick.

I don’t usually apologize. For anything. In fact, I can’t ever remember doing it.

But she is going to appreciate this special gesture.

If she hadn’t called the goddamn feds on me, I would have apologized earlier.

I would never have done it if I hadn’t thought she needed a lesson in learning her place, but it was a stupid thing to do. Sunni is delicate. Soft and gentle like a flower, and so in love with me that even the thought of taking someone else in her mouth was repulsive to her.

Well, I cannot wait to see my sweet Sunni again.

Obviously, I appreciate her. I need her. I’ve never needed another woman like this or invited another woman to share my bed.

I will apologize, which is pretty goddamn fucking special, and she will realize it, and she’ll come back with me.

Sunni couldn’t possibly be mad at me for that long. Not with how much she loves me.

I started my engine and headed to the street where one of the prospects had snapped the picture.

Tech relayed his hasty research into the occupants of the street in my earbud as I flew toward her.

According to his information, she rents a room above a coffee shop now and goes by Sunday, not Sunni. But she’ll always be my Sunni.

The day is warm, the sun already baking the land. But after the last few months in the stifled stale air of the jail, I’m just happy to breathe in free air.

I realize as I go that the coffee shop is in Souls MC territory.

I feel an uneasy twinge in my gut. Souls MC territory is the most dangerous for me to go into. Did Sunni know that?

But nothing could keep me from finding her, no matter what territory she’s in. I just wish I’d thought to bring weapons beyond my knife with me.

Since the Souls are the least favored MC, I’m riding through much poorer areas. Ever since Seek, the Souls MC, got caught trying to rig some kind of contraption to collect dew, their water restrictions have been punitive. Water runs through the Elders, and to try to get water without their permission is a sin.

I haven’t been in their territory in a while, so I didn’t remember how fucking dogshit it looks. The coffee shop is not in the really shitty part of town, but an older part of Souls territory that used to be more prosperous. A lot of the businesses have left or been forced to close. However, it looks like there’s some trying to revitalize it, the block with Sunni’s coffee shop also has a school with colorful art pasted in the windows, and a few other store fronts, including a little fresh market and pizza place.

My skin is buzzing when I pull up outside and shove my motorcycle into park. The coffee shop is in an old, soft-red brick building, and I hear the clink of coffee cups inside.

There’s some rickety-looking stairs on the side, and I assume they’re the ones that go to Sunni’s apartment.

She shouldn’t be here, though. With me she has access to the best of everything. This neighborhood doesn’t get half the water that mine does.

Sweat breaks out on the back of my neck.

Finally

There’s even a tremor in my goddamn hand.

I need her and I need her right now.

I open the door and a wave of savory coffee scent hits me. Ducking down because this low ceiling wasn’t designed for a man of my height, I walk inside.