Chapter Fourteen
Reaper looked over toward Cartright’s office, binoculars in hand, and he didn’t give a fuck who saw him. He made a point of staring right into Cartright’s world. The man was a bully. A piece of shit. According to his wife, not only did he like to hit her, he also liked to hit their daughter, Jane.
Heidi told him her husband wasn’t happy to learn she was having a baby girl. He’d wanted to terminate the pregnancy. Asshole. It would seem Cartright attempted to take matters into his own hands, to the point that Heidi spent some of her pregnancy in the hospital.
“Sir, I am going to have to ask you to leave.” A security guard walked over to him.
“Fuck off.”
“I’ll call the cops. This could get very ugly.”
Reaper turned toward the security guard. On his name tag, it said Chad, and he looked absolutely terrified. Like his own shadow was going to jump out and scare him.
“We don’t want it to get ugly, do we?” Reaper asked.
He climbed off his bike and made his way across the road, with Chad tailing him. Reaper was not one to be bullied, and this judge didn’t scare him. Cartright needed to know he was not going to get away with scaring his woman. And no one fucked with the Straight to Hell MC.
Cartright could have done anything else. Tormented anyone else. But the moment he targeted Grace, that made him his personal enemy.
Several women whimpered as he walked into the building.
People scattered. It was full of suits going about their daily lives.
And he didn’t fit in. He made his way straight toward Cartright’s office, and didn’t knock or wait to be invited in.
He twisted the doorknob, stepped right in, and of course, he knew what he was going to see, as he had been watching from across the street.
Cartright was a lying, manipulative piece of shit.
Reaper pulled out his cell phone and made sure to record Cartright’s dick, balls-deep in the mouth of a very young-looking secretary.
Tears fell down the woman’s cheeks as she’d clearly been struggling to take every inch of the man’s dick, which, by his assessment, was quite small.
Maybe that was why he was such a prick to his family.
He was trying to make up for the fact he had a tiny dick.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Cartright asked. His face went a nasty shade of puce.
Reaper clicked his tongue. “I’d be careful. I’ve heard tales of men looking like you having a stroke. Are you under a lot of stress lately?”
The blonde pulled away from Cartright and scrambled to get away. Reaper couldn’t be sure if she was even there willingly or not.
Cartright put his dick away and tried to look ... in charge. It was cute. Reaper couldn’t deny that. Unfortunately, Heidi was scared right now, and she wouldn’t even dream of reporting what kind of monster this bastard was. That was fine. Reaper knew how to deal with men like him.
“You do realize I can have the cops here in less than ten minutes. Your ass will be locked away, and there would be no one to help your precious whore,” Cartright said, lifting up the phone, as if he was about to make good on his threat.
“Go ahead,” Reaper said. “Call the cops, and I think in less than ten minutes, the press would be swarming around this place. Maybe they’ll want an explanation as to why your battered wife and daughter are in a women’s hostel.
And how about the fact one of the workers has just been killed with a gunshot to the head, and you personally made sure the death certificate on the autopsy was doctored?
“You’ve got no proof,” Cartright said smugly.
Right now, Bradshaw was currently under protection of the club at his home.
Witnesses had such a short shelf life, but no one wanted that piece of shit in the clubhouse.
They were willing to help him stay alive, but not at a cost to themselves.
Besides, none of them liked Bradshaw. Getting guys to agree to stake out the place was bad enough.
Bradshaw was an endless bore, and it had only been a couple of days.
Reaper knew he was going to have to take the job soon enough.
Cartwright was right, though. All they had was Bradshaw’s testimony, and there was a huge chance he’d lie to save his ass and the judge’s even if they kept him breathing.
“No one would believe you,” Cartright said, but the man had gone pale, and he slowly lowered his phone down.
No cops would be called. They were at a stalemate.
Any move the judge made could end his career.
There would be people begging for his blood, wanting to throw away the key for a long time.
Cartright wouldn’t last in prison. He imagined that man had made a lot of enemies over the years. So, he sat down and looked over at him.
“I want my wife back,” Cartright said.
“Not going to happen.”
Cartright laughed and it was quite mocking in its tone, which pissed him off, but he stayed perfectly calm.
“You do realize this is not how negotiation works. First, you tell me what you want, and we come to a compromise. The same with me. I tell you what I want, and we compromise.”
“I didn’t come to compromise,” Reaper said.
Cartright looked pissed off. “Okay, if you didn’t come here to compromise, why did you come?”
The judge was getting angry, likely used to getting his own way.
Reaper smiled, and he knew he didn’t have the nicest of smiles. More often than not, a smile was not natural on him. He tended to have to force it, and it came across as a little psycho-killer. Not that he minded that reputation.
He stared at Cartright. “Because I can,” Reaper said, and then he got to his feet. His point had been made, and he walked toward the door.
“I’ll be watching you,” Reaper said, and he kept that smile on his face.
Cartright was now in checkmate without a way out. He must have figured Reaper wanted to come to make some kind of deal for the club. He didn’t. His aim for today was to piss Cartright off, and also prove to him that he didn’t hold all of the cards.
He walked across the street, and Chad stayed by the door, being the good little security guard.
Cartright was no longer in charge. Any move he made could end his career. Reaper held the cards, and he knew this had put a target on his back. Pocketing his cell phone, he straddled his bike, looked toward Cartright’s office, and gave him a thumbs-up.
