by Sam Crescent
Preacher hadn’t been the best kind of dad, but he’d never been mean. Sure, there had been a couple of beatings through the years when he’d done something wrong, and even he knew he deserved some of the punishments. He’d never been a good kid.
Robin was always the good one.
He’d been the one who liked to find danger and play with it. It often meant Robin ended up hurt, but he hadn’t cared enough to stop. All he ever wanted to do was have some fun, no matter the cost.
“You’re not staying with me,” Reaper said.
His men were all sitting around the room, waiting, each of them prepared to do what their leader said.
“Please,” Bishop said. “I don’t know how he knows, but he does. I don’t…”
“Have you spoken to Robin?”
“No. Not since I took her out to the bar. You wanted to see her, and you saw her, didn’t you?” Bishop asked.
“In case you didn’t fucking know, I wasn’t there when she had her little panic attack. What I did hear was how you were mean to her,” Reaper said. “You were yelling at her.”
“No, I just wanted her to get inside so you’d be able to see her. I followed your rules. I’ve helped you every single step of the way and now you’re telling me you’re done with me?” Bishop glared at the man before him. There was no way for him to take him out without getting caught in the crossfire. “Do you have any idea what kind of men my dad has tracking me down?”
Reaper burst out laughing. “You think I don’t know? I’ve been dealing with his men for over two years. I still avoid them. Believe me, they’re not worth worrying about.”
“For you, but I need help.”
“No, you need to go back to town.”
“Don’t you fucking listen? Preacher knows I gave you Robin two years ago. He knows I’ve been helping you. I can’t go back there. I’m his son, but he loves her.”
“Does it bother you to know he does? To know even now without her memory she still can’t stand for you to touch her?”
Bishop swung without even thinking. Reaper grabbed his arm, twisting it. With a single tug, it would snap in two. “Now, now, why do you have to go with all the violence?” Reaper asked. “I don’t recall hurting you. I’ve accepted you into my home, I’ve listened to your concerns, and now you’re going to try to piss me off. Do you have a death wish, boy? Is that what you’re trying to ask me for? You want me to kill you? Is that it?”
“No!” He cried out as Reaper grabbed his hair.
“I didn’t hear you.”
“No, I don’t want you to kill me. Please, don’t hurt me.”
Reaper sighed. “I do love the sound of begging. It has a certain level of … enjoyment. I’ve helped you as much as I’m willing. I suggest you learn how to deal with your father on your own.”
“I could give up your location,” Bishop said.
He didn’t know why he didn’t just keep his big mouth shut, especially as Reaper simply laughed.
“Sure. Tell Preacher where I’m hanging out. You think we’re going to be here long once you’re gone? I can make it so you’re leading him on a merry dance, and believe me, it will be a lot of fun. Just remember, one day soon, Robin will remember everything and when she does, you’re going to have to look that girl in the eye. I never did allow her to hurt you. I do wonder, will she still fight for her friend, or will you be first on her kill list?”
Reaper let him go, throwing him to the ground. “Get out before I throw you out.”
Bishop got to his feet, wanting to argue, to do anything that would make Reaper see reason, but there was nothing. He was alone. No one willing to help him. It was all his fault.
Turning on his heel, he fled, hoping no one was watching him.
There was no way he’d be able to hide from his father. Preacher was a hunter, and right now, he was his target, unless he was somehow able to get to Robin, to convince her to keep him alive.
****
“You’re going to keep him alive?” one of his men asked.
Reaper didn’t respond. He stared down at the last picture he had of her. One Bishop had been able to take, but it was blurred.
Robin was on the back of Preacher’s bike. She wasn’t supposed to be there, but right now, there was no way for him to stop it.
Tearing up the image, which he’d printed out a few weeks ago, he turned toward the fire and let the flames lick up the picture. “I don’t need to kill him. Besides, when Robin remembers, I’m going to allow him to be her first kill.”
After all, he’d been the one to promise her Bishop’s head, and all she had to do was make the final decision on if he lived or died.
Chapter Eleven
Her time with Reaper
Robin expected Reaper to have lied.
For the next month, she kept on waiting for him to either break his promise or to do something scary like rape her again. Only, he didn’t do anything. He made sure she was safe from his men. Not once did they make inappropriate comments her way or try to grab her. Reaper had put the fear into them, and they kept their distance, for which she was thankful.
Each night, she’d sit with Reaper around the fire he’d built, or in a hotel room, wherever they stayed, depending on what they did. Rarely did they enjoy a quiet night in front of the television. She didn’t know what was worse. Sitting near the fire while he was laughing and joking with his friends, or sitting together watching movies.
Of course, she never went to him for sex or for anything. There was no reason to. She heard the women they brought back with them.
One night, she heard a lot of laughing and partying after she had gone to bed. Reaper had yet to return and as she pulled back the curtain to look outside, she saw the men having sex with the woman.
