Reaper's Fire (Reapers Motorcycle Club #6)

by Joanna Wylde

Talia’s face popped into my head. Mostly that weird expression she’d worn when she poked her big knife at me. She’d meant every word she’d said, that much I believed.

  Cooper was her man.

  It didn’t matter how sweet he was being right now, I realized, because he had divided loyalties—at the end of the day, a man’s gonna side with the woman sucking his dick. This is reality.

  “I need the equipment,” I said, reminding myself that it wasn’t a lie. I really did, seeing as his bitch of a girlfriend ruined a week’s worth of work in one tantrum. “Not only that, I need to talk to Brandon and find some kind of specialist to check out my dad.”

  Cooper stiffened.

  “Brandon?” he asked slowly. “You mean, you need to talk to him about finalizing the divorce.”

  “Tinker, I’m out of shampoo,” my dad said from behind us, and I pushed off Cooper’s lap abruptly, feeling weirdly guilty. “Other than that, I’m all ready to go. Hey, Cooper. Good to see you.”

  Wow. He had no memory of threatening Cooper.

  None.

  Damn.

  “We were just going over some stuff for the building before you leave on your trip,” Cooper said. Dad smirked.

  “I’m old, not stupid,” he replied, laughing. A knife twisted in my gut, because Dad was the strong one. He took care of things, and whenever something was really wrong, he fixed it.

  This. Sucked.

  “Guess you caught us,” Cooper replied lightly. “I was just heading out, though. Tinker, you need help loading anything?”

  “No, we’re fine,” I told him. “You can text if anything comes up. Dad, we need to pick up Randi soon, so go throw your stuff in Carrie’s Suburban, all right? She’s letting me borrow it.”

  “Sure thing, baby,” he said, smiling at me fondly. “It’ll be fun, taking a road trip together. Just like when you were a little girl. I know you’ll be busy with work, but maybe we can go up the Space Needle while we’re there.”

  “That’d be great, Dad,” I said, sighing. “I love you. I hope you know how much.”

  He gave me a funny look. “Love you too, baby. Forever and ever.”

  GAGE

  Guess I wasn’t the only one with a complicated life. I’d started working on the roof again, but my mind was racing. The situation with Tinker’s dad wasn’t good, but there was definitely more going on here.

  Talia. Had to be.

  I debated calling Picnic to discuss my options, but decided I needed more information first.

  Tinker and her dad pulled out around four that afternoon. Marsh texted me at five, asking if I’d meet him out at the Nighthawks’ clubhouse that evening. Apparently he had “business” to discuss, which was a good sign. The sooner we got his shit sorted, the sooner I could end this fucking farce with Talia.

  Taking a fast shower, I rode downtown to grab some dinner down at Jack’s Roadhouse. I figured I’d grab a burger and collect any available gossip before heading out to the clubhouse. That was the best—and worst—thing about a town like this. People stuck their noses in their neighbors’ business.

  I’d just passed the old library when a cherry red Mustang jetted past, going in the opposite direction. Then I heard the squeal of tires and the roar of an engine as I watched the driver pull a U-turn, coming right at me. What the fuck? She was honking the horn and flashing the lights, obviously trying to flag me down. I realized it was Carrie, Tinker’s best friend. They must’ve swapped vehicles, which explained the SUV she’d been driving.

  Pulling over, I swung off the bike and walked over to her, wondering what the hell was going on. Jesus, it’d been only a couple hours—hardly enough time for something else to go wrong.

  Carrie ripped open the Mustang’s door, marching toward me with fury written all over her face. Seeing as she was about a foot shorter than me and close to a hundred pounds lighter, she came off more like an angry pixie than a true threat, but the rage in her eyes . . . that was definitely full-size.

  “You!” she snarled, stepping into my space and poking her finger right into my chest. I stared down at it, wondering whether she had the slightest clue how easy it’d be for me to snap it off. “You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve, asshole.”

  “Hard to argue with that,” I said casually. “But you’re gonna have to narrow it down a little. What’d I do this time?”

