REAPER'S KISS (3 page)

chapter seven

(ava)

*NOW*

Dad had a bandage across the bridge
of his nose. There was a
family emergency
sign in the window of the
store. He shut it down for the day and wanted to hide in his cramped apartment.
He had a bottle of whiskey at the table. He had used it to dab on his nose
before putting on the bandage. Now he was drinking the whiskey to calm his
nerves.

I stood at the doorway to the tiny
kitchen, my arms folded. All I could think about was Jace.
Jace.
What a
cool name. A sexy name. And he matched the fit. His shoulders were twenty feet
wide and rounded. He filled out his shirt and leather cut easily. Everything
about him screamed
bad
and
outlaw
but he was beautiful. In such a
rough and rugged way he was beautiful.

Dad looked at me then looked away.

“What do you plan on doing now?” I
asked.

“Forgive me, Ava,” he said. “Things
are out of control.”

“What was Uncle Frank doing here?”

“He’s not your uncle.”

“I know that. And he was the reason
I was on the floor when you sent me home sick.”

“What?”

“He tried to…” My mouth went dry. “He
tried to touch me. To proposition me. I wrestled him away and then he threw me
to the ground.”

“That bastard!” Dad yelled and
slammed his fist on the table. “That fucking bastard!”

“Who is he?” I asked. “Why was he
trying to hurt you?”

“Better question… why was that
biker there to save us?”

“I don’t know anything,” I said. “I’m
lost.”

I bit my lip and tried to fight
back the tears. Dad got to his feet, favoring his right leg. He grabbed the
whiskey bottle and stumbled toward me.

“Ava, you can’t cry now,” he said. “It’s
been a bad day for us.”

“Everyday has been bad,” I
whispered. “I don’t understand anything.”

He put a hand to the wall for
balance. He swayed left to right, over and over.

“Uncle Frank is just no good,” Dad
whispered. “And that outlaw hit him. Beat him so fast. So good. I’ve never seen
anyone do that to Frank before.”

“Jace hurt him?”

Dad looked at me. “Jace?”

“That was his name. He told it to
me.”

A smile flickered across Dad’s
face. “Yes… that’s it then. That’s what I can do.”

“Do what?”

Dad stumbled back to his chair and
collapsed down. I swore the entire apartment shook like the floor was going to
give out.

He slammed a fist down to the table
again. His hand opened and he grabbed the bottle of whiskey. Throwing it back,
he drank it like it was a bottle of water.

I hated when he drank. So did
Mom. He never got violent. He just got stupid.

“We need them, Ava,” Dad said. “I
realize that now. They’re part of this town. They’re part of us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The outlaws,” he said. “The Bitter
Aces Motorcycle Club.”

Just hearing the full name gave me
chills. I had always heard stories of things they’d done. And then picturing
Jace…

“That’s what we need,” he said. “I
can give them what they want.”

“What do they want?”

“Come on, Ava. That outlaw wasn’t
in our store for a soda. He was checking the place out.”

“Really?”

“I haven’t taught you the true family
business, have I?” Dad snorted and giggled. “Stupid me. Always stupid me.”

“Family business?”

“The hustle, Ava. That’s what we’re
here for. The fucking hustle.”

“Don’t curse,” I said.

“You need the outlaws to watch you,”
he said. “I can’t protect you. I can’t protect my own daughter.”

Dad hung his head. When I heard the
first sob echo out of his mouth, I gasped. I hadn’t seen Dad breakdown and cry
since Mom’s funeral. Since then he had been a rock to all of us. Now he was
losing it.

As Dad cried, I inched forward. I
stealthily put my hand to the whiskey bottle and slid it away. I crouched down
in front of my father. He was a broken man right in that moment. He looked at
me, tears in his eyes.

“I owe Frank a lot of money,” he
whispered. “He’s going to keep cashing in on me until he gets to you, Ava. That’s
what he wants. You have to be safe.”

I swallowed hard. I was scared.
Really scared.

“Me…?”

Dad shook his head. “I just can’t.
It’s just… you have to get protection. You have to go to Jace. Be with him.
Make sure he keeps saving you. No matter what.”

His eyes went wide. They were
bloodshot. Drunk with tears and whiskey.

