My Perfect Drug (Reapers MC: Ellsberg Chapter Book 2)

by Bijou Hunter

  My gaze latches onto my armed cousins. There are two of them, but they don’t fucking care what happens to Sissy. If Topher murders her, they’ll help him dump her body and come up with a story.

  Am I much better? No, I’m a coward, wanting to live another day. I have no fucks to give. I expect nothing from life. Self-sacrifice is a loser move.

  Except Lily Johansson forced me to care. She tore open my chest and jolted my cold heart back to life. Now I have dreams and answer to someone beyond myself. I’m going to be a father, and I need my boy to feel pride in his old man. For just a second, I see myself through his eyes and I hate what I find.

  Without thinking, I tackle Topher. I’m not working with a plan beyond I want him to stop hitting Sissy. His body feels frail under me, but he fights like an old man with nothing to lose. Topher bites into my hand just as I hear the gun go off.

  A bullet speeds past my head and into the kitchen wall. The cousins back up and pull their weapons but do nothing. I’m surprised they don’t fucking run away.

  Wrestling with Topher, I manage to knock the gun from his hand. As it skids across the kitchen floor, he and I roll away from Sissy enough for her to crawl away. I notice a trail of blood left behind her, and I’m struck by the realization that someone’s going to die today.

  “Cocksucker,” Topher hisses, reaching around to grab my injured back.

  His fingers dig into my flesh, searching for my wound. I punch him in the jaw. Then jam my elbow into his chest. I even headbutt the fucker, but he refuses to relent. Topher’s too high on something to feel pain while I cry out in agony as he tears at my still tender flesh.

  Rolling free of my grip, Topher reveals another gun. He points it at the cousins who level theirs at him. No one fires. I keep waiting for the psychos from Columbus to do to Topher what they do to other people, but they’re afraid of the old fucker. Rather than hating him for killing their parents, the idiots freeze.

  “I don’t need any of you fucking losers!” Topher screams while pointing the gun at Clyde. A stalemate occurs between my cousins at the kitchen door as he regains his footing. “I could kill you all and no one would fucking care!”

  Catching my breath, I’m ready to grab Topher’s weapon. If the gun goes off and kills one of my cousins, so be it. Even aware the other idiot might start shooting blindly, I have no choice except to end Topher before he kills everyone in the room.

  “I built everything, you cocksuckers!” he screams so loud that I don’t hear the gunshot.

  Unsteady on my feet now, I struggle with the sight in front of me. Sissy is on her feet while Topher collapses to the ground. Blood and brain chunks cover the wall behind where he stood. One gun skids across the floor. The first gun is in her hand. I have no time to register what’s happened before Sissy turns the gun back on herself.

  Moving faster than I have in my entire life, I seize the weapon before she can fire again. Sissy fights me for the gun, but I wrench it from her grip.

  “He’s dead,” I say, holding her against me. “You’re safe now.”

  “He was never gonna let me have my babies,” she sobs against my chest as we shuffle away from Topher’s crumpled body. “I just wanted to keep them safe, and now I’m going to jail. I mess up everything.”

  “No, no,” I say, holding her with both arms so she can’t escape. “You’re not going anywhere except to Conroe with me, Lily, and your babies.”

  Sissy’s tears infect me, and I can barely keep my shit together. She’s ready to kill herself, thinking her life is over when it’s just beginning.

  “We can fix this,” I tell her and then look at my confused cousins who stare at the blood spreading from Topher’s head wound. “We say he shot himself. He’s beyond wasted, and he fired the weapon already. The wound is even on the right side of his head. We tell the cops he was out of control. He attacked her and fired at us. He was waving the gun around. We were trying to stop him. Then he pulled the trigger and accidentally killed himself. Who the fuck is really going to care?”

  “Yeah, yeah, that’ll work,” Lloyd tells Clyde. “We don’t want Sissy going to jail. He needed killing. If she hadn’t done it, he might have shot one of us. We all lucked out.”

  Clyde nods in unison with Lloyd. “No worries, Sissy. We all saw him waving around the gun. He got himself killed like a fucking schmuck.”

