Reaper Unleashed

by Michelle Woods

  “I trust her,” Bull suddenly spoke around a mouthful of casserole. It surprised Reaper that he’d said it. Bull didn’t trust many people. He was one of the least trusting men that Reaper knew.

  “Why?” Lock asked, staring at the man, just as shocked as Reaper was by his pronouncement.

  “Don’t know. Just do,” Bull replied.

  “Look. I know that me being able to kill without flinching fucked with your heads but I can explain that,” Sarah told them and they all turned back to her. “They weren’t the first men I’ve killed. My mother wa…”

  “I don’t want to hear about your life, Sarah. I want to know that you’re not trying to get Reaper killed,” Lock interrupted, making Sarah grit her teeth and scowl at him. Her left hand, the one not in a sling, balled into a tight fist.

  “Do you want me to explain or not, Lock?” Sarah asked. Fury pounded through Reaper at Lock’s rudeness towards Sarah. He didn’t like him insulting her. He glared at his friend.

  “Yes.”

  “Then I have to tell you about my mother,” Sarah told him, anger evident in her tone. Reaper grabbed her around the waist, lifting her into his arms and sitting down on the couch with her in his lap. She didn’t protest and leaned into him. It made the tightness in his chest ease. Lock leaned against the wall watching, his arms crossed over his chest.

  Iron was silent as he stood in a position across from Sarah, moving when Reaper did to keep her in sight. Reaper knew he was trying to read her. It was what the man did and Reaper allowed it. He was positive that Sarah was who she said she was, but he had to be sure. His life wasn’t the only one he risked by trusting her.

  “She was a bit of a flake. She didn’t want a kid, hell, she didn’t want responsibility at all. From the earliest memory I knew that my mother wasn’t much of a mother. She was a wild beauty and she’d never had to work for anything. Ever. She really hated being a mother. I never knew why she didn’t just dump me on someone and leave, but she never did.”

  “Is there a point to this gibberish?” Lock demanded.

  “Let her talk and quit being a dick,” Bull told him angrily.

  Reaper smiled against her hair. She had earned a champion in Bull. Although Bull had better remember that Sarah belonged to him, he thought possessively.

  “Anyway, she lived off other people. I’ve had twelve ‘fathers’ in my lifetime. I got the first one when I was five after my grandmother kicked us out. I can’t blame her, my mother never did anything and she was always spending the rent. The first one, he lasted a year and taught me to hide when a man got drunk.” Reaper’s arms tightened around her, her words making him want to kill that man who’d tried to hurt her.

  “My second father only lasted three weeks before he got tired of me and mom. Then three, four, five and six were much of the same. By the time I was eight we were on number seven. He taught me how to steal. Eight was a drug addict that tried to sell me to some guy. Lucky for me, mom found a bigger pocketbook before I ended up sold to some sick fuck. Now number nine, Larry, was one of my favorites. He taught me to pick locks and be a lookout for him and his gang. By that time I was ten. Larry kicked us out and she met Frank. He was the poker player. He taught me to read people. It sometimes takes longer with some people but I’m actually good at it. Better than you, Iron,” she said, earning a raised brow from Iron.

  “Are you better than him at hiding what you’re after too?” Lock demanded as he bent forward getting in her face. Reaper bristled and shoved the man away form her.

  “Yes. Yes, I am, Lock. And I am not going to apologize for that! I can’t help that my life was training for being the best fucking spy anyone could have!” Sarah yelled, leaning forward as far as Reaper would let her to meet Lock’s eyes with her own. “You’re going to find that he can’t read me. I’m that fucking good.”

  “She’s right. She has no tell. I noticed it that first night. The only reason I knew she was lying was she hesitated. If she hadn’t, I never would have known,” Iron confirmed.

  “Well fuck! How are we supposed to know she isn’t fucking us over then?”

  “Because I trust her,” Bull said and all eyes turned to him as if he’d lost his mind.

  “What? That’s ridiculous,” Lock growled, throwing his hands in the air.

