16. Gunner

16

Gunner

I wake up at six a.m. feeling like shit. When I roll over in bed, I see Montana’s not there, and I sit up, panicked, getting ready to grab my gun and look for her.

Before I can get out the bed, I see the bathroom door open, and she’s staring back at me nervously, still naked aside from her panties. “Good morning.”

Of course she didn’t leave. Montana wouldn’t leave me. Not after the night we had. Not after I opened up to her and she did me. I pull the blanket off me, needing some air. “Good morning.”

Even after a night of sleep, I’m still just as bothered as I was when I laid down. But Montana doesn’t let me stay in the moment. She crosses her arms, looking down at me. “Did I ask you to fuck me last night?”

I smile at her, hoping to bring back out her soft and sweet side. “You did.”

She rolls her eyes. “Well, I didn’t mean to. ”

Shitty fucking liar. Deciding that it’s a good thing if we keep our distance, I put my walls back up too. “Thank God because I wasn’t interested.”

Something flashes over her face, and I know my words have hurt her. I ignore how her pained little face makes me feel and stand up to stretch my legs. “Go ahead and get showered. We’re leaving as soon as you’re dressed.”

Her stomach grumbles. “What about breakfast?”

“I’ll order something to the room. Don’t take all day, Montana.”

She heads back into the bathroom. “It wouldn’t kill you to be nice, you know?”

I open my phone, looking for the nearest place that delivers. “It just might. Keep the door open.”

Once I hear Montana get the water started, I find a place to get bagels delivered. I get our order put in quickly, and I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

I could give Montana some privacy, but I don’t want to. The shower is a clear glass pane and I shouldn’t look, but I can’t help myself. She stays quiet while I get paste on my brush, but when I turn to face her, she starts mouthing off again.

“Have you always been this perverted?”

I stick my brush in my mouth, talking while it starts to foam up. “I have.”

She rubs her soapy cloth around her nipples. “Well, make sure you get a good look because that’s all you’re going to get.”

I nearly choke on my brush. “I got more than a good look last night.”

She makes some aggravated noise and turns away from me, giving me her back. “I’m never sleeping with you, Gunner. You’re a caveman.”

I finish brushing and rinse my mouth while I palm myself through my pants looking at her ass. “Here are two things you should know, Montana. One, I’d rather fuck a wood chipper than fuck you.” That’s a lie, but I feel like pissing her off right now like she’s doing to me. “And two, you only get to call me by my name if you’re going to be nice. If you’re gonna be a little bitch, you don’t get to use my given name.”

She faces me again with suds all over her. “Why should I be nice if you aren’t?”

I let go of my dick and step closer to the glass. “Oh. So feeding you and clothing you doesn’t qualify as being nice to you?”

She gets as close as she can to the glass, pressing her tits against it. “No, those things are alright. But what’s not nice is trying to shoot me and threatening sexual violence against me. ”

I turn away this time, feeling disgusted with myself. All I can think about is Margaret and how horrified she’d be if she saw who I’ve become. I never threatened her or spoke to her like I do Montana. She wouldn’t recognize me if she saw me now. I take a breath and look back at Montana. I look at her tits, but still. They’re attached to her. “I’m sorry I tried to shoot you.”

She scowls.

I tuck my hands in my pockets. “I really am sorry. Honestly. And I’m sorry about the other thing too. I would never force myself on you.” I came very close to doing so, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to yesterday morning and the day before, but I’m glad I didn’t. I’m not sure if I could forgive myself for that.

Her face softens, and she turns toward the water, rinsing off. “Thank you. I’m sorry I called you a caveman.”

I get as close to the glass as possible, placing my hands on it. “I am a caveman, Montana.”

She smiles at me using her happy smile and slams her fist against the glass. “Give me some space so I can wash my ass.”

I start touching myself again. “But that’s my favorite part, little fox.”

Montana squeals and covers her face. I’m seconds away from stripping down and trying to convince her to let me in when there’s a knock on the door. Feeling my own stomach grumble, I exit the bathroom and head toward the door to get our food.

Montana sits beside me in my truck while I drive wearing the black leather dress and heels I picked out for her yesterday. Her hair is in one of those clips she picked out from the store, and she wears a pair of my sunglasses she found. I can’t stop wondering what kind of girl she was before I found her.

“Why does your father want you dead, Montana?”

She groans and leans the side of her face against her seat, looking at me. “What does it matter? I don’t want to talk about him.”

I roll down the windows and adjust my mirrors. “You want me to talk about things I don’t want to, so you have to too. And if you don’t tell me, I’ll kick your ass out of my car and leave you on the side of the road to fend for yourself.”

She huffs. “My father is a terrible person.”

