Campbell's Reaper: Soul Reapers #2

by J. D. Lowrance

  “Trigger said that Cam and Logan were looking for Pop but found Whistler and he took them to Baxter. I had no fucking idea. I went to get Cam some water and give Logan and her privacy to talk. She was so fucking upset. The minute I was downstairs, everything happened so fast. Someone called in a Hellhounds sighting right on the outskirts of town and I left with Ax and Gunner. We did not find anything, and by the time I got back the girls were gone. Logan texted me but I didn’t have my fucking phone.”

  Just breathe motherfucker. Just breathe.

  This was what I wanted I told myself. This was what I had planned to do since the motel.

  “We need to go NOW,” Colton stressed. I looked up to find him staring at me from the doorway. “You need to stop this fucking woe-is-me bullshit. None of that was your fault,” Colton assured me. “Your mom and sister, everything that happened that night.”

  “Fuck, I know.” And I did know. I just didn’t know how to be me without the shit hanging over my head.

  “Sooooo . . . what’s the problem?”

  Nothing. And that was the problem if I was really honest with myself.

  “Tank, I have never seen you so happy as when you are with Cam. Hell when she is in the same room. You NEED her brother and if you let her leave now - she ain’t coming back.”

  I dropped my head back as his words rolled around in my mind. She ain’t coming back. “Maybe it’s for the best.”

  “What’s for the best?” His voice was eerily calm.

  “Cam leaving. It was what I was going for . . .”

  “WHY?” Great question brother.

  “Why?” I parroted back. “Because I am a worthless piece of shit that can’t protect her. That’s why. She got taken twice. Not once but twice since she has been mine and I didn’t stop shit.”

  Silence followed my admittance and stretched so long that I finally looked back at Colton to find him smiling his infamous smirk.

  “Been yours huh?”

  What? “What?”

  “You just said since she has been yours. When did she become yours?” I wanted to wipe the knowing smirk off his face.

  “The minute I fucking laid eyes on her.” And it was the truth. She has always been MINE.

  “Enough said.” Colton turned down the hall. “Then let’s go claim it.”

  The minute I fucking laid eyes on her.

  Acceptance of what I just admitted to myself, of what I wanted, of what I could finally let my heart feel poured through my body as I took a cleansing breath. He was so right. It was time to claim what was MINE. I threw on clothes and was down the steps and out the door before I talked myself out of it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Campbell

  Whistler was too easy. He was a fucking prick. But too easy to read. After about ten minutes of me boo-hooing, Whistler gladly threw my shit in one of the trucks and took us to the safe house. Plus, his ideal version of Tank did not include me attached to his hip so in Whistler’s mind he was killing two birds with one stone. It took a little under two hours to get there. When we pulled up, Knox was already on the front porch with a shot gun lying across his arms.

  “No one is supposed to be here until morning.” Knox could be intimidating as hell when he wanted to be and this was one of those times. “Why are you here?”

  “Calm down Knox. One of Baxter’s girls is making the trip with him.”

  “Since when?” Knox was pissed. He looked from Logan to me and then to the bags I was carrying from the truck. “Does Tank know? Hell, does Prez know?”

  “I don’t know and I don’t care,” ranted Whistler. “Since I’m the one driving Baxter’s sorry ass out of here, we can leave now and gain some time on the road.”

  “You are leaving now?” Logan asked.

  “Pretty much. Get in the house and say your good-byes while I load up the truck.”

  We did not argue with Whistler and followed Knox into the house. It was older but in good condition. It was dark throughout the house so I could not really see anything worth noting. He led us past the kitchen, down a long hallway that had two doors at the end. “The one on the left is Baxter’s. To the right is the girl’s.”

  “Who is she?” Logan asked as we stood outside the doors.

  “She’s not talking. I can barely get her to eat anything.”

  “Maybe I should try,” offered Logan.

