4. REAPER
REAPER
Iwoke to a small finger pressing against the scar beside my mouth.
My hand moved toward the gun at my hip before my eyes opened, stopping the second I saw yellow dinosaur pajamas and a mess of dark hair.
Maddie crouched beside the couch, studying my face.
“You’re awake,” she whispered.
“Am now.”
“Does that hurt?”
She touched the scar again.
“Not anymore.”
“How did you get it?”
“Bad man with a knife.”
Her eyes widened. “Did you die?”
“Don’t think so.”
She considered that before nodding, apparently satisfied. “Mommy says breakfast makes people less grumpy.”
“Your mom thinks I’m grumpy?”
“She said impossible, but that means the same thing.”
A laugh came from the doorway.
Callie stood in the hall wearing jeans and a soft gray shirt, her damp hair hanging around her shoulders. She looked tired, but the color had returned to her face, and the sight of her mouth brought back every second of the kiss we had shared against the kitchen counter.
The way she had opened for me. The sound she had made when my thigh pressed between hers. The heat of her body against mine. Her gaze dropped to my bare chest and lingered long enough to tell me she remembered it too.
“Morning, sweetheart.”
Her eyes snapped back to mine. “Where’s your shirt?”
“Got blood on it.”
Maddie leaned closer to me. “Mommy has big shirts.”
“Those are sleep shirts,” Callie said quickly.
“Think your mom’s tellin’ me I can’t wear her clothes, little bit.”
“She doesn’t share.”
“I share,” Callie protested.
“Not your biscuits,” Maddie said.
I looked at Callie. “Noted.”
She folded her arms. “Why were you sleeping with a gun?”
“Wasn’t sleepin’ much.”
That was the truth. Gunner had boarded the window while I cleared the glass, then we had taken turns watching the street until just before dawn. Nobody had come back, but the absence of another attack didn’t mean they were safe.
It meant the Black Thorns had delivered their warning and expected Callie to obey.
“Get dressed,” I said. “We’re leavin’ in twenty.”
Callie’s expression tightened. “Excuse me?”
“Clubhouse is secure. Knox has cameras coverin’ every entrance, Gunner’s got men on the roads, and nobody gets through the gate without us knowin’.”
“We are not moving into a motorcycle clubhouse.”
“Wasn’t a request.”
“I have work.”
“Diner’s closed till the cops finish processin’ the scene.”
“I need clothes for Maddie. Her preschool bag. Food.”
“We’ll get whatever you need.”
“You cannot keep deciding what happens to us.”
I stood, and her gaze betrayed her by dropping over my chest again before returning to my face.
“Somebody threw a brick through your window while your kid was twenty feet away. I ain’t decidin’ your life, sweetheart. I’m makin’ sure you both stay alive long enough for you to keep arguin’ with me.”
Maddie looked between us. “Does the clubhouse have pancakes?”
“Diesel makes ’em.”
“Are they good?”
“Wouldn’t eat ’em myself.”
“Reaper,” Callie warned.
“Fine. They’re good.”
Maddie ran toward her bedroom. “I’m packing!”
Callie glared at me. “I dislike you.”
I stepped close enough to see her breathing change. “You didn’t dislike me when my tongue was in your mouth.”
Her cheeks flushed. “My daughter is in the next room.”
“Then quit makin’ me say things you don’t want her hearin’.”
“You are unbelievable.”
I leaned down, letting my mouth brush the shell of her ear. “Last night was a taste, sweetheart. You keep lookin’ at me like that, and you’re gonna find out exactly how unbelievable I can be.”
I walked away before she could answer.
***
The Iron Flames clubhouse occupied an old freight depot beyond the garage, surrounded by fencing, cameras, and enough armed men to make anyone with sense turn around at the gate. Callie drove with Maddie while I followed on my bike, Gunner bringing up the rear.
She looked nervous when we arrived.
Maddie looked delighted.
The clubhouse was already awake. Diesel stood behind the kitchen counter making pancakes while wearing an apron somebody had given him as a joke, the words KISS THE COOK stretched across his chest. Knox was near the security monitors, Gunner joined him as soon as we entered, and Hawk sat at the long table with Elaina beside him.
Chains looked up from his coffee.
The room went quiet.
Not because the brothers were surprised to see a woman or child. Families came through the clubhouse all the time, especially during daylight hours. They were quiet because I had walked in beside them, carrying Maddie’s pink backpack over one shoulder and a stuffed dinosaur beneath my arm.
Diesel recovered first.
“Didn’t know pink was your color, Reap.”
“Didn’t know you could cook without burnin’ the building down.”
He pressed a hand to his chest. “You wound me.”
“Keep talkin’, and I’ll do more than wound you.”
