Chapter 86
Reaper
“We know you were behind the fires at Lark’s place. Were you also behind the fires everywhere else around town that night?” I think I already know the answer to this based on some papers Razor found in Zac’s house, but I need to know if he’ll spill or not.
Zac keeps his face impassive, but I can see the rage in his eyes, and I can’t stop my grin.
“I was hoping you’d stay quiet. Neith?. How about you get your pound of flesh first?” I ask and my grin deepens when his eyes widen in shock before darting over to Darren’s scars and wounds.
I step back but make sure I’m close enough in case she needs me.
The amused glint in Lark’s eyes grows as she walks over to Punisher’s toy chest and grabs her hunting filet knife.
A whimper comes from Darren as Lark passes him, and fuck does that whimper set the others on edge as Lark steps up in front of Zac.
“I see you’ve noticed my handiwork on Darren over there,” she damn near purrs, and fuck if that raspy purr doesn’t shoot right through me and straight down to my cock.
I think I finally understand Dragon’s obsession about when Levi does this.
It’s hot as fuck to see her in control like this.
“See, this is another example of you being wrong about me being ‘too pure’ to use your exact words.”
I freeze as that phrase rolls over me. I used to have that same thought before about Lark, but in less than five minutes of talking to her, really talking to her, that thought was shot right out the window.
The amused smirk on Devil, Punisher, and Odin’s faces as they look over at me has me wanting to roll my eyes at them, but I focus back on Lark.
“Damn near everything you see on Darren was done by my hand. You said my hobbies weren’t ladylike.
Quite frankly, I’m glad they aren’t because I’m not much of a lady.
You’d know that if you actually saw the real me, but you only see the image you’ve built up on a pedestal.
” She tilts her head as she watches Zac.
“You know what? Before we get to really punishing you, I think I’d like to do a little rearranging. ”
She turns and looks out at the sea of faces of our brothers, our family.
“Loki, Punisher, and Beast, can you help me please?”
They huddle close together to her and all three of them beam down at Lark when she’s done explaining what she wants.
Spinning on her heel, she walks, well limps, over to Darren and instantly nerves thread through me when she leans down and whispers in his ear.
Almost immediately, he’s shaking his head, and as I step up beside her and put my hand on the small of her back, I’m surprised by his whispered request as a tear tracks down his cheek.
“Make it hurt. Please. She took my daughter from me.”
The anguish in his voice hits me right in the center of my chest, and it must have the same effect on Lark based off the look on her face.
Then in the next second, it hardens and she gives a sharp nod as her lips curl. “It will be my pleasure.” She looks up at me and tilts her head toward the back of the room. “Can you please move Darren so that he’s at the end but in between everyone so that he can still see?”
I give her a chin lift and unlock the brakes, moving him into position but out of the way of the others until they get everyone realigned how Lark wants them.
Punisher moves Kelly so that she’s across from Zac and then moves Crystal to be beside her.
Loki reaches for Richard but as soon as his fingers touch his skin, Loki freezes.
“Fuck,” I curse as I step forward, ready to catch him if he collapses.
Lark comes up on his other side, her hand hovering, wanting to touch him but she knows not to do so when he’s like this.
A few seconds later, Loki stumbles back, but manages to stay upright.
He glares at Richard and then he pulls back and punches him.
Hard. Hard enough that I’m surprised he doesn’t knock him out.
“Brother?” I ask.
“Soeur (sister)?” he asks instead as he reaches out his hand, palm up.
She hands him her knife and he slowly slides the knife down Richard’s chest, the skin damn near parting like butter.
“You’re mine, Richard, for what you attempted to do to Pépère (Grandpa).”
I freeze at the venom in his voice, but then I remember.
Loki moved here almost ten years ago to help his grandpa run the bar.
Back then, though, it wasn’t called The Steel Bars.
It was called Crossroads Watering Hole, since his place sat on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in town.
It was basically a dive bar but with food.
I know you’d think it’d be more like a tavern, but it was where all the old folks would go to shoot the shit.
Most of them were from an old MC that disbanded years before the Steel Archangel’s staked their claim here in Junction Creek.
When Loki took over the bar, with his grandpa’s approval of course, he changed it to a biker bar.
All those old folks still come in, but things have changed.
They used to talk about anything and everything.
Sometimes they were worse than old biddies whose main purpose was to gossip.
Once Loki took over, they started sharing stories about their riding days. It gave them their spark back.
But the reason Loki came up from New Orleans was because Richard was trying to take over and wouldn’t stop harassing his grandpa, Adam Collins Sr. The fact that Adam Sr. was growing older wasn’t helping the case either.
Someone had tried running his grandparents off the road to kill them both.
We always suspected Richard was behind it.
He’d been trying to buy the place since it was in a prime location area.
Both his grandparents nearly died in that accident but thank fuck they didn’t.
Loki and his family would have been devastated if that had happened.
Seems it actually was Richard behind the accident.
Lark hums. “Let’s get them rearranged and then you can get whatever you need out of him. Just remember, I get to get in a little time with him as well.”
The look they share has more than one of us chuckling while our guests have paled significantly.
Once they are done arranging everything, Kelly, Crystal, and two of Richards men are on one side.
Zach, Richard, and his two other men are across from them.
Darren is positioned at the back so he can see everything.
Right now, though, his gaze is locked in on Kelly who’s glaring at all of us but at the same time, gives off the feeling that she’s looking down at us. Just like Richard is trying to do.
Lark moves to stand near the front in between Zac and Kelly. Her gaze locks with mine, and she ever so slightly tilts her knife toward Kelly and then tips her chin toward Zac. My lips twitch, but I bite my cheek to keep from smiling.
