Chapter 38 Reeve Hardy
Chapter thirty-eight
Reeve Hardy
Lioness — Daughtry
My eyes flutter open to Titan’s snores.
The room is dim, but an orange glow pulses against the closed window. I stretch my arms above my head and get out of bed. That sleepy dog doesn’t even bother to look at me as I exit the wooden door frame.
I walk through the hallway into an open-concept kitchen and living room. The clock on the wall to my left turns 6:48 pm.
Winona sits on an island stool. Her greasy fingers hold a burger in one hand and a few fries in the other.
She shoves them in her mouth without a care, softly moaning as the flavors explode in her mouth.
Mitch smiles from ear to ear on a stool opposite her.
Braxton strides from the couch toward us, setting his steamy mug of coffee on the island counter and slapping Mitch’s ankles off it with a smirk.
Inching closer to Winona, I kiss the top of her head as she takes another bite. “I forgot to tell you how proud I am of you. Thanks for having my back.”
“Reeve…” a coy smile on her face.
“Good morning. How did you sleep, Mon chéri?” Mitch gives me his usual shit-eating grin with a dose of sass.
“Better with you not around,” Braxton says with a hint of sarcasm, sipping his coffee.
“You wish I put you to sleep,” Mitch retorts.
“I’d rather let Mona strangle me to sleep.”
“Kinky. Splendid.”
“He learned a few new words and thinks he knows the entire English vocabulary.”
Mitch flips him off.
I roll my eyes at them as they keep dissing, then turn my attention back to Winona.
“How are you feeling?”
“I just ate a burger the size of my head and got some rest.” Her voice is muffled as she shoves the last bite into her mouth. “I feel fantastic.”
“Are you sure it’s not the meds?” Mitch tunes in again, unable to shut his mouth for a second.
“Shut up.” Winona grabs a kitchen towel and throws it on his face.
I chuckle at that and prop my forearms on the counter beside her. Even though I held her hand when she got stitches and made sure she was okay and had everything she needed before I went to sleep, my heart hates the fact that I didn’t hold her longer.
“Are you okay?“ she asks. “Had a good sleep?”
“Yeah, I collapsed pretty fast.”
“You were so high. But cute high.”
I gaze into her dreamy eyes and bite my bottom lip. “Oh, yeah, I was still charming?”
“Always.” She beams.
That woman is my weakness and the best thing that’s ever happened to me. She ignites me in ways that no one will ever understand.
We understand.
A smile spreads across my face, but something else scrapes it—something James said.
“What’s on your mind?” Winona asks, already sensing the underlying cause of my tense posture.
“Something James mentioned,” I pause for a moment, watching her brows knit together as she shakes her head gently to get me talking. “I was born in London. My parents are British.”
“You could’ve had a posh accent, Reeve Hardy.“ Amusement colors her voice as she tries to make a British accent and fails miserably. Laughter still consumes me because she does this to cheer me up and pull me out of those thoughts. She knows exactly how I feel. “I can picture that.”
“That would have been something.” My words trail off. “They just used me because they blamed the world for what it did to them.”
“It’s okay,” she places her hand on mine, “I got you.”
That silent reassurance of “you can fall apart and I’ll catch you and hold you until you feel better” speaks louder than words.
My heart goes out to her because she will never meet her birth parents. She will never know who they are or get closure. Maybe they’re still waiting for her somewhere.
“I’m sorry,”
“Don’t be,” she replies, “We’ve got each other.”
Our faces are just an inch apart. I crush my lips to hers, desperate to feel her.
To touch her. To lick her. To love her. I put up so many walls before she entered my life, but she knocked them all down effortlessly.
She accepted me from the start, with all my faults and the blood on my hands.
Winona stitched all the pieces together one by one, carefully, lovingly, until I was whole again.
I’ve belonged to her since the day I was born. The stars knew it; all they needed was to align our worlds so we could become… us again.
As we pull away from each other with a smitten grin, the front door unlocks, and Romina steps inside. Her heels click against the floor gracefully, but her serious expression tells me bad news has just entered the kitchen.
She lets out a heavy sigh and causes us all to exchange looks. Concern and confusion hang on a tightrope, and I feel we’re about to walk it blindfolded.
My eyes narrow as she opens her mouth to say, “I have something important to share with you. Izzy will explain it better.” She puts her phone on speaker and places it on the counter. Tension coils in my stomach. “Izzy, you’re on speaker phone.”
My eyes land on Romina. She pinches the bridge of her nose before her hand reaches up to remove the sunglasses from the top of her head. She’s restless. I can tell.
“Hey guys, so I’ll cut to the chase. This morning, America experienced a massive cyberattack that caused a series of disturbances.
Stolen data, leaks, downtime of critical services, property damage, and death.
It’s still ongoing. Right now, all I know is that a series of deadly games threatens to put everyone’s lives at risk. ”
“That’s a prank, right?” Mitch asks, his face paling.
“I’m afraid not. They call themselves The Creators. My guess is the Halloween Killers are them. Different name, same people.”
James’ words suddenly struck me.
“Welcome to the new world, son.” He swings a knife from side to side, the blade slicing the thin air between us. “Maybe you can’t restart your shitty life, but you can restart everything else. We’re all monsters underneath.”
“What scale are we talking about?” Braxton asks next. “Is it spreading?”
“I don’t know yet. Seems to me that they’re focusing on North and South America for now.”
“Post-apocalypse, I knew it,” Mitch murmurs. “Next, they’re going to do experiments and whatnot.”
“I’m trying not to go there because I still don’t know their goal or how deep this goes, but when I have more information, I’ll let you know.”
I feel like I’ve lived so many lives already and… now this.
“What are we going to do?”
“We can’t go back.”
Mitch and Braxton finish each other’s sentences. Their tired eyes flick from side to side as they try to read our faces.
“You have two choices,” Izzy continues, “you come here and you fight, and we have no idea what we’re fighting up against, or you never come back.”
We pause for a few moments to let that sink in.
Who would have guessed that the secrets hiding in the darkest corners of Salem, Massachusetts, would eventually lead to the end of everything we know?
Romina ends the call when Izzy says she has to go.
She pulls up a stool and drops onto the seat.
“There will always be evil in the world, no matter how much we try to cleanse it. I’m not going back.
However, I’ll ensure you get there if you want to join Izzy.
Again, we don’t know what we’re up against. It could end in a few days or last for months or years.
I am obligated to tell you that it’s dangerous, and they threaten to kill people who exit the borders. They have eyes and ears everywhere.”
“Grandma, you’re stepping out?”
“No. I feel like I’m useful out here without a cyberattack.
I can snoop around and maybe find some leads.
It might spread, so time is of the essence.
I’m seventy-three years old. I’m too old for this shit.
” She chuckles, and we join her. “I leave BLACKBIRD to the younger generation. I’ll help from the sidelines. They don’t need me anymore.”
“We’ll always need you.”
The four of us chant together.
“So, what’s it going to be?” She quickly redirects us back to the main issue, Romina-style. “Who’s coming to Germany with me?”