  “Go see Baxter first,” Knox directed as he stepped into the other room, leaving Logan and I outside Baxter’s door. Logan reached out and grabbed my hand, giving it a slight squeeze before opening the door.

  We both gasped at the sight before us. Baxter lay tied to a double bed that was in the middle of the small room. His face was so bruised and swollen that you could barely make out the shape of it. There were lumps and scrapes all over his neck and arms. He was a shell of his former self, having lost at least thirty pounds.

  “Oh God dad, are you okay?” Logan asked as she rushed to the side of the bed.

  “Logan, is that you?” His voice sounded so weak and small.

  “And Cam,” she explained, taking his hand in hers. “The Hellhounds did this to you.”

  “It’s nothing I didn’t deserve,” he admitted. I had never seen my father look so small and insignificant. Baxter was a vibrant man who could talk a starving dog out of a bone, but this man, he was weak and scared.

  “You come to say good-bye?” he asked as he looked between the two of us.

  “Cam is going with you.”

  “She can’t. This is club business and she can’t come.”

  “No daddy. She wants to come with you.”

  “Absolutely not Logan Marie,” he said as he looked at her. “They are going to kill me,” he whispered, “and I will not have my daughters witnessing that or paying for my sins ever again.”

  Baxter looked right at me. “You stay here with your sister where these men can keep you safe. My body may be beaten and broken, but my ears work just fine. It sounds like both of you have found brothers who will look after you and make sure you are safe. Keep it that way.”

  Right as I was about to object . . .

  BANG BANG

  BANG BANG

  BOOM

  BANG BANG

  The gun shots echoed off every surface in and around the house. The silence that followed was overwhelming.

  “Fuck. Everybody get down. We are taking hits,” yelled Knox as he ran down the hall. More gunfire rained down on the house. Logan and I found each other on the floor as the windows to our room got shot out. We screamed as glass shattered all around us. I felt pieces bite into my skin as we crawled across the floor and through the door.

  “Oh shit! Baxter!” I shouted over the noise. “He can’t get out of there.”

  More gun fire. More glass shattering. More shouting. More cursing. More shots.

  Silence. Not even the crickets dared to make a sound as the stifling quiet filled every space in the house.

  I gasped again when I heard the roar of motorcycles in the distance. Friend or foe? I could not tell as Logan and I stayed crouched down in the hallway. “Should we get Baxter?” I whispered, but felt that my voice carried too far when the gunfire started again. More of everything this time as the intensity of the fight grew until again there was silence. My harsh breathing mingled with Logan’s as we hugged each other tight.

  “Clear.”

  “All clear,” Knox yelled back.

  “Logan. Are you in here?” Colt’s voice rang throughout the house.

  “Down here,” she called back as we both stood arm-in-arm.

  “God damn it woman. Trouble finds you everywhere you go.” Colton cursed as he took us both in his arms. After a moment I eased myself out of the embrace, allowing Colt full access to Logan. I heard the murmurings of love, which hurt more than I wanted it to.

  “Sunshine.” That one word made my heart skip a beat. I looked at Tank as he swept me up in his arms. “Thank God you are okay,” he whispered into my hair before
taking a deep breath. Tank’s hand ran up my back to my neck, titling it as his lips claimed mine in a soul-shattering kiss. His tongue snaked through my lips, entangling with mine as he took the kiss deeper.

  “Don’t go,” he breathed across my lips before kissing me again. Longer this time as he devoured my mouth. “Don’t go Sunshine.” As the kisses slowed down and became small pecks, our foreheads rested against each other.

  “Why Tank? Why should I stay?” I needed him to be honest with me; to say the right thing.

  “Because I love you.” And he nailed it!

  “You do?” I smiled so big my face hurt.

  “I love you more than life itself. Before you I had nothing. With you I have everything.” My lips found his as I kissed him with all the love I felt for him.

  “I love you too.”

  Tank

  She fucking loved me. I had always known, but hearing her say it in this moment was completely different. “Say it again.”

  “I love you.”

