Down to my Bones (Reapers MC: Ellsberg Chapter Book 1)

by Bijou Hunter

  “I heard noises.”

  “When did you first see him? Was it before or after he shot at you?”

  “I had my gun out. I was spooked by the noises of him walking in the woods. He tried to be quiet and stopped after each loud step.”

  Breathing too fast now, I open my eyes to find my mother’s calm face waiting for me.

  “Don’t be afraid, MJ,” she says in the most soothing voice to ever exist. “You’re safe at home. Your pop is on his way home. Quaid is waiting for you downstairs. Tonight, the whole family will be together for dinner. Nothing bad will happen to you.”

  Refusing to obey me, my eyes are quickly flooded with tears. “I had my gun in my hand, and I thought I was ready because Pop taught me,” I say, forcing my eyes closed. “I pointed it at the person before I saw him. I spotted the man’s shirt in the greenery. There was no reason for him to be bothering me, and I was ready for him.”

  Mom takes my hand, and I fight to return to my room. My mind won’t leave the woods. I see the figure. His face is covered. I can’t see his eyes. I don’t know him. Yet I do.

  The gunshots are so loud in my head. I drop my gun and pick it up. I fire at the asshole, wanting him dead. Not then, but now I do. I hate him because he made me afraid to leave my fucking house. I’m terrified of even standing near a window. I’m scared of my hometown and the people in it. I hate him for stealing my confidence and leaving my head full of noise.

  Then I see something in how he moved.

  The man jumped! No, not jumped exactly. More like bounced onto one leg when the bullet hit him. Like how Colton hops when he stubs his toe.

  Hyperventilating now, I struggle to hold on while my mind works out where I know the man. A memory from a few years ago pops into my head.

  “He's a walking cartoon character,” Audrey had said after we saw Gary Lee bounce on one leg when the other was hit by a baseball.

  “Gary Lee,” I gasp. “I think it was Gary Lee.”

  “Who’s Gary Lee?” Mom asks.

  I smile at her through my tears. She remembers the name of every student she ever had in over twenty years of teaching. Yet she routinely forgets the names of the club guys’ kids.

  “Jim-Bean’s son,” I whisper, suddenly afraid to be wrong. “The way the shooter moved when I shot him. It was like when Gary Lee got hit in the leg during a baseball game with Colton. Maverick’s pitch went wide and low, hit the ground, and slammed into Gary Lee’s leg. He jumped up like a cartoon character and bounced on his uninjured leg. He leaned so far toward his good side that I thought he would fall, but he didn’t. The man I shot didn’t fall either. He bounced on one leg and tilted really far to the right before running away.”

  Mom doesn’t doubt my words. Her only loyalty is to me. I want to believe Pop will feel the same way, but Gary Lee is the son of Jim-Bean, and Jim-Bean is a club brother. All the talk of revenge made sense for Pop, Colton, Judd, and the other men when they thought an outsider was the dead man walking. Now it’s the kid of one of their own.

  “Pop will be angry,” I whimper as Mom wipes away my tears.

  “Your pop wants you safe.”

  “He had the club before he had me.”

  “You’re his baby, and his loyalty to his family means more than loyalty to anyone else.”

  Sighing, I shake my head. “I could be wrong. I probably messed up remembering. Just like I messed up with shooting the man.”

  “Miranda Jodi Johansson, you look me in the eye,” Mom says, raising her voice just enough to let me know she’s serious. “Don’t you let that bastard make you second guess yourself. You know what you know, and you’ve never let anyone change your way of thinking before. So you tell me right now if you believe the man you saw in the woods is Gary Lee Roy?”

  I take a deep breath and say the words, “Can I have a yurt?”

  “Baby, you can build whatever house you want next to ours. You know that. You also know Pop will be over at your place constantly for the same reason he’s always driving down to White Horse, Tennessee, to see your sister. Now tell me what I want to know.”

  “I didn’t see his face, but I believe it was Gary Lee Roy.”

  “He was here today.”

  “I know,” I whisper, shuddering at the thought of him in this very house. “With his mom.”

  “They brought me a casserole, and he kept asking if I needed anything,” Mom says, and I sense she’s fighting her temper.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You did nothing wrong.”

