42. Chapter 42
I’m still straightening my shirt, when Reaper and I step out of the cooler, but there’s nothing I can do about the satisfied grin on my face. Sure, I know we didn’t get anywhere near heaven, but his greeting was every girl’s dream come true.
Red looks over at us. He’s leaning against a wall scooping ice cream and chocolate sauce out of a bowl.
“Hey!” I say to Faux-Ramsey as he comes out of the cooler with a flat of eggs. “How come he gets to eat?”
Faux-Ramsey raises an eyebrow. “Because he’s not annoying.”
Red grins at me. Reaper tenses.
I grab his arm. “It’s okay. I can sometimes be annoying.” I asses the area. “Where did Lavender go?”
“She’s at the bar. Drinking a margherita I think,” Red says. “We headin’ to the hospital yet?”
“Fuck,” Reaper says. “Was so happy to see X, I forgot.”
“I don’t need a hospital, just maybe something for my headache.” I look past Reaper and glare at Faux-Ramsey. “Which no one bothered to offer.”
“I need one too,” Faux-Ramsey mutters as he rubs at his temples.
Reaper leads me out of the kitchen and over to a private corner. “It’s not about you, X. It’s about your pops.”
Ice slides up my spine. “What about Pops?”
“He’s okay.”
I deaden my voice. “What about Pops, Reaper?”
“He had a heart attack, X. At the clubhouse.”
My world crashes down on me. My pops, my rock, in the hospital, in mortal danger. “Oh my God.”
Reaper takes me in his arms and whispers nonsense words meant to soothe.
Reaper’s your rock too, Bella, mom reminds me.
“I know, but what would I do without my pops? He’s gonna walk me down the aisle.”
Reaper tenses up. “What are talking about, baby?”
Use your inside voice, mama scolds.
Right. “Nothing.” My words are high and I’m choking back tears. “I need to go to him.”
“He’s okay and we’re going now. Don’t panic.”
“I’m not panicking!” I exclaim, full-out panicking.
Lavender heads towards me, drink in hand. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Pops. He’s in the hospital. He had a heart attack.”
“Mild,” Reaper says.
Lavender knocks back her margherita. “Let’s get over there then.”
Reaper shakes his head at Lavender. “You’ll be safer here.”
She gives Reaper a lop-sided grin. “I like you.”
Bannock approaches and my fists curl, but he ignores me. “Come have another margherita,” he says to Lavender. “I’ll look after you.”
She looks to me as if asking permission. “You gonna be okay without me?”
“Yeah,” I say as I head towards the door. Then I stop and return to her. “We’re good together, Lavender. I forgive you for keeping Tracy and Miguel’s affair a secret.”
Lavender gives me a big hug. “And I forgive you.”
Is she kidding me? “For what?”
“Not now, X. We gotta go,” Reaper intervenes.
He’s right. I point at her. “We’ll be talking.”
Reaper grabs my arm and leads me outside, Red following.
He turns to him. “Don’t need you. Go find Hangman, give him the coke.”
Red grins and I shudder. He seems like this nice laid-back man, but that grin was sinister. “See you later,” he says as he walks away.
Reaper helps me onto his bike. “You look like you’ve been in a battle. Can’t go to the hospital like that. We’ll go home so you can change.”
Home. I like the sound of that, but I shake my head. “I gotta see Pops first.”
He pulls out his phone. “We’ll call him; you can talk to him. Tell him we’re on our way. If you show up the way you look, he’ll have another heart attack.”
I’m not happy about his logic, but it does make sense. “Call him then.”
He punches in the number and waits. When it’s picked up, he puts it on speaker. “This is Jax Kincaid. I’m calling about Paul Belmonte. I need to talk to him.”
The voice on the other end hesitates. “Are you family, sir?”
I snatch the phone out of Reaper’s hand. “Not yet. But I’m his freaking daughter and I need to know he’s okay.”
A pause, and then, “Right. Just a moment while I put you on hold.” Elevator music floats out of the phone.
“What’s wrong with them?” I snap at Reaper. I know what’s wrong with them. They work under a million state regulations, but it’s personal for me, so no empathy.
Reaper doesn’t try to dissuade me. “They’re assholes.”
“Yeah, they are.”
The voice comes back. “Your father is fine. Doing very well. It was a mild heart attack.”
“Great, let me talk to him.”
“I’m putting you through now.” There’s a click, a pause, then a ring, then Pop comes on the line and I almost collapse with relief.
“Ximina?”
“Pops! Oh my God, Pops. I just heard. Reaper told me. I’m sorry I wasn’t there. Two bad guys grabbed me. They had Lavender too. Locked us in a room but we escaped.” My voice turns into a wail. “Spot got on a bus.”
“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m fine. Ready to go home.”
“It’s not fine. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have ever been Miguel’s girlfriend, then none of this would’ve happened.” I glance at Reaper. “Except I wouldn’t have met Reaper. And I wouldn’t have Spot. Oh God, I lost Spot.”
Shut up, Ximina. This is all irrelevant.
Yeah, but it’s what I do, especially when I’m worried.
“Not your fault,” Reaper growls.
Pops belligerent voice rings out. “Ximina, you are not to blame. You didn’t know Miguel was a criminal. You didn’t know he’d steal drugs. You didn’t cause the crash or get yourself kidnapped.”
