MAX: The Sin Reapers MC

by April Lust

  I ignored his plea and pushed through. “Did you meet him? Did you know him?”

  He shook his head, sucking in a harsh breath. “Please, I don’t know anything about anyone, I swear.”

  I hit him before I thought about it. That made it easier. When my knuckles collided with the man’s already tenderized cheek, I was reminded of initiation. Thunder had been big and blubbery, but he put up with a lot. He put up with the punches and the kicks and the brutality that came with joining the club. I’d enjoyed that, in a way. It had liberated me and when it was all said and done, the violence brought us closer as a group. It made us family.

  This isn’t like that, I told myself. This was about causing someone pain to get answers. Or maybe not even that, because somewhere inside, I knew the answers that came from his bruised lips wouldn’t be worth shit. How could you trust someone to give you any real answer when they’d say anything just to get you to stop?

  “I asked you a question,” I told him, running my left hand over the knuckles of my right. They were pinching and throbbing already, and I knew that was only the start. “Did you know the Preacher?”

  “C’mon, man,” the guy told me, whining again. “Everyone knew the Preacher. He was a fucking legend.”

  A smart answer. Probably the only smart answer I’d get that night. “I see. And did you know this fucking legend personally?”

  The man hesitated and that told me more than his words. I hit him again and felt skin split. I’d caught him hard against the cheek, slicing it open. He cursed, trying to pull away, but there was no point. Because of how he was strung up, there was no getting away from me or my fists.

  “Did you know him?”

  “No, I didn’t! I’m a fucking Slayer, man! Why would I know him?”

  I thought about that answer even as I punched him again, this time hitting him hard in the gut. The air whooshed from his lungs and I knew it would take him a long time to regain it. That would give me a second before he could talk again, a second to think.

  A Slayer. It made sense, then, that Blade would get his hands on him, right? I would have a better chance of knowing my guys had done something fucked up than Blade or the other Slayers would. So it wasn’t unreasonable to assume Blade had found him out and presented him as a means of getting an edge on us during the negotiations.

  It made sense, but it didn’t sit right with me. I knew Blade was out of his mind, but he also understood the importance of loyalty and numbers. If he started throwing his men under the bus like that, then he’d start losing them.

  So then the question became: why would Blade give me his own man?

  When the man coughed and wheezed in another breath, I got in on the next question. “You said everyone knew him.”

  “Oh, man, c’mon, gimme a break! I’m telling you the truth!”

  I knew I was backing him into a corner; damned if you do, damned if you don’t. But that was the point. If I talked him in circles long enough, maybe he’d slip and let out something real. Something I could use.

  “Then you won’t mind continuing to tell me the truth, will you?” I asked him, and raised my hand. The guy flinched, sure I was going to hit him again, but instead, I just swiped my left hand over my right again.

  “Yeah, of course. Of course I will,” he answered hurriedly.

  I thought about my next question. My tongue felt dry like sandpaper and the question just stuck to it, unwilling to come out. It took me a moment, but finally I managed to ground it out. “What did you have to do with the Preacher’s death?”

  The man paled and I knew without him answering that he knew something. There was no way to know for sure if he would tell me the truth of what he knew, or that when he did tell it, I’d know what that was, but I felt the sudden surge, the sudden need, to have a permanent answer. A real one. One I could take home to Lucy.

  He swallowed heavily, clearly uncomfortable with the whole thing, but I didn’t care. Not in the least. His eyes, wide like a deer caught in the headlights, flickered over to Bills, but he found no help or even sympathy there.

  After a long, dark pause, he finally answered. “I heard he killed himself.”

  Violence.

  I hit him before he even finished speaking, the hit for once a reflex instead of intimidation on my part. My anger flared without warning and even I was surprised. Next to me, I saw Bills send me a quick glance, but it was unreadable. I imagined it was full of approval, but I figured that really was just imagination.

  “Damnit!” the guy said, clearly upset by the turn of events. “That’s what everyone’s saying!”

  I cracked my knuckles to keep from hitting him again. “I know what everyone’s saying. I want to know what you’re saying. Understand?”

  There was a long pause. I could see an internal debate being waged in his dark eyes. I couldn’t say what it was about—did he really know anything, or was he just trying to come up with something that would satisfy me?—but I wanted to tell him that he was putting too much thought into it. There likely wasn’t going to be anything he could say that would curb the growing desire to inflict bodily harm on him.

  Finally, he began to nod his head as though having decided something for himself. “All right. All right, I’ll tell you. But you gotta give me something in return.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him and felt a humorless laugh building in my throat. I shoved it down, though I couldn’t help the smile that slipped over my features. It wasn’t a happy kind of smile. “Excuse me?” I asked, but it was Bills who reached for the man and grabbed him by his dirty, blood soaked collar.

  “What the fuck did you say?” he demanded, anger and violence shining in his eyes.