  “Again,” I demanded as I kissed down her neck.

  Her giggles made my heart grow twice in size. “I love you.” Her whispered words shot straight to my cock. I ground against her. A throat clearing brought me out of my Sunshine haze as I looked around to find Logan smiling like a proud sister and Colton with his stupid ass smirk.

  “About time brother,” was all Colton said as he offered me his hand. I gladly took it as Logan and Sunshine hugged.

  “Back to business brothers,” Knox said as he walked down the hall.

  “Talk to me,” Colton directed as he tucked Logan back into his side.

  “Hellhounds. About five of them. Three down for the count. Two rode off. I don’t think they were expecting you two to come up behind them.”

  “They must have been scouting the place,” Whistler said as he joined us. “For them to have known there were only two brothers here guarding the place.”

  “Maybe,” Colton responded as he eyed Knox, Gunner, and Whistler. My thought exactly. We knew there was someone tipping off the Hellhounds, we just did not know who.

  “Either way this place and those bodies need to get gone,” Knox pointed out as he walked through the circle and stopped outside the girl’s door. “I will get her in the truck. You get Baxter,” he said as he disappeared behind the door.

  “Gunner, Whistler. Make sure the Hellhounds make it in here. Tank and I will get Baxter in the truck.”

  “Ok boss,” Gunner replied. Both he and Whistler were out the front door before Colton went into Baxter’s bedroom.

  “Shit,” he yelled. Logan and Cam raced into the room, with me close on their heels.

  “Oh no,” cried Logan. I turned Sunshine into me. The crunch of the glass was the only sound that could be heard as Logan neared the bed.

  “Is he . . .” Her question stopped as she looked to Colton. After searching for a pulse, Colton nodded affirming what I already knew - Baxter was dead.

  “Oh God. No.” Logan cried as Colton rushed to her side. He picked her up and carried her out of the room as her anguish echoed off the walls. Cam remained quiet as her body trembled with grief.

  “Come on Sunshine,” I whispered as I scooped her up and took her from her father’s final resting place. Tears streaked down her cheeks. “He is safe now.” She nodded in agreement.

  As we walked out of the house and I set her down, her shirt was covered in blood.

  “Oh shit, Cam. You got hit.” I panicked as I lifted her shirt trying to find where she was hurt. I ran my hands over her stomach and back but found nothing.

  “It’s not me,” she explained as she did the same to me. And there on the side of my body was where a bullet must have grazed me. The gash was angry and red, but it was already clogging and barely bled. “Are you okay?” Sunshine asked as she looked between my small wound and my face. Her eyes filled with such worry for me that I could not resist kissing her again.

  “I love you.” And I meant it and felt it in every ounce of my soul. “And yes I’m alright. Just a flesh wound, but boy can those suckers bleed like a bitch. Go get in the truck with Logan and we will be done soon.”

  Knox left the girl lying across the front bench of the truck, while Logan and Sunshine comforted each other in the back of it. It did not take long for the five of us brothers to do what needed to be done. Whistler had taken the Hellhound cuts off the bodies before they were placed in the house. The gas stove was left on as we dowsed the house in gasoline. I said a small prayer over Baxter before leaving his room to help finish the rest of the house.

  As our bikes picked up speed, the sky lit up when the house finally caught fire with a loud boom sounding over the roar of the bikes. Logan rode with Colton, while Cam was glued to me on my bike. My cock pulsed at the thought of her permanently on my bike and in my life. Although we were in the middle of a shit storm, I could not remember a time when I was happier.

  I shared a quick nod with Colton as we put as much distance between us and the safe house. By the time we pulled into the clubhouse most of the brothers were waiting for us. Prez informed us that Whistler called from the truck and that church would happen as soon as Whistler and Gunner got back. Emma and Logan followed Knox and the girl straight into the clubhouse, with Colton trying his best to get out of conversations with brothers to follow after her. I chuckled as he slowly lost patience with being away from Logan after trouble found her again.

