Page 9 of Reaper and Abby

“It’s about when you lost Matthew.”

I froze.

I stood dead still, staring at her emotionless. How could she even mention those words to me? Losing Matthew was the hardest experience of my life. Losing a child should be something a parent never had to go through. Not only did it destroy me but it also fractured Reaper’s and my relationship, which took a longer than usual amount of time to heal due to her sleeping with Kade.

“That day you and Reaper had that fight at the hospital?” She looked at me as if I wouldn’t be able to recall that day.

I barely nodded my head for her to continue.

“Reaper was really messed up, and the club knew he was on the edge of doing something that could either send him to prison or bring the police to the club.” She continued, “That day, just after you and Reaper had that fight, Roach gave him a cocktail of drugs to knock him out for a bit. But they didn’t work immediately. Anyway, um, Reaper and I never slept together. We made it to my room just before he passed out. He woke up half-naked and couldn’t remember what happened. I just filled in what I wanted him to think.”

I blinked as I stared at the woman who had nearly cost me my relationship with Kade.

“I have to admit that how I acted was unbelievable, and I still feel disgusted about it,” she added. Instead of stepping away from me, she abandoned her trolley and stepped toward me. “The way Reaper looked at you, loved you— Anyway, all us club girls just wanted to rip you apart. We wanted that, wanted the way he looked at you.” She stumbled over her words for a moment. “When you were kidnapped, I made a move on Reaper. Don’t worry. Your sister nearly killed me. Actually, she shot at me and, luckily, she missed, but Reaper kicked me out anyway.”

Kaylee looked down at the concrete before looking back into my eyes. “Reaper turned this town apart for you. I didn’t realize just how much he loves you until I saw it in his eyes—the knowledge that he would be widowed and never touch a woman again if you died.” She let out a long breath. “I’m sorry for nearly breaking you two up all those years ago. Hell, I’m sorry for every club girl that lied about him cheating or implying he was cheating and who tried to rip you two apart. Now that I’m married, I can see just how awful what I did was.” She looked me dead in the eyes. “I’ve wanted to tell you this for years, and it’s weird that today of all days, I run into you.”

“Of all days?” I managed to speak.

“I just found out I’m pregnant.” She gestured her head to the clinic behind us. “For what it is worth, Abby, I’m sorry, especially because for years, you’ve thought Reaper could have been with another woman other than you. Before you get angry with the club boys for not saying something, they didn’t know what happened when I closed that door. They didn’t know that Reaper passed out. Hell, those drugs hadn’t worked for nearly three hours. They assumed they didn’t work at all, like he was immune to them or something. Also, the fact that club girls were determined to rip you apart was something we kept between us. Throwing mentions of him cheating was common for us. So, again, I’m sorry.”

With those words said, she glanced over my shoulder. “I, um, better go.”

She pushed her trolley into the empty park beside her car and basically bolted into her car.

Suddenly there was someone else more pressing I had to visit, other then the university.

* * *

I could count on one hand how many times I had visited my father since he left the clubhouse. Within the last year he had slowly been withdrawing from my family. The fact he came to dinner the other night still shocked me slightly.

I opened his front door, not even surprised it wasn’t locked, and there he was, my infamous father—Roach.

He took the cigar from his lips. “Lost, Abby?”

I hadn’t visited Roach much. That was a fact.

“Yeah, I am lost.” As I moved into his lounge room,. “Lost as to why you drugged my husband for years.” I went straight to the reason I was here. I didn’t ask him if he had because I didn’t need to be lied to again. I also didn’t want to give Roach the option to deny it.

“The club comes first, Abby, always did.” He sighed. “It seem that my confession time has come.” Deflated as if his dirty secret was out. “Everyone knows, Abby, that a madman needs caging. That’s what we did with Reaper. We caged him. We trained him to be who he was, andyouruined it. I had to put him down. Create a new beast. He was useless to me, but you got in the way of the bullets that were meant for him.”

“Damon was the one who shot at Reaper, not you.”

“Who do you think controlled that gang, Abby? Think. Really think. Do you honestly think Satan’s Sons would let them have any ground if we didn’t control them? Damon was to kill Reaper, but you took the bullets.” He stated. “I was never going to get my Reaper back after that, so…”

“You told Blake to use me.” While I spoke the words, I didn’t want to believe them.

“You really thought that some common street gangster could kill me? Blake answered to me. I needed a new reaper.”

My life was unraveling fast.

“You filled the role well. I watched you get colder, more numb, getting further and further away from having a heart, and I was getting a new reaper, but this time, one I could really control. Just a threat to me, or a threat to your sister, would have you doing anything. You would have been the perfect reaper for me, and best of all, you wouldn’t have ever known I was behind your actions. One threat to your child, or a threat to Reaper, and I had you.”

I stood in complete shock.

“But just like you stole Reaper from me, Kade went and stole you, my new reaper.”

“Is that it?” I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.

---