by Simone Elise
“What happened?” Reaper had somehow spotted me in the crowd. I had tears running down my cheeks and blood creeping out the side of my mouth. I noticed he had his gun out. Looked like he was the one to break it up. His eyes darted between Trent and Trigger who were both puffing and looking furious. “Who the fuck hit Kim?”
I spat out a mouth full of blood and wiped my tears. “It doesn’t matter.” There was no point in Reaper getting involved. Trent had already done a good job at messing Trigger up.
I wiped the side of my mouth and stepped forward. Tears were still running down my cheeks. As soon as I wiped them away, they were back. The pain was crippling and went through my whole body.
“Kim I didn’t mean to–”
“You know what, Lucas, just stay away from me. Don’t look at me. Don’t speak to me. As far as I’m concerned, you are dead.” I had never called Trigger by his real name. I had never once disrespected him. “You’re a jerk.”
With that said, I pushed past him, leaving him speechless. I had made it to the stairs when Reaper stopped me.
“You want me to handle it?” He was saying that like I hadn’t done just that. I had handled it. I was done with Trigger. He had always emotionally hurt me, but this time it was physical.
“I did. Night, Reaper.”
“Put ice on it,” he shouted at my back as I walked away. I just wanted to disappear.
My fingers ran over my swollen, cut lip. A bruise had formed around it. It was an ugly brown color. Not even makeup would cover it.
“You alright?”
I sprung up off Reaper’s bed. Shit, how long had I been in here for? I glanced at Tyson, who was sound asleep.
I looked back at Reaper. He was sweaty and shirtless, puffing. He was pushing his body to the limit. And it was showing. He was even bigger now, if that was possible.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just getting Tyson to sleep.” I ran a hand through my hair and straightened myself up. “Sorry, um, for crashing your room.”
Reaper’s eyes went from Tyson to me. “You didn’t put ice on it, did you?”
I pursed my lips. “No.”
He scoffed and went to his dresser, putting his rings back on. “You sore?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Trigger been near you?”
“I think he is attached to living too much.”
“So I take it he was the one to hit you?” Reaper was fishing for me to come clean. I might hate Trigger right now. That didn’t mean I wanted him in trouble with Reaper.
Then I found myself saying what I was thinking. “Doesn’t matter.” And it really didn’t. Trigger would be sleeping off his hangover with most of the other members. And I was moving on. At least that was what I was telling myself.
Chapter 6
Reaper
The breeze was burning my skin alive, the sun beaming down at over 100 degrees. The guard dogs were panting in the shade. I was topless, with my holsters on and the shorts I was wearing were weighed down from the extra two guns I was carrying, plus all the keys. The metal pole I was leaning against was burning my arm, so I straightened up. I could feel the eyes on me. So why would any sane person be out in this weather, when inside was nice and air-conditioned?
Because there was a tow truck backing into our driveway.
Usually, this wouldn’t matter at a garage. But it mattered today because of what was on the back of it.
Abby’s car. What was left of it. The police had finally released it. Why they had it for so fucking long was beyond me. They didn’t find one fingerprint.
Seeing it sent a sucker punch to my guts, making me nauseous and dizzy at the same time. The what-ifs hit me again. What if I had ridden with her? What if I hadn’t left her? I would have been there. I would have stopped this all from happening.
Instead, I let my wife drive alone with my newborn son, knowing I had a man on the hunt for me.
When it came down to it, it was all my fault. Now I was paying the price.
“I’ll help them get it off.” Brad stomped on a cigarette and walked over to them.
Nodding my head, I was about to do the same when Kim walked out, with black fucking hair.
Nearly every single man was out watching the show, so Kim was darting through them with Tyson on her hip. I knew right away she would be avoiding me.
I grabbed my shirt off the table and weaved through the crowd. She was putting Tyson in his car seat when I got to her.
One glance from her and I could see the dread on her face.
Like I expected, she was avoiding me.
“Kim.”
“Reaper.”
“Want to explain the hair?”
She slammed the door shut and ignored me. Opening the driver side door, she was about to slam that shut too, but my hand caught it in time.
Her eyes narrowed and I was ready for the spray she was about to give me. The black hair shaping her face was slightly shorter and I knew the hate in her eyes wasn’t directed at me. She had been in a foul mood ever since getting punched by Trigger.
“I’m going to the drug store. So either get in or get lost.”
My gut was telling me for some reason not to let her go by herself. Considering she had basically scared Trigger into staying away from her, she had no one following her. I glanced in the passenger side window. Tyson was wiggling.
Yeah, fuck it. I wasn’t letting her go anywhere by herself, no matter how much she hated having a tag on her.
“Looks like I’m going to the drug store too.” I closed her door and walked around, putting my shirt on.
She could be as furious as she wanted. It didn’t bother me and it didn’t scare me like it did the others. I swear I had never seen so many grown-ass men avoid one woman. Considering she was in charge of their every need, they all seemed happy with the burnt food, late money and lack of club girls. Even the girls had disappeared.
