Chasing Gunner (Chasing Series Book 2)

by J. M Stoneback

  “Yeah.”

  We walk to the living room. Gia sits on the brown couch next to Alana, and my mom sits next to Gia. Ma is holding a small blue scrapbook of baby pictures, pointing to something.

  “This is Gunner when he first started walking. He used to try to catch our white cat, Snow. That cat was so mean, he used to knock over stuff just for fun.”

  “What happened to him?” Rainbow asks.

  “I gave it to an old lady that lived next door to us,” she answers.

  I clear my throat, and they drink in the sight of us. Ma’s posture straightens as her eyes ping-pong between Rylee, Cora, and me like she’s trying to piece the puzzle together.

  “Who are these people?” Alana asks, peering down at Cora. “Is this a daughter we know nothing about?” she asks with sarcasm.

  Gia stares at me with curiosity in her eyes, and I shake my head. “She’s our sister. Our dad is her father.”

  Alana balls her fists and digs her nails into her skin, and Ma stares at her like I just announced that she’s from Mars.

  “Your dad always had a thing for blonde-haired women,” Ma says, eyeing Rylee from head to toe.

  “You must be Ava. Ellis mentioned you,” Rylee says, and I don’t miss my ma’s cringe after hearing my dad’s name.

  Cora rushes up to Alana and wraps her tiny arms around her waist. Alana pats her head awkwardly.

  “I’ve been waiting a whole year to meet you. Tuxedo Mask says you like anime so I bought you a gift.” Cora pulls away from her, unzips her suitcase, grabs a manga, and hands it to Alana. “I don’t know if you like Black Cover, but I got you volume thirteen.”

  “Thanks. I watch the show, but I haven’t read the latest issue.”

  “Cora, go to the movie theater. I have to talk to Gunner about something serious,” Rylee says, and Cora grabs her stuff to walk upstairs. Then Rylee’s eyes glue to mine.

  “I’m leaving Cora with you,” she says. “I can’t take care of her.”

  “What the fuck do you mean?” I say, and Alana crosses her arms. Ma digs in her pocket and grabs her phone, starting to play on it.

  “I can’t be reminded of him by that child up there. The truth is, I never wanted her. The only reason why I kept her was because of Ellis. He wanted her because he felt bad for how he treated you, so he thought by not beating her and ignoring her it was better treatment than what he’d done to you previously. I saved up the child support and three million from her trust fund; I’m leaving tonight.” Her voice is monotone.

  Fuck, I shouldn’t have set up the trust fund with Rylee as administrator. I trusted her to always be looking out for Cora’s best interest.

  I want to punch the fucking wall. Instead I grind my molars hard enough my jaw hurts.

  “You can’t leave your child, it’s against the law!” Alana yells.

  “I can and will.”

  “I’m about to slap this bitch!” Alana says, and they have a screaming match. Alana points at Rylee calling her every name in the book and Rylee’s yelling to get out of her face. This is a fucking circus.

  My ma holds her phone in the air. She’s video recording them and for the life of me I don’t know why. I slide between them so they won’t hit each other.

  “What the fuck am I supposed to say to Cora? That her piece-of-shit mom doesn’t want her?” I yell, balling my fist. If she were a man, I’d beat the shit out of her.

  “You’re a smart man, figure it out,” she says, glaring at Ma. “Are you recording me?” She rushes up to Ma and tries to snatch the phone from her, tossing it to the wooden floor.

  “You’re going to jail for what you’re doing,” my ma yells, then picks up her phone and begins aiming the phone at her again.

  “Keep your voices down. I don’t want Cora to hear,” I say. Rainbow rushes upstairs, I’m assuming to check on Cora. I’m so done with this bitch. She needs to get the fuck out of here so I grab Rylee by the arm as she tries to pull away, kicking and shouting to let her go. When we’re outside, she bites down on my fingers and I let go, sticking them in my mouth. She bomb-rushes my ma, knocking the phone out of her hand again, then Rylee smacks her across the face. I grab Rylee by the waist again as she kicks and punches the air. I’m glad my nosy-ass neighbors aren’t close enough to watch the shit storm taking place. It’s pitch-black and the nearest streetlamp is a mile away from here.

