Reaper

by Lena North

  I followed him with a sinking feeling in my belly. He'd seemed happy to see me the day before, but now he was back to being angry.

  “Olly, can we –”

  He raised a hand, and I stopped talking. He looked around the room, and I did too. There was a bucket next to the couch, and another one with a mop in it over by the wall. A couple of towels was thrown in a pile on the floor, and Olly's tee was bunched up next to them. Yikes. It looked like they'd had an interesting night.

  “Jesus,” he muttered, snagged the flannel jacket I’d borrowed off the hook by the door, and walked out without a word.

  “Olly –”

  “I’m not talking to you right now,” he said hoarsely.

  I swallowed and all happiness drained out of me when the door slammed shut. Sven walked over to the window, and when I heard a bike roar, I moved toward him.

  “Whoa,” Sven said before I could look at another set of tail lights, and moved me around to face the kitchen. “No need to look. He’s still not feeling too good.”

  “But he was really angry, Sven. He’s leaving, and I have to –”

  “He’s not going far,” he murmured and turned to look out the window. “He took your bike.”

  “He took my bike?”

  “Jesus, Annie, what did those brothers of yours pour down his throat?”

  “Hooch, most likely. They get it from a guy down in Thend. Why?”

  “He’s not feeling so very well again,” Sven muttered. “Don’t worry. He’s not angry with you. He’s embarrassed and probably only going as far as to Hawker.”

  I stared at him, and to my surprise, I felt how anger slowly built in my belly. I’d had enough of Olly being angry and not letting me explain a single thing. And he’d taken my bike. Nobody drove my bike but me. I walked upstairs without a sound and snatched my phone off the bedside table. Then I walked downstairs, waiting for Hawker Johns to pick up.

  “You are the sheriff in Norton,” I informed him.

  “Annie?”

  “I want to report a crime,” I snapped.

  Sven made a choking sound behind me, but I whirled around and pointed at the coffee pot.

  “A crime?” Hawker echoed.

  “Olly Harper will drive up to your house on my bike. A bike which he has not asked permission to borrow.”

  There was a long silence, and I tapped my foot impatiently.

  “He’s coming up the road now, you want me to arrest him?” Hawker asked.

  “Maybe not arrest him,” I said. “I think you should talk sternly to him about his behavior.”

  Sven put a cup of coffee next to me and walked out with a bucket of water in each hand and a grin on his face. There was another long silence, and I watched Sven empty one of the buckets by the side of the road.

  “You want me to talk sternly to Olly?” Hawker asked calmly.

  Miller suddenly barked out laughter in the background.

  “Yes,” I snapped.

  “About his behavior?” Hawker asked, and I could hear laughter in his voice too.

  There was a scuffle in the background, it sounded as if Hawker dropped the phone and I was about to close the call when Wilder suddenly was on the line.

  “Hey, what the hell happened?”

  I explained in a few sentences, and she burst out laughing.

  “He’s just hung over!” she shouted to someone. I heard her moving and then some more laughter. “He’s throwing up,” she shared with considerable glee in her voice.

  “Again,” I sighed.

  “What do you mean again?”

  “He threw up twice on the road up from the farm. Sven is out there cleaning it up. Someone should check Main Street.”

  I thought Wilder would never stop laughing and when she shared what I'd said with what seemed to be her father, Mac, Sloane, and Miller, they were roaring with laughter too. I hoped the sound would hurt the big idiot's hungover head while he threw up.

  Wilder ended the call with an order for me to be ready in half an hour. Bo had given instructions for where to meet him, and they would pick me up on the way.

  Shit. Girl’s night, which a quick glance at the clock on the wall told me had almost changed into girls’ brunch. I’d forgotten about it.

  “See ya in a bit,” she chirped and hung up.

  Sven walked in, tucking his phone away.

  “Talked to Mill. They’ll take care of him.”

  “I don’t care,” I said. “I’ve had enough of him.”

