Chapter 6
GUNNER
Kissing Zinnia is better than I could have ever imagined. I’ve dreamed of having my mouth on hers for so long . . . to taste her. I can’t believe how much I’ve missed the little sounds she makes. Back in the day, she would make these little mew sounds in the back of her throat.
I don’t want to even question if she did that with Basa. Those sounds have only ever been meant for my ears alone.
Fuck, my cock stiffens behind the confines of my jeans, demanding to be set free.
For so long, the women I fucked, I’d envisioned them being Zinnia.
If I’m being honest, even the times I did fuck Quinn, I did the same.
I should feel guilt for that one, but I don’t.
There’s only one woman who has ever meant so much to me that I can’t stand the thought of looking at other women’s faces without seeing hers in my mind’s eye.
Slowly I break my mouth from Zinnia and hold back my grin as her lips follow, not wanting what we just shared to end.
“Fuckin’ hell, Dimples, I’ve missed that,” I breathe, tightening my arms around her as she tenses.
“Gunner,” she whispers, her voice is filled with pain . . . there’s no hiding the emotion.
As much as I want to keep Zinnia in my arms, I know I can’t.
I need to talk to her, and we’ve got to finally be able to start moving on.
My little girl is demanding to meet her.
I don’t hide things from Delilah. I’ve learned she’s very intuitive and picks up on what’s going on around her very easily.
It’s easier to simply tell her how it is than to hide.
The few times I had tried to keep something from her, I found her getting into trouble.
Like this past Christmas, she nearly fell through the damn roof at the house, snooping around in the attic.
The girl was looking to see if I hid her presents up there.
Besides, she wanted to know what else I was keeping up there, considering I had told her no going up the ladder into the attic.
Shit, the only thing up there’s some memorabilia and the Christmas shit.
There’s not much room up there for anything else.
I hadn’t laid out a floor to go across the whole area.
It was mostly rafters and ductwork, and she had fell right through.
Thank fuck I came in the house from cutting the grass in time to catch her before she actually did more damage to herself.
“Zinnia,” I murmur her name, not holding the emotion in my voice back. “If I could go back in time, in a heartbeat I would save you from all the shit you had to deal with.”
“You couldn’t have stopped it. Besides, you’ve got your little girl now, and she wouldn’t be here if you did,” Zinnia whispers weakly and casts her gaze to the ground.
“I know.” I nod, grasping her chin between two fingers and force her to meet my gaze once more.
“Doesn’t mean I don’t feel it. I’ll always be grateful to Quinn and her giving me Delilah.
I’ll miss her, because she was a good woman and a great mom.
But baby, I’m telling you now, we’ve got to get through the past. Talk about it.
I need you to tell me what happened. It doesn’t have to be all of it .
. . just something. I need to be able to keep you safe, and the more I know, the easier it is to do that. ”
Zinnia closes her eyes and slightly shakes her head. I’m sure if I didn’t have a grip on her chin, she’d be doing it harder. “I . . .”
“Before you say you can’t, remember one thing.
When your parents died, I was there for you.
The club was there for you. We did what we had to do to help you, especially me.
You’ve been mine for a long time, and now that I have you back, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you where you’ve always belonged. ”
Leaning in, I press my lips to hers, giving her a kiss. As much as I’d like nothing more than to deepen it, to take her to my room here at the clubhouse and show her how much I’ve missed her, I keep it chaste.
I release her chin, step back to squat down, and pick up the sketch pad from where it fell to the ground.
I flip it over, and my heart tightens further at the sight of the drawing.
Zinnia always had a talent for artwork. In my house, I have several of her drawings and paintings.
Shit in my room here at the clubhouse, I’ve got a couple still that I could never get rid of. Not that I would want to.
Staring at the artwork now, I tap down the emotions of the beauty she’s working on.
You can clearly see the man and the little girl, but they’re not separate from each other.
They’re drawn together as one. The man who helped create the girl.
The life he lives is for her. It’s what Delilah is to me.