Yep. It was fair to say Kim’s attitude was costing the club.
So it was my job to pull her back in line.
As I climbed into her car, she didn’t wait for me to buckle in as she took off.
Yeah, I had no fucking idea how I was meant to pull her back into line. After all, she didn’t belong to the club. She didn’t have to stay. She didn’t have to do what she did for the club. Hell, her father had washed his hands of the club, basically, leaving me to deal with more shit. So how was I supposed to get her to calm the hell down?
***
Kim
I rocked the stroller out in front of the pharmacy. Reaper was paying for the scripts and I had all the drugs stuffed under the stroller. Running errands for the club didn’t bother me. What bothered me was Trigger.
The fact he was avoiding me annoyed me. So did the fact he had moved on from me so easily. Heck, he never was on me. I was so busy cursing silent swear words about Trigger I hadn’t noticed an older woman cooing over Tyson.
“He is adorable,” she said, straightening up and addressing me.
“Thanks.” I was used to getting comments about Tyson. He had Abby’s eyes and Kade’s dark hair, making the most adorable baby ever. I was a very proud aunty.
“I always knew Kade would have a stunning child.”
I nodded my head. Then it hit me. What the fuck? Did I hear her correctly? Frowning, I looked back at the woman I had given no attention to before.
“Excuse me?” I said, still not sure I heard what she said.
She looked me in the eye. “I said, I always knew Kade would have a stunning child. Look at Tyson. He is the spitting image of him. Apart from the eyes. They’re from his mother.”
Yep. I had heard her correctly. “You know Reaper?” I didn’t know this lady. She wasn’t an old lady I knew. She was a stranger, a complete stranger. Yet she knew Kade and Abby.
She was using his first name too. Like she had permission.
“How do you know Reaper? Sorry, it’s just I’ve never seen y
ou before. And I normally know everyone around the club.”
She opened her mouth but before she could speak, Reaper was at my side.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” He was cold. He was mean and very rude. I hadn’t seen him treat a woman like that before. His tone was enough to send any sane person running. But this woman just looked at him with a smile.
“Kade, we came to help.” She moved from the stroller to him.
“Well, you can fuck off. And while you’re at it, tell him the same.” Reaper took the stroller from me. “Walk, Kim. Now.”
“But–”
“Kim, now.”
I frowned, looking at the woman. She had to be in her fifties, maybe early sixties.
“NOW, KIM!” Reaper yelled, causing me to jump.
Right, move.
I started to walk away from her, but Reaper stopped, turning back to her.
“Stay away from Kim and Tyson. I’ll find out if you come near them.” His tone sent ice through my veins. I would have hated to know how she was feeling right this second.
Before I could say anything, Reaper gripped my arm and pulled me along beside him, not stopping till we hit the parking lot.
“Just what I fucking needed,” he muttered under his breath, not expecting me to hear him.
“Who was she?”
“No one.”
“Didn’t seem like no one.”
“Drop it, Kim.”
We came to a stop next to my car. I put a hand on my hip, wondering whether I should go for the kill and find out, or if I should leave it.
He unclipped Tyson out of the stroller and looked at me.
“Fuck me. Not that look.”
“I haven’t said anything,” I defended myself. Just because he could read my twin so well didn’t mean he could read me so well. “But if I asked, would you tell me who that was?”
He grunted. “Unlock the car, Kim.”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“No. No, I wouldn’t tell you who that is. Now unlock the car.”
I pressed the button and the car unlocked. He might think that by doing that I was taking his no as an answer. But I wasn’t. Nope. We had a long car ride back and I was going to annoy the hell out of him till he gave me answers.
“You can drive.” I tossed him the car keys after he buckled Tyson in and closed the door. “I have to focus on something.”
“If that is getting answers from me, Kim, it isn’t going to happen.”
“You say that now. But I don’t give up on a fight. I’m not one to tap out when it gets bloody.” I walked around the car and climbed in.
I heard Reaper groan before I got in the car. He knew I wasn’t going to give up. If he was smart and if Abby had taught him anything, he would give in.
***
We pulled into the lot. Like normal, it was crawling with bikers and their families. God, it was hot today, I thought, as soon as I stepped out of the air-conditioned car.
Reaper had Tyson out.
Reaper hadn’t budged with his whole ‘not telling me,’ even though I’d used every trick in the book.
I was glaring at his broad back as we walked to the clubhouse. Abby really hadn’t trained him well. He should cave just by getting ‘the look.’ Instead, he was as cold as ever.
Reaper walked into the clubhouse and I expected him to hand me Tyson. Instead, he spotted someone in the club and charged across the room.
I had to break into a run to catch him.
“REAPER, what are you doing?” I yelled at his back.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE!” he screamed at someone.
I reached his side and a smirk spread across my lips. Maybe I would get my answer. The woman we had seen earlier was sitting at a table next to Dad and a man I had never seen before.
“I invited them.” Dad looked up at Reaper with a look I knew too well. It was the look he would give Abby and me when he wanted us to get lost, when he had done something that he knew would upset us.