  “Annie, don’t –”

  “I can't deal with everything that's happening,” I said. “Olly is a jerk. I'm sorry, but he is. We can't find the shithead who wants to kill me. Or everyone else. Or whatever the heck he wants to do. And on top of everything, Bozo has organized a damned girls' night. It starts in half an hour, and I have to… I don't know. Shit.” I looked at him, and his face softened. “It's just too much.”

  “You don’t have to deal with it all at once, Annie,” he murmured. “Spend the day with the girls. Forget about the shithead, and about Olly. They’ll both be around tomorrow, and you can deal with them then.”

  “But –”

  “Take a day off. Have some fun. Relax.”

  I wasn't sure spending a day with Bo would be relaxing, but it would probably be interesting, and I'd promised myself to not hold back from people anymore. This was apparently the day I’d start practicing my social skills.

  “I can’t just go anywhere,” I said. “It might not be safe.”

  He chuckled, and I raised my brows.

  “Jinx and Mary will be there?”

  “Yes, and Wilder. Snow was going to try, but she wasn't sure they'd make it.”

  “You'll be safer with those girls than anywhere else. Dante will have wherever you're going surrounded by his guys. Mac and Miller will send birds out to scout the area, and if Snow comes, she and Nicky will have checked the place out beforehand.”

  “Okay,” I said because he was right.

  “Have some coffee while you wait. Take a break, Annie. Live a little.”

  “Okay,” I repeated and sat down to wait for my ride.

  ***

  I slowly pulled the robe tighter around me and moved my head from side to side, liking the strange looseness I felt. I wondered why I’d never had a massage before and promised myself I’d go back to the fancy spa Bo had brought us to.

  “Lunch, and then beautification!” Bo said.

  He was also wearing a robe, and the fact that it had his name in bright pink letters on the back indicated he was a regular customer.

  “Yay,” Wilder said drowsily. “Can’t believe I’ve never had a massage before. I’m feeling mellow.”

  “There’s a first,” Jinx snorted, but she seemed pretty relaxed herself.

  A short, slim man clapped his hands and told us to follow him. We were apparently eating lunch in our robes and slippers. Another first for me.

  “Hey!” a happy voice called out half way through the meal, and Snow bounced into the room with a huge smile on her face. “I'm so sorry, Nicky had to shoot a guy, and he wouldn't let me leave until he was done.”

  “No problems, Snow. At least, when you say something like that it doesn’t involve bloodshed,” Mary said and scooted to the side to let Snow slide a chair in between her and me.

  “Hey, Annie,” Snow said, and started to fill a plate. “Heard I’ll like your brothers.”

  I looked mutely at her, unsure of what to say. Had she heard about the drunken day, or had she seen pictures of my brothers? All three looked exactly like my beyond beautiful father so if she’d –

  “Heard about yesterday,” she mumbled with her mouth full of food, reading the confusion on my face accurately. “Yikes.”

  Yikes indeed.

  “Olly wasn’t too happy about it,” I said. “Started growling at me this morning and left the farm.” I wondered what to share with them and decided
to tell them the truth. “Pissed me the hell off.”

  “Well good for you, girlie,” Bo said and slammed his hand on the table. “Mister humongous needs to work on his manners, that’s all I have to say.”

  Mister humongous? That was kind of funny, and I felt the tips of my mouth twitch. Laughter echoed around the table, and Wilder raised a glass of orange juice.

  “Cheers to the big idiot,” she said.

  We drank, but then I sighed.

  “I did get myself involved in your lives on a lie,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  I’d made mistakes with Olly and wasn’t going to do the same thing with this group.

  “Pooh,” Bo said breezily. “What’s a little omission when you’re on a mission?”

  There were giggles around the table, and I felt how I relaxed again.

  “I agree,” Wilder said. “I lie for real all the time, and I get that Olly was blindsided by the sheer quantities of your omissions, but he was a dick. Hugely.”

  “He actually was,” Snow murmured. “Surprising, because he’s usually the least dickish of all the men, my own dude included.”