Next, he drove away to do a quick pitstop at the shelter to see Gena. As he was there, he also tried to talk to Heidi, but it was like the woman had gone into some kind of trance, which wasn’t good. They needed her to snap out of it.
This is what her husband anticipated—for her to be so afraid she wouldn’t talk to the cops—and it pissed him off so fucking badly, but there was nothing he could do.
After trying to talk to her and getting nowhere, he told Gena not to get any more volunteers, until all of this blew over, then he made his way back to the club.
No one was outside, and he parked his bike, taking a few moments to catch his breath, and looked up toward the clubhouse.
The judge could fuck this place up—Reaper was aware of the danger and the damage that could be caused.
He had a feeling Cartright cared about his reputation.
Every part of this had been some kind of charade.
Cartright attempting to keep his name as far away from the people involved—from the rent on the hostel, to the coroner, and even now.
There was nothing on Cartright’s wife letting him go.
Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out his cell phone.
He didn’t play the video, but the woman on the ground looked petrified, and he saw that relief in her eyes at the sight of him.
She didn’t want to be there, but now he needed to find out her identity, so he could have a talk with her.
Some women, like Heidi, were broken down, but other women still had that fire to make the man pay.
He knew all about it. His mother had been the same way.
She’d been broken down, beaten by life, and it had killed him to see.
He didn’t want to see another woman suffer the way his mother did.
****
Grace laughed. She couldn’t help it as Reaper’s hands went to her armpits, and they didn’t stay there but started to work all over her body.
“Please stop, I’m going to pee,” she said.
She didn’t know how they had gotten into this little tickle fight, only that she had completely lost, because Reaper was a master and overpowered her. If he didn’t stop soon, she feared she was going to embarrass herself.
“You promise to be good?” he asked.
Grace smiled up at him. “Of course, I’m going to be good.” She let out a giggle. “You’re the one that started this.”
“Actually, babe, you’re the one that asked if I had a ticklish spot, and guess what, I don’t.”
She scrunched up her nose to him, and then shrugged.
“Whereas you do,” he said, and his hand tensed right between her thighs, at the flesh.
She couldn’t help but try to pull away, but she wasn’t fighting him because she didn’t want his touch, she did. She just didn’t want to be tickled.
“Time out. Time out. Please, I would never forgive you if I embarrassed myself.” She was mortified, because they had been play-fighting now for a good twenty minutes. It wasn’t fighting, not really. It was just playful fun. She was enjoying most of it.
“Then, you know what you’re going to have to do,” Reaper said.
“What?” she asked. “What do I need to do?”
“Kiss me. Give me a big one on the lips.”
She laughed but was able to make his hands drop from sensitive areas, and she crawled into his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, smiled at him, and then kissed him. Grace literally just pecked him on the cheek. Innocent, sweet, but she saw the look Reaper gave.
“You’re going to have to be a little more specific.”
“I want a proper kiss.”
“A proper kiss?” she asked.
“With tongue.”
She let out a gasp. “I don’t know what you mean. I’m a lady, and I do not kiss like that.”
She screamed and laughed as Reaper pushed her to the bed. “Then I’m going to have to show you exactly what I mean, aren’t I?” he asked.
She nodded her head and hoped she was pulling off the completely innocent look. She had a sneaking suspicion that wasn’t happening.
Reaper closed the distance, and it stopped being fun, not for a bad reason, but because she became so focused on him. He was close. She felt his breath against her lips. She didn’t look away, just watched him.
And then, his lips hit hers, and all sense of play left her body as he kissed her. Nothing else seemed to exist. It was just the two of them, and this amazing kiss.
Her hands were locked at either side of her head, because Reaper had pressed her hands there, and she couldn’t do anything but wait, and then he let her go. He pressed his aroused dick to her, and the kiss deepened before he trailed his lips down toward her neck.
She gasped. “I really do need to pee.”
Reaper burst out laughing, pressing his face against her neck.
“But hold that thought, okay? Will you do that?” she asked, scrambling to get off the bed.
“There is nothing else I need to do,” Reaper said, rolling over and resting his hands behind his head. He wasn’t wearing a shirt.
She quickly rushed into the bathroom and cursed her evil bladder and the fact she couldn’t handle being tickled.
She used the toilet, then soaped a washcloth to wash herself down there, as she didn’t know where tonight would lead, and she didn’t want to put anything to chance.
After washing her pussy, and then her hands, she made her way back into the bedroom, but found Reaper looking over some paperwork.
“Is everything okay?”
Reaper looked up and nodded. “Yeah, Lord just dropped this off for me, it’s just some paperwork for the club. I don’t suppose you have a pen?” He held one in his hand. “This one dried up.”
She rummaged into her bag, pulling out the pen Heidi had given her.
“Here you go,” Grace said. “What do you need to sign?”
Reaper looked toward her, and she didn’t know if she had crossed some kind of line, as this was club business.
“It’s making provisions for you.”
“Me?”
“The club, we take care of our own, and we all have these for our women, old ladies, and stuff like that. It’s a binding document detailing what you want to happen within the club.
If anything happens to any of the men, it’s a legal club contract that means they don’t have to worry about the women. ”
“Oh,” Grace said.
“Usually, the men say something along the lines, ‘until she gets a new boyfriend,’ or shit like that. If anything happens to me, I want you to be protected by the club.”
“Wow, I don’t know what to say,” Grace said.