Chapter Seventeen
They drove in silence for another ten minutes or so before Reaper spoke again.
“Call the guy at the radio station. Tell him to be ready for us,” Reaper said.
“Thank you,” Phoebe said. “I’ve been dreaming of this for years. He’ll pay for all the pain he’s caused.”
Grace couldn’t believe it. Their nightmare was about to end. They’d upload this on the news, the judge would be thrown into prison, and they could live happily ever after. She felt emotional from the mere thought of the relief.
Phoebe was on her phone calling the news station when Reaper’s cell went off. She recognized Lord’s ringtone.
“Just passed the Ardene ranch. Yeah. She wants to upload it at the local news station. Okay. Understood. I’ll handle it. Okay. Always.”
Grace didn’t know what they were talking about. The conversation was short and tense. Reaper was looking straight ahead after, his jaw clenching occasionally.
That’s when she heard it. Sirens. She and Phoebe shifted around to look out the back windshield.
There wasn’t one but three cop cars after them with their lights blazing.
Reaper kept driving, not speaking or acknowledging the new situation.
The cars were coming up fast, swerving back and forth wildly.
“I recognize him! The one driving,” Phoebe shouted when the first cop car was right on their bumper. “It’s the guy Cartwright calls when he wants someone to disappear ... permanently.”
Grace felt her blood pressure rise rapidly. Reaper pushed on the gas, driving straight ahead, turning right at the next side road. Dust billowed around them as they sped along the unpaved road. Grace held onto the dashboard to brace herself as the car jostled wildly.
“They’re going to kill me,” Phoebe kept chanting from the back. “I know too much.”
“Reaper, they’re cops. What are you going to do?” Grace yelled. She felt frantic, knowing he couldn’t go up against the police. He’d come out as the bad guy no matter what the truth was. She didn’t want him to get hurt. There was just him and three cop cars. It was a losing battle.
They kept along the rough path until they reached an abandoned grainery. He turned the car around then stopped.
“Why are you stopping?” Grace asked.
“They’re not going to let us walk away,” Phoebe said. “They’ll kill me.”
“Stay in the car,” Reaper said. “Keep your heads down. Whatever happens, stay in this fucking car.”
“What? No, Reaper!” Grace grabbed his sleeve when he attempted to leave the car. “This is a crazy idea.”
He ignored her pleading and left the car, closing the door behind him. There were six cops there, some behind the cars, some in front. They all had guns.
They both watched, unable to do anything else but watch as Reaper walked toward them.
“We haven’t done anything wrong, officers. We have nothing you want.”
One of them scoffed. “We want the witness.”
Reaper shook his head. “You’re not getting her.”
“Give us the fucking witness or you all die.”
“You’ll have to go through me,” Reaper said.
Then the cop pulled out his gun and shot Reaper right in the chest. Everything seemed to play out in slow motion. He dropped down to one knee. Grace screamed so loud her ears rang. She opened the glove box, then bolted from the car, and she heard Phoebe opening her door, too.
She rushed toward Reaper, shouting in a panic as she waved her hand in the air, “Looking for this?”
“Grace, no!” Reaper said, not getting to his feet. “Go back to the car.”
In her hand, she had the flash drive that had started it all. The one the judge thought his wife stole, the one in her purse all that time. The one that was supposed to take down Cartwright once and for all.
But she couldn’t let them kill Reaper. She loved him too much. Besides, they had Phoebe and her testimony against the judge. That had to be enough now.
Another cop came over and snatched it from her hand. The other cop still training his weapon on Reaper. She dared to look over and saw the blood. Her head started to spin. So much blood. Was he going to make it?
“Guess we don’t need you anymore, then,” said the cop, turning his gun toward her. She froze in place. “Thanks for the drive. It’s a bonus. We were only after the witness.”
She closed her eyes and heard the shot being fired. Grace couldn’t believe this was how it was going to end. If anything, at least she’d found love. Even if it had been short, it had been beautiful.
Then another shot. She opened her eyes, patting herself down. The cop was on the ground, along with another. Reaper was shooting back and forth with them even in his condition. He’d saved her.
The sounds were deafening, the scents acrid and distinct in the air. It was pure chaos. When she heard a cry, she turned to see Phoebe on the ground, blood pooling out from under her. She looked dead, but Grace ran over and grabbed her by the arms and dragged her body behind Reaper’s car.
“Phoebe, Phoebe...” Grace couldn’t wake her, didn’t know where the blood was coming from.
She heard another car door slam and peeked out from behind the car.
It was the Cartwright himself. He had a smug smile on his face as he walked toward Reaper, who was sitting on the ground, leaning against the barn. There was only one cop left alive, and he gave the flash drive to the judge right away.
“You think you can put me away?” Cartwright said. He dropped the flash drive on the ground and crushed it with the heel of his boot. “Now you have nothing. No evidence, no witness, no hope.”
Reaper spat out blood to the side. Grace’s heart was pounding in her chest. She left the body and came around the car.
As soon as the judge saw her, he pulled a weapon out of his waist and aimed it at her. Reaper somehow managed to get to his feet, pointing his own gun at the judge’s head. They were so close to each other.
