by Zoey Parker
“You did a good job dressing these wounds,” Bard said to Jewel as he dabbed them with disinfectant and taped gauze over them. “Have you had any medical training?”
“Not really,” Jewel answered. “I just did what seemed to make the most sense, which was keeping the bleeding to a minimum with the bandages and making sure they weren't tight enough to cut off the circulation.”
“That's smarter than a lot of people would've been,” Bard said. “They'd have tried a tourniquet because that's what movies told them to do, and Rafe might have ended up losing the arm.”
“Where's Giggles?” I asked Bard. Giggles was the Reapers' humorless resident medic, a former nurse who'd become hooked on pills and joined the MC after losing his license.
Bard scowled at me. “I sent him up to Madison,” he said. “After I found out what happened to the Reapers up there because of your bad judgment, I figured it was the least I could do for them by way of apology. You're stuck with me. You're welcome.”
I closed my eyes and nodded. I'd been a shithead. I knew I had all this coming and more.
“Okay, we've got it,” Nic said, pointing at the screen. “Not sure what it is, though.”
We all crowded around the small computer screen. The memory stick only had one file stored on it, labeled “FOT/DB.”
“Well, DB usually stands for database, at least among accountants,” Jewel offered. “But I don't know about the FOT.”
“Family of Thorns, I'll bet,” Boomer said. “Holy shit. If this is what I think it is...”
“Open it,” Bard said.
Boomer double-clicked on the file. A list of over two dozen Italian names appeared on the screen, including Angelo's and Jester's.
“There's Billy Finucci,” Boomer said, pointing to the name. “He's with the Mancusos, too. An' there's Jimmy the Fish, he's a bag man for the Russo family. An' look, here's Tommy Esposito an' Donnie Buono. They both work as torpedoes for the Rizzos. Jesus, there are even a couple of Bonaccorsos on this list.”
“If the crime families got their hands on this info, they'd know who among them belonged to the Thorns,” Nic said. “And every person on this list, including Jester, would end up in a hole in the ground. These Italians aren't big on divided loyalties in their ranks.”
“So we've got it?” Jewel asked. “We've got what it takes to blackmail Jester into leaving us alone?”
The other Reapers turned to look at me. Bard's lips were pressed into a thin line, but I could tell what he wanted to ask: Since when did I care about Jester “leaving me alone?” Since when did I care about anything but killing the bastard for what he'd done to me? I wasn't ready to tell her that had been my plan all along.
But the database had given me an idea.
“This is enough to get us in the door, at least,” I said. “I can use this memory stick as leverage to get Jester to meet with me. If he knows it's someplace safe and I can use it against him, he might be willing to settle this with me one on one, instead of siccing the whole Family of Thorns on me.”
“Yeah, but how are you supposed to arrange all this?” Nic asked. “I mean, we don't know where the Thorns hang out, and it's not like we can pick up the phone and call 1-800-THORN-ME or something. Staying hidden is kind of their main thing.”
I turned to Bard. I knew I was taking a huge risk bringing this up, but I didn't see any other option. “Boomer mentioned you were pretty cozy with Chicago's top cop.”
Bard shot Boomer a withering look. “Oh, he 'mentioned' that, did he? How forthcoming of him. Did he also happen to mention that my relationship with Superintendent Grady is personal and not to be exploited for MC business, let alone the business of a careless rogue member?”
“Hey, you want me to make this right?” I snapped. “This is how I can make it right. I can handle my shit and make sure there's no blowback from Thorns, Mancusos, or anyone else. But to do that, I need to know what your pal knows about the Thorns.”
Nic sighed. “I hate to admit it, Bard, but he's got a point. If we don't make a move on this fast, the gangsters really will start beating our doors down, and we'll be right back where we were a year ago.”
Bard considered this for a long moment, then squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed is temples. “Fine. I'll go outside and make the call.” He got up and left, slamming the kitchen door behind him.
Nic looked at me with heavy eyes. “Just so you know, Rafe, this shit almost went a whole other way. It took a lot for us to talk Bard into helping you out. Don't abuse that.”
“I won't,” I said. “I'm doing my best here, Nic.”
A few minutes later, Bard came back in. “There isn't much about the Thorns in the law enforcement databases, except for rumors of a yacht docked in Belmont Harbor. Some people say they conduct business there sometimes.”
“What's the name of the yacht?” I asked.
“Don't know,” Bard said.
“Do we know if it's usually got Thorn members on it?”
“No idea. This was literally everything Grady had on them, Rafe. And he was not happy to be asked.”
I got the point. “Thank you, Bard,” I said. “At least it's something for us to go on.”
Bard looked at his watch. “It's getting late,” he said. “And it's been a long day for all of us. Plus you'll probably need a few more hours' sleep to shake off that concussion before we get to work on this. We've got some sleeping bags in the trunk. We’ll bring them out so we can all get some rest.”
