Aiden didn’t offer any words and neither did James, but they both knew that he had been staring at Liv’s backside. What James didn’t know was the kinky thoughts Aiden had about what he wished he could do to that ass … if only she weren’t a Keeper, that is.
Liv withdrew from inside the refrigerator with a beer in her hand and twisted the top off before she even closed the door of the icebox. She lifted it to her lips and guzzled down about half the bottle.
Damn. That was his kind of woman.
But in reality, she wasn’t his kind of woman at all. What the fuck was wrong with him. She was annoying, and judgy, and rude, and … and totally different from any woman he’d met before.
“Liv, we really don’t need you drunk when the Reapers come,” Greg chastised her gently.
She rolled her eyes and shut the fridge door. “One beer is not going to get me drunk. I’m fine.”
“Seriously sis, we need to stay alert.”
“I know that, now get off my ass.” She polished off the last of the bottle and then strode over to the trash can and tossed it in. “I need to be a little calmer. This Reaper shit makes my anxiety kick up and I can’t concentrate.”
The rest of the Estmonds had gathered around in the kitchen. It was weird. This was the first time he’d been in a room with them when they weren’t bickering. Now, they were a somber bunch and he could totally understand why.
“Don’t worry,” he told the family. “We won’t let them take the house.”
Their slow nods didn’t convince him of their confidence. However, he knew without a doubt that they would do whatever it took to protect their family, their home and their souls.
“I’m going now, I need to get back so I can pack my shit and put it in the car before the others show up.” Aiden turned and was already headed for the door when he heard Jack’s voice so he swung around to face him.
“Be careful.”
Aiden nodded at the serious remark from his friend, but tossed back a casual, “What do I look like, a pansy? I’ll be fine.” Pivoting on the toe of his boot, he tried for the door again.
He sped over the mountain, trying to make it back to the compound as quickly as he could. He wanted to make sure that he could get all his stuff out without tipping off any of those assholes.
When he finally rolled through the gate, he felt the relief wash over him. Jeez, what the hell was wrong with him lately? Where was the normal Aiden? The cool, collected killer who didn’t let shit bother him? This falling out from the Reaper society had left him a fucking emotional wreck and he hated it. He had been trained to push feelings aside, to numb himself to everything but the mission. Why couldn’t he do that now?
The driveway was a long one, with vineyards on each side. The grapes ran the length, all the way up to the wall that surrounded the compound. Another gate also blocked the way. He pulled up to it, rolled down his window and punched in his code. The gate rolled aside and opened the way.
He parked and jogged up to the front steps. When he reached out for the doorknob, the door swung open before his fingertips even touched the metal. “Young man, where have you been?”
Aiden fought a smile. Alma, the cook, had been more of a mother to him the last couple of weeks than his own mother had been his entire life.
“I’m sorry, Alma. I had to run out. It was an emergency.”
“Posh.” She set her hands on her hips. “I make you a lunch and you just leave it sitting on the counter so it can go to waste.”
“I’m sorry.” He tried hard to look sorry, but really what was going through his head was that he needed to get Alma to go to her room while the Reaper soldiers were here.
“Don’t apologize if you don’t actually mean it.” She stepped aside and let him into the house.
“Alma.” He waited for her while she eased the door shut behind them. “Did the Empress let you know that there will be guests coming in tonight?”
“Oh yes. I know all about it. I’ve been prepping supper for hours now.”
Aiden nodded. “I don’t know how long they will be here.”
“Well, they will eat, I’m sure.”
Man, she wasn’t going to want to take the evening off. He would never be able to convince her to leave when she was dead set on feeding people. Cooking and watching people enjoy her food was what she loved most.
“Well, we have a mission to go out on shortly after they get here, but we’ll be back afterward.”
“You will eat before you leave,” she called out to him as she turned off toward the kitchen, leaving him to head up the stairway by himself. He cursed her stubbornness all the way up.
In his bedroom, he checked all his weapons and threw them into one duffle bag. Then, he grabbed the few items of clothing that he had with him and tossed those into another bag. Both bags sat on the neatly made bed. He stared at them and thought how sad it was that everything he owned now fit into two duffle bags.
No, that was bullshit. He was going back for his boat someday. If he had the money he could probably arrange to have it brought over here. On that note, there wasn’t anywhere in this god forsaken place that he could put a boat in the water. Nowhere good anyway. Maybe he could set up residence in the bay area. The west coast wouldn’t be all that bad.
Shaking off the feels, he grabbed the duffle bags and pounded down the stairway. He had just hit the hardwood entryway when Alma cut him off again. “Where are you going with those bags?”
“It’s stuff we need for the mission.”
Her eyes searched him. He knew that he was a damn good liar. He had been trained to beat a fucking lie detector test, but Alma’s scathing glare told him that she knew he was not telling the truth.
“Well I wish you great success on your … mission.” She rolled her eyes and spun around, heading back to the kitchen.
“Alma, we aren’t leaving yet!”
She didn’t answer, so he opened the doors and went out to the SUV. He tossed the bags in the rear of the vehicle. He didn’t bother to cover them or anything because that would only draw more attention to them.
