by Geri Glenn
Tracking down Laurie is proving to be harder than I’d expected. I have to wait on Cam to do anymore as he sees about the police’s interest in the club. The only other problem is Anna, and there’s definitely something I can do about that. That bitch is about to get one last reminder of what it means to fuck with my family.
Anna
It’s early in my shift when Shiv shows up. The instant my eyes fell on him, every molecule of oxygen was sucked from my lungs and I feared I’d never get it back. He was here for me, I knew it. I tried my best to ignore him, and for the first couple hours, it was easy. I served customer after customer, making cocktails and popping caps off beers, and through it all, Shiv stayed over by the pool tables, talking to a group of guys that were in here almost every night.
Every time I risked a glance in his direction, he was staring directly at me. The first time, he’d smiled at me, but when I didn’t return it, his smile was replaced with a wicked twist to his lips, and his eyes narrowed to slits.
After finally reaching a lull in the busy crowd, I motion to Jake, letting him know I’m heading to the ladies’ room. He simply nods and continues his stone-faced scanning of the patrons, always on the lookout for trouble.
The back hall of the Pig’s Ear is short, and has only has four doors. One leads to a giant cold room, one to the manager’s office, one to the back alley, and the last one leads to the break room. The break room is large, and boasts a table and chairs, a tattered couch, and mismatched slouchy chair, along with a kitchenette that’s mostly ignored. In the far corner, the bathroom door stands ajar and I make a beeline right for it.
I make quick use of the facilities, cursing my pea-sized bladder. Washing my hands, I check myself over in the mirror. Dark circles rim my eyes, but my cheeks have filled out a little more, and I’m having a great hair day. All in all, I look pretty damn good.
I exit the bathroom and am just filling a glass with water at the kitchenette when I hear the door from the hallway open behind me. I turn to glance over my shoulder and freeze. Shiv is standing inside the break room, his back turned as he closes the door behind him, effectively closing us in together.
When he turns to face me, he tilts his head to the side and smirks. “Anna Banana, why do I get the feeling you’re trying to avoid me?”
Jesus Christ. This guy is fucking relentless. “Shiv, you can’t be in here. It’s for employees only.”
With his mouth turned down in a disappointed frown, he shakes his head and takes a few steps closer. “Well, I guess that answers my question, doesn’t it? What I want to know is, why? I thought we were friends.”
With what little strength I’d gained at my NA meeting that afternoon, I square my shoulders and look him straight in the eye, wondering how long it will take Jake to notice I haven’t come back from the back room yet. “Look, I’m clean now, okay? I haven’t used in months, and I don’t need you waving it in my face, trying to suck me back in.”
The words come out in a rush, but time seems to stand still as I watch his face flash from his initial disappointment to annoyance, frustration, then to anger. All these emotions in the span of five extremely long seconds. The anger melts to cockiness, and he takes another step, bringing him within two feet of me, his head lowered to meet my eyes directly.
“Bullshit, Anna. You’re a lifer, baby. You might think you’re getting away from it all, but you and I both know you were gonna take that pill from me last night.”
I shake my head adamantly, my lips pursed together as his body pushes closer. One more step and he’ll be touching me. God, I don’t want him to touch me.
“Stop,” I demand, proud that my voice doesn’t waver. My heart feels like it’s about to gallop its way right out of my ribcage. Holding my hand up, it’s less than an inch from touching his chest as he stands over me. “No more, Shiv. Just go, before Jake finds you back here.”
“Fuck Jake,” he snarls, reaching out lightning fast and driving his fingers into the hair at the back of my neck. “Fuck you too, bitch. You know I’m right.” He yanks back viciously on my head and my yelp is cut short as my throat becomes exposed, feeling like it’s about to snap. My chest heaves as I struggle and choke down what little air I can manage with my neck at this angle, but I don’t tear my eyes away from him. “Lucky for you,” he continues, his lips lowering to graze along my throat. “I still have some with me.”
