Page 101 of Reaper Flame

“Where?” Zander slammed his palms down on the desk, making Giles yelp like he’d been slapped. “Where is he going? Here?”

Giles shook his head and grappled around in his pocket for his phone. He pulled it out after several fumbling attempts. “The Maven.”

Zander snatched it from his fingers and scrolled through the messages to see for himself. His eyebrows lowered in confusion. “But there’s no party scheduled.”

The Maven only opened a few nights a year. If there was an event happening, Zander would know about it.

“It’s an exclusive party. Your father is hosting it,” Giles explained as his nose continued to run down his face. “I’ve seen the guest list.”

“How do we know you’re not setting us up?” I snarled. “It’s not the first time you’ve helped lure me to an ambush.”

“I want to make it right,” Giles said. “I want to help after—”

His blubbering made the rest of the sentence incomprehensible. He’d already lost the woman he loved and a family he’d never have. What else did he have to lose?

Zander pocketed Giles’s cell. “We’re keeping it.”

“Take it!” Giles wailed, throwing his hands up hysterically. “Take everything! I’ve got nothing left anymore.”

Giles rose from his seat and made a pathetic attempt at walking, like a toddler trying to take their first steps in the snow.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Zander grabbed him by the collar to stop him and hissed in his ear, “You’re not going anywhere. If you’re lying, I want you to be in a place where I can make you pay.”

“What’re we gonna do with him?” Rocky asked, patting Giles down to make sure he didn’t have another phone or any weapons on him. He grimaced as he checked inside Giles’s dirty, but empty, socks. “Do you want to leave him here?”

“Take him to the bunker,” Zander ordered with a smile. “He’ll have company there.”

I glanced over at Zander, questioning what the hell he was thinking. He ignored my side-eye and said, “It’ll serve as a reminder of what will happen if he has lied to a Seven.”

Rocky grabbed Giles by the shoulders and steered him out. It wasn’t difficult to direct someone who couldn’t stand without assistance. Giles’s cries disappeared down the corridor, leaving Zander and me alone. They’d get a nasty surprise when they arrived in the bunker.

“Well?” I asked. Knowing Hiram was in town gave me a new burst of energy. “Are we going to act?”

Zander didn’t reply straight away. He paced the length of his office as he considered the possibilities.

“You said we wanted to end this,” Zander said, stopping abruptly in his tracks. “So let’s end it. We need to act before Hiram finds out about the Blackbird. Tell Mieko and Vixen to look after the club, then meet me out front in ten.”

I nodded curtly. “Consider it done.”

* * *

After I gave Vixen and Mieko a quick rundown of where we were heading, Vixen shook her head.

“No,” she said definitively. “You’re not going without us.”

“Vix, it’s not safe for you,” I tried to explain.

“It’s not your decision to make,” she hissed. She looked like she wanted to tear my head straight off my body and stormed over to the DJ booth. A second later, she cut the music. The crowd cried in objection.

“What is she doing?” Zander asked. He appeared at my side out of nowhere.

“Beats me,” I muttered back as Mieko shrugged, equally confused by her crazy fiancée’s actions.

Vixen snatched the microphone from the DJ. “The cops are on their way, motherfuckers!” she shrieked. “Now get the fuck out! Go!”

I don’t think I’d ever seen people move so damn fast. The dance floor cleared in a few minutes as everyone raced to the exit. Topless dancers fell out of private booths with money stuck inside their panties, followed by red-faced guys zipping up their flies. Customers abandoned half-empty drinks, afraid of what other substances cops would find in their pockets.

After the last customer staggered out, Vixen slammed the door shut.

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