Page 107 of Reaper
“Keep fighting us. I will pull a page out of Mae’s book and drag your ass out of here if I need to. Your things are already being packed, and your remote is being removed from your car. Now, answer him,” she demands.
Star’s face puckers like she sucked on a lemon. I’m about to step in when she opens her mouth.
“I stole them off Astrid when she was hurt last month. I slipped out, made copies, and then slipped them back into her pocket when I walked past her in the hallway.”
“Did you look at anything? Touch anything? Take anything that was in any of those rooms?”
Once again, Star’s lips draw in a thin line as she refuses to say anything.
“Pres,” Python says and I turn back toward him.
From his rigid stance, I know I’m not going to like what he’s going to say. Instead of saying anything though, he hands me the tablet again.
Lark steps back but doesn’t put the knife away as she looks down at the tablet. Glancing at the bottom corner of the screen, I notice the date is from just last night around three in the morning.
I hit play.
Star comes down the hallway in nothing but a skimpy tank top and shorts that barely cover her ass. She looks around, making sure no one is still up and then creeps across the main room to my office. She pulls out the keys from her pocket and unlocks my office before shutting the door.
Python reaches over, presses pause and then taps on another tab that shows the video feed from my office before pressing play again.
Star creeps into my office, shuts the door and goes straight to my desk. She unlocks the bottom drawer and my chest squeezes when she pulls out a folder that I instantly recognize.
It’s the one where I’ve been putting donation money in for the upcoming Christmas for Kids drive we have every year.
My anger continues to rise as I see her flipping through the contents until she comes to the cash envelope. She counts the money and pulls a wad of it out, rolls it up, and stuffs it into herpocket. She puts everything back the way it was, leaves, locks my door and heads back to her room.
I press pause on the feed and Lark strides back to Star and backhands her again. I don’t blame her one bit for getting so pissed. Lark has helped me a lot with this drive and it’s always been one that’s been important to her. Her family has donated to our charity drives every time we have one, but the Christmas one was always the biggest donation. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Devil texting someone. Hopefully the text is to whoever is packing her shit. We need to find the money she stole.
“How the fuck could you steal from children?! Do you have no shame? That money was for kids and families that would otherwise go without for Christmas! How could you?”
Not waiting for an answer, she grabs Star by her hair and grabs one of her arms, pinning it behind her back in what must be painful position from the grimace on Star’s face. Then she frog marches her out of my room and out into the corridor. I stalk after her, needing to keep her in my sight. I don’t want Star to try to pull anything and hurt Lark. If she hurts my Darlin’, my Neith, she’ll be in a world of hurt.
Star curses at Lark and tries to get out of her grip, but Lark tightens her grasp on her. When she reaches the stairs, Lark quickly turns Star around, gets a better grip on her hair and starts pulling Star backwards down the stairs.
Star stumbles and falls on her ass. Lark keeps walking, letting Star’s ass hit every single stair on the way down. At the bottom of the stairs, Nathan, Drake, and the rest of the club are waiting. Judging by their pissed off expressions and their rigid stances, we weren’t exactly quiet when we were bitching Star out.
“Nathan, Drake, take these and take Star to her apartment. Punisher and Razor, it might not be a bad idea to go with them in case they need more muscle to make her comply. She’s to pack whatever she can fit in her fucking carherselfand she’s to get thefuck out. If she has any friends, she might be able to take more, but that’s up to her. If there’s anything left in the apartment at five o’clock, it will be donated or trashed. Clean it all out. After what she’s done, she doesn’t deserve to stay in one of our buildings,” she says as she hands them the keys.
“You fucking bitch! That’s where I live!” Star screeches as she tries to get to her feet despite Lark’s hold on her hair.
Lark lets go of her and quickly lands a boot to Star’s stomach. She falls to the ground gasping for air.
“Yeah, and you’d still have a place to live if you hadn’t kept interfering with my relationship with Reaper. If you hadn’t drugged him. If you hadn’t stolen from children. But no. You did all of those things and you will suffer the consequences. You’re fucking lucky your body isn’t full of holes from my gun or arrows and that you aren’t taking a fucking dirt nap!” Lark fumes as she stands over Star.
Star finally stills, realizing just how fucking close she came to us delivering vengeance club style. I step up behind Lark.
“You’re done here, Star, and I don’t just mean in the club. You are full out banned. Pick up whatever the fuck will fit in your car from your apartment and get the fuck out of Junction Creek. I never want to see you in a town where the Steel Archangel’s have a clubhouse ever again. You’re lucky I’m not banning you from the fucking states, too. I’ll be warning the other Presidents, so don’t fucking think you can pull one over on us.” I pause and let her see the beast inside of me. “If I find out you’ve disobeyed Lark and me, that threat of a dirt nap will become a promise.”
“Now,” Lark says as she steps back to my side, and I wrap my arm around her waist, “you have five hours. Best make the most out of that time.”
Punisher and Razor step forward, each of them grabbing an arm and they practically drag her out of here kicking andscreaming about how unfair she’s being treated. Nathan and Drake follow them out.
When the door closes behind them, the air is still thick with tension.
My mind goes back to Star in my office.
Fuck.
