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Gunnar -- Present Day

“This the day?”

I glanced at my cellmate, now a close friend. I was packing up my personals in our cell, getting ready to leave prison after serving fifteen years of a twenty-year sentence. “Yep.”

“Thought you had a few more years left.”

I shrugged. “I did.”

“Interesting.” Knuckles leaned against the end of the bunk. I paused in my packing to find him watching me intently.

“Yeah,” I drawled slowly. “Thought so myself.”

“You think it was your old man?” Knuckles knew about Cain and ExFil and Bones. He knew my dad had some pull and was likely thinking I’d held out on him.

“If you’re implyin’ I’ve been down-playin’ people I know, I haven’t been. This is as much a surprise for me as it is you.”

“I know.”

OK, now I stopped what I was doing altogether and took a step toward Knuckles. “What’s goin’ on?” Clearly, I’d missed something important.

“You’re a solid guy, Gunnar. I had an… opportunity.”

“What kind of opportunity?” I was preparing myself for a fight, but I had no idea who’d I’d be fighting. Knuckles didn’t usually play politics inside, but one thing I’d learned while in USP Terre Haute was that there wasn’t much men wouldn’t do for a few amenities.

“The kind where I had to make a choice.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are we gettin’ ready to try to kill each other, Knuckles?”

“Depends on your answer.”

I held my arms out from my side slightly so he could see I wasn’t armed. “Gotta know the question first, man.”

“I was told there was a one-time opportunity for me to get myself or one person of my choosing out early. Call it a favor from someone in the position to make this happen.”

“What’s that got to do with me?”

“If you agree to do something for me, you get to go back to your life a couple years early.”

“I suppose it depends on what it is you want. There are things I won’t do. Even for my freedom. I take it me getting this early parole wasn’t my father’s doing.”

“Even for the man who kept you alive when you first got to the real prison outta Camp Hilton?”

There was nothing easy about the camp and the bastard knew it. He also knew I’d agree with him I was alive now because of him. “Yeah, Knuckles. Even for you. But I hope you know I’d never deny you something without a fuckin’ good reason.”

Knuckles studied me for several seconds before nodding his head slowly. “Yeah. I do know. It’s why I went ahead and pushed the order through. You’re a good man, Gunnar. Of all the people here, I believe you are the one man who has never been a danger to society. Anyone who fucks with your family isn’t considered society and is asking for whatever you dish out.” He snorted out a laugh. “You’re leaving whether you agree to help me or not.”

“What’s the ask, Knuckles?”

“My daughter,” he said. “She’s been taken. One of my enemies found out who she was and used her to get revenge on me.” Knuckles handed me a few photos of a young woman bound and gagged with an expression of abject terror on her face. The thing striking me most about her were her bright green eyes. They shimmered with tears, but there was something about them. A quiet acceptance of what was about to happen, maybe? Not in the sense that she’d given up, but like she’d accepted the experience wasn’t going to be pleasant, and was determined to make it through so the task was complete.

“Pippa?” Knuckles had told me of her often enough. He was so proud of his baby girl. He’d managed a fling with one of the nurses in the prison before I got here and the woman had kept in touch over the years, even going so far as to let the girl meet Knuckles. The visit had gone well, but Knuckles had come back to the cell angry and agitated, afraid his enemies might use her to get revenge. That had been about five years ago. I knew there was nothing in the Goddamned world Knuckles wouldn’t do for Pippa, whether it be killing or dying for her.

“Yeah. I’ve had some stuff sent to the Bones MC clubhouse for you. I can’t rescue Pippa on my own and I have no idea if my own club would back me after what happened. The fallout of killin’ those bastards put Kiss of Death in a pretty bad position.”

OK, the name of his club got my attention. “Kiss of Death? Motorcycle Club in Nashville?”

Knuckles nodded. “You know of us, then?”

“Yeah. You could say that.” I had to be careful here. I had no idea how I had managed to form a strong friendship with this man over the course of fifteen years and not realized he’d had ties to Kiss of Death.

“I was vice president before I got put in here. After I went away, things went to shit. Ain’t even sure at this point if they’ll still accept my patch. Damned sure ain’t vice president anymore. So my chances of gettin’ her back on my own are pretty Goddamned slim.”

“You think I have a better shot?”

“Know you do. The new prez of Kiss of Death came from Bones. Vice president too. I can tell by the look on your face you know this.”

“Yeah. What I don’t know is why you kept your ties to them a secret from me.”

