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Lucille sat down on the edge of the bed and just stared at him for a moment. Then she began her story, “All my life I lived in the shadows of my older brother and my cousin. They talked the talk and walked the walk but they were snakes inside. Neither one of them was worth a damn. They knew it but so did I. I tried to stay away from both of them but they never stayed away from me. They would always force their way in wherever I went. They would use me to get their foot in the door of their next scheme or setup. When I came here to try and start over, my cousin was already here and working his next gig. I didn’t know it until it was too late to leave. I had already met a guy I fell for. I wanted to stay and protect him if I could. My cousin told me if I said or did anything to fuck his plans up, he would kill me, then he’d kill my guy. I tried to stay and watch him and then one day I found out what he was really doing here. I confronted him and he told me to ignore what I thought I knew. That if I told anyone what he was doing, he would destroy my happiness and kill everyone who tried to stop him. He said he would start with my man. Then he told me he could make it to where I would take the blame and that my life would be over.” She paused.
Gunner could see tears flood her face. He still didn’t say a word. He also wasn’t sure he believed a word she was saying. Her story was beginning to sound all too familiar. But that wasn’t right, was it?
“I knew he was telling me the truth. I’d seen him do it before. Killing someone was nothing new to him and that was the reason I had to leave. If I told anyone what I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to either kill me or set me up and start killing everyone I cared about. It about broke my heart to walk away but I knew I had to. I couldn’t let the man I loved be hurt or worse be killed and the blame put on me. I didn’t have a choice twenty five years ago.” She paused and wiped the tears away. “I didn’t find out for weeks after I left I still had a little bit of my man with me. My heart began to mend when I found out I was carrying a baby. I knew I couldn’t tell my man, he and his brothers were still in danger but I could keep my little piece of him.” Her voice dropped to a whisper at that point. “Then I found out I was having twins. Two beautiful baby girls.”
“Who the fucking hell are you?” he snarled.
She looked over at him and said quietly. “I think you know who I am.”
Gunner shook his head. “You can’t be...She died, he told me she bleed to death after Dana was born. He said there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening.”
She snorted. “Seeing him that day was a shock I didn’t need. I was barley hanging on and the doctor told me I could have the girls early if I wasn’t careful. Seeing Blacky was such a shock it actually started my labor. I begged him to call an ambulance but he wouldn’t. When the first baby was born, he thought it was over. He told me he’d keep my baby safe. He told me you would never know about her until he had no choice but to tell you. The baby had just become his bargaining chip in case he ever needed one. Then the second one came and he panicked. I was bleeding badly at that point. He called his sister Shelly and told her to come and get one of the babies. He could still use her in the future if he needed her but he made up his mind to take the youngest girl home to you. He would be a hero and gain a better status than what he had so far.”
Gunner shook his head slowly as he stared hard at her.
She sniffled and went on, “I was so weak I couldn’t stop him. He didn’t even look at me let alone offer to get me any medical attention. He took my babies and left me there to die.” She paused again and looked down at him. “I fully expected to die in that room that day. The only thing that saved me was my neighbor. She saw Blacky leave and rushed over. She found me still alive and called for help. I spent two full weeks in the hospital before I was released. But by then, Blacky was back here and my babies were gone.”
“This is all a nice story but everyone knows it now. How are you going to prove you’re her?” Gunner wanted to know.
She got to her feet, dropped the blanket and painfully she reached down and pulled her t-shirt over her shoulder. Then she turned her back to him so he could see with his own eyes what she had hidden all these years.
“DeeDee... it really is you isn’t it?” he whispered incredibly. “Oh my god, it really is you.” Gunner stared at the ink on her shoulder. He remembered well the day she got the tat. They had both been young and in love and when he asked her to be his old lady, she had screamed yes. They had gone to the tat shop that very day and she had gotten his ink.
They had celebrated that night and it was on that night Gunner felt his daughters had been conceived. It was shortly after she got that ink that she disappeared. Gunner remembered well the crushing rage he felt when he discovered she was gone.
He looked for her for months. He just wanted to know why she left. If she didn’t love him anymore, he would let her go. He wouldn’t stay where he wasn’t wanted but she left without a word. “What about your hair? It isn’t even close to the same color as before and your eyes, I knew them when you first came here but they aren’t the same color either. Why?”
