GUNNER: Southside Skulls Motorcycle Club (Southside Skulls MC Romance Book 3)

by Jessie Cooke

  Skid shook his head, but Zack thought he saw a smile tugging at his lips under the black Fu Manchu mustache he wore. “In the meeting room,” he said. Stone didn’t say a word; he just stood staring a hole through Zack. Skid looked over at the bar and told the prospect that had taken over when Patty and Billy followed Gunner, “Get us some drinks…and bring me something good to smoke.” Stone, Skid, and one of the sergeants at arms of the club, a guy named Justin Moore, headed for the meeting room. Reluctantly, Zack followed them.

  47

  The executives took their places at the horseshoe-shaped table and Zack took a seat where he would be the center of attention, not that he wanted to be in this case, but he didn’t have any other choice. He waited until the prospect came in and left the drinks and a small silver tray filled with tightly wrapped joints, and when nobody else had said anything he said, “I’m guessing this is about Spider?”

  “You’re guessing right,” Stone said. Jackson Stone was a decent guy and a good leader. Zack had a lot of respect for him. But he also knew that Stone wasn’t a man you wanted to be on the wrong side of. He wouldn’t put a bullet in your head…at least not for minor infractions…but he could make your life miserable just the same. Zack hadn’t thought about the day he’d stepped in to defend Nicole. He hadn’t been able to get her or those sad hazel eyes off his mind and no matter what the consequences would be, he knew that he’d do it all over again. “What the fuck, Zachary?”

  “That guy is a piece of shit. He’s a lowlife scumbag that threatened a woman with a baby in her arms…his baby, I think.”

  “She his woman?” Stone asked.

  “He says she’s his old lady. She says she left him. I’m not sure it matters, though. You didn’t see her, she was terrified.”

  “Hot too, I bet?” Skid said as he lit one of the joints.

  “That doesn’t matter,” Zack said. “I would have stepped in either way. First of all, that place he set up for me to meet him needs a bomb dropped on it. It’s a filthy, disgusting sty. Second, he showed up fifteen minutes late and he comes in chasing this woman who he’d forced out of her house with her baby.”

  “Nobody said you had to go there and like this guy, Zack. This deal they’re trying to make with us stands to make us enough money that we can significantly cut down on the business that will ultimately land us all dead or in prison.”

  “Are they going to cancel the deal because of this?”

  Skid took a long hit off the joint and held it out to Stone. Stone waved it away and said, “They might. Spider is an enforcer, a respected member of their club. How could they not take his side here?”

  “Do we honestly want these guys on our turf?” Zack asked. “I mean, if the rest of them are anything like Spider, they’re going to bring more trouble with them than they’re worth, in my opinion.”

  Justin spoke for the first time. He and Zack were good friends, but it wasn’t his friend talking, it was his sergeant at arms. “We give you a lot of freedom, Zack, based on the fact that you’re a nomad and you handle a lot of shit for us. But let’s not make any mistakes here—you are not a voting member of this board. We discussed this at length and we weighed the pros and cons before we voted on it. It was unanimous that this was a good decision. You let me and our prez and vice prez worry about letting them into our territory. We can handle our business and you questioning that is not only disrespectful, it’s insulting.”

  Properly chastised, Zack said, “I’m sorry, you’re right. I didn’t mean any disrespect, nor did I mean to imply that I knew better than y’all do how to do your job. I lost my head when this guy slapped that little lady upside the head. I should have used better impulse control.”

  Stone stared hard at him and finally said, “Any of us might have done the same thing. But you broke this and now you’re gonna have to fix it. You need to go back to Memphis tomorrow and kiss some Defender ass.”

  Fuck. Zack nodded as he tried to think of a way to tell Stone that he needed to take off to Texas for a few days. Finally, he said, “Sure, I’ll take care of it. I need a favor, though…”

  48

  Justin snorted and shook his head. Stone’s face didn’t show any reaction and Skid choked on the lungful of pot he’d just sucked in. “You want a favor?” Stone asked in a low, even tone.

