Reaper Chapter 7
Everyone else froze and stared after her. I shoved through them and yelled to Maniac, “Stay with them.”
I raced out the door not far behind her. I could see she was almost to Alisse’s car. I poured on the fuel and ran faster. I caught her as she got to the car and tried to open the driver’s door. I grabbed her and swung her around.
She went wild. She screamed and cried as she fought me tooth and nail. She punched, slapped, kicked, and tried to bite me. I was doing all I could not to hurt her as I tried to restrain her, so she wouldn’t hurt herself.
“You cocksucker! I knew it. I knew there had to be a fucking reason you wanted me to talk to you! I’m not going. I don’t care what you’re getting, I’m not,”
she screamed at me. I could hear the terror in her voice and see the wild look on her face.
“Baby, please, stop! Calm the fuck down. What’s wrong? Why’re you acting like this?”
I asked her desperately. She looked like she was about to lose her mind or maybe have a heart attack. My gut was clenched into a knot and I felt like my heart was about to be ripped out of my chest. The look of hate she gave me was ungodly.
“Don’t baby me, you fucking bastard! I hate you! I hate you!”
she screamed before she broke down and started to sob. I pulled her into my chest and held her. I heard others coming outside behind me. I looked over my shoulder. I didn’t know what to do. I gave my guys and some of Terror’s a beseeching look. What should I do? I had no idea what had caused her to go crazy like that. Nothing she said made any sense.
She was mumbling over and over softly, “I won’t, I won’t.”
I eased her back so I could see her face. She wouldn’t even look at me.
“Cheyenne, you need to tell me what’s wrong? You’re not making any sense.”
Before she could answer, I heard a voice remark, “Well, well, long time no see, Cheyenne!”
I turned to look at Serpent. He was standing there with a smirk on his face. He was looking her up and down and I didn’t like the look he had on his face. Her whole body went stiff as a board, then she wrenched herself out of my arms. As she did, she lifted her hand in front of her.
She had the knife I usually carried on my belt in her hand. She held it out in front of her and pointed it at all of us. She began to back away again. She was going toward the gate. In her haste to do it and to walk backward, she ended up tripping. As she stumbled, I sprang after her. I got to her in time to prevent her from falling and maybe stabbing herself with the knife. She tried to fight me for possession of it, but I was too strong. I tore it out of her hand and threw it to the side.
“Jesus Christ! What the hell? You could have hurt yourself. Stop this right now and tell me what the fuck is wrong?”
I roared as I gave her a small shake. She looked up at me and the despair, hate, and pain in those blue eyes, made me want to puke.
“You know. You know what’s wrong, stop pretending. I can’t believe I fell for your shit. I’m not going to go. I’ll kill myself first,”
she told me. She was no longer screaming. She said it calmly and quietly, which made it even more bone chilling to hear. I decided to see if I could find out what the problem was from someone else. I swung around, holding her close to ask Serpent.
As our eyes met, he gave me a smirk and then he grabbed Harper, who was closest to him. His three guys all grabbed one of the other women—Alisse, Wren, and Ashlee. Terror, Ghost, Viper, and Devil Dog all roared when they did. They had the women around the throat. No one moved. They could easily snap their necks.
“Step back or these three are dead. We’re going to go ahead and leave,”
Serpent said as he started to back away. He never took his eyes off mine. I could read the resolution there. Whatever was going on here, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them. I signaled my guys to stay back. Terror did the same. I could see the fires of retribution in his eyes along with the others. The four of them slowly made their way toward the gate. Carter was still there. Serpent angled himself so he could see him.
“Tell your man to open the gate then get his ass over with the rest of you,”
he told me. I hesitated for a second and he tightened his hold on Harper’s neck. Her face got redder, and she was clawing at his hands. Viper growled.
“Carter, do what he says,”
I shouted. He hit the button and then ran over to the rest of us. Serpent and his guys kept going. I was afraid to even take a step after them, in case they panicked and killed the women. As soon as they got to their bikes, they somehow got on the bikes while still holding onto the women. There was no way to start their bikes and still hold them. However, they were able to push the bikes toward the gate without starting them. They were practically dragging the women along beside the bikes as they crawled toward the gate.
When they got to the gate, Serpent looked at me. Or more like he looked at Cheyenne. He sneered, “You won’t get away again, Cheyenne. Not this time. Ogre still owes me. I don’t give up what belongs to me. I want you to walk over to me.”
She was shaking her head. He turned red and punched Harper in the face. Cheyenne screamed. She tried to pull out of my arms.
“No, Chey, stay here,”
I pleaded. I didn’t know what to do. I needed to think.
“Why do you care anyway?”
she snapped. Viper hissed at me.
“He’s going to kill Harper, goddamnit, Reaper!”
I reluctantly eased my grip on Cheyenne. She took a step away from me. She never took her eyes off him.
“I’m not yours, Serpent. I never was,”
she told him. His face got a pissed look on it. He’d gotten him and his guys just outside the gate.