  My bloodied sister looks up at me. “I don’t understand.”

  “He attacked you. That’s not a lie. He shot at us. That’s not a lie. Then he shot himself by accident. You didn’t see that part because you were on the ground. That’s what you tell the police. Nothing else. Say you might have passed out from him hitting you. That’s not a lie. Do you understand?”

  My sister stares at my face for so long that I think she might have a concussion. Does she understand anything I’m saying?

  “I get to take my babies to Conroe,” she whispers, smiling through her bloodied lips. “We get to go with you and Lily.”

  “Yes,” I say, hugging her. “I’ll call the cops and have them take Topher away.”

  “What about the stashes?” Clyde asks in a panic.

  “There’s nothing the cops will find unless they plan to tear up the floor. For Topher Mullen, no one will make that big of a fucking effort. I’ll call them, tell them what happened with a few adjustments to the truth, and then I’ll get Sissy to the hospital and make sure she’s okay.”

  Once bundled in our jackets, I help my sister wash her hands, just in case there’s some kind of evidence left on them. I don’t know how shit works, but they’ll probably check for gunpowder on Topher’s hands. If they check hers, I want them spotless.

  Guiding her onto the front porch, I hold Sissy while texting Lily to give her a quick update. She responds with the panic of a woman who hasn’t registered the most important fact.

  Topher Mullen is a corpse.

  Sissy may or may not truly understand this fact. She keeps glancing back at the house as if worried someone’s coming for her.

  “I just want my babies to be someone else,” Sissy whispers while pressed against me on the porch steps. “I want them to be different, so they’re not like me.”

  “You did good, Sissy. Topher was going to kill everyone. You protected us all. Now it’s going to be okay. Just imagine Hart and Haydee in Conroe.”

  “Would they be happier if I went away and they got a new mom?” she asks, her voice breaking.

  “No,” I say a little too harshly. “It’d break their hearts. Don’t take their mama from them.”

  Sissy tries to smile, but I have no doubt she still believes Topher will rise from the dead and laugh at her hopes of ever being free. It’ll be a long damn time before she realizes he’s gone for good.

  THE PRINCESS

  Pop meets me for lunch at a sandwich shop. I hadn’t expected him to take the Conroe news so well. Rather than a raging bear, he growls like a tired dog woken from a summer nap. I hope lunch will allow us time to talk without MJ piping in about how I’ve abandoned the family for someplace she’s never heard of.

  “I’m not good enough to work for, huh?” he says as soon as I sit down.

  “We already had this conversation last night.”

  “Yes, but I wasn’t satisfied by the amount of bitching I did then.”

  “Conroe’s an hour away.”

  “You’d rather work for those bitchy women—”

  “You mean your sisters.”

  Pop shrugs because my logic is ruining his attempt at making me feel guilty. “They’re bullies.”

  “You’re the one making your pregnant daughter tense during her lunch break,” I say taking a page from MJ’s book since she never misses a chance to point out she’s either a) pregnant or b) recently shot. Her system works too. My dumb sister manages to outwit people on a regular basis.

  Pop relents to my words, but he knows he’s being played. “I want my kids where I can see them.”

  “MJ lives right next door
and spends half her day in your house.”

  “I know, and I’m very proud of her for making such positive choices in life.”

  Laughing, I pat his hand. “You’ll have a grandbaby underfoot soon. And we’ll be in town a few times a month. Plus, you can visit us too. It’s not so different from what Audrey does.”

  “Yeah, I’m still pissed she lives in Tennessee.”

  “Did you think Cap would live here?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  “Because he’s his father’s heir-apparent. It’d be like Colton moving out of town after he’s been groomed to take over for you.”

  “No one is taking over for me. I plan to run shit until I die at a hundred and ten years old.”

  “Does Colton know that?” I ask, laughing at his certainty.

  “He knows I’m not an old man looking to retire.”

  “Well, everyone knows that.”

  Smiling, Pop’s demeanor softens. “Mom said I should be happy you’ll be working for the family rather than staying at a boring job.”

