Gunnin' for You (Rolling Thunder series Book 4) (19 page)

Gunnar wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in tight. “You said yourself that he was good at hiding things.”

Emma nodded but said nothing. Gunnar squeezed her tighter and began moving them forward. “Let’s go.”

“She stays until you come back with the pictures.”

Gunnar and Emma both whipped their heads up to see Kevin pointing a gun at them. He still looked like he was in a bit of pain, but he was definitely recovering.

“No. I’m not leaving here without her.”

“Doesn’t look like you have much of a choice now, does it?”

The sickening sneer on Kevin’s face was enough to turn her stomach. Emma, her arm still around Gunnar’s waist, lowered her arm just a bit. Feeling the bulk of his gun tucked in his inside holster, she slowly reached into the waist of the back of his jeans. Slowly pulling the gun out of the holster, with an iron grip so she didn’t drop it, she managed to free it from its hiding place. Keeping her arm where it was, holding his gun behind him, she looked up at him. He briefly looked down at her as one corner of his mouth lifted just slightly.

Turning back to Kevin, Gunnar said, “I’d say we all have a choice, wouldn’t you?”

Gunnar glanced down at Emma, “Babe, just stay put, in that chair, and I’ll be back as quickly as I can. Do you hear me?” He turned his body so he was facing her, the gun now between them.

Chapter Thirty

Emma watched him speak to her, she heard the words he was saying, but what she felt was his hand cover hers and remove the gun she held. He nodded once at her and she sat down, and made a bit of a fuss about the documents and getting comfortable.

She heard the click of the safety and watched as Gunnar stepped in front of her. At the same time, he raised his pistol directly at Kevin and said, “We’ll be leaving now. I’ll call you in about an hour with a pickup place where you can get your fucking pictures. But know this, if I
ever
hear from any of you people ever again, I’ll be going to the police myself with this little tale.”

Kevin’s sickening grin creased his face. “Yeah, what are you going to tell them, pretty boy?”

Gunnar reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out his phone. With the hand holding his phone, he motioned for Emma to stand and take it. Slowly standing and taking his phone from him, Emma stepped to his side. She looked up at him, he never took his eyes from Kevin, but he said, “Hit play.”

Emma pushed the button to bring the phone to life and she saw that he had been recording everything that had happened in this house. She tapped the end button to stop the recording, and then tapped play. As the phone loaded the voice recording, the faces of the three people staring at them paled. Dianna sobbed and Kelly began softly crying. Kevin narrowed his eyes and listened. As the story began unfolding again, Kevin swallowed numerous times. He glanced over to his mother and saw her holding her face between her hands, tears in her eyes, her lips quivering, her throat convulsing. She looked over to her son and softly, between sobs, said, “Put the gun down and let them go.”

“No. Ma. We can’t. We need those pictures.”

“He’ll get them to us.” She looked straight at Gunnar. “You will, won’t you? If we promise to never talk to you again. You’ll get us the pictures?”

Gunnar nudged Emma with his elbow softly and tilted his head to the door. She slowly stepped toward the door as Kevin lowered his gun.

“Drop it on the floor. Slowly. Then toe it over to me.”

Kevin pursed his lips, slowly leaned forward and laid his gun on the hardwood floor. Using the toe of his tennis shoe, he nudged it forward, making it slide a ways on the floor.

Gunnar took the two steps forward and placed his foot on top of the gun. He kicked it back behind him, making the gun slide under Keith’s worn chair. Emma picked up the pace as she quickly walked to the door, facing the Simpsons. Gunnar followed her the same way. Once they reached the door, Emma opened it and stepped outside. Gunnar stopped and said, “Don’t follow us. Don’t try anything. If you do, you won’t get those pictures. Understood?”

Three bobbing heads watched him step through the door. He grabbed Emma’s hand and ran to his truck, walking around the opposite side and standing there for a few minutes, hidden from the house. He watched through the windows of his vehicle as he waited to make sure Kevin wasn’t following them. As soon as he felt it was safe, he opened the passenger door, lifted Emma quickly and plopped her on the seat.

“Put your head down. Don’t lift it until we are out of here.”

“But I have the work car.”

“I don’t give a fuck. Treklin can come and get the fucker herself for all I care.”

