Page 8

Pippa

Supper consisted of the yummiest hamburgers and hotdogs I’d ever tasted. The burgers were juicy with just a hint of smoke taste from the charcoal grill, and the dogs were just this side of burnt. Delicious ! Sure, there were other things, but the burgers and dogs were my main concern. I ate three. Of each. Now I was so sleepy I could barely hold my head up while Gunnar continued to work on my hair.

“Almost finished, baby,” he murmured as he continued to pick at a few of the tangles. He’d only had to cut out a couple of very stubborn knots he couldn’t get out. Just a few strands here and there. I’d call it a win, but I was just too tired to celebrate.

“Yay…” My gratitude was great, but my enthusiasm was somewhat lessened. Not for lack of trying. I was dead where I sat.

His warm chuckle filled me with contentment. How had this man sucked me in so completely? I’d been in his company a few hours -- not counting sleeping off the drugs I’d been full of -- and I already couldn’t imagine my life without him. “The best part is, your hair will be completely dry by the time I’m done. You can go to sleep without a wet head.”

“Yay…”

We were sitting on the bed in the back bedroom Mama and Pops had given us to clean up and rest in. Gunnar was at my back with one leg bent beside me, the other hanging off the side. It probably would have been more comfortable if he’d had both legs on the bed and me between them, but he was taking great pains to not pin me in. I was more grateful to him for recognizing I might be a little claustrophobic. I had my knees tucked under my chin with my arms wrapped around my legs. My eyes were closed, and I was drifting as Gunnar made pass after gentle pass with the brush over my hair.

He chuckled, leaning in to kiss my cheek before whispering, “You think you can sleep now if you lie down?”

“Yes. Would you mind staying with me for a while? Maybe hold me or something?”

He paused before setting the brush aside on the nightstand. I thought he might be going to refuse me. After all, he was supposed to be talking with his mother and sister. Then he urged me to lie down and, to my surprise and more relief than I should have been comfortable with, wrapped his muscled, tattooed arms around me in a warm, soothing embrace. “I’ll stay with you as long as you fuckin’ want, baby.” I loved the gruff tone of voice. He sounded like he might be as emotional as I was.

I wrapped my fingers around one of his forearms where they crossed in front of me, holding me to him. He grunted once. The second I settled, I took a deep breath… and I was out.

* * *

I woke to voices in the distance. I thought there was tension in the conversation and I gasped, sitting upright and scooting back until I felt the wall at my back. Only, the wall had some give to it. Not much, but it felt off. Besides, there was something in the back of my mind telling me to calm the fuck down. That’s when I realized I was actually in a bed, and nothing stank like dirty feet and excrement.

I took several deep breaths, trying to get my heart rate under control. The spike of adrenaline left me shaky and out of sorts, but everything came back to me in a rush. I was safe. One of the voices outside the bedroom was Gunnar’s. There was more than one woman’s voice talking over each other and one was now sobbing uncontrollably.

I was dressed in a pair of soft cotton pants and a T-shirt. Since I had no idea who else was out there, I took time to find the items Angel had brought for me and dug through them until I found a cotton sports bra. I slipped it on before putting the shirt back on, then opened the door carefully.

Our room was at the end of the hall. To get to the living room, I had to turn a corner that led out of the hallway. Instead, I stood at the corner and listened.

“But you don’t understand, Mom! This is all my fault!”

“Hannah, you’re not thinking straight.” I recognized Angel’s voice and heard the tears when she spoke. “None of what happened was your fault.”

“But it was! It was! Gunnar, I’m so sorry!” I heard Gunnar grunt and Hannah’s sobs were muffled. She was likely hugging him.

“NO, Hannah!” Her mother snapped and I peeked ‘round the corner. Gunnar had his arms around his sister and Angel stood with them, forcing Hannah’s face up so Angel could look into her eyes as she spoke. “I know what happened. I know Gunnar protected you. He made a choice. Don’t dishonor that sacrifice with regret.”

“Gunnar lost fifteen years of his life because of me, Mom!”

“No, he didn’t.” I stepped around the corner, my attention focused on the two women, but I couldn’t help a glance at Gunnar. He looked like he was helpless in the wake of his sister’s tears. I seemed to remember a similar look when I was a hair’s breadth from my breaking point.

Hannah turned her face away from me and into her brother’s chest while she hastily wiped at her face with the sleeve of her shirt. It took her a couple of seconds, but she heaved in a shuddering breath, then turned to me. “He spent fifteen years in hell when he should have been living his dream. He was going into the military so he could be part of ExFil with Dad and my other brothers. Because he’s a convicted felon, Dad can’t hire him and Gunnar can’t help Dad run the place when Dad finally retires. Everyone lost out. Because of me.”

