Now They Call Me Gunner

  * * *

  Wasp led Katie to one of the raggedy overstuffed couches. When she sat down, she was looking across the room at the mattress in the corner.

  She didn’t have to be a genius to know what that was for.

  Wasp had chosen her seat deliberately. He wanted her to see what was expected.

  He sat down beside her.

  There wasn’t enough room on the other side for Friendly, so he sat in an overstuffed chair where he had a good view of Katie’s thighs clad in skintight denim. He was staring openly at her crotch.

  Jimbo was pulling cans of Iron City out of the fridge. I sat down on the other side of Katie before he could claim the spot.

  “Where’s Betty?” I asked. “And Candy?”

  “There’re not here,” Wasp said as though that were not obvious. “Today the Snakes are going to party stag.”

  With Katie here, it wasn’t completely stag but I didn’t mention that. The girl in the cake doesn’t count at a stag party. She isn’t a guest; she’s the entertainment.

  “You look awfully warm,” Jimbo said. “You need a cold one.” He thrust an Iron City into my hand.

  I wasn’t sweating because of the heat.

  “And you look just plain hot,” he said to Katie, handing her a cold beer, too.

  “Thanks,” she said. Her voice was quiet. Frightened.

  The Snakes didn’t care.

  “Plenty more where that came from,” Wasp said. “Maybe in a while, we’ll smoke up a bit. You look tense. It’d be good to mellow you out some.”

  I wondered if we would be getting mellow on the grass that Randal had given to the Snakes.

  Wasp took Katie’s left hand in his and stroked it gently.

  “I’m kind of surprised.” He leaned forward to look across Katie’s breasts at me.

  “About what?” I asked.

  “No ring,” he said. “You told Betty that you were engaged. I was looking forward to meeting your fiancée.”

  “This is her,” I said. “I haven’t got her a ring yet. That’s all.”

  “Oh, no, little buddy. I don’t think so. No ring, no engagement. That’s the rule. You might be planning on getting engaged, but it’s not official until you give her the ring. Until then, well, she’s unclaimed. Right, Friendly?”

  “Right, Wasp,” Friendly rumbled. “Unclaimed.”

  I glanced at Jimbo. He was absently scratching at his crotch.

  “Fair game and a fair lady,” Wasp said. “Fairest of them all.” He stroked her hair. “Here,” he said, “let me get that open for you.” His hand brushed against her breasts when he reached to grab the beer can from her hand. He pulled the tab and then put it to his own mouth. He took a long pull that emptied half the can before handing it back to her. “Good stuff. Drink up.”

  She drank a sip.

  “Jimbo, you better get Katie another one. That one’s almost gone. We don’t want the lady going dry.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jimbo said. “A dry lady’s no fun.”

  Katie’s ears turned red.

  “She’s my girlfriend,” I said as firmly as I could.

  “Sure, she is, Gunner. Sure she is. We know that. Don’t worry. You can have your turn, too. We know how to share, don’t we?”

  Jimbo and Friendly rumbled agreement.

  “I’m sure you don’t mind waiting your turn, this being our clubhouse and all, right? That’s the respect that we show each other. You respect us, right?”

  There was no way to answer that, either.

  “You do look hot,” Wasp said to Katie. “Let me help.” He took her beer from her hand and set it on the floor. Katie wore a leather jacket when she was riding with me. Wasp took her hand and pulled her to her feet. When she was standing, he slowly unzipped the front of the jacket and then pushed it off her shoulders and down, letting his hands caress her arms, full length.

  All eyes were on her. I might have been invisible.

  Underneath the jacket, Katie was wearing a light cotton blouse with a red and yellow psychedelic print. I hadn’t seen it before.

  “Groovy.” Wasp tossed her jacket into an empty chair.

  “You didn’t tell us that she was a flower child,” Jimbo said from across the room.

  “A free spirit,” Wasp said. “That right? You’re free?”

  Katie didn’t answer. She sat back down on the couch.

  Wasp sat beside her and handed her the can from the floor. “Better drink this down,” he said. “Jimbo’s coming with more.”

  When she put her can to her lips to take another sip, Wasp put his dirt-encrusted hand around hers, pushed the can hard against her mouth, and tilted it upside down. He held it there until it was empty. She swallowed as much as she could, but a copious flow flooded over her chin and down her blouse.

  “Hey!” I yelled.

  Friendly stood up.

  “Don’t be upset at her.” Wasp waved Friendly back into his chair. “It’s not her fault. We expect that she’ll be a bit clumsy. All us sexy guys in one place have got her all worked up. Of course she’s going to spill a little beer. But it’s all right. We’ve got plenty more. Here. You can have my can.” He knocked the empty can out of her hand and shoved his own, nearly full one at her. “Drink up, dear. Don’t be shy.”

  “Yeah,” Friendly said. “Don’t be shy.” Laughter rumbled in his gut.

  Jimbo arrived with two more cans of Iron City.

  Katie took another sip from the can that Wasp gave her.

  She was weeping silently. Tears were mixing with the beer that was splashed on her cheeks.

  I was shaking with anger. Friendly watched me with casual amusement. Nothing would be funnier to him than seeing a little puppy so scared that it wet itself. He was looking for an excuse to put the fear of Friendly into me. Any excuse would do.

  “You’re going to catch a chill in those wet things,” Wasp said.

  There was enough beer soaked into her blouse to make it cling to her breasts and render it semi transparent. Her bra showed clearly underneath. Red lace. But at least she was wearing one. For now.

  “I better help you get out of that wet stuff.” He stood and pulled her back to her feet.

  When he undid the first button of her blouse, I had to do something. I stood up and grabbed his hand to stop him from moving to the second button.