The woman in question was loving it. She was smiling, riding one man, as she worked two others with her hands.
She looked, trying to catch sight of Reaper but not seeing him.
Where could he be?
She … didn’t like waiting around for him to come to bed, especially if he’d been drinking. It often made her worried he’d attack her, like some men could do.
She wasn’t going to think of Preacher because he didn’t attack her, not really. He’d been drunk that first time they were together.
Shaking the doubt from her mind, she sat down on the edge of the bed. The knot in her stomach tightened even more. She couldn’t handle the thought of not knowing where he was, and so, she quickly pulled up a pair of jeans and a shirt. She left her hotel room and looked out toward the crowd. No one paid her any special attention.
Ignoring them, she quickly walked around toward the back of the hotel.
This hotel didn’t have a lot of clientele and so the owner had given them the reins of the place. Reaper had paid him a great deal of money to leave for the next couple of days. She wouldn’t give herself the luxury of thinking they were sticking around for longer than that.
Tucking her hair behind her ear, she saw Reaper sitting beside an empty pool. The owner had said they didn’t fill it because it cost too much to keep clean.
What made her pause wasn’t that Reaper on his own, but he was alone, with a book. A small light was perched on the table beside him, and she saw he’d pulled it from one of the hotel rooms with an extension cord.
She smiled.
“You do realize you could have run and no one would have been the wiser until morning,” Reaper said, startling her. He hadn’t even looked up.
“How did you know it was me?”
“I’ve got a sixth sense for these kinds of things.” He pressed down the corner page of the book, and she winced.
“You could get a bookmark.”
“Bookmarks fall out.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not exactly a good way of treating a book.”
“Are we really going to talk about how I treat a book to know where I last read, or are we going to talk about why you’re standing here talking to me and not running?
” he asked.
“I don’t want to talk about any of that.”
“Right,” he said. He put the book down, leaning back in his sun lounger and watching at her. He looked so calm and relaxed.
“How come you’re not enjoying the party?” she asked. “All of the guys are, and the women.”
Reaper smiled. “Do I detect a hint of jealousy?”
“Why would I be jealous? I’ve got nothing to be jealous about.” She gritted her teeth, hating how she sounded.
Was she lying?
Even to herself?
Was she jealous?
It made no sense.
What did she have to be jealous about?
Reaper breathed in. “I don’t know. You’re a smart woman, Robin. I’ll let you figure it out.”
“You’re talking in riddles, and you’re doing it on purpose. Stop it.”
His smile widened. “You want me to be blunt, I can be blunt. You have the perfect opportunity to run. You know from past experiences, I don’t hurt you, not anymore. I simply bring you back and chain you up until you know the score. Tonight, you had the opportunity to run. I even gave you a chance to. Instead, my men are partying. Fucking that woman from one orgasm into another. She’s probably lapping up the attention and is loving having each of those men. You come here. You come to find me, and you can’t even accept the reason why.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. She went to turn away from him and to go back to the hotel room.
“You were jealous because you thought I was enjoying her.”
She heard the lounger move and she turned to look at him. He’d gotten to his feet, and her heart started to race as he advanced toward her.
“You thought because I’m no longer taking you, against your will, I’ll add that little detail so you don’t feel so bad. You thought I’d be with this woman.”
“I should go.”
“Scared, Robin?” he asked.
“I don’t know what it is you want from me.”
“I want you to acknowledge that you may hate me, but a part of you, a part of you wants my touch.”
She shook her head. “You took me, remember? You forced me here.”
“That’s right. I did. But tell me now, Robin, why aren’t you running?”
She took a step back, hating how … right he seemed to be. “I can’t leave.”
“Not now. Not with me here and knowing I could have given you the idea.” Reaper sighed. “It’s okay.”
“Did you want to?”
“What?”
“Be with that woman? Did you want to be with her?”
Reaper didn’t answer right away.
“You know what, I don’t want to know.” She held her hands up and took a couple of steps back. She hadn’t been watching where she was going, and she was near the edge of the open pool.
She let out a cry as the ground suddenly left her. She expected the pain of hitting the bottom of the deep, empty pool, only the pain never came. Reaper had grabbed her and pulled her close.
“No,” he said.
“What?”
“No, I didn’t want to be with that woman. Why would I want to be with her when I had a perfectly good woman waiting for me back in my room?”
She frowned. Her heart raced. She could have seriously injured herself, or worse, died.
“I don’t know what you’re saying. We don’t do anything. I’m not giving you sex. How could you want to come back to the room with me?”
“Have you ever thought that there are times I just want to hold you?” he asked.
“You’re a monster.” She was more confused now than ever before.
