by Jessie Cooke
“Hey! Zack! Open the door!”
“I’m right here,” Zack said, coming around the corner. He was wearing a white t-shirt without his kutte and a pair of sweat pants. His hair was disheveled and his eyes bloodshot.
“Who’s in your room?”
“Not your business, Tammy. Leave it alone.” He stepped between her and the door when she heard another cry.
“There’s a baby in there.”
“Shh!”
“Me shh? You don’t think anyone else can hear that? What the hell are you doing with a baby?” She realized then that he was holding a cup in his hand. She looked into it, expecting it to be coffee. It was milk. “Zachary, what’s going on?”
With a sigh, he put his key in the lock and turned it. Once the door was open, he grabbed Tammy with his free hand and pulled her inside. A woman about Tammy’s age, with huge, frightened eyes, sat on the edge of the bed, bouncing a baby in her lap. The woman’s eyes were as bloodshot as Zack’s. Zack handed her the cup of milk and she laid the baby down on the bed. Tamara watched the scene with disbelief as the woman filled a baby bottle with the milk and stuck it in the baby’s mouth, finally calming him. “Tammy, this is Nicole, and that’s Chase.” Zack had a little smile on his face when he looked at the baby. Tammy felt like she was caught in the Twilight Zone.
“Uh, hey…” Tammy managed.
“Hi,” the woman said, shyly. She had picked the baby back up and was rocking him while he drank his bottle.
“Um, Zack, can I talk to you outside for a minute?”
Zack looked at Nicole, who gave him a nervous smile. “I’ll be right back.” She nodded, and he stepped outside with Tammy.
“What the hell is going on? Who is that?”
“Nicole and Chase,” he said, as if that explained it all.
“Damn it, Zack! Stop playing stupid games. We’re supposed to be on the road already.”
“Shit.” He dragged his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Tams…”
“Sorry about what? Don’t tell me you’re not going with me to see Tommy.”
“I just can’t right now. I’m really sorry, but Nicole needs me, and I have to find a place for her and the baby to stay before Stone finds out she’s here.”
“I don’t know what the hell is going on, Zack, but you’re acting crazy. Who is she?”
“She’s hiding from her ex-boyfriend. He’s an asshole and an abuser. He’s been tormenting her because she won’t take him back, and I need to help her find a safe place to stay until I can deal with him.”
“None of that tells me why you’re involved in this. Oh my god! Is that your baby?”
Zack laughed. “Oh, hell no. No, he’s not mine. He belongs to that piece of shit and he’s threatening to take him away from her if she doesn’t take him back. She actually let him come back around to see the kid, in hopes that would satisfy him, but he got physical with her and she texted me and asked for help. I know you want to see Tommy and I promise to take you, but can it wait a day…or two?”
“No! I’ve waited weeks. My brother could be dying while I’m rotting out here in the middle of Bumfuck, Tennessee, and now I feel like I’m trapped in an alternate universe…one where you give a shit about a mother and her baby.” The tears won out. She couldn’t hold them back any longer and as soon as the dam broke, she began to sob. Zack looked like he wanted to run, but instead, he put his arm around her and pulled her into his chest. Tammy was pissed at herself, and she didn’t understand what was going on with her any more than she understood what was going on with Zack. She’d never been a crybaby; this was getting ridiculous. She pushed back from Zack with the intention of telling him that she was just going to go on her own and suddenly, she was staring over Zack’s shoulder and into Gunner’s blue eyes. He looked from her to Zack and said:
“Sorry to interrupt. I just forgot something in the room.”
Tammy didn’t say anything and neither did Zack, but she watched him until he disappeared around the corner at the end of the hall. “What are you doing?” Zack asked her.
“What am I doing? You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m not kidding. I know what I’m doing. I’m getting myself into deep shit for…shit, I don’t even know what for. You, on the other hand, finally have a decent man that loves you and you’re about to let him walk out of your life…for what? Your brother is in a coma. You can’t fix that. Your father is in hiding from the same people that want to kill you, and instead of riding off into the sunset and living happily ever after with that goober down the hall, you’re going to let him ride off without you. I thought you were so much smarter than that.”
Everything Zack was saying, Tammy had said to herself the night before, but it pissed her off for him to say it.
“You don’t understand about me and Tommy, even as long as you’ve known me. He’s all alone. He’s in pain. If it were me, he’d be there.”
“What I know about Tommy is that he’s as protective as hell of his sister. You’re probably the only person that Tommy has ever loved in his life. Do you think if he had a say in this, he’d want you walking back into that mess out there?”
He was right again. It made her want to punch him. “No. But like I said, if it were me, nothing would keep him away.”
Zack sighed. “Okay Tams. Let the best thing that ever happened to you walk out of your life. I can’t fix it for you. Shit, I can’t fix my own shit. If you still want me to take you to Texas, we’ll go tomorrow. Right now, however, I need to deal with what’s going on in my room. I’ve got to figure out a way to get them out of here without anyone seeing them, and get them to a hotel or something. I’m sorry.” Zack rarely apologized for anything. Tammy could see in his eyes that he really was sorry. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Tommy would still be there in a day or two…at least she hoped that he would. Tammy realized that she was being selfish. She didn’t know who that woman was in Zack’s room, but no mother and child should be put out of their own home by an abusive piece of shit.