  “Your girlfriend threatened Tinker with a fucking knife this morning,” she snarled. “Said she’d cut her if she didn’t stay away from you, and then she destroyed an entire week’s work of chocolates. Now Tinker has to go to Seattle and try to make up those orders before she loses all her clients. I don’t know what sick games you’re playing with Talia Jackson, and I don’t care. Tinker’s my girl, and I’m gonna protect her. We clear?”

  Jesus. I’d suspected Tinker wasn’t telling me the whole truth, but hearing it was something else. Sudden, furious rage filled me, because Talia had stepped over the motherfucking line and there was no going back. Something dark must’ve shown in my expression—Carrie’s face faltered, and she took a step back.

  “When did this happen?” I snapped out. “Tell me. All of it.”

  Carrie’s eyes flashed with something. Surprise, maybe? Like she thought I’d defend Talia. Fuck that shit—this ended, and it ended today.

  “Tinker was alone in the shop this morning,” she said. “Packaging the shipment for her Seattle delivery. Talia showed up and cornered her in the kitchen. Threatened her with a big fucking knife and destroyed almost all of her product. Now she’s got orders she can’t fill, which means she’ll be working night and day trying to catch up. To pull it off she needs her kitchen in Seattle. That means staying in the same house with her asshole of an ex, who’ll probably try to convince her to come back to him. I lost my best friend to that bastard once, but I’m not going to lose her again. I don’t know what happened last night and I don’t give one flying fuck. This is your fault and you will fix it. Clear?”

  Oh, she was clear. So fucking clear my vision narrowed into a red tunnel of rage.

  Carrie stepped back, fear flickering across her face. Then it hardened with new resolution, and I knew it didn’t matter how much I might scare her—she wasn’t going to stand around and watch while her best girl got hurt.

  Tinker’s friend was one of the good ones.

  “Where’s your man?” I asked. She glanced away, dodging my gaze.

  “He’s not part of this.”

  “Really? Because from what I saw the other night, he’s not the type to let his woman do this kind of work. You didn’t tell him, did you?”

  She glared at me, shaking her head.

  “Darren is a real man,” she said—the implication that I wasn’t all too clear. Not the kind of shit I’d usually take, but under the circumstances I couldn’t exactly argue with her—I’d played the pussy and fucked up. The fact that I’d done it for the club didn’t change the reality that I’d gotten an innocent woman hurt.

  A woman I happened to like a little bit too much.

  “So you’re scared to tell him,” I concluded. “Scared he’ll come after me with a shotgun.”

  Lotta that goin’ on in this town.

  Carrie held my gaze steadily, refusing to answer. If I weren’t so pissed, I’d have smiled—Darren was my kind of guy. Needed to keep a closer eye on his wife, though. Carrie might be a firecracker, but confronting me alone had been stupid as hell.

  Almost as stupid as Tinker refusing to tell me what’d happened with Talia.

  “Next time, tell your man the truth.”

  “I fight my own fights.”

  “Fight using the weapons you have. You’re lucky. Darren’s a strong one, so don’t be afraid to ask him for help. When it comes to physical confrontation, you and me aren’t equals, and you had no business taking me on alone. But in this case, I happen to agree with you. Tinker doesn’t deserve this. I’ll make it stop.”

  She nodded once, turning and stalking toward the Mustang. Then
she paused and glanced back at me.

  “You’re physically stronger than me,” she acknowledged, her eyes hard. “And you’re friends with a bunch of thugs. I have no doubt they could hurt my husband. Maybe even kill him . . . but there’s something you might want to keep in mind. When a motorcycle tangles with an SUV, the SUV always wins. I drive a Suburban, and accidents happen. Tragic, random traffic accidents. Don’t think I’ll hesitate to run you down like a rabid dog if your girlfriend hurts Tinker.”

  With that she climbed back into the shiny red car and slammed the door, pulling away with a screech of her tires. I stood staring after her for a few minutes, then pulled out my phone and dialed my president.

  “Hey, Pic. Things are unraveling fast,” I said, wishing I had something to punch.

  “What’d you fuck up now?” he asked.

  “Thanks for the vote of support,” I snapped. “Work with me, Picnic.”

