Glen spun and had the gun pointed right at Jace.
“You tried to kill me once,” Jace said. “Here’s your second chance.”
“Where’s Ava?” Glen asked. “She took my life. She lived the life I should have had.”
“That’s not how it works, Glen,” Jace said. “Do what you need to do to me. You’re not getting Ava. She’s protected. It’s too late. You lost.”
Glen laughed. “You asshole. I never fucking lose. Ever.”
Smoke billowed into the back room, curling like crippled fingers, pushing its way to wherever it wanted to be. I couldn’t believe the store was on fire. I couldn’t believe Jace was face to face with a brother I never knew I had. But that brother was the man who killed my mother.
“I’ll just kill you,” Glen said. “Like I should have done a long time ago. And then I’m going to kill Ava. And your entire club. Nothing can stop me.”
For a split second, I had hawk eyes. I saw Glen’s finger start to squeeze the trigger.
I couldn’t let Jace die.
I couldn't imagine not having him in my life.
Holy shit… I was in love with Jace.
I ran forward and screamed, waving my hands.
“Ava! No!” Jace bellowed as I came into view.
Glen turned his head and the gun followed a second later. A sick smile crept across his face. Behind Glen I saw the back door to the store open. A man stood there with a gun.
“Get down!” Jace screamed at me.
His words were super slow.
I skidded to a halt and buckled my knees.
I heard guns go off and I shut my eyes.
I didn’t want to see the reaction on Jace’s face as I took my last breath…
chapter twenty-nine
(ava)
*THEN*
“Do you really have to go now?” I asked my mother.
“I do,” she said. She touched my hair and kissed me. “If that water keeps getting into the store we’re going to have a big problem. It’ll be okay. Everything is closed. I’ll just sing some songs and clean up the store.”
“Why can’t Dad do it?”
“You know him,” Mom said. “He took his heart medicine. He’s sleeping.”
“Let me come and help you then.”
“No, Ava. You rest. You have school. Don’t worry about me.”
“I love you though.”
“I love you too. All I want is for you to be happy.”
“I’m trying hard in school, Mom.”
“That’s good. But school, money, a house, that’s not happiness. You’ll know it when you find it. I want you to find it. Embrace it. Never let it go.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. But I loved when Mom talked to me like I was a grown up.
She kissed my forehead twice, then a kiss on each cheek. That’s how she always kissed me. In front of friends, it was totally not cool. But alone, it was the greatest feeling in the world. Knowing she truly loved me.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” she said. “I’ll make pancakes in the morning. Brain food.”
She ran her fingers through my hair and smiled big.
I hated that she worked so hard at the store. I hated that she had to go there alone to clean up water because of the roof. I wished Dad would have done more to give her more.
Mom stood up from the bed.
I don’t know why but I grabbed her wrist. My eyes filled with tears.
“What’s wrong?” Mom asked me.
“I don’t know. I just… I just love you so much.”
Mom sat back down on the bed. She hugged me. I think she cried too but I didn’t see the tears. She never showed me her tears. She was always the tough one.
She rocked me, yes, I was a teenager, and she hummed.
Slowly, I drifted off to sleep.
The last thing I remembered was her kissing my cheek and whispering that she loved me and that everything would be okay.
I never got to see my mother, feeling her hugs, or hear her voice ever again.
chapter thirty
(jace)
*NOW*
Sid stood there and held out a mug of beer. “To Jace. To Ava. To helping tie up a loose end for the MC.”
The entire clubhouse erupted in cheers. Clanks of mugs echoed around and everyone had a nice cold drink. That included me and Ava.
My right shoulder was fucked up and I probably still needed another surgery if the muscles didn’t heal right. Ava was unscathed. That was most important to me.
The variable I threw in was calling up Jeff. If I had shot Glen it would have started a new war. The store was on fire. Glen was brandishing a gun. Everything was spiraling. I needed Ava to stay hidden because Jeff was coming. She jumped out just as Jeff showed up.
Jeff shot Glen twice in the back.
That made the entire situation easy for the club.
Jeff had all the paperwork to show a case of illegal gambling. With Glen setting the store on fire and shooting me, it justified everything. All I had to do was explain that I was cruising along with Ava to go visit her father in the hospital. We spotted smoke from the store and went to check it out. Ava had a key. We called the fire department. We saw Glen and he shot me. He tried to hold us hostage. Jeff heard the call for the fire department and decided to check it out.
It was all set up to simply make Jeff as a hero.
Fair enough.
Our payment for asking such a big task was that Jeff took the bag of money and could do whatever the fuck he wanted to do with it.
The store burned to the ground. That may or may not have happened as another favor. That was up to Sid.
Ava’s father got out of the hospital and got a nice fat insurance check for the store. A portion of that check was kicked back to the club.
Good call, Jake.
Now I sat on a barstool with Ava in my arms, the club cheering.
I looked at Ava and smiled. We kissed and then finished our drink.
The rest of the guys were there for the night to pound beer, whiskey, and pussy. Good for them. I wasn’t going to be one of them tonight. I had a different plan in mind.
After finishing my beer, I went to see Sid.
“Prez.”
