Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
The sisters shared a look.
“Are you serious?” Hannah asked. “Even if you dealt with Randy, his friends will still be after us. We can’t pay them off. We barely have enough money to buy bus tickets north.”
“I’m the president of the Reapers Motorcycle Club,” I told her, my voice gentle. “Not the local chapter of the club—the whole damned thing. We got more than a hundred brothers in four states, plus all the support clubs under us. Altogether that’s maybe a thousand guys, and I’ll set every single one of them to hunting those fuckers down if I need to. Then I’ll make sure they never bother you again.”
“But—”
“They’ll never bother you again,” I repeated.
Hannah’s eyes widened. “What will you do?”
“What needs to be done.”
Both women stared at me, understanding dawning.
“Why?” Mandy finally asked, genuinely confused. I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“Because we haven’t had breakfast yet,” I told her.
“What?” Hannah asked.
Mandy just looked at me like she couldn’t quite believe I was real.
“It means we’re not done yet,” I said to Mandy, catching her gaze and holding it. “And that means you’re mine, at least for now. Nobody fucks with what’s mine.”
“We’re not in a relationship,” she whispered, and I couldn’t decide whether she was trying to convince me or herself.
“Call it what you want. Just don’t fuck anyone else while you’re fuckin’ me. As long as whatever the hell this is that we don’t have lasts, you’re under my protection. Your sister doesn’t want to leave town. She’s in love with that bastard, Andrews. Suck it up, Mandy, and accept some help. These are not good guys. Let me handle them and worry about definitions later.”
“Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll call Sara—maybe she can take the kids.”
“You do that,” I told her. “I need to make some phone calls, too. Dopey is gonna make sure you get over there nice and safe. Then he’s gonna cruise by periodically to make sure everything stays safe. You can call him if you need to, but don’t unless you have to. The less of a trail we leave the better.”
“We can do that,” Hannah said fervently.
“Yup,” Mandy agreed.
“Great. I’ll be back in a couple hours with some of the brothers. We won’t be riding bikes and we won’t be parking in front of your place. Give me your keys now, so we can let ourselves in quietly. You got any nosy neighbors?”
“Mrs. Collins, across the street,” Mandy said. “She’s half blind. You won’t have to worry about her. The folks on the other side are new—I don’t know them very well.”
“Then we have a plan. Mandy, I’ll text you when it’s time to come home. Just a quick message asking if you’re feeling okay. You tell me yes if you’re ready to go and no if you’re delayed. We’ll take it from there.”
“What if someone sees you?” Hannah asked.
I smiled at her.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m real good at this shit. Why do you think they made me president?”
Mandy
Sara was available, thank God. We’d packed the girls into the stroller with their favorite blankies and stuffed animals, on the off chance she managed to get them to nap. Not that it seemed likely, but it was the decent thing to try. She had to suspect something was up, but she didn’t ask any questions and we didn’t offer any explanations. She just asked us to come and pick them up by three. That’s when she had to leave for work.
Shade messaged me at 12:30, and we came back to find four bikers in the living room. The first thing I noticed was that the Reapers weren’t wearing their colors. I’d never seen them without the distinctive, patch-covered vests.
It was weird.
The second thing I noticed was that our living room was way too small for four big bikers. I could hardly turn around without hitting one of them. They seemed to be using up more than their fair share of the air. I knew Dopey, but the other two were strangers, and Shade didn’t introduce them. They didn’t waste any time, taking a few minutes going over the plan, which was mostly just Hannah calling Randy and convincing him to come over.
They’d take it from there.
“You ready?” Shade asked her. She nodded, but she looked nervous. I caught her hand, giving it a squeeze.
“Hey, Randy,” Hannah said, somehow managing to hold her voice steady even though her hands were shaking. “We should talk. I found some drugs in the bathroom. You need to pick them up in the next ten minutes or I’m throwing them away.”
She held the phone away from her ear as Randy exploded, shouting “Fucking cunt!” and “I’ll kick your ass, you little bitch.”
Nice. Classy to the end. She waited for him to run out of insults, then spoke again.