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She wants to talk about the past.
I cleared my throat. “What about him?”
“You killed him,” she said in a near whisper.
“Yeah, thanks for the information, Hallie. I’m well aware of what I did. I spent fucking eight and a half years in prison for it.”
She winced at my tone. “Sorry… It’s just the article made him out to be something really, uh…”
“Fucking special?” I snapped, finishing the thought for her. “I know what everyone thought of him, Hallie. I’m well aware.”
She took a deep breath, irritation flashing across her face before fading again—she had the patience of a saint. “I wasn’t finished talking,Gunner.” She said my name like I’d expect a mother to do. “And what I was going to saywasthe article made him out to be some highly esteemed doctor, but… I felt like something was missing. I don’t understand why you’d just…killsomeone who was your father’s doctor.”
My mouth went dry, as if I had swallowed a fucking box of cotton balls. “Do you really want to talk about this?” I choked out the words, part of me relieved we were finally having the conversation and the other wishing it would just go the fuck away. Women associated with the club knew to stay in the dark, but here Hallie was, wanting to dive right off into the deep end of my past.
“I just want to know what happened fromyou,” she said, her tone soft. Her eyes showed nothing but compassion as she looked up at me, only a few feet between us. “I know that I’ve come across judgmental or whatever, but I’ve done my own fair share of sinning.”
I almost laughed at the way she said it. “Like what? Steal some bubble gum from the candy store?”
She glared at me. “No, but we’re not talking about me anyway. Let’s talk about you first.”
“Fine,” I sighed. “I’ll tell you what happened.”
Chapter 15
Hallie
I pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down, knowing that, more than likely, this was not a conversation I wanted to have standing up. However, Gunner continued to lean against the island, his face difficult to read.
“My dad started losing his mind early,” Gunner said, his voice blank and his eyes looking past me, out of the window. “I always thought it had a lot to do with his habits—all the drugs and drinking—but I guess not everyone thought that.”
“How old was he when he started having problems?” I asked, ignoring my heart pounding in my ears.
“I don’t know. The first time his memory started failing him, I was young—like in middle school, maybe? I don’t know. Anyway, he started really going downhill my senior year of high school, and there was this doctor some of the staff members contacted. He was apparently thebest of the bestwhen it came to this stuff. He was researching all these cures or whatever.” His voice was starting to sour, but I stayed quiet, letting him continue the story.
“So, they talked to me about it, and I agreed, thinking that this might somehow bring my dad back. I don’t know why I thought that then, because now I don’t think it’s possible—but I was young, and you were my whole world…”
“And I was leaving for the city.”
His emerald eyes flickered over to me, a sadness filling them as he nodded. “Yeah, and I guess I thought that if they could fix my dad, maybe there was a chance that we could make it once you left.” Gunner shook his head. “But anyway, this doctor starts coming to see him, spending a lot of time there at the fucking nursing home. I think it’s great, you know? My dad is getting someone that actually knows shit and might be able to help him, but…”
I swallow hard as all of the muscles in his face tense. “But what?” I choke out.
“But instead, I start noticing weird shit.”
“Like what?”
His lips twitched. “My dad started acting violent again—like the way he did when he was using. My dad was not a peaceful guy before he got sick, but once he did, he really chilled out. However, whatever the doctor was doing, it was pissing him off. He started trying to leave the nursing home, breaking out and shit.”
I nodded, trying to imagine the stress this would’ve put on Gunner, who was hardly even an adult at the time.
“Anyway, I started finding bruises on him and weird needle marks, and he started complaining about someonejabbinghim. When I brought it up to the nurses, they said that Dr. Hereford was trying some new treatments and that he felt like my dad was responding well—but anything new should’ve been ran by me first. I confronted him, and he made me out to be a problem, stating that he was doing what was best for my dad.”
“So, was it illegal not to tell you the treatment?”
Gunner shrugged. “Not a fucking clue, really. At the time I was nineteen, and you and I were on the brink of a breakup. I wasn’t in the best headspace to be dealing with all that shit, and Viper was still going through his own shit.”
“I can only imagine how hard that was for you.”
