Take My Body (Curse Bound 2)

Gunner frowned. “Say what?”

Caspian reached over his shoulder and ended the call. “I wouldn’t have believed her if this weird thing hadn’t happened to us. It’s Saturday. We could go straight from here.”

Gunner stared back at him as the ground shifted under his feet. “Oh. So you wanna go. And… who knows, maybe swap tonight if we can?”

Caspian stilled, pulling the protein powder to his chest as he contemplated the lid. The speakers blasted loud pop music, and other customers went about their business, but in the little corner of the healthy snacks aisle, clouds gathered over Gunner and Caspian.

“It only makes sense. You can’t work as an accountant, and I don’t want to lose my parents. It’s only been two weeks, and I already kind of miss them,” Caspian admitted in a soft voice.

All of a sudden, his boots became Gunner’s focus. “Makes sense. And then there’s your parents’ party tomorrow. I wouldn’t know which fork to use for what.” He gave a nervous laugh, but a chill was already spreading through his bones. It didn’t matter if they called each other boyfriends now, because this situation was temporary. If anything, he was postponing the inevitable by playing twink and indulging in piano-playing whenever he got the chance.

Maybe it would be for the better if they put an end to this fantasy instead of gradually forgetting that life wasn’t about fun and pleasure.

They left the aisle and headed to the cash registers without uttering another word.

Chapter 20 – Gunner

Gunner’s favorite burgers tasted bland. He and Caspian attempted to make conversation over food, but it was no use. The storm cloud that had descended on them after talking to Madge wouldn’t lift, and every moment in each other’s presence stretched, until Gunner longed to just go home and leave Caspian to handle this.

But he couldn’t run from responsibility any longer, so he sucked it up, and they parked their vehicles in front of the bar half an hour before the live music performance was about to start.

Gunner stiffened when a man he vaguely recognized left the bar and lit a cigarette in front of the entrance, and realization made Gunner break out in goosebumps. For a moment, he tried to convince himself that the setting sun and the long shadows it cast fooled his eyes, but he couldn’t be mistaken.

“Fuck. See that guy? He used to be a biker in my dad’s club. The only one who survived the fire. He might recognize the face tattoo, so keep it cool.”

“Doesn’t everyone know about the face tattoo? It’s kind of obvious, don’t you think?” Caspian asked and offered Gunner a stiff smile. At least he was trying to make this easier. “What’s his name?” Caspian asked.

“Roach. I don’t know how he’s really called. A grim bastard, so stay on your guard— Wait.” Something clicked in his head when a tall, long-haired man with a guitar stepped outside seconds later.

He’d seen them kissing.

Two weeks ago when he’d parked here, too upset to go home. It had been too dark for Gunner to recognize Roach’s face, but it clicked into place now.

The new knowledge made as little sense as the smile emerging on Roach’s features when the handsome stranger approached. Gunner couldn’t remember ever seeing Roach smile when the Rabid Hyenas MC still existed.

He’d always been so grim, so subdued, but there was a lightness to his posture now, as if he were a normal guy who worked nine to five and didn’t have to look over his shoulder all the time.

The guy with long hair put his arms on Roach’s shoulders and moved, prompting the former biker into something akin to a clumsy slow dance.

“Doesn’t look grim to me,” Caspian said with a chuckle as the couple swayed in the orange glow of the flickering neon above the bar entrance.

“I don’t get it. He’s… gay?” Gunner asked flatly as his mind worked at full speed, trying to come to terms with what this meant.

Roach had been approaching thirty when all his club brothers had perished in a sudden fire. Tall, broad in the shoulders, he’d been a ‘man’s man’, and the fact that he was touching another guy in Grit, Ohio, was like an explosion to shatter everything Gunner believed.

Mike Choi was a masculine guy, but one who owned a legit store, and had a business degree. He didn’t need to cater to scumbags in order to survive another month. Roach, however, was the kind of person Gunner had imagined himself growing into, had the motorcycle club not crumbled.

If he could be open about his affection for another guy, if he wasn’t afraid to be openly gay, they maybe it wasn’t out of reach for Gunner either? Was the future really not set in stone?

“Evidently. They look hot together,” Caspian said, stretching in the seat.