“Sometimes life throws a kink in your plans.” I didn’t want to make light of Hannah’s feelings, but I had a very different opinion of Gunnar’s sacrifice. “If Gunnar hadn’t gone to prison and met my dad, I’d be wishing I was dead right about now. I hate that Gunnar had to go through what he did, but while he was there several things happened to change the course of both our lives. Mine for the better. His? I don’t know. But if he hadn’t met my dad, hadn’t learned how to fight dirty and relentlessly, I wouldn’t be sitting here today. I’d have been sold to the highest bidder and probably killed shortly thereafter once they realized they couldn’t control me with drugs.

“So, as much as I would never want anyone who didn’t deserve to be there to go to prison, I’m glad Gunnar is the man he is. And that man took a prison sentence for his beloved sister so she could have the life he thought she should have. I suppose, in a way, he sacrificed himself for both of us. Thank him. Love him. But let him have the credit for his sacrifice.”

There was silence in the room. Then someone to my left sniffled. Then Angel let out a small sob. Then it was on. Snotfest of epic proportions. Turned out, Mama was the one who let loose that critical sniff. She soon pulled all of us into a circle and everyone had a good cry before we all laughed.

Gunnar hugged his sister for a long time. They spoke softly to each other while Angel and Mama fussed over me.

“You should still be asleep, child.” Mama brought me a glass of water and I smiled as I took it from her. Pops appeared behind her with a tray of cheese and crackers. He looked disgruntled, but winked at me as he sat the tray down. “You couldn’t possibly have rested enough.”

I caught Gunnar’s look and shrugged. “Once I metabolized the rest of the drugs, I felt much better. And to be perfectly honest, the bath did me more good than anything. Gunnar was even able to get most of the knots out of my hair.” I tugged at one curl gently as if to illustrate my point.

“He was always good at getting out tangles.” Hannah gave me a watery smile. “I’m sorry if it seemed like I was making light of your situation.”

I shook my head. “I never thought that. Not at all. I have a different take on the situation and hoped it might bring you some comfort to know I owe him my life. You too. If you hadn’t let him take charge, I would never have met Gunnar. He’ll have to decide if I was worth the years he spent on the inside with my dad, but I intend to never make him regret doing what his instinct demanded of him. And that was protecting his sister.”

Hannah hugged me close and whispered next to my ear. “Take care of my big brother.”

“I will.”

When we parted, Hannah smiled and wiped her eyes again. “Are you waiting on Dad to get here?” She spoke to Gunnar, who had been talking to Pops. The two men shook hands, clapping each other on the shoulders.

“No,” Gunnar said. “If Pippa’s rested enough, I want to get on the road. I’d like to reach Nashville before daylight.”

“Why the hurry?” Angel was back to wringing her hands. It was obvious she wasn’t comfortable with Gunnar leaving. Not yet.

“Because, like it or not, there could be half a club full of angry bikers ridin’ for my head. I told Ice and Cyclone I had no intention of letting this touch Bones, and I meant it.” As if on cue, the men in question entered the house.

“Christ on a crutch,” Mama swore under her breath. “Angel, did you not raise these boys to know it’s rude to enter someone’s home uninvited?”

“She did, Mama.” Ice continued into the house without so much as pausing. Cyclone closed the door behind them and both brothers went to Gunnar, enveloping him in what was probably an embarrassing hug, but it didn’t seem like any of the men cared. This was two older brothers welcoming home a brother they thought was lost to them.

Hannah openly wept while Angel hugged her close. Mama put her arm around me and I started. The older woman raised an eyebrow and I smiled back at her.

“You’re a remarkable woman, Pippa.” Mama kept her voice soft, for us alone. “You’re the perfect woman for Gunnar. You’re what he needs in more than one way. I have a feeling that, unless you curb him, that one is going to live his life to please you and fuck everything and everyone else. You’re either going to need to rein him in, or let him run amok, in which case he will eventually take over your life.”

I shrugged. “He will anyway. It’s what overprotective cavemen do. Besides, he would never take over my life to control me, but to keep me safe and happy. And how do I know this?”

Before I could answer, Mama waved me off. “Pfft. You know it because you’ve been paying attention to the man who’s had you in his care.”

“He’s done nothing but what he thought was best for me, Mama. I don’t think he wanted to come here at all, but was afraid I was hurt worse than he could tell.”

“I know it was.” Pops moved to Mama’s side and put an arm around the older woman. “That’s who Gunnar is. He has more of his father in him than either of them will admit. At least in public.”

“Did they have a strained relationship before everything happened with Hannah?”

“They butted heads from time to time, but that’s just because they’re so similar. I think Gunnar needed to get away from Cain so his father didn’t smother his personality. Gunnar is too much of an alpha to roll over. It’s hard for an alpha father to let his own alpha son be his own man when he raises the kid.”

“I’m sure there could have been a better alternative than prison.” Mama slapped at Pops’ chest, a gentle chastisement. “He was going to the Marines. They would have straightened him out.”