  “It’s not. He isn’t very trusting because he has good instincts. So you should listen to him,” Sarah growled. “It doesn’t matter. I learned what I learned and no one can change that.”

  “Of course, you want us to trust his assessment!” Lock bellowed

  “Let me finish this story, I’m tired. When I’m done you can discuss it to death if you want. I really don’t give a fuck. My eleventh father figure was a con man. He’s the reason I have no tell. You name it, he had run it. He lasted from the year twelve to thirteen. That’s when mom met Hank. Tom, the con man, had just left us on the side of the road miles from anyone we knew and I was sure we’d end up dead. Only Hank happened by and he took us home with him. He also kept us long after the time when mom started to annoy him with her spending habits and her lack of good will for others. When I was seventeen, he told me three days before he and my mother were killed that it was because he knew if he turned her out I’d go with her and I was the closest thing he’d ever had to a daughter.” Sarah wiped at her eyes and Reaper realized she must be crying. Hank was important to her and his death had scarred her.

  “He was an arms dealer. He taught me how to shoot almost anything. He taught me to hit moving targets like a pro and I found I’m damned good at it. I can actually shoot pretty well with both hands. Although I may need to start practicing with the left hand again. I missed that last idiot’s heart.”

  “Only by a quarter inch,” Bull informed her.

  “I was that close?” Sarah asked, surprised.

  “Yep, bet it was because he moved at the last second.” Bull smiled as he looked at her.

  “Huh, good to know. Anyway, I thought I’d finally found my home and would one day take over the business, but his partner wasn’t happy with the way he was dealing his arms after he met my mom and me. He’d cut back on the harder runs and he wasn’t making as much because he wasn’t selling to the harder crews. He was worried they’d come after mom or me in order to get back at him if he sold to rival gangs.” Sarah paused, taking a deep breath before she continued. “That night I was in the private range he’d set up in the cellar. I heard the guns going off when I was reloading and rushed to see what was going on. I walked in to see them shoot mom in the head and as she fell lifelessly to the floor this sort of rage came over me and I shot the man who had killed her.”

  Reaper stiffened, holding her to his chest as he ached for her. He couldn’t believe that his Sarah had seen so much pain in her short life. To watch her mother, no matter how bad she’d been at taking care of her, die like that must have been traumatic. He rubbed her back much like he had Josh’s earlier, wanting to soothe her. She hugged his arm and leaned back into him. It warmed his heart to know she was allowing his closeness to comfort her.

  “I just stood there in the open watching as he fell. I was too shocked that I’d killed him to move. I think it was that I hadn’t even thought of wounding him that surprised me. I had one thought. Kill. I would have died then if Hank hadn’t grabbed me, tackling me to the ground, because several of them opened fire. I was disturbed by what I’d done. I had never killed anyone. Never even thought of it. It was a shock to know that I was capable of that kind of violence. That was the first time I was shot.”

  “You were shot before tonight?” Reaper demanded.

  “Yeah, in the leg. Hank tackled me but a bullet caught my leg. It was just a graze really. Hank pulled me back to the bedroom he and my mom shared. He shoved me out the window with all the credits he had to his name, two handguns and some clothes he’d had for me in a go bag he always insisted on having ready. He told me something as I begged him to come with me. He kissed my forehead and whispered, ‘Sear-bear,
you have to go. You have to run. Go live your life. Make better choices than your mother and I did. I love you like you’re my own daughter and I want you to live. Now go and never look back.’ From that night on, I tried to always make good choices. I worked hard and didn’t steal, even though it was easier. I lived my life the way he would have wanted me to. I made better choices.” Sarah finished on a hiccupping sob and Reaper rubbed her back, gently holding her tightly. He’d known he could trust her. What she’d just told them confirmed it.

  “That’s a great story and all, but how do we know that you lived better? For all we know you became a damned whore for the Headhunters,” Lock growled and Reaper had had enough. He set Sarah gently to the side and stood, grabbing Lock by the collar and slamming him back into the wall.