“Like hell you’re not! This doesn’t lie!”
he screamed in rage as he shoved Harper to the ground and jerked up his shirt. Across his stomach I could make out in ink the word, Cheyenne. My breath caught. The rest happened in slow motion. Cheyenne screamed and then she was pulling further away from me. I heard yelling and screaming, the sound of a shot and then the roar of bikes. Serpent and his guys had thrown the other women aside, and in the next heartbeat, had started their bikes. They took off down the road.
It was chaos as people were running for bikes, others toward the fallen women, kids were crying and Cheyenne stood there frozen. I needed to talk to her and find out what the hell this all meant, but first we needed to go after those men. I saw Braxton. I pushed her into his arms. “Keep her secure until we get back.”
She gave me a surprised look. I couldn’t take time to explain. I shouted for half the guys to stay and the other half to come with me. We were on our bikes and heading out the gate in a matter of two minutes.
As we raced after them, my mind couldn’t stop replaying the last fifteen minutes, especially the moment when Serpent had pulled up his shirt to show he had Cheyenne’s name tattooed on his stomach. What in the hell had I gotten my club into? The thought of her being with him made me sick, but I couldn’t worry about that right now. I needed to catch these guys and make them talk and pay for putting their hands on the women.
***
Cheyenne:
I paced the room they had locked me in after Reaper and some of the men took off after Serpent. Just thinking of him made me sick to my stomach. I should have known this was all a trap or something. Why had they been here? When they first came out, they all seemed to know each other and were on friendly terms. Then after the whole incident in the yard, they’d grabbed the other women to use as hostages to get away. That made it look like they weren’t friends. God, I was going to go nuts trying to figure this out.
One thing was for certain, I couldn’t do it here. I looked around the room. It was a bedroom with your typical furniture in it. It didn’t look like anyone stayed in it. There were no personal belongings to be found. How long would they keep us here? I walked over to Alisse who was sitting on the bed.
“We need to get out of here before they come back. I think we can squeeze through that window. It’s small, but we can do it.”
“What in the hell happened, Cheyenne? How did you know those men? Why did Reaper have his guys lock us up in here?”
“I’ll explain it all after we get out of here. I’m sorry I got you into this, but I promise I’ll get you out. Grab that chair and put it under the window.”
I pointed to one sitting by the door. She got it and did as I asked. I climbed up and fiddled with the window. It opened without too much trouble. Luckily, they hadn’t sealed it shut with paint or anything. Once it was open, I pushed out the screen.
As I got down off the chair, I told Alisse, “You go first. Wait for me outside the window. It looks like we have some bushes and stuff that will help hide us. As soon as I get out, we’ll head for the gate. Whatever you do, stay low and quiet.”
She nodded. It took some wiggling to get out, but she did it. As soon as she was clear, I followed her. I felt the windowsill scrape the hell out of my stomach. It was a small price to pay to get out of here.
I checked our surroundings, then in a low crouch, we ran as fast as we could from cover to cover. I knew the general direction of where the gate was in conjunction with the room they put us in. When we got close, I could see that Braxton was guarding the gate. Shit! Okay, I needed to think. I grabbed Alisse’s hand and pushed her down beside me. I put my mouth to her ear. I didn’t want a chance of the sound traveling to Braxton.
“I need to think. They have a guard at the gate. Stay still and quiet.”
She nodded. I could tell she was freaked out. I watched as he paced in front of the gate. He had his gun out and he kept scanning the road outside the compound. What he didn’t do was look around behind him. Hmm, maybe we could use that to our advantage. I didn’t want to wait too long, or someone might discover that we were gone.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. Let’s circle around this way. It’ll put us behind him and eventually over on the other side in those trees, close to the gate. I’m going to get him to open the gate. When he does, we need to get out of here. We’re going to have to walk. I’m sorry. We just have to stay hidden. Once we get to my place, I’ll get my car.”
“I’m scared, Chey. Jesus, I can’t believe this.”
Her pale face looked terrified.
I gave her a hug. “I know, me too. But just hang in there. Are you ready?”
She took a deep breath then nodded. Again, we crouched low and worked our way from spot to spot. Once we were close to the gate and still in the shadows where he couldn’t see us, I searched the ground. I found several decent sized rocks. I hated what I was about to do, but it was them or us.
On his next pass, I jumped up and hit him in the head with the rock. He grunted and staggered. I hit him again. He fell. I quickly checked his pulse. I sighed in relief. He was breathing. I didn’t want to kill him, just get away. I grabbed his gun and then went to the gate. I’d seen earlier where they pushed to open it. I pushed the switch. As it started to open, I flinched at the slight sounds it was making. God, what if they could hear it inside? As soon as it was wide enough to get out, I signaled Alisse, and we hit the switch again and ran. Outside the gate, it was all country until we got to town. They’d hunt for us along the road. We needed to get into the woods and then head toward town.
We took off with me in the lead. I had to get Alisse to safety. She was my friend and only in this predicament because of me and my stupidity in believing in a man and a biker at that. I was a fucking idiot! Keeping track with a couple of stars, I got us into the woods and headed the right way. It was slow going since it was so dark and the moon didn’t help in the trees. We tripped and fell more than once but we kept going. Our lives depended on it.