  “I know it seems like a lot to ask for a favor at a time like this, but…you know the visitors I told you about?” Zack had called Stone the first night Tammy and her friends showed up and got his okay for them to stay there. Stone had told him it was okay as long as they didn’t bring any shit down on the club while they were there. Stone nodded. His face was still impassive. “Well, they’re all leaving tomorrow. The guys and the older lady are headed east, but my friend, Tammy…she needs to get back to Texas. Her brother is in a bad way and I was hoping I could ride along with her and have a visit with my parents while I’m there.” Justin’s snort turned into a laugh.

  “You fucking hate your parents.”

  “Hate’s a strong word,” Zack said. “They’re getting older and I might regret not making amends with them some day.”

  Stone actually smiled and shook his head. “You’re a piece of work, you know that?”

  “I’ve been told,” Zack said with a grin.

  “You go to Memphis first and if you fix that, you can go to Texas. But…” He hesitated there for emphasis and said, “I better not find out that you got yourself and by default this club involved in any of their shit. Have your reunion with your family, fuck your girl, and keep your nose out of their business.”

  “Yes sir. Tammy’s not my girl.”

  “I don’t give a fuck,” Stone said. “Go on now.”

  Zack stood up and gave them all another smile. “Thanks. I’ll be sure to smooth things over in Memphis.” Nobody said anything else, so he left. He nearly ran into old Manuel standing by the door as he did. “What’s up, Manny?”

  “Need to talk to the prez. They got anybody else in there?”

  “Nope, but they might still be busy chewing the pieces of my ass they bit off.” Manuel’s face wrinkled up around his eyes as he laughed.

  “I’m gonna miss you, Zack.”

  “You’re gonna miss me? Where are you going?”

  “To Texas, as long as the club will let me.” He knocked on the door and when Stone hollered at him to come in, he pushed it open. Zack was still virtually scratching his head. What the hell did Manuel want in Texas?

  Zack needed to release some stress. He thought about taking one of the club girls to his room…or two…but for some reason that didn’t appeal to him. He wanted something different. He hadn’t been able to get Nicole’s big hazel eyes off his mind, or the look she had on her face when she clutched her baby. It wasn’t like him to obsess over a woman. Tammy was his first and his last relationship. He still loved her and he always would, but it had morphed from young love into something more brotherly. He wanted her to be happy and safe, and as young and stupid as Gunner was, Zack could see that he was a good man. He knew Tammy well enough to know that she was in love with the kid; she was just too stubborn to admit it. He planned on spending their time together on their way to Texas, convincing her that she should be with Gunner. She was sacrificing her relationship with him to keep him out of harm’s way. Zack had gotten word that Eddie Martini had put a hit out on Gunner. The second the kid set foot back in Texas, he’d probably have a bullet in his head. That was why she’d wanted Zack to take her. It didn’t matter how estranged he was from his father, no one would dare go after him in Texas, or Tammy, as long as she was with him. He agreed to take her to see her brother on the contingency she went to meet Gunner in Massachusetts afterwards. She had agreed, before Gunner got all butthurt and she got hurt, and pissed. Zack shook his head as he thought about it on his way out to his bike. All that drama was exactly why he stayed as far away from relationships as he could get. He couldn’t wait to get back on the road where he could find a new woman to satis
fy his needs in each town…and then move on.

  He got on his bike and took off with no destination in mind. He had no fucking clue how he was going to smooth over the thing with Spider and the Defenders. There was no way in hell he was going to apologize to that little turd. The second Spider even thought about hitting that beautiful woman, while she held her baby, was the second he asked to get knocked the fuck out. This was going to be tricky but Zack couldn’t deny the slight tickle of anticipation in his stomach as he thought about going back to Memphis, and maybe running into her again. Just picturing her long, tan legs and shapely hips was enough to make his cock half-hard.