Maddie stepped closer to me, but she did not look frightened. She studied Diesel’s apron and then pointed at him.
“Mr. Reaper said your pancakes aren’t good.”
The room erupted.
Diesel looked personally betrayed. “He said what?”
“Told her I wouldn’t eat ’em.”
“That’s because your taste buds died with the rest of your personality.”
“Diesel,” Chains said without lifting his voice.
Diesel shut his mouth and slid a plate of pancakes toward Maddie. “Extra chocolate chips for the tiny informant.”
Callie stayed near the door until Elaina approached. She introduced herself, explained that she worked at St. Catherine’s, and somehow had Callie sitting at the table with coffee in front of her less than five minutes later.
Maddie climbed into the chair beside her and began eating while Diesel made increasingly complicated pancake shapes to impress her. By the time he attempted a dinosaur, she was laughing.
Callie watched the room carefully.
She had expected drunk bikers, half-dressed women, and drugs spread across the tables.
I could see it in the way her shoulders slowly lowered as she noticed the clean kitchen, the boxes of children’s toys near the television, and the row of framed photographs showing weddings, babies, memorial rides, and men wearing the same patches across decades.
The Iron Flames were dangerous.
We were also a family.
“You okay?” I asked.
She looked at Maddie before answering. “I don’t know yet.”
“Fair.”
Chains called me toward the back table. Hawk, Knox, and Gunner joined us while Diesel stayed with Maddie.
“Gun was recently fired,” Hawk said. “My contact at the sheriff’s office thinks it was used in the rail-yard shooting two nights ago.”
The attack had left a security guard in the hospital and one of the Black Thorns’ stolen-goods routes exposed.
“And they wrapped it in our rag,” Gunner said.
“Anonymous tip came in twenty minutes after Callie called 911,” Knox added. “Claimed an Iron Flames member dumped the weapon behind the diner.”
“They wanted it found,” I said.
Chains nodded. “Rafe Maddox is tryin’ to put law enforcement heat on us while he moves into our territory.”
Rafe ran the Black Thorns in the county and answered to Slade, their national vice president. He was smart enough to avoid getting his hands dirty and cruel enough to enjoy watching other men bleed for him.
Callie had come up behind me without my noticing.
“Who is Rafe Maddox?”
“You should be with Maddie,” I said.
“I can hear my daughter laughing from here, and Elaina is sitting beside her. Stop deciding which conversations I’m allowed to hear.”
Hawk glanced at me, amusement flickering in his eyes.
I ignored him. “Rafe runs the Black Thorns around here. Viper works for him.”
“And he planted the gun to frame your club?”
“Looks that way.”
“Why my diner?”
“Close to the county line, no cameras in the alley, and one of our garage rags makes it look like somebody from the club dumped it.”
Her face tightened. “Then I ruined their plan.”
“You saw Viper’s face. That makes you dangerous to them.”
“I’m a waitress with a four-year-old.”
“You’re a witness who called the cops after he threatened your kid. Don’t underestimate what that makes you.”
Her gaze held mine. “You aren’t going to let them hurt us.”
It was not a question.
“No, sweetheart. I ain’t.”
Something passed between us, heavy enough that Hawk cleared his throat.
“Elaina can stay with Maddie,” he said. “There’s a secure room upstairs where Callie can rest.”
I knew exactly which room he meant.
Mine.
Callie followed me upstairs after making Elaina promise twice not to let Maddie out of her sight. The hallway was quiet, separated from the noise of the clubhouse below, and my room was at the far end.
It was plain. Bed, dresser, chair, private bathroom. I used it when club business ran too late to ride home, but I had never brought a woman there.
Callie stepped inside and looked around. “This is yours?”
“Yeah.”
“I expected more chains.”
“You disappointed?”
“I haven’t decided.”
I closed the door.
Her attention moved to the lock, then to me.
“We need to talk about last night,” she said.
“What about it?”
“The kiss.”
“What about it?”
“It cannot happen again.”
“Liar.”
I crossed the room slowly. “Your mouth says it can’t happen. Rest of you’s been beggin’ me to do it again since I walked into your house this morning.”
“That is incredibly arrogant.”
“Then tell me I’m wrong.”
She opened her mouth. Nothing came out. I stopped in front of her, close enough to feel the heat coming off her body.
“Maddie’s safe downstairs. Door’s locked. Nobody’s gettin’ near her without goin’ through half my club.” I lifted one hand and wrapped it around the back of her neck. “So this ain’t fear, and it ain’t gratitude. Tell me you don’t want me, sweetheart, and I’ll walk out.”
Her breathing turned shallow.
“I can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
“Tell you that.”
My control broke.