  “Let me go!” Rylee screams at me.

  Alana takes out her phone from her pocket and makes a phone call. “I’d like to report an assault and fraud.” She gives them my address and hangs up the phone.

  My ma picks up her phone from the ground and dusts off her blouse.

  “Are you okay, Mom?” Alana asks.

  “Yeah,” she says.

  Alana glares at me as if she’s ready to chew my head off. Rylee tries to break free from my embrace, but I grip her harder.

  “You’re hurting me!” Rylee yells.

  Finally, two cops pull up to the driveway and I let her go.

  “Officers, arrest this man, he’s hurting me,” Rylee says.

  “Calm down, ma’am. Who made the call for assault?” the dark-haired guy asks.

  “I did,” Alana says. “She assaulted my mom.”

  “She’s abandoning her child, stole money from her, and she slapped me,” Ma yells, pointing to her face, then she takes out her phone and plays the video back for the officers to see. It’s the conversation from earlier.

  They slap cuffs on Rylee’s wrists and usher her to the car as she cries.

  “You need to come to the station and make a statement,” the brown-haired officer says to Ma.

  “Let me get my husband, he’s inside eating.” She glares at Rylee. “You’re a shitty person and I hope you get beat up while you rot in prison. Shame on you.”

  “You can’t do this to me!” Rylee yells. “Officers, I was joking. I’m not really going to leave her. And Cora gave me that money. Ava hit me first!”

  “I want every dime back that you stole from Cora,” I say.

  Then the officers walk to her the end of my driveway and usher her inside the car. I follow them just to make sure she gets in the car. I’m getting odd stares from my neighbors. I turn around and say, “Mind your damn business, there is nothing to see here.”

  The minute I close the door, Alana stomps up to me and slaps me across my face. My cheek stings as I stroke it. I should have seen this coming. Alana puts the fire in firecracker.

  “Don’t put your hands on your brother, I raised you better than that,” Ma says, then turns toward me. “Next time you want to drop a bomb on us like that, give us a heads-up. That was very selfish of you to do and if you were still living in my house, I would ground you.” She shakes her head. “Now, apologize to each other.”

  “I’m sorry for hitting you, but you deserve it,” Alana says, folding her arms across her chest, then inhales and exhales loudly.

  “Gunner?” Ma says, with her hands on her hips tapping her foot. “I’m waiting on you.”

  “I apologize,” I mumble under my breath.

  “I can’t hear you, Gunner Joshua Underwood,” my ma says.

  “I said, ‘I apologize.’”

  “My work here is done.” She pauses. “There’s too much bad energy here. Herold, let’s go!”

  She rushes to the kitchen, then Herold strolls through the living room with a plate of food in his hand and they both leave.

  “How long have you known about them, Gunner Joshua?” Alana points her bony index finger in my face.

  “A year.” I thrust my fingers through my hair, then pull in frustration.

  She gives me a humorless laugh. “It’s just like you to keep me in the dark about shit. I always wanted to be close to you, like a normal sibling. But you’re secretive. You treat me like I’m glass, as if by telling me things I’ll break. I might be your sister”—she pauses—“but I’m not your baby sister anymore. I mean that literally and figuratively.”

 
Guilt eats at me as I pace the wooden floor.

  “Why didn’t you tell us about that little girl up there?” Her tone is laced with hurt.

  Because I’m a selfish bastard, and if I told you what I did to our dad you might not forgive me. My mouth burns to say it, to tell her everything, but I can’t, so instead I say, “I don’t have a real good answer to that.”

  “Where is Dad? When did you get in contact with him?” She perches on the couch, plays with the end of her white shirt with the DC Comics logo on it. She’s lost some weight after having Cydney.

  Growing up, Alana used to ask me and Ma questions about Dad. Why did he leave? What I remember about him? What did he look like? I used to answer some of her questions. When I told her he wasn’t a nice man to Ma and he used to hit her, she’d respond with, “Maybe he changed. People change all the time.” The one thing I admire about my sister, she’s always had a bigger heart than most people.

  When Alana was seven years old, she used to write him letters every week but stopped around the time she turned sixteen.

