Reaper Chapter 12
I stood there stunned. The video at the bar showed Alisse and Cheyenne walking out of the bar on their own. No one was with them or forcing them to leave. They got into Alisse’s car and drove off. I couldn’t believe it. I felt Crusher’s eyes on me. He’d been the one earlier to tell me she might be involved. I’d argued with him and we’d fought about it. God, he hadn’t been right, had he?
I needed to get a moment of peace. Everyone was looking at me in sympathy. I walked out of the clubhouse and went to my house. Inside, I could smell her scent. It made the ache in my chest worse. I wandered around the house and eventually ended up in our room. Yeah, barely a week and it was our room not mine. I went to the closet and looked around. That’s when I noticed her bag was gone. She’d left. She’d really left me. I stumbled to the bed and sat on the edge. Images of us together ran through my head.
Jesus, I’d fallen for her and she’d been playing me. What a fucking fool I was. I fell back on the bed. That’s when a piece of paper fluttered off the pillow. I hadn’t noticed it. I grabbed it and read it. What I read had me swearing and ready to kill.
Reaper, if you’re reading this, then I did it. I got away. I wish things could have been different. That we could have had a real life together. But that’s not possible when one person thinks the other is lying and plotting. I want you to know, I’m not helping Serpent to infiltrate your club. That day was the first time I’d seen him in ten years.
No way would I ever help him or anyone in that club. They raped, murdered, and did every other evil thing you can imagine. Serpent has been after me since I was a kid. He just waited until he thought the time was right. I know what’s in store for me if he ever gets his hands on me. I told you I’d rather die.
Alisse and I are going to disappear and start over somewhere else. I’ve gotten adept at hiding from the Soldiers, after all. As much as it pains me to say this, I hope you find someone you can love one day. Believe it or not, I do love you. I just didn’t realize you didn’t love me. Please don’t look for us. I swear I mean no harm to you or your club. Let’s forget we ever met and go on with our lives. Cheyenne.
I roared like a wounded bear as I ripped the paper in half and surged to my feet, stomping out of the house and over to the clubhouse. Everyone was still in the common room. They were quietly talking when I tore the door open. They looked up at me in surprise. I went straight to Crusher. As soon as I reached him, I drew back my fist and punched him in the mouth. His lip busted, and he rocked back on his heels.
“What in the fuck is wrong with you, Reaper?”
he mumbled as he held his bleeding lip. The other guys all crowded around us.
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong with me. That bullshit you were spouting earlier about Cheyenne being a part of this… she heard it, fucker. And she’s left because of it. Because she thinks we all think she’s a spy and that I’m not in love with her!”
I shouted. I pulled back my fist to hit him again. Mayhem, Maniac, and Lash all grabbed me to stop me.
“Oh God, are you shitting me? She heard us? Fuck, Reaper, I’m sorry,”
Crusher said with a crestfallen look on his face.
“Sorry doesn’t cut it. She’s fucking used to disappearing. That’s what they’re going to do. Disappear. I might never find her! And what if she’s already pregnant? I’ll lose her and my baby,”
I yelled at him. Tears gathered in my eyes. He held up his hands in surrender.
“I deserve to get my ass beat. I know it. But let’s save that until we find her. No way will I let you lose her. I know you helped to lay that suspicion to rest earlier, but obviously she didn’t hear that part of the conversation. Let me help you find her. Then we can settle this in the ring,”
he said. The thought of getting in the ring with him and beating on him sounded good. Even if he was our sergeant-at-arms, I could hold my own. It would be a pretty even match.
“Fine, we’ll find her, then you and I will be having a talk. Spawn, go get on the computer. Find me anything you can. I know you can tap into other cameras around town. Do it. I want to know which way they went. Did they stop anywhere? They need to have stuff. She took a small bag of clothes but that’s it. They must have had it in the trunk of Alisse’s car.”
Shit, I’d wondered why Alisse insisted on driving her car, rather than riding with one of the guys. She said in case one of them had too much to drink.