  “Shut the fuck up! She told you what you needed to know and you won’t fucking mock her.”

  “Reaper, we don’t know her and she showed up at exactly the right time with exactly the right look to make you trust her and you are blindly accepting it! You are the one who taught me never to trust anyone if they seemed too good to be true,” Lock argued, shoving him back. Reaper slammed his fist into the other man’s face with a roar.

  “Stop! Stop it! You will not fight in this house. I’ll solve the whole fucking issue. I’ll leave in the fucking morning and then you won’t have a reason to worry about it!” Sarah screamed, and Reaper dropped Lock and stormed to her.

  “The fuck you will, Sarah! Your ass is staying here no matter what the stupid fuck thinks.” Reaper leaned down, his face in hers, glaring darkly, before tossing over his shoulder to the men, “Get the fuck out of my house. Make sure you take care of what I said and get Lance what he needs by the afternoon so he can take care of her wound. Lock, keep that shit to yourself. Sarah is staying and if you’re running your mouth about her it could cause problems.” Bull and Rebel got up and Iron walked out after them.

  “I’ll be watching her since you won’t, but I will not say anything to anyone. I’m just trying to have your back and you should know that,” Lock finally told him as he moved toward the exit.

  “I do, now go,” Reaper growled, lifting Sarah into his arms.

  “Reaper, maybe it’s better if I just leave. They think I’m some kind of plant and I don’t want to cause issues with your club.”

  “It’s fine. You stay,” he growled as he set her on the bed next to Josh. Then he slid off his pants and his shirt, sliding into the bed behind her and wrapping her into his arms, careful not to hurt her shoulder. He was grateful that she didn’t try to argue and instead snuggled into his side with a soft sigh before falling asleep.

  It took Reaper a lot longer to drift off but he knew one thing: Sarah was his whether she was a plant or not. She was just his and she was going to stay that way.

  Chapter 15

  Sarah woke feeling pain in her shoulder and moaned. She was warm and comfortable otherwise. Reaper’s arm was around her waist tightly holding her to him as he lay behind her and she could feel a thick hardness against her back. Josh was in front of her on his stomach with his hand holding onto Reaper’s other arm, which was under her head and Josh’s.

  Sarah smiled despite the burning in her shoulder as she lay there with the two of them surrounding her. It felt right somehow and even with the memory of last night fresh in her mind, she was grateful that they were both here with her. Sarah shifted a bit, moaning as her arm pulled more.

  Reaper stiffened behind her, his arm clenching around her waist. “You hurting, baby?” he asked, sounding angry.

  “Yeah,” she whispered. He slipped his arm from beneath her and Josh and got up from the bed.

  She watched him move around the bed wearing only a pair of boxers. She wanted to moan then for an entirely different reason. His boxers were the tight kind, more like briefs than boxers. His hard male stomach was covered in muscle and the tattoo on his shoulder was sexy. His tight butt flexed as he left the room. Sarah was about to get up to follow after her lustful panting stopped. She really was. She was sitting up on the edge of the bed when he walked back in with a glass of water and a pill bottle.

  “Here, take this and don’t bother getting up. You need to rest until Lance gets here. It’s about noon and he should be here around four to patch that shoulder up.”

  Reaper handed her the glass and a pill from the bottle. He stood back watching her take the pill as he scratched his stomach and then rubbed his face letting out a rough sigh. Sarah was watching his hands with fascination.

  “Take the meds, baby,” Reaper said, a satisfied smile on his face when he realized that she hadn’t taken the pill because she was too busy staring at him in all his half naked glory. Shaking her head to clear it, she swallowed the pill, taking a sip of the water to help it down, then handing the glass back to him. He set it on the bedside table and leaned forward. Wrapping his arms around her, he kissed her head.

  She hugged him back, her arms around his waist, her head buried in his flat abs. He pulled gently on her hair to get her to look up at him. He leaned down, kissing her lips, then her bruised cheeks, and lastly her forehead. She could feel the hard ridge of his thick cock rubbing against her chest. Josh stirred behind them and Reaper groaned.