  “Okay, lay it out and we’ll find a solution.”

  “Thought I set Talia straight last night, but she went after Tinker this morning,” I told him. “Now Tinker’s runnin’ scared and took off for Seattle with her dad for the week. Oh, and speaking of her dad, he pulled a shotgun on me this afternoon, so that was fun.”

  Silence.

  “You wanna run that by me again?”

  “Tinker’s dad is losing his mind. Like, literally. He saw me arguin’ with her and pulled a gun on us, confused as hell. It was a special moment.”

  “Why were you arguing with her?” he asked. “Thought we decided to watch and wait.”

  “Because she’s gonna go see her husband in Seattle. You find out anything about him yet?”

  “You don’t do it halfway, do you?”

  I snorted. “No fun in that.”

  Picnic laughed, startling me. I’d known him most of my life and could usually call his reactions. This time I wasn’t so sure . . . Knew one thing, though. Somewhere along the line, protecting Tinker had become a very high priority. How or when this had happened, I had no goddamn idea, but it was the truth.

  “You’re really serious about this woman.”

  “Yeah, boss. I’m serious about her, whatever the hell that means,” I said. “I’m also frustrated and pissed off. Christ, Pic. You got no idea what bullshit this is. The Nighthawks are a fuckin’ joke, I’m banging some bitch who thinks she owns my cock, and the woman I’m falling for is scared shitless of me. We’re not making any progress, boss. I want to call the operation. There’s more than one way to extract information. We should bring in the brothers, take Marsh back to the Armory, and get our fucking questions answered.”

  “Okay, calm down,” Picnic said. “I hear you. Things are obviously changing and we need to adjust our plans.”

  His words caught me off guard. I didn’t know what I’d expected—that he’d get pissed I wasn’t focused enough, or something, which was ridiculous. I’d been through hell with this man more than once, and I knew the Reapers brothers would die for me, every last one of them.

  “So how do you want to do it?” I asked slowly.

  “First up, shut down Talia. Do whatever it takes, got me? You’re supposed to be her man and she fucked around on you. Let her know payback’s a bitch, and that you’re done with her bullshit. You don’t want her fuckin’ up your living situation—”

  I snorted again. “She wanted me to move into one of the trailers out by the clubhouse—can you believe that shit?”

  “Yeah, do that and you’ll wake up with your throat slit,” he replied sourly. “Remind Talia that she’s your bitch, not the other way around, and she’ll do what she’s goddamned told. That means leaving your landlady out of it—she touches Tinker, she’ll pay. If that ruins things with Marsh, we’ll come in and shut down the Nighthawks early. One call is all it takes, brother. We got your back.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Don’t relax yet,” Picnic said. “Like I said, one call is all it takes, but a lot’s been going on while you’ve been away. Issues that impact the situation. This Friday the Bellingham and Portland chapters are making a two-week run down to Cali. We got some serious shit goin’ down with the cartel, which means we don’t have a lot of backup locally. If things fall apart on your end, we gotta call the Devil’s Jacks out of Portland.”

  Fucking great. The Jacks might be our allies, but that alliance wasn’t the friendliest.

  “What about the Silver Bastards?” I asked.

  “They’d come, but they’re ass-deep, too. Union stuff down at the mine. It’s not a good time for them.”

  “Got it.”

  And I did.

  Picnic was leaving the decision with me—they’d come if I needed them. But that’d require calling in some damned big favors, costing us our advantage in the relationship with the Jacks. Seeing as less than two years ago we’d been in a shooting war with them, this wasn’t something to do lightly.

  “I’ll try to hold things together around here a little longer,” I told him, frustrated but resigned. “Don’t like it, but I’ll do it. Tinker gets hurt for real, though, all bets are off. You got a problem with that, you need to pull me out of here because it’s nonnegotiable.”

  Pic didn’t say anything for a minute, then he gave a low chuckle.

  “Yeah, have fun with that, brother. On the bright side, I do have some intel on the husband. He’s a piece of shit.”

  “Kinda figured that already,” I told him. Picnic laughed again.

