Chapter Thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Ace

“ W ell, well, well, what do we have here?”

I jerked my head around to stare at the man behind me. His long, salt-and-pepper hair was tied back into a ponytail at the base of his neck, and he was wearing a stained, ratty, ball cap. He lifted a cigarette to his lip and lit it, eyeing me like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“When boss man said he thought someone might be lurking, I thought he was fucking just sending me to do something to get me off my ass.” He crouched in front of me. “Maybe he wasn’t bullshitting me after all, huh, Ace?”

He knew my name. He knew my actual fucking name. This wasn’t good. This meant the club had been found out. This meant everyone at home was at risk.

Gunner was at risk. I needed to get home to Gunner. Get him back to the cabin where he was safe.

“Fuck off,” I sneered, reaching for my gun, but he was quicker than I was. His hand latched around my throat, and he slammed my skull against the brick wall behind me. Pain exploded through my head, and my vision went dark for a split moment, rendering me immobile.

But it was long enough. Too fucking long. Long enough to compromise me. To send what should’ve been an easy job gathering intel into something dangerous and life-threatening.

When my vision cleared, my wrists were bound tightly, damn near cutting off the circulation to my hands, and he was finishing binding my ankles together. I wiggled, trying to kick out at him, gritting my teeth to think past the pain pulsing through my head. My vision was still fuzzy, and the pain was threatening to drag me under again. I was pretty sure I felt warm blood trickling down my neck.

He’d probably reopened my head wound. Fuck .

He wrapped his hand around my throat, pinning me to the ground and cutting off my airflow. I sneered at him despite my lungs screaming for air and the panic ensnaring every single one of my senses. I would not bow down to him. I would not show my fear. I would be a bitter fucking asshole until my last, gasping breath.

“We’ve got plans for you,” the man sneered into my face, his breath reeking of cigarettes and stale beer. I swallowed vomit. My vision began darkening again. “Hope your last words to your family were good ones. Because you’re never seeing them again.”

I jerked awake, my heart slamming against my chest bone, sweat clinging to my skin. Immediately, Gunner tightened his hold on me, pressing his lips to my temple as he hovered over me on his side. His palm flattened over my chest, and he beat out a slow, steady rhythm for me to focus on. “Easy, baby,” he soothed. “Breathe. Focus on my voice and breathe, sweet boy.”

I sucked in a ragged breath, my lungs hurting as if that day had been happening all over again. My body began to tremble, and my teeth began to chatter. Gunner shh ed me, running his hands over my damp, naked body, his touch soothing me and grounding me. I forced myself to breathe along with him, inhaling every time his chest pressed against my back with his breaths.

“You’re doing so good, Ace baby. So good for Papa. Just keep breathing, my boy.”

Once my breaths were regulated, I turned over to face him, running my fingertips up and down his side, just needing to touch him. Touching him soothed me. Because with Gunner by my side, I knew nothing could ever touch me. He would never let anyone else harm me.

His blue eyes were intent on mine. “You okay now?”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

He pressed his lips to my forehead. “I’m always here for you, baby.” He cupped my cheek, his palm warm against my clammy skin. “You want to talk about it?”

I blew out a soft breath. “I just… had a flashback.”

Gunner winced. “Sucks, right?” I swallowed thickly and nodded. Knowing he suffered from flashbacks too helped. I wasn’t alone, and there was nothing wrong with me. Gunner was the most put-together man I knew. Even more put together than Shaw and Konrad, who had their shit together since they graduated high school and left me behind. “What was it about?”

“Being kidnapped.” I shuddered. Gunner tightened his hold on me. “I didn’t hear him. He snuck up on me. And I blacked out when he slammed my head into the wall. Gave him the jump on me.”

A low growl sounded from Gunner’s chest, and his hold on me tightened. “Give me a description so Jax can have him tracked down. I’ll slit his fucking throat for touching you, Ace.”

My cock perked up at the dark promise in his words. He dragged my lower half against him when he felt it, but he did nothing more than that. And I was okay with it. I wasn’t in the mood for sex or getting off. I just wanted to be as close to him as possible.

I shook my head, my eyelids drooping closed. “This wasn’t the first time I was… sexually assaulted,” I quietly confessed. Gunner stilled. Even his chest stopped rising and falling. I swallowed thickly, my chest tightening. But I’d never opened up about this, and I wanted to tell Gunner. I wanted to be open with him. I wanted him to know why I was like this.

“What do you mean?” Gunner finally rasped, his words strained.

I slid my hand down to his chest, sliding my fingers through the hair there. “My last foster dad used to…” My words trailed off.

“Jesus fucking Christ ,” Gunner snarled, his muscles bunched up. He squeezed me so tightly, I almost couldn’t breathe. But I managed just barely, sinking into him. “I’ll kill him too, Ace,” he snarled. “I’ll kill anyone who fucking touched you.”

I blew out a soft breath, but before I could speak, someone knocked on the wall next to the entrance of the loft. Gunner looked over his shoulder, and I peered over Gunner’s side, meeting Jax’s gaze. Jax jerked his chin toward downstairs. “Blakely is working on breakfast.” He looked at Gunner. “And don’t worry about Ace’s foster father. He’s already been taken care of.”

“Wait, what?” I blurted when Jax turned to head back downstairs. He turned his head to look at me, his hand braced on the wall. I sat up, the blankets pooling around my hips. “What do you mean, Jax?”

Jax shrugged. “I dealt with him. Heard you screaming one night. Heard you say his name and crying. I had Rico hunt him down, and I bashed his skull in after I shoved a bat up his ass so he’d know the same pain before he died.”

With that, he headed back downstairs. I stared at the space he’d been standing for a moment before a tear trickled down my cheek. All this time, I’d thought that son of a bitch was just sitting around on bond, awaiting trial. But nope. Jax had… Jax had made him pay.

“Your brothers love you,” Gunner said softly, sitting up and wrapping his arms around me. He rested his chin on my shoulder. I gripped his forearms, sniffling. “They love you, even if it’s hard for some of them to show it.”

I nodded. “I know,” I croaked. “But Jax is always… detached. I never thought…”

Gunner sighed. “I think, out of all your brothers, Ace, he cares the most in his own way.” He pressed a kiss to my cheek, his beard scraping along my skin. “How does a shower sound? Then we’ll eat breakfast, and you can help me tend to the greenhouse.”

I nodded, a small smile tilting my lips as I rested my head back against his shoulder. “I’d like that, Papa.”