Death of Cupids (The Blood of Cupids MC)
Read Death of Cupids (The Blood of Cupids MC) Online
Authors: Sophia Kenzie
By
Sophia Kenzie
Copyright
© 2014 Hearts Collective
All
rights reserved. This document may not be reproduced in any way without the
expressed written consent of the author. The ideas, characters, and situations
presented in this story are strictly fictional, and any unintentional likeness
to real people or real situations is completely coincidental.
Also From The Blood of
Cupids MC Series
:
Blood of Cupids (The Blood of Cupids MC #1)
by Sophia Kenzie
Betrayal of Cupids (The Blood of Cupids MC #2)
by Sophia Kenzie
Death of Cupids (The
Blood of Cupids MC #3) by Sophia Kenzie
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DEATH OF
CUPIDS
The Blood of Cupids MC #3
by Sophia Kenzie
Grace and Ryan,
Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to find
you? Come back to Philadelphia, or I’ll come to you.
~S
P.S. Congratulations on the baby.
Grace
I heard the doorbell. Time stopped.
“Who could that be?” I whispered to Ryan. No one
knew us and we weren’t expecting company. It only took six weeks, but our
safe haven was no more. Blinding images flashed through my mind. I
saw a mangled Sean, missing him arms from the grenades that were tossed at
him. I saw a vengeful Danny, coming to exact his revenge for the man who
had promised him power. I saw the entirety of the
Walking Shadows
Motorcycle Club
standing on our porch, ready to string Ryan up for the
crime they were still convinced he committed: the crime of killing my father.
“I really have no idea. Did you meet anyone when you
were at the store?” I could see it in his eyes. He was just as
worried as I.
“Ryan, I didn’t talk to anyone.” I retraced my
steps. I had only gone into the small grocery store about two blocks from
our little cottage. I kept my head down. I had softly whispered
‘good afternoon’ to the young man who had rung up my purchases. That was
it; I was certain of it.
“I’m sure it’s just a neighbor, welcoming us.” He
tried to calm me.
“You’re right.” Why was I getting so worked up?
We had been here, undisturbed now, for a month and a half; there was nothing to
be worried about. Our safe haven had done its job. Why was I
questioning its security now? “Why don’t you put a shirt on, and I’ll go
answer the door?”
The doorbell rang again.
“No, I’ll answer it.” He reached his hand out to stop
me.
“Ryan, it’s no one. If we are going to enjoy our new,
easy-going lifestyle, we have to get better at not expecting the worst.”
I said it out loud in hopes that I would believe it as well.
We have
to get better at not expecting the worst.
Ryan and I had no ties left
to either club. No one was after us. We were normal.
After planting a small kiss on his lips, I left the room,
ready to greet our visitor.
I lifted to my toes to check through the tiny
peephole. A middle-aged woman stood on the front stoop, her body
distorted from the oddly magnified view. She was looking around,
obviously distracted by something, but from what I could tell, she was
harmless. “See.” I breathed to myself. “Nothing to worry
about.”
I twisted the brass knob in my hand and swung the door
toward me, pasting on a smile to greet our first guest.
She stood just a little taller than me, with full chocolate brown
hair that curled around her shoulders. Her bright green eyes had a
strange sort of familiarity. I swear their intensity would’ve been able
to seduce me had they not been sunken in and puffy, as if she had been tired or
crying, or maybe both. She was thin, but fit, especially for her
age. Her black fitted tee clung to her torso and suited her shape nicely,
as did her clinging blue jeans.
“Hi. How can I help you?” I put on my best ‘new
neighbor’ persona.
“Does Ryan Cassidy live here?”
This woman was looking for Ryan. She knew whom he was,
where he lived. I felt my smile fade from my lips. I felt my face
flush and then turn ghostly white. I felt… sick. Any delusions I
had about the possibility of a new life, of freedom, of an escape, immediately
flew out of the window. How could I ever expect us to be normal?
“Who wants to know?” I instantly became
defensive. This was my home, and I wasn’t about to step aside without a
fight.
“I just need to speak with him. Please.”
“I would appreciate it if you would tell me who you are, so
I can let him know who is standing at our door.”
“Of course. Of course.” She was stuttering,
observably extremely nervous. “My name is Anne Marie Carter. I have
something for Ryan.”
“And what would that something be?” There was no way
this stranger was stepping foot in my home with a mysterious package.
“Are you Grace?”
Great. She knew my name too. “I am.”
“Grace Brennan?” Her face twisted as my name escaped
her lips.
“Right again.” Wow, this woman was testing my
patience. I wanted to slap the answer out of her. I wanted to…
wait. She knew
my
name. This woman wasn’t just here to see
Ryan. This wasn’t a possible old flame that had come calling. She
knew whom
we
were, where
we
lived. Normalcy was nowhere
near this situation. What mess had we found ourselves into this
time?
“Then, this is for you too.”
My hands flew up instinctually as she reached behind
her. I instantly prepared myself to pull a loaded and cocked gun out of
her hands, but as I stretched forward, I realized it wasn’t a gun she was
grabbing. She pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket and slid it
into my awaiting fingers.