  He rode into Tennessee and pulled into the parking lot of a bar that he’d been to a few times in the past. It was a western themed place with a lot of cowboys, and most interesting to Zack, a lot of sexy cowgirls. Most times the guys either ignored him, or gave him a wide berth. But, something about his kutte and the bad boy biker image sent the cowgirls’ hormones into overdrive. Each time he’d come to this bar, he’d gotten lucky enough to find a hot woman who was eager and willing to have a little tryst in the bathroom or out back in the alley. That was what he needed tonight, some anonymous sex.

  He walked in and up to the bar. The bartender was a cute little redhead with enormous fake tits and eyes so green that they had to be as fake as her tits. She took one look at Zack and walked away from the good old boy hitting on her at the end of the bar. “Lookie here, we got us a steel cowboy.”

  Zack smiled at her and leaned in flirtatiously and said, “You ever rode a steel horse?”

  She licked her bottom lip and said, “No, but it’s on the bucket list. I do have a break coming up in half an hour or so.”

  “Well, we’ll have to talk more then,” he said. “In the meantime can I get a beer?”

  “You got it.” She turned to pour his beer out of the tap and Zack checked out her ass. She was hot, but his body wasn’t reacting the way it did when he was really interested. She turned back around and sat the beer in front of him. He gave her a twenty and told her to keep the change and then swiveled around on his stool so that he could see the rest of the bar. That was when he saw the woman that he wanted. She was sitting at a table near the tiny little dance floor, sipping her drink and, he assumed, watching her friends dance. She had light brown hair that hung straight to her shoulders and nice-looking tits. But what Zack found most appealing about her were the big hazel eyes surrounded by long, dark lashes. She reminded him of Nicole…a little bit…enough that he could fuck her from behind and pretend. He picked up his beer and carried it over to her table.

  “Hey, pretty lady, why aren’t you out there dancing?”

  She blushed and looked around like she thought Zack might be talking to someone else before saying, “I don’t dance.”

  He slid onto the stool at the high-top table across from her without waiting for an invitation. She didn’t object, and he saw her looking at a girl on the dance floor who was giving her a thumbs-up sign. That meant she was alone. Zack’s cock was suddenly interested. “I bet you move like an angel.”

  She blushed again. “I don’t think so,” she said.

  “You’re not here alone, are you?”

  “I’m with my friend…she hooked up with that guy there, though, so I’ll probably be taking off soon.”

  “To go where?”

  “Home,” she said with a smile. “It’s my first night out in a while. I have two kids. I don’t leave them much. I think this was a mistake.”

  “You have to take care of yourself, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess…”

  “No old man?”

  “I’m divorced,” she said, sadly. “For a couple of years now.” Zack’s cock twitched in his jeans. Two years, probably no sex judging from her demeanor. This might be a wild ride.

  Zack spent the next half an hour talking to her, about her kids and her job, and mundane things that he couldn’t care less about, but it seemed to make her happy. The red-haired bartender shot him an evil stare as she walked past on her way to take her break. She headed out the back, so when Zack finished his beer he looked at the woman, whom he’d found out was named Trisha, and said;

  “You wanna walk outside and have a smoke with me?”

  She looked over at her friend, who was humping the cowboy on the dance floor. “Sure.”

  Zack let her walk in front of him. She had wide hips and a nice round ass, just the way he liked them. He was hard as a rock by the time they got outside. He led her over to his bike and dug a joint out of his saddlebags. When she saw it, her eyes widened. “Oh, I thought you meant a cigarette.”

  “If it bothers you, baby, I’ll save it for later.” He could tell that calling her baby had done the trick. She blushed again but she said:

  “Oh, no. You go ahead.”

  “You know what I’d rather do?” Zack asked her. Those hazel eyes looked scared and excited at the same time. He leaned in close as she fumbled with her words.

  “What’s that?”