“Okay. Let me know when you can go,” she said.
Zack put his hand on her arm. Something was different in his eyes, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Maybe it was that he just seemed more human to her than he had in a long time. He genuinely cared what happened to the mother and her child, and that touched her. “I will, I promise. But, Tams…think about what I said before the kid hits the road, okay?” She nodded just to satisfy him and watched him slip back into his room. She looked down the hallway where Gunner had gone and then back in the direction of the great room. She started to turn that way when she heard Gunner’s voice behind her.
“Tammy.” She closed her eyes for a second to try to block out what the sound of his voice did to her. Finally, she turned and looked up at him. Those blue eyes still did it for her every time.
“Hey.”
“Hey. I’m getting ready to take off. Patty and Billy are going back to Texas. it turns out. Manuel is going with them. I guess he and Patty are an item now.”
“I thought Billy was going with you to Massachusetts.”
He looked sad and her heart hurt for him. She knew how much he cared for Billy. It was going to hurt him to leave his friends behind. “Yeah, me too. But his life is in Texas and it wasn’t really fair for me to expect him to just pick up stakes and move almost two thousand miles away. I’m going to miss them both, but I feel like I need to get to know my family.”
She nodded. He had understood when she said she had to go see her family. He had even been willing to change his plans to take her. It was no wonder he was so upset with her. She hadn’t even given him a real chance. “Gunner, Zack found out that Eddie has a hit out on you in Texas. My family is still in danger. Zack thinks his father is involved in all of that, and the only person that could get away with taking me back to see Tommy is Zack. Nobody would hurt me if I went with him, and nobody would hurt you if you were two thousand miles away and with your fami
ly.”
“So you asked Zack to save you because you were worried for my life?”
“Yes, and I was trying to tell you that yesterday but you got all jealous and pissy.” Gunner’s lips twitched at her calling him pissy. “I don’t want Zack, you big, stupid idiot. I want you…fucking alive.”
He smiled. “I’m sorry. This is new to me. I’ve never been…I’ve never had…fuck it. I’m in love with you, Tammy. I’ve been trying not to say it again because it freaks you out, but I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why did it freak you out so badly when I said it?”
“Because I didn’t want to love you. I don’t want to be in love with a biker.”
“In my defense, I’m not a biker.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yet. By this time next week you’ll be wearing a prospect patch. I’m just so tired of all that shit.”
“I don’t have to be a biker. There are lots of other things I can do. I’m a hell of a fighter.”
She sighed. “You waited your whole life to be a part of a club, to find your family. I’m not going to stand in the way of that. That’s not what love is about.”
“I honestly have no idea what love is about,” he said. “I’ve never done this before. All I know for sure is that I didn’t need anything from our room. I was just hoping to run into you before you left. I had this fantasy…”
Tammy smiled. “A fantasy, huh?”
“Not that kind…well, yeah, it turned into that at the end, but I just imagined you’d see me and realize you couldn’t live without me either and we’d figure this out. Then we’d have a lot of sex.”
She laughed. “We could have the sex first, and figure the rest out later.”
“No…Jesus, what am I saying…? OK, yeah, we can have sex whenever you want it…but seriously, baby, can’t we please work this out? I don’t want to go anywhere without you.”
She reached up and put her hand on the side of his face. “I don’t want to go anywhere without you either.” He was about to bend down and kiss her when he suddenly looked over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. She looked over her shoulder to see Zack and Nicole coming out of his room. Zack was holding the baby.
“Is that a baby?”
“I think so,” she said.
“Is it his?”
“He says no.”
“Hmm, seeing him with a baby is…”
“Weird.”
“I was going to say different, but weird works.”
Tammy smiled and said, “I think you were about to kiss me.”
“I was.” Gunner found her lips with his. Zack and the woman and the baby walked by about that time and Zack said:
“About time you two got your shit together.” Gunner pulled out of the kiss and watched him hurry down the hallway with a baby covered up with a blanket in one hand, and a blue teething ring in the other. Chuckling, he said:
“Look who’s talking.”
50
Gunner and Tammy talked a while longer, but they both realized that neither of them wanted to go on without the other, and their best bet for the time being would be to go to Massachusetts and start from there. They left with her on the back of his bike, and he couldn’t say that he wasn’t happy to see the clubhouse in his rearview mirror. He was grateful to Zack for putting them up, but he still didn’t like him. The hardest part of it all had been saying goodbye to Patty and Billy. Patty was the closest thing to a real mother he ever had, even if she would kill him just for saying that, and even if he found his place in Dax’s family, Billy would always be his brother. As he headed for the highway, he thought about how much his life had changed in the past few months. He still didn’t have a fucking clue what to do with his life, but he’d learned a hell of a lot about himself. For instance, he never had a clue that he’d be willing to take a bullet, for anyone. He never knew that someone else would come along someday and that person’s happiness would mean more than his own. He’d been in survival mode for so many years that self-preservation had turned into self-centeredness. But where Tamara was concerned, all bets were off. That’s why when he came to the freeway, instead of going East, he went Southwest.
