“Sam.” She jumps up in fright and snaps around to face Gunner.
“We were just chatting,” she says.
“It’s okay, Gunner. I called Sam. She was just keeping me company.”
Gunner frowns. He inclines his head inside, and Sam hurriedly makes her way there.
“Why have they been told not to talk to me?” I ask, and Gunner tenses.
“We thought you wouldn’t want to talk to them,” he states as he turns to leave.
“Gunner.” He stops and turns his head towards me. “Why wouldn’t I want to talk to them?”
He frowns. “Because they’re Blossoms.”
“What does that mean?”
“You know what it means.” He turns and leaves.
Well, they may not have wanted me to talk to these women, but I’m not going to let that stop me. It doesn’t seem like Sam slept with Hunter; the thought has knots tightening my stomach in anger.Dakota, that was in the past. It’s the future that counts, I tell myself. I’ve always heardkeep your friends close and your enemies closer. They might not be my enemies, but it will be easier for me to know these women and to make sure that they keep away from my man. Standing, I make my way around the house and into the trees. From the room, there is such a beautiful patch of flowers just past the cropping of trees. I will pick some and make three arrangements to give to these women, as I’m sure it’s something they don’t get much of.
HUNTER 19
“This doesn’t feel right,” Dash says from where he’s standing behind a tree. At the party, the Hades MC men had come to agree on a meeting between King and their leader. We are all wary of this meeting, because we know that something is wrong. The Hades MC don’t want peace; they have never wanted peace. Every one of their men goes out of their way to create havoc. Something else is up, and none of us can tell what.
“They are sitting ducks down there,” I mutter as I look down through the trees at where King and Fang are standing next to their bikes. Our men are scattered around the area. We have made sure that there are no men around who could shoot at King and Fang, but still, something doesn’t feel right.
“They’re late,” Dash mutters just as we see King getting his phone from his pocket. A second later, he is on his bike and hellbent out of there, Fang right behind him.
“What the hell?” I mutter as I run towards where we parked our bikes. “This isn’t good.” We start our bikes and are on the road when King and Fang come flying past. From where they were, they had to ride up the winding road to where we were parked higher up. We follow King and Fang, not quite knowing where we are going until we realize that we are headed back to the club. My heart starts to race and my stomach knots.
What the hell happened? Why would we be riding back to the club as if all hell had broken loose if nothing had happened? I open my senses to my woman and instantly am attacked with a torrent of emotions, primarily fear. Shit, what the fuck happened to frighten her? I closed myself off from her to be able to concentrate on what was going on. Shit, I would have known something was wrong if I hadn’t.
The minute we ride up to the club, we can see something is wrong, as one of the prospects is lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. I am off the motorcycle and running inside before it has fully stopped. “Dakota,” I yell, but there is no reply. I know she’s close, as I can sense her.
“Dakota,” I yell again, but there is no answer. “Motherfuckers, Da . . . ko . . . ta!”
“Hunter, she’s here,” Goliath calls from outside, which has me running down the stairs and out the back door to see Goliath carrying Dakota. I don’t stop until my arms are around my woman and she is safely in my arms.
“I thought you were back,” she says, “but then I heard the men talking and I didn’t know any of the voices, so I hid. They took the other women, Hunter; I couldn’t stop them.” There are tears streaking down her cheeks as she recounts what she saw.
“Did you see who they were?” Goliath asks.
“No, I’ve never seen them, but they had the words Hades MC on the back of their kuttes.”
“That’s why they tried to get us all out of here, and they managed it.”
“Where’s Gunner?” I ask. Gunner was supposed to be here, but since arriving, I haven’t heard or seen him.
“I didn’t see him, but there was shooting.” I can feel her agitation, and it kills me that she had to go through this again after just being taken by her psycho ex. I still regret not having killed the fucker after what he did to her, but instead of bringing him back here like we wanted to, we had to hand him over to the police, as someone at the motel phoned them after hearing the commotion of the fight.
Entering the house, Goliath, who is a few steps before me, stops. Looking around his tense body, I see Dash hurrying towards us, blood coating his hands, and the light T-shirt he is wearing is streaked with blood. “It isn’t good. Gunner, man, Gunner is shot,” Dash states as he stops. “We have called the Doctor, but King asked for Dakota.”
Looking down at Dakota in my arms, I see her shocked face. After everything she has gone through, and not to mention that she’s still not one hundred percent no matter how much she wants to make us believe that she is, I can’t ask her to do this. “Dakota isn’t okay to help him, brother,” I say, but immediately feel her pushing at my chest.
“No, no, I’m fine. Hunter, please let me go and see if I can help him.” Her face is tense. I can still feel slight tremors coursing through her body because of what she saw, but still, she’s willing to go help Gunner.
“Are you sure, babe?”