Chapter 21
Reaper
“This concludes our deal,” Raf said.
I nodded, watching as the boys hefted the bodies of Rowan’s attackers from the car, and took them to the shed. Our one place that we used for the instances when we needed to make an example of our power.
It had been a while since we’d had to do it, but my hands were itching to get bloody. Especially knowing what they’d done to my girl.
“You told her, didn’t you?”
Raf nodded quickly. “She should know not to go looking for our father. Don’t let her use the name Bianchi, or even look for him.”
“I have no intention of letting her use the name Bianchi,” I said, with certainty.
Raf smirked at me, opening his car door. “Good. Keep her protected, yeah? I’m not always going to be around to fix it.”
“She’s good with us,” Chaos said from beside me. He’d grown increasingly agitated by Raf’s appearance in our lives, even if Raf barely glanced at him.
Raf looked as if he may say something but instead, he nodded his head, and got in his car. Driving away at top speed, and then out of sight.
Chaos had already started moving toward the shed, leaving me to stare at the clubhouse where Cherry had taken my girl. I was caught between going into the shed to take care of business and check on Rowan.
“Come on, the sooner we get done, the sooner you can go see her and spend the next week in bed.”
Now that sounded good. I nodded and headed over to the shed with the boys. It was time to show these fuckers why I was called Reaper.
Rowan
I’d finally convinced Cherry that I was okay if I just stayed in my old room, but she shook her head and told me Reaper wouldn’t allow it, plus Cammie was currently sleeping in there.
I didn’t want to put her out, even though I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that she wasn’t the one fucking Reaper in my absence. Why else would she be up here?
“Are you going to be okay?” Cherry asked me, concern etched on her face.
“I’ll be good, I just need a warm shower and sleep,” I told her.
She nodded. “Let me run you a bath in the bathroom.”
“Thanks Cherry.”
“You got it, babe. I’ve missed you.”
I gave her a little hug, and she went back down the hall to the bathroom.
I looked around the room, looking for anything out of place.
It’s like I was trying to find evidence that he was with someone else, just to protect myself.
I don’t even know why. I should be happy that he just wanted to be with me, that he would go to his enemy to find me, but…
what if I let myself fall for him again?
What if he decides I’m not good enough further down the track?
No one has ever stuck around before. Only Trey, but that was different, he loved me for me, and not what my body could do for him.
Cherry knocked on the door softly. “Bath is running. Do you need anything else?”
“Thanks, Cherry. I’m good.”
She nodded, leaving the door open slightly. I moved over to his drawers and pulled out a shirt, before I headed toward the bathroom. Removing my clothing, I threw them to the corner of the room, looking at myself in the mirror.
The bruises from the fight were all over my body, a bruise on my jaw, but also a cut in my hairline, caked on blood streaked down my face.
Shit.
I looked bad.
I checked the water temperature, noting how perfect it was. Not cold, not hot, but hot enough to soak in and feel my skin prickle. I loved it.
I stepped into the tub, loving how the hot water lapped around my bare skin. Sinking down into the water and taking a seat, I let my eyes drift closed as the water lulled me into a feeling of warmth and comfort.
The door slammed open and I jumped up, water splashing over the edge, before I saw Frankie’s worried face.
“Bitch, you scared the shit out of me,” she said, closing the door behind her.
“I scared you?”
My hand was over my heart, feeling it pump harder and faster than before, and I sank down in the water again.
“Your phone is going to voicemail, bitch, why?”
“I don’t know where it is.”
“Trey flipped out. Told me you got fucking kidnapped from The Pit. Why the fuck are you fighting again?”
I rolled my eyes at her, which I knew was going to set her off, but YOLO.
“Bitch, did you not hear me? Trey called me! He never does that.”
“Because you hate him, and you let him know that every time you see him,” I replied, closing my eyes again. The feeling of a warm washer on my forehead was a comfort I didn’t know I needed.
“What happened, babe?”
“I really can’t talk about it right now.”
Frankie nodded. “You know I love you right, bitch?”
I smiled, feeling the pull of the bruise on my jaw. Fuck, Sonya got me good. I’d always challenged myself to fight her growing up, but damn she got better on the offense than before. She’d clocked me good a few times before I’d remembered my training.
Then, she’d gone and done the worst you could do. She’d spoken about my failed relationship with Trey, and that even my mother wasn’t proud of me.
I’d seen red.
