17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
Reaper
The kitchen’s dimly lit, but alive. Laughter echoes off the high ceilings, soft and frequent, like no one dares let the silence settle. The air smells like coffee and whiskey, like someone couldn’t choose between numbing the nerves or sharpening them. Probably both.
Wrenley tries to slide into her usual chair, right between Margot and Riot, but I reach out and hook her waist with one arm, guiding her back to me.
“Uh-uh,” I murmur, low against her spine. “Lap seat only.”
She doesn’t fight it. Just hums, and settles herself across my thighs like it’s second nature. My hand rests on her hip, her warmth easing me in a way I didn’t know I needed tonight.
The poker game’s already a few hands in. Torque’s hoarding chips like it’s life or death. Margot’s got glittery sunglasses on indoors for no reason other than pure chaos. Riot’s shirtless again. And Wrecker is chewing on a toothpick like it’s a damn cigar.
Hugo’s curled under the table with his head resting on Wrenley’s bare feet, his ears twitching every time someone slaps their cards down. He doesn’t like the sound, but he won’t leave her side, not now, not ever.
I deal another hand. “Where the hell is Elias?” I ask, mostly to no one, as I fling cards across the table with practiced ease.
Riot doesn’t look up from his cards. “Brooding in his Batcave. Said he’s not stopping till he finds where that psycho crawled off to.” He shrugs. “Dudes in a mood.”
Margot tosses a chip into the center, barely looking. “I offered to help, but he refused to let me look at a computer, he said I needed the rest. Just let him work it out.”
We all nod. Fair. Elias gets obsessive when the people he loves get hurt. It’s one of his more useful traits.
Wrenley shifts in my lap, letting out a soft sigh, and I pull her closer without even thinking. Her hand wraps around mine beneath the table, fingers lacing through mine. Something tight in my chest loosens.
Torque throws down his cards. “Read it and weep, fuckers. Full house.”
Wrecker groans like he’s been shot. Riot flips him off without lifting his eyes. Margot chucks a mini marshmallow at Torque’s head. God only knows where she got those from.
“I call bullshit,” she says. “You have cards up your sleeves.”
Torque smirks. “I’m not wearing sleeves.”
“I know you’re cheating,” she retorts, straight-faced “And I am going to catch you doing it.”
Torque shakes his head smiling. “You’ve been saying that for over a year now, and you still can’t beat me.”
Wrenley laughs quietly against my neck, and I swear the sound cleanses a hundred bad memories.
It’s good to have this, this moment of peace before the next wave hits.
Tonight, we’ve got cards. We’ve got each other, and I’ve got Wrenley right here.
Soft, steady, and still burning, too wild to extinguish.
“Your bet, Little Warrior,” I murmur against her temple.
“Hmm,” she hums, dragging a red poker chip through her fingers before tossing it in. “All in. Let’s go.”
Margot’s already cackling. “You’re bluffing.”
Wrenley shrugs unapologetic.
The door creaks open and Doc strolls in, drying her hands on a small towel. “The bathroom next to Torque’s room? Top tier. I might move in there. The tub is ridiculous.”
Wrenley grins without looking up. “Should’ve asked to use mine. Bigger tub. Built for three.”
She says it with that devious glint in her eyes, and I already know what’s coming. The room goes quiet for half a beat.
“Built for what?” Riot laughs so hard he nearly knocks over his chair. “Please, say you didn’t…”
“I’ll never be able to walk by her door again,” Wrecker groans dramatically, throwing his cards down. “Please say you don’t take baths together like toddlers?”
Torque lowers his head, “They do…”
Max walks in just in time to catch the tail end of that. “We have,” he says casually, grabbing a pretzel off the table and popping it into his mouth. “But with more slippery thighs and fewer rubber ducks.”
Riot chokes on his drink. “You need Jesus.”
Max grins, sitting down next to me and getting dealt in. “You’re one to talk, I’ve seen the collection of bath oils in that bathroom you all use.”