  “So you believe me?”

  “Always,” Mom coos, losing her authoritative voice in favor of her mommy one. “Now sit up and hug me as hard as you can.”

  Smiling like a little kid, I can’t get enough of Mom’s hugs. They always mean my problems will go away. Mom isn’t scary like Pop, but she knows how to get things done. If she can’t solve a problem, she’ll rally whoever can. That’s who she’s always been, and I trust she hasn’t changed even if I feel like I’ll never be the same.

  THE OUTSIDER

  Tension destroys my patience now that I have a target. Planning is overrated. We need to go shock and awe on the fucker. Finish him. Make him a memory, so MJ can heal and move on.

  Despite my urge to get moving already, Cooper and his top-tier guys decide to have a club chat. Inside the house, his wife stabs the cutting board while talking about how the asshole was in HER home, not far from HER baby girl. Farah clearly wants him to disappear fucking yesterday, but Gary Lee Roy isn’t a stranger to the club, so the Reapers needs to tread carefully. That’s the idea anyway.

  Outside on the back deck, the men huddle under the shade of the massive trees. I glance through the sliding glass door to find MJ staring back at me from her spot on the couch. I know she’s nervous about her father’s reaction. Did her naming Gary Lee cause too many problems for the club? Is Cooper pissed at her for inspiring the asshole to take the shot?

  Rather than a reassuring grin, I flash a smirk that implies sex. Her panicked eyes warm and the left corner of her mouth lifts. Rolling her eyes, she clearly thinks I’m full of shit, but, at least, I got her smiling.

  “I’ve known the fucker since he was a kid,” Cooper growls behind me. I peer back to find him gripping his beer so tightly in his fist that I’m surprised the bottle doesn’t shatter. “Why would he pull shit like this?”

  Gnawing at his upper lip, Colton shrugs. “He knew Rando didn’t like him.”

  “She doesn’t like a lot of people,” Vaughn mutters.

  “He thought she would keep him out of the club.”

  Cooper shakes his head. “Gary Lee wasn’t getting a patch for fucking reasons that have nothing to do with your sister. I always sensed this little shit would turn on the club if the cops nicked him. He lacks balls, not that Jim-Bean could see that about his son.”

  “Taking out the fucker won’t be hard,” Judd says, his voice a low rumble, “but killing a member’s kid has never been on the approved list.”

  “There’s no other option. Even if I wanted to show mercy, which I don’t fucking want to,” Cooper growls, nearly spitting out the final words, “what options do I have? He’ll blame MJ for whatever happens. If I send him away, we’ll always worry he’ll come back. If we fuck him up but let him live, we’ll always worry he’ll try to kill her again. He has to die to be certain my daughter and the club is safe.”

  “You know he was here when someone lit up the bar,” I say and they all glare at me as if I’ve spoken out of turn. I’d care more if I hadn’t pissed off scarier men in my life.

  “Yeah, we know,” Tucker says, giving me a snarl. “What’s your point?”

  I don’t smile, but there’s no denying my eyes are amused. Vaughn glances at the dumber Johansson brother and then at Judd who shows no reaction. Colton isn’t nearly as kind.

  “For fuck’s sake!” the younger man hollers at his uncle. “It means someone helped Gary Lee. They figured today’s bullshit would give him a r
etroactive alibi.”

  “Who would do that?” Tucker asks, seeming genuinely confused.

  Studying the local chapter’s VP, I can’t help wonder if he was the one who was dropped on his head as a baby.

  “A friend maybe,” Vaughn says before sighing loudly. “But you know it was Jim-Bean. No fucking way would Gary Lee’s friends have the balls to attack us. Besides, Jim-Bean would know how to get out of those woods without being seen.”

  “Safe to say, he knows what his boy did,” Cooper mutters in barely more than a whisper. “If he thinks his crap worked, we’ll have an easier time getting the drop on Gary Lee.”

  “Taking his boy like that will make Jim-Bean a problem,” Judd says. The oldest man in the group stands and stretches. “I don’t think you’re wrong to test his loyalty by making him hand over Gary Lee. But if Jimmy can’t do it, and I doubt he can, what’s his fate?”