She has been that to me since before I even knew she’s mine.
I was drawn to her the first time I met her, and she wrapped me around her little finger.
Zinnia quickly takes the book from my hands and spins with it clutched to her chest.
“You haven’t lost your touch, baby,” I murmur, coming up behind her and pulling her back flush against my front.
“You’re not making this easy for me,” she whispers, taking a ragged breath.
“Told you, Zinnia, I’m not giving you any more space, baby.” I press a kiss to the side of her head, “I can’t.”
I feel the shudder race down her body, and she relaxes in my embrace.
“I dreamed of you saving me . . . of being right here,” she murmurs softly right before she rocks my world and tells me the rest of the story she started earlier.
About Davy. About the Cintron Cartel—their involvement with what she’s been through.
About Basa and his father. What she knew about the conversations they had in front of her and her time with them. The rape.
Fuck, it’s all I can do to keep from throwing up as Zinnia recounts what she’s been through. The more she tells me, the more my anger wants to take hold of me. Somehow, I hold back . . . keeping myself in check for her sake. She doesn’t need to know how much fury is raging inside me.
I turn Zinnia in my arms and swipe the tears from her cheeks.
“That part of your life is done, baby,” I whisper and cup either side of her face. “You are done with Basa and those bastards. Trust me when I say they won’t ever get to you again. I’ll fuckin’ kill them if they even try.”
“But they will try . . . they already have a plan in motion to attempt to get inside. Don’t you get it? If Basa comes for me, he won’t just settle, knowing I’ve given away his plans. He’ll take me and anyone else he wants, but more than that, he’ll kill anyone who steps in his way.”
“Let ‘em try, baby,” I state firmly. There’s no way I’ll let anyone try to take her. Not in this lifetime. They’ll have to take me out to get to her again, and even that won’t stop me. I’ll haunt the motherfuckers if it comes down to it.
Once Zinnia and I finished our conversation earlier, I texted Hammer asking him to call church. I needed them to know what I found out. It’s the only way to keep her safe.
Sitting in my seat during church, I recount what Zinnia had informed me in regard to Davy, the Cintron Cartel, and how she came to be Basa De La Rosa’s slave.
The thought of her being more than a slave, a fuckin’ sex toy, that’s what she had told me, has me wanting to string the fucker up.
Toy with him and make him feel every ounce of pain I’m sure she’s felt in the past.
“No wonder I can’t find anything on the bastard,” Cy sneers, shoving his laptop away from him. “I’m sure they made him pay for the shit he pulled in selling her.”
“Between the Cintron and De La Rosa Cartels, things are just going to get ugly,” Bruiser mutters, leaning back to rock in his chair.
“The De La Rosa Cartel knew who was backing the Florida Inferno’s Clutch MC on that raid they tricked us with. I don’t know how they managed it, but they did it.”
“Don’t know, but what we have to deal with now is keeping Zinnia safe and keep a look out for Avery’s fucked up siblings,” Hammer declares, clenching his teeth as he glances around the table.
“We do this smart, and we do it right. Because we won’t be going against just one group, but three.
I want to know if there’s some connection as to how Avery’s siblings are able to go between two cartels and the Delivers. There’s got to be something.”
“I’ll look into it. With all the shit we had going on lately . . . I didn’t look into it all like I should’ve,” Cy mutters.
“Don’t worry about it. We all know shit’s been going down lately, and we all need to keep our heads on straight now,” Malice states, his voice firm.
“Right, so let’s get out of here. We’ve all got shit to do, and that don’t include sitting around in here all damn day,” Hammer says, slamming the gavel on the table.
I nod and stand to my feet. Hammer’s right about one thing, I’ve got shit to do and not all day to do it.
First up is checking on Zinnia, then taking care of my daughter.
We’re staying at the clubhouse tonight, but come tomorrow, I’m taking my woman to my house and putting her in my space.
She needs to be where I can see her . . .
to hold her. It’s time for our lives to get back to what they should have been nine years ago, and I’m making it happen whether she wants it or not.