Reaper's Promise: A Wild Reapers MC

by Kiki Leach

  "Alright--"

  "But." I tried moving past but he put his hand out to stop me again. I grimaced. "You take too goddamn long to tell us what's going on out there or that this fucker has finally been taken out," he said, "and we start making our way out to you sooner rather than later, regardless of what's going down, you get it?"

  I stared him in the face and gradually bobbed my head, then told him, "Yeah, Prez, I've got it," before shuffling past and finally making way out the door.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Colette

  I was bored out of my mind but it was damn sure better than being taken advantage of or forced to satisfy someone against my will.

  After Jeremiah had dragged me downstairs to the mediocre hotel bar to meet with two overweight men wearing grey suits, one of whom was wearing a black toupee that sat to the side of his head instead of directly in the middle of it, while the other decided that hiding behind fake hair was of no use and remained as bald as a cue ball, he had taken off to God knows where while leaving me completely alone with them. The bald one just stared up at me as soon as the three of us were alone without saying a single word; his dark green eyes were like two giant orbs burning bright beneath his slightly tanned lids.

  The one with the crooked toupee stared up at me as well. But only for a few seconds before latching onto the table and rising from his chair. He then adjusted his jacket and smiled wide while turning to me and slinking a hand around my arm, murmuring, "Come with me."

  My heart started beating out of my chest within an instant of us leaving the bar.

  "Where are we going?" I asked him; he moved so fast through the lobby and kitchen, passing each of his cooks who kept their eyes focused elsewhere, never once looking in my direction, that I was practically tripping over my own feet once we finally made it through the back and down an elongated corridor. The other one moved in behind me before his brother could answer my question and shoved his hand into my back to hurry me along even more.

  When I turned to look him in the face, he remained silent and only shook his head at me. Then he narrowed his eyes as if the very sight of me disgusted him, and turned straight ahead.

  Moments later, we were standing in front of a giant white door. The brother with the toupee looked around me while tightening his grip on my arm and nodded at the other one, who then reached inside his pants pocket for a set of keys. I rolled my eyes up toward the ceiling and swallowed hard, wondering just how in the hell I was going to be able to get myself out of this without my neck possibly being snapped in half.

  As soon as the brother with the keys unlocked and pushed the door back, I had opened my mouth to speak. But it was no use as the one holding onto my arm soon tossed me inside the room and shoved me down onto the bed face first. My skirt went flying up over my bare ass and I flipped over on my back as quickly as I could to pull it down. The brothers laughed and looked at each other; I noticed then that their bellies were so big, they were practically hanging over the front of their pants.

  "I--" I started again, but the one wearing the toupee, which seemed to slip to the side even more than it had already, raised his hand to keep me quiet.

  "What all did Jeremiah happen to mention to you about us?" he asked me.

  I looked between the two of them and sat back even further onto the bed. "Just that you two owned the hotel," I told him. "And that you wanted me here as a form of down payment for him to be able to get more money from you."

  The second brother leaned into his ear and mumbled something. He nodded his head.

  "Alright, look. We needed you here for a specific reason, but not the one he initially told you about," he said.

  I knit my brows and looked between them for the second time, confused as all hell. "Then why the hell am I here?" I asked.

  "Collateral--"

  "Enough questions," the bald one told me, cutting him off. Then he raised his arm and shoved back the sleeve of his jacket to stare down at the time on his watch. "We need to start heading out already," he said to his brother.

  Toupee nodded again and turned back to me. "You're going to stay in here for the time being," he said. "At least until we receive word that you can come--"

  "Receive word from who?" I jumped up from the bed and glowered. "What the hell is this?"

  The bald one ripped what I quickly recognized as Jeremiah's gun from a pocket inside his jacket and pointed it directly in my face. "Sit back down, sweets," he told me in a gruff voice. Slowly, I eased myself back down to the edge of the bed, pressed my knees together and placed my hands inside my lap. He bent forward. "Nobody has time to explain any of this shit to you when we've got a meeting across the city." He looked over at his brother again and arched his brows. "We need to get the hell out of here already and head out to see this bastard before he blows his fuse with us again."

  I racked my brain with ideas of who the hell they could be talking about; if not Jeremiah, then must have been Lorenzo. And it had to be about the money Jeremiah refused to pay back. Then again, if that were the case, why the hell was I being thrown into a random room inside a crappy hotel instead of being taken straight to Lorenzo himself?

  My brain remained focused on that question until the two men finally left me alone inside the room, making sure to lock the door from the outside. I got up from the bed a few times and paced back and forth, wondering if Roman had ever managed to find my phone and listened to the recording of my conversation with his brother. Even if he were here now, there was no real way for him to find me unless he confronted Lorenzo about it first. And God only knew how the hell that was going to go when he did.

  As I sat back down on the edge of the bed and wrapped my arms around my stomach, I leaned forward and bent over my knees, closed my eyes and slowly counted to ten to try and calm my ever-growing nerves. When I hit the last number, a loud bang came up from the other side of the door, damn near startling me out of my clothes.

  "What the hell?" There were two more bangs followed up by the sound of gunshots.