And the old brutal Rowie had bubbled to the surface.
“I love you, Frankie, how about we talk about you and Chaos?”
She rolled her eyes. “Nothing to talk about. It was a fuck, and now it’s over.”
“Are you upset?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Like I know why he did it and all, but the worst part for me…I really am going to miss that cock.”
I snorted, almost slipping in the tub at the unexpected comment from her. “Girl, warn a bitch. I do not want to think about Chaos’ cock.”
“Only Reaper’s right?
“Well, it is delicious.”
She splashed me with water as she sat against the cool tiles. “Are you sure about this, Ro?”
“The bath or the club?”
Frankie rolled her eyes. “Reaper.”
I took a deep breath, wondering the same thing. “Honestly, I don’t know. All I do know is I can’t stop thinking about him. When he kisses me, I melt. Like actually melt into him, like I was born to be in his arms.”
Frankie hummed to herself, almost like she was keeping something in. “I know what that feels like.”
“Chaos?”
She sighed. “I’m just good at finding emotionally unavailable guys, it seems.”
“Babe…”
“It’s okay. We’re only young, right?”
“Yeah, babe, we are. There’s still someone out there that can handle your crazy.”
She flipped me the bird, and I chuckled, but my heart bled for her. She was such a beautiful person, inside and out, and she struggled to find someone that would treat her like the queen she was. I didn’t think it would happen for me, and yet here I was, being treated like a queen.
“I gotta get out. I’m fucking exhausted.”
Frankie helped me, holding out a towel and making sure I didn’t collapse before I wrapped it around me.
“We will talk about what happened tomorrow,” she warned. “No excuses.”
I nodded and gave her a hug, before she left the bathroom, blowing me a kiss and disappearing. I’d been glad for her to come and sit with me, tending to my wounds, but I really couldn’t piece together the last twenty-four hours if I tried.
The one thing I was looking forward to was sleeping in Reaper’s big bed, where I knew no one could get to me.
Pulling on Reaper’s shirt, it hung just below my ass, but it smelled like him and that was enough for now. I picked up my dirty clothes and threw them in the hamper, before I moved back outside, down to his bedroom.
“Ah look the fat slut is back,” I heard Tee’s vicious words at the end of the hall. I stopped at Reaper’s double doors, turning around to face her. She was at the end of the hallway, her arms crossed over her chest, defensively, with a sneer on her face.
“I may be a slut, Tee, but I’m Reaper’s slut, which is something you’ll never be. I’m back right where I’m meant to be.”
I smiled at her, feeling the defeat, before I closed the double doors and headed to bed. Not even she was dumb enough to come marching in here to start shit with me. But I finally felt as if I had power over myself, over my bullies. Her words hadn’t hurt me like I thought they would.
Somehow, Reaper had made it seem like her hurtful words didn’t matter anymore, that I was better than all the bad shit. I was…powerful.
And I was powerful, because he wanted me. He didn’t want to change me, he just wanted me. He’d been hurt. I hadn't been completely honest with him. That was all. It was just a misunderstanding, and I’d almost lost him because of it.
He’d almost lost me because I’d been reckless.
I wiped at the tears falling down my cheeks.
I needed underwear, but I knew I hadn’t kept anything here.
Looking through his top drawer, I found a pair of his jocks.
They’d be loose, but they’d fit me. I pulled them on, laughing at how loose they were over my thighs.
I didn’t think I’d ever say that about my thighs and underwear, but here we were.
Tying them at the side so they didn’t fall down, I went to close the drawer, only to find something sticking up at the corner. Pulling it out, I felt everything in me freeze. It was a photo of me.
A photo taken of me from the very first time I’d come to the clubhouse with Trey. I was smiling at the person talking to me, and the photographer had taken it from the side. I looked so happy.
Why did he have this?
Moving with it, over to the bed, I sat down, looking at how carefree I was. Nothing bothered me back then…before all the bad shit. Before Trey’s addictions, before I knew he didn’t like me sexually, before…my life was upended. I wanted to be that girl again.
I would be. If it was the last thing I did.
Somehow, I knew Reaper was the answer to that.
Reaper
Rowan was asleep in my bed, beautiful, gorgeous, peaceful. It was late, or rather early in the morning, and I’d been working her attackers over for hours with my boys. They were in no state to remain alive, and yet, I had left them alive.
For her.
They weren’t mine to kill. They were hers.