Bloodlines: The Reapers Book Three

by Bo Reid

  Kesden turns around and heads into the diner, and when he comes out, he has a bundle of cut straws in his hand. He holds his hand out to the guys who each pull a straw. When they hold out their hands to reveal their picks, Aether groans when he sees he has the short straw.

  I guess it isn’t always winning when it comes to me.

  “Oh, goodie, family bonding,” I quip.

  “Okay, how else do we pair off?” Kesden asks.

  “Ranger and Hunter. Kesden and Talin.”

  “Oh, this will be fun,” Kesden rolls his eyes.

  I pull my phone out and split up the list into three parts, texting Ranger and Talin their sections, before slipping my phone back into my pocket.

  “Twelve hours, radio silence till then,” I instruct, and I can see the way they all look at me with worry creasing their features.

  I step up to Ranger and crash my mouth to his; he grips my hips and nips my lip. “I love you,” he whispers when we break apart.

  Next, I turn to Hunter and do the same; he lifts me in his arms and crashes my back against the side of the building. “Be safe, Pretty Girl,” he whispers as I slide down his body.

  Talin wraps me up into a hug, placing a soft kiss on my lips. “See you soon,” he whispers.

  When I turn to walk away, a hand wraps around my wrist, pulling me backward into a firm chest. Before I realize it, I’m being dipped backward, and Kesden’s lips crash against mine. I reach up and grip his neck as he works his mouth over mine. I hear a chorus of male groans behind me before Kesden sets me back on my feet.

  “I thought you didn’t share,” I say breathlessly.

  “You might be worth sharing,” he whispers before brushing my hair from my face. “Come back bloodier, Little Miss Murder,” he says with a smirk.

  I wink. “Always.”

  Chapter 17: Parivaar

  Ranger

  I watch Morana walk down the street already bickering with Aether, and I can feel pain starting to radiate in my chest the farther away she walks. Hunter bumps into my shoulder, and I shake away the haze caused by the pain in my heart; we have a job to do, but first, I have something personal to take care of.

  Turning around, I march over to where Talin and Kesden are already arguing about their portion of the list. I honestly don’t know how Talin is going to get through this part of the trip, let alone how he is going to manage to do it partnered up with Kesden.

  I know why she did it this way, Talin is the least likely person to kill Kesden off and claim it was an accident. Hunter would push him into a fucking well and say he fell. I would just strangle him and lick her pussy until she forgave me for it. I reach out and grip Kesden by the shoulder, leading him off the sidewalk and into the small alley separating the diner and the small building next door to it.

  “Ah, the boss is gone, so we’re doing this now?” Kesden chuckles and holds his hands up, a smile growing across his face.

  “What do you want with her?” I growl.

  He shrugs. “Same thing you do, I suppose.”

  “I don’t like you,” I seethe as I look him over, attempting to reign in my temper that hasn’t gotten the better of me like this in years.

  “You don’t have to like me, feeling is pretty mutual, big man.”

  We square off in the small alley, neither ready to make the first move as we look each other over.

  “So how are we doing this? If you expect me to lay down and take a beating to prove myself, you came to the wrong person, I always fight back,” he grits through clenched teeth.

  “You going to fight for her?” Hunter asks, stepping up beside me.

  “I’m doing this for me, not her,” Kesden spits.

  “What?” Talin asks, stepping up and pushing me out of the way. “Explain,” he demands.

  “I’m going to go on this little killing spree for two reasons, it seems fun,” he shrugs, ticking that off on his hand. “And because as soon as they’re all gone, I can leave.”

  “And you have no intention of leaving with us?” Hunter asks, confused.

  “You’re pretty, Hunter, but you’re not my type,” Kesden remarks, and I roll my eyes.

  “He means you have no intention of leaving with Morana with us. You don’t want to go back home with us,” I point out, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “Naw, I might have needed a little help to get rid of all the people I need to in order to get out of here, but I don’t need to get trapped in another place after I leave this one.”