“I know all that,” I hiccough. “We’re coming to see you. Right now.”
“No,” Reaper says. “We’re coming to see you after X has a shower, changes her clothes and gets some food into her.”
“Why’s she need a shower?” Pops asks warily.
“Because I got—,” I start.
Reaper elbows me. “Because the room she was held in was a cesspool. She’s filthy. Smells bad.”
I bare my teeth and elbow him back, quite a bit harder than he elbowed me. He flinches and glares. But I get it. Pops doesn’t need to know I have blood all over me. “Yeah, it was.”
“Get yourself cleaned up, X. I’m fine. Already up and moving.”
Flirting with the nurses, I bet, my mom says with a wink.
He doesn’t do that, I protest.
He does, Bella, but he always comes home to me.
My eyes tear up. God, I miss my mom. “Okay. An hour tops and I’ll be there. I promise.”
“Take care of yourself first, sweetheart.”
“I will. I love you. And don’t worry about me, I’m fine. I just need you to concentrate on you. And the bakery. Reaper will fix everything else and then?—”
“See you soon, Paulie.” Reaper ends the call. “Put on your helmet,” he says to me in a voice that won’t be brooked.
I brook anyway. “I wasn’t finished!”
“Christmas is coming too, X. The sooner we get home so you can clean-up and change, the sooner we get to your pops.”
I give him one of my best glares, then shove the helmet on my head. “Ow,” I say as I unbend my ears. I’ve so gotta stop doing that.
Once we’re on the bike, Reaper pulls into traffic. I wrap my arms tightly around his waist and press my nose between his shoulder blades, breathing him in. Reaper, my Reaper. He smells like my future.
As if he agrees, his big hand takes mine and squeezes gently. Then he speeds up as we hit the highway.
When we get home, he opens the garage and parks inside, then helps me off the bike. “Stay behind me,” he says as he pulls his gun.
“Don’t you want me to wait here?”
“What’s the point? You’re gonna follow me anyway.” He’s smiling though, a grin that I know matches the one growing on my face.
I follow him while he checks the house, then he takes my hand again and guides me to the bathroom. “I’ll get you some clothes.”
I flip on the shower, strip, wait for the water to warm, then step under it. The tension in my shoulders disappears the moment the water hits my head. I feel warm and safe and happy. I don’t care if the bad guys are still out there. My pops is okay, Lavender and I are friends again, and I’ve got Reaper. Like, really got him. The fact that Spot’s missing chips at my happiness, but I know, deep down, he’ll find his way home.
Then Reaper’s there, stepping into the shower, folding his arms around my waist and pulling me against him, my back against his hard, perfect chest. He’s naked, which one would expect and fully erect, which one would also expect.
“I love you, X,” he says in a rough voice.
I turn towards him. “You do?”
“Yeah.” He swipes my wet hair off my face. “When you were gone, I felt like a piece was missing. What’s that, if not love?”
I hug myself into him. “When they took me and I didn’t know how bad you were hurt, I wanted to kill them. Not for me, but for you.”
“Does that mean you love me?” There’s a vulnerability in his voice that I haven’t heard before.
I nod as a few tears gather in my eyes. “From the moment you told me to get lost.”
He laughs, then takes my chin and pulls my face up, his eyes boring into mine. “Say it then,”
I grin. “I love you too, Jax Kincaid.”
“Reaper.”
“Pops won’t call you Reaper, Jax. He’s gonna accept us. I know that, but he’s still got lines he won’t cross. You know that he?—”
He kisses me hard and long, his hands cupping my butt, squeezing as he presses his erection against my belly. “Shut up,” he says when he surfaces for air. “Just shut up for a fuckin’ change.”
“Shutting up,” I say, then wrap my hand around his cock and gently squeeze.
“Fuck that feels good,” he groans as I slide my hands up and down, my thumb working the bumpy parts. Then the seam, then the silky crown.
“Not fair you can talk,” I say.
He brings his lips to mine, kissing me again, taking my breath as he invades my mouth, his tongue searching it, owning it. I’m gasping when he finally comes up for air. “I said shut the fuck up.”
Then he lifts me and pins me against the wall, his hard cock finding its way inside me.
I grip his shoulders and wrap my legs around his waist, while he rests his forehead against mine. “You’re beautiful, X.”
There’s desperation in his voice, in his eyes, in the way he slams into me. Every touch, every thrust, every kiss is possessive, needy, committed.
“You’re mine,” he growls in my ear. “You’ll always be mine.”
“That sounds like something a stalker would say.” I can barely get the words out as my body tightens around him.
He slams his mouth against mine, somehow swats my ass, then bucks his body. “Come, baby, come,” he says against my lips.
His words are the tipping point. I squeeze his shoulders, tighten my legs, then my orgasm hits me like an inferno. Fire burns through my body, searing every nerve. “Fuck!” I can’t help it. This isn’t fucking, it’s making love. But fuck anyway.
I bite his shoulder as he tangles his fingers in my hair, pulling my head back, staring into my eyes as he ravishes my lips. “Fuckin’ right!” he shouts as he slams harder and harder into me, then his arms tighten around me and he comes.
He sinks down on his knees, me still straddling me.
I hold his face, kiss him hard, then search his eyes. They’re glistening, mine are too and for the first time in maybe my whole life, I’m speechless.