14. Sunni
CHAPTER 14
Sunni
I didn’t have any warning, as usual.
No warning before he barged into my life again, unasked for, unwanted, larger than life and impossible to ignore.
It was a warm morning, because what else could it be? We didn’t have any other kinds of mornings in Resurrected.
I was cleaning out the latte machine, as I always did mid-morning.
Carefully, with not one drop of water wasted.
Since water was such a precious commodity, people could not afford to drink more than one cup of coffee a day, so each cup was treasured like the rarest of diamonds.
Actually, diamonds were common as anything compared to water.
So drinking your one allotted cup a day was an experience you tended to savor, and The Desert’s Cup was the perfect place for that.
Not to mention, Willow and Elise, the proprietors and my good friends, had a reputation for generosity, even giving out bottles of water or iced coffees sometimes on particularly hot days.
It wasn’t a very good business practice, but they managed to keep the ledgers right side-up because of how clever they were. Water collection on the ground outside town was allowed at certain times/places, but strictly regulated by the Elders. Willow, however, didn’t mind a few. . .illegalities in the name of finding water.
And she knew all the old myths and legends, too, the old ways of finding water. And she believed them.
According to Willow, there were vibrant, deep wells of water under the baked desert skin, and if we could find a way to get to them, we could break the Elders’ hold over the region.
No one knew where the secret Celestial Abode was, but it was rumored the Elders lived at the base of all the underground rivers.
Sometimes, especially on days like this, it seemed like an impossible dream, that there was abundant water instead of deprivation and want.
But I had a particular reason for holding onto hope.
I put a hand on my belly, feeling the warmth of my skin under my thin top. My baby deserved a better life.
And then, just like that, I looked up and he walked in the door.
My heart pounded wildly in my chest and my breath caught in my throat, and I was caught too, trapped like I always had been, too afraid to run.
For a moment it all came rushing back to me, that weak liquid sensation at the way Raker strode into a building, the way he was so big that he had to duck down because the ceiling was so low. The way the dark tattoos spread up and down his arms, like thick wicked words of warning.
Beware
Stay away
This man will break his promises and your heart
Then after a moment I was myself again, and the confusing mix of anger and memories passed, leaving only cold disdain, and I fought to control my breathing.
How had he found me?
For now, he couldn’t see me. I was safely hidden behind the latte machine right now. But for how long?
And how could I get out of here inconspicuously?
Raker flicked hard, assessing eyes all over the coffee shop, his stare cold and brutal.
Why was he out of jail? I was told the sentence for illegal gun-running was 18-24 months, and it hadn’t even been 9!
God, I had desperately hoped they would have kept him away at least for 9 months.
But Raker and the Saints were powerful. If anyone could find a way to get out of a jail sentence early, it was him.
But what was he doing here ? Was he meeting someone at the coffee shop? Who was he meeting? If I knew Raker, he’d only be analyzing how powerful or weak they were, and how he could bend them to the will of the MC Saints Club.
This was supposed to be Souls MC territory!
I glanced outside, but didn’t see any other motorcycles.
Was it possible he wasn’t here for a meeting? That he came alone?
Why would he even be on this street, in Souls territory?
And then with a few curt words, he shattered all my foolish hopes that this had nothing to do with me.
“I’m looking for someone who works here,” Raker said, each word like a cold ice bath down my spine.
“Sunni Twenty-four.”
Shit
“There is no one by that name here,” Willow said flatly, her face not moving a muscle.
I breathed a quick prayer thanking the goddess for Willow’s natural distrust of MCs.
Even though they were my friends, and had done so much for me, I had never told Willow and Elise exactly why I had fled. I had done all I could to repay their kindness in renting me a room for barely any money at all above the shop, but I had never shared anything beyond that I had used to work as a whore for one of the motorcycle clubs.
And that was enough information for Willow to refuse to give me up.
“I have information,” Raker went on, “That she can be found here. I am here to collect her. She belongs to me.”
His body was angled partway toward mine, and I could see a sliver of Willow’s face just past the broad width of Raker’s shoulders.
I could almost smell his cut, that intoxicating old-leather scent that would remind me of him.
I had avoided anyone or anything connected with motorcycles ever since leaving Raker. I didn’t want to think about it or be reminded of him.
“I do not know anyone who belongs to you,” Willow replied.
Oh, Willow. I felt a sudden stab of fear that she would go too far.
What was Raker even capable of? Did he want to find me so he could punish me for what I had done?
At one point I would neve r have thought he was the kind of asshole who could do something like that.
But that was before what happened.
I no longer thought he was anything but a vicious, amoral brute.
He cared about nothing but power.
My friend Willow was in her late 30s, with short platinum blonde hair, very bright blue eyes, and a muscular, strong body with a tough face that hid a very kind interior.
I slipped further behind the coffee machine. Maybe I could hide from sight there, and I felt Raker’s eyes sweep past me, burning my skin even though he couldn’t see me.
Shit
I hated him, but this asshole felt just as powerful and magnetic as he ever had been. My heart was hammering in my chest so hard my ribs ached.
“That’s interesting,” Raker said in an unhurried manner. “My informant is usually pretty good. I’d be surprised if he was lying to me.”
“No one by that name is here,” Willow repeated. “You should leave.”
There was a beat of silence, and my fingers clutched the side of the table, hardly daring to peer out, but knowing I had to.
My belly was squished, my skin scraping by the rough grain of the wood, and I quickly tugged my T-shirt down.
I was saving my reward money as best I could, but I wanted to make sure there was plenty so my baby could always have enough, so I didn’t exactly have an extensive pregnancy wardrobe.