  “He died last year on my birthday.”

  She gasps in horror at my words.

  “I hired a private investigator to find him. He was living on Long Island and was working at a bar. When I introduced myself to him, he knew who I was and told me that he has an account with my bank. He told everyone at the bar how proud of me he was. He got drunk, he asked me about you and Ma. I updated him. Then I asked him why he abused me and Ma.”

  I remember that day crystal clearly. I was so fucking angry for how he treated us, and I was happy to see him. I’d never been so fucking confused in my life.

  “Hold the fuck up.” She puts her hands up in the air. “You were abused by Dad?”

  I avert my eyes to the floor. I never told Alana nor Ma the horrible shit he did to me.

  She throws her arms around my shoulders and rests her head on my chest. “I’m so sorry, Gunz. That’s why you would never talk about him.” She pauses. “Does Mom know?”

  “No, and don’t say shit to her.”

  “I won’t, I promise.”

  “He didn’t have an answer to my question. He told me he was a changed man, and he didn’t hit women and kids anymore. I drove him home, and that’s when he introduced me to Cora and Rylee. He told Rylee to make us something to eat, and then I noticed she was wearing a turtleneck sweater and would flinch and act so scared around me or him. Cora was sitting on the couch and I told her that I was her brother. She asked me a ton of questions about my life. Then she asked me if I wanted to see her room. I told her yeah, whatever. When I got there, she told me about the bruised marks on her mom, and she told me that when they went to bed, she would hear shouting and her mom telling him to stop, that he’s hurting her. When Dad popped his head in the door, asking what we’re talking about, I lied to him and told she was telling me about her manga collection. Cora asked him if he could give her a ride to her friend’s house, and I volunteered to do it.”

  Alana hugs me tight.

  “So I dropped Cora off, then on my way home I was coming up with ways to get Rylee and Cora out of the situation. I got drunk and passed out on the floor. The next morning, I got a phone call from Rylee saying Dad shot himself in the head, and he was dead.” I grow quiet. My heart beats rapidly, like it’s going to burst in my ribcage, and I want to vomit.

  I had to leave out what actually happened that night because this isn’t the time to tell her what really went down, and I’m not going to rat my own ass out.

  “I’m so fucking pissed at you,” she says, pulling away from our embrace.

  “I know. I’ve been a shitty brother.”

  “Damn right you have been.”

  Several minutes later, Darien walks downstairs with Cydney in his arms. His dark hair sticks up as he rubs his eyes. He looks like he just woke up from a nap.

  “It’s time to go home, Darien.”

  Darien’s eyes dart between me and Alana and confusion colors his face. “What’s wrong, Siren?”

  “Just . . . I want to get the hell out of here.”

  They pack up Cydney’s Winnie the Pooh playpen, then they leave.

  Just fucking great. Now my sister is pissed off at me. But I have no one to blame but myself. I made my bed, now I must lie in it.

  I head upstairs to the movie theater. Gia is sitting next to Cora while they watch a movie. Cora’s eyes may be glued to the gigantic screen, but she is also speaking to someone on her phone. I perch on the thick velvet seat next to Gia. How am I going to break it to her that her mom doesn’t want her? And she’s in jail. No, I’m not going to tell her just yet. I’ll come up with another lie.

  “Are you okay?” Rainbow whispers in my ear, sliding into my lap and slinging her arms around my neck.

  “No, I managed to piss off Alana, but I told her about my dad, and about the abuse,” I whisper back.

  “What did she say?”

  “That she’s sorry that happened, and that she’s pissed that I didn’t tell her about Cora.”

  “She will forgive you, Wolf,” she says, giving me Eskimo kisses. Where would I be without Gia’s support?

  Cora hits the end button on her phone. “Where’s Mom? I need to ask her if I can go on a ski trip with Talon’s family for fall break in November.”

  Here goes nothing.

  “Rylee is not coming back for a while,” I say as the wrinkle on her forehead deepens.

  “What do you mean?”

  I glance at Gia, and she kisses the bottom of my chin, then gives me an encouraging nod.

  “She wants you to live with me.”

  “For how long?”

  “Forever. She wants me to have custody of you.”

  I feel shitty for lying.