She reached up and pressed her eyeball then showed him the contact. “Hair dye and contacts. I couldn’t chance Blacky spotting me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me all of this back then? I loved you, I would have protected you.”
DeeDee shook her head. “You don’t know Blacky like I know him. He would have ambushed you and put the blame on me. You and your brothers would have been destroyed if I had stayed. I loved you far too much to do that to you or them.” She sat down on the bed and reached out to take his hand. “Blacky and my brother Jared share an evil like I’ve never seen before. They both just don’t care about anyone but themselves.” She dropped her gaze. “I guess I knew that when Terry died. Blacky called it an ambush but I knew the look in his eyes. He forced his own brother off that road. They had been quarreling the day or so before, something about the package they were supposed to deliver. Blacky wanted to keep it and use it to set up his own business and Terry didn’t want to let him. He said the package was club business.” She looked up at Gunner. “Blacky killed his own brother, that’s how evil he really is. Then Jared began using Terry’s name to steal women from their families.” Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. “I was so ashamed of my family. I knew I didn’t deserve to stay here, so I took the coward’s way out and when Blacky threatened your life and the lives of your brothers... I ran.” She hung her head again. “I’m so sorry.”
Gunner so wanted to take her in his arms and just hold her but there were still so many unanswered questions. “Did you know who Winona was when you met her?”
DeeDee shook her head. “Not at first. Every once in a while she would do something that reminded me of you and the first time she did it, I almost broke into tears. I still wasn’t sure, not until she called after she found you. That was when I knew for sure.”
“But you came here looking for her, why?”
“She’s my daughter too, you know,” DeeDee stated. “I finally knew for sure and I wasn’t ready to give her up. I just couldn’t. I lived their whole lives separated from them both. I wanted as much time with the girls as possible. Having you around, well that was pure gravy wasn’t it? I knew you didn’t remember me, I mean I have changed in all this time.? Then she let out a small laugh. “All while you just got better looking the older you got. You’re even more handsome today than you were back then. You are a great leader of these men and they look up to you. Hell, they would lay down their lives for you.”
“They have but I’ve put my life on the line for them too. In fact, I do it every single day.”
“I’ve noticed.” She nodded. “Now to get back to our present problem,” she hesitated then pushed forward, “I understand why you don’t want me here anymore. I can even accept it, but please don’t stop me from knowing the girls. I won’t tell them who I am if that’s what you demand but please don’t stop them from seeing me. I’ve already missed so much of their lives. Getting to know Winona these last three years has been a joy I can’t even describe.” She paused and added. “I’d like to get to know Dana as well.”
Gunner sighed hard. So much had changed in the last few minutes. He was just getting used to having his oldest daughter around and now this. He wasn’t sure how he felt about DeeDee being back in his life. While he believed her about what happened twenty five years ago, he didn’t know how he felt about her not trusting him to keep her safe. “Dana might not be the easiest one to get too. She’s a spoiled little brat at the moment.” Gunner shrugged. “I have to take the blame for that. I spoiled her by letting her have her own way too much as she grew up. I had no idea Winona even existed and I thought you were gone. I didn’t know how to raise kids.”
DeeDee leaned over and put her fingers over his mouth. At her touch, something sparked between them. Something she hadn’t felt from any other man. Not that there had been any over the years. She hadn’t looked at any other men since she left here so long ago.
She pulled her fingers away quickly and just gazed at his mouth. Lifting her eyes to his she found him looking back at her with a hunger in his eyes she hadn’t seen in twenty five years. “Will you kiss me? For old times’ sake?” she whispered.
Gunner groaned and reached up to grabbed the back of her head. He pulled her to him and his lips crushed hers. A charge of pure energy went through both of them. Gunner wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer. His mouth opened and his tongue pushed into her mouth. DeeDee moaned and opened herself to him.
Gunner pulled her hand to his crotch and let her feel what she was doing to him. She groaned as she felt his hard cock under her hand. While she rubbed it up and down, he felt invincible. He pushed the sheet away and hauled his boxers down to his thighs then replaced her hand and allowed her to feel him skin to skin.
