Reaper
“So nothin’ else to report then?” Ryker glances around the table, but nobody speaks up. “Good.” He lifts the gavel and brings it down on the table, officially calling an end to our weekly church meeting. “Now get the fuck outta here.”
One by one, the room empties. I keep my seat, watching as they push and shove, and laugh at their own jokes, acting like a bunch of happy teenagers on their way to a party. It’s a welcome sight. For too long, this club has been under fire from enemy clubs and gangs, and we’ve lost a lot in the process. Losing our president, Gunner, a couple months ago had been the final straw for all of us.
The stresses of this club have been overwhelming, and it’s nice to see everyone finally relaxed and enjoying their lives. Since Ryker got rid of the drug running our club had once relied on for income, we have officially become a club with legit and legal means of bringing in a steady flow of cash. We still have our share of questionable dealings, of course, but things have been better now that we’re on the up-and-up.
I thought everything would settle down, but after talking to Sharon yesterday, I realize things aren’t quite over for me. I now have a pile of personal shit to deal with, in the form of my ex-wife from hell. I can’t believe that bitch has been bleeding her elderly mother for money all these years. Since our divorce, I’ve been busting my ass to take care of a mother-in-law, who wasn’t even technically my mother-in-law anymore, and this whole time, Laurie’s been milking her for her life savings.
“Everything okay?”
The voice tears me from my thoughts, and I look up to see Tease standing at the door, his eyes on me. The room is empty now, and I can hear the boys gearing up for a party in the other room. Standing, I walk over to the almost empty basket we dump our cell phones in at the beginning of each meeting and grab mine.
“Yeah, man. Just need to talk to Ryk about a couple things.”
Tease and I walk out together and into the bar area of the clubhouse. “He left already,” he says, taking a stool at the bar and accepting a beer from the prospect behind it. “Said something about Anna finally being out of the house for the night and wanting to be alone with Charlotte.”
My body tenses at the name of yet another woman that has rained hell down on my life, and not just my life, but the lives of everyone I care about. “Anna? What the fuck is Anna still doing at their house?”
Tease shrugs. “She’s been staying with them since Gunner’s funeral. Said she’s trying to rebuild her life, whatever the hell that means. She got her old job back at the bar. Ryk said her first shift back is tonight.”
With every word he says, my entire body tightens to the point that I can’t move. Blood pounds through my body, the sound of it thrumming in my ears as I try to comprehend what he’s telling me. After the whole shitshow with Anna and the club she’d gotten involved with, Gunner had arranged for her to stay with anotherChapter of the Kings in Montreal, a couple of hours away. From what I’d heard, she was doing well there, and I’d assumed she’d stay with them, allowing the rest of us to get on with our lives. I’d seen her at Gunner’s funeral, but had no idea she was still here.
“She hasn’t fucking left?” My voice is gruff, my words clipped and filled with disbelief.
Tease doesn’t take his eyes off me as he takes a swig of his beer. “She’s not planning to.”
Fuck. As if dealing with Laurie and her shit isn’t enough, now Anna is back and ready to wreak havoc on the club once again. Laurie and Anna are one and the same, both of them selfish liars, willing to take out anyone to get what they want with no regard for the disasters they leave in their wake.
Not if I have anything to say about it, though. Laurie is my problem, and I’ll find a way to deal with her, but Anna is another story. She’s a problem for the Kings of Korruption, and I won’t let her destroy this club like she’d almost done the last time she was around. I won’t let her destroy Ryker and his wife. She needs to go.
Without a word, I turn from the bar and stalk toward the door. I’m almost outside when a hand clamps down on my arm. “Where’re you goin’, man?”
I turn and glance back at Tease over my shoulder. “That bitch and I are going to have a little heart-to-heart.”
Tease releases my arm and sighs. “Not a good idea. Reap, this is Ryk’s problem, not yours. Let it go.”
I narrow my eyes and glare at him. “The last time this bitch gave Ryk a problem, his wife was kidnapped and people died. She’s a problem for all of us.”
I don’t wait around for his reply. Slamming my hands into the door, I whip it open and head straight for my bike.
Anna
It’s been almost a year, and not a damn thing has changed at the Pig’s Ear Tavern: same menu, same rustic tables, same patrons. Even most of the staff are the same, with the only addition being Darla, a plucky redhead with bright green eyes and a sharp tongue. I like her instantly, and within an hour of my shift starting, we’re working like a well-oiled team; me tending bar, her waiting tables.