  The man’s eyes flickered to me this time, searching for some sort of protection. “I want asylum.”

  At this, I actually did laugh. “Asylum?” I repeated incredulously. “What is this? The fucking UN?”

  His voice dropped as it became desperate, his words pleading with me. “I’ll tell you what you want to know. You’re not gonna like it, but I’ll tell you, but you gotta help me. If he finds out I’ve said anything, I’m a dead man!”

  I stared at him bleakly, making the connections in my head. I didn’t want to, because they were going to make things much more complicated, but I couldn’t help it. Blade was a Slayer. Leader of the Slayers, as a matter of fact. This man, whoever the hell he was, was also a Slayer. But he was handed over by his boss for the sake of “good faith.” Which meant one of two things. Either Blade was really trying to put his best foot forward, especially since he’d messed up our initial meeting, or he didn’t give a shit altogether. I was inclined to think the latter of the two, which led to the second part of that. If he didn’t give a shit, this wasn’t a good faith present. It wasn’t a bribe or a show of solidarity, but a means to an end.

  Blade gave me this man for a reason, but it wasn’t the one he said. Which told me it was pretty likely that whatever I promised him or whatever he told me, he was already dead.

  I almost told him that, almost told him it was out of my hands, but it had been my experience that when men knew there was no hope, they weren’t interested in telling you the truth anymore. So I kept my mouth shut about that and lied to him. “Fine. If you give me something good, something useful, I’ll take care of you.”

  I saw the hope blooming in his eyes, wild and almost frantic. It made my stomach churn, but I didn’t care. This was business and sometimes lying was a part of that business.

  “Okay, okay,” he said, now sounding eager. “I’ll tell you everything.”

  I highly doubted that, but let him speak. I knew the beating part of this wasn’t over; it was hard to say if the man had more to worry from the Slayers, or from me.

  “It’s all about this video…”

  I sat up in bed, because I didn’t want to remember the end of that conversation. I didn’t want to remember anything from last night.

  Well, maybe not anything.

  I
thought of Lucy with her legs wrapped around my middle as I thrust into her. She hadn’t complained when I told her it wouldn’t be gentle, and when shoved her up against that wall, she had been more than willing to give me anything and everything I needed.

  That had been the only good thing about that night. Lucy usually was. It didn’t matter how bad the day was, Lucy was always this pretty, sweet thing to come home to. There was more to her than that, of course, a connection between the two of us I couldn’t really explain to someone who didn’t already know, but the fact that she immediately turned me on didn’t hurt either.

  But even the great sex hadn’t been enough to chase away the nightmares. Last night they’d been about the man and the things he told me. Things I would never again be able to forget.

  There was just too much these days. Too much blood for too many years, and now it was getting closer. It wasn’t just that work was dangerous anymore. Now it was coming home with me. That alone was enough to really worry me. It meant I wasn’t the only target anymore. It meant Lucy was in real danger now, and if I weren’t careful, I was going to lose her.

  The thought put a real fear into me and I knew whether that man was lying or not, I had to take him seriously.

  Chapter 11

  Lucy

  I sat in the back room which served as my office. All the legitimate work the club was involved with ran through the Halos & Horns Auto Shop. The members who worked here were good at what they did, some of the best in town, as a matter of fact, but not every member had a knack for mechanics. I sometimes wondered if that was how the Sin Reapers ended up doing some of the more illegal activities. I took some comfort in knowing it was never as bad as some of them were. They didn’t get into running guns or selling things like meth or coke. Mostly they dealt a little weed, maybe speed. Nothing too major, though I would have just as soon they not deal with anything outside the realm of legal.

  The office was a somewhat small room, though it was fine for just me. The only time it really felt small was when one of the other guys happened to wander in here looking for one thing or another, though that was rare. The only one who paid me regular visits was Max. And that was how I liked it.

  There was a long window that looked out into the shop, but there were blinds that pulled down to block out the view. Important for private meetings, though we had very few of those, and important for when Max stopped by unexpectedly and decided he needed me. We’d had sex on the desk I currently sat at more times than I could remember, and maybe it shouldn’t have been something we did, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

  Today I didn’t think would happen, though. I did my best to focus on the work at hand, a stack of papers detailing receipts, body work done, client accounts, and other information I hardly wanted to be going through. Still, the numbers were easy to deal with and at least I didn’t have to worry about violence here. That alone was becoming more important than anything since it now seemed like even home wasn’t safe. Not really.

  I managed to get lost in my work, at least a little bit. I was focusing on the numbers and papers, inputting things into the computer, until I was off in my own world. It was nice to forget everything, but it also meant I wasn’t paying attention. I hadn’t noticed Bills as he walked past my window—you had to to get around to the only door into the room—and turned the knob to open the door.

  My head jerked up when I heard the door push open and my heart leapt into my throat when I saw it was Bills who walked in. Worse, he closed the door behind him.