I had no idea how long we’d been walking when we finally had to stop and take a break. I was so damn thirsty; I could hardly stand it. We rested with our backs to a couple of trees. “Chey, who was that man? And why did he have your name on his stomach? Why did Reaper lock us up?”
“Do you remember me telling you about growing up?”
She nodded. “He was there. He’s not someone you want after you. As for why he has my name tattooed on himself, he’s insane. We need to get the hell out of town. I hate that you have to go too, but it wouldn’t be safe for you to stay here. Reaper and his guys know you. They’ll come looking for me.”
“Why did he lock us up?”
“We’re a threat now. He and his club had something going with Serpent and the others. I have no idea what went wrong. They should have handed me over and it would have been all good. But whatever it was, I can guarantee you, it wasn’t something they would want people to know. That means we need to go.”
She gasped. “Do you mean they were going to kill us?”
“Yeah, I mean they’ll kill us, sell us, or keep us as slaves. I don’t know for sure what, but it won’t be pretty. I’ll die before I let anyone use me that way. I’m sorry, Alisse.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“Because if I’d not given in to Reaper, we would have never been there.”
“He still knew about you though. So, if they were after you all along to give to this guy, it doesn’t matter whether you came here or not,”
she argued. I thought about what she was saying. She was right. I’d been on borrowed time either way.
I was going to respond to her when I heard the sound of bikes. I couldn’t tell if they were ones coming from town or from the compound. Either way, it was time to get on the move again. “Come on, we need to go.”
She got up, and we got to walking again. I got lost in the trudging. All I concentrated on was putting one foot in front of the other. Branches slapped us in the face and we tripped, but we kept going.
It was sometime later that I heard voices. They were yelling. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but they seemed to be getting closer. I grabbed Alisse’s hand and ran. It had to be Reaper’s men. They had figured out we were in the woods and they were hunting us. My heart tried to pound out of my chest. God, they couldn’t find us.
***
Reaper:
We didn’t catch up to Serpent and his men. They had to have turned off somewhere and there were too many roads and places to search with just us. I hated to do it, but I needed to call it quits and get back to the compound. I needed to talk to Cheyenne and find out what the hell had happened. I signaled the guys to turn around, and we headed back.
When we got back, the parking area was crawling with guys. They all looked up when we came through the gate. I rode straight over to Maniac. I’d left him in charge of the compound while I was gone. I stopped and killed my bike so we could talk. “What’s going on?”
“Your woman and her friend got loose and clobbered Braxton in the head with a rock. They ran off with his gun. We’re saddling up to go find them.”
“Wait a minute, what do you mean, they got loose?”
“They got out of the room we’d locked them in. They got out one of those little ass windows.”
I swung off my bike and got in his face. He gave me a surprised look. “Why in the hell would you have locked them in a room to begin with?”
I growled at him.
“Because you told Brax to keep her secure until you got back. So, we put them in one of the empty bedrooms in the clubhouse. Alisse was fucking freaking out.”
“I meant to keep her safe and not to let her leave. Not to lock her up like some fucking criminal! Fuck, no wonder she thought she had to escape. Is Brax alright?”
“Yeah, he has a knot on his head and feels stupid she got the drop on him, but he’s fine.”
I was about to ask him how the other women were when Harper came charging over to me. She looked pissed. Viper was trying to hold her back. She got away from him. “How could you do that? How could you lock her up? She didn’t do anything wrong, Reaper! You saw her face. She was terrified of that man. Now, you have her terrified of you. God, men are so stupid,”
she yelled. Viper pulled her back and whispered in her ear. I saw her sag.
“Harper, I didn’t mean for her or Alisse to be locked up. The guys misunderstood. I just wanted her to be kept here and safe.”
“Well, she’s out there now. You didn’t see her on your way back from town?”
she asked with a frown. I shook my head no.
“You need to find her. They’re out there alone, afraid, in the dark with a gun. Anything could happen to them. I assume you didn’t catch those men. They could find them first.”
She voiced my biggest fear, now that I knew she’d run. God, what if Serpent did catch her? He’d be in the wind and I might not ever find her again. I turned to my guys and the Warriors. Everyone was standing there listening.
“I need at least eight to stay here with the women and kids. The rest we split and go two ways, one toward town and the other further out of town. My guess is she’s trying to get to town. We’re going to have to search along the roads and if necessary, in the woods. You need to be fucking careful. She’s armed, and she’s fucking scared. Whatever this stuff is with Serpent, it can wait. We need to find them before he does. Keep in contact with your phones. We’ll meet back here in two hours if we don’t find them.”
The guys all nodded. Within five minutes, we had the forces divided, and we got on our bikes. I decided to go with the bunch heading toward town. I rode off wondering if I was going to be able to salvage this. Today, before everything went to hell, I’d seen her with my family and friends. She’d relaxed and fit in so well. I’d been damn proud to have her on my arm. It had only confirmed what I’d been thinking. She was the one for me. Now, winning her had gone from hard to probably impossible.