  I watch him as he stands across from us in the alleyway, casually leaning one shoulder against the brick wall of the diner. I take my time studying his face for any ticks that give away his true intentions, but as far as I can tell, that's really all he wants from us, a one-way ticket out of this town and to an undisclosed location.

  “Fine,” I agree, “but you try anything that hurts my girl,” I growl, stepping up to him and pushing him back into the wall, “I’ll leave your body in so many pieces, they’ll never be able to find all of it,” I growl.

  “Looking forward to it,” he winks.

  I drop my hold of him, growling as I turn and stalk out of the alleyway with Hunter falling into step beside me.

  “Think he meant that?” he asks me.

  “I think he thinks that's really what he wants.”

  “And you think differently?” Hunter asks.

  “When was the last time someone willingly walked away from our girl?” I ask, turning to look at him.

  He nods as a smile pulls at his lips. “Good point.”

  Chapter 18: Obitelj

  Kesden

  “Never thought you’d be down for this,” I remark as Talin breaks another biker’s neck. I watch Chad drop to his face on the floor; I never liked him much anyway. I mean, if I’m being honest, I never cared for any of this crew; they were never worth my time.

  “It’s for her,” he grumbles, opening drawers in the old house until he finds a rag to wipe the blood from his hands.

  “Still, murder is a pretty big thing to do for someone else, not something most people would willingly do.”

  “Not my first time.”

  “Come on, man, a little conversation between slashing wouldn't kill you,” I grumble.

  “Why are you doing this?” he asks.

  “Kicks?”

  “Kesden, seriously, why are you here? You said you have no plans to leave with us, so why bother to help?”

  I lean against the counter, crossing my arms over my chest and staring at him. I could lie, I could come up with a list of fake-as-fuck reasons why I’m here, or I can just tell the truth.

  “This life isn’t really what I wanted, the club, the payouts, the petty crimes, it's just not what I want,” I shrug.

  “But you have no problem with the murder,” he deadpans.

  “Murder doesn’t bother me, blood makes me happy,” I say with false glee. “I have no issues with murder in general, no. I have a problem with the scare tactics my father has always enforced to keep his reign. I might have been young when we left Sanorah, but that doesn’t mean I don’t remember things.”

  “Like what?” Talin asks.

  “I remember Aeron Valdis, he controlled everything, but he did it in a way that the people loved him, worshipped him. He wasn't seen as a gritty crime lord, he was an upstanding member of the community, and he kept the streets clean and crime out of town. They saw him as the reason they could leave their doors unlocked and why their kids could walk down the street safely. Here? Here my dad is the reason doors have three locks, and kids don't walk anywhere alone. People are scared here; it's power, but a very different kind of power.”

  Talin is silent as he thinks over my words, “do you remember her?” he finally asks.

  “I didn’t, but pieces started to come back since you guys got here. I remember her and her brother, I wasn’t around them much, but I saw them at a few events.”

  “What was she like? Back then, I mean, as a kid?” he a
sks softly.

  I think back to the few memories I have of Morana as a small child; I was six when we left, she and Hades were about three. We only had a few meetings, but I still remember her.

  “They were different, her and Hades,” I start, feeling a smile pulling at the corner of my lips. “Hades used to run around, he would talk to anyone and everyone, hung around their mom mostly, like with the other kids while the men were discussing whatever they were running that week. Morana, though…” I pause thinking back to the one time I actually talked to her.

  “I remember once we were at some kind of barbeque event, and I watched as Morana walked across the lawn towards Aeron. Sneaking between the adults, no one even paid attention to her, but I couldn't take my eyes off of her. When she got to the circle of mob bosses, she squeezed in between two men, carefully pushing them aside, and strode right over to Aeron, who, without missing a beat, bent down and picked her up, propped her on his side and just kept talking. She leaned against his shoulder as if she was tired, but I watched her eyes tracking each man that would talk. It was like she was calculating who was important and who wasn't, even at three. She was quiet, she didn’t beg her dad for attention like other kids might, she didn’t fuss, it was like she wasn't even there. She was made to run things.” We’re quiet, and Talin looks to be lost in his own world, stuck in thoughts of a mob queen. I don’t push him; there’s no point, I just wait him out. Until my phone pings, I pull it out and flip open a text from Ty.