  “Very funny, Tuxedo Mask.” Cora studies my face. When I look at Gia, her smile morphs into a frown.

  “You’re lying!” she cries. She taps the screen on her phone and dials what I assume is Rylee’s number and dials it again when it goes to voicemail.

  “I heard her say it. She isn’t coming back,” Gia says with sadness in her tone.

  “Why doesn’t she want me anymore?” Tears gloss Cora’s eyes, and her face colors with sorrow. And my heart fucking explodes in my chest. “I’ll do better. I’ll be a better daughter and stop nagging her. I’ll do all my homework and get all As when I start school. I’ll give her all of my trust fund.”

  She sobs uncontrollably, and Gia slides in the chair next to me, and I hug Cora like she’s my daughter. I wish I could tell her the truth about how manipulative her mother is. That she doesn’t give a shit about her, and she’s in jail.

  “It’s nothing you did, Cora. Something is wrong with her. She isn’t in her right mind,” Gia says to her.

  “Do you think she’ll come back and get me?” Cora asks, her running nose wetting my sweater.

  “I don’t know,” I say. I hope not. Cora deserves a better ma, someone to give her the love that she needs.

  She cries her little heart out.

  A week goes by and there’s nothing but sadness lingering in the mansion. Cora cries so much her tears could fill up a pool. Gia and I comfort her, but there is no amount of comfort to cover the hole in Chibi’s chest.

  I asked Rainbow to help me with Cora, and she didn’t even hesitate. I don’t know how to be a dad. Sometimes, I wish kids came with an instruction manual. Cora is hitting pre-teen years, then she’ll be a teenager and hormonal and moody. Then I have to worry about her dating boys. She’s already adamant about kissing Liam and she doesn’t know about sex yet. Just imagine how she will be in high school. Then I have to worry about her fucking and having periods. I have to have that talk with her, too. Then I have to teach her how a man’s supposed to treat her. The boy she decides to date is going to answer to me, and I’ll beat his fucking ass if he hurts her. How am I going to be a parent to a teenager? A man who suffers from PTSD. What if I fuck up more than Dad and Rylee and let her down? Shit.

>   I have to drive back and forth to work since there is no room at the condo for Cora. Even though Alana is mad as hell at me, she agreed to help out with Cora. And I spoke to my ma yesterday, and she agreed to babysit Cora while I work and Gia looks for another job. I told her I feel bad for throwing Rylee in jail and she responded with, “Don’t beat yourself up about it. She’s fucked up, and a piece of shit. It was best for Cora.”

  Since Gia has a job interview in Brooklyn at a bakery today, I gave her the day off.

  I walk into Logan’s office at his firm and sit in the chair in front of his desk. He’s buried behind a mountain of paperwork, and I clear my throat as he looks up, pushing his reading glasses on the bridge of his narrow nose. His chestnut hair is pushed up in a man bun and his nails are painted a glittery blue.

  What the fuck is going on with him?

  “Are you going through a midlife crisis?” I ask, clearing my throat.

  “No. Why?” His gray eyes narrow.

  “I’m trying to figure out why a thirty-one-year-old man is wearing a man bun with glitter nails. I can look past the man bun, but the nails have got to go.”

  “Shut the fuck up. I had the kids last night, and Kim wanted to do my hair and nails this morning.” He pushes whatever paperwork he’s working on to the side. Thank fuck Cora doesn’t make me do shit like that. All she wants me to do is play video games and watch anime. He has a boy and a girl.

  Ever since college, he’s been wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a judge. You have to watch yourself around Logan, though—he’s manipulative and a con artist. His father was caught accepting bribes from criminals in exchange for lenient sentences, and on his first day of attending law school, Logan got a phone call that his dad had died from a heart attack in prison, leaving his schizophrenic mom a widow. He has so many psychological issues he makes the Joker from Batman look sane. I thought I had issues.

  “Are you in some more deep shit?” He leans back in his executive chair. He wears a light blue vest with a white dress shirt. His face is tan, and he has diamond studs in both ears. Back in college, Matt and I used to call him a pretty boy, because all the girls said he looked like a male model. “I can’t keep bailing you out if you keep committing crimes.”