  I turned to her, and asked quietly, “You’re not angry with me?”

  “Why would I be?”

  Her eyes had widened, and when I just stared at her, one brow arched upward slightly.

  “You weren’t happy with me at Double H.”

  “I wasn’t unhappy either,” she countered. “Didn’t know what to think, and I don’t like to jump to conclusions,” she said, turned to Wilder with a smirk and added, “Unlike some people.”

  “Huh,” Wilder scoffed. “Lucky for you I got a massage earlier or else I’d clock you.”

  Snow started to giggle, which I assumed meant it had been a joke.

  “So no, Annie, I’m not angry with you,” she concluded happily.

  “You’re his cousin,” I reminded her.

  “Ha,” she snapped. “Dante is my cousin too, and he goes on and on about you and your beautiful brain.”

  “He does!” Jinx exclaimed. “If I didn’t have such a beautiful brain myself, I’d be scratching your eyes out, Annie.”

  She winked, and I felt another piece of me relax. I'd been a weird genius all my life, and I'd pushed that back to be more normal, but it meant I’d pushed back who I was at the same time. I’d only ever shown all of me to my family… and partially with this crowd. Stepping out of the shadows wasn’t so much about where I was, I realized. It was much more about who I was. Who I’d let myself be.

  “Uh, Annie,” Bo said. “Your eye just got greener.”

  Yeah, I thought. It would. Would they be able to handle that?

  “It changes when I don’t hold back so much on my… abilities,” I confessed.

  There was a stunned silence, and then Bozo asked, “You have a geniusometer in your eye?”

  “Um.”

  “That is so cool,” Wilder said. “She might just be weirder than you Jinx.”

  “Not possible,” Jinx replied confidently. “She’s weirder than Mary, and probably Snow too, but there’s no way she is weirder than you or me.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” I said.

  Their calm acceptance of the oddity that was me meant a lot, and I smiled as I stretched a hand out, inviting a swarm of giggly creatures to swirl around the table.

  “Happy!” they twittered, over and over again. All of them suddenly caught sight of Boz and started twirling around him. “Pretty,” they said. “Beautiful.” And then they all echoed, “Love…”

  “What?” Bo said when one of them rested on his hand.

  “They're not like the birds or the other animals. You don't discuss things with them. They're just, I don't know… like a cheerleading squad, buzzing out single words. I get comfort from them. From their… energy, in a way,” I explained. “They think you’re beautiful, and they love you, Bo. Relax and accept it, and you might just feel a little of them.”

  He tilted his head back slightly, watching my small friends. A smile spread across his face, and suddenly his eyes widened.

  “Thank you,” he murmured, turned to look at me and grinned, “I didn’t hear them, but I kind of… heard them. It was like someone was breathing out the word pretty?”

  “That was them,” I confirmed.

  “I talk to dragonflies?” he asked.

  “Well –”

  I wouldn’t call it talking exactly when he’d only heard a faint echo of what they had all been screaming at him at the top of their tiny lungs. Bozo did not care.

  “Tattoo!” he shouted so loudly the small man came running back into the room.

  “Would you like a tattoo, Bozo?” he asked.

  “Abso. Effing. Lutely,” Bo said succinctly. “Right this afternoon.”

  “I will arrange it,” the man said and disappeared.

  “Boz,” Mary said in a voice quivering with laughter. “Are you su –”

  “You will draw it,” Bo exclaimed. “A dragonfly. Not big. Not small. Pretty.”

  Mary choked on the sautéed scallop she’d just put in her mouth, but managed to get out a weak, “No?”

  “Mary-contrary,” Bo said indulgently, but added in a voice that was suddenly somehow steely, “Either you draw it or I will.”

  “Oh, God,” Mary said. “Carson will kill me.”

  “Not if you make it pretty,” Bo smirked.

  They looked at each other, and after a few seconds, Mary gave in. I saw it in the softening of Bo's eyes and how the skin crinkled a little around them.

  “Olly has a tattoo,” I blurted out into the silence.