“Am I? Well, I wonder how much of a monster you think I am when you wake up in my arms each morning. All these people, they want one thing. You’re kidding yourself if you don’t see the lust in their eyes, burning for each other. It doesn’t make them monsters, Robin. It makes them people. Fucking, taking, begging for it. It’s not wrong to want it. It’s not wrong to want me, and I know you do. You don’t think I feel a difference within you?”
He pressed a kiss to her head. “You’re tired. Come on.”
She didn’t put up a fight as he walked her back to their hotel room.
Why hadn’t she run?
It had been a long time since she’d even given running a thought. What was happening to her?
Preacher, she had to remember who she was trying to return for.
She took off her clothes and climbed into bed. Reaper did the same, and even though the room was in a blanket of darkness, she saw him. The outline of his body as he walked around the room.
The party was still going strong.
The bed dipped as Reaper joined her.
In her head, she counted.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
His arms wrapped around her.
She didn’t try to fight him. Closing her eyes, she felt his warmth seep into her flesh, and a deep calm settled over her. There was no way she could believe for even a second that she missed him. That she couldn’t sleep without him.
It wasn’t possible.
Falling for her captor wasn’t going to happen. There was only one man she wanted, and it was Preacher. She would return to him one day.
Until then, she had to remind herself that Reaper was a monster. He didn’t get to take her heart, and he certainly wouldn’t ever get her acceptance or her begging for him.
****
Present day
“No!”
“No?”
“You heard me. No.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” Robin asked.
Preacher sipped at his scolding coffee, counting to ten in his head as he looked across the kitchen at his woman.
“Am I kidding you? Let’s see … no.”
“You can’t be the boss of me.”
“I know what’s good for you. I can do whatever the hell I want.”
“You’re so frustrating.” Robin threw her hands up in the air.
She looked cute when she was annoyed. “Frustrating or not, it’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?” She put her cup in the sink. “I mean, what exactly am I doing all day? I can’t go to high school because I’m twenty years old and that is so not happening. I sit around all day, going crazy. I’ve got to do something.”
“Then go shopping? Go to the spa. Or whatever it is you women do.”
“Do I look like a spa girl?”
“You wouldn’t even know what kind of girl you used to be.”
She glared at him, and he liked to see the fire in her eyes. Randall had told him anything could trigger her memory, and right now, he hoped something sparked. He loved Robin more than anything, but the more time he spent with her, the more he missed the woman who knew him.
He shared a great deal of his life with her, his art, his family. He’d given a part of himself to this Robin. He wouldn’t have even dreamed of telling her past self. The problem was her past self knew a great deal of loss and pain, and they shared in that.
It was one of the many reasons that drew them together, and why his son got so pissed because of how close they had become.
“You know that’s not fair.”
Preacher cursed as he saw the tears in Robin’s eyes. She looked away from him, storming out of the kitchen.
Of course, him trying to trigger her memory could also result in her hating him, which he hoped to avoid, but it seemed he had a knack for doing it anyway. Preacher followed her out of the kitchen. She was making her way toward the stairs and he caught her arm.
She pulled out of his touch, folding her arms across her chest and closing him off. “Okay, I know I was an asshole and I can see that now.”
“You only know it now?” she asked.
“That was … insensitive. I’m sorry.”
She pressed her lips together and wouldn’t look at him. He hated this silen
ce more than anything else. “Robin?”
“It’s fine. It’s what you feel, and I’ve got to learn to respect what you feel, right? No matter how I feel about it.”
This wasn’t what he expected and now, he felt like a fucking asshole even more. He knew he could be one, but when it came to Robin, he’d always been more than patient. She’d been through a lot. “I just don’t believe you need to go out and get any kind of work.”
She shook her head. “I’m not asking your permission.”
“Yeah, you are, and I’m not granting it.”
“Preacher, I’m not a child. You can’t keep treating me like one. I’m certainly not your child.”
She ran fingers through her hair and he watched her pull away from him and start to pace up and down the kitchen.
This wasn’t the topic of conversation.
“It’s only for a couple of hours a day at the library. I need something to fill my day.”
“What about shopping?”
“Seriously?”
“Women like to shop.”
“And was this something I did prior to being lost?”
“I … no…”
“Then what makes you think I want to shop now?”
“I don’t know. You’ll be free to do it.”
“Why are you so against me having a job?” she asked. “I thought about this long and hard. I would be surrounded by books all day long. I won’t have to worry about many fights. It means I can do something about my day, which means I’m not sitting around thinking about everything I haven’t done and can’t remember. Do you know how hard it is to know there are eighteen years of my life I don’t remember? I can spell, count, and remember everything else but any personal little details, it’s all gone.”
“I know.”
“I want to do something with my day besides sitting around. Is that too much to ask? You know what, I’m not asking you, Preacher. I’m telling you. I’ve already taken the job at the library, and you’re not going to stop me.”
She took a step toward him, the steel in her gaze clear. She wouldn’t budge on this, and he didn’t want to force her to give up something she loved. “Is it really that important to you?”