The others scattered as I followed Spawn to his office as we called it. He had computers and monitors set up all over the place. He sat down and got to work tapping away on his keyboard. I paced the room. As he worked, he talked to me.
“Reaper, I know you want to find her, and I know we will. But you need to calm down. You’re wearing yourself out pacing.”
“Spawn, that woman is my damn life. Even more than the club, and you know how much I love this club. I don’t know what I’ll do if we don’t find her. I seriously don’t know.”
I sank down on another chair he had in front of his desk. He gave me a sympathetic look.
“You’re right, I don’t know how you feel. But I can tell you that I want to know what that feels like one day. To love a woman so much that the idea of not being with her kills me. I’ve seen what love has done to the Warriors over the years. People might think women and children make you weak, but they don’t. They make you stronger because you have even more to fight for. You finding Cheyenne just means the rest of us are hopefully going to be next. I’ll do everything in my power to find them and bring her back. Then you can beat Crusher’s ass. Just don’t kill him,”
he teased.
They knew I wouldn’t kill Crusher, but he’d be feeling it for a few days, just like I would. I sat there holding my phone. I knew it wasn’t going to work if I called her, but what if she didn’t know it was me? My head snapped up.
“Give me your phone.”
Spawn gave me a puzzled look, but he pulled it out of his cut and handed it to me. He jumped back onto his computer. I took it and dialed her number. It rang over and over and I was ready to hang up when she answered.
“Hello?”
“Don’t hang up! Please, Cheyenne, don’t hang up. Just listen to me. I don’t think you’re helping Serpent. I know you’re not. I also know you overheard Crusher, but you didn’t hear all of it. Please, baby, come back. We can talk and work this out,”
I pleaded with her. I felt the room behind me fill with my brothers.
She didn’t speak for a moment then her voice came over the phone. She sounded like she had been crying. “It’s too late, Reaper. I can’t be where I’m not wanted or I’m being suspected of stuff, like helping to take down a club. I can’t. I know what they do. The Soldiers of Corruption beat and rape women in front of everyone, even the kids. You learn early the ugly side of life. I watched my dad screw other women in front of me and my mom. I watched him do it to her and then beat the hell out of her. I saw the other men do it.”
I wanted to vomit. I’d put her on speaker, so the others could hear this. It was even worse than I had imagined. She continued, “They deal drugs and make the kids and women sell them. If they get caught, so what. If you come back and haven’t sold enough, that gets you a beating or worse. I’ve seen them bring in guys who opposed them or crossed them and they torture them before they kill them. They teach their sons from an early age how to shoot and to be able to defend the compound if they ever get raided. It’s a cult mentality and no way would I ever help anyone do that!”
“Baby, I know you wouldn’t.”
“But your brothers don’t! Crusher said it. I could be a spy for them. They’ll always not trust me. I can’t live like that no matter how much I love you. It’s better this way. You can go on with your life. Don’t trust any of the Soldiers and if you can, make sure to guard your businesses and people. They will do anything to get to you. Goodbye, Holden,”
she whispered the last.
I was about to scream when Crusher stepped up beside me. “Cheyenne, it’s Crusher. Please don’t hang up. You need to hear this. I’m so fucking sorry I hurt you like this. It was never my intention. I’m the sergeant-at-arms for the club. It’s my job to think of all angles and if someone might pose a threat to my club, no matter how slim of a chance that is. I’ll defend it to the death. I did say those things, but only to double-check that Reaper’s gut was feeling the same thing as mine. That you weren’t a spy. I may have worded it poorly, but my gut said it was a coincidence, you being here. Reaper’s gut is way better than mine. I knew if he had no doubts then you were in the clear.”
“Bullshit! I know why you want me to come back, but this isn’t going to work. I’m not going to be used for trapping them. I’d recommend you find out what happened to Slither. He’s Serpent’s dad, and he was VP. My dad, Ogre, should still be with them, unless someone killed the bastard. They’ll be the ones to know what the whole plan is. Good luck.”
She hung up the phone.