  They all turned to me and gaped.

  “How can you think this is news to us?” Wilder asked, finally. “It covers his whole back and neck. Surely you’re aware we’ve seen him shirtless?”

  I grinned, feeling warm and happy. They were Olly’s family, and they knew him so well, but there were parts of him that were only mine too.

  “Well, he has another one,” I giggled. “Right next to his… you know.”

  “He has a tat on his –”

  Wilder stopped speaking, and I giggled even more.

  “Not on it, Wilder. Next to it. A small dragonfly.”

  Then I shared how I had stared at it that first time and what Olly had thought. They laughed with me, and at me, and started quizzing me about more details which I refused to share. Snow sighed and thanked me for my restraint in a totally exaggerated way, and we laughed again.

  “I love the one Olly has on his back, though,” I shared. “If I ever get one, I’ll ask him where it was made, and by whom.”

  “Won’t be hard,” Wilder said calmly. “Joakim did it, and he lives in Norton.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup, does all the guys’ tats. My bet is he’s on his way here right now to do Bo’s.”

  “Something like this, Bo?” Mary said suddenly and slid a paper over the table.

  She’d been sketching quietly while we giggled, and Bo’s eyes widened when he saw what she’d done. He was a loud, flamboyant man most of the time but right then, as he looked at Mary without that mask on, I knew I saw the real Bo.

  “I love you, Mary,” he said quietly.

  “I love you too,” she replied.

  “Awwww,” Wilder said, which broke the moment although mostly in a sweet way.

  We hummed and awed with her, and tried to look at the drawing, which Bo clutched to his chest and refused to reveal.

  “I’m thinking about getting another one,” Wilder shared. “I love Mac’s falcon so I might get something like that.”

  “It’s kind of big,” Jinx said with a frown.

  “But it’s on his back, right?” I asked, thinking that the size of it didn’t really matter if you could cover it up when you felt like it.

  “Yeah,” Wilder said. “How’d you know?”

  “He’s the kind of guy who has it in a place
where he can hide it. Like he covers up his voice, and part of his beauty when he wears his hair down and in his face,” I said.

  She gaped, closed her mouth with a snap, only to open it again.

  “Where would Dad have his tat?” she asked.

  “He’s a huge badass which means he’s not covering anything up, so he’s probably got various things all the way down his arms. His bird would be on his shoulder, though.”

  “Why is that?” Mary asked curiously.

  “He’s kind of old school, just like Miller.”

  “Old school?”

  “You know, like a bird with its wings spread and some flowers around it. Maybe a flag. A banner below with his name or something. Probably added your name, and your daughters’ beneath it,” I said with a smile.

  “Shit,” she said. “You’re spot on.”

  “Where’s Dante’s tat?” Jinx asked.

  “He doesn’t have one,” I answered. “Wouldn’t want to mar his beauty with something like that.” She made a hoarse sound, so I explained, “He’s a little vain, isn’t he?”

  There was a complete and stunned silence, and I wondered if I’d somehow offended them but they were smiling so I didn’t think so.

  “I’m almost afraid to ask,” Snow said. “Nicky?”

  “He doesn't have any either, but I would guess that he wants one.”

  “Really?”

  “He'd want your name, right over his heart, and he'll probably say it's to cover up the scar, but that'll be something he says to make him look manlier in front of the other men.”

  Wilder suddenly started to laugh loudly.

  “This is fantastic, Annie. Da is prancing around because you called him a badass and Mill is laughing his head off. Dante is unhappy and has assured everyone repeatedly he isn't vain. Nick is scowling, and they’re all wondering if you’ll say something about Kit.”

  “They’re listening in?” I squeaked, absolutely horrified.

  “But, of course?” Snow said. “I thought you –” She cut herself off when she caught the look on my face, which was probably resembling a deer caught in headlights. “You didn’t know?” she asked.

  “You’re letting your birds listen in on private conversations?”

  “All the time,” Wilder said calmly. “How would we know shit if we didn’t?”