“I don’t follow…”

“If Frank comes after me again, he’ll
probably kill me. Then he’ll go for you. But if you’re with those outlaws… yes.
It can work, Ava. This is your only chance.”

“Tell me what’s really going on.”

“I can’t,” Dad said. He reached for
the bottle.
I hadn
’t pushed it away far enough.
“I just can’t. I
miss your mother. I miss her hugs. I miss her smile. I miss her ways… she could
hold it all together. Not me.”

Dad drank more whiskey and kept
crying.

I wanted to leave so badly but I
was afraid to go home.

I would have to spend the night at
Dad’s. But I wouldn’t sleep peacefully. Not a chance in hell.

Unless
…

“Come on,” I whispered. “You need
to get to sleep right now, Dad. You’re hurt and confused. Sleep all of this
off.”

I got Dad to his feet.

He looked me dead in the eyes. “You’re
going to listen to me, Ava. I’m giving you to the outlaw. I’m offering you as a
thank you for what he did. If you don’t listen, I can’t help you. Frank will
kill you. You’ll find out all the secrets… let the outlaw save you again. And
again. Do what he says. Become his.”

Maybe Dad grew in a world where
women were dealt out as prizes or whatever. And maybe he grew up in a world
where women slaved themselves to their man.

That wasn’t my world.

No way in hell.

Even still
… later that
night
… I was wide awake, my face blushing, imagining the badass outlaw
Jace telling me everything he wanted me to do to him
…

chapter eight

(ava)

*THEN*

I was pretending to sleep when I
heard the door softly open. My mother used to come in to the room. She would
shuffle to the bed and kiss my cheek. She would touch my hair and whisper
something in my ear.

But she couldn’t do that now.
Unless ghosts were real. I didn’t want to believe in ghosts. If I did, and I
got scared, I’d cuddle with my mother. But I couldn’t do that.

“This is why,” I heard a voice
whisper.

It was Dad.

“I know, Jake,” another voice said.
“I know. It’s tough. It’s going to be tough. She’ll grow up into a beautiful
woman. I know it. I can feel it in my heart.”

“I just have to keep everything
going. That’s all I can do. She can’t know anything, Frank. It all has to be
quiet. I have to move on and be a father now.”

“The store won’t survive that.”

“I know,” Dad said. “I know. I’ll
deal with that later. But just take a second and understand that it’s my only
daughter at stake now.”

“Go have a drink, Jake. I’ll be
there in a second.”

I gripped my covers tighter. I felt
someone approaching the bed. Then a hand touched my shoulder. It wasn’t my
mother. It wasn’t my father.

I felt breath on my cheek.

“Sleep tight, Ava. Uncle Frank is
going to make everything okay for you.”

His breath was gross, like the
smell of throw up. I was shivering under the covers and sweating at the same
time. I told myself do not open my eyes.
Do not open your eyes. Do not open
your eyes. Do. Not. Open. Your. Eyes.

His hand slid down my arm to my
hand. I felt his thick and clammy fingers touch my hand. He interlocked his
fingers into mine.

“Someday, we’ll be so happy,” he
whispered. “You’ll know all the truth. You’ll need me.”

I pulled my hand away and grabbed
for a stuffed animal.

He let out a little laugh.

“Sweet innocence. Too bad it won’t
last forever.”

He then finally left the room,
shutting the door behind him.

My head spun with a million and one
thoughts. I missed my mother. I wanted to know who the heck Uncle Frank was.
And I wanted to know what my dad meant about secrets.

I fell asleep easily… because of
the innocence I still had.

My innocence would be taken away
long before I learned the truth of the secrets.

chapter nine

(jace)

*NOW*

Sid’s fist was like a brick as it
came across my jaw. I saw him coming from a mile away, fist cocked back, ready
to strike. See, the thing was this - you could either take your hits like a man
or you could fucking run and talk your way out of it. Last time I checked, I
had a big, fat cock between my legs. I was a man. I was an outlaw. I could take
a beating.

The punch knocked me back. I
dropped my beer and the bottle shattered on the ground.

Sid grabbed my shirt and walked me
back to a metal railing. Over that I would have dropped ten feet to concrete if
he let me go.

But Sid didn’t.

He showed his teeth like a hungry
animal.

“What the fuck did you do?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“You don’t know?”

“Prez, let him talk,” Gage said.

