All of the men I was with before Nicholas were only interested in one thing; getting off. My comfort, enjoyment, the pain they cause with how rough they were wasn’t a consideration for them. As far as they were concerned, I was a vessel, one they could use and abuse for their own release with no consideration for the consequences.
So many times after they would leave me covered in their sweat, other bodily fluids that don’t bear mentioning, with the lingering smell of their God awful cologne tainting the air of my tiny bedroom, I was in so much pain I barely had the energy to clean myself up. The only thing I was grateful for during those horrifically long nights was that they were worried enough about me harboring diseases that they wore condoms religiously. Because honestly, if the humiliation of being violated wasn’t enough, ending up with a sexually transmitted disease would have tipped me over the edge.
Then there was Nicholas. He was never tender or gentle. He didn’t whisper sweet nothings in my ear before, during, or after we had sex. He never took the time to learn what I enjoyed, how to touch me, or what turned me on. Most of our sex life – if you can call it that – was primarily him fucking me and me laying there pretending to get off on what he was doing, thankfully, without him realizing it. I shudder to think what he would have done if he found out I’d faked every orgasm with him.
Zipping and buttoning my jeans, I slide my feet into the flip flops Dex procured from God knows where saying,
“I’m ready. Do you have any idea what this is all about?”
“I know as much as you do, baby,” he shrugs, throwing his arm over my shoulder, guiding me out into the hall.
It’s then I hear the screeching of a severely pissed of female, and the booming rumble of an equally if not more so infuriated man. Dex and I round the corner, stopping dead in our tracks as we take in the scene before us.
A semi-circle of leather, denim, and muscle-clad bikers surround, Reaper and a woman whose face I can’t see over Boss’ broad shoulders. Reaper’s hands are fisted on his hips, his frame emanating fury, which is confirmed by the hard set of his jaw and clenched teeth. Seeing him like this, I believe all the stories I’ve heard about how deadly Reaper is, but it’s the woman that has my full attention.
I would know that voice anywhere. I heard it in person and in my nightmares for years and hoped to never hear it again after I left home in the middle of the night a decade and a half ago.
“Why the fuck am I here?” She shrieks. Pointing at Reaper, she yells, “This asshole dragged my ass out of my house, zip tied me and shoved me in the back of a truck, and drove me out here to the middle of nowhere for what? I haven’t done nothing. I don’t even know who the fuck you are.”
“Think,” Reaper’s deep, gravelly voice barks. “Think real fucking hard bitch. You know me, and I sure as fuck know you.”
“Bullshit,” she snaps with spittle flying out of her mouth. “I’ve never seen you before in my life, asshole.”
Now, it’s safe to say that she isn’t the brightest bulb considering she’s facing down some seriously pissed off bikers and still calling them names. But what did I expect? My mother is a fucking idiot among other things, and I can’t say I’d be sad to see one of these men knock her down a peg or two, not that they would. Unfortunately for me, they’re just not built like that.
Tugging on Dex’s arm to get his attention, I whine,
“Please, please, please tell me I’m seeing things, and she’s just a figment of my imagination.”
Dex gives me a pity filled look and takes me by the hand leading me closer.
“We’ll find out why she’s here and then I’ll have the boys get rid of her. I won’t let her hurt you, baby. I promise.”
“I know,” I mutter, placing my trust and safety in him, hoping I won’t live to regret it.
A second voice, on I didn’t pray but almost sold my soul not to hear again sounds from somewhere behind Cash, saying,
“This is entirely unnecessary. If you would be so kind as to let me go now you’ve got what you were after, I’d appreciate it.”
“Not on your life, motherfucker,” Reaper growls, taking a menacing step toward him. “Looked into you when you called me. I’ve still got contacts, people who owe me favors, and what I found out means you won’t be going anywhere for a while. And if I get my way, you’ll never be fucking getting out of here.”
“I hardly see what I have to do with all of this,” he complains haughtily. “I was kind enough to provide you with information you wouldn’t have found on your own, and this is how you repay me.”
Grabbing him by the throat, Reaper slams Nicholas against the bar causing him to cry out in pain.
“Listen to me you piece of shit,” Reaper snarls, his face a mask of anger. “What you did to that girl would be bad enough if she was just any woman, but she’s not. No one, and I mean no one,” he says, tightening his grip, “fucks with my family. I read the reports, motherfucker. I know all about her trips to the doctors for stitches. I know about her visits to the dentist to have the teeth you knocked out replaced. And I know about the weeks she spent in the hospital after they had to set bones, operate to alleviate the pressure her broken ribs put on her lungs, and the shunt they placed in the back of her head. I know it all, and I’m going to make you fucking pay for every last bruise, stitch, bone, and tear that girl suffered at your hands.”
The only thing out of all of that I focus on is when Reaper said, “no one fucks with my family.” I mean, that’s sweet and all, but I hardly know the man. Not that I’ll be intervening on Nicholas’ behalf because I won’t. He deserves everything he gets. Period.
Dex has obviously had enough, though. Pushing through the wall of men, he stops a few feet from my mother and Nicholas, demanding,
“Someone better tell me what the fuck is going on here before I pull out my gun and start shooting first and asking questions later.”