Sid hugged me. Pain shot through my shoulder. “Fuck…”
“How’s the ride?” he asked.
“I hate anything with four wheels.”
Sid laughed and slapped my cheek. “It’s a big ass pickup truck though. You have to like that.”
“It’s not bad. I could get used to it.”
“Don’t get too used to it,” he said. “You only have so much time… if you can’t ride, you can’t wear the cut.”
“Trust me, Prez, I’ll be back in no time,” I said. “Don’t worry about that for a second.”
“You did good. Showing restraint. I know you wanted to pop that guy. And I’m sorry I took off in the store like I did. The second I saw the gasoline I knew I had to get Jeff there and get shit worked out with the fire department.”
“No worries.”
“No worries,” Sid said.
We hugged again and Sid walked away, being drawn in by the big blue doe like eyes of a woman looking for a night with an outlaw.
I walked to Ava, took her hand, and led her out of the clubhouse.
I never thought I’d see it in my life…
Me leaving the clubhouse. Holding hands with a woman. Taking her to a pickup truck. Looking back at her. Smiling. I can’t wait to take her home…
I slid my hands up Ava’s body and cupped her breasts. Fuck, she was full and firm. She was riding me harder than I rode my motorcycle. One hand on my good shoulder, the other hand holding the headboard to the bed. I loved watching the way her body pumped at my cock, sliding up and down, fucking herself into orgasm after orgasm.
I planted my feet firmly on the bed and started to thrust up at her. I loved the sound of my body slapping against her. I loved the sound of her moan
s and cries of pleasure. Better yet, I loved the way she threw her hair back and whimpered a few seconds before she would come.
She had me mesmerized.
From her body to her heart.
But right then… fuck the romance shit.
I wanted to fuck.
I forced myself to a sitting position. I grabbed Ava with both hands at her waist and tossed her back and off me. Yeah, it fucking hurt my shoulder to do that. I lunged forward and ripped open her legs, thrusting my cock right back at her. The entire thing took me all over a few seconds, but then I was on top. My cock filling her. To the fucking hilt.
I held there and gritted my teeth, feeling her pussy throbbing against me.
I fucked her until I couldn’t handle anymore. I slid my left hand behind her head and pulled her mouth to mine. Our tongues battled as I came inside her.
And I kept coming. When my cock was out of cum, I didn’t stop. I stayed right there, gently fucking her. I brought Ava to one last climax before I eased out of her body.
I then pulled her on top of me and rested in my bed. I put my arms around her and held her. I could feel her heart racing. Shit, I could feel my heart racing too.
“Sweetie, sleep here tonight.”
Her head popped up. “What?”
“Tonight and forever,” I said. “You’re not a guest anymore in this house. Or in this bed. I want you here. You’re not some woman I want to fuck. I want to fuck you and hold you. I want to wake up tomorrow and have you again. I want to love you…”
Ava grinned. “Big bad outlaw is turning to mush.”
“I blame the pain meds,” I said and laughed.
“You saved me,” Ava said. “You were everything I’d been waiting for.”
“I’m sorry you lost everything.”
“I didn’t lose a thing,” Ava said. “I gained everything. You, Jace.”
I kissed her. She kissed me back.
“I fucking love you, sweetie,” I finally said. I had to get it out there.
Ava climbed on top of me.
I had plans for sleep.
She had plans for something else.
chapter thirty-one
(ava)
*AN HOUR LATER*
I opened my eyes. My head was on Jace’s chest. He was naked. I lifted the sheet and looked at his dick. Even when he wasn’t hard he was big. I bit my lip and felt my inner thighs tremble.
I propped my chin on his chest and watched him sleep.
I watched the sexy outlaw sleep.
He was gorgeous. So rough around the edges. His tattoos and muscles making him look like every parents worst nightmare for their daughter.
But he was my dream man. Not a knight in white but an outlaw in black.
I couldn’t have imagined anything more perfect. Even with everything as a mess.
Dad had his insurance money and promised to stay away from problems. I couldn’t control him though. That was his life. My mother would forever remain a memory, perhaps an angel watching over me. Her murder wasn’t technically solved in the eyes of the police, but in my eyes and heart, it was solved. I now understood what Jace did and what it meant.
Maybe in life there weren’t good guys and bad guys.
There were just lines. Some lines you could cross, some lines you couldn’t. An outlaw like Jace didn’t give a shit about any lines. He did what he wanted.
He’d forever protect me. I’d forever hold him when he needed me.
I took a deep breath and smiled.
I felt okay. I felt alive. I felt loved.
I reached up and traced the chiseled jaw of Jace’s face.
“I love you too, outlaw…”
THE END.
Hey darlin’
Before you go, I’m going to ask you a couple things. Right up front I hope you enjoyed reading REAPER’S KISS. It was a wild ride to get this book published. Now here we are… at the end. It’s the end of the book, not what we’re doing here. Because there’s so much more to read. Now… I hope you’ll take a second and jump over to Amazon and leave a review. It means the world to me to read reviews.
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- Jaxson Kidman
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First electronic edition October 2016
Copyright © 2016 by Jaxson Kidman
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part of any form.
REAPER'S KISS Page 11