I’ve done a lot of soul-searching over the last year. My time with the Montreal Chapter of the Kings had been one of the best things that ever happened to me. I’d shown up there as a woman with an endless trail of past mistakes behind her, and no idea how to disentangle myself from the wreckage I’d made of my life. Knox had helped with that.
Before I even had a chance to get settled into my life there, he’d taken me under his wing. At one point, I even thought we loved each other, but it hadn’t been the right kind of love. Knox taught me that I needed to let go of my past and learn to love myself first. That’s still a major work in progress for me, but he’d managed to put a crack in the wall I’d built around myself, something that no one before him had even tried to do. When I’d finally realized it was time to make amends with my sister and start taking care of myself, he’d been the first to wish me luck with a bear hug and a kiss on the cheek.
After deciding to take this job back, I worried it would be a backslide into the world I needed to escape, but a quick phone call with Knox reminded me that I’m the one in control now. I’m the only one that can stop my own progress, and if working here at the bar is going to help me to be independent for the first time ever, I’m the only one that can backslide anywhere. I have the power to change my life.
“Two whisky sours and a Bud,” Darla calls from the other side of the counter.
I blink myself back to the here and now and get to work on her order. The bar is insanely busy, filled almost to capacity with the Friday night crowd. I used to hate it when it was busy like this, but now, the new me is finding that I quite like it. It keeps me occupied, taking my mind off my own thoughts for the first time in a long time.
I place the drinks on Darla’s tray and grin back at her as she turns and sashays through the throng of people. Moving down the line, I fill order after order, making change and tucking tips into the jar we keep behind the counter. That jar alone will help me get out of Ryker and Char’s house, if we have more nights like this.
Seeing a shadow to my left, I turn to take the person’s order and my heart stops.
“What the fuck are you still doin’ here, Anna?”
Reaper somehow manages to be one of the scariest sons of bitches I’ve ever laid eyes on, yet he’s also one of the most rugged, sexiest men I’ve ever seen. My body always has a contradictory response to being around him, but the growl in his voice and the hate in his eyes put an end to that with the fear I feel taking control.
“I’m staying with Charlotte until—”
His face twists in disbelief as he yells across the counter at me. “Are you shittin’ me?”
Okay, Anna. Breathe. He’s not going to hurt you. He’s angry, and you earned that anger. Taking a deep breath, I calmly try to explain myself again. “I’m staying with Charlotte until I get enough money to get my own place.”
He slams his hands down on the bar, causing the drinks nearby to shake and slosh over the edges. My body jerks as I stare back at him, wide-eyed.
“You stupid bitch,” he snarls. “You have some balls coming back here after you fucked over your sister like you did.”
Does he think I don’t know that? Does he think I’m not sorry for everything I’ve done? I straighten and stare him straight in the eyes. “Charlotte forgave me.” I don’t know if she really, truly has, but she seems accepting of my presence, and whenever I try to bring it up, she shushes me and tells me it’s in the past. To me, that’s forgiveness, and very Charlotte.
His eyes narrow. “Yeah, she forgave you. She forgave you too fuckin’ easy. Your sister has a soft heart.” I can feel the tears burning my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall, waiting for him to say his piece and go. He doesn’t disappoint. “I can’t believe Ryker agreed to let a whore like you stay in his home. If some piece of toxic pussy tried to sell my old lady off to pay off her credit card debts, I’d rip her fuckin’ spine out of her asshole and piss on what was left. You need to go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and never come back.”
His words are like bullets to the paper-thin confidence I’ve managed to build up, ripping through it and bleeding me from the inside out. Trying again to sound firm, I square my shoulders and force myself to speak. “I’m not going anywhere, Reaper. Charlotte’s giving me a chance to make things right, and I’m not going to leave just because you want me to.” And I’m not. He can wound me with his sharp tongue all he wants, but I won’t run away from him. He’s scary, but I’ve dealt with scary more than he’ll ever know.
He jabs his finger in my direction, his voice getting lower, his eyes flaming. “I want to make something perfectly clear here, woman. Skanky bitches like you are like poison to an MC. Ryker won’t send you packin’ because he loves his woman, but I won’t stop until you’re gone. I refuse to let you fuck up what we have here. Charlotte and Ryker are happy. You do anything to change that, you better pray I never get my hands on your scrawny ass. We clear, bitch?”
Pain forms in the back of my throat as he spews out his hateful words, and a traitorous tear escapes my eye and trails down my cheek. “I’m trying to change,” I whisper, my words sounding strangled as I force them out.
“Whores never change,” he spits out before turning and stalking out of the bar.