  I jumped up from the bed and screamed, then clamped my hand over my mouth and hurried to the other side of the room. The door swung open in that moment and Jeremiah, covered in head to toe with blood and what looked like the inside of human flesh on his face and in his hair, stepped forward. How the hell nobody managed to stop him while looking like that is beyond me.

  "Let's go." He waved gun hand toward me, then dipped his head back to look out the door.

  Anxious, I wagged my head at him and muttered, "Hell no."

  "COLETTE!" he hollered out, forcing me to flinch. We stared at each other for what felt like forever. He didn't say another word and instead lunged forward and grabbed onto my wrist. Then he raised the gun to my face and as he slid his finger across the trigger, I shut my eyes, fearful that he would slip and pull back. "Let's. Go," he finally said.

  "What the hell is on your face--?"

  "I SAID LET'S GO!" He yanked me from the room and back down the corridor. Then as we wrapped around a few corners, he found a door that led to multiple flights of stairs. We made our way up I'm not even sure how many after what seemed like an eternity, but I knew that by the time we had finally reached the top of the last set, I was completely out of breath and ready to keel over. Though before I could, he grabbed onto my wrist again and after opening another door to the left of us, pushed me through to the other side.

  I stumbled forward but caught my bearings before I could fall into the pile of gravel at my feet. Then I looked at my surroundings, studying every angle; we were outside, on the roof of the building. I lifted my eyes toward the sky and stared at the abundance of stars above my head. And while trying to catch my breath, I turned to face Jeremiah, whose expression had dimmed, whose eyes had gone completely black. I wanted to move closer to him but instead remained in place, asking, "What the hell are we doing up here?"

  He stared straight into my eyes while his remained expressionless. Then he muttered, "Someone is going to die up h
ere tonight." His voice was cool and calm, much quieter in comparison to before.

  It scared the absolute shit out of me.

  "Who is dying up here tonight, Jeremiah?" I asked him, my voice cautious as I tried like hell to keep it from rattling between words. "And why?"

  He fell silent this time and raised his hand to point the gun toward my face again. And then he pulled the trigger.

  Within seconds, I was on the ground flat on my back; my head landed on top of the gravel and my breathing turned shallow.

  And then everything around me went completely black.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Roman

  After pulling up to the DoubleShot, I immediately cut the engine on my bike, hopped off and started making way inside the building. Unsure if that whacked-out son of a bitch would be watching as soon as I showed up, I made sure to tell Atom to stay as far back as possible until I made it up to the roof. Even a hint of any leathers but my own and my brother was liable to take out my wife in the heat of his anger.

  When I moved into the lobby and saw the front desk, I headed over to the two women standing behind it. One of them was on the phone but quickly looked me in the face once she noticed me walking over. She leaned over to the woman standing next to her and muttered a few words, then pulled back as soon as I was standing in front of them. The other woman was folding papers, but stopped and lifted her head when she noticed me staring her in the face.

  She gulped. "May I help you... sir?" Her voice rattled. It was clear my size intimidated the hell out of her, but I had no time to pretend as if I gave a damn about it.

  I bent forward and rested my arm on the edge of the desk. "How the hell do I get up to the roof of this place?"

  Her dark brown eyes grew and she leaned away from me. Then she stared down at my jacket and soured upon looking over each of my patches. "Are you that member of the Reaper's they called us about?" I didn't respond. She looked to the girl next to her for a few seconds, who looked just as terrified while remaining on the phone, then returned her eyes to me and pointed. "Through the emergency doors at the back, there's a staircase. To the left of them is an elevator. The code to use it is 6145. Once you get on, push the button labeled 'R' and it will take you right up there."

  I looked behind myself at the door and arched a brow, then turned back to her and asked, "If I head back there, will some kinda alarm start going off?"

  She shook her head. "We turned it off before you showed up."

  I looked between the two of them and nodded. "Thanks." I took off running, dodging people left and right as I made my way to that back door. After pushing through it, I found the stairs and elevator, just as the girl had said. I moved to push the code for the elevator and as soon as the doors flew open, I jumped on and pushed the 'R' for roof.

  When I finally reached the top, I stepped off and shoved through the door leading outside. And not a second after it shut behind me did something hard and thick snap against the back of my neck, sending me damn near flying forward and to the other side of the roof.

  I wrapped my hand around my neck and spun around on the ball of my foot. As soon as I saw my brother's face, what little of it wasn't covered in hair and blood, I gave no time to myself to think and instead just balled my fist and knocked him right between the eyes until I felt something inside of his face snap upon impact.

  His arms went flying out to his sides as he stumbled back into a trashcan directly behind him. Then he tripped over his own goddamn foot and fell straight to the ground on his side. He groaned and rolled over to his hands and knees while keeping his fingers tight around the grip of that gun, which I soon realized is what he had managed to hit me with. I stepped over to him, cautiously, unsure if he was still high as a kite from the injection of PCP or was just being his normal asshole self and the shit had worn off him already.