  I share his smile. “Mom is great. Let’s listen to her.”

  “She wasn’t on board for the vacation idea,” he says and shrugs. “Until Tawny told her it would be good for us. Then she agreed. Apparently, her sister is smarter than me.”

  “Uh, it was my idea,” I say, ignoring the fact that it was really Dash’s. “Besides, you don’t listen to Mom either.”

  “I listen plenty.”

  “Not really.”

  “I listen enough.”

  “Apparently not.”

  “Shut up, Lily,” Pop says, laughing. “Just accept you won and move on.”

  I throw my arms in the air and cheer for myself. Pop only rolls his eyes and orders himself a cup of coffee.

  “We won’t officially move for weeks since the house won’t be ready.”

  “When do you quit the pharmacy?”

  “I gave them my two weeks’ notice,” I mumble while rubbing my belly. “I think they were relieved.”

  “Why?”

  “The Mullen, Roche stuff hasn’t made me popular.”

  “Fuck them,” Pop growls loud enough to win glances from the other customers. “They were lucky you slummed it there for so long.”

  My father’s protective nature makes me smile now that it’s focused on someone besides Dash.

  “By the time the baby is born, we’ll be moved in and—”

  My phone chimes, and I find a text from Dash that changes the rest of my life. I read it once and panic at the words, “Topher. Shot. Hospital. Sissy.”

  Pop takes my phone and exhales deeply. “That’s why people fear opening a can of worms.”

  “Who’s hurt?” I ask, beginning to hyperventilate as I type a response.

  Pop calmly stands and helps me into my jacket. “Don’t speak in public,” he whispers. “We need to leave.”

  I follow Pop who takes our coffees and heads for the door. He opens it for me, and I struggle to walk casually from the shop. Soon, Pop drives my SUV to the hospital despite my wanting to go to the house where Dash and Sissy work.

  “I don’t want you anywhere near those idiot Mullen cousins.”

  I read the text until my hands stop shaking. “Topher’s dead?”

  “Sounds like it.”

  “Why do they need to go to the hospital?”

  “Dash is smart not to text too much info. The cops might want to look at their phones.”

  “I don’t understand who killed Topher.”

  “Probably the idiots. Who cares? He’s dead, and they’re not. We’ll find out the other details at the hospital.”

  Nodding, I fight tears. Topher’s dead. Okay, that’s good. He was a monster. I should focus on his death rather than why Dash and Sissy need to go to the hospital.

  But can a monster really die? Topher has been my bogeyman for so many years that I struggle to accept he’s gone.

  Even worse is the thought that his single death will bring a duo of new threats. Will the Ohio cousins give Dash and Sissy trouble about leaving Ellsberg?

  “If the cousins cause trouble,” I say to Pop as we near the hospital, “will you kill them?”

  “Sure. I’ll kill anyone,” he answers coolly.

  I frown at his tone, but he’s a professional, and I dial down my freaked-out Lily-side and pump up my tough girl Delta-persona. Dash is alive. Sissy is alive. Topher is dead. I pretend nothing matters outside of those three facts.

  We arrive at the hospital before Dash and Sissy who get held up at the house by questions from the police. Dash sends me a message to say the pigs are noisy today. I doubt they’d behave so pushy with my family, but with the Mullens, they poke and prod before finally allowing Dash to take Sissy to the hospital.

  Pop sits with me in the ER waiting room. When I finish my coffee, he tracks down a bottle of water for me. I hate to think if I’d been alone when I received the first text from Dash. Pop’s need to complain proves to be a godsend today.

  I launch myself out of my chair when I spot Dash and Sissy approaching the ER’s double doors. She’s covered in blood and shivering from the cold. Dash looks like sexy, bearded perfection, but I notice a bruise forming around his eye.

  Once in his arms, I settle down for real. No fakery from Delta necessary. He promises to give me all the details when we’re somewhere private. Pop nods approvingly at Dash’s decision to remain quiet.

  The nurse takes Sissy back immediately, and I go with her. She stares into space while we wait and barely speaks when the doctor asks her questions. He does a neurological test to look for signs of a concussion or a more severe head injury.

