a place we know| ✓

sixty seven

"And find a place where every single thing you see tells you to stay."
S E E K E R
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March 3rd
8:56 PM
New York
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March meant growth.

It meant new beginnings and it meant restoration.

For Gunner, it also meant putting Ace behind him once and for all. He would start by playing his part in this deal, the biggest deal of his entire career and finally, finally move out of New York City with his wife and child(ren)–that is if he successfully managed to get Audrey pregnant. Considering how deep in the honeymoon phase they were, it wouldn't be long.

My place in an hour

He was deaf to the TV and Audrey and Leah's voices in the background of his noisy mind. Releasing a shaky sigh, he shut off his phone. Gunner's next plan was to talk to his wife about the whole Ace fiasco and hope that maybe she was open enough to the idea of one last deal before moving on for the better.

"Rey," he called, but wasn't able to look at her as he did so. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

He sensed her eyes prying for information and judging by the bleakness in his face, kindly shooed Leah inside. When her bedroom door closed, Gunner gulped in all the oxygen he could get, his speeding pulse racing in his neck.

"Is everything okay?" Audrey grabbed the remote and turned off the TV, the entire time her full attention was on him.

"It's Ace," Gunner said and held his breath. "He just texted me and..."

"And what?" From the way he watched her, to the way she watched him, they were ticking bombs waiting for the perfect moment to explode. "Gunner, you told me you wouldn't go back to him."

"I went over to his apartment a couple weeks ago. I made sure to tell him that I was done living that sort of life but he wouldn't listen to me, Rey." Once he said the words, the rest flowed out of him like a waterfall, gushing and without delay in the current. "He won't let me walk away and he said that if I tried that he would..."

He couldn't tell her the rest. What kind of man would he be if he sat idly by while his friend threatened to bring harm to his family? He had to do something, he had to die trying. At least then he'd know that he did what he could to protect them.

"Gunner, what did he say?" Audrey lay a hand on his thigh and urged him to continue. He gazed straight into her restless, golden-brown eyes. 

They were his favourite things to look at. Even the stars in the sky couldn't compare to them. When he looked, he saw his beginning and end; Audrey was a never-ending feeling.

"He said he'd come after you," his voice was a frail whisper. "That you and Leah are distractions, and he hates distractions, Rey. He has no problem getting rid of them."

"He'd go through all that to keep you dealing for him? But why? Why does he need you so much, Gunner? Why can't he find someone else?"

He placed his hand atop her own, their fingers entwining. "I don't know, baby. He won't tell me why but he won't let me go."

"And now he wants something," she said, realization dawning like the sun on her despairing face. "He's forcing you to help him."

He nodded gravely and his tongue moistened his dry lips. "I have an ultimatum: either I help him or he..." He didn't want to use the word kill. He didn't want to remember the gun pressed to his temple. Envisioning that same weapon used on his wife and child, his spirit was cracking.