  “Well he’s a dirty piece of shit,” Pic continued. “As in, you can pay him money and he’ll change how your case is prosecuted. Allegedly. We tried to pay him off a few years back after some trouble with one of the support clubs, but he’s also got political aspirations. By the time we got to him the case was too high profile.”

  “You find out anything about his family?”

  “They’re well known in Seattle. Supposed to be old money.”

  “Why does a guy from a family like that need to take bribes?” I asked, thinking.

  “No idea,” Pic replied, and for once he was dead serious. “Maybe they ran out of money. We’ll keep looking. You focus on covering your ass and remember—we are here for you. One call is all it takes.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “Take care, brother,” he told me, hanging up. Shoving my phone into my pocket, I climbed back onto my bike, kicking it to life.

  Time to put Talia in her place.

  • • •

  Fifteen minutes later I pulled up to her trailer, backing my bike in next to a car I’d seen parked at Tinker’s building. Belonged to Sadie’s mom.

  Great. Now I got to deal with the girl posse, too.

  Of course, that might not be a bad thing. Sadie needed to learn a lesson about respecting my fucking privacy. Taking the steps two at a time, I pounded on the door and then shoved it open hard enough to bang back against the wall.

  “Everyone but Talia out.”

  Four sets of glassy eyes blinked at me. They’d been painting their toes, the nail polish fumes so heavy I couldn’t believe they hadn’t lost consciousness. Fuckin’ ridiculous. Talia offered a cloying smile.

  “Looks like someone needs to get laid,” she announced with a giggle. “They can hang out here, baby. My room’s got plenty of privacy.”

  Baby. I hated it when she called me that. Not just the word, but the way she said it with a breathless little-girl voice. Made me feel like a damned pedophile.

  “I said get the fuck out,” I repeated, pitching my voice low and hard as I dropped my hand to the hilt of my knife. Suddenly, the girls couldn’t stand up fast enough. Thirty seconds later it was just me and Talia. I locked the door behind them, then started walking toward Talia with slow menace.

  “What’s wrong with you?” she demanded, hands on her hips. “Who the hell do you think you are, coming in here like this?”

  “I’m the man who owns your ass,” I reminded her. “And usually I’m pretty easygoing. I don’t care what games you p
lay, because I like the way you suck my dick. But this morning you fucked up, even though I warned you to stay out of my business. You went in and scared the shit out of my landlady like a jealous, insecure little bitch. Now I gotta worry about losing my place and my job. Did you think for one minute that your snatch is worth losing my apartment?”

  Her mouth opened, then closed again, thoughts racing behind her eyes. God, she was transparent—I saw the exact instant she decided to pull her power play.

  “You apologize or it’s over,” she said. “I won’t eat shit from you.”

  “The only one who ate shit today was Tinker Garrett,” I said, cracking my knuckles slowly and deliberately. Her eyes widened. Yeah, you should be afraid, bitch. “Listen to the words coming out of my mouth, because I won’t be repeating myself. Tinker Garrett is nothing to me—we covered this already. Now promise you’ll let it go or we’re over. Period. Life is too fuckin’ short.”

  Angry eyes narrowed, and for a minute I thought she’d kick me to the curb. God, that’d be a relief in its own fucked up way. Then the facade crumpled and I swear, her eyes started getting red.

  “Crying changes nothing.”

  “I’ll leave her alone,” she said finally. “But only because I believe you aren’t into her. I don’t trust her, though. She chases after men like you wouldn’t believe. You remember the video—”

  Oh, I remembered. Vividly.

  “Like I care about a goddamned video?” I asked. “You don’t get it, Talia. You’re young, you’re hot, and you suck my cock like a goddess. You wanna make this work, I’m with you. But I am not down with you fuckin’ everything that moves and then crawling up my ass just ’cause I got horny when you weren’t around.”

  “So what you really want is an exclusive relationship?” she asked, sounding hopeful. Christ. Time to take another one for the team.

  “Not if you’re gonna bitch at me twenty-four/seven,” I reminded her. “And not if you fuck up my job. You want to give things a try, I’m up for it, but you make another move on Tinker Garrett or pull any more manipulative bullshit like that fight the other night? Yeah, we’re over.”