  Panic suddenly swept me, causing a surge of instinct telling me to either fight or run. Neither was a good idea, but for a long moment, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was important for me to get out of there. Now.

  Forcing myself to calm down, I cleared my throat and made myself stand. I remained behind the desk and kept my eyes slightly lower than his so I wouldn’t have to stare into them. They were one of the things about Bills that made me uncomfortable, though I couldn’t say exactly why. “Can I help you with something?” I asked, bracing my arms on the desk so they wouldn’t shake.

  I saw Bills’ thin lips pull into a smirking kind of smile that made me uncomfortable. He looked pale and there were beads of sweat trickling down over his bare head. I imagined there was eagerness or…or maybe something more sinister lurking in his eyes.

  “I just wanted to come in and check on you,” he told me, his voice gravelly, like he was a perpetual smoker.

  “Check on me?” I repeated, confused.

  He nodded once, taking a step into the room. Getting closer to me made me wish the room were bigger and the windows were wider and we weren’t so alone. Suddenly, I really wanted a second door, one I could dive through and lock behind me when I felt like a cornered animal.

  “Yeah. Last night was pretty intense,” he said, trying to sound casual, but I could sense the underlying intensity. I didn’t like it, not one bit, but what was I supposed to do? He was Max’s right hand. “I wanted to make sure you were all right.”

  He took another step closer and I wished I could take a step back, but there was nowhere to go. Besides, Bills was the kind of man who enjoyed a little chase. He liked to sense the fear on his prey and would enjoy it more if I showed obviously that he scared the crap out of me. So instead, I did something brave. I moved away from the desk and went around the side to stand in front of it, effectively putting me much, much closer to Bills.

  “I’m fine,” I told him firmly. “Max took care of me. I wasn’t scared.” A lie, which he probably sensed, but the mention of Max’s name would provide more protection from him than just about anything else. Max was his boss and he would kill anyone who touched me without invitation. Period.

  Except Bills didn’t seem to get the hint. He stepped closer to me and reached out, his hand trailing down over my arm, leaving me suddenly grateful that I’d worn a blouse with sleeves on it. Even so, the touch sent the wrong kind of shivers running down my spine.

  Bills had always creeped me the hell out, but it was usually from a distance. It wasn’t that he’d never made a pass at me—he had and I’d declined; that was common knowledge—but it hadn’t mattered because he respected my space. Not in the sense that he wouldn’t stand near me or next to me, maybe talk to me, but he wouldn’t step up this close. And he wouldn’t touch me, definitely not like that.

  I couldn’t help but pull away from him quickly, though I knew I shouldn’t. But he didn’t seem to care one way or the other.

  “Good. If you’re ever not,” he said, his voice low and laced with something I couldn’t place, “you let me know. I’ll take care of it.”

  I wanted to tell him Max would take care of it. I wanted to tell Bills there wasn’t a damn thing I wanted from him except to have him leave me the hell alone, but I knew better than that. Bills creeped me out, but there was no denying he’d saved my life before, and probably Max’s, too. Dad had trusted him with his life, but the value of dad’s life in his own mind was pretty questionable these days, and I wasn’t sure if he’d made much better decisions with those he trusted in the past.

  “Thanks,” I heard myself say, though I wanted to put some real distance between myself and Bills. “But I’m fine. Really. I’m just busy today and need to get back to work.” I gestured towards my desk and the stack of papers sitting on it. I hoped desperately it was enough for him to take the hint and leave.

  He smiled thinly at me, but gave me a quick nod. “Good.”

  He left then and I watched him go, keeping my eyes on him until the door closed behind him. Only then did I release the breath I’d been holding. Bills terrified me, and what was worse, I knew that, though he left today, this wouldn’t be the end. Those kinds of guys, the tough guys who just took what they wanted, didn’t just let things go. And they sure as hell didn’t take no for an answer.

  I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself. Bills wasn’t the first guy like that I’d ever met and he wouldn’t be the last.

  I
was walking home. It was stupid; I should have let my dad give me a ride. But he was fighting with Mom and the fight spilled over until they were yelling at me, too. I wasn’t so fragile that it tore me up inside, but I took it personally.

  I was only fifteen, after all.

  So instead of being an adult and letting them work their own shit out, I decided I’d walk home. That one decision changed my life.

  It was raining and I was cold, but I kept my chin up, pretending like I didn’t give a damn. I was just that tough. The guy started following me maybe a block down from the school. He was big with thick, ropey muscles that maybe some girls found attractive, but I always thought looked a little grotesque. The veins bulged a little, making it look as though he had plastic tubing buried just beneath the skin.

  When I noticed he was behind me, easily keeping pace, I started to get a little nervous. There weren’t a lot of people who would pick on me, because I was the Preacher’s daughter, though I didn’t fully understand what that meant. I understood he had a lot of friends with motorcycles and they looked to him for advice. Otherwise, he was just my dad who owned a small auto repair shop.