I hear the crinkle of a packet, and as he lifts his hand, the little white pill is back in my sight, but this time, I don’t want it. This time, I just need to find a way out of this. “Take it,” he says, his voice a guttural demand. I squeeze my eyes shut and shake my head. Please, no. “Take it!” he screams. His hot, rancid breath washes over me and sends me straight into survival mode.
From experience, I know that the best thing to do when a man gets in this kind of mood is to just go with it. Don’t argue, don’t make a fuss. Eventually, he either ends up bored or satisfied, and decides to leave you alone.
His shoulders heaving, he trails the packet across my cheek, the edges biting at my skin as it goes lower and lower, until it, along with his hand, disappears inside my exposed cleavage. He crams it inside my bra, his fingers stopping to pinch at my nipple. I squeeze my eyes shut as he rolls it tightly between his finger and thumb, his hips pressing against mine.
Finally, he removes his hand, but he pulls back a little on my hair. His face lowers to mine and I think he’s going to kiss me, but he doesn’t. Instead, he takes my lower lip between his teeth and clamps down on it, hard. The coppery taste of blood explodes on my tongue, the pain pulling the breath right out of me. He sucks it in deep and flicks it with his tongue before letting go. He steps back with a smile, his hand still in my hair.
“There’s more where that came from, baby.”
He releases me, and I use the wall to hold myself up as he licks his lips and turns on his heel, disappearing out the door.
Reaper
“Where’s Anna?” I ask Jake, noticing right away that she wasn’t behind the bar.
“Break room,” he says, his eyes narrowing on a couple of guys, arguing over by the dance floor. I push past him and head straight for the hallway, unable to believe the irony. The first time I’d ever laid eyes on Anna had been in that damn break room, right after Charlotte had shown up in her fucking pajamas, her face bloody and her clothes torn. The woman didn’t even have shoes on her feet, and it was all because of Anna.
It’s getting close to eleven o’clock, and the bar crowd is piling in by the minute, making my path to the hallway a gauntlet of too much perfume and too little clothes. I’m still too far away when I see him walk out. Shiv is wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve, his eyes searching out Jake before he pushes into the heavy crowd and all but disappears.
Part of me wants to follow him, but for what? He’s not my problem. Anna, on the other hand, she and I need to chat now more than ever.
When I finally hit the hallway, I’m relieved to find it empty. I storm down it and come to the doorway to the break room, where the door sits ajar, and I can’t hear a sound on the other side. When I push it open, I pause. The scene before me is not at all what I’d been expecting.
Anna sits on the floor, her legs folded around her, almost as if she’d just collapsed there. Big, fat tears coat her cheeks as she lets out deep, gasping sobs. She doesn’t hear me at first, and I take a moment to watch her.
Her face is buried in her hands, and at first, I don’t see it, but when I do, I don’t bother to tamp down the anger. “Scored a hit, did ya?”
Anna’s head snaps up and suddenly, my emotions are washed away as I take in her bleeding and swollen lower lip.
“What the fuck?” I say, stepping the rest of the way inside and closing the door behind me. “Did that fucker hit you?”
A sudden urge to turn around and track down Shiv almost has me leaving the room, but Anna presses back against the wall, using it to pull herself to her feet, her head shaking frantic
ally from side to side. “No!” she cries. “Please. I…” She looks down at the pill packet in her hand and it starts to tremble. She stares at it in horror, and finally turns and runs into the bathroom. I hear the flush of the toilet.
I step to the door and watch her small frame as she stares down into the swirling water. When the toilet goes silent, I finally speak, “What’s going on, Anna?”
She turns and meets my eyes, forcing a smile that looks more like a pained grimace. “I’m fine, Reaper. Really.” She steps to the sink and turns on the water, her gaze lifting to her reflection in the mirror. She lets out a shuddering breath and proceeds to splash water on her face, then pats it dry with the cheap paper towel from a nearby dispenser.
“How long you been using?” I finally ask when I can’t take the silence anymore.
“Too long,” she whispers.
