Page 37 of Fearless
“Would you?” I questioned. “Even if the woman you still clearly have feelings for begged you not to?”
He slapped a hand to his chest, where I knew the grinning, horned Steel Demon skull was embedded into his skin. “I might’ve been a doormat to her and that was my bad, president. But I live my life every day to do right by you and this club. I was a homeless nobody before you found me and I’ll never forget that. The Steel Demons gave me a home and a life. I’m your man, Reaper. Yours, and no one else’s.”
“So why’d you hide?”
“Because I was afraid Python would throw me under the bus to save himself. I pussed out, but I should have come straight to you, Reaper.”
His life is not yours to take.
My head snapped over to Hades, still in his dog bed. Those black eyes, filled with an unfathomable depth, bore straight through me. The voice felt like it echoed all over the room, but Bones made no indication that he heard it. No one but me ever did.
You will not reap. His life is not yours to take.
“Thank you, Bones,” I mumbled distractedly, putting my cigarette out. “You can go now.”
I nearly worea hole in the rug of my study, pacing back and forth as I waited for Heather. In reality, I was waiting for my dog, the god who possessed him, or whatever the fuck he was, to say anything else. But he just looked at me, curled up in his bed. I watched him lick his paws until the silence became too much.
“Why me?”
He paused in his licking, looked at me, but didn’t answer.
“Why?Me?” I repeated, grinding out each word between my teeth. “I’m some kind of…servant to you. I understand that much. You chose me when you, this dog, whatever, was born. But why?”
I got a head tilt and a lick of his lips.
“Can you even fucking hear me?” I demanded, my frustration rising. “Or is this a one-way line? Just you giving orders and I’m supposed to obey? To what end? Why do you decide who lives and who dies?”
He yawned and lowered his head back down to his paws.
“Just my fuckin’ luck.” I shook my head in defeat and headed back toward my desk.
I chose you, because you are the perfect instrument.
The voice nearly knocked me off my feet. My skin broke out in a cold sweat as I braced my hands on the desk. The whole room felt like it was tilting, sliding away from me.
You know loss. You know death as intimately as a lover, yet you do not fear it. Reap for me, and I will protect those you hold dear.
“Mariposa…” Her name left my mouth in a ragged, desperate gasp. I was going insane. I had to be. She was the thread tying me to reality.
“Reaper?”
All at once, everything stopped. The heaviness of that voice, the room sliding out from under my feet. Like a snap of someone’s godly fingers, everything returned to as it was.
I looked up to see Heather standing in the doorway of my study, her eyes puffy and red. She wrung her hands nervously in front of her.
“Ah, Heather,” I cleared my throat, composed myself quickly, and gestured to the chair across from my desk. “About time you finally showed up. Have a seat.”
She moved stiffly toward the chair. Her gaze felt heavy on me, but I fiddled with my cigarette case rather than make eye contact with her. Hades lifted his head, ears pricked forward with a low growl already rumbling in his throat. He never was fond of her.
Anything you’d like to say, now would be a swell time,I thought, my eyes locked on the dog. When no words came, I released a deep breath to clear my head. I had to focus on the matter at hand.
“Were you aware of Python’s schemings with Razor Wire?”
“Reaper,” she sniffed. “Why are you treating me like this?”
“Because you associate with a proven traitor.” I wasn’t raising my voice. Not yet. But my knuckles were white on the armrests of my chair. What did I ever see in her? Even as just a casual fuck.
“He made a mistake.”
