Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

Gunner

I slowly ripped open my eyes, blinking at the sunlight filtering in through the room from around the edges of the curtains. Looking next to me, I frowned. Ace was gone, and when I patted his side of the bed, it was cold. Quickly, I sat up, my chest tightening.

Where the fuck was my boy?

I vaguely remembered him promising he’d come right back to bed after church, so I’d passed back out, still too worn out and drained from my flashback the day before to stay awake. But I should have.

Because every fiber of my being was telling me my boy was not even in the fucking building. And if he wasn’t, I was going to lose my shit.

I flung the blankets off me and lurched from the bed. Snatching my jeans off the floor, I tugged them on, yanked a t-shirt over my head, and shoved my feet into my boots. I grabbed my pistol and shoved it into the waistband of my jeans at the small of my back before I grabbed my truck keys, phone, and my wallet, shoving them into my pocket.

When I got downstairs, Arlo was the first person I saw. And just as I expected, when I scanned the room, my boy was MIA. I pointed a finger at Arlo, and he glared at me as he shifted his little girl in his arms, readjusting his hold on her. Frankie, who was coming out of the kitchen, blinked in alarm at the hostility radiating off my tense frame.

“Where the fuck is he?” I growled.

“Watch how?—”

“I sent him out to gather intel,” Shaw hurriedly said, appearing from the hallway where I knew his office was located. Ace had given me a tour of this place yesterday, and I’d memorized every room and every single exit, just in case I ever needed to get Ace to safety. “He’s fine. Go ahead—call his burner. What he’s doing isn’t dangerous, Gunner.”

I scoffed and snatched my phone out of my pocket, typing his burner number in, which I’d taken time to memorize yesterday. Disposing of two bodies shouldn’t have been dangerous either, but he’d managed to get hurt then. I glared at Shaw as I raised the phone to my ear. “He’s still recovering from a goddamn concussion,” I snarled, listening as the phone rang. “He doesn’t need to be out by himself yet.” And definitely not without me.

Ace’s phone rang. And rang. And rang.

Trepidation flooded my gut. Hanging up when the voice message popped up to tell me he didn’t have a voicemail set up, I jabbed my finger against my screen, calling him again, trying not to panic. I’d been in high-risk, dangerous situation before. I knew how to keep my cool.

But in those situations, my boy wasn’t fucking missing .

My heart, my soul, my life wasn’t fucking MIA.

When I got the same message again, I clenched my jaw, grinding my teeth together. I lurched forward and gripped the front of Shaw’s shirt, slamming him against the wall. His head bounced off of it, and he winced, but he didn’t try to fight me back. He just calmly met my gaze and even shook his head at Arlo when Arlo got up, passing the baby off to Frankie.

“Where is he?” I snarled. I shook him. “ Where the fuck is he ?!” I roared. They’d sent my boy out by himself to gather intel on a dangerous as fuck trafficking ring, which I had no doubt had big players. Big players with big enough pockets to make my boy completely disappear. I wasn’t playing fucking games.

“He went to gather intel on Jeffrey Dorman,” Shaw told me calmly. I wanted to bash his head through the wall. How the fuck was he so calm ? I noticed Amaliya come down the stairs, her eyes wide and filled with horror as she took in the scene in front of her. “If he’s not answering his burner, he could just be in a place he can’t. It doesn’t mean he’s in danger, Gunner.”

I leaned in close to him, narrowing my eyes at him. “One thing to know about my boy, Shaw, is that he will always answer my calls. He may be a brat and an asshole to you five, but he’s not to me.” I shoved away from him, backing up into Jax. I hadn’t even heard him come up behind me. My muscles locked, ready to swing on him if he touched me.

“What’s going on?” Jax demanded, looking between me and Shaw, his brows furrowed.

“He’s losing his shit because Ace isn’t answering his phone,” Arlo said like I was just being overdramatic.

Jax frowned and pulled his burner out, flipping it open. I watched as he punched in Ace’s number before he raised the phone to his ear. After a minute, he clenched his jaw and ended the call, his fingers tightening around the phone.

“He wouldn’t ignore my call either, Shaw, and you know it,” Jax growled. He looked at me. “Let’s go.”

“I’ll come?—”

“No,” I barked at Arlo. He sneered at me, but I didn’t give two fucks how he felt. He’d had a problem with me since second fucking zero, and I didn’t have time for his shit. “You can sit your ass right here,” I snarled. Turning, I stormed out of the clubhouse, the door banging against the wall with the force I slung it open with. Jax quickly followed me out, his phone to his ear. Judging by his conversation, he was more than likely telling Blakely, his old lady, what was going on.

“I need to make another phone call,” he told me as we jumped into my truck, both of us slamming the doors at the same time. “I’m calling in a favor.” He looked at me. “It might cost us something, but Rico knows what he’s doing.”