  Ty: They have your girl.

  Kesden: What?

  Ty: You need to get to your dad’s house now.

  Kesden: What are you talking about?

  Kesden: Ty fucking answer me.

  “Yeah?” I hear Talin say, and I look up to see his phone pressed to his ear.

  “We’re on our way,” he says into the phone and waves his hand to me as he turns to leave the house.

  “What’s going on?” I ask as we walk to my truck.

  “That was Nash. Your dad has Morana and Aether at his house; we need to go… Now.”

  I start my truck, taking a deep breath before I put it in gear and barrel out of the driveway. Heading across town with my heart in my fucking throat as I imagine all the things my dad could do to my girl… No, not my girl. She’s not mine.

  But if she isn’t mine, why does it feel like she is?

  “If I find out you had anything to do with this, you’re going to wish I would kill you.”

  Chapter 19: Jiātíng

  Hunter

  “I really fucking hate this,” I say as I wipe the blood from my blade. “Can’t we just burn this place down like we did to the Fallen Angels and be done. I want my girl.”

  “Our girl,” Ranger corrects as he wrenches his knife from the skull of a dead MC member.

  “Right, big man, sorry, our girl,” I say, rolling my eyes.

  “Don’t call me that,” he growls, and I laugh at how frustrated he is.

  I don’t care for Kesden much either, but to be honest, he isn’t so bad. As far as we can tell, he has been honest with us. About his crazy, and his intentions to attempt to steal our girl away. Which isn’t going to fucking happen.

  Well, okay, I'm not going to lie, I have put a little bit of thought into that scenario. What if Morana likes being with someone who understands her fully? Would she really leave us? God, I fucking hope not, I don’t think any of us would survive without her. She is what keeps us together. She is the peace that keeps us from losing control of our own monsters.

  We might not be as unhinged as Morana or Kesden; we might not have a monster beating and thrashing inside of us, begging to be let out, to spill blood. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a little darkness inside of each of us that we’re scared to let out.

  In order to survive life as a Valdis, you have to have a little bit of darkness, or else the guilt would eat you alive. We developed our monsters to survive.

  Morana has spent her whole life trying to calm and tame her monster, and sometimes she is able to. Other times the stress of trying not to kill someone nearly kills her. I, for one, do not want to find out how we would be if our own darkness were unleashed without our girl to help us control the beasts.

  It’s almost like being there for Morana, being able to help calm her monster down has made it, so we don’t put enough energy into our own monsters. So they don’t grow and get out of control. If we no longer had to be there to control our girl — or try to — there is no telling what kind of havoc our own demons could unleash.

  “Who’s left?” I ask.

  Ranger pulls out his phone, flipping through the list. “Five more to go; two deputies and three more Shay members.”

  “Well, let's go get this over with.”

  “You think Morana killed Aether yet?” Ranger asks.

  “Killed? Naw, but she has definitely threatened to.”

  “At least twice,” Ranger laughs, and I smile, sounds about right.

  “Truth or Dare?” I ask, grinning at Morana.

  “Dare.”

  I tip back the bottle of Jack we have been passing around, wiping my mouth with the back of my sleeve. The whiskey burns as it coats my throat, but it's one of the only things Morana will drink, one of the only types of fire she enjoys. I’d love to give her another kind of fire to enjoy, the kind that comes from having my tongue pressed against her clit.

  And I’m drunk as fuck.

  “I dare you to kiss me,” I issue the challenge, the whiskey making me brave. I should have stopped drinking eight shots ago, but here we are.