“As long as we can get an early start tomorrow,” Boomer said. “I managed to get a side gig with the city's Events Department, helping them rig the fireworks for tomorrow.”
“Why, what's tomorrow?” Jewel asked.
Boomer blinked at her for a moment, confused. “It's, uh, the Fourth of July. You didn't know that?”
I glanced at my burner, and saw that the date on the screen was indeed July 4th. Holy shit, I thought. We've been running around so much these past few days, we both forgot there was a holiday coming up.
Bard and Nic went out to get the sleeping bags. “Since when do you pick up extra jobs working for the city, Boomer?” I asked.
“Since I got my fuckin' Sergeant patch yanked off earlier today, Rafe,” Boomer said tersely. “My share in the MC's profits just took a goddamn dive an' I got child support to pay. Not that I expect you to give a shit.”
“Fuck, man, I get it, okay? I fucked up! I fucked up real bad! How many fucking times do you want me to say I'm sorry?” I asked. “Fifty? A hundred? Give me a fucking number and I'll do it, or else drop it and let me try to fix it!”
“You're giving me attitude over this?” Boomer snarled. “You wanna act like you're the victim, here? Jesus, really? Where do you get your fuckin' balls, man?”
“He's right,” Jewel said. “You should give him a break, all of you.”
“Oh, really, lady?” Boomer yelled. “And pardon me all to hell, but just who in the sunny blue fuck are you to tell me what I should do?”
“I'm the one who'd be dead if Rafe hadn't stepped in and saved my life,” she replied steadily. “He didn't have to stick around and protect me, but he did, and he's risked his life for me a bunch of times since then because he's a good person. And even if he screwed up as badly as you say he did, he's still doing his best in a terrible situation and he doesn't need to be put down by all of you.”
Boomer turned to me, sneering. “Really? Is that what you told her? That all this Jester stuff was some heroic gesture to keep her safe? That it wasn't all about you and your personal bullshit? God, you really are an asshole.”
Jewel opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Bard and Nic came back in with their arms full of sleeping bags and pillows. They dropped them in the middle of the floor in a heap.
“Okay, everyone grab some bedding, choose a room, and try to get some shut-eye,” Bard said. “We've got a long day tomorrow, and probably a bloody one, at that.”
Bard chose a sleeping bag and wen
t upstairs. Nic grabbed another and walked into the dining room, closing the tall double-doors behind him.
Boomer snatched up a sleeping bag and went to the stairs, pausing halfway up to give me a venomous look.
“Sweet dreams, hero,” he spat.
Chapter 32
Jewel
Once the Reapers had gone to their separate rooms, Rafe and I placed a couple of sleeping bags together and sat on top of them.
The mood between us was strange. Before Bard and the others had gotten there, Rafe and I had been sleeping curled up with each other. It should have felt natural for us to return to that, but something still felt awkward and uncertain. From the way he was avoiding eye contact with me, I knew he was waiting for me to ask him what Boomer had meant when he said none of this was about me.
But I had another question for him first.
“When they got here and you thought they were Jester's people,” I began, “why did you tell me to run to the police? Before then, every time I brought up going to the cops about all this, you said it wasn't safe. You said they'd be in on it.”
“They might have been,” Rafe said.
“You, uh, sounded pretty sure about it before,” I pointed out. I was trying to keep my voice calm and even. Whatever was going on, it was clearly a sensitive subject based on his exchange with Boomer, and I didn't want to make him angry or upset. Still, I knew if there was any chance for us to go back to holding and kissing each other, it couldn't happen until he was finally honest with me.
Rafe sighed. “I didn't want you to go to the cops,” he admitted. “There really was a chance that they'd have been involved in this, but it was kind of a slim chance, and I played that up so you wouldn't run off. Which was very shitty of me, and I'm sorry.”
I wasn't too surprised by his answer. I'd been thinking about it a lot since he'd told me to run earlier, and this was the most logical explanation I'd come up with. I knew I should have been angry, but I wasn't. I was curious, though. “But why? Why would you need me around?”
“I needed to know what you knew,” Rafe said. “I had to find out if anything you'd seen or heard in that alley could help me bring down Jester.”
“So you were already going after Jester when you grabbed me from the alley?” I asked.
“It was why I was there in the first place,” he said. “I knew Angelo hung out there, and I hoped he'd be able to lead me to Jester. But when I saw what was happening with you, I just yanked you out of there and improvised from there.”
I was replaying all of the things Rafe had said to me before in my head, trying to put them all together so they'd make sense. “You told me you just got out of prison after seven years,” I said, “and that you were innocent. So I'm guessing Jester's the reason you were sent there. Am I right?”
“Yeah,” Rafe said, nodding. “He framed me. Drugs.”
“Why?” I asked. “Had you done something to him?”