Of course, Leopold would have given me money, but I had a stubborn streak of pride that kept me from taking his money until we were actually married.
“I know she works here,” Raker said, his voice harsh and uncompromising, “and I am going to tear this place down around your fucking ears until I find her.”
His fingers moved and flickers of bright light appeared between them, the orange flame terrible and hypnotic at the same time. My heart stopped with terror, as it always did with even the threat of a fire in this perpetual drought.
As my breath caught in my chest with terror, Raker turned the flame to the heavy wooden counter.
With the flames flickering between his fingers, he wrenched the heavy counter out of the floor and threw it down, the coffee cups and cash register falling on the ground with a terrific crash.
I almost jumped out of my skin as the flame caught the wood, spreading slowly at first, all along the cracks of the old piece of furniture, then beginning to race down the long edges.
“Tell me where Sunni is,” Raker said, and the raw, uncontrolled quality in his voice terrified me.
That was not how Raker acted. He was cold, controlled, devastating.
“No,” was all Willow replied.
There were two spots of color high in her cheeks and she didn’t even look at me.
The last coffee cup rolled off and smashed into ceramic shards on the ground.
Raker stepped toward the glass display that held the remainder of the savory and sweet treats Elise and I had baked that morning, his huge black shitkicker boots crunching over the shards on the ground.
And he didn’t care who he had to crunch beneath his boots, striding across the room with those powerful arms able to cause such destruction, his stance wide-legged and arrogant.
He wouldn’t stop
I didn’t know why he was looking for me.
Why the fuck was he out?
What did he want with me?
He couldn’t possibly know, could he?
If he was angry, it was his own goddamn fault!
But I couldn’t let him destroy everything Willow and Elise had worked so hard for.
I’d have to get rid of him, as fast as I could, before he fucked up the whole coffee shop.
“Raker,” I said, my throat dry as dust as I stood up from my crouched position behind the latte machine. “ Stop .”
He turned around, swift like a snake, like the dark poisonous adder he was.
His face was as familiar as a bruise, a bone-deep ache, as his head whipped around and his eyes met mine.
“Sunni,” he said, and I could swear my skin started heating, those cursed black marks on my arms tingling.
“I found you.”
I felt a cramp in my back from crouching down, and I desperately needed to get rid of him before he saw my lower half.
“I think you should leave,” I said, tightening my lips together. “Why are you out of jail?”
Raker’s face hardened, but he began to walk toward me.
“Good behavior,” he said.
One step
Then another
Going at exactly the pace he wanted to. Because he was powerful enough to get what he wanted at any distance.
I laughed, bitter and sharp, the tension between us twanging like an instrument. “You? Good behavior. You wouldn’t know it.”
Raker’s eyes narrowed, the scar across his lip puckering as he drew into the light.
“Why was I in jail, Sunni?” he asked.
“Gun running,” I almost whispered.
He said nothing.
Was he here to get revenge on me for that?
Because what was he actually in jail for?
Betrayal
My tightening fingers clutched the gun we kept hidden underneath this table. Even though our block was ruled by Souls, they were the weakest MC, and there was always the danger we’d be in the crosshairs of a turf war, and it was just better to be safe.
I drew it out and aimed it directly at Raker.
“You need to leave now.”
His harsh face didn’t even change. He stood there with his arms crossed across his cut, the leather stretched across massive shoulders.
I focused the gun on him, holding it with both hands to make sure it stayed steady.
“I don’t want to shoot you. All I want is for you to leave me alone and never come back.”
“No,” Raker said bluntly.
“Go away!” I cried, feeling sweat begin to trickle down my back.
“Don’t be a little fool, Sunni,” he snarled. “Of course I’ve come to take you back with me. I don’t care about what you did. Your place is back at the Saints MC with me.”
“No! I won’t go back with you!”
He took another step toward me, crunching across the broken shards of ceramic on the floor. Everything seemed to be frozen in time.
His eyes bore into mine.
“Give me the gun,” he said, his jet-black eyebrows drawing together.
He held his hand out for it, and I couldn’t help my eyes roaming over those massive arms, the way the dark, swirling tattoos sometimes blended into his tanned skin, and the way they also stood out starkly, marking his status as Prez.
His voice was firm and authoritative. Like always, Raker expected to be obeyed absolutely.
My body responded instinctively too, my skin prickling, wanting to step closer, obey him, put the gun in his outstretched palm.
Oh, why was I such a coward? I should have shot him three times over by now.
My guts turned over inside me, the urge to obey Raker deep and shameful.
Even after all he had done
Even after the way he had betrayed me
NO
I wasn’t that girl anymore
I let the spark of anger grow inside me as he stalked closer, his big chest open and arrogant, like he could never imagine I’d actually want to hurt him.
But I did
The gun was hard and slick under my hands but I had been to the range many times with Willow and Elise. I had practiced.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” I spat at him. “I’m not your whore anymore.”
I finally pulled the trigger, aiming for his legs, but Raker moved so fast the bullet sliced through his forearm with a sharp puff of blood, and he didn’t stop, knocking the gun out of my hands as I yelped in surprise.
It clattered loudly on the coffee shop floor as he gripped my wrist with his massive hand, his dark eyebrows drawn together.
He looked impossibly furious.
“Too slow, sweetheart. You should have taken your shot twelve feet ago if you actually wanted to kill me. Now, unless you have anything else you want to kill me with, get your ass in gear and come with me. I don’t have time for this.”
Then he looked down.