Chapter Four
Gunner
I had been watching her for days. Every time I left the shop for lunch—an offer I made increasingly often—I drove by her house, as I did every evening when I finished work. Her car was always in the driveway.
It was as though she never went anywhere. But I had run into her twice. Once at the bar and then at my shop. Were those chance encounters? Had fate stepped in and put her in my path on the rare occasion she left the house?
She hadn’t rebooked her appointment with Indie. It was for a piercing. She wanted a vertical clitoral hood piercing. From the moment I saw the entry in the appointment book, all I could think about was flicking that piercing with my tongue.
I needed to think of a way to convince Indie to remind Haizley to rebook the appointment, but in a way that didn’t make me sound like a creep.
I just hadn’t figured that out yet.
It needed to be soon though.
The healing time was four to six weeks. That gave me time to seduce her. To coax her into my bed.
Was this what my brother Ghost was going through? Was this why he was so obsessed with the woman he’d met in Oklahoma?
I hadn’t even seen Haizley’s pussy, let alone tasted it, and yet, it was all I’d thought about since I met her.
I was sitting in my truck on her street, a few houses down, so she wouldn’t notice me when she walked out her front door. She looked around as though she could feel my eyes on her.
Finally, she climbed into her car and backed out of the driveway.
I waited until she got to the end of the street, then pulled out behind her. Following her, just far enough back that she didn’t notice me, I watched as she pulled into the grocery store.
I quickly dialed Beck’s number.
“Gunner?”
“Hey, Beck. I was swinging by the grocery store and wanted to see if you needed anything for the clubhouse. I know the prospects do the shopping after you give them a list, but is there anything we are out of or they forgot to pick up?”
“Actually, yes.”
“Great. Can you text me a list?”
Pulling into a parking spot, I heard my phone chime.
Unlocking the screen, I cursed.
“Jesus Christ. Did they even go to the store for her?” I muttered out loud, looking at the list of at least a dozen items she needed.
I climbed out of my truck and headed toward the door. Grabbing a cart, I searched the store, looking for my target. There was a benefit to being six foot eight.
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 time I 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. The three 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?”
“Huh?”
King and the others stared at me from around the table in church.
I had forgotten where I was, getting so caught up in my thoughts and questions about Haizley.
“What the fuck is up with you lately?”
“What do you mean?”
What the hell? I was here. I was always available at the drop of a hat. No one was more loyal to the club.
“You’re distracted. You’re hardly ever here. What the fuck are you up to?”
“Maybe he needs a therapist,” Cash grumbled.
“Fuck you, Cash.”
“Seriously, Gunner. What’s goin’ on? Beck said you offered to pick up some groceries for her the other day.”
I looked at Blade.
“Why is that weird? I was going by the store and thought she might need something.”
“’Cuz you ain’t nice,” Jingles commented.
“What the fuck? I am too nice.”
They all gave me that look. You know, the one that says don’t bullshit a bullshitter. And maybe they weren’t wrong.
Relenting with a heavy sigh, I confessed, “I needed a reason to go into the store.”
I heard Nav clicking away on his computer, and then the front of the store was on the large screen at the front of the room.
I watched as Haizley entered the building, and I followed a moment or two later.
“Is that the woman from the bar? The fucking shrink?” Cash asked.
Fuck.
I stared at the screen as it switched to the inside of Manny’s. Nav had access to the footage because as another source of income, the club helped local businesses with their security.
Thank God there was no sound.
My brothers watched as I grabbed her arm and then immediately let go. They all turned away from the screen to glare at me.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you two? Who is this woman?” King barked at both Cash and me.
“That’s Haizley Walker. She was two years ahead of me in school. She grew up in Diamond Creek. A car accident killed her parents when she was sixteen, and she convinced Sheriff Jones to let her avoid the system and live alone in her house,” Blade informed us.
Nav was busy banging away before he came up with more information.
“Looks like she got a full ride scholarship to college, got a degree in Psychology, and then came home to open her practice.”
“How can she have a practice? She never leaves her fucking house.”
“She sees clients online,” Nav noted.
I knew I had fucked up when King turned his icy stare my way.
“How the fuck do you know she never leaves the house?”
“She told me.”
“Explain,” he demanded.
I ran my hand over my face.
If I told him I had been watching her, he’d kick my ass.
“I saw her at the bar the night Cash got wasted and I had to call Tank and Ben to take him home.”
“Wasn’t wasted.”
“You couldn’t even stand up on your own, asshole.”
“Enough! God, you’re all fucking children. Continue.”
“Then, a few days later, she came into the shop. She had an appointment with Indie but canceled it.”
“What was she getting done?” Colt asked.
“None of your fucking business.”
His smile told me he didn’t really want to know the answer. He just wanted to yank my chain.
It fucking worked.
“Then I ran into her at Manny’s. She said every time she left the house in the last week, she ran into me and accused me of following her.”
“Are you?” Ghost asked.
“Am I what?”
“Following her?”
“No, I’m not fucking following her. I was at the bar first. She walked into my fucking shop. Where I work!”
“You just happened to be driving by Manny’s and needed a reason to go in the store? Was she the reason?” Jack asked with a smug look on his face.
I turned my scowl on Jack. He was always the instigator. The one to antagonize the rest of us into saying something we never meant to say. He baited us with his sarcasm until we admitted things we never intended to.
“Why the fuck are we talking about this? Don’t we have important shit to go over? If not, I have shit to do.”
I wasn’t answering any more questions. And there was absolutely no way in hell I would admit to following her into that store.
King watched me as he stroked his fingers down his beard.
I knew what he was thinking. I glared back at him with a look that reminded him I knew his secret.
“Gunner’s right. We have other shit to do.” He dropped his hand then spoke directly to me. “Stop following the fucking shrink!”
When I opened my mouth to tell him to stop sneaking off to Grace’s house in the middle of the night, he cut me off with a look, letting me know he would tear my ass apart if I said one word.
I sat back in my chair with a grin, knowing there was no heat in his order. He would continue sneaking into Grace’s house, and I would continue to watch over Haizley.
That was what I told myself.
I was watching over her. She kept herself locked inside because she was afraid of something. She needed someone to protect her.
That someone was me.
“Any news on Sypher?” Blade asked.
“Nothing. Fury said he’d call when he had something. I got a call from Steele, though. Freeway’s getting out. He wants to send him up here.”
“What the fuck? Why?”
“Too much shit goin’ on down there. With his... history, Steele thinks it would be best if he had a new place to land.”
“King,” Blade whined. “Freeway is an asshole.”
“I know, but he’s a brother.”
“Have you told Dec yet?” Cash asked.
Declan was the one who put Freeway in jail for drug dealing. He went to Steele after the fact and worked it out. Dec had caught Freeway dealing at one of the elementary schools in Arkansas. Steele had understood, and if I had to guess, that was why he was sending him up here.
Freeway had become a liability back home. He didn’t always follow the rules, and by sending him up here, he knew that Declan wouldn’t think twice about tossing his ass back in a cell if he stepped out of line.
“No, and I’m not going to. Not until he’s out and on his way here. Steele assures me he has spoken with Freeway and explained everything. We aren’t a 1% club anymore, and if Freeway wants to stay in, he has to act accordingly.”
“This is a bad idea.”
I agreed with Jingles.
Having Freeway here wasn’t the best idea. But when the president of the Mother Chapter gave an order, you followed it.
We would just have to make it work.