When he felt her touch Gunner’s cock began to leak precum from the head. DeeDee ran her thumb over it and used the moisture to lubricate her strokes. She began to move her hand up and down his shaft and Gunner groaned. He broke their kiss and whispered, “I want to be inside you. I need to be inside you right now.”
DeeDee leaned her forehead against his. “I need you inside me too, but you should know something before we do this—”
Gunner interrupted. “What? I don’t care about what you have to tell me—”
DeeDee held up her hand and stopped him by covering his mouth with her fingers. “But I do care. You need to know there hasn’t been anyone since you. I know that’s hard to believe but I just couldn’t do that. You were the one true love of my life. If I couldn’t have you, why accept second best?”
Gunner was both humbled and slayed at the same time. He was only sorry he couldn’t tell her the same thing. He had done his best to forget her in the years that followed her running off. He pulled her hand away from his mouth. “I’m sorry but I can’t say the same. I had to try and move on.”
DeeDee nodded her head. Tears ran down her cheeks. “I didn’t expect you would have, but I just couldn’t. You were the one man I’d given my heart to. Will you let me visit heaven one more time in your arms?”
“You’re wearing a few too many clothes woman.” He growled. He began tearing her clothes off and soon they were both naked. Gunner looked at her bare body. It had changed over the years but then so had his. She had a few more pounds and a few more curves but he couldn’t say he was disappointed by what he saw.
Her breasts were fuller and her hips were wider but her scent was the same as he’d remembered. Her scent had haunted him all these years and he had wondered if he would ever smell it again. He grabbed her up as wasted no time as he brought her over top of him and impaled her with his cock. He fit nice and tight and her core wrapped around him like it was made for him. She was wet enough to take his whole length deep inside her and the feeling Gunner felt just then was pure heaven.
The blood rushed through his body and his hips pushed and pulled with each stroke. Gunner grunted and groaned as he pushed deeper and harder inside her.
DeeDee could feel her body responding to his touch as wave after wave pushed her higher and higher toward the edge of release.
Then before either of them wanted, DeeDee cried out as she flew over the edge of the abyss. Gunner flipped her over on her back and crushed his mouth down on hers as he pushed deeper inside her. He’d felt her walls quiver and he almost lost it but he wanted more from her. He wanted to push her even further. His body hadn’t felt this good in years.
He gave her a few more strokes and then he couldn’t hold back anymore. He roared as he painted her walls with his seed. When he was drained, he partially collapsed on top of her. His sweat mixed with hers and a drop splashed down on her shoulder.
When Gunner looked down at her, he noticed the blood from her wound had leaked through the gauze on her shoulder. “Damn it, I forgot your shoulder wound. You must be in pain.”
DeeDee smiled lazily. “It’s ok, I can bear it.”
He leaned down and kissed her again. As their tongues mingled, he felt himself grow hard again inside her. He gently began rocking back and forth. This time was slow and gentle but nonetheless just as satisfying.
When he got close, he dropped his hand down between them and thumbed her clit. She exploded in his arms and he groaned as he filled her for the second time that night.
After a moment or so Gunner dropped down beside her and pulled her close. “Damn woman I haven’t done that in years and it never felt so good,” he whispered in her ear. “Why is it only with you?” He laid there for a while and then he sat up and slapped her bare ass. “Come on let’s go have Patriot look at the wound and re-bandage your shoulder.”
DeeDee swallowed hard. She had been hoping for more from him. But she told herself she would be grateful for whatever he would give her. She reluctantly got up and put her clothes back on.
Gunner accompanied her back down the hall and into the Infirmary. He pounded on Patriot’s door and got the man out of bed.
Gunner watched with eagle eyes as Patriot worked on DeeDee’s shoulder. This time there was no need to hide the tat although Patriot paused when he saw it. It was Gunner’s own property patch from twenty five years ago. “So Lucille, you need to take things easy for a while. Give yourself a chance to heal.” He told her.
DeeDee looked over at Gunner when Patriot called her Lucille. But when Gunner didn’t correct the other man she couldn’t say anything either. Her heart was breaking but she kept her face clear of any emotion. She had told him she would take whatever he was willing to give her. It was a lot to forgive and she couldn’t blame him at all. “I will try.”