Page 142 of Reaper
I shake my head. “It’s Mae’s, I’m not hurt.”
He picks up my bag and leads me behind the bar. Setting Ol’ Faithful down on the bar, I scrub the blood off my hands at the sink. Reaper pulls me into his arms after I’m done and leans down, kissing me. Reluctantly, he pulls away as his lips thin, and his gaze bounces between me and the guys.
“Head down with the others to the panic room, Darlin’.”
“Be safe. Come back to me.”
A look I can’t quite describe comes over him and he hesitates like he wants to say something. After a few seconds, he dips his chin. “I will. You be safe too.”
I frown as I watch him go over to the guys. I don’t think that’s what he wanted to say, at least not entirely.
Heated voices have me blinking out of my thoughts and my frown deepens as the guys hover behind Smoke, Bones, and Ryder as all three do something on their laptops. I mean, I get that they have security cameras, but shouldn’t someone be getting eyes on the situation now?
I bite my lip and make a split-second decision.
Picking up my bag and Ol’ Faithful, I walk into the kitchen where the ladies are about to head down into the panic room. Mae, Timber and Patch aren’t with them so they must already be down there and getting her graze looked at.
“Here, Mama Astrid,” I tell her as I hand her Ol’ Faithful and the bag of bullets off my belt. “Protect the ladies and the kids. Sasha and Miracle,” I say as I point at them, “you’re with me and I need one other. Who’s a better shot, Lex or Ethan?”
“Lex,” Levi answers as a sly grin forms and she slowly nods.
Has she figured out what I plan to do?
“Though, Ethan is an excellent tracker. Keep that in mind depending on what you see.”
I return her grin. Yeah, she figured me out.
“Okay, you guys get down to safety and we’ll make sure the door is firmly shut behind you and put the bags back in place.”
Normally, one of the guys would have done that step for the pantry entrance to the panic rooms, which is probably why Sasha, Lex, and Ethan were hovering toward the back of the kitchen before. There are two other entrances to the panic room, one in the kids’ playroom and the other is in through the hallway that’s the most direct route into the Sticks as Levi likes to call their interrogation room. Thank fuck Anthony had insisted Iknow all the escape routes for Forest Creek since our clubs are so close.
Levi’s the last to head down and she pins me with a look. “I get why you’re doing it, but be careful. With being Reaper’s Old Lady, your thumbprint will get you up there.”
With that, she gives me a quick hug and descends. I push the door closed behind her, making sure the locking mechanism secures and move the bags of potatoes back in place in front of it.
Straightening, I find Miracle and the Prospects all lined up behind me, almost standing at attention.
“Ethan,” I say as I point to him. “You’re on standby in case we need to head outside discretely. Do you guys have whites?” I ask, knowing they should have white snow suits, but wanting to verify.
He gives me a chin lift. “We do, enough for every club member and five extras.”
I dip my chin in return before my gaze bounces between Sasha and Lex. “Where do you guys keep your sniper rifles? And how many do you guys have?”
Levi had told me about when Mary’s late husband had attacked the club and detonated a bomb from under the street. Sasha and Lex had picked off some of their attackers with sniper rifles. I just don’t know if they only have those two or not.
“We have six. All in same place,” Sasha replies, her Russian accent thickening with emotion. Now that I look more closely, it’s like a mask has descended over her face. A quick glance at Lex shows his face is masked the same.
Ethan steps closer and tilts his head toward the twins. “You aren’t asking them to do something that’s against their morals. They always get like this when we train, and now, when something happens like this.” He pauses and seems to come to some decision. “I’ll be up there with you guys too. It will beeasier to have someone help with the cartridges and making sure they are in easy access to each of you and refill them as needed.”
He gives me a small smile, as if asking if that’s okay, and I return it with a nod. “Thank you, and yes I was worried I was asking you all to do something that you normally wouldn’t.” I turn to Miracle. “Are you okay with doing this? I could use your sharp eye, but you don’t have to.”
She pierces me with a sharp look. “This is your family, Lark, which means it’s my family too since you’re my sister. They hurt Mae,” she spits out, her face reddening a little with her anger. “They could have killed her if she had been standing a few more inches to the side. Any of us could have been killed. So yeah, I’m fucking in on giving those fuckers some fucking payback.”
Heated voices have all of us looking through the passthrough into the main room and from the sound of it, it looks like there’s a disagreement on something, but most of them are checking their guns and pocketing extra ammo clips.
“Leave it to the men to sit there and overthink,” Miracle mutters quietly under her breath, and I bite my lip to keep in my laugh.
Clearing my throat, I point at the twins. “Lead the way to the walk.”