  “Could you hand over your son?” Tucker asks, looking bothered. “If someone came for Jack, I don’t think I could hand him over even if he’d done something fucked up.”

  Cooper grits his teeth. “None of us could. We’d put family first, and that’d make us a liability. Just like Jim-Bean is now.”

  “Killing a club guy is a big move,” Colton says, stating the obvious because he’s still a kid in a lot of ways and his father’s rules felt unbreakable until now.

  Cooper stares at the horizon, searching for an easy answer to a complicated question. “I don’t want to kill a club brother. I’ve known Jim-Bean most of my adult life. But I can’t chance him taking down the club or hurting anyone in revenge for us killing his boy. I can’t imagine he can let us take Gary Lee without him needing to make it a battle. No decent father will sit back and let anyone, not even his club, kill his only son.”

  Judd gives a head nod to Tawny who passes by the back door. His woman is no doubt searching for a sign on how the conversation is headed. “Are we grabbing Gary Lee today?”

  “The sooner, the better.”

  “What if?” Tucker says and takes a deep breath. “We pretend we don’t know Gary Lee shot MJ. We get everyone thinking it’s an asshole up north or someone from Tennessee. Just come up with some fucking story. Then we take out Gary Lee quietly. That way, Jimmy won’t need to die.”

  “Not the worst idea I’ve heard,” Judd says.

  “And MJ remains in hiding until he’s dead?” Colton yells at Tucker and Judd.

  “Cool down,” Cooper warns his son.

  I hate no one more in the world than I do Gary Lee Roy. He needs to die, and I want to be the one to watch the life leave his terrified eyes. I’d love nothing more than to hunt him through the woods for a few hours. Let him think he’s gotten away only to shoot him in the calf and send the fucker limping for his life. Then when he gives up and accepts he’ll never get away from me, I’ll end him with a shot between the eyes.

  But…

  Fuck, fuck, fuck, I hate this shit, but…

  Loyalty to the club means putting the club before my immediate desires. I’ve been going through the motions of allegiance back in Shasta. I did the same in the Army. I cared about the men, but I cared more about me. For the first time in my life, I’ve found someone whose happiness matters more than mine. And that someone comes with a family who comes with a club that has a problem.

  “Boss,” I say, and Cooper shoots me a dirty look, “I agree with the idiot.”

  “What?” Colton asks, assuming I’d agree with him. “Why?”

  I picture the little shit who tried making chitchat with me today. I’d love to slice open Gary Lee’s stomach and watch him struggle to keep his intestines from sliding out of his body. Would he be as chatty then?

  This little fantasy helps me stick to my plan to be a principled man doing right by the club. “No doubt Jim-Bean won’t hand over his boy. You’ll need to kill him and his kid. Afterward, you’ll need to worry about his old lady starting shit too. Who knows what Jim-Bean told her about the club’s business.”

  Cooper’s raging expression only worsens, but I push on. “That’s not even considering what the other Reapers will think about your kid mattering more than Jim-Bean’s. Sure, Gary Lee was in the wrong, they’ll say in hushed voices when you’re not around, but they’ll also think about how poor Jim-Bean did what any father would. Soon, you’ll look like a king pissing on the peasants.”

  “What the fuck do you know?” Tucker asks despite me taking his side.

  “Thanks for asking, baby bumper. I know because I’m the new guy. None of you understand how it feels to be on the outside looking in at the top brass. Certain families in the Reapers matter more than others. It’s common sense that they do, but this shit with Jim-Bean will rub the Johansson superiority in the second tier’s faces.”

  “So your big plan is to let Gary Lee live while MJ is forced to hide?”

  His accusation pisses me off. I’m the only one thinking straight, and I should be the LAST one thinking straight since the woman I love is the one under threat. I should be on my way to Gary Lee’s house where I can rip out his eyes with my bare hands before making him choke to death on them. No, I have to be rational even if Cooper is making it nearly impossible for me.

  “Gary Lee isn’t an unstoppable psycho. He’s a scared piece of shit. He came here with his mommy to save him if MJ said anything. That’s not a guy who’ll make another move against her. Right now, his concern is staying alive, not getting his patch.”