Pops turned to Mama then. “Really. Do you honestly think the damage wouldn’t already have been done? One of two things would have happened. He and Cain would have come to blows, or Gunnar would have submitted out of respect for his father and been a shadow of the man he is now.”

“Dramatic much?” Mama raised an eyebrow.

Pops crossed his arms over his chest in a belligerent stance. “You tell me I’m wrong, I’ll admit to being a drama queen.”

Mama grumbled. “Shut up.” Yeah. She knew Pops was right.

It wasn’t long after the guys broke it up. They continued to razz each other and do that strange male bonding thing all men seem to delight in. I watched intently for my own reasons. I could see the force of personality Gunnar had. I hadn’t noticed before, because I’d been too focused on merely surviving, but if I had to judge the three of them, there was no doubt in my mind Gunnar was the natural alpha. It was in the way he took charge of me in that awful place where he’d found me. And how he did the same with his brothers when he first arrived with me at this place. Now, though they hadn’t seen him out in the wild in more than a decade, it almost seemed like the president and vice president of Bones deferred to Gunnar. It was subtle, to be sure, but I could see it.

“She gets it,” Pops said, nudging Mama. I glanced at them to find the couple smiling at me.

“Of course she does.” Mama sniffed. “That boy would never pick a woman who wasn’t intelligent.”

“It’s not about how smart I am. That man’s a predator. And not just any predator. He’s an apex predator. There might be men who could fight him, but I don’t think there are many who could best him.”

“I’m impressed.” Mama didn’t look impressed. She looked wary. Which was odd.

I checked Pops, then went back to Mama. While Pops was relaxed, he still watched me intently. “What?”

“You have training?” Mama tilted her head. “Because you were very specific in your description. That’s a lot for someone to pick up in no more time than you’ve been together, especially when you were at least partially messed up from the drugs you’d been given when he first found you.”

“I was going to school to be a zoologist and to study sociology in animals. I’m literally trained to recognize social traits in animals, including identifying the alpha.”

“You couldn’t be that trained.” Mama shook her head, frowning slightly. “You haven’t been out of high school that long.”

I huffed out an exasperated breath, rolling my eyes. “I took college courses in high school and was fortunate enough to go to a high school with a veterinary pathway. My senior year, I took night classes. Plus, I got in a full semester before this happy horseshit happened. So I’m greener than goose shit, but recognizing an apex predator for me would be like you recognizing a lethal heart rhythm. It’s pretty basic stuff in the field.”

Pops barked out a laugh before sitting down on the couch, his stout body shaking with humor. When everyone stopped to look at him, he guffawed outright, wiping tears from his eyes as they streamed down his cheeks.

“I don’t see anything so very Goddamned funny.” Mama crossed her arms over her chest, looking for all the world like a pissed-off cat.

“She got you that time but good, Mama. You don’t admit it, I’ll call you a liar in every language I know.”

“You don’t speak anything other than English!” Mama barked at him. Had she used that tone of voice with me, I’d probably have scurried away and hid.

Pops just shrugged. “Stupid smart phone has a translator on it. I’m sure I can fumble through several different languages.”

Mama finally gave up trying to look stern and gave a small chuckle as she shook her head. “Fuck all y’all.”

“Well, what do you expect when you automatically jump to conclusions about someone?” Pops still wiped tears from his eyes and occasionally shook with quiet laughter, but his declaration was clearly a point of contention between the couple.

“It’s happened before! I’d rather piss someone off and apologize later than get caught with our pants down.”

“Christ.” Ice scrubbed a hand over his face. “You thought she’d infiltrated the club. What? Did you think she was CIA again?”

“The woman is scarily good at profiling. At least, she’s got your brother pegged better than me or Pops ever could.”

Gunnar’s gaze shifted to me. “You do?”

I shook my head, not liking the attention focused so completely on me. “I know animals. You just reminded me of some traits of animals at the top of the food chain.”

“Humans are at the top of the food chain.” Gunnar waved me off but didn’t dismiss me outright.

I studied him for several seconds, trying to figure out his angle. “You want to know what my response to that statement is?” I raised my eyebrows. “Fine. No. Humans aren’t at the top of the food chain. At least not with all things being equal. Technology allows us to be at the top. Technology we invented but have become so dependent on we can’t survive without it. You take a small group of people and put them in the wild. Even give them decent shelter, but make them go without any sort of technology, and they might last a short while, but the environment will get them every time. And that’s not with a big cat hunting them. There aren’t many people who can survive on their own in the wild for long. Maybe a few months. Maybe as long as a year. The skills to do that are no longer bred into us.” I lifted my chin at him. “That’s your answer. The more feral a person is, the farther up the food chain he goes.”

Gunnar cocked his head, amusement on his face. “You sayin’ I’m feral?”

“Tell me you didn’t feel feral at times when you were in prison, and I’ll take it back.”

That got his attention. He glanced from me to Mama and back. “All right. I see your point. She is good.” He grinned. “Ought to make life interesting.”