Sid snapped his head back and
growled. Then he looked at me again and gave me more space.

“You were sent to check it out,” Sid
said.

“And there’s some shit going on,” I
said. “The owner was about to get taken out. And his daughter…”

“Whoa,” Ryan said. “A daughter? How
old? How hot?”

“Fuck off,” I said. “I didn’t get
all of the dirt. I had to split. But it’s someone connected. Named Frank.”

“Ah, shit,” Sid said. “Uncle Frank.”

“Uncle?” Gunner asked.

“He’s a scumbag hustler. Gets
people to do shit for him. Promises money. Fucks with their head to turn it
into debt. Then he takes what he wants and splits. He’s a leech. A fucking
disease. I dealt with him in Reno one time. He’s weaseling his way around I
guess.”

“Shit,” I said. “Well, he had Jake
on his knees, bloody, begging for his life. I think the deal we broke up is on
his shoulders now.”

“Good,” Sid spat. “Why is this my
fucking problem?”

“Should we take Frank out?” Gage
asked.

“Not our war,” Sid said.

“Prez, this guy was going to murder
someone in town,” I said. “And the shit he said about Jake’s daughter…”

“Ah, fuck, you got a whiff of
pussy,” Sid said.

“Hey,” I yelled. I stepped toward
Sid, taking my life into my hands. “I’m telling you what I fucking saw. You
sent me out on a job and I did it. There’s no cameras. Shit is done out of the
back of the store. It’s a fucking shit hole and left that way on purpose. Jake
has nothing to show for himself so he’s in deep for something.”

Sid put a hand to my shoulder. “Fair
enough, Jace. You did what I said to do.”

“Will Frank retaliate?” Gage asked.

“No fucking clue,” Sid said. “We
can handle him. Anyone he’s working with knows better than to come into our
town. Either way, we need to prepare ourselves. Play this smart.” Sid rubbed
his jaw and looked at me. “Tell me about the daughter.”

“What about?” I asked, almost
defensively. Enough so that Sid gave me a grin.

“She in on this?”

She has to be, Prez. A woman
that beautiful at that shit hole store? She
’s working
…

“I don’t know,” I said. “She was
terrified. That was for sure. She thought I was there to hurt her. The MC, I
mean. So she was pretty confused about the entire thing. That was half the
reason I went into the back room.”

“You didn’t kill Frank, right?” Sid
asked.

“No. I just busted up his nose a
little.”

“That’s been done a million times
to him,” Sid said. “No worries. Okay, everyone break up here. Go find something
to eat, drink, or fuck. We’ll talk this thing out tomorrow.”

The group all split up but Sid
stayed in place. I didn’t think I was going to get to skate away that easily.

“What is it, Prez?” I asked. “You
don’t have to fuck around with me. I know I fucked up. What can I say? I saw
that fear… if Frank took out Jake and did something to Ava… how would that help
us?”

“It doesn’t help us either way,” Sid
said. “Sticking your nose in other people’s shit only makes you smell like
shit.”

“Then let me stink,” I said with a
grin.

“Yeah, right. Jace, you put
yourself in this and you’re going to stay in it. I want everything on Jake and
his daughter.”

“I can make that happen.”

Sid offered his hand and we shook.
He then started to walk away but stopped. He pointed at me one last time.

“Before I forget. If your little
crush turns out to be heavily involved in anything that goes against this town
and the MC, she’s going to disappear. I’m just being up front about that.”

“I know how this works, Prez.”

“Your eyes tell me otherwise, Jace.
Fall between her legs, brother, not her arms.”

I nodded.

What the fuck did Prez know?

I didn’t do the relationship thing.

Even if Ava was beautiful.

Even if I was already plotting
my next move to see her again.

chapter ten

(ava)

*NOW*

I pulled my hair back and looked at
myself in the mirror. I was tired and I felt beat up. Sleep came and went and
morning came too soon. Dad’s coffee was expired and bitter. His milk had chunks
in it so I had to drink the coffee black. I took two sips and called it quits.
Dad woke up and rushed to the bathroom. In between getting ill he swore to me
it was something he ate. His face was bruised and more puffy, all because of
getting beat up.

There was nothing I could say to
Dad. I brought him coffee and toast in the bathroom. I grabbed a washcloth and
wiped up his face the best I could.