I don’t know what to do with her. I want to grab her, shake her, and scream at her for being so goddamn stupid. I want to sit her down and clean her wounds and make her stop shaking. I want to chase down Shiv and rip his fucking dick off for hurting her. I might not like her, but any man that lays a hand, or from the looks of this case, his teeth on a woman, needs to lose his junk in the most grizzly fashion imaginable.
“Why are you bleeding?”
Anna pushes off from the sink and turns to face me, clearly hoping I’ll step aside so she can leave the confines of the tiny restroom. I move and turn to follow her as she pushes past me and flops down onto the couch.
“Shiv and I have a history,” she says quietly.
Something about her words makes me lose what little sympathy I felt for her. “Yeah, I bet you do,” I sneer. “And I bet that history has to do with the drugs you just flushed down the fuckin’ shitter too, doesn’t it?”
Her face crumples, but she doesn’t make a sound. She just nods, sadly. “I told him no,” she whispers. “I told him to leave me alone, but he wouldn’t go. He pulled my hair and shoved that pill inside my bra.”
That catches my attention. “Did he fucking hurt you?” I snarl, surprised by how much that pisses me off.
Her answering cry is all the answer I need. Unclipping my phone, I pull up my contact screen. I start scrolling through it, then she’s suddenly in front of me, her hands on mine.
“Who are you calling?” There’s an unmistakable panic in her voice that has nothing to do with that creep touching her.
“Ryker,” I snap. “We need to get this shit sorted. The Kings have enough shit on our plates without adding you and this asshole to the list.”
Her hands grasp at mine, trying to push my phone down and away from my view. “Please,” she pleads, her eyes searching mine as she continues to grip my fists in her tiny hands. Fresh tears form, threatening to spill over the edge. “Please, don’t call him. I didn’t use it. I didn’t want it. I don’t want it. I’m trying so damn hard, Reaper. Please, don’t.”
This is Ryker’s business. It’s not mine at all, and I know damn well that I have to call him. He needs to get this shit sorted, but something about the sincerity in her voice makes me pause.
“Do they know?” I ask.
A tiny crease appears between her brows, and I try to ignore the fact that it’s cute as hell. “Does who know what?”
“Ryker and Charlotte. Do they know you’re into drugs?”
“No,” she whispers. “Nobody knows.”
My mind races as I try to make a choice. Ryker will be pissed if he finds out I knew about this and never called him, but at the same time, he has enough shit to deal with, and the cops are still breathing down his neck. Charlotte’s stressed already because of that, and this would only make it worse.
“Fine,” I snap. “I won’t call them… yet. But you can’t go home lookin’ like that. I’ll take you to my place. I’ll get you cleaned up, and then I want to hear exactly how you know that slimy little fucker. We clear?”
She nods, her eyes bright with equal parts unshed tears and gratitude.
Anna
Reaper finding me in a collapsed puddle of tears on the floor was mortifying. After leaving me in the break room, he’d gone out to “have a word” with Jake.” I’m assuming that word included both the fact that he was taking me home, and that he’d dropped the ball by not noticing Shiv sneaking back here in the first place.
We slipped out the door to the back alley and made the short drive to Reaper’s house. It’s a surprisingly—to me, anyway—cute little house at the edge of town, not too far from the clubhouse. The brick house looks almost cozy from the outside, and part of me wants to make a smart-ass remark about how girly it looks, but Reaper’s angry vibe and set jaw has me clamping my mouth shut as I follow him up the walkway and through the front door.
The inside is clean, and almost sterile. Every surface is gleaming and polished to a high sheen. Black leather seems to be his go-to choice for furniture, but it goes well with the stainless-steel accents he’s placed throughout. I’m almost afraid to touch anything for fear of marking it up with my fingerprints.
He marches me through the house, dragging me along with my hand in his, flipping on the lights as he moves. When we reach the large bathroom, he pushes me gently, but firmly, down on the toilet seat and digs a wide array of first aid supplies from the medicine cabinet. He sets them down on the counter and begins cleaning my lip.