“Hey!” Tammy poked him in the ribs as he got on the ramp.
“What?”
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“Nope. I’m going the right way for a change.”
“Gunner, we need to stay out of Texas.”
“You want to see your brother?”
“Yes, but…”
“I’m not hiding from Eddie Munster. I’ve been dodging that asshole most of my life. I’m taking you to see your brother, and God help anyone that tries to hurt you.” He felt her lay her head into his back. A few minutes later she pulled her head up and said:
“I love you.”
He smiled. “I love you too,” he yelled back. “I hope you won’t think poorly of me, but when we get to San Antonio, I’m calling Detective Samuels.”
“I’d never think poorly of you. But why?”
“I spent my adolescence in jail because I didn’t want to be a rat. But I had an…shit, there’s a name for it.”
She didn’t laugh out loud at him, but her body was pressed into his and he could feel it shake. “An epiphany?”
“Yeah, that’s it. There are only two ways to get rid of a pest. One is to cage it and the other is to kill it. Eddie has proven hard to kill, but I think I have some information that might help them put the son of a bitch in a cage, where he belongs.”
She put her arms tighter around him and squeezed. “I’m proud of you,” she said. Another thing he was learning was the power of words. “I love you, and I’m proud of you” were words that he hadn’t heard much in his life, if at all. They made him feel almost invincible. He might be fooling himself. The detective might not be able to prove anything Gunner told him, and Eddie might still be free, and even more pissed, but the fact that Tammy was going to be proud of him for trying was enough.
They drove for about seven hours before stopping to grab a bite to eat at a small out-of-the-way diner on I-40. The sun was going down and they were both getting tired, so while they ate, they searched online for a motel nearby. They found one that sat way off the freeway and possibly had bedbugs and roaches, judging by the exterior, but Gunner didn’t think he could do another seven hours without falling asleep and killing them both, or someone else. He went inside and checked in. The good news was that the guy at the counter told him they were the only guests, so they got their pick of rooms. Gunner picked the one that faced right out to the hot tub and pool. The pool was cracked and out of service, but the hot tub worked.
When they got in the room Tamara dropped down on the bed and closed her eyes. Gunner lay down next to her and ran his finger from her forehead down her nose and lips, and down her neck. She shivered and smiled. “I love the way you touch me.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Don’t stop.”
He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips and said:
“I have a better idea.”
“Better than touching me?”
“No. That didn’t come out right. I have a better idea than touching you right here on this bed.”
She opened her eyes. “I’m listening.”
“Well, we’re at the back of the motel where that guy at the counter can’t see us, and we’re the only people in the motel. I was thinking maybe I touch you in the hot tub.”
“Why, Gunner Davis, are you suggesting we have sex in the hot tub of the motel, out in the open, in public?”
He laughed nervously, “If you like the idea, that’s what I was suggesting. If you hate it…”
She smiled. “How could I hate anything that involves you touching me?”
“I was wondering that myself.”
She giggled and stood up. “Let’s go.” Gunner got up too and grabbed some towels out of the bathroom.
They stepped outside into the crisp, cool night air. The stars were shining brightly and the fact that it was just the two of them made it perfect. They went through the small gate and Gunner hung their towels over one of the lawn chairs nearby. Tammy had already started stripping out of her clothes. There was enough light from the stars and the moon to give him a sexy view, and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. When she was nude, she stepped down onto the first step of the tub. “Ah, this is nice. Why aren’t you undressed?”
“Sorry,” he said, stripping off his shirt. “You’re just so fucking hot I can’t think straight when I’m around you.” Tammy smiled and finished submerging herself into the warm, bubbling water. Gunner followed her and as soon as he sat down, she leaned back against him and looked up at the sky.
“It’s so pretty.”
“Yeah, it is. But not even close to how pretty you are.”
“You trying to seduce me?” she said in a hopeful tone. Gunner was looking at her neck.
“I was actually thinking about sinking my teeth into that sexy neck of yours.”
She smiled again. “Do it,” she whispered. Gunner had one hand around her waist, and she arched her back so that her neck would be exposed to him. He leaned down further and licked a spot on her neck. She giggled. “That tickles. I thought you were going to bite it.”
“Be careful what you ask for, little girl.”
“I never ask for more than I can handle.” Gunner smiled and bit down on the piece of her neck he was licking. Tammy moaned and wiggled back into him, rubbing herself against his growing cock. He put his hands on her breasts and found her nipples. He rubbed, caressed, and massaged them while he sucked on her neck. “I love that,” she whispered.
“I can tell,” he said. “That’s why I do it. I love to hear you moan.”
“Make me scream,” she said in a sexy voice. He nipped at her shoulder and at the same time pinched her nipples. She gasped and moaned louder as Gunner played with her breasts for a while, and then suddenly he lifted her up out of the water and she did scream. “What are you doing? It’s cold!”