I wanted to throw it across the room, but it was Spawn’s. I looked around in despair. She wasn’t going to come back. I’d lost her and with it, my only chance of happiness. I sank down on the chair I’d been sitting in and hung my head. I knew I looked like a pussy, but I didn’t care.
“Get up, Reaper. We’re not done yet. You kept her on there long enough,”
Spawn said with a note of excitement in his voice.
I stood up. “What do you mean, I kept her on there long enough?”
“I traced her number with my phone. I have the system to do it and my phone is always set up for something like that. She’s showing as being here.”
He turned his monitor around and pointed. I looked at it.
It was a map showing her in Johnson City, Tennessee, which was only twenty-five miles or so away. Spawn continued, “The signal isn’t moving, so they must have stopped for the night, not thinking or knowing we could trace them. I could have done it another way and was going to do it, then you called her. I’d say they’re at a hotel for the night. No idea where they’re ultimately headed, but if we leave now, we can get there before they leave.”
“Let’s go! I need several of you to stay because I don’t want to leave the compound undefended with Serpent out there. The rest of you, come with me. They’re not safe out there in the open.”
“I think it’s best if I stay here, Reaper. Cheyenne isn’t going to be convinced to come back if she sees me. I’m so damn sorry, man,”
Crusher said with a look of pain on his face.
“You did what you thought was right. You just didn’t do it in the right place. We’ll deal with that later. Right now, all I want to do is get my woman back. What she said about the Soldiers of Corruption is worse than I thought.”
“That’s some fucked-up shit to do to your women and kids. No wonder she didn’t trust us. I wouldn’t have either,”
Maniac grumbled.
The rest were all looking like they could kill someone. I knew exactly how they felt. The idea that she’d been exposed to all of that was unbelievable. Leaving that for later, we sorted out who was staying. I took Maniac, Ink, and Spawn with me. Spawn would be able to take us right to her with whatever program he was using. He had it on his phone. We were on the road, headed to Johnson City ten minutes after the call ended. I wanted to race and get there even faster, but it was dark and we needed to be careful.
On the drive, I thought of what I would say to convince her to come back with me. I wasn’t going to let, what if she doesn’t, into my mind. I had no choice. I had to convince her, for the sake of my sanity and my club. Just under a half hour later, we were pulling into a hotel on the main drag through town. It was quiet since it was two in the morning. We parked out front.
“Okay, here’s the plan. We find out which room she’s in and I’ll go up. Ink, I want you to come with me and get Alisse to come with you. I need to talk to Cheyenne alone. Try not to cause a ruckus or they’ll call the law. I don’t know the cops down here. I want us to get them out of here without attracting a lot of attention. I’ll warn you, I have no idea how long this might take. So, if it looks like a long haul, I’ll let you know and you can get a room or go back to the compound.”
“We’re not going to leave you out here alone, Reaper. It’s too risky with those fuckers running loose. We’ll hang. You go do what you need to do. We need our queen to come home,”
Maniac growled. I gave him a nod. I couldn’t say anything due to the lump in my throat. Their queen, that sounded perfect. She was my queen, my Banshee.
When we walked into the lobby, the night clerk looked like he was ready to piss his pants. I saw his hand inch toward the phone. I hurried to get to him before he could make the call. I laid my hand on his.
“Excuse me, I’m looking for my wife and her friend. They checked in not too long ago. Her name is Cheyenne Collins. They might have checked in under her friend’s name, Alisse Jackson.”
“I-I can’t tell you…”
he stopped talking when he saw the look on my face. I was giving him the death stare. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. “Okay, yeah they checked in not long ago. They’re in room two fourteen. The elevator is right down the hall on your right. When you get off on the second floor, turn left,”
he told me hurriedly.
“Maniac, you stay here with our friend just in case he gets the idea he should call the cops. We’re not here to cause you or anyone else trouble. I just need to find my woman. We’ll be out of here as quickly as we can.”