A piece of paper? That’s what she had showed up to
deliver? What could possibly be making her so nervous? Paper is
harmless, right? Right? Or was I just being naive?
Carefully, I unfolded the note, making sure I still kept one
eye on my new friend, Anne Marie Carter. When I was satisfied that she
was not going anywhere, I glanced fully down at the written words.
No. There before me was my answer. Paper isn’t
always harmless. Sometimes paper can stab you in the stomach.
Grace and Ryan,
Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to find
you? Come back to Philadelphia, or I’ll come to you.
~S
P.S. Congratulations on the baby.
“Ryan, can you come here?” The words were harder to get out
than I had imagined, but I was sure he heard me. He needed to have heard
me. I was done talking. The room was spiraling around me; I felt
claustrophobic. I needed to get out, but I had nowhere to go. I
needed Ryan.
His footsteps echoed on the hardwood floors as he approached
the door from behind me. Then they stopped. His hand found my
shoulder, and I could feel his presence opening up the room. It stopped
spinning. It stopped closing in on me. Now I was just scared.
And aware, so aware.
“Hi. How can we…”
The woman just stared at Ryan. She didn’t say
anything. She had delivered her letter and now was choosing to keep
quiet. I wanted to yell at her, I wanted to demand an explanation, but
all I could reason was
no
.
“No.” After thinking the word a dozen times, it finally
found a voice. I must have been in a state of shock. I kept folding
and unfolding the letter, hoping that it would disappear. “No. It
can’t be.”
I could feel Ryan’s eyes on me. “What is that?”
As I looked up at him, I felt the tears fill my eyes.
I pushed the letter into his hands and stumbled to the window seat.
“What is this?”
“Ryan, just read it.” I was becoming dizzy, nauseated,
again. The shade of light blue paint on the walls ebbed in
intensity. The numbers of the digital clock on the microwave seemed to
stop changing. Everything was motionless.
I watched Ryan’s eyes adjust to the small print. I
watched as he took in the meaning of the words. I watched him experience
all the emotions currently running through my veins. “Where did you get
this?”
I looked to Ryan, but all his attention was now focused on
the chocolate haired woman who had continued to remain mute.
“I said, ‘where did you get this?’” He threw the paper
in her face. She barely flinched, her eyes still fixated on Ryan.
After a moment, and after watching Ryan pace in front of her
a good handful of times, she inhaled deeply, preparing to speak. Although
deep down I knew where she had gotten the letter, nothing could have prepared
me for the answer. “From your uncle.” She wasn’t lying; I knew it
to be true. I knew it all along. Sean was… here.
“Well see, that’s impossible, considering he’s dead.”
His face turned as red as the door.
“Ryan,” I jumped up, “do we know that? Did we actually
see him die? No. We heard an explosion in the distance. We
assumed he was dead.” I could feel my breath become labored. My
focus began to blur. “We just assumed.”
Ryan was suddenly at my side, and I felt his arms surround
me. “No, no, Grace. Don’t give up on me just yet. We’ll get
through this. We always do.”
I wanted to believe him; I really did. But hadn’t we
been saying the same thing for too long: just one more battle, just one more
fight? “I just thought it was over.”
“I did too, Grace. I did too.”
“Excuse me.” We were both pulled from our intimate
moment by her timid voice. “I’m supposed to bring you home.”
Ryan’s gaze deepened. He stood, stepping closer to the
woman who was now obviously in bed with his uncle, plotting to bring us back to
the life we thought we had escaped. “What does he have on you?”
She shook her head, seemingly embarrassed. I wished I
could tell Ryan to ease up on her. She seemed harmless, more of a victim
than we. She was hurting.
“Answer me.” His voice threatened.
“He… he has my children.” Of course he did. Sean
couldn’t surprise me anymore. But this wasn’t this woman’s fight.
It was ours. Sean dragged an innocent bystander into the picture to
punish us for leaving before his game was over. What else could we do?
“And I’m now supposed to put my family in danger to protect
a stranger’s?”
He called me his
family
: me and our little one, of
course. It was strange. Between my father and Aunt Kathryn both
dying, I felt that I lost my whole family in a matter of a few weeks. But
with Ryan, I had a whole new family, a new reason to live.
So how could we let Sean take away this woman’s family, her
reason to live? We would never feel right about it. I softly placed
my hand on his shoulder. “Ryan, we have to. We should have
stayed. We should have finished it ourselves.” I had said it before,
and I was saying it again. We had selfishly run away from a fight that we
had started. It was time to finish it.
“No, Grace. I am not putting you back in harm’s way
for this woman.”
“I know I’m asking a lot of you, but…” she stepped further
into the doorway, and I could see the real pain spread across her face as she
looked at my Ryan, “Ryan, they’re your family too.”
That’s when I saw it. Of course: those eyes.
He snapped, not truly hearing her. “What are you
talking about?”
Her voice remained calm as she tried to explain what he was
missing. “Sean… he has your brother and sister.”
I felt the energy of the room shift as Ryan figured it all
out. I felt all the air around us sucked out and then put in again.
I felt our story change.
“Mom?”