  “Even if we wait, Jim-Bean will have to know it was us when the kid turns up dead,” Vaughn says.

  I get it. I really do. They’re tight with Jim-Bean. He’s one of them. They don’t want to end him, just because he has a shitty son. Okay, fine, but come on! It’s like they need to go from one extreme to the other. Either we let Gary Lee kill MJ, or we burn down the entire town to get vengeance. I can’t believe these men have never considered a soft touch.

  “Look,” I say, fighting my irritation, “if we show up at Jim-Bean’s house and demand he hand over his kid, he’ll fight us to the death. That’s because we’d be making him an accomplice in his kid’s death. On the other fucking hand, if Gary Lee just disappears one day, Jim-Bean has the option of believing whatever the hell he wants. The guy’s loyal to the Reapers, isn’t he? Why else would he cause the distraction today in a way that ensured no one got hurt? He did what he could to save his son, but it was at most a lousy short-term distraction. He gets how his boy is on borrowed time. Let him and the rest of the club guys believe what they want when Gary Lee disappears in a few months. Allow them the ability to deny what happened, so they don’t need to make an issue out of it.”

  “Giving the asshole slack doesn’t sound like you. Where’s the con?” Cooper asks.

  “The con is I’m responsible for MJ’s happiness, and she gives a crap about you and your club. So even if I’d like to stay in the background and let the top-tier fuckers make the call, I need to do what’s best for her.”

  Cooper doesn’t speak for a long time. In the silence, his brother gets distracted by a mosquito while his son looks ready to sneak off and kill Gary Lee tonight. The other guys don’t want to speak up first, but Vaughn finally does.

  “Waiting on this feels wrong.”

  “Seems like the weak move,” Cooper says in a low, angry voice.

  “It’s the only move you have unless you want to kill Jim-Bean and sow discord in the club. This way also lets the little shit think he got away with it. He’ll lower his guard, think his life is safe, and then be extra afraid when we grab him. I don’t mind saying that’s my favorite part of the plan.”

  Colton smirks at my words, and I think maybe he sees the upside to waiting. I doubt he cares if Jim-Bean lives. The club is his second family, but MJ is part of his first, and she needs vengeance. I know how he feels.

  “MJ needs to know she isn’t responsible for hurting the club,” I add, wanting to end this conversation and get back to my woman’s side.

  “MJ doesn�
��t give a shit about the club,” Tucker growls as if he’s completely forgotten how waiting was his idea.

  “MJ cares about the people in the club. But more importantly, she cares that it was her grandfather who started the Reapers and her father who expanded the club.”

  Cooper’s expression might as well come with a banner saying, “Yeah, that sold it!”

  “We can’t just pretend the shooting never happened,” Judd says when Cooper remains silent.

  “I’d suggest you plant a few stories about suspects. Go with the original view that the shooting was related to hurting Cooper. Hell, Cap could claim someone from his area went after the wrong sister. He can say his family caught and killed the fucker. Everyone will buy it. Things will die down. Then Gary Lee just disappears one day.”

  “What if Gary Lee thinks he’s in the clear and starts planning to take another shot at MJ?”

  “The guilty mind will keep a man awake,” I say, glancing inside to find MJ rubbing Audrey’s belly with the intensity of a woman expecting a genie to appear. “The day Gary Lee failed, don’t you think he assumed he was dead? He was so hurt and scared that his daddy tried to save him. I saw the weasel today, and he knows he’s lucky to still be alive. If he thinks he’s in the clear, he’ll keep on the straight and narrow. Not that it’ll save him, but he doesn’t know that.”

  “MJ won’t like this,” Colton mutters.

  “She can’t go to work with her arm fucked up. She’s skittish anyway and would do best remaining on the property working on her yurt plans.”

  “What the fuck is a yurt?” Tucker asks.

  “Shut up,” Cooper growls at his younger brother. “The plan might make sense, but I don’t like it.”

  “Then decide tomorrow,” I say and open the door. “It’s too hot for killing anyway.”

  The men likely want to debate the options without an outsider part of their huddle. A spot next to MJ looks much more comfortable anyway.

  “I love you,” she announces very loudly when I join her. “I have chosen to keep you as my love servant and breed a child with you named Alamo.”