Closing the door, Gunnar ran around to the driver’s side and climbed in, turned the key and bolted out of there in one swift move. Once they were at the stop sign, he looked over at Emma, her head down, her hands shaking. He pulled around the corner, parked at the side and pulled her hand, causing her head to pop up.

“It’s okay now.” As soon as she righted herself, he reached across the console and wrapped his arms around her. Her arms came around him and she held his head in her hands and tucked her head between his shoulder and head.

“Oh my God. Whew. Oh my God. I’ve never been in a situation like that before.” He squeezed her tight, then pulled away.

“Are you okay?”

Emma quickly nodded but said nothing.

“Okay, we’re going to Rolling Thunder and getting this figured out. You’re with me the remainder of the day. After we have the pictures figured out, we’ll figure out what to do with your fucking job. Okay?”

Emma nodded again. She looked into his eyes, and saw the concern in them. Fear even. She felt stupid for thinking he would cheat on her; she knew him to be better than that. Never taking her eyes from his, she said, “I love you, Gunnar.”

He let out a breath, stared right back and said, “I love you, Emma. More than I ever dreamed I could ever love anyone.”

She kissed his lips, ran her tongue over his bottom lip, and kissed him again. She pulled back. “Let’s get out of here.”

Gunnar nodded his head, put his truck in gear and drove forward.

Gunnar pulled into the Rolling Thunder parking lot, put the truck in gear and jumped out. He walked around the front of the truck, watching Emma. He opened her door and reached in and pulled her out of the truck with his arms under hers. She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck, her feet not touching the ground. The ride over had been quiet, each lost in their own thoughts. But now that they could hold each other, he held her tight, burying his nose in her hair and breathing her in. His mouth close to her ear, he whispered, “I was so fucking scared he would shoot you.”

He began to shake, finally letting the emotions out that he had held in for so long. The twenty-minute ride felt like an eternity, but all he could think was to get to Rolling Thunder and safety. He had gripped her hand like it was a lifeline during their drive, afraid to let her go. Each time he looked over at her, she was looking straight ahead, swallowing her emotions and trying to keep a brave face, but he knew the wits had been scared out of her and that killed him just a little. It was because of him she had been put in that position.

“Okay. Are you ready to go up?”

She pulled back, just a bit, keeping her arms around his neck and shoulders. She stared into the gorgeous blue depths she had fallen in love with and saw his love shining back like a beacon. A sweet smile graced her lips as she nodded and replied, “Yes. I’m ready.”

He kissed her again, then pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes for a moment. Hell was going to break loose as soon as he told his mom and dad what had just happened.

Gunnar set Emma on her feet, wrapped his hand around hers and led her to the door of the shop. When they entered, a few heads turned their way, a few waves, and then most went back to work. Ryder was the last stall they walked past, and as his head popped up from under a bike he was working on, Gunnar nodded to him and said, “You’ll want to join us, buddy, and can you get JT?”

Ryder glanced at Emma, and then back to Gunnar before setting his tools down, wiping his hands on a shop rag, and following them.

Climbing the black metal staircase to the upper offices, Emma’s heart began to hammer. Again. This time her brain was beginning to comprehend the reactions of Gunnar’s family. She knew Dog didn’t think much of Keith; he wasn’t going to like this at all. And Joci was going to be livid.

Gunnar stopped them in front of an open door. He looked down at her and mouthed, “Ready?”

Emma nodded. They walked into the office, finding Jeremiah sitting at his desk, working on his computer. He looked up when they walked in and his brows furrowed.

“You coming back to work one of these days?”

“Yeah. Dad, where’s Mom?”

Dog rested his gaze on Gunnar for long moments, slid his gaze to Emma and leaned back in his chair. Turning his head to a door on the opposite side of the room from where they stood, he yelled, “Joci? Baby, come on out here, please.”

Ryder entered the office followed by JT. Dog glanced at his sons, then back to Gunnar.

“Is this bad?”

“Yep. Pretty bad.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Joci entered the office from her office and frowned when she saw the stern looks on the boys’ faces. She looked at Emma and saw her jaw tick and noticed the hard edge to her lips. Joci swallowed, “My God, what happened?”

Ryder and JT sat in the chairs in front of Jeremiah. Joci leaned on the edge of the desk and Gunnar and Emma stayed rooted to the spot where they stood.