“News flash—I’m aware. But he wouldn’t want you dead unless you did something to piss him off. ”

“And why does it have to be my fault?”

I laugh at her which causes her scowl to deepen. “Well, until I know what happened, I’m blaming you. And you shouldn’t scowl so much. You’ll end up with wrinkles all over your face.”

She takes off my sunglasses, clutching them in her small hands. “Like the ones on your forehead?”

I speed up on the road, unable to control myself around her. “You are a real pain in the ass when you want to be.”

She gets quiet again, and I panic, fearing I’m going to get another hour of the silent treatment. “Montana, I’m sorry. I’m only mean to you because I like you.” I say my words playfully, but I mean them wholeheartedly.

She puts my sunglasses back on her face, smirking. “That’s how children behave.”

I put my hand on her knee without thinking. “You already know I’m a child.” I wait for her to snatch her leg away or brush me off, and when she doesn’t, my confidence builds.

A moment passes, and she places her hand over mine. “My father wants me dead because I betrayed him. I betrayed him like my mother did. In his eyes at least.”

“You cheated on him?”

She sighs. “That’s probably how he’d describe it. My father thinks I belong to him. For my entire life, he’s told me that I’m his. That I belong to him and I’ll never escape him. That the only way I’ll escape him is through death.

“My father has a lot of legitimate businesses, but he has a lot of illegal ones as well. Drug running, gun running, you name it. He kept stacks of cash around our house for years, and I’d take a little here and there, planning my escape from him. That’s how I got all that money, Gunner. I just took a little bit at a time and stowed it away.”

I lace my fingers through hers. “And he found out that you stole from him.”

“No. He doesn’t know. Charlotte, my friend who died, has a storage unit out in Arizona that only her and I know about. Well, only I know about it now. She wanted to help me escape, and I’d take the money to her house, and she’d take it there for me.”

I start to sweat, hoping we’re not heading toward nothing. “How do you know the money is there, Montana? Have you ever seen it?”

She looks toward the road. “I’ve been to it once. And I trusted Charlotte. Believe me—it’ll be there. I know it.”

I want to believe her, but I’m not sure I can. Regardless, it’s Sunday afternoon, and we’ve gone too far to go back now. There’s no way I’m killing the girl in the seat next to me, and there’s no way I’m letting her father have her back. We have to move forward .

“So what did you do to betray him?”

She lets go of my hand, rubbing her bare arms. She no longer needs her bandages, and she’s healing up nicely. “Just like you, I told my father he meant nothing to me. He wanted me to be his successor. Take over his legal and illegal businesses, and work alongside him until he dies. My father basically wanted me to be his wife without the physical connection. I was told I wasn’t allowed to put another man before him. That he was my one and only. It made me sick.

“I tried to run away various times, but the last time was when I’d pushed things too far. I’ve helped hide my father’s crimes, and I’m not proud of that. I thought the only way to escape him was by killing him or sending him to prison. I didn’t know how to kill the bastard on my own, so I left him a note, telling him I was going to go to the police. Expose him for everything he’d ever done wrong, and then he’d rot in a cell forever. I told him I’d send pictures, voicemails, and anything I had. Then I ran.

“I was gone for months, and I didn’t hear a word from him. I had a job, and I had a place I could afford, and I got scared, thinking that if I went to the authorities, he’d find a way out. So I got comfortable with the silence and didn’t make a move. But it didn’t matter. I was already dead to him .

“I don’t know how he found me at Charlotte’s apartment that night, but he said he’d been watching me for months. Following me. That he’d always find me. And he told me after he’d captured me that after a week, he was going to torture me for hours on end until I died. He said there was not enough suffering he could bring me for the way I’d betrayed him. That I’d thrown away our relationship and would never get his love back. His love that I never had to begin with.”

I will kill Mason Barnes if it’s the last thing I do.

I grip the wheel, terrified that I’ll break Montana’s hand if I hold it right now. “You need a better plan, Montana.”

“I’m sorry?”

He’ll find her. If she sticks with her shitty plan of running off to nowhere again, he’ll find her. “You need a better plan, Montana. A few thousand dollars is not enough to get you going. You need a new identity.”

She takes off my shades again, tossing them in her cup holder. “I’ve been taking care of myself long before I met you. I’ll be fine.”

I pick up my shades and put them on. “Oh. Is that why I found you butt naked in a stream half-dead?”

Her voice rises an octave. “Look. I’ve spent my whole life with a jackass man making all of my decisions for me. And if you think you’re next in line, you can take a hike. ”

The last man in the world I want to be compared to is Mason Barnes. I want to talk some sense into my angry little fox, but I don’t want to start a fight. Letting silence win, I keep my mouth shut and drive, taking us to our next destination.