He had just slammed the door shut when four more vehicles rolled up to the gate.
It was time.
The next thing he knew, the cars were parked and the Reaper soldiers were all seated at the gargantuan oak table in the dining room. He didn’t know any of these guys personally. His work had been in Florida, not Napa. But he had seen some of them briefly when the shit went down at the compound before.
“All right,” Aiden began. “Before we head out, we have to eat or Alma will never give us the chance to complete this mission.”
“I can always eat.” One of the Reapers leaned back in his chair as he spoke.
Aiden nodded and pointed at him, “Good. Then you can go help Alma bring the food in. You too.” He pointed at the guy next to the one he had just addressed.
After the food was served, which happened to be enchiladas, Aiden decided it was time to get down to business. “So. This mission shouldn’t be hard. With all due respect to our Empress, I don’t know why she wanted so many to go in.” He had the attention of his fellow Reapers. “So, we will go in four vehicles. As soon as we hit the driveway, all but the drivers will exit the vehicles and head for the house on foot.”
One guy raised his hand. “How do we know that they will all be there?”
Aiden shrugged. “We don’t know and it doesn’t matter. Even if we only take out a couple of the Keepers it will be a huge hit on them. Especially with the loss of the house, if the fire can take it before the crews get there to put it out.”
The Reaper directly to his right, a scumbag with light brown hair and an old army field jacket, put his fork on his plate and pushed it away. “I don’t like that we are going in from the front. We should take the house from the woods surrounding it.”
How did he know there were woods around the Estmond place?
“The plan is set.” Aiden stared him down but the dumbass continu
ed to argue. “It doesn’t feel right. Going in from the front we are all sitting ducks, especially if the authorities get there before we can get out.”
“I agree.” One of the others piped up.
And then the obligatory few, ‘me toos’ followed.
Dammit.
“Fine.” He had to agree, if he pressed it than they would know something was up. “Fine, we will go in from the woods. They continued to discuss the plan but Aiden was only half there. Now he was worried about the change in plan. He had to warn Jack and the Keepers or they would be sitting vulnerable in the woods when the Reapers came.
After they had finished the meeting and the food was being cleared, he mumbled loudly that he had to take a piss and left the dining room. When he was safely locked away inside the bathroom, he pulled out his phone and texted Jack.
Change of plans. Coming in from the woods, defend the house.
He waited a moment, but there was no reply.
Dammit Jack, check your fucking phone.
Well, he couldn’t stay in the loo forever so he flushed the toilet, even though he hadn’t gone, then exited the room. He found the asshole with the field jacket on standing right outside the door, leaning on the doorframe.
“Everything okay?” the asshole asked.
Aiden glared at him. “Were you trying to hear what I was doing in there?”
The guy shook his head. “That’s disgusting.”
“Then don’t ask about it.”
“Look man, if you have a problem …”
Aiden cut him off before he could say anymore. “You need to watch your mouth. You may not work with me on the daily, but I’m still in charge. You defied my orders earlier and I’m giving you a chance, that’s more than I give a lot of people.”
The guy’s mouth fell open for about two seconds and then he snapped it shut. “I speak my mind when I believe something is wrong. I don’t want to put our men in danger because of a poor decision.”
Aiden took a step closer to the guy. “Regardless, they are my decisions to make.” Leaving the guy with those last words, he strode into the front room and yelled. “Let’s hit the road.”
Liv zipped up her hoodie and lifted the hood over her head. The fall had brought the chill into the air. It was almost cold enough that she may have needed a jacket, but if she ended up having to fight she didn’t want to be hindered by a bulky coat.
“Quit breathing so hard,” Dan’s voice came out of the darkness.
“I’m not,” she whispered back.
“I wonder how long we are going to have to wait.”
Liv sighed. Of course she had gotten paired with Dan. Sometimes it seemed like the guy never stopped talking. “Probably not long.”
“Are you scared?” her brother asked in a low voice.
“Yes,” she admitted.
“I am too.”
“It’s going to be all right. We’re going to win this.” As soon as the words slipped past her lips, she realized that she was saying it to reassure not only her brother, but herself.
“Yeah, we win it and then it’s right on to the next attack and then one after. It’s never going to end.”
She nodded, absentmindedly pulling one of her knives from the sheath at her hip. “Maybe not. But this is what we do.”
There was silence for a few minutes and then Dan answered softly. “I want to quit sometimes. You guys are the only thing that keep me around.”
Liv knew there was truth to that. Her brother had been through a lot in the last few years. “I know, Dan. None of us would blame you if you did leave, though.”
“I won’t. As much as I want to start a new life somewhere else, this is my home.”
Liv didn’t answer. Of course she didn’t want her brother to leave them. They were family, and with the Estmonds, that meant a hell of a lot. But, sometimes he seemed like he was suffering so much. It was hard to watch him go through the motions every day … and the drinking, that was another story. Only he could help himself with that problem.
She gripped her knife tightly and looked up into the night’s sky. It was clear, with stars twinkling down at them and a half moon resting brightly against the darkness.