  Zack didn’t answer her. He took another step closer to her and without asking permission, he covered her mouth with his. She froze for a second and he was the one doing all the kissing. He pulled back and looked down at her. “Sorry, baby, I thought you might like that.”

  Breathlessly, she said, “I did.” Zack smiled and went in for another kiss. His phone vibrated with a message in his pocket just before their lips met. If Stone hadn’t back in town, and pissed at him, he would’ve ignored it…but he was, on both counts.

  “Sorry, baby, I need to check this message. It might be business. Don’t move, okay?” She nodded, still looking like she was trying to catch her breath. Zack pulled the phone out of his pocket and looked at it. He didn’t recognize the number the message came from but he slid to read it anyways. His heart sped up as he read, “This is Nicole from Memphis. I need help.” Another message came through almost immediately that said, “I’m sorry. Never mind.”

  Zack sent one back that said, “Where are you? I can be in Memphis in half an hour.” He waited, completely forgetting about Trisha in the process. He was about to send another text when he got one back finally that said:

  “I’m sorry. He dropped us off downtown. I don’t have money for a cab. The baby’s crying. It’s bad down here.”

  “I’m on my way. Text me an address. A street. Anything. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right there.” Zack turned back toward his bike and he realized Trisha was still standing there. She looked so innocent in the dim light of the parking lot. Things do happen for a reason. She was probably going to wake up with regret after fucking a biker in a parking lot anyways. “I’m sorry, baby. That was my sister. She needs a ride.”

  “Oh.” Disappointment clouded her face. “Okay.” Zack leaned across his bike and gave her a soft kiss.

  “Go back inside. It’s too dark for you to be out here alone.” She nodded and he watched her go back into the bar before he took off. He could hear his blood pounding in his temples as he pulled out of the lot and headed toward Memphis. All this was going to do was get him in deeper shit. It was a good thing he didn’t give a fuck.

  49

  Tammy stayed in one of the empty rooms in the clubhouse. After her fight with Gunner she didn’t want to see or talk to anyone. She spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what she was going to do with her life. She hadn’t told Gunner, or anyone else, but she had been looking at hospitals in Massachusetts and Connecticut. She had been fantasizing about starting a new life…a life with Gunner. But now, she had no idea what to do. If he didn’t trust her enough to even let her explain why she wanted Zack to go with her to Texas, then she didn’t think he trusted her enough for her to try to build a relationship with him. Her life was already a mess. The last thing she needed was relationship drama, and a broken heart on top of it all.

  It was early morning before she finally cried herself to sleep. When she woke up, the light coming in the room told her it was much later
than she’d planned. Zack was probably waiting on her. With a pounding head and swollen eyes, she jumped up and pulled on the clothes she’d worn the day before and ran out of the room. She started for the great room to look for Zack before she remembered she still had to get her things from her and Gunner’s room. She didn’t know if she hoped that he would be there, or not. It would only hurt more to see him again, but it would have to hurt less than never seeing him again at all. She stopped in front of the door and knocked. When he didn’t answer, she let herself in. The bed was neatly made and Gunner’s duffle bag was gone. He’d left, and he hadn’t even said goodbye. Her first impulse was to cry again, but she sucked it up. She was far from a wilting flower that cried at the drop of a hat. Gunner was gone; she’d deal with it the way she’d dealt with everything else in her life.

  She grabbed her travel bag out of the closet and dumped her clothes out of the dresser into it. After she collected her toiletries, she slung the bag up on her shoulder and headed out again. This time she stopped and knocked on Zack’s door. She hated doing that. Usually she was setting herself up to catch him in the act of fucking some slut or other. Zack didn’t answer, but Tammy thought she heard someone moving inside. There was a strange sound coming from the room as well. It almost sounded like a little animal, or a baby. No fucking way did Zack have a baby in his room. She raised her fist and knocked again, this time a little louder. That sound, the soft cooing, turned into a cry and a shush in hushed tones.