Chapter Thirty-Two
Gunner
Waking up next to Haizley gave me a peace I never in my life thought I would experience. It was something I never wanted to live without again.
Haizley and I needed to have a talk about what I wanted from her. I knew she would balk at first. I was done letting her hide from me. No more fucking running.
Slipping out of bed, I went downstairs to make her breakfast. I knew if I called Kirby to have something delivered this early, she would cut my fucking balls off, and I needed my balls for what I had planned. So, cooking it was. Scrolling through my phone, I looked up a recipe.
How hard could it be?
Hash cooked every day, and he was stoned half the fucking time.
After locating a simple recipe, I dug through her cabinets, looking for what I needed. I wasn’t surprised to find she had it all.
My girl was organized to a fault.
I found the canister of flour, and the top gave me a little resistance, so I gave it a hard tug. Harder than I needed to, because when the top popped off, the flour flew everywhere.
Not moving, I stood and stared, wide-eyed, as it snowed in Haizley’s kitchen. Jesus, if Zero saw this room after the hours he spent cleaning up last night, I wouldn’t have to worry about Kirby cutting off my balls because I would be dead.
I set to mixing up the ingredients; I would worry about the flour later. I needed to get this done before she woke up.
Pouring the batter into the pan, the mixture flattened out until it was paper thin. This did not look like the pancakes Hash made. The recipe said to wait until the tops of the batter bubbled.
So, I waited.
And waited.
Shit. Where were the fucking bubbles?
Instead, the pan started to smoke, so I said fuck it, and slid the spatula under the paper-thin pancake to flip it over. Only the spatula wouldn’t slide under the pancake.
It wouldn’t even lift the pancake edge off the pan.
What the fuck?
Why wasn’t this working?
More smoke lifted from the pan, and I had to remove it from the flame before it set off the smoke alarm. I did not want Haizley waking up to the sound of a screaming alarm after what she’d gone through last night.
Setting the pan aside, I called Hash.
“Hey, brother, what’s up?”
“How the hell do you make fucking pancakes?”
“Why are you cooking? Are you in my fucking kitchen?”
I heard the rustle of him getting out of bed, then mumbling about brothers not respecting other people’s shit.
“Calm your ass down. I’m not even in the fucking clubhouse. I’m at Haizley’s.”
Hash huffed, and I could picture him plopping back down on his bed. “Stay out of my fucking kitchen.”
“Hash! How do I make fucking pancakes?”
Laughter hit my ears, and I turned to find Haizley standing at the bottom of the stairs to the second floor. I had been so caught in Hash’s bullshit I hadn’t heard her come down.
“Never mind.” I cut off the call and put my phone on the counter. Crossing my arms over my chest, I watched as she laughed harder, at my expense, no doubt.
“You find something funny, little lamb?”
Her hand covered her mouth as she tried to pull herself together.
“I’m sorry,” she said with a giggle. “It’s just, you look ridiculous.”
Looking down at the sweats that were two sizes too small, I knew she could see the outline of my dick. When I woke up this morning, I called the clubhouse for a prospect to bring me a change of clothes, but the fucker was taking his damn time.
“Ridiculous? You see how fucking hard I am now with you in the room? These fucking things are worse than jeans.” I made a show of adjusting myself, and that got her attention. Her laughter died, and she bit her lip, staring at me.
“That does look like a problem.” She smiled but made no attempt to move closer.
“Come to me, Haizley,” I growled at her and watched as the shudder tore through her body. She took a hesitant step forward, and I waited. She moved slowly, her gaze going to the floor, to where the man she killed had lain the night before. “Now, baby.”
Her head snapped up, and she moved quickly.
I opened my arms for her to step into, and when she did, I wrapped my arms around her, holding her tight.
Fuck, she felt good. I knew she felt my dick sticking into her belly. I was glad. I wanted her to know how fucking hard she made me.
“Baby, we have some things to talk about today. No more running.”
Before I could continue, there was a knock on the door. Haizley moved out of my arms and went directly to the front door.
With her hand on the knob, I called out, “Jesus, Haizley. Wait.”
She opened the door, and fucking Blackwater stood on the other side. It was six in the fucking morning. What was he doing here?
“What the fuck, Haizley?” Blackwater stepped into the house, causing Haizley to take a couple of quick steps back. His eyes snapped to mine, and he shot me a hard glare.
“What the fuck did you do?” he barked, crowding my woman. She knew him. They were friends, but she still stiffened when he got too close.
“Get the fuck away from her,” I snarled and stomped across the room, pushing her behind me. I had at least four or five inches on him, but he was strapped with a gun and I currently had nothing. Thank God my hard-on went down.
“Corbin, it’s not what you think,” Haizley said, moving in front of me.
This woman was looking to have her ass tanned.
She needed to learn to stay where I put her.
“Then what the hell is it? Because from where I’m standing, it looks like he put his fucking hands on you.”
“Fuck you, Blackwater.”
The son of a bitch was pissing me off.
If he didn’t watch it, he’d end up in the kiln with fucking Greg.
“Corbin, no. Gunner wouldn’t hurt me.” Haizley looked up at me, a question in her eyes.
“We were at the Powell Ranch yesterday and one of the horses got spooked when she was petting it. Swung his head around and broke her nose.” The lie rolled off my tongue without hesitation.
