Chapter 57
Reaper
I don’t miss Cici, Gemini, and Crystal glaring daggers at Lark, but if she notices them, she pays them no mind.
As I wrap an arm around her shoulder though, I notice how tense she is and realize she did notice the bunnies.
I step back as the ladies and the ‘good’ bunnies, as Levi often refers to them, all swarm Lark, all of them wanting to see her ring.
“Congrats, Reaper,” Thor says as he clasps my shoulder and hands me a mug of coffee.
“Thanks, man,” I tell him as I take a sip.
As the rest of the guys congratulate me, I can’t stop smiling and fuck, I don’t really want to.
Feeling a tug on my pant leg, I look down to find Cassie peering up at me, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. I set my mug down on the counter and pick her up. She nuzzles into my neck and damn near plasters her little body against mine.
I frown in concern. “Hey, is everything okay, Angel?” I quietly ask her. She shakes her head.
I duck further back into the kitchen so that we’re more hidden.
“What is it, Angel?”
She sniffles and worry eats at me.
“When I went to sit down at my s-special chair Auntie Levi got for me, that mean lady s-slapped my hands away from it and told me to scram and pushed my chair away. She took my spot and said us b-brats shouldn’t be here.
The other two said the s-same. That everyone was en…
ensane for letting us kids stay. That us and our mamas shouldn’t be here.
That there s-shouldn’t even be any Old Ladies.
I don’t see Daddy or Uncle Thor. I don’t know where they are,” she whispers as she sniffles again.
I breathe deeply as I try to force my muscles not to tense up despite how livid I am. “Angel, which lady told you that?”
Cassie lifts her head slightly and points to Crystal in the corner who is still glaring at Lark while she’s angrily stabbing at the eggs on her plate and using more force than necessary while ripping pieces of bacon off and chewing them.
“Her, but the others agreed too.”
I press a kiss to the top of Cassie’s head. “Let’s get you your seat, Angel. I’ll deal with them.”
I make eye contact with Patch and Thor, who must have just come from Thor’s office. Patch notices Cassie’s rigid little body in my arms he goes on full alert as he walks over to us with Thor right behind him. The guys all notice the change in us and they quiet down, quickly followed by the women.
“?γγελε (Angel), what’s wrong?” Patch whispers as he rubs Cassie’s back.
“Crystal, Cici, and Gemini are what’s wrong,” I grit out and cross the kitchen to find the chair Cassie had been talking about pushed away from the table and turned into the corner.
I pull out the chair next to Crystal and she blinks out of her staring fest to see who it is. When she realizes it’s me, she flutters her eyelashes up at me and smiles coyly. Cici and Gemini, who are sitting on her other side do the same.
I grab Crystal’s plate and slide it down toward the other end of the table. “Get up and sit your ass down over there or even better, go stand in the corner while you finish and then get the fuck out of here.”
Lark comes up beside me and she whispers something to Cassie, who nods, and thankfully goes to her. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch her carry Cassie over to Mary who reaches out for Cassie as soon as they’re close enough.
“What the fuck for? What did I do?” Crystal screeches and my lip curls as I take in her appearance. Even to breakfast where she knew the kids were going to be, and despite the cold, she’s wearing as little as possible.
I lean on the table, getting right in her face.
“You fucking threatened a child. You threatened all the kids here. You threatened their mothers. You threatened our Old Ladies, that’s what you fucking did,” I growl and the rest of the room goes silent, but I know without even looking that everyone’s furious at my words.
Her face pales and when Cici and Gemini try to scoot back to leave, I slap my hand on the table, making them jump. “You two are in on this, too. While you didn’t say nearly as much as Crystal here, you both agreed with her multiple times from what Cassie said.”
“Cassie,” Thor says gently and she shifts in Mary’s arms and looks up at him.
“What did Crystal and the others say to you?”
She hesitates and then shrinks back when she looks over at Crystal who looks about ready to strangle Cassie.
Without taking my eyes off Crystal, Cici, or Gemini, I address Cassie. “You aren’t going to get in trouble for anything you say, Angel. And if these three have any sense in their heads, they will not come after you because of this if they do, they’ll be the ones in trouble.”
While I don’t say it, since Cassie and the other kids are present, these three will be lucky to still be alive if they ever lay a hand on one of the kids.