“There’s a reason I hadn’t called in that favor before now, Gunnar. I set this in motion the day I found out Torpedo had taken over Kiss of Death. It took a few months for my guy to pull it off, so I used that time to gather as much information on the fuckers who took her.”

“I assume the information is in the package you sent back to Bones?”

“Yeah. Let whoever you need see it. Do whatever you have to. But get Pippa away from those bastards.”

I didn’t hesitate but stuck out my hand to Knuckles and he took it. “On my life, brother. I’ll bring Pippa home.”

“No,” he snapped. “You take her back to Bones or Kiss of Death if Torpedo and Bohannon are men you trust. But get her behind locked doors and do not let her out of your sight. If that means you take her as your old lady, then you do it. That’s the ask, Gunnar.”

It took a moment to comprehend what I’d just heard. “Me? You want me to make your daughter my old lady?”

“It’s the only way she’s safe, because you’re not the kind of man to let anyone harm someone who belongs to him. You rescue her, charm her, then claim her. And you will treat her with fucking respect and coddle her like the fuckin’ princess she is. Or, so help me and by God, I will bury you .”

“I’ll give her my property patch, Knuckles. I’ll protect her with my life, but that’s as far as I can promise. If she don’t want me, she don’t want me.”

“Take it as a challenge, then. Make her want you.” Oh, the man was good…

“One thing I’ve always said is my dad taught me you didn’t lie to people who meant something to you. So I’m not gonna lie to you. No matter how much you bully me. I will give her my property patch so she has my protection, but I’m not promisin’ anything beyond that.”

To my surprise, Knuckles grinned and clapped me on the shoulder. “This is why you’re the only man I trust with my baby girl. You don’t cave under pressure when it’s somethin’ you believe in.”

“My dad taught me you can’t trust a man who doesn’t respect his old lady. That means you don’t cheat on her. Any man who does can’t be trusted. I won’t make her my old lady until I know it’s what we both want. Even patchin’ her is splittin’ hairs, but I’ll go that far to give her all the protection I can and defend her with my life.”

“Your dad sounds like a smart man. I wish I could have met him.”

“Neither of you are dead. It could happen someday.”

Knuckles snorted. “Not on your life, kid. Ain’t meetin’ a man like Joe “Cain” Gill wearin’ what amounts to chains.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Name it, kid.”

“Why’d you kill those three guys?”

Instead of answering right away, Knuckles indicated for me to take a seat on the lower bunk, which was his. He pulled up a box with tattoo supplies. Once he’d taken out what he needed, he indicated I should put my right hand on top. He spread my thumb and forefinger apart and started working. The image was small and incomplete, looking like a Celtic knot with half of it missing. The ink extended from where the webbing at the corner of my thumb folded in when my fingers weren’t parted to the very edge of the webbing. Where the center of the knot would be if the image were complete was an what looked like an upside-down V with one side straight while the other was at an angle.

He wiped down the image and put some goop on the fresh ink, then extended his hand to me, wanting me to take it in a handshake. When I did he gripped hard. “Look at it.” I did. Where our hands locked, the knot was completed. In the center of it was a capital K. Mine completed the bottom part, his the top. The tattoos were basically identical, but his half of the K had a crown where mine didn’t. “Anyone loyal to me will have the same tattoo. Mine has a crown because I’m in charge.”

“I’m loyal to you, Knuckles. You know that. But I’m also loyal to my family and I have no intention of ever coming back to prison once I’m out. I’m not doing illegal shit for you or anyone else unless there’s a fuckin’ good reason.” I held my ground, grasping Knuckles’s hand as hard as he did mine. “I’ll do anything necessary to get your daughter out safe, includin’ killin’ a bunch of motherfuckers if they need it. But that’s as far as I go. I won’t deliberately go against you unless I feel it’s morally wrong.”

Knuckles was silent for a long time, holding my gaze. When he spoke, he gripped my hand even tighter. Given the way his eyes seemed to bore into my soul, he was probably looking for any sign of a reaction to whatever he was getting ready to say or do. “They raped and murdered my sister.” There was a slight flinch to the muscle under his eye when he spoke. Like the mere memory affected him viscerally. “The men I killed. When I learned Pippa had been kidnapped, it felt like fate intended for you to go after her. You protected your sister despite the cost to you. Not many men would commit to something that hard. So, if you tell me you’ll get my daughter back, I’m puttin’ my faith in the boy who chose to be a man to protect someone he loves. I’m hopin’ you’ve still got that determined kid inside you somewhere.”