  Friendly and Jimbo rushed me simultaneously. They had been waiting for me to make a move. They each grabbed an arm and pulled me away from Wasp and Katie. At the party, they had competed to crush the steel beer cans. Now they competed to crush my arms. The pain was intense.

  “Your boyfriend is getting impatient,” Wasp said. “He’s an eager beaver.”

  I struggled against the big men holding me but it was like pushing and pulling against two oak trees. I wasn’t bothering them in the least, but I was damaging myself. If I lived to see tomorrow, I would be bruised from shoulders to elbows.

  “Don’t you want to keep this friendly?” Wasp asked Katie.

  She nodded.

  “Good, because we don’t want anyone to get hurt. You don’t want your boyfriend to get hurt, do you?”

  She lowered her eyes and shook her head. Tears dropped off her chin.

  “Good. So let’s keep this all friendly, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said so softly that I could barely hear her.

  “Tell Gunner to stop fighting us.”

  She looked at me. “It’s okay,” she said, her voice louder, but almost cracking in fear. “I’ll be all right. Don’t try to do anything.” She looked back at Wasp and undid the next button on her blouse herself, revealing a glimpse of red lace. She lowered her hands to the button beneath her breasts and slowly undid that one.

  I slumped in Friendly and Jimbo’s hands. Now, they had to hold me up, instead of holding me back.

  When she unfastened the last button, she pulled the tails of the blouse from her jeans.

  She pulled the blouse off her small white shoulders too slo
wly. Wasp was impatient. He reached out and pushed it down her arms. The damp material loosened some of the dirt on his right hand and he left a dark brown streak down her left arm.

  I don’t know if she noticed. Her head was hanging down and her hair was blocking my view of her eyes.

  The growl of a Harley roared toward the clubhouse. Someone was coming down the driveway at full speed.

  Everyone paused.

  I prayed that it was Randal, coming to the rescue, but knew that was impossible. He was cooking at Elsa’s today and had no idea where I was.

  The bike fell silent, leaving only the constant barking of the dogs.

  Katie left her blouse hanging from her wrists. We all waited in silent tableau.

  When the door opened, Bucks was framed in the noon sunlight.

  Katie would have a fourth Snake to entertain.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  “Just a little stag party with our new friends,” Wasp said.

  “Guess I didn’t get invited.”

  “You’re here,” Wasp replied.

  “Monk told me. He can’t get away. He promised a guy that he’d finish his brake job by this afternoon.”

  “We know,” Wasp said. “That’s what he told us.” He looked at Katie, half naked, and then back at Bucks. “Well, now that you’re here, come on in and join the party.”

  Bucks stepped inside and surveyed the scene, looking most intently at Katie with her blouse hanging at the end of her arms, her torso clad only in the bra, her full breasts barely concealed by the red lace cups. He could see the tears trailing down her cheeks. Then he looked at Friendly and Jimbo, still holding my arms.

  He shook his head. “I promised The Doll. We all did.”

  Wasp shrugged. “We kept that promise.”

  Bucks shook his head. His mouth moved but he couldn’t find the words that he wanted to say.

  Another figure stepped into the doorway. A female silhouette. Candy.

  “Bucks thinks that we promised the Doll more than just the one thing,” she said. “I don’t know about that. I guess it’s up to each of us to decide what we promised. Me, I’m not so big on lifetime commitments. You guys got to decide for yourselves.”

  Everyone watched her as she prowled across the room. She stroked Friendly’s face. “You can let go of Gunner,” she said. “He’s not going to be a problem. He’s a friend, right?” She looked at me.

  Friendly dropped my arm.

  When she looked across at Jimbo, he did the same.

  “Why don’t you two come with me?” She looked at the two big men. “I’m not going to leave you hanging out in the cold.”

  She took Jimbo and Friendly’s hands in hers and led them away from me.

  “Wasp, you want in on some real action?” She looked at him.

  He looked longingly at Katie’s full breasts. He wanted them bad. But Katie was a one-time pleasure and Candy was long-term satisfaction. The effort of exercising self-control was visible in his face as he turned away from Katie and took a reluctant step towards Candy. He moaned softly.

  As the three men followed Candy back to the mattress in the corner, she shed her leather jacket and began unbuttoning her blouse.

  Bucks approached Katie and pulled her blouse back over her shoulders. The streak of dirt that Wasp had left was covered up, but still there under the sleeve of her blouse. I grabbed her jacket.

  “You better get out while you can,” he said. “Candy can’t keep those three busy for long.”

  “Thanks,” I said. I grabbed Katie’s hand and pulled her out of the clubhouse. I could barely hold onto her, both our hands were so slick with sweat.

  No one tried to stop me from cranking my bike to life and pointing it back to the highway, Katie clinging to my back tighter than she ever had before.

  It should have felt wonderful, but I was humiliated. Ashamed that I had been too weak to save her from being assaulted by the Snakes.

  Bucks was the white knight. Bucks and Candy.

  I was the fool and coward.

  I was devastated when, as we left Oak Falls, she said into my ear, “Thank you for saving me. You were heroic.”

  She was being sarcastic. Not just making the point but twisting the knife. She knew damned well that I had done nothing. If either of us had done any heroic saving, it was Katie who had saved me from a beating or worse by cooperating with the Snakes. By humiliating herself.

  But I wasn’t about to argue with her. She had endured enough for one day. We both had.

  I took her straight home.

  We had nothing more to say to each other.

  She kissed me on her front step. I guess she was obliged to do that much. Then she disappeared through her front door. I expect that she was in a hurry to take a shower.

  I thought it most likely that she would quit her job at Elsa’s tomorrow so that she wouldn’t have to see me when I came in to work on Thursday.

  I wouldn’t blame her.

  I had been stupid to take her up there. I never felt so miserable in my life.