“Sit, Ava,” he said to me.

I grabbed a kitchen chair and sat
outside the bathroom.

“What are you going to do?” he
asked me.

“I don’t know, Dad,” I said. “I
wish you would stop keeping secrets from me.”

“All I’ve ever done is protect you,”
he said. “I’ll keep doing that. Even if I have to let you go. You need to go to
the outlaws. Trust them. Let Jace take you in. Tell him everything you know. I
don’t care.”

“Tell what I know? I don’t know
anything.”

“That’s fine. Let them dig. Let
them do what they need to do.”

“And if that means they hurt you?” I
asked.

Dad leaned forward, hanging over
the toilet.

I couldn’t watch.

I stood up and left. I left the
apartment and went down to the store. I went to the back room where everything
had gone down. I saw the blood stains on the concrete and didn’t know whose
blood it was.

It made me shiver.

I walked to the front of the store
and stood there. That’s when I broke down into tears again. My mother used to
be in the store, whistling, working, loving it. There was music playing all the
time. It was clean and inviting. She worked long hours and never complained
once.

I didn’t know where in the store
she was murdered. Sometimes I felt like it was better not to know. Then again,
to me, the entire store was the murder scene.

A door squeaked from behind me.

Dad was there, a little more
cleaned up. He was in fresh clothes and had splashed a lot of aftershave on his
face. He walked with a limp toward me.

“You better get moving,” he said.

“Why?”

“You know…”

“Not about Jace. About Mom. The
store. The truth.”

Dad shook his head. “Ava, the truth
doesn’t always set someone free. Sometimes, the truth is a prison. A terrible
prison. Understand me?”

“No, I don’t.”

I took a step and Dad reached for
me. “Please tell me you don’t hate me.” He reached into the breast pocket of
his shirt and took out a piece of paper. He forced me to take it.

“I don’t think I could ever hate
you. You’re my father. I just don’t understand any of this. I’m let down. I’m
hurt. This isn’t the life I asked.”

Dad nodded.

He reached into his back pocket and
took out a flask.

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“The demons are loud,” he whispered
as he threw the flask back.

That was all I could handle.

I left the store with a lump in my
throat and fresh tears in my eyes. I got into my car and stuck the key in the
ignition and had a sudden sense of fear. That the car was going to explode. I
looked in the mirror and saw Dad standing at the store, holding the door open.

Everything was wrong.

I shut my eyes and started the car.

It didn’t blow up.

I drove away, unfolding the piece
of paper he gave me. It had an address scribbled with his bad handwriting.

What choice did I have?

I had to go to the address. I felt
safe nowhere else… but in the arms of a stranger. An outlaw stranger. A man
with a bad past and a dark present.

Far from the fairy tale dream I
once had about a man saving me, taking care of me, and giving me a life that
was nothing but happiness. I was on the other side of that equation. I was with
the bad guys.

With the bad guys to be safe?

I parked my car and climbed out.
The house looked too normal to be owned by an outlaw. That’s when I feared my
father had set me up yet again. Maybe I was being given up to Uncle Frank.

Uncle Frank. The things he
wanted to do. The things he would do.

I hesitated but then I saw the
motorcycle in the driveway. The second I saw it my heart started to race. I
touched my chest and collected myself. I had no idea what to do when Jace
answered the door. What to say. How to play this off.

I was suddenly a pawn in a game
that I didn’t know a thing about.

If Jace was my only hope at staying
alive then I’d do whatever it would take to stay alive.

I walked to the door and knocked.

There was no answer.

I made a fist and pounded.

I waited.

Still no answer.

From the corner of my eye I saw a
car turn on the street. It was a long, black car. Super sleek. The windows nice
and dark. It was going way too slow. My heart started to race even faster.

The car kept coming.

Slower…
and slower
…

It almost came to a complete stop.
I slammed my hand on the door, over and over. I grabbed the handle and tried to
open the door but it was locked. Panic set in.

The window on the car started to go
down.

That’s when the door opened.

I lunged forward, throwing my hands
to whoever answered the door.

I looked back and saw the car
quickly speed away.

I regained my senses and looked
forward. Staring at a tattooed and muscular chest, my hands shaking.

I looked up and my eyes locked to
Jace’s.

“Well,
” he said in a
tired voice,
“good fucking morning to me
…”