“On my life, Knuckles. I’ll get her back and keep her safe. If I die, one thing I know with absolute certainty is that Cain would never let an innocent suffer once he knew of it. Torpedo was his second long before I was born so I’ve known him my whole life, too. I know them all. Once I get them on this, as long as one of them is still alive, they will never stop trying to bring Pippa home.” It was as big a promise as I could make, but I knew my dad and his club. Even in fifteen years, they might not accept me back into the fold, but their integrity would never break.

“Then get your ass outta here. You tell me when she’s safe.”

“I’ll give you regular reports. We’ll have to research and plan, but I won’t take any more time than strictly necessary before going to bring her out.”

“Plan it well, brother. Get her out safe.”

“You have my word.”

* * *

Pippa

They were coming. I could hear heavy footfalls and raised male voices. It was part of the torture I’d endured for the last month. At least, I thought it had been a month. I’d scratched a notch into the wooden floor for each day I’d been there. Might have missed a day or counted one twice. It was hard to tell with the drugs and the fact that there was only one window and I wasn’t even sure if it faced the morning or evening sun. I never knew what my captors were going to do, but it was never pleasant. Usually, it meant someone was drugging me or a beating when I fought the drugging, but things had been escalating recently. I got the impression they were waiting on something. I wasn’t sure what, and the natives were getting restless, so to speak.

“Is Boss lettin’ us play with the bitch today?”

“Not yet.” The voices were distinctively different. While the first one had a squeak and a whiny tone, the second voice was deeper and more sinister. It was the man who came in to shoot me up every few hours. While I sometimes got a little dizzy, whatever they were using wasn’t as strong as I’d have expected. I was never completely under and had, so far, been able to fight them off whenever they got handsy. Probably more because they obviously didn’t have the go ahead to do whatever they wanted. As to who “they” were, I had no idea.

The door opened and I huddled into an even tighter ball on the floor in the corner. There was only a dingy mattress for me to sleep on and a bucket in the corner for me to go to the bathroom in, and that was it. Not a blanket or pillow or anything. I was naked, cold, and filthy, my hair a tangled, nasty mess. If I made it out of here, I was sure I’d have to cut it. Which was the least of my worries.

It was dark, and the light spilling into the room hit me squarely in the eyes. I whimpered and lifted a hand up to block out the light. Which was exactly what the man wanted. He snagged my arm and extended it so my elbow wasn’t bent.

I struggled but he didn’t smack me around this time. Probably because I was no match for his greater strength. Plus, they hadn’t been feeding me regularly and it had been a couple days since I’d had any water. The fight was rapidly running out of me. Rather than waste energy on a futile effort, I did my best to conserve my strength. Unless he hit me with a lot more than he usually did, I would still have enough awareness of everything around me to be able to fight if this was a prelude to another assault. What these guys didn’t know and what I’d taken great pains to hide from them, was I had never been overly susceptible to narcotics. Why? No clue. But other than taking away the pain, I didn’t get high. Which, in this situation wasn’t exactly a blessing.

There was a sharp prick in the bend of my elbow as the guy found a vein, even without a tourniquet. He pressed the plunger and the sharp burning sting left in its wake made me cry out. Every time they did this, I was certain my arm was going to turn black and fall off. A few seconds later, euphoria warmed me from the inside out. They’d definitely hit me with a stronger dose, but it still wasn’t enough to put me out. I wasn’t sure if being awake was a blessing or a curse, though.

The second he pulled the needle from my arm, the guy let me go and stomped out, just like always. The whiny-sounding guy lingered, but the other man snagged him by the upper arm and dragged him to the door. He slammed the door shut and I heard the click of the outside lock. Once again, I was alone.

My head was actually spinning, but the disorientation I’d thought might follow didn’t happen. Everything was just… soft. God only knew how much the bastard had hit me with to get this effect. Good news was, my face didn’t hurt where he’d hit me anymore.

It wasn’t long before the door opened again. Just like I knew it would. They never waited long between injections before they came in with people to look at me. Men. Women. Mostly men, though. It wasn’t hard to put together they were there to inspect goods. Which meant, I was being sold to the highest bidder. Or something.

