Page 111 of Reaper
“Punisher, Razor, Nathan, and Drake just got back. They gave me these. Punisher said they found them when she was cleaning out her shit. They got it out of her that this is some of what she stole. They didn’t say what they threatened her with, but it apparently worked.”
She hands me a couple of envelopes and when I open them, relief pours through me.
“I actually just got done counting what we had left and we’re missing three grand. Let’s see how much we’re really missing.”
I bring up the spreadsheet again and start counting. We’re still short, but it’s not as bad.
“Five hundred. We’re off by five hundred.”
Lark’s shoulders sag. “That’s way better than three grand.” She looks around the office and frowns. “We need to make things more secure. She didn’t plant any bugs or take anything else, did she?”
I hesitate and then shake my head. “We don’t think so. Python is still scouring over the security feed, so we’ll see what he finds from that. Devil and I already talked and we’re going to get everyone new locks for their room. I need to get a safe though. I didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough break into my office, but that’s also why I had different locks on everything as a precaution, and the bitch still got through.”
Lark tilts her head as she looks at the wall of closets to my right that we use for storage. She gets up, unlocks the doors and opensthem all up. She reaches in to the far back of the closet before nodding.
“I know a place that can get you a good one. It’s where we got ours. The closet is deep enough that you’ll be able to get a good one that’s fairly big so it can double as some of your ammo storage, though I would definitely suggest making sure it’s a firesafe one as well. Once that’s in, I can figure out the best way to store everything else that’s in here. It shouldn’t be too hard, but I may need to change around some of these shelves and maybe how we store a few things.”
She shuts and locks the closet doors back up and when she’s done locking the one closest to me, I snag her wrist, pulling her toward me. Grasping her hips, I lift her and set her on my lap so that she’s straddling me.
“Lark,” I pause as I clear my throat. “You’re the only one for me, you know that, right?”
Her face softens as she smiles. “I know, Hercules. Star’s been trying to get under my skin for a while now. Well, they all did but Star especially. I just let her comments roll off my back. Sure, they bothered me and I made sure to end whatever she was trying to do at the time, but I know that was all in your past. You’re not a saint. Neither am I. But that’s all it is. Your past. I know you’d never cheat on me. That’s not the kind of person you are. That’s how I knew she was lying the whole time. Did it piss me off? Fuck yeah it did, but everything else she did pissed me off even more.”
She pauses as her face hardens. “And if that bitch doesn’t listen, I’ll be the one to deal with her. I don’t even care if it’s another club that picks her up. I’ll drive down there and end everything once and for all. I know I could have demanded blood today, but something in me kept telling me to give her a second chance. The ball is in her court now. It’s up to her if she takes the chance or not.”
I squeeze her hip. “I also wanted to apologize about how long it took to get your cut. The daughter of the lady who normally does our cuts went into labor early and from what she told us, it was a rather difficult one. She had to have an emergency c-section. Both mama and baby are fine,” I quickly reassure her when her eyes widen with worry, “but that meant she was gone for a couple of weeks while she helped her daughter as she recovered. Her daughter is also her backup so we were left in a lurch for a little bit.”
She gives me a soft, understanding smile. “While yes, it would have been nice to have it earlier, it’s only because of the hang arounds and the bunnies. I dealt with everything they dished out,” she quickly tells me when I scowl, “but what’s more important is that both of them are healthy and happy. Is it possible to meet them sometime? I’d like to thank them for my cut and maybe give her daughter a present for her baby.”
Leaning forward, I kiss her. “I think they’ll love that.”
I’m about to say something else when I feel her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulls it out and her shoulders sag.
“It’s another unknown number.”
I pull my phone out and text Python. When he replies, I nod at Lark. “He’s got it up. Answer it and put it on speaker.”
“Hello?”she asks.
Nothing comes through the line for a few beats but then the heavy breathing starts up again.
Lark growls.“What do you want? Who are you?”
Once again, there’s nothing but heavy breathing on the line. Then I frown as I realize the breathing seems different than before. It’s faster and shallower. It takes all my restraint not to say something as I try to keep my hands from tightening on her hips.
“Stop calling me, asshole. Whoever you are, I want nothing to do with you, and I won’t be answering anymore unknown calls.”
Lark hangs up, her body tense.
“Fuck,” she curses and her shoulders slump. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped like that.” Her body sags even more as she looks up at the ceiling, her head hanging back. “I’m just so fucking tired of this asshole calling me. It’s been going on for months and there’s nothing we can dig up on this guy since he’s always using burner phones. And the only way I know it’s a man is because of the couple of groans that came through a few times. We can’t even find anything on the security cameras when he leaves notes, either. I’m just so tired of all this.”
She slumps forward, resting her head on my shoulder. Then, she turns so that her face is in the crook of my neck. I take her phone out of her limp hands and set it on my desk. I rub my hands up and down her back, trying to comfort her.
“I know, Darlin’. And while I wish you hadn’t snapped, maybe this will make him slip up. We’ll catch him, and when we do, we’ll get to the bottom of all of this.”
She places a kiss to my neck and I can’t stop the shiver that runs through me. I can feel her smile against my skin before she kisses up my neck, along my jaw, and then I capture her lips. My hands tighten on her hips as I bring her forward. My cock hardens against her and she moans, moving her hips against me.
“Need you,” she whimpers.