The guy just nodded. He looked like he couldn’t be more than twenty. Probably working this at night and going to school if I had to guess. I left him with Maniac and Spawn was outside with the bikes. Ink followed me to the elevator.
When we got off on the second floor, the room was to the left like he said at the end of the hall by the fire escape. I knocked on the door. I could hear rustling around inside then it got quiet. I look straight at the peephole.
“Cheyenne, you know it’s me. Open the door, baby. We need to talk.”
“Reaper, please, just go away. Don’t make this harder than it is,”
I heard her say softly. I could also hear Alisse whispering something to her. She sounded insistent.
“Nothing is going to be any harder than if you leave. Please, let me in and we’ll talk. I think you owe me that much at least. You took off without giving me a chance to explain.”
I hoped she’d feel enough remorse over that to let me in. If not, I’d be sending Ink to get a keycard off the scared kid downstairs.
Suddenly, there was the rustle of the door being unlocked. I heard Cheyenne telling Alisse to stop, then the door swung open. There they stood. Both were dressed for bed. Ink and I crowded into the room. They backed up. I looked at Alisse. “Will you please get dressed and take a walk with Ink? I need to talk to Cheyenne alone.”
Alisse looked like she was unsure if she should or not. She looked from me to Cheyenne and then to Ink. After a tense minute, she nodded and went to her suitcase and grabbed some clothes. She ducked into the bathroom. With her out of the way, I looked at Cheyenne. She was across the room by the bed with her arms wrapped tightly around her middle. I could tell she’d been crying. She looked sad. I walked over to her. She tried to move away, but I crowded her until I had her trapped. I took her in my arms and pulled her to me.
“Don’t pull away. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk. Please,”
I asked her. She slowly nodded.
A minute later, Alisse was out and was ready to go. Before she left with Ink, she told me. “I’m doing this because I believe in you, Reaper. Don’t prove me wrong or I’ll have to gut you.”
By the look in her eyes, she wasn’t kidding. The sweet-natured woman Alisse presented to the world wasn’t her true self. I had to wonder what was and why she was that way. That was a mystery for another time. Right now, getting Cheyenne to come home with me was the priority.
“I won’t. Thanks, Alisse. Ink will keep you safe.”
He gave her a wink. She rolled her eyes and went out the door. I could hear them bickering as they went down the hall. I turned back to Cheyenne. “Let’s sit down.”
I led her to the small loveseat they had in the room and sat down. I tugged her down to sit right beside me, though I wanted to have her on my lap.
“I know I said this on the phone, but we don’t think you’re a spy. Yes, Crusher put it out there, but only as a final check. He doesn’t think you’re one. None of the guys are going to treat you differently. They want you to come home too.”
“That’s not my home. I haven’t had one in years. I stayed too long. I should have moved on. I got comfortable and let my guard down. I let you in, and that was a mistake.”
“Like hell it was. You’re meant to be with me. I love you, Cheyenne. We’re going to get married and have a family. Do you really want to throw that away over a misunderstanding? Yeah, Crusher was a bonehead, but he had to make sure I’d considered everything.”
“So, you considered I might be a plant before he mentioned it?”
I saw I’d walked into a trap of my own making. If I said no, she’d know I was lying. I sighed and confessed, “Yeah, I had to consider every possible angle they might use, and I thought of you for about two seconds. I knew without a doubt you wouldn’t be part of that, even though I had no idea how bad they really are. Jesus, Chey, how did you survive that growing up?”
“By escaping into books, mainly. It allowed me to be somewhere else. You have no idea. All those things I told you, I did most of them. I’ve sold drugs, run errands, hell, I think I even delivered guns. The only things I didn’t do was kill people or whore myself out to men, but that was what being given to Serpent was all about. I doubt he’d have kept me to himself. I’m as guilty as they are of breaking the law!”
she said, getting agitated.
“Baby, do you think I’m clean? I’ve broken the law. Yeah, I didn’t run guns or drugs, but I’ve killed people.”
“You were a SEAL, of course you’ve killed people. It’s not the same thing,”
she protested.