Moving to stand in front of Zac, I let him see the monster inside me.
“Looks like it’s my turn to have a little fun with you while you watch my fiancée at work.
See, at the beginning, I too thought Lark was ‘too pure’ for our world.
” I pause and when I see the satisfaction and ‘I told you so’ look he gives Lark, I can’t stop my dark grin.
“But after not even five minutes of talking to her and actually fucking listening to her, I knew I was an idiot. Lark’s never been ‘too pure’.
Now you on the other hand, have only looked at her skin deep.
You don’t know the real Lark, unlike me. ”
He sneers. “It’s because of you that she’s become this way. You made her do this and changed her.”
Smirking, I shake my head. “You still don’t get it, but maybe after a while, you will.”
I give him my back and head straight to the cabinet to get my own knife. I always start and end with a blade. The other stuff, I save for getting answers.
A few of the others follow suit, grabbing blades and then heading towards the rest of our guests.
Walking back over to Zac, I make sure he can still see Lark while she works on Kelly and Crystal as I get to work slicing into his skin.
I almost wish we had another woman who was okay with doing this, so she’d only have to work on one of them.
Then again… my mind turns to a certain woman.
I’m pretty sure she’ll be joining the ranks soon, and I bet she’ll be down here before long.
Zac curses at me as I work, promising retribution for what I’m doing and for what I’m supposedly ‘making’ Lark do. I’d purposefully left off his duct tape, wanting to know when he’ll reach his tipping point.
“We know you were behind the fires at Lark’s place. Were you also behind the fires everywhere else around town that night?”
He doesn’t answer, so I step behind him. As I continue to work, I peek over his shoulder at Lark. She’s talking lowly to Kelly as she slices into her skin. Kelly’s eyes are red and angry as tears streak down her red cheeks. Her arms strain against her restraints as she tries to edge away from Lark.
Suddenly, she rips off Kelly’s duct tape and Kelly screams. As her scream tapers off, she pants, but the tired look in her eyes is actually disappointing. Lark’s barely done anything to her.
“Are you going to talk?” she asks her and after hesitating a second, she nods weakly.
Richard screams beneath his duct tape and Kelly’s face twists as she looks over at him.
“Why the fuck would I keep your secrets when you’re constantly trying to boss me around and manipulate me? I fell for your lies before I married Aiden, I’m not covering your ass after everything you’ve done.”
“What’s he done?” Lark asks and Kelly’s face brightens while Richard’s turns redder with anger.
Shit.
I hope he’s not going to have a heart attack before we get answers out of him. Loki frowns, pausing in his work on Richard’s chest, and we share a look. He noticed it too.
“The better thing would be to ask what he hasn’t done,” she hisses as her eyes turn cold and hard.
“He’s the one behind the rest of the fires.
He ordered his men to go out and set them and to make sure that the buildings were so ruined they’d have to be leveled.
He wanted to scoop them up at a cheaper price.
Zac caught wind of his plans somehow and approached Richard.
He wanted to be the one that set the fires to your places, Lark, because of his own agenda.
Once Richard heard what Zac planned to do, he was more than happy to let him take over.
“But you were never supposed to live. Richard wanted you dead so that your mom, uncle, and grandma would be more tempted to sell since their heir would be gone. When he found out you survived, he went ballistic. That’s when things really changed.
Richard turned to even darker measures. He aligned with Kristoff and helped fund that new drug, Aphrodite’s Curse.
I didn’t know what it was at first. Even though we were both working together to ruin you and her family, he wouldn’t let me be a part of those meetings. ”
Richard huffs and rolls his eyes. Loki narrows his eyes at him and rips off his duct tape covering his mouth.
“Got something to say, Richie ol’ boy?” he asks and Richard huffs again.
“The bitch thought she was my partner, but she’s just a fucking woman. I was using her and she didn’t even know it. Dumb fucking bitch,” he mutters and then cries out when Loki slices an arc over his chest.
I step up next to Loki and place my blade under Richard’s chin, making sure the tip touches the skin of his neck. He swallows thickly and then winces as the blade catches, nicking his skin.
“And what were those meetings about with Kristoff?”
Fear lights in his eyes before he quickly masks it and purses his lips together.
“Loki, I think it’s time we step it up a notch.”
I follow him back to the cabinet and pick up an acetylene torch while Loki, surprisingly, grabs the shock belt. Walking back to Zac, he eyes the torch warily. I light it and he screams as I run the torch up and down his thigh.
“That was for not answering me before. Now, if you don’t answer my next question, I’ll do the same to the other thigh.” I pause as I wait for his eyes to focus back on me. “What were your plans with Lark if we hadn’t shown up when we did?”
He hesitates again and I lower the flame. He screams again as I slowly drag the flame down his other thigh.
“I’ll talk!” he cries out and I pull the torch back but keep it going in case he changes his mind. His body slumps as he gasps. I wait as he catches his breath and when he looks back up at me, there’s a sick light in his eyes that I don’t like.
“The first time I took her was going to be in the warehouse. A condition of using Richard’s connection to get Aphrodite’s Curse was he got to watch and have a go at her after I was done.
Or to quote him specifically, ‘I want to see what’s so special about her that has everyone so obsessed with her.
’ Then, we’d coerce her to sign over everything. ”
I rein in my temper even though I’d love nothing more than to beat on them both for that, but I don’t want to stop Zac if he’s going to keep talking.
Then I hear fabric ripping and Richard’s screams, and I turn to look at him.
Loki’s sliced his dick clean off, and he drops it to the plastic mat with a wet splat.