At the sound of his voice, Reaper spins around not taking his hand from around Nicholas’ throat, his eyes seeking me out as he fixates his mesmerizing green eyes on me. There is so much swirling in their depths that it’s hard to pinpoint one emotion. I can see anger, anxiety, confusion, and pain, but it’s the love reflecting from them aimed directly at me that has me taking a step backward.
“You,” my mother screams. “This is all your fucking fault. I always knew I should’ve aborted you when I had the chance.”
And there it is. Nancy Banks at her finest. Charming isn’t she?
“Shut your fucking mouth, bitch,” Reaper sneers, only diverting his eyes from me for a second.
“Fuck that, and fuck you. Always causing trouble, she is,” Nancy snarls, jabbing a long, gnarly finger at me. “Ruined my life she did. Everything was always about her; what she needs, taking care of her, feeding her, buying her shit. It was never about what I needed.”
“No shit, bitch,” Cash snaps viciously. “That’s what happens when you have kids.”
“Yeah, and that’s why I should’ve got rid of her,” she returns. “Only reason I didn’t was because the state paid me for her and I needed the money otherwise I’d have done the world a favor, and she’d never have been born.”
“Enough,” Dex bellows, startling me. “E-fucking-nough. I listened to your bullshit when I was just a kid because I didn’t have a choice not to, but I don’t have to stand here and hear it now. Keep your mouth shut and only speak when you’re asked to, or I’ll do what I’ve been wanting to for years and knock your ass out.”
“You fucking prick. If it’s not her fault, it’s yours. You were even worse than her at causing shit,” my mother accuses.
Deciding to put an end to what will turn into an hours-long argument, I raise my voice asking,
“Can someone please tell me what’s going on, and why anyone would think it was a good idea to bring the two people I hate most here?”
“Yes, please enlighten us,” Nicholas chokes out.
“Jesus,” Boss, exhales sharply. “I d
idn’t see it before, but now you’re both standing there the resemblance is fucking uncanny.”
Huh, say what?
Glancing between him, Reaper, Nicholas, and my mother, my brow furrows in confusion.
“Um, that’s not very helpful, Boss,” I mutter, and he grins at me.
“Babe, maybe it’s a good idea if you sit this one out,” Jump groans as Meg fights her way through the crowd.
Her eyes rapidly take in all the participants and as if it’s in slow motion, they go as wide as saucers and her mouth drops open.
“Oh, holy shit,” she gasps. Reaching blindly for my hand, Meg squeezes it in a death grip, her whole body shaking. “Holy crap, Linny.”
“What’s happening, Meg?” I murmur worriedly.
“Someone just spit it the fuck out,” Dex growls impatiently.
Boss shakes his head as if to clear his thoughts, indicating to Reaper.
“You want to do the honors, brother?”
“Boy’s in shock,” Sarge interjects, and he’s not wrong. Reaper looks like he’s dazed, staring into space, the only sign he’s still breathing is the occasional blink and his chest that’s rapidly rising and falling. “Better if someone else explains it to her.”
“You do it,” Reaper rasps. “But I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here until we sort this shit out.”
Clapping his hand on Reaper’s shoulder, Sarge turns to face me, his weathered face transformed by a wide grin.
“Like a Band-Aid, little girl. It’ll hurt for a second, but once you get used to it you’ll be alright, yeah?”
I nod, lost for words, but he doesn’t expect any, going on to say,
“Reaper here was in the FBI since he was recruited after he finished high school. Got out some years back, but he did a lot of traveling when he was working for them, and some of it took him out to California. He has a son, was married for a spell there too, but divorced her ass when young Steel was ten. They’d been living separate lives for a long time, baby girl, she was stepping out on him for years before they officially ended things,” he says, only confusing me more.
I’m not sure what this has to do with me, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling terrible for Reaper. From what I know of him through the girls and his wife, Adelyn, Reaper is a loyal brother, wonderful father, and an amazing husband. He might be rough around the edges, but he’s a good man.
“A lot of folks don’t know this, but about five years into their marriage, Carly and Reaper took a break. Should have been a permanent one then, but young, dumb, and full of come, with a little boy at home, Reaper went back to her and tried to work it out with her. This is where the story takes a detour, though, girl,” Sarge says, smiling at me. “He got called into the office and sent on a training course to help out getting some of the new recruits ready for field work. That office was in L.A. He was gone just over a month, and when he came home, that was that. Never did go back out that way, Jones, his buddy, took over training and liaising with the out of state feds.”
Call me stupid, but I’m still just not getting it. Dex does, though.
“Fucking fuck me. You’re kidding, right? Jesus, tell me you’re not serious,” he barks, dropping my hand and taking several steps forward.
“Can’t,” Reaper replies, his eyes pleading for something I don’t understand, standing his ground. “I don’t even wish I could.”
Sarge steps in front of Reaper, not in a protective gesture, but so that Dex backs off enough for him to finish his story.
