I turned back to Marisol. She looked even more scared than she had a minute ago. “The good news is that you’ll have an escort home tomorrow.”
Arms crossed, she narrowed her gaze in my direction. “And the bad news?”
I shrugged. “I don’t do bad news sweetheart. The better news is that we get to break my bed tonight.” The sound of her laugh, low and husky, was exactly what I wanted to hear in that moment.
“What about the couch, Stitch? Is it just the bed we get to break or can we try the couch too?”
I laughed and scooped her up in one arm and the bottle of Jack in the other. “If you’re up for it, we can break the whole damn apartment.”
Chapter Eight - Gunnar
Since I was the dumbass who had convinced Cross that this deal with Reed was a good one, I was determined not to be a jerk. But Stitch had a way of bringing out my innermost asshole. Like today when I knocked on his door only to be greeted by a curvy brunette who looked perfectly rumpled and well fucked. “Who the hell are you?”
“Marisol,” she said, her chin hitched defensively. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m the guy who’s about to put a bullet in Stitch’s ass. Stitch! Get your scrawny ass out here.” If he wasn’t ready to go, I’d head to Reed’s place without him.
The door opened wider and the kid appeared, pulling a black t-shirt over his head and flicking long black hair that he really needed to cut. “Hey, Gunnar.”
“Why the hell are you so surprised when I said nine in the morning?” A quick look at my watch said it was seven minutes til the hour. “Why aren’t you ready?”
He wore that shit eating grin that made me want to punch his nose just to see it vanish, and raked a hand through his long damn hair that made me want to punch him twice. “We got a late start.”
“Too fucking bad. We need to get on the road so I can get back. To Maisie, remember?” Ever since my mother died and I took custody of Maisie, I had the feeling that maybe the MC life wasn’t for me. I loved my brothers and I’d come close to death on many occasions for them but shit like this made it hard to remember that. “This is your deal and today is the day it happens but you’d rather fuck around? You got five minutes or I’m gone. With or without you.”
With a nod, Stitch stepped back and let me in. “We’ll be ready. I promise.”
I froze and glared at him. “We? No offense sweetheart.” I took another glance at the pretty chick and turned back to Stitch. “We don’t involve chicks in our business. Ever.”
“Give us a minute, will ya Marisol?” Stitch asked and she nodded and disappeared into one of the rooms down the hall, giving me time alone with the kid. “Look Gunnar, I know this isn’t ideal but she’s got this crazy ex and he’s been stalking her. Showed up inside her apartment when she woke up and I couldn’t let her go back, not last night.”
“Cut the shit, Stitch. And tell me the goddamn truth. Tell me exactly what the fuck you’re mixed up in. All of it. Be specific.”
I knew he was nervous because of the way his hands kept raking through his hair. Yet when he spoke, I felt the blood drain from my body. Worse, I felt the tension seep under my skin and take hold of me, making me worry. Making me angry. “Jesus fucking Christ, Stitch! A cartel? A goddamn cartel. When you step in the shit, you step in it up to your waist, don’t you?”
“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” he insisted angrily and with a hint of that immature petulance that made new patches and prospects such a goddamn thorn in my side. “We just need to stop at Marisol’s place on our way to Reed’s.”
“I swear to fuck—I could murder you with my bare hands right now dumb ass.” I walked away from him and out of the apartment, whipping out my phone to dial Cross because this was something he needed to know. Every time one of the Reckless Bastards got involved with a Goddamn woman, she came with trouble.
Every fucking time.
“Yeah Cross, we’ve got a problem.”
“Hey Gunnar, I can’t really talk right now. Let me call you back in fifteen.”
“I’ll be on the road in…fuck!” He ended the call and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to smash my phone, go grab Maisie and keep driving until I ran out of gas. But I made a promise and unlike some people, I was a man of my word. “Goddammit!”
Three minutes later Stitch and his girl came strolling down the stairs like they were going to walk hand-in-hand around the county fair or some shit. Disgusted, I started my bike and peeled out of the parking lot ahead of them, eager to get away from this situation before I said or did something I couldn’t take back.
My anger combined with my desire to get the fuck away from Stitch made the drive up to Reno fly by, mostly because I pushed the limits of speed the entire drive up. The whole morning had me wondering why the fuck I’d even bothered to come back to Mayhem. I’d never planned to once I knew Maisie was my responsibility.
But the Reckless Bastards were my family. Plus, I figured there was nowhere safer to raise my kid sister than surrounded by big bad bikers who’d protect her with their lives. Even the dumb shits like Stitch.
Since I wasn’t a complete asshole, I stopped at the same rundown apartment building we’d stopped at the week before, and twenty minutes later, Marisol pulled her car in and Stitch parked his bike right beside her. “Stay in the car,” he barked and pointed my way. “Gunnar, a little help?”
“Aww, man. What the fuck is really going on? She can’t go inside her fucking apartment now?” I knew I was being a dick but I couldn’t help myself. “You think he’s inside?”
“I think he could be in there, waiting for her.”