One glance at Reaper and I knew shit was about to get messy.
“Reaper. Tyson.” I grabbed his arm. “And calm the hell down.” I made him remember he was carrying a newborn. Why was he fuming? Like he was about to knock my dad out, and then the woman and man. He looked like a charging bull. “Who are these people?”
Dad was smirking. Reaper handed me Tyson and, with a face of disgust, he looked at the two strangers.
“They’re my parents.”
Chapter 7
Abby
Jake’s sick game of Russian roulette was just the beginning of my torments. I thought starvation was bad. That was nothing to loading a bullet into a chamber and spinning it. Jake’s little game followed every meal.
I knew my days were numbered.
One day that bullet would go off, shooting through my brain and ending my life.
“Abby?”
My eyes creased tightly. Why was he here so early?
I knew it was early because I had watched the sun rise only a few minutes ago. I wasn’t sleeping. Couldn’t sleep. Not here. Sometimes I would pass out from exhaustion. I was expecting that to happen because it had been days since I slept.
The door swung open and I stayed seated on the couch, looking out the window.
“You are up early.”
I ignored him.
“I have a proposal for you.”
I scoffed. I doubted very much he was letting me go.
“I’m going to leave this door unlocked from now on. You have free range of the house and that way I won’t be forgetting your meals.”
I turned to face him, taking my eyes off the bright sunrise.
“But then we might miss your favorite game,” I said sarcastically.
I watched his lips twitch up. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure we still play.”
I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window. I wondered if Kade was seeing this sunrise. It was beautiful.
“You can’t get out anyway, so you might as well have free use of the house.”
“What, aren’t you scared I’ll find your stash and kill you?” I said, still looking out the window. I was sick today. Physically. Not because he had hit me. He hadn’t hit me for days. No, I was in pain from Tyson. I was bleeding as well. I didn’t know if that was normal. But it was making me lightheaded.
He laughed. “Don’t keep guns in the house. Unless they are holstered to me.”
He was forgetting about his favorite gun. The one he would give me and force me to put to my temple.
“Whatever.” I knew there was a slim chance I would ever get out of here alive. Why was he giving me free range of the house?
“Come on, I’ll give you a tour.” Jake was actually being nice. Why? What did he want? I turned to face him again, taking my eyes off that beautiful sunrise. What had he done? I narrowed my eyes at him.
He arched his eyebrows. “You coming or what?”
My head turned to look at the chest of drawers that was across the room. I had spent hours looking at the photos on it. They were the only entertaining thing in the room.
“Was that your wife?” I said, nodding my head to the photo of him and a woman with black hair.
His eyes flashed to the photo and I saw the grief on his face.
“Yes,” he spat out.
“What was her name?” I asked. I had so many questions about this woman. Her life was going to cost me mine. It was only natural.
“Rebecca.”
“She was beautiful,” I stated the obvious. “Did she agree to your type of life?”
He laughed, causing me to look at him. He walked into the room. “No, she was against it.”
“Hard to live the life you live without support.”
“She supported me. Just didn’t agree to the drugs and, well, the women.”
“So you are one of those men.” I rolled my eyes, starting to unde
rstand his character a bit more.
“No. I never cheated on her. Didn’t look at another woman from the age of eighteen. We fell in love in high school and never separated.”
“High school sweethearts. Cute.”
“She was a schoolteacher.”
I frowned. This wasn’t adding up. Dad had said she was a bottom feeder. I expected a hardened criminal with baggage. Not a schoolteacher.
“High school or primary?”
“Primary.”
That made it worse. It meant she was good with kids. A beautiful schoolteacher. She wasn’t sounding like the woman who’d deserved to be killed.
“Now do you want a tour of the house or not?” Jake changed the subject. He stood tall and dominant in the room.
“Sure.” I went to get up, but my head started to spin. I reached out for the couch to catch myself but it was too late. My mind went white.
***
“Extreme blood loss.”
“Is that normal?”
“No.”
“Well, what do you do?”
“Nothing we can do. Maybe an infusion if it doesn’t ease. But she should be seen by a specialist. I’m just a GP.”
I opened my eyes to find Jake hovering to my left, standing with a man I assumed was a doctor by the bag he was carrying. He was checking my pulse.
“Abby, hello.” He smiled down at me.
He must be on Jake’s payroll. “Hi.”
“How long ago did you give birth?”
I attempted to count the days in my head but they were a blur now. “I don’t know.” God, how long had it been since I seen Kade? How long ago did I have Tyson? I knew it was over a week, maybe two.
“Sixteen days,” Jake answered for me, crossing his arms. “Why didn’t you tell me you were sick?”
“I didn’t think you would care.” I was honest. If he wasn’t forcing a gun to my head, he was beating me. Sure, he hadn’t touched me in the past two days but I didn’t know why. I didn’t know what had changed.
“I’m not a monster.” He shook his head. “Where are her pills?”
“Iron and painkillers should be all she needs. But again, if it doesn’t ease, I would suggest she see a specialist.”