  Morana rolls her eyes but gets up from her place across from me. Walking around the table, she settles herself into my lap, and my hands instantly grip her hips. Right here is where I have always wanted her to be; if only I could have this all the time.

  I can feel Ranger glaring at me, but I’m too focused on the girl on my lap to care. How can she not see how much I want her, all the things I would do to have her, for her to just be mine.

  She leans forward, running her hands through my hair before gripping it, wrenching my head back and crashing her lips to mine. She works her lips over mine, and I feel a spark shoot through me, down to my very soul. When I open my mouth, inviting her in, she bites down on my bottom lip; I taste the blood before she runs her tongue along the nick and stands up far too soon.

  Giggling as she makes her retreat back to her place on the other side of the table. I can feel my lips spreading into a dopey, lovesick grin, but I don’t care.

  “Ow!” I yell when I feel Ranger kick my shin under the table, but he simply smirks. Morana grabs the bottle chugging a good portion of it before slamming it back down on the table.

  “Night boys,” she says, standing. She sways slightly on her feet, and Ranger darts his hand out to steady her while she just laughs and bats his hand away.

  I watch her walk down the hallway, swaying from side to side. The melodic sounds of her singing “I Feel A Sin Comin’ On” by Pistol Annies, drift down the hallway — her voice like a siren song calling me to her.

  “Ow!” I yell, reaching down to run my hand along my shin, where Ranger delivered another kick.

  “What the fuck was that?!” he demands.

  “Would you guys cut it out?” Nash groans, resting his head in his hands.

  “What? She picked dare,” I shrug like I didn’t just get the one thing we have both wanted for years: a kiss from our girl.

  “Stupid fucker,” Ranger grumbles before standing and making his way down the hall. “At least my room's closer to hers!” he calls over his shoulder, and I groan, resting my head on the table.

  “For fuck’s sake, why don’t you guys just tell her and let her pick, or let you out of your misery,” Nash suggests.

  “Because if she doesn’t know, she can’t reject us. Her not knowing is better than her outright rejecting one of us,” I sigh. “Plus, whoever she didn’t pick would probably kill the one she did pick.”

  Nash laughs, sh
aking his head. “True.”

  Rangers’ swift punch to the shoulder has me shaking my head clear of thoughts of my girl before she was mine to claim. He motions to the crew that just pulled up to the bar; it looks like our list just got a little longer.

  We wait in different corners of the clubhouse, ready to take down the crew about to walk through the doors. A few guys step through the doors laughing and slapping each other on the backs.

  I go to make my first move, but I’m stopped dead in my tracks when I hear what they’re laughing over.

  “He’s going to teach that little girl a lesson.”

  “I still can't believe they were able to get her, though. I’ve heard the stories; she’s a legend down in California.”

  “Yeah, my brother has even heard of her, and he is clear down in LA.”

  “I thought the Kane girl ran most of California now?”

  “She does, but apparently she either has a soft spot for Valdis or this chick scares even her.”

  I look across the room, and when my eyes meet Rangers, he mouths, “Amber?” and I nod my head in agreement.

  I know that right now we’re about to get very bloody, then we’re going to save our girl.

  We both move from our hiding spots advancing on the small group of men. We manage to take four of them down before they even realize we’re here. But I’m clocked across the jaw by another guy. I stumble backward, but when I look up, I can hardly see through the red haze surrounding me.

  Is this what Morana feels? Is this what it means to be a monster?

  I rush the guy, tackling him to the ground and raising my fists before pounding them into his face. I don’t stop until his face is completely unrecognizable. When I look over, Ranger is hovering over the last man, his chest rising and falling as he tries to suck air into his lungs.

  When he turns to look at me, we both stand without a single word. Moving towards the front door of the bar, I grab a stray gas can and walk back inside. I start pouring gasoline on the bodies littering the bar floor. When it's empty, and the bodies are coated, I throw the empty gas can down in the center of the room.