“Drop the gun,” Reaper said.
The judge laughed. “She’ll still be dead because I’m going to pull this trigger.”
“Okay.” Reaper tossed the gun on the grass at their feet. As soon as the judge looked down at it, Reaper head-butted him, knocking him to the ground. He grabbed his gun from the ground, aiming at the last cop, taking him down.
Then he stood over the judge.
“Do it,” Cartwright said.
“Nah. You spent your life deciding everyone else’s fate. Now you get to live with yours.”
Reaper lowered the gun to his side. He turned to look at Grace, but the judge used the moment to grab the gun he’d dropped.
****
“No!” Grace screamed.
Reaper turned around just as the shot was fired. The sound pierced the quiet. A single bullet.
He turned to the judge, still on the ground. Why was he howling in pain? Blood oozed from a hole in his leg. He held it with both hands, crying like a little bitch.
Grace walked over with the gun he kept in the glove box.
“He said you get to live,” Grace said, passing Reaper the gun, then bending over to take the judge’s weapon away.
He couldn’t have been prouder of her in that moment. But he felt dizzy. The adrenaline had been keeping him going, but he knew this was the final show. His vision was blurry, his legs giving out. He wobbled.
“Reaper!” Grace ran up to him, holding his large frame with her much smaller one.
He sat back down against the barn. “Check on her,” he said.
Grace was crying and not moving away. He didn’t want her to watch him die.
“Baby, look at me. I’m not going anywhere. Go check on her.”
He knew he was lying, even though he’d promised her otherwise.
Once she’d left to check on Phoebe, that asshole turned to him, still clutching his leg.
“She just shot a judge. Do you have any idea what happens now?” He chuckled through the pain.
Reaper had to get to Grace, to tell her to contact Lord. He didn’t want any of this heat coming down on her once he was gone. He struggled to his feet, walking away toward the car, but he couldn’t fucking make it.
Grace saw him and rushed over, helping lower him down to the grass.
“Where’s the bleeding?” she said. “You’re pale. You’re shaking.” Tears were tracing down her cheeks. “You’re so cold. Reaper, you can’t die on me!” She was sobbing like a baby, frantically trying to get his shirt off to find the wound.
He grabbed her wrist. “Stop, Grace.”
“No!” She dropped down on the grass beside him, holding onto him and crying against his shoulder.
“Knew you were trouble the second I saw you at the shelter,” he said, his voice growing weaker.
“Shut up,” she said, through her sobs.
“Bossy. There’s my girl.”
His eyes drifted closed. He could barely keep awake at this point.
“Please. I can’t do this without you, Reaper. Please don’t leave me. You’re all I have.”
“You’re strong, Grace. Look what you just did.”
She shook her head. “I love you, Reaper. I want to have a family with you. I want to have pie with you at the diner.” Grace was struggling to speak through her emotions. “You’re not allowed to die. Do you hear me?” She shook him when he nodded off.
“I’m still here, baby.”
Then he heard it. The most beautiful sound in the world. The engines rumbling toward them.
Next thing he heard as he drifted in and out was Brick’s voice. “Jesus Christ, brother.”
“Took you fuckers long enough.”
“Traffic.”
They both chuckled, but it hurt.
“Take care of Grace,” Reaper mumbled. “Lord has her contract...”
“You’re going to be fine, big boy. I don’t want to hear that shit. Get him up,” Brick said.
Strong arms were hoisting him up and he felt like he was floating. Lord was there. At the center of it all.
“Do you know who the fuck I am?” Cartwright said.
“Yeah,” Lord said.
“I’m a superior court judge, and your men killed police officers.”
Lord glanced over at the dead cops. “Those weren’t cops.” He bent down beside the judge. “Badges don’t make men good. Same way a robe didn’t make you one.”
“You have no idea what kind of people I know!”
“Funny. They don’t seem to be coming,” Lord said.
Reaper’s vision was going in and out.
“Go ahead. Kill me, then. That’s what your kind does, doesn’t it?”
“Dead judge. Dead cops. Bunch of outlaw bikers standing around.” He nods. “Makes a pretty fucking story,” Lord said. “Problem is that’s not the story you’re getting.”
“I destroyed the drive. You have nothing on me.”
Lord laughed, standing back up. “The second that drive hit my tech guy’s hands, it stopped being the only copy.”
“Kill me!”
“No. You get to watch your whole fucking world burn,” Lord said. “And if my brother dies, prison is going to be the safest place you’ll ever live.”
Reaper couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore.
He heard Grace’s beautiful voice. “He’s going to be okay, right?”
Reaper heard voices all around him.
“Don’t fucking do this, brother,” said Stump. “You hear me? Your woman’s right fucking there. You don’t leave her like this.”
“Get him to the car!”
Reaper felt her hand around his. “Please stay with me.”
He tried. Fuck, he tried. He’d fought his entire goddamn life. Fought men. Bullets. Death itself more times than he cared to count. But he’d never had as much to live for as he did now. Reaper wanted to tell her he loved her, but his mouth wasn’t working. He was slipping away, faster and faster.
Then the darkness took over.