“He met a woman when he was out in L.A., girly. She worked tending bar at a local watering hole all the feds drank at. They got to talking, one thing led to another, and Reaper ended up taking her home that night. The woman was only working there to snare herself a man who had a good job, money in the bank, and would support her. Made a mistake with our boy here, though. Didn’t think to get his number before he took off, and she never saw him again; didn’t know where to look either.”
“O-okay,” I stutter.
Walking over to me, Sarge places both of his hands on my shoulders gently turning me until Reaper fills my line of vision and no one else.
“Meet your, daddy, beautiful girl,” is the last thing says before everything goes dark.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~ Gage ~
“Always love a woman for her personality. They have at least ten you can choose from.”
– someecards
What in the ever-loving fuck?
Scooping Aislinn into my arms, I stride over to the closet couch and settle her in my lap, making sure to support her neck. Sarge wasn’t quick enough to catch her, so she took a decent hit to the temple as she fell, hitting her head on the corner of one of the coffee tables littered around the room.
“Is she alright?” Reaper, Aislinn’s father, asks from beside me. He all but dropped Nicholas’ ass to the floor when he saw her begin to fall, shoving my brothers out of the way in an attempt to get to her in time.
Scanning Aislinn’s limp form for injuries, I carefully probe her head only to find the start of a goose egg the size of the base of a shot glass forming. My fingers come away blood free, so that’s something, but she’s going to have one hell of a headache when she wakes up.
I tip my head toward the scuffle near the bar, informing him,
“However you want to handle that, I want in on it. Both of them. That bitch made my girls’ life a living hell, and that motherfucker deserves to die a long, slow, and painful death for what he did to her,” before saying, “she’ll be fine, so calm down. Worst case scenario, she has a headache and is pissed as hell she passed out in a room full of men.”
“Good. And they’ll pay, brother. I promise you, they’ll fucking pay for what they did to her,” he says, his voice cracking halfway through. Over his shoulder, Reaper shouts, “Put them somewhere, I don’t give a shit where, but get them out of my fucking sight before I dirty up your clubhouse, yeah?”
“You got it,” Boss nods. “Take them to the shack, lock them down, and put two boys on the door,” he instructs, looking directly at Cash.
“Wait! Please don’t,” Nicholas the piece of shit begs. “I’ve got money, lots of it. If you let me go, I’ll give it all to you.”
“Take her,” I growl, shifting Aislinn into Reaper’s arms when he takes the seat I just vacated. “Watch her, and if she wakes up don’t be surprised if she tries to kick your ass. She’s feisty like that,” I grin at him, which surprisingly has the big man smiling softly at his daughter.
I don’t hesitate in crossing the room, plowing my fist into Nicholas’ nose, revelling when I hear the bone crunch and blood sprays down his face and the front of his shirt.
Dragging his pathetic ass off the floor where he was curled into the fetal position, cradling his head in his hand protectively, I snarl,
“Don’t you mean you’ve got a lot of my woman’s money?” He appears taken back by that but doesn’t deny it. “Yeah,” I hiss, “that’s what I fucking thought. Her money won’t buy you out of this, but you can bet your soon to be dead ass, I’ll be making sure she has every fucking penny of it back before I end you.”
“She owed it to me. That’s my money free and clear,” he lisps while spitting the remnants of blood from his mouth.
“Oh, yeah? How do you figure that?”
“That bitch would be nothing if it wasn’t for me. She rode on my coattails all the way to the top, and when she got what she wanted, fame, the big jobs every photographer wants such as Life, Time, and National Geographic, the cunt forgot her place,” he sneers.
Unable to control the rage that ignites at the sound of him calling my woman a cunt, my foot rears back, knocking the piece of shit out when it connects with his glass jaw.
Satisfied he’ll keep his mouth shut, at least, until he wakes up, I take a seat next to a man I’ve known and looked up to for years, asking myself why I didn’t notice the similarities between them earlier.
I don’t know
where Aislinn got her red hair from seeing as Nancy’s blonde and Reaper’s dark, but they share the same green eyes. Shape, color, depth, intensity and all. It’s harder to pick out the features my girl shares with her dad, but they’re there if you look close enough. The slope of their noses, the shape of their ears, even their olive skin tone is one and the same.
“I didn’t know about her. I swear to fuck, I didn’t know, or I would’ve gone back for her, Carly be damned,” Reaper rumbles, not taking his eyes off his daughter.
His statement doesn’t warrant a response because I know he would have. Reaper is nothing if not a dedicated family man. Having lost a child – a stillborn baby boy – due to his wife’s drug addiction, Steel, his son became his world until Adelyn dove head first into it, claiming the other half of his heart.
It wasn’t for lack of trying they couldn’t have a child together. Adelyn’s past, which is filled with even more trauma than Aislinn’s was a huge factor in their inability to conceive. After one failed pregnancy – Adelyn miscarried in her second trimester – they decided no more. Reaper being the voice of reason, refusing to see his wife suffer again, convinced Adelyn to enjoy what they have instead of yearning for something that would never be.
Vengeance MC Box Set - Volume 2: Gage ~ Cash ~ Knight (Vengeance MC series Book 8) Page 16
