Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

Gunner

A ce snuggled deeper into my arms, his eyelids drooping. After we’d both practically cum our brains out, I’d warmed up breakfast, and we sat down to eat with Ace in my lap. He wasn’t ready to be apart from me, and honestly, I didn’t want to let him go either. I wanted him as close as possible. Beneath my fucking skin. Unfortunately though, that kind of closeness wasn’t possible.

“You sleepy, sweet boy?” I murmured, reaching up to rake my fingers through his hair. He just sleepily nodded, his eyelids finally shutting as he gave in to the temptation to sleep. I snatched the throw blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped it around him, content to sit here while he napped. “Get some rest?—”

My front door banged open, swinging so hard, the doorknob lodged into my wall. I shot to my feet, shoving Ace behind me as I glared at the five men standing in my living room, two of them aiming assault rifles at me. I ground my teeth together, a sneer curling my upper lip. Just who the fuck did these assholes think they were?

“Where is he?” one of the men snapped. He was wearing glasses, and while his beard was long, it was neatly trimmed and well-kept. His reddish-brown hair was cropped short, revealing tattoos on his neck. There was no mistaking the fury in his dark eyes as he glared at me.

Ace suddenly stepped out from behind me, a gun in his hand, and he was pointing it right at the fucker who’d spoken. The man’s eyes widened in disbelief, and now that Ace was out in the open, I noticed the other two lowered their weapons so they weren’t aimed at my boy.

Smart thinking because I was a hairsbreadth away from snatching that gun from my boy and putting bullets in their skulls for putting him in harm’s way.

“Ace…” I growled, my hands latching around his upper arms to force him back behind me. I didn’t even know how he knew where my pistol was, but while I was glad we had some kind of weapon, I didn’t like it being in his hands. Especially not when he was facing five hostile men.

“Get your hands off of him,” another man growled. He was thickly muscled like me, a backward ball cap resting on his head. There was no mistaking the threat in his stance, nor the shrewd look in his eyes as he looked pointedly at where my hands rested on Ace.

“Fuck you,” I growled, wrapping my arms around Ace’s chest and yanking him back against me—as if I could shield him from whatever might come our way. They didn’t seem interested in harming me with Ace in the way though. “Put your goddamn guns away.”

“You kidnapped?—”

“Put your fucking guns down before I put a hole in your skulls,” Ace snarled, glaring at the men in front of us as he clicked the safety off. A heavily tattooed man sucked in a sharp breath as he stared at Ace in surprise. “I mean it. Put them down .”

“Kid, you don’t even like to be touched,” a lankier guy with a beard, his hair pulled back in a small bun, snapped. He was one of the ones holding an assault rifle. “Is this Stockholm Syndrome?”

“Too early for Stockholm Syndrome,” I said dryly, making him glare at me. I met his gaze evenly, not even flinching. They were nothing compared to the fuckers I’d dealt with overseas.

“Fuck you, Cameron,” Ace bit. “Any of you ever stop for two fucking seconds to wonder if maybe Gunner had been helping me?”

“He’s touching you,” the one with glasses said, obviously confused. And still hostile, considering the glare he was throwing my way. I ignored him.

Ace huffed. “Yes, he’s fucking touching me,” he snapped. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” I snorted and gently squeezed him. He relaxed a bit, but he still didn’t drop the gun. “Put the guns on the floor.” No one moved. He put his finger on the trigger, swinging it at the silent one. The man had a thick beard a little unkempt, and he was wearing a beanie. Tattoos littered his skin. He just evenly met Ace’s gaze. “Jax,” Ace growled, “drop it. Now. Please . Gunner isn’t harming me. He didn’t kidnap me. He fucking rescued me.”

That relieved some of the tension. Jax set his gun down and kicked it across the floor, nodding once at Ace. Cameron muttered something I didn’t catch before he did the same, kicking his gun away, too. Jax crossed his arms over his chest, arching a brow at Ace. “Start explaining, kid. You’ve been missing for days .”

“And what did you do to him?” Cameron demanded, looking at me. “He doesn’t let people touch him. Ever. And he’s never polite. He’s a little shit.”

I curled my upper lip in disgust. This guy was a piece of fucking work. Ace glared at him as he lowered my gun, clicking the safety back on. “If you keep being a dick, I’m going to call Abbie and tell her you don’t deserve sex for a week.”

Cameron glared at him but kept his mouth shut. My lips twitched in amusement. Dropping a kiss to the top of Ace’s head, I slowly released him, giving him the opportunity to keep me with him if he wanted. Instead, he turned and looked at me as my arms dropped back to my sides. I cupped his cheek. “I’m going to make some coffee,” I told him. “You want a cup?”

He nodded. “Yes, please, Papa.”

The one with the glasses choked. “ Papa ?” he asked, glaring at me. “You better not be taking advantage of him, you fucking?—”

“Shut up , Arlo,” Ace snapped, turning to glare at him. I gently squeezed his shoulder before I headed to the kitchen, leaving him to deal with his family. This was his fight. And while I wanted to step in for my boy, I trusted him to handle this on his own.

“Are you seriously telling me to shut up, Ace?” Arlo snapped back. “Do you know how worried we’ve all been? Francesca had the baby, and you weren’t there. You went M-fucking-I-A?—”

“Frankie had the baby?” Ace asked, his voice sounding small. Immediately, I spun back around, heading back to him. His eyes welled with tears, surprising all of his brothers. They stared at him like he was a stranger as a tear slipped down his cheek. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with them? “She had the baby?” he croaked, repeating himself.

I wrapped him up in my arms, pulling him against my chest. Arlo frowned at him. “You knew she was having the baby, kid. You told her you’d come by as soon as you finished your job here. Instead, you decided to play house with a fucking stranger?—”

Jesus Christ, I was going to punch this mother fucker in the face.

“Hey, can you shut the fuck up for like two seconds?” I growled at him. He narrowed his eyes at me, but I didn’t back down. I stroked the back of Ace’s head as he tried to gather himself, being careful of his head wound. “He suffered a head injury—a pretty nasty one. He doesn’t remember shit from the day before I found him. He was bleeding and unconscious, and it’d rained the night before. He’d been out in cold temps and soaked to the bone for hours . Maybe chill the fuck out a bit? Stop being a dick.”

“Who the?—”

“ Arlo ,” the one who hadn’t said a word yet growled, “enough.” Arlo glared at him but kept his mouth shut. “Can we sit? Talk? Figure out what’s going on?” he asked me, taking a step forward. “I’m Shaw—the president of the Ghost Born MC.” He gestured to the one standing just behind him—the one who definitely came from some kind of military background. It was all in his stance, the way he was looking around at everything—calculating. “This is Konrad. You know the others. We’re his brothers. His only family. And we’ve been worried sick about him.”

I nodded once. “Please sit.” I looked down at Ace, who was now quiet and just clinging to me. “You good, baby boy? Need another minute?”

He shook his head. “No,” he said quietly, slowly pulling away from me as his brothers sat around my living room. Jax and Konrad grabbed chairs from the dining room table, straddling the back of them. “Can I have that coffee now?”

Leaning down, I pressed a soft kiss to his lips. He sighed, his eyelids fluttering shut. “Yeah, baby, you can have that coffee. Go on and sit down. Deal with your brothers. I’ll bring coffee in just a minute.”

He nodded and leaned up, pressing a kiss to my Adam’s apple before he reluctantly pulled away completely, heading over to sit on the coffee table. I noticed he purposefully avoided touching any of them. My heart clenched in my chest, pain for him sliding through my veins.

What had my baby boy gone through?