  Speak of the devil! Trouble herself pressed up against me as she purred, “we got about fifteen minutes, want to make the most of them?”

  “Abso-fucking-lutely,” I replied as my mouth found Sunshine’s and I carried her straight to my room.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Campbell

  “I need to fuck you so bad right now,” Tank crooned in my ear as he pushed me against the door to his room, closing it with a click. He locked it before devouring my mouth with his.

  “More,” I purred as he ground his erection where I needed him most.

  “It has to be quick Sunshine.”

  “I know,” I said as I undid his jeans, reaching in to play with his thickening cock. It hardened in response as a deep grumble echoed in his chest.

  He brushed his lips against mine. My sigh allowed him the access he craved as his tongue slipped between my lips. His greedy mouth and throaty moans egged me on as I continued to stroke him. Tank made quick work of my clothes before hoisting me up and around his waist. One of his thick fingers found my core as it slipped inside once, twice before adding a second. I moaned in pleasure as I rocked against him.

  “I need you,” he breathed across my lips, positioning the head of his cock at my entrance. “Say it,” he demanded. His voice was husky with need.

  “I love you,” I uttered as he dove into me in one thrust. I cried out from the pleasure that was borderline pain, as he stretched me. The burning was back but not as intense as the first time as tears stung my eyes.

  “You are so fucking tight Sunshine. God you feel good,” he said he pushed deeper and deeper into with each stroke.

  “Tank,” I gasped as my body adjusted to him, accepting all of him.

  “Just breathe,” he whispered as he buried his nose in my head, taking a deep breath. “Just breathe Sunshine.” And I did. One breath after another until I fell over the edge and into the abyss of my love and need for Tank.

  Tank

  “So you and Cam huh?” Knox asked as we walked out of church and to the bar.

  “Yeah. Me and Sunshine.” I smiled.

  “Wow brother. That was a full-fledged smile. You must be doing something right,” he joked as Ax handed us both a beer.

  “No shit. For once in my life I am.” Colton joined us a few minutes later.

  “Shit is about to get real,” Colton said as he downed half his beer.

  “About time,” Knox commented as he finished his. “I can’t wait to take my time doing to those Hellhounds what they did to that girl.”

  “Anything
new from her at all?” I could see the frustration in Knox’s expression. This was the longest he had been away from her.

  “Not yet. Her eyes are still swollen she can’t open them yet. Gunner used to be an EMT so we kept her pretty comfortable. She refused drugs, said the Hellhounds pumped enough in her while they had her. So we couldn’t really help with the pain, but she never complained once. Not even when Gunner checked and wrapped her hand. I feel better now that Emma has checked her out.”

  “Speaking of Emma, here she comes,” I pointed out as I finished off my beer. Something in her expression told me we were not going to like what she had to say. Tru must have seen it as well for he was standing with her by the time she reached us.

  “Colton,” she said, “grab your dad and get to Knox’s room now. You both need to talk to Dylan.”

  “Who’s Dylan?” Knox and Colton said at the same time.

  “The woman you brought in,” was all she said as she went back the way she came, but this time with Tru following close behind.

  “Well shit,” Knox said as he stared after them. It sounded as if he whispered Dylan, as if he was trying out her name on his tongue. Interesting!

  “Let me grab Pop and I will meet you in there.” Colton walked into Wesson’s office as I followed Knox to his room.

  As we entered the room, I saw Logan and Sunshine sitting on either side of Knox’s bed blocking our view of Dylan. Other than her reddish hair, I had no idea what she really looked like outside of the bruises and burns that marred her skin.

  “Emma, we’re here,” Colton said as he walked into the room with Wesson right behind him.

  “What’s so urgent Emma?” Wesson commanded the attention of the room so that all eyes were now on him.

  “HOLY. SHIT,” exclaimed Colton so that all eyes swung to him, but it was what he was staring at that moved our attention . . . to the woman in Knox’s bed.