Cassie repeats what she told me and the tension in the room intensifies.
“Elvira,” Half-pint says softly, but her voice has an edge to it.
I hear a metal dish clink behind us and risking a look back, I see Elvira carrying a domed tray. She must have started portioning out food while our focus was on Crystal and the others.
“Children, how about we go find some cartoons?” Elvira asks as she carries the tray toward the hallway, but Drae takes it from her and carries it for her.
The kids follow after them down the hallway and more movement has me looking behind me to find Miracle carrying some plastic cups and a pitcher of orange juice.
Cannon steps forward, taking it for her and when she turns to grab the pitcher of milk, Atlas takes that from her as well.
She shakes her head as she tries to hide her smile.
She heads down the hall, dipping her head toward me and Lark as she goes with Cannon and Atlas following behind her.
With them out of the way, I turn my focus back on the trio.
“Thor,” Smoke says as he steps closer to him and hands him his phone. “Cassie paraphrased quite a bit, but she got the gist of it.”
He presses play and I step closer to see over his shoulder. My anger grows at the disgust and hatred in Crystal’s voice. Patch steps up behind us, also watching over Thor’s shoulder.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, you useless cretin?” Crystal sneers as she smacks Cassie’s hands away from her chair and roughly shoves it aside and out of the way.
I’m honestly surprised none of us saw or heard this, but then I hear my voice come across saying that Lark said yes.
With all the cheering, I’m surprised that Smoke could get her voice to come across so clear.
Then I realize the camera Smoke focused on is off to the side of Crystal and I turn, looking up and spying it in the upper corner of the end kitchen cabinet where it butts up against the wall.
“This club is full of fucking morons for letting leeches like you stay here. You should be shipped off, along with your fucking mothers. Clubs shouldn’t have Old Ladies. We satisfied the men just fine before that bitch on her high horse came in here and changed everything. Isn’t that right, girls?”
“Y-Yeah,” both Cici and Gemini reply as they share a concerned look before clasping hands under the table, nervously looking around and I frown.
Guess those two weren’t as in on this as I thought.
“Fucking scram, brat. If you know what’s good for you, you’d stay by your whore of a mom and never leave the house.
Better yet just fucking run away and die.
Actually no, even better would be if all of the fucking Old Ladies and kids ran away and died.
Then things can go back to the way they should be,” she says before roughly shoving Cassie away from her.
Cassie stumbles but doesn’t fall. Her bottom lip trembles as she looks around and then walks up to me, tugging on my pant leg. Thor stops the video.
A metallic sound whirls through the air and a second later, a blade is embedded in the table in front of Crystal.
“You’re fucking done here,” Half-pint seethes, her body vibrating with rage.
Dragon immediately steps up beside Levi and wraps his arms around her, talking to her quietly to try and soothe her. My gaze darts to her stomach and I worry the stress from all of this on top of what happened yesterday could cause her to go into labor sooner rather than later.
“What the fuck for? You and all the rest of the Old Ladies and your spawn are the problem, not us,” Crystal sneers back at her, ignorant to the danger she’s further stepped into.
Thor’s glaring at her like he’s about ready to snap her neck in half.
I catch Cici and Gemini’s eye and point at the door.
“Leave and head to the clubhouse. We’ve been cleared to clean it, so get a head start.
The rest of you bunnies, Roxy, and Prospects, head over to start as well.
We’ll be over when we’re finished here.”
Cici and Gemini practically knock down their chairs in their rush to leave and the other bunnies and Roxy leave after them.
Lex, Ethan, Sasha, and Drae, who must have returned at some point from helping Elvira, hover near the door, probably wondering if we’ll need them to clean out her shit at some point, which I think we will, just not yet.
“We’ll text if we need you for something,” I tell them.
They nod at that and then leave.
Lark steps forward, laying a comforting hand on Half-pint’s back, most likely realizing what Dragon’s trying to do before stepping forward.
“And what makes you think that you are the person who determines who is right for a brother and who isn’t?
Because I’m pretty fucking sure that if you had your choice, you’d be one of these guys’ Old Lady and if given the chance, might even want a child with him.
So again, what makes you think you have the right to decide who a brother chooses when you’d be right here next to us if you could?
” Lark asks and Crystal rears back like she’s been smacked, then she sneers at Lark again.