“The side of her face is swollen.” This guy sounded different than the others who’d come to look at me. Less refined. I thought I smelled gasoline. Kind of like when I’d been brought here. The dizziness combined with the bright light in my face made it impossible to see him clearly, but one thing was for sure. He was a big motherfucker if the unfamiliar blurry double shadow I was seeing was the guy speaking.

“Bitch shoulda laid still.”

“Where else’s she hurt?”

“Dunno, man. Don’t fuckin’ care either. Do you wanna make a bid on the bitch or not?”

There was a small pop . Nothing big, more like a snap firecracker. Then two more. I heard more voices, then hands grabbed at me, tugging at me. I screamed and kicked out as hard as I could, panic driving away the lingering effects of the drug I’d been given.

“It’s all right. It’s all right. You’re safe, Pippa. I’m here to get you out.” The words did nothing to calm me down. Especially when something was shoved over my head.

“NO! NO! Bastard!” I fought. Hard. But I’d been starved and drugged, not to mention taking beatings any time I fought back. I didn’t have a chance against this guy. Then my head was free and my arms soon followed. That’s when I realized he’d put a shirt on me, covering my body in soft material.

“I know, honey. But I promise I’ll be better.” He sounded like he was only half paying attention to me even as he slipped my feet into some loose, soft pants.

“Be better?” I know it was a stupid conversation and probably not one we had time for, but the question slipped out before I could even think of censoring it.

“At not being a bastard.” He put socks on my feet before slipping shoes on.

“I’m, uh, not really sure I can walk. I haven’t been on my feet much since they brought me here.” I took in a shuddering breath as flashes of the early hours of my captivity flew through my mind. I heard myself whimper. “I’m not… I c-couldn’t e-even go to the b-bathroom…” My thought trailed off, and I shuddered again, barely biting back a sob of despair and humiliation.

“Didn’t figure you could walk out, and I don’t plan on you having to. I just believe in being prepared. Besides, the socks and shoes might help get your feet warm.” He continued to move around the tiny space with efficient movements. “I know you’re hurting and scared. But I’ll keep you safe. On my life.”

I looked up at him and knew I was going to cry. No tears came, but I could feel great sobs inside me wanting to break free. “I don’t think I’ll ever be warm or clean again.”

“Christ.” The man pulled me into his arms and held me for long moments before wrapping an arm around my waist to pick me up and carry me outside. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms and legs around him and hung on tight. “When I get you to safety, I may well kill Knuckles for this fuckin’ stunt.”

“Knuckles?”

“Yeah, honey.”

“Why would you kill him? Did he do this to me?” My heart started pounding again and I knew a panic attack was imminent. I pushed away but the man only held me tighter, wrapping his other arm around my back to hold me more securely as he continued walking. “My mom s-said h-he wasn’t a good m-man, but…”

“He is, honey. He’s the reason I’m here to get you. He sent me to get you because he knew you were in trouble.”

“Y-you had other th-things to do. I’m so s-sorry!” I sobbed out a cry, unable to stop myself.

“Stop it!” He snarled at me, and I flinched. He climbed into the back of a big Humvee with me still in his arms. Instead of sitting me beside him, he simply thumped on the seat in front of him with the side of his fist. “Move out.”

The vehicle jerked into motion and his arms tightened around me. “Just hold on, honey. I’ve got you now. You’re safe.” His words and tone were kind, but I doubted he wanted to be in the situation he found himself in. He held me with one arm while he fished around in a pack with the other hand. Moments later, he pulled out a bottle of water.

“I’m so sorry.” I sobbed against his shoulder where I’d buried my face. “I appreciate you c-coming for me, but I’m s-sorry you h-had t-to.”

“None of this is your fault, Pippa. Understand? None of it.”

“But you’re angry at Knuckles because he sent you after me.”

“He did and I am angry, but not at him. Certainly not at you.”

I breathed out another small sob. “Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you for getting me out of there.”

He grunted and opened the bottle of water before giving it to me. “Drink up.” The man simply could not help but be in charge. In any other situation, I might have smiled. He tugged a thermal blanket from his pack and draped it around my body. Then his arms tightened around me and the blanket and he sighed, his chin resting on top of my head. “Just rest if you can. The girls’ll get you something to eat and help you clean up when we get to the clubhouse. Then you can rest. I’ll be watching over you the whole time. You’re safe now, Pippa. I swear it.”

I had no idea why I believed this man, but I did. I didn’t even know his name, but he was being kind. Maybe it made me stupid to trust him so completely, but one second I felt my body relax into his embrace, the next… nothing.