  “I don’t know,” she frequently answers, and I think of MJ who got dropped on her little head as a baby.

  “I want to do a CT scan,” the doctor tells me.

  Disliking how he ignores her, I insist he explains to us what the test is and why he wants it. Clearly in shock, Sissy likely hears nothing he says, but I refuse to have anyone treat her like a child when she’s a capable woman.

  “Is it time for my babies to get out of school?” she asks, ignoring the doctor.

  Holding her hand, I wrap her hair behind her ear. “My mom will bring them home. We’ll stay with my parents until you heal up.”

  “Why?”

  “So my pop won’t worry.”

  Sissy’s pale blue eyes study me, and she finally smiles. “He’ll miss us when we go to Conroe.”

  “Yeah, but he’ll visit us a lot. He can stay at our Victorian once it’s fixed up.”

  Nodding, Sissy looks a hundred years old while she searches the room for something to make her feel better. Medicine from the nurse and my reassuring words do nothing to help her find her way out of the fog. No, only her babies’ faces will help.

  THE LOSER

  I remain chilled to my bones until Lily’s in my arms at the hospital. The house, my cousins, the police, Topher’s corpse, everything about this day leaves me rotten inside. I can’t tolerate a world where my clueless, sweet sister wants to die because she did what men like me wouldn’t.

  Then Lily is against me, and I only see how we’re free of my shit father. He’s gone, and the Ohio Mullens are pissing their briefs about the police attention. Neither man spoke much at the house, claiming they were in shock. The cops weren’t impressed by their non-answers. They checked their IDs and confiscated Clyde’s weapons. The local cops are willing to take a lot of shit from the local crime families, but they have no patience for outsiders. Lloyd’s conviction for statutory rape doesn’t improve their mood, and they’ll likely keep an eye on him from now on.

  My cousins feel a million miles away by the time I wait at the hospital next to Cooper Johansson who says next to nothing the entire hour. He and I know there’s nothing worth mentioning in public.

  Lily finally emerges with Sissy at her side. Looking a fucking mess, my sister needs to rest in a place where she feels safe. I don’t have to ask where we’re bunking for
the night. Cooper Johansson doesn’t believe in freedom when worried about his family. We’ll be at his home until he knows how to deal with a reality where Topher Mullen is a corpse.

  At the Johansson property, Lily and MJ help Sissy get cleaned up. Downstairs, Cooper sends Quaid to keep an eye on Clyde and Lloyd while the rest of the Reapers remain on alert.

  Knowing Farah will arrive soon with the kids, I hope to use the quiet time to discuss business with Cooper who stands at the back doors like a man with the world on his shoulders.

  “The time of the Mullens in Ellsberg is over,” I state, ignoring how theatrical my words sound.

  “Tell that to your fucking idiot cousins.”

  “You need to pay them to go away.”

  “Pay them?” Cooper says, laughing bitterly.

  “You should buy the Mullen business in Ellsberg from them. It’ll be cheap since we’ve been bleeding money for years.”

  “Is this their idea?”

  “No, it’s all me. I’m done with the Mullens. Sissy and I are going to Conroe, and we’re starting over doing real work. No more drugs and booze. I don’t want anything connected to what Topher’s touched, and I know you don’t want the Ohio fuckers here.”

  “Fuck no. One of them is a registered sex offender.”

  “Then buy them out. Get rid of this problem like you did when you sold off your stake in Common Bend, Tennessee, when it became too much trouble. Now having the Mullens around is too much trouble, so pay them to go away.”

  “How did you know about Common Bend?”

  “Lily tells me everything. You should probably get used to that fact.”

  Cooper gives me a dirty look that I’d typically find hilarious, but I’m not in the mood to laugh. My thoughts are on if Sissy can shake free of what happened today. Will she see herself as a vanquisher of an evil man or another bad Mullen doing a bad thing? Sissy’s choice to fight back allowed me to meet my boy. She protected Lily from a world of sorrow. I need my sister to know she did right, but she looked more lost than ever when she went upstairs.