Riot stares with his mouth open. Margot shrugs, not denying it.
I just shake my head. “Guess we’re just telling all our secrets tonight.”
Wrenley looks over her shoulder at me with that smile that guts me every damn time. “That’s how this works, remember?”
Right. No secrets. No lies. No walls between us anymore. I’ll die before I break that promise.
Before we get too deep into the next hand, the heavy thud of boots echoes from the hall. Elias steps into the kitchen, eyes bloodshot but lit with adrenaline. He’s carrying his laptop like it’s a grenade.
“I found something,” he says, voice tight. “Didn’t expect to, but I did.”
Everyone straightens. Wrenley shifts off my lap and moves to the edge of her seat. Margot sits forward, and Riot actually puts down his beer.
Elias flips the screen around. “It’s a job. Registered under your name, ‘Reaper’. Paid out a few months before Wrenley turned seventeen.”
I step forward, eyes narrowing.
“What kind of job?” Max asks, already tensing.
“Clean-up. Ties to a bribe from the Ashford's. It’s documented. Signed. Timestamped.”
I hardly look at the screen before I speak. “That’s not real.”
Elias glances up. “Then what is it?”
Max looks at the screen. “Look at the date.” he says. “This was three days before I came to get your ass from that hospital in Germany.”
I look at him, then at the laptop. “You’re right. I was overseas on my second tour. Halfway around the world getting blown up and shot, watching my…” I can feel my voice rise. The feel of being back in the desert creeping back in.
The room is dead silent.
I feel her before I see her. Wrenley steps up, warm palm curling over my jaw, forcing my eyes down to meet hers. “I know,” she says softly. “Even if you were here, I wouldn’t believe it. Not for a second.”
She kisses me, soft, sure, full of trust. It steadies me, but I don’t know if it’s enough to save me from the nightmares I know are sure to come once I sleep.
I stare at the transaction details again, dates that don’t line up, signatures that aren’t mine, and the sting in my chest that someone dug into my most vulnerable moments.
The weight of attempted exploitation, suspended like smoke in the air.
Cards long forgotten in the mess of revelations on the table.
“Then it’s Sebastian,” Elias says, already closing his laptop. “He’s trying to wedge himself into the cracks.”
“Except there are no cracks,” Max says.
“There won’t be,” Wrenley adds, her voice soft and unshaking. “He doesn’t get to decide who we are.”
She looks at me, really looks, and I know what she sees, the thousand-yard stare, the way my fists haven’t unclenched since the file hit the table. She sees it, and she still doesn’t flinch.
“Alright,” she says, rising from her chair with grace that makes me forget for a moment how wrecked she is. “Enough for tonight. Let’s get some rest.”
The group disperses with quiet goodnights and unreadable expressions.
Later in the low glow of our bedroom, we fall into the only comfort we have left. Wrenleys nestled between us, her back pressed to my chest, her arms wound around Max’s waist. Her face is tucked into the crook of his neck like it’s her home.
I’m behind her, one hand resting lightly on her thigh beneath the blanket. Her feet, cold and delicate, are tucked between my calves. I keep them there, warming them with my body heat.
She hums quietly, maybe it’s contentment, maybe it’s exhaustion. I close my eyes for a moment and pretend I don’t feel the tension strung tight through my spine like barbed wire.
Max presses a kiss to her hair. “Are you still awake?”
“Barely,” she whispers. “I needed this.”
Her voice is softer than I’ve heard it in days. I tighten my arm around her, trying to savor the shape of her between us. I’m surrounded by the scent of her hair, it’s roses and something warmer. Just hours ago, this would have brought me peace.
Long after their breathing evens out, I’m still staring at the ceiling. Thoughts from the past keep creeping through to the front of my mind. War, hospitals, not knowing if I’d survive. Memories best left unspoken, playing on repeat…