“I saw that Reaper checking out your ass today.”
Whoa, change of subject much. “What?” she hissed.
“Yeah, I wasn’t the only one. James caught him doing it. The bastard didn’t even have the courtesy to act embarrassed or anything.
“What does this have to do with anything?”
Dan shrugged. “Nothing. But it’s more fun to talk about than that other stuff.”
“This is not fun to talk about.” Even as she denied it, she could feel the heat flaming in her cheeks.
“So he’s going to stay with you. You want me to stay with you too?”
“Jeez Dan. No, I can handle him. Now shut up.” She released a long, irritated breath.
A twig or something snapped off to their right somewhere. Liv shot to her feet and held her knife in a position that would allow her to plunge it into an enemy. Dan followed suit and withdrew his knife as well.
Liv turned to Dan and held her finger to her lips. Another snap and then she realized that whoever was out there was only a few feet away. She stood stock still, too nervous even to risk breathing.
Another couple of seconds and the shadow appeared in front of her. Instinctively, she swung out with her knife before the intruder could attack. But before she knew it, a strong hand wrapped around her wrist, preventing the knife from doing any damage. “Hey.” Jack’s voice hissed.
“Jack?”
“Yeah, it’s me, and you should be more careful. That could have been one of your brothers or sisters.” He pushed back the hood of his sweatshirt, revealing his shimmering red aura.
Dammit, he was right. She could have hurt someone.
“Put your hood back up,” she whispered, afraid that he might be spotted.
Dan stepped in beside her. “But it could have been a Reaper, too. She did the right thing.”
“It was a Reaper, idiot,” Jack whispered. “But we don’t have time for this. Aiden texted a while ago that they are coming in from the woods. We can’t be separated out here with that many Reapers headed this way.”
“Dammit.” Dan cursed. “Let’s go.”
Jack raised his hood back up over his head and the three of them hurried back to the house to meet up with the others.
Liv just wanted the night to be over with. Waiting around to be attacked, to fight … it was a nightmare. Nevertheless, she huddled with everyone else at the side of the house where they could see both the woods and the road.
“They should be here any time,” Jack whispered, pulling Lucy back into the shadows of the house. “We should all hide better.”
“Screw that,” Liv blurted, surprising everyone, but mostly herself. “What?” She moved her gaze from person to person. “I’m sick of hiding. If they want us … if they want our house, then they are going to have to go through me to get either. We need to show them that we aren’t hiding anymore.”
Dan rolled his eyes. “You’d think that they would’ve gotten the hint during the fight at the Napa house when they took Lucy.”
“Yeah,” Jack nodded. “You would think that. But we are talking about my mother’s army. Reapers who have dedicated their servitude. They will do as she says.”
“I’m still fighting for my family and my home. This is our turf. They don’t get to win here.”
“There are too many, Liv. We probably won’t win.”
Irritated, she glared at him. “You’re so negative. We can win.”
“Dammit, you stubborn ass woman. They are trained soldiers.”
“I don’t give a crap.”
David slid his arms around Hannah, encircling her in his embrace. “I could make some calls and have several police cars out here in a matter of minutes. They wouldn’t risk it if there are cops everywhere.”
“No.” Greg shook his
head. “That’s too risky, we have guns, we have knives, we have friggin crossbows. The last thing we need is to worry about having to answer a million and one questions.”
“Not to mention Hannah just got accused of murder,” Liv pointed out. “The last thing we need is more attention on her after that.”
“You’re right. Not worth it,” David agreed.
“Listen.” Lucy held up her hand for them to be silent and tilted her head, “Do you hear that?”
Silence fell heavily around them. Only sounds of the night could be heard. Crickets chirped and frogs croaked in a strange alternating melody, as if they had composed the song ahead of time. Then, suddenly, a snap echoed through the darkness and Liv knew without a doubt that the Reapers had arrived.
Her palm was already resting on the hilt of her knife and she slid it free from the sheath. Without a word, the others moved up on each side of her until they formed a half circle facing the woods.
Regardless of if they were ready or not, the time to fight had come.
Liv’s breath caught as the shimmering red auras appeared like fire against the darkness. The auras moved closer and closer until they were completely free from the cover of the trees.
“Shit,” Greg whispered, eyes on the Reapers.
Unable to find her voice to agree with him, Liv simply gripped her knife and stepped forward silently. The rest of the group followed suit. They were going to defend themselves and their home, no matter what.
She’d only taken a few steps when she caught sight of Aiden. He was at the front of the pack, standing beside a Reaper who was wearing one of those old Army jackets that looked like it was from the 70s.
She watched him as his cold, calculating gaze slid over each of the Keepers and then finally met with hers. He executed the slightest nod, signaling to her that he was still with them. Not looking away from the approaching Reapers she inhaled long and deep, then released and whispered, “I love you guys.”
A series of whispers returned her sentiment and then she stepped forward. Silence saturated the night between the two factions. There was no need to speak. Each group knew what the other was there for so talking trash seemed a little out of place.
Keeper Under Fire (Graveyard Guardians Book 3) Page 3