The look on his face made it clear he didn’t buy it, but I didn’t fucking care. Let him try to disprove it. I’d already talked to Winchester this morning and told him to call his brother and have him back me up.
“Are you ok?” he asked Haizley, holding her chin in his hand while he looked at her face. My hand reached out to her elbow, pulling her out of his grasp.
“Why the fuck are you here?” I snapped.
He ignored my question, and after another long look at Haizley, he explained to her why he was there.
“Got a call this morning about suspicious activity.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, her body starting to tremble.
I grabbed the blanket folded over the chair and wrapped it around her. Hoping Blackwater would believe she was cold, not scared. All she had on was a thin fucking robe. She’d better have fucking clothes on under it.
Looking around the room, his eyes narrowed on the floor.
“What happened to your rug?”
How the fuck did he know she had a rug there? Haizley turned to look where Blackwater was. I squeezed her shoulders, reminding her I was there, and she instantly relaxed.
“I spilled some red wine.” She looked up at me and smiled.
I swear it was brighter than the fucking sun. Turning back to Blackwater, she dipped her head like she was embarrassed.
“We um... got a little carried away and spilled the whole bottle.” She added a little giggle for effect and burrowed against my chest. She was a great actor. Either that or she was envisioning something that I would be more than fucking happy to recreate for her.
Clearing his throat, he added, “Like I said, we got a call this morning about suspicious activity. Neighbor said a man came over last night and never left. But then more guys showed up and were taking things in and out of the house, including what looked like a rug.” As he spoke, he looked at his notebook.
“Yea, like she said, we got carried away.” I kissed the top of her head, selling the point. My arms went around her shoulders, and she leaned back into me. “Had a couple of the guys come by and grab the rug. The wine soaked through, so I had Zero come over and make sure it didn’t seep into the wood.”
Blackwater and I stared at each for a moment before he looked at Haizley’s face again. Looking back at me, I saw something in his eyes that looked an awful lot like respect. He nodded and turned back to the front door. Before leaving, he looked at the two of us.
“Whatever you got carried away doing, make sure it doesn’t come back to bite you in the ass.”
My eyes flared briefly before I hitched my chin at him. Then he left.
I wasn’t surprised he didn’t believe my story. But fuck, I was more shocked that he seemed to understand what might have happened and ignored it. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. Declan was the only man on the force we trusted. But maybe there were two men who had our backs. At the very least I knew he had Haizley’s.
Once the door closed, Haizley sagged against me. “I don’t think he believed us,” she muttered.
“No. But he also won’t push it.” I turned her in my arms. “You and I need to have a talk. What the fuck was that?”
She looked up at me, obviously confused by my tone. “What was what?”
“You walked over and opened the fucking door without seeing who it was. Again.” I growled the last word.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” She bowed her head and continued, “You were here, and I felt safe, so it didn’t occur to me I could get hurt again.”
“Fuck, baby. I love that you feel safe with me, but you just got attacked last fucking night. Nav is coming by today to install a security system. It’ll be hooked to your phone, so when someone knocks, you’ll get an alert. You will not open that fucking door without checking your phone.” I turned away, walking back to the kitchen. I didn’t want to scare her with how fucking pissed I was.
“Excuse me?” she asked.
When I turned to look at her, she stood in the middle of the room, right where Greg died. Her arms crossed over her chest and a frown on her face.
Last night, she hadn’t taken her eyes off that spot until Zero put himself in front of her. Now she was mad and not thinking about where she was standing. Mad was better than whatever the fuck that silence was last night.
I stalked across the room and lifted her. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around my waist, and I walked over and set her down on the island. With my hands settled on the counter on either side of her, I cleared up her confusion.
“When you are here without me, that door will stay fucking locked. You will not open it unless you check the app Nav will add to your phone. You will not risk your life again.”
“Gunner, I wasn’t trying to risk anything. I just didn’t think.”
“I know, baby. You have zero situational awareness. Maybe it’s because you never leave this fucking house, but you need to be more alert to what the fuck is going on around you.”
“You don’t get to make decisions for me.”
“I am about to make all your fucking decisions if I think you aren’t being safe.”
“Gun—”
“No, Haizley. I mean it. You need someone to take care of you. That’s now my fucking job.”
She pursed her lips and wanted to argue. But what I saw swirling around behind the fire in her eyes was acceptance. Oh, she would fight me, and she damn well would sass me. But she wouldn’t stop me.
“You have an entire club of people to take care of. I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for a long time.”
“Fuck that. I have been patient up to now. Last night changed every fucking thing. I’m not waiting anymore, Haizley.”
Her eyes roamed over my face, looking for the truth. It was right there, plain as the nose on my face.
“I don’t even know your real name,” she whispered.
“Michael.”
“Michael,” she repeated in a soft voice. I never expected to hear my real name again. My sister didn’t even call me by my name the last time I saw her. But hearing it slip from her lips had my cock thickening again.
I lifted her down to the floor and smacked her ass. “Go get dressed. Once the prospect gets here with my clothes, we need to head to the clubhouse.”
Haizley walked over to the stairs and paused at the bottom step.
“Gunner?”
“Yea, babe?” The look on her face about broke my fucking heart.
“Thank you.”
Moving over to the stairs, I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck. “You don’t have to thank me.” Pressing my forehead to hers, I murmured, “Go get dressed.”