“I’ve done it since I left the Navy, Banshee. I’ve done it to protect my club, my friends, and my sister. And I’ll do it again when it’s necessary. We may not do those other things, but we do torture and kill people who deserve it. Evil people that need to be wiped off the face of the earth. Does that change how you see me? Are you turned off by it? Does it make me like them?”
“No! I can understand doing it for those reasons. Sometimes the law can’t bring the justice that’s needed. You don’t do it to take over territory or someone’s drug trade or prostitution business.”
“Then why would you tell me that you did those things, other than to try and turn me off of you? It’s not going to happen. I want you to pack your stuff and come home.”
She stood up and walked over to the bed. “I don’t think I should. Every time something goes wrong, your brothers will wonder if I had something to do with it. Once there’s that suspicion, it doesn’t go away.”
I wanted to kill Crusher for saying what he did. It had totally fucked up her mind. I got up and went over to her.
“He was only thinking of the safety of everyone. He knows you’re not a spy. They all wanted to ride down here with me to get you to come home. I had to make some of them stay behind to guard the compound. Freaking Maniac called you their queen! They have accepted you and know you’re my damn universe, Cheyenne. Don’t do this.”
She was looking at me with such warring expressions on her face. The dominant one looked like she wanted to give in. I pushed that a little more. I pulled out the big guns.
“What if you’re already pregnant? Would you deny our child its father and me my child? To have him or her grow up thinking they weren’t wanted by both parents? To only have the love and protection of one parent?”
She paled and shook her head. “I-I wouldn’t do that. But it’s too soon for me to be pregnant,”
she protested.
“No, it’s not. If you leave and find out you’re pregnant, would you come back?”
She lowered her eyes. “I think I would. I wouldn’t want to deny you your child, even if we’re not together. That’s not me. But, Holden, this is a mess.”
“It’s only a mess if we allow it to be. Come home. Help us take down Serpent and the Soldiers of Corruption. You’re the only one who knows them and how they operate. We’re going to need all the help we can get. Plus, you aren’t safe out here alone. They could be watching for you. Alisse could get hurt too.”
I saw the second she surrendered. Her whole body relaxed. I swept her up and laid claim to her mouth. I kissed her like it was the last kiss ever. When we came up for air, we were both flushed and panting. I ran my hand through her beautiful hair.
“Let’s get out of here. I’ll text Ink to bring Alisse back so she can pack her things.”
She nodded, and I let her go. As she began to pack, I sent the text. A couple of minutes later, Ink and Alisse came through the door. She didn’t say a word, just got to packing as well. I went over to Ink.
“Any problems with her?”
He gave me a smile. “I can handle her. She’s tough but not that tough. She’s one nut you have to crack.”
“And do you want to crack that nut to keep it or play with it?”
I asked. I didn’t want her to be just a conquest for any of the guys. She was my woman’s best friend. He gave me a bold look.
“I’ll keep what I claim.”
His silent communication made me relax. It seems my brother was interested in Alisse. It would be fun to see if he could get her to surrender to him.
“Good luck,”
I told him as I clapped him on the shoulder. He laughed as he stood watching every move Alisse made. It only took them about five minutes to pack their few belongings and for Cheyenne to get dressed. We grabbed their bags and went down to the lobby. Maniac was still at the desk with the clerk. He looked a little less scared. I smiled.
“Thanks for your help. Have a good night.”
I handed him a hundred dollars. Hopefully, he wouldn’t call the cops as soon as we left. We hadn’t hurt anyone or threatened him, at least not outright. He looked shocked at first, but eventually took the money. We went out the lobby door to the parking lot.
We walked them over to Alisse’s car. We were loading their bags in the trunk when we heard the roar of several motorcycles. I pushed the women around the car and down behind the engine. That would be the most protection from a bullet. My gut was telling me that those bikes were Serpent and his buddies. They’d found us somehow. Me and my brothers spread out and took cover. We had our guns out and at the ready. I stayed close to the women along with Ink. No way were those guys going to take either of them from us. We’d go down fighting.