I kissed her hard, swallowing the gasp that escaped when her back struck the door. Her hands went beneath my cut and fisted in my shirt, dragging me closer as I took her mouth the way I had wanted to since the diner.
She tasted like coffee and something sweet.
I gripped her ass and lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around my waist without hesitation. Her body pressed against mine, hot and soft in all the right places, and the need to get inside her hit hard enough to make my hands shake.
“Fuck, Callie.”
I carried her to the bed and put her down, following her before she could catch her breath. She reached for my cut, shoving it from my shoulders, then dragged my shirt over my head.
Her palms moved over my chest. I pulled her shirt over her head and stopped. Her bra was black lace, delicate against soft skin, and the sight of her breasts spilling over the cups nearly ended me. I hooked one finger beneath the center and pulled her toward me.
“Been thinkin’ about these since the diner.”
“You couldn’t see them at the diner.”
“Got a good imagination.”
I opened the clasp and dragged the straps down her arms. Her breasts filled my hands, warm and heavy, and when I bent to take one nipple into my mouth, her fingers twisted in my hair.
“Reaper.”
I sucked harder.
She arched beneath me, the sound she made going straight to my cock. I bit gently, then soothed the mark with my tongue while my other hand worked open her jeans.
“Lift your hips.”
I dragged her jeans and panties down together, dropping them beside the bed before spreading her thighs. The flowers curved across her left hip, dark petals disappearing toward her pussy.
“There they are.”
“You were looking for those?”
“Been thinkin’ about where they ended all damn morning.”
I kissed the tattoo slowly, following the flowers lower until my mouth hovered over her.
Her thighs tensed.
“Reaper.”
“That ain’t the name I gave you.”
Her gaze found mine.
“Chris.”
Hearing it from her mouth nearly snapped the last thread of my control.
I hooked her legs over my shoulders and dragged my tongue through her. She cried out, then pressed a hand over her mouth as though remembering where we were.
I caught her wrist.
“Let me hear you.”
I went back to her, licking her slowly until her body softened beneath my mouth, then harder when her hips started moving. She tasted better than I had imagined, and every time her fingers tightened in my hair, I pushed her closer.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Give it to me.”
Her thighs shook around my head. I slid two fingers inside her, curling them until her back lifted from the mattress.
“Oh God.”
“No God up here.”
She laughed breathlessly.
“Just me.”
I sucked her clit and drove my fingers deeper.
Her laughter broke into a moan. She came hard, gripping my hair and pressing against my mouth while I held her through every shudder.
I kissed my way up her body and covered her with mine.
“You sure?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Say it.”
“I want you.”
I reached into the bedside drawer for a condom, rolled it on, and positioned myself between her thighs. She looked down, eyes widening when she saw me.
“You’re—”
“Careful, sweetheart. Man’s got feelings.”
She laughed again, and the sound did something dangerous to my chest. I pushed inside her slowly. Her laughter disappeared.
“Fuck.” My forehead dropped to hers as her body stretched around me. “You feel so damn good.”
She dug her nails into my shoulders. “Move.”
“You bossy everywhere?”
“Reaper.”
“Chris.”
“Chris, please.”
I pulled back and drove into her.
Her mouth opened on a broken gasp. I kissed her, swallowing every sound as I set a hard rhythm, one hand gripping her hip while the other held her wrist above her head.
She took everything I gave her. Every deep thrust. Every rough kiss.
Every filthy word I whispered against her mouth while her body tightened around mine.
“Wanted me fuckin’ you from the second I walked into that diner.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me who you belong to right now.”
Her eyes opened. “You.”
The word tore through me. I released her wrist and slid my hand between us, circling her clit as I drove deeper.
“Come for me, sweetheart.”
Her body clenched around me. She cried out my name and that was what finished me. I buried myself inside her and came hard, every muscle locking as she held on to me. For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then I rolled to the side and pulled her against my chest.
Callie traced one of the scars across my ribs. “You’ve done this before.”
“Had sex?” I said smirking.
“Brought a woman to this room.”
“No.”
She lifted her head. “Never?”
I shook my head. “Never wanted one here.”
Something vulnerable crossed her face before she lowered it again.
My phone buzzed on the floor.
I ignored it.
It buzzed a second time.
“Could be important,” she said.
“Everything important’s already in this room or downstairs.”
The third vibration came with Hawk’s emergency tone.
I cursed, reached for the phone, and opened the message.
It contained a photograph taken outside a Black Thorns bar the previous night. Viper stood near the entrance talking to a man in a dark jacket. The image was grainy, but his face was visible. Callie went rigid beside me.
I looked at her. “You know him?”
All the warmth disappeared from her expression.
“That’s Maddie’s father.”