“Dated his niece,” Rafe replied. “She turned out to be kind of a nut job, and when I tried to break it off with her, she told Jester that I'd beaten her up and raped her.”
I sat in silence for a moment, thinking everything over.
Rafe chuckled bitterly. “Thanks for not asking whether I actually did that stuff or not.”
I looked at him, surprised. “Of course not,” I said. “I know you'd never do that.”
“I'm surprised you think you know me at all,” Rafe answered. “I'm surprised you aren't already out the door and running to find the nearest state trooper barracks after finding out how much I've lied to you.”
“But I know why you did,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. “He stole seven years of your life. You said while you were at Potawatomi, you'd been attacked four times. His people, right?”
Rafe nodded.
“So of course you'd go after him,” I continued. “Of course you'd do whatever it took. You probably couldn't live with yourself if you didn't, even if that meant going against the other Reapers. I understand.”
“How are you not fucking furious with me right now?” Rafe asked. “I mean, Jesus, you owe me a beating even more than Bard does. All that time you could have just gone to the cops and gone back to your life, and instead I was dragging you from one disaster to the next...”
“But you protected me, too,” I pointed out. “And the past few days haven't been all gunshots and explosions. There are some parts that I wouldn't have traded for anything.”
“Really?” Rafe replied.
“Really,” I answered. “So what happens now?”
“Now we get some sleep, like Bard said,” Rafe began. “Tomorrow we head back to Chicago and stash you and the memory stick at the Devil's Nest.”
“What's the...?”
“It's the Reapers' clubhouse,” Rafe said. “A bar up in Rogers Park. The other guys in the club can guard you and the stick while I head over to Belmont Harbor and see if I can figure out which yacht belongs to the Thorns. I tell them we've got the list of their members, and that unless they let me and Jester settle things on our own once and for all, the list will get leaked to the Chicago crime families and they'll all become fertilizer in a hurry.”
“That sounds like a big risk,” I said.
“It's one I'm willing to take,” he answered. “Worst-case scenario, they kill me and this ends anyway. I'm not scared of that. At least you'll be safe.”
“But what if you didn't have to?” I asked. “Rafe, what if there were a way for you to just walk away from all this? What if you had something to live for instead?”
“Like what?” he answered.
“I'll tell you,” I said. “But there's one last question I need you to answer, and I need you to be honest with me.”
“Of course,” Rafe said. “Anything. I promise.” I could see how much he meant it, how badly he wanted to come clean with me about everything despite how hard it was for him.
“Once I'd told you what I'd seen and heard in the alley and you figured out how it could help you, why did you keep me around after that?”
I wanted him to say a hundred different things. That he hadn't wanted to trust my safety to the cops, even if they were honest. That he'd needed to protect me himself, just to be sure. That he'd felt better having me with him. That he'd wanted me so much he couldn't help himself.
He didn't say any of those things, but as he looked at me, his eyes said them all.
I don't know which of us leaned in first. It didn't matter. In one moment, we seemed to combine like two drops of water, our bodies and mouths pressed together in the dark, sinking to the floor.
Rafe laid his palm flat on my chest. He pulled away from the kiss, his eyes meeting mine. They seemed to burn right through me. “I want you on your back,” he said, slowly pushing me further down until my shoulder blades were pressed against the hardwood floor.
I looked deep into his eyes the entire way down, feeling the crotch of my panties grow damp at the look of calm control in his eyes. I had barely been able to stop thinking of the previous night and how fully he'd possessed me. I wanted it again.
And again. And again.
I reached up to touch Rafe's face. He grabbed my wrists, forcing them over my head and pressing them against the floor. I thought of the moment when he'd grabbed my wrists in the car—the intensity that seemed to run through his entire body like lightning as he told me how he was going to take Jester down.
I saw the same passion in him now, felt it sparking and burning off of him until it seemed like it would torch us both to cinders.
“You don't get to move,” Rafe growled, his face inches from mine. I nodded and he slowly released my wrists, pulling my t-shirt over my head and tossing it aside. Then he cupped one of my breasts with one hand while kissing the other, his tongue spiraling around my nipple. I tried to stifle a moan so the Reapers upstairs wouldn't hear me, but I was only partially successful.
Rafe's mouth moved lower and he pulled down my leggings and panties in a si
ngle smooth motion, dropping them over his shoulder. A moment later his lips were pressed against my pussy as he tongue-kissed it slowly, pausing to flick the tip of his tongue against my clit.
It felt like someone had lit a fire in the pit of my stomach, and the warmth was spreading through my entire body. I arched my neck, closing my eyes to savor the glow. My wrists reflexively lifted off the floor as my fingertips quested down to stroke his hair.
Rafe suddenly lunged forward like a wolf pouncing on its prey. With his good arm, he seized my wrists again so hard they hurt, savagely driving them back to the floor over my head. His breath was loud and ragged, and I could smell my own scent on his glistening lips as his eyes locked on mine again.