“First, I don’t want anyone freaking out until we finish our story. Can you promise?”

Jeremiah leaned forward, resting his arms on his desk and said, “You better just spill it right now, Gunnar.”

Taking a deep breath, Gunnar and Emma related their story, each taking turns where needed. There were gasps and many swear words thrown about as they all listened to the events of this morning.

Finishing up, Gunnar took a breath. “So, to begin with, where’s that box of pictures?”

“You’re not taking it to them.” Joci’s statement booked no argument.

“I want to look at it first. They believe the pictures are in there. I want another look, now that I have a better idea what I’m looking for.”

“We still don’t know exactly what we’re looking for.” Joci remarked.

Nodding, Gunnar said, “Right. But, let’s take a closer look. Just one last time.”

Joci walked back into her office and walked out a few minutes later with the smelly box. She wrinkled her nose at the offensive odor, her mouth turned into a frown. She brought the box to Jeremiah’s desk, waited just a moment for him to clear the center, and then dumped the pictures out on the desktop. Everyone leaned forward to look at them. Joci dropped the box with a thud onto the floor and tapped it with her foot to scoot it away from them. Shuffling the pictures to and fro, the group had their heads together looking for the pictures that could very well save some lives.

Holding up a picture of two men Joci didn’t know, she said, “Jeremiah, pull up Carmine Bambino on the computer. Let’s see if one of these guys is him.”

“Here he is. That’s him, a few years younger.” Still scrolling on his computer, Dog stopped and enlarged another picture. “Here’s a picture of Carmine and Roger Bambino from nineteen ninety-one.”

Emma stepped forward and looked at the brothers. “That’s them…in the picture.” She looked back at Gunnar, who was still holding the picture from the box.

Gunnar said, “This is it. One of them. There must be another picture in there of these two together.”

Holding the picture out to Emma and pointing, he said, “They’re at a boxing match, look at the date on the poster behind Carmine’s ear.”

Emma squinted and slowly read out loud. “Lewis versus Holyfield the second, October twenty-second, nineteen ninety-nine.”

“Okay, hang on, when did Dianna say that man was killed?” Jeremiah began tapping the keys on his keyboard.

“She didn’t and she didn’t give me a name. How about any information on a trial?” Gunnar walked to stand beside his dad. Everyone in the room was fixated on the computer screen as images of Carmine and the Bambino family popped up. “It says here, Carmine was implicated in a nineteen ninety-nine murder in two thousand and one.”

As Jeremiah continued scrolling, Emma quickly said, “There. He was investigated for the October thirteenth, nineteen ninety-nine murder of Sammy Duncan, one of the members of the Profaci family. But they couldn’t pin it on him or his brother, Roger Bambino, because witnesses for both me stated they were out of state and not together—Carmine in Boston and Roger in California that week.”

Gunnar looked at his mom and dad, then around the room. Everyone stood silent, processing the information they just learned. Gunnar wrapped his arm around Emma’s shoulders and kissed her temple.

“Dad, where was that fight held? The Lewis Holyfield fight?”

Tapping his computer, Jeremiah scroll a bit then sat back in his chair. Gently taking Joci’s hand in his he said, “Chicago.”

Emma stood completely straight and looked around the room. “They weren’t lying. This is proof Carmine and Roger were there that weekend.”

Gunnar took her hand and held it. “No, they weren’t lying this time.” His throat was tight, his mind whirling. His biological father was involved with these men. Was he scared all the time? Did he enjoy it? Did he help at any time? Looking at Jeremiah, Gunnar swallowed, “What do we do now?”

Joci popped up off the corner of the desk. “First thing is I’m making copies of these and I’m scanning them to each of us. Just for safekeeping. Then, we should call Tommy.”

“I don’t know, Mom. I’m not sure I want to involve the police; it could make it worse.”

JT sat forward, his arms resting on his knees. “I’ll take the pictures to the drop-off spot. You two have been through enough. But we need some assurances that these assholes will leave you alone.”

Ryder was next to jump in. “Treklin. That’s our ace in the hole. She got involved in this bullshit, for what? Money? Fame? Whatever it is, that bitch allowed—no, actually
ordered
—Emma to go to that house, knowing they were going to hold her hostage. She can put all the rose color on it she wants, she knew what they planned to do and who those assholes were mixed up with.”