I shook my head as I peeled off the lot, hitting the highway in the direction Jax pointed, gunning my engine. “Do whatever. No cost is too high to find Ace.”

Jax nodded and dialed a number, putting it on speaker. “Jax,” a man drawled. “Don’t hear from you much anymore, brother. What’s up?”

“I have you on speaker,” Jax told him, clearly a warning to watch what he said if he didn’t want me hearing in. “We’re on a secure line.”

“Who’s with you?” the man, who I assumed was Rico, demanded. He had a slight accent—maybe Mexican? But it was very faint.

“Gunner, Ace’s… Papa,” he said after a moment. Rico hummed in acknowledgement. “Ace is missing, Rico. He’s not answering his burner, and he hasn’t called back yet. Something is wrong. Can you track him?”

“Yeah.” There was some movement on the other end, and then, there was the sound of keys being pressed in rapid-fire succession. Jax pointed to a road up ahead, and I slowed down just enough to make the turn safely before I pressed my foot down on the accelerator again.

What if we didn’t make it to Ace in time? My heart threatened to shred itself apart at the mere thought. Not finding him in time was not an option. I refused to even consider it.

“Got it,” Rico announced a couple of minutes later. “They’re headed into Canada. I can send men to intercept. I’m thinking Ace got kidnapped.”

My heart dropped to my stomach, and sheer training kept me from freaking the fuck out and vomiting. I tightened my hands around the steering wheel, my knuckles turning white as I tried to quell the shaking in them.

Kidnapped .

I’d failed him. I’d promised to always protect him, and now, he was kidnapped . He was probably scared—though I knew he’d never show it to his captors—and fearful he’d never see me again.

I’m coming, baby boy. Just hang on for me. Hang in there, sweet boy. Papa’s coming.

“Can you send me the tracking info?” Jax asked, his jaw pulsing with anger.

“Yeah, sending it now,” Rico told him. “Be safe. By the time you reach Ace, my men should already be there, ready for your command. Don’t die, Jax.”

Jax snorted. “Noted. Thanks, brother. We owe you one.”

“Nah,” Rico said. Jax blinked, but other than that, there was no surprise in his face. “I like Ace. And I don’t want to see him lost in this trafficking shit. Bring him home, Jax.”

With that, he ended the call. Jax called Shaw, filling him in, keeping the conversation short and abrupt. “Ace has been kidnapped. Headed into Canada. Rico is sending men. We’re on our way.”

“I’ll call Konrad and?—”

“No,” Jax snapped. “We don’t have time to wait for everyone to get to the clubhouse and for you to hit the road. Gunner and I will handle this. We’ll be fine.”

Shaw sighed. “Jax, we don’t know Gunner like that?—”

“ I trust him,” Jax told him, his tone revealing his annoyance. “And Ace trusts him. I need to go. Keep your phone close.”

With that, Jax hung up. Then, he grabbed his personal phone and tapped on his screen a couple of times before he handed it to me. “Ace is the red dot,” he informed me. “Directions are set up to get to him.”

I nodded once, feeling like I could breathe now that I had a tangible location for my boy in front of me. I glanced at Jax. “I have weapons under the backseat. You mind putting them together? We’re going to need them. I’m taking out every son of a bitch I can. No one takes my boy from me and lives to tell the tale.”

Jax nodded and unbuckled his seatbelt, climbing into the backseat. He whistled low when he pulled up the backseat, revealing the duffel bag of assault rifles and ammunition I had there. “Worried about an apocalypse?” he asked as he pulled the duffel out. He flipped the seat back down and rested the bag on the seat, reaching inside and pulling out parts.

“It was the only way I could keep a somewhat peace of mind after I was released from the military,” I told him honestly.

He nodded. “I get that.” He glanced up at me as he pulled gun parts out of the bag. “I’m glad Ace found you. He needs someone like you. You… make him happy. And he’s been miserable for a long time, Gunner.”

I sighed, my heart squeezing in my chest for my boy. “I know. He’s going to be a mess when we get our hands on him, Jax.” But I would take care of him. I would do whatever it took to make my boy feel safe again.

“I know,” he said quietly. “He puts up a front, but unlike the others, I’ve always been able to see right through it. He self-destructs because if he hurts himself before someone else can hurt him, it doesn’t hurt as bad.”

I clenched my jaw. “You’re pretty insightful for such a quiet bastard.”

Jax snorted. “I observe. And I’m pretty detached from my own emotions. I can see everything a bit more clinically.” He looked up at me. “The moment I saw you protecting Ace, the way Ace let you touch him without freaking the fuck out, I knew you were here to stay.” He glanced out the window at the passing trees. “We’re going to find him, Gunner. And I’ll help you slaughter every mother fucker in our path.”

Good . Because I was ready to spill blood.