  "I guess you're sticking with 'Brawler', brother?" he asked. He raised his hand from the ground and wrapped it around his stomach. Then he leaned his head back and rolled his eyes up to stare me in the face. He arched a brow and bobbed his head, then used his other hand to push himself up from the ground and stand to his feet. The whites of his eyes were now bloodshot thanks to my fist. The bridge of his nose was turning purple as were the inside corners of his eyes.

  I clinched my fists and darted my eyes across the roof. "Where the fuck is Colette?" I asked him, my tone hard. I was far past being pissed off and ready to end this asshole. Blood or not, he had finally reached past his expiration date.

  He raised the gun to the side of his head and scratched it with the tip of the muzzle. He shoved his brows together and lowered his eyes from my face. It was as if he was trying to appear confused, but after knowing him for all his life, I knew better than to believe that he was anything at this very moment but full of complete shit. "Did I say anything to you about Colette being up here with me?" he asked. "Because I don't think I ever did."

  "WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?!" I roared, leaping toward him. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head, my fists were so damn tight that my fingers were turning colors and going numb. I felt my face redden just from the heat burning the inside of my cheeks. And this bastard didn't even move an inch. "Where the fuck is my wife, Jeremiah?"

  "Your wife?" He stepped back and chortled, then turned from me and moved across the roof. "YOUR WIFE!" he hollered out. "GodDAMN, isn't that some crazy shit?" He turned back to me and pointed the gun in my face. "Your. Wife." He laughed again and shook his head. "I've gotta tell you, brother, that out of every brother in that club, you were the last one I ever pictured in taking somebody as your own for more than a few weeks at a time. Then again, it hasn't even been a full fourteen days yet, so I guess there's still time to get out of this shit if you want." He pressed his lips together and smirked. He swallowed hard. "But then again, I know just how you've always felt about Colette. How you were always looking at her even when I was around. I just knew that you wanted to taste her and probably wanted to murder the fuck out of me for having it all to myself on damn near a nightly basis. While you were too busy either jerking off in the shower or bringing home some random bitch from the club and getting your rocks off just before sending her right back out the front door." He stopped and swallowed again. "She was mine. For years and years, she was mine and then you come in like a fucked up white knight savior on a motorcycle instead of a horse, swoop her off to Vegas and give her your last name... our last name," he said.

  "You're not fit to hold it," I told him. "You're a worthless piece of shit and always have been. It's just more obvious now that you're too old to hide behind being a young and naive prick about it."

  He dragged his arm back and forth across his nose and sniffed. "Is it?" he asked.

  I nodded at him. "Yeah. You're a goddamn thief that has our old man spinning around in his grave because of all the shit that you've done."

  "You're acting like I killed somebody," he shot back. "I just stole a little cash from a casino owner, that's all."

  "You stole half a million dollars! An amount that the club is being forced to pay back when we should've never been dragged into this shit in the first place!" I paused and glared at him. "Is that why you turned Riggs onto Lorenzo? Knowing that if you snatched up his money and took off before the ink on their contract was even dry, he would put the debt onto the club?"

  He shrugged and looked away from me, careless. "I didn't know for a fact but I assumed as much--"

  "SON OF A BITCH!" I hollered out. He bugged his eyes and raised his gun toward me again but I barreled toward him, not giving a shit if he managed to shoot me or not. Though he didn't have the chance when I locked my arms around his waist and drove him back toward the edge of the roof. As soon as he landed, the gun went flying from his hand and behind his head. He tried twisting out of my grip, but I unlocked his waist and grabbed him by his blood-soaked shirt instead, jerking him toward me. "You were willing to sacrifice us as a club to Lorenzo on the hopes that you would be able to contin
ue collecting more green! And then you brought Colette into this shit--!"

  "I never meant to bring Colette into anything!" he spat. "But she was my only chance for scoring the money I needed!"

  "Yeah, so you thought, asshole!" I told him. "How stupid were you to not see that this shit was a setup from jump?!"

  "I didn't think the Falucchi's would consider calling up Lorenzo about this shit!" he said, his eyes wiggling with fear inside his sockets. "I thought they would go along with me in screwing him over!"

  "They're his cousins, asshole! You getting involved with them is the reason Lorenzo wanted to use Colette as bait! He knew your stupid ass would go running without an incentive to keep you around, so he gave you one -- MY WIFE!" I spat. I shoved my hands away from him and stood back. He turned to the side and latched onto the edge of the roof, inhaling and exhaling as he looked toward the ground. "Why the hell were you calling me after taking off?" I asked him, slowly breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth to keep from knocking him dead where he stood.

  He waited a few seconds and spat to the ground, then looked over at me and said, "Money, at first. I needed more of it."

  "But you knew that Lorenzo was gonna come after the club. You wanted me to blindly hand off some dough via what, Western fuckin' Union? Only to find out later that I would need that same green to help out with the club."

  "I told you I didn't know for a fact if he would put the debt on the club!"

  I bobbed my head. "You knew," I told him. "And you didn't give a shit about it -- still don't."

  He paused. "You know how I found out about you and Colette? The Falucchi's, who I guess learned about that shit from Lorenzo. That's why the phone calls started coming in for you from different numbers."