“Fucker bit right through in a couple spots,” he growls, his angry eyes focused on his task. When the cloth touches my split skin, I hiss and pull away, but his strong hand grasps my chin and turns me to face him once more. “What happened?”
I consider lying to him. The last thing I want to do is tell Reaper my history with Shiv, because I know damn well it’ll only lead to even more questions I’m not about to answer. Reaper doesn’t get to know my past. He’s shown on more than one occasion that he hates me, without ever knowing my story. He doesn’t get to know it now, even if he is being nice, and nice is being generous. His attention is kind, but the blaze in his eyes tells me he’d rather be anywhere but here with me right now.
But I know that if I want him to keep this little fiasco quiet, I need to tell him something, and I know damn well he’ll see right through my lies. “I was going to the washroom,” I finally answer, and wince as he comes at my lip with some sort of ointment that stings like a bitch. “When I came out, Shiv was standing there, accusing me of avoiding him.”
His eyes snap to mine. “And why would he care if you were avoiding him?”
Shit. How do I answer that question without telling him more than I’m willing? “Shiv and I were friends, sort of, when I was here before.”
“You mean he was your dealer,” he states, finished with my lip and coming to a stand. He glares down at me, his eyes making me feel like a tiny insect he’s about to step on and squash the life out of. “You’re a fuckin’ junkie.”
His words are like knives, hitting their target dead-on. “I’m not,” I whisper.
“Does Charlotte know her sister’s a fuckin’ drug addict?” His voice is deep and scary, his shadow threatening to swallow me whole.
Emotion clogs my throat, making it hurt to swallow. I can’t answer, so I simply shake my head.
Reaper snorts. “Fuckin’ figures. And when she finds out, it’ll break her damn heart.” His lip curls as he sneers down at me. “I knew you were fuckin’ trouble, but now I can add trash to that list.” His words start something inside me. A burn, deep in my belly, growing hotter and hotter as he speaks. “Fuckin’ junkie trash,” he spits.
I’m off the toilet seat and in his face before I can stop myself. “Fuck you!” My hands fly out and slam into his chest, managing to knock him back a step. “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!” Part of me realizes I’m shrieking, and that with every curse, the heels of my hands are slamming into his massive chest over and over again. The other part of me doesn’t care. “You think you know? You think you know one damn thing about me?”
I stop hitting him and stand as tal
l as I can manage and pin my eyes on his. “You don’t know shit, Reaper.” I say his name like a curse, growling each syllable into his shocked eyes. “Now get the fuck out of my way.”
I fold my arms across my chest and glare up at him, trying my best to ignore just how much I have to tilt my head back to do so. Man, he’s so damn tall. Reaper’s hard gaze searches mine, his nostrils flared, before he finally steps aside. Shoving my way past him, I exit the bathroom and storm down the hall, desperate to escape him, to escape this whole damn night.
Reaper
I stand ramrod straight in the bathroom, listening as her angry footsteps thunder down the hall toward the front door. Each one causes my blood pressure to rise, and before I know it, I’m right behind her, my hand wrapping her around her upper arm as I swing her around to face me.
“I don’t know shit?” I roar. Blood thrums behind my ears, deafening me as I try keep my vision focused on her, but all I can see is the steady stream of shit she’d left in her wake since the day I met her. “You think I don’t know? You self-righteous bitch, you don’t know. You don’t know the kind of hell you’ve put us all through.” Her face pales as she attempts to pull her arm from my grasp, but I yank her tighter against me. “The minute you made that deal with Krueger, you set off a chain of events that ruined more lives than you could ever fucking imagine. Do you have any idea what we’ve lost because of you?”
She makes another attempt at pulling her arm free, but I’m not done. “Your sister was almost fuckin’ killed, Anna.” I give her a little shake. “Mouse, one of our own, was fuckin’ killed in the process of cleanin’ up your mess. His newborn daughter is growin’ up without a daddy.” My voice grows louder as I strike the last blow. “Our goddamn president and his wife were murdered in their own home.”
“Please,” she whispers, silent tears now streaming down her pale cheeks. “You’re hurting me.”