Page 14 of Gonzo's Grudge
“Oh my God! Thank you,” I told him jumping out as he closed the hood. “I can’t say thank you enough,” I reached back in the car for my purse.
He stepped into my space. I was caged between my car door, my driver’s seat, and him. Moving my butt brushed against him as I grabbed my purse. Turning, he closed in more. Needing to breathe, I inhaled. The smell of his leather, cologne, and a hint of a menthol cigarette were intoxicating.
“Let me pay you,” I whispered, “mister,” I paused because I never got his name.
“Gabriel, but my friends call me Gonzo.”
I forced my mouth closed as I realized it was hanging open. I wanted to ask why Gonzo but thought better of it. “I’m IvaLeigh Walsh, Gonzo. I am thankful to meet you tonight.” Opening my wallet, I retrieved a hundred-dollar bill. His hand came around mine as electricity shot through me. Heat coursed through my veins like never before.
“Keep your money. Want to make sure there weren’t any lights on the dash before you take off, baby.” He motioned to my car’s interior.
Instantly, I felt like a fool.
First, he was old enough to be my dad and second, he wasn’t interested in me, he was checking the car. He probably had kids my age and was doing what any parent would. What the hell was I thinking?
“I would like to pay you. After all, in today’s world not everyone has good intentions like helping a stranger get back on the road.”
His face changed to a darker look. One that caused the hair on my arms to raise as goosebumps ran through my body.
“Intentions matter, sweetheart.” He began leaving me reeling, “Never trust that anyone has pure intentions.”
With a soft kiss to my forehead, Gonzo backed away returning to his bike. Deciding this night needed to be over, I climbed in my car. He put on his helmet, but didn’t start his motorcycle until I had my car on and in gear.
The rest of the drive home, I had a single headlight in my rear view until reaching the gate of my parent’s community where he twisted his throttle which made the engine rev louder before he took off to wherever it was he went.
I pulled into my childhood home with one thing on repeat in my head.
“Intentions matter, sweetheart. Never trust that anyone has pure intentions.”
Part Two
Gonzo’s Grudge
There were always casualties of war.
That was what Gabriel “Gonzo” Gonzales told himself once he locked in on the target of his grudge. The man who shattered his world had a weakness in his only daughter, Gonzo would exploit this any way he could.
IvaLeigh Walsh lived a sheltered life behind the gated community she was raised in. College was a new freedom and she was learning not everyone could be trusted.
One misfortune after another plagued the young woman. Yet, at every turn a stranger who called himself Gonzo seemed to be her savior.
The attraction was real, but the man’s intentions were anything but pure.
She was entangled in a war of men and didn’t even realize the battlefield had become her heart. Torn between the life she knew and the life she was being shown, IvaLeigh didn’t know what to believe anymore.
Gonzo had one focus: make the judge who locked his son up pay. IvaLeigh was nothing more than collateral damage … until she wasn’t.
There was something about her the outlaw couldn’t resist. Try as he might when push came to shove, the Saint’s Outlaws MC owned him and her family was on the wrong side of the war. No matter how much the young woman twisted the man up inside, the club, his family, they always came first.
Yet, IvaLeigh accepted this part of him like no one had before. Somehow in the mess their worlds had become, they began building something altogether different and completely their own.
Chapter 6
Gonzo
The first time I ever laid eyes on a coffin draped in SOMC colors was twelve years ago. I wasn’t even patched yet—still a prospect scrubbing oil off the garage floor and scraping gum from under the pool table at the clubhouse.
Back then, I thought the cut draped across polished wood looked like armor. A shield that could stop bullets. A symbol that meant you were untouchable, even in death.
