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My eyes widened. “Better?”
He laughed. “You have no idea what I want to do with you, Maggie.”
I laid my hand against his bare chest. “Then I’m glad we have a long time for you to show me.” His eyes softened. “Is it okay that I wanted your real name?”
“Yeah.” he answered quietly. “No one’s called me that since my mom died.”
“Oh.” I pushed back a little. “If you don’t want me to…”
He wrapped his hand around mine and pulled it up to his lips, kissing my fingertips. “I liked it.” I smiled and laid my head back down, snuggling in close. He put my hand back on his chest and slid his fingers into my hair. “We need to talk about something, though.”
I tilted my head back. “Okay.”
“We didn’t use protection, Maggie.” He looked over my head before his stare dropped back to me. “I’ve never gone without protection, baby, and I haven’t been with anyone in over a year, but there’s more to think about.”
I looked down and then raised my eyes shyly. “Every few years, I went to the women’s clinic and had them put an IUD in me to prevent pregnancy. I had to sneak there, but it was free, and I knew I didn’t want to have Snake’s baby or raise a baby there.”
He ran his hand down over my hair. “Why do you look ashamed of that?”
I attempted to shrug my shoulders. “I lied and snuck around.” I glanced down at my hand on his chest again before forcing my eyes back up. “I just don’t want you to think I still do that stuff. I mean that’s what I did a lot of my time with Snake, but that’s not who I am.”
“That was survival, Maggie, and I would never judge you for that. I’m glad you did everything you did. You have no idea how brave that makes you, do you?” I smiled and let out a long breath, happy he wasn’t disappointed in me. “How long does the one you have in still have before it’s not effective.”
I looked over his shoulder and thought about that. “A year left in September.”
“Good.” He pulled me in closer. “Gives us some time together, just us, and I don’t have to waste money on condoms. Sound good?”
I giggled. “Yeah, sounds good.”
“You wanna get a house together soon?” I jerked back a little and watched him talk. “Something of our own, just you and me?”
I felt tears well up in my eyes, thinking about a house. A place of my own to love, a place for my kitties to have room to run and play, a place to be with Gunner where we could be in a real relationship. A home. Something I hadn’t had in my life. I sniffed and nodded, but words failed me.
Turned out, I didn’t need them. Gunner smiled and hugged me tightly to his body. “Then that’s what we’re gonna do, baby.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
GUNNER
“We ready to do this?”
My eyes snapped to Pop who actually looked excited to be making the call. We’d waited a few days just like we talked about, but it was time. I thought back over the past few days with Maggie and grinned. No matter what happened next, it didn’t matter. I had her, and I could finally make peace with her relationship with Luke.
Bear jerked his chin up and slid the number to Pop who picked up a burner phone and punched in the numbers. I waited, my gut twisted, hoping the information and the pictures we planned to send him if he wanted proof were enough. Becs had done a fucking amazing job with the makeup and told Bear she wished she had more opportunities to do shit like that. I knew she liked doing hair and makeup daily at the salon, but she was fucking fantastic at the gory shit, and it showed by the smile that was on her face the entire time.
She was even able to fuck with the pictures enough that it looked like my arm was bent at a fucked-up angle. It was genius, and I knew Bear was proud of her. She’d officially moved in with Bear the day after Maggie’s party, and because of this shit, Race was finally the one taking her to and from work and hanging with her at Bear’s until he was finished at night. Hopefully, this call would change everything, and we could give Becs and Maggie their lives back.
It was only me, Bear, and Pop in this room. The rest of the boys were on strict instruction to leave us the fuck alone, and Bull was manning the door so no one walked in. We’d thought of everything.
At least I hoped we fucking did.
“Who the fuck is this?” My dad’s voice, rough from too many years of smoking and hard drinking, sounded in the room. The blood rushed through my head at the sound.
“Pop,” he answered, his voice equally as rough. “This Viper?”
He snorted. “Well, well, well, old man. My boy having you make the call?”
“Your boy has no fucking authority anymore to order that.”