  “I’ll get him. You lie down and get some rest. Those pills are strong and I want you to relax today,” Reaper said, his hand pulling free of her hair as he went to the other side of the bed to get Josh. “Morning, little guy. You hungry?” Reaper asked.

  “Appiesauce. Appiesauce,” Josh said, jumping up and down on the bed clapping, making Sarah moan in pain even as she laughed.

  Josh jumped into Reaper’s arms, sliding down him and tearing off in the direction of the kitchen. “I don’t get how he can have so much energy. We just got home at seven am, shouldn’t he be tired?” Reaper asked, watching the boy run away.

  “It’s the way it is for him. Two hour power nap and he’s ready to rule the world.” Sarah laughed and lay back on the bed because she was still tired and her arm was aching.

  “That I believe. Get some rest, I’ll wake you when Lance gets here,” Reaper said before he followed Josh out into the living room. Sarah watched him and decided that he was seriously a fine looking man. Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for her to fall back to sleep.

  Reaper leaned on the doorjamb of his office four days after the night she’d been shot examining Sarah, who was writing intently. She held her tongue in her teeth as she carefully wrote. She was so focused on the book he didn’t think she’d noticed that he had even opened the door.

  “What do you want, Reaper?” she asked, not looking up. Reaper grinned; after what she’d told him a few nights ago he should have realized that she’d know he was there.

  “You,” he told her honestly. He savored the last few days with her in his bed every night and he was still surprised she hadn’t protested about the arrangement. He was also aching to have her. And tonight seeing her in that flirty skirt he swore she wore to torture him, his dick throbbed hard enough to make his eyes twitch.

  “You’re the one who hasn’t made a move. I gave you the green light four days ago,” Sarah said, still not looking up at him. Reaper jerked upright, gaping at her in amazement.

  “When was this?” he demanded, because he was quite sure that he would have noticed her giving him the green light.

  “When I didn’t protest being put in your bed,” Sarah told him, as if that should have made perfect sense to him. She had slept with him every night since the shooting, snuggled up to him like a sweet little kitten. He had even woken with his hand wrapped around the firm globe of her naked breast twice but she’d been asleep. He had been going out of his mind for the last three days and she’d been telling him in her own way that she wanted him to take the next step and he’d missed it.

  Moving from the doorway, he shut it behind him. He wasn’t waiting anymore. He strode to the desk and shoved everything off it, including the book she was writing so intently in. Most of the stu
ff fell off the other side of the desk but he didn’t really give a shit.

  “Reaper, what are you doing?” Sarah asked, her amber eyes wide. He didn’t answer. Instead he grabbed her at the waist and lifted her, turning to set her on the desk facing the chair she’d been sitting in. He took the seat she’d been using, his hands possessively running up along the outside of her smooth legs.

  “Having you,” he told her darkly.

  “You know I’m not cleaning up that mess you just made, right?” she asked, leaning back on her hands with her legs crossed gracefully, her eyes angry.

  “Sure,” he growled, running his hands back down to her ankles, shackling them in each hand.

  “What if someone comes in here? We can go home to do this. I just need to finish the report for the supplies.” Reaper thought about that for a second before her words processed and he released her ankles. No one would be walking in here while he was touching her. He wanted her naked except for that skirt and those blue heels. The thought made his dick throb in anticipation. Sliding the drawer on the left side of the desk open, he pressed the button inside. A loud clicking sounded in the room.

  “What was that?” Sarah demanded.

  “The locks engaging,” he told her before shackling her ankles again, lifting her left foot encased in a three-inch high blue sandal on the left arm of the chair. She allowed him to do this although her eyes narrowed on him.

  “How many times have you fucked a woman on this desk with that little trick?” she demanded.

  Reaper chuckled, moving her right foot to the right arm of the chair, watching as the skirt that drove him crazy slid up and revealed her hot pink panties just as he’d known it would. His hands slid up from her ankles, his eyes staring at the treasure he’d revealed, lifting his gaze slowly to meet her slightly angry glower.