“Here is the plan. We get there, we park a couple of miles out. Once everyone is hammered or fucking their brains out, we return the favor and torch the place to the fucking ground.”
Trish looks ecstatic about her plan.
“Are you high?” I screech.
“What? I don’t hear anything coming out of sweet little Bambi’s mouth back there or yours. We need a plan; I came up with one. You’re welcome! Besides, you wanna save Reaper or not? Asking nicely isn’t gonna get us shit.”
I grip the wheel of my car and do fifty-five around a curve that has the ass of my Honda brushing the guardrail.
“I’m not here to kill anyone. Damn, Trish. I just wanna send a message and make sure he doesn’t get himself killed trying to play a god.”
“You’re a lunatic, Trish. You wanna burn down a whole damn house full of people.”
I throw a look of solidarity to Angel in the rearview mirror.
Trish throws her hands up. “It’s not like we can’t call the fire department if that makes you too feel better. I’m just saying let’s scare them. Let them know we can play just as dirty.”
My brows are touching the sky by now and my heart is beating so fast I can barely breathe.
“Murder is not an option, Trish, ¿me entiendes?” I slap at the steering wheel.
She shrugs like it’s no big freaking deal. “These men only get one message. Violence. Are you understanding me?”
I can’t risk shooting her a what the fuck look for fear of driving off the side of the road but I’m sure she’s feeling the energy because she shrugs and returns to popping bubbles with her gum.
“Trish, I brought you with me to—”
Before I can finish the rev of a motor and the blur of black cuts me off. I slam on my breaks and come face to face with a very pissed-off Reaper.
“Oh shit. You’ve pissed him off.” Trish is popping her seatbelt off and opening her car door the second I shove the car into park. “On the good side, at least we know he doesn’t need rescuing.”
Huh. She’s not wrong.
She goes to step out and I throw a hand hauling her back in. “Hey, where did all the we stuff go, huh?” But Trish jumps out and I find out her loyalty is to Reaper first and girl power second.
“Is she always bat shit crazy?”
Pretty round eyes connect with mine through the rearview mirror. “I think it’s how she copes.”
A sadness passes over Angel’s soft expression. I want to ask for more, but that is a conversation for another time.
We’ve barely made it a couple of miles outside of Haven but we are still within city limits.
Angel is next out of the car and waving me off as both ladies head back to town on foot. They’ll probably call for someone to pick them up.
Meanwhile, I’m stuck and left all alone with Reaper staring me down through the windshield.
He steps out of my headlights. My door is open and I am on the hood of my car before I have a chance to start my argument.
“Reaper, you damn brute. Did you even check if the car was in park?” My fist connects with his massive pecs but he does nothing but storm halfway across the road fisting his hair.
He pounds the pavement back to stand between my legs, the fire of hell blazing in his eyes.
“So what? A little fire and you think the answer is to just run off?”
His voice dips low with every word until the last one is nothing more than a growl. And just like that, the anger in my veins seeps out and pain and sudden realization replaces it.
“Reaper.”
He’s not paying attention. He’s in the middle of the road looking up at the moon. In another moment I would soak in the gloriousness of his sculpted body drenched in light and the puff of his heat breath hitting the cold mountain air. He looks animalistic. Wild.
And hurt.
I jump off the hood and he’s on me in two steps.
He leans over me so far I’m pinned to the side of my purring car defenseless.
I wrap a palm around his face and hold his glittering gaze with mine. I breathe in as he exhales and for a moment, I see him relax.
“I wasn’t leaving,” I say quietly. I kiss his chin, his cheeks, and his eyes when he closes them.
It takes him a moment to realize the truth of my words. As they sink in I can feel the knots in his tense muscles relax.
“I wasn’t alone. I had the girls with me. We were riding in to save you.”
My quiet words seem to hit him as hard as an iron fist to the gut.
His expression shifts from relief to fury to downright rage.
“You what?” He roars, wide-eyed. He tugs at tufts of hair and mumbles something along the lines of crazy woman and going to get us all killed.
I have news for him. Not without taking down a few of the bad guys with me. But I keep that to myself. I don’t think he can handle more of my truths tonight.
He’s off me and pacing in the road again. “And what were you going to do? Ride into Peril guns blazing? No, because you don’t have a gun and neither do either of those girls.” He throws his arms up wide, his frustration as clear as the moon above us.
I push off of my car and pin him with a narrowed-eye glare. “Don’t make me sound like I can’t handle myself, Liam Black. Just because I don’t have a gun doesn’t mean I don’t know how to find one and use it. Who says I need to own one to get the job done, anyway? Nothing is better than turning a man’s gun on him and shooting him in the balls.”
He stops pacing to glare at me. Probably trying to picture me taking aim down a barrel and knocking off a set of balls close range. “I guess you’re speaking from experience?” He’s tempered his tone. I notice a little bit of pride and a hint of fear.
I nod and wipe at the tears burning my cheeks.
He tucks me under his chin and holds me there until our heartbeats even out. “I thought you left me. I swear right now you need to know that I will hunt you down and tie you to me the second you try to leave me, baby. I can’t live another year, another day without you at my side.”
His southern drawl is a little thicker tonight with all the emotions. I wrap my arms around him and tip my chin up. His lips touch mine.
“And you need to learn how to trust. I told you I haven’t wanted to leave in a while. That’s because of you.”
“You can never put yourself in danger again. Not for me, not for anyone. You get hurt and this world we live in will feel my wrath. Do you understand me?”
I step out of his arms. “No. I know what you went off to do tonight. The blood on your hands. The stains on your shirt. Just because you are wearing black doesn’t mean I can’t see the evidence of the violence you dealt out tonight.”
His chin tilts up and he looks down at me as if I’m judging his actions.
“I’m not judging, Reaper. I’m telling you I will fight for those I love just as you will fight for the ones you love. I fought against the fire you brought into my life two years ago. I felt it then and I am willing to walk through it with you now. And forever. So don’t hold me to a different standard because I’m not part of your club.”
He’s shaking his head before I finish. He lifts me to sit in the car and comes between my legs. Out here in the middle of nowhere, he places his forehead to mine and seals my future with three words.
“I love you. For now, for always. I hold your life most important to me and I will defend you until I no longer have blood in my veins or air in my lungs.”
“And I love you, Liam Black. I have since that first dance back in New Orleans. I’m glad I didn’t go to Club Sin that night.”
He grunts. “Make that two of us. Some lucky son-of-a bitches would be sharing you instead of me having you all to myself.”
He takes my right hand and slips the ring off my finger. I feel the loss of its weight immediately.
“Wearing this ring made you mine that night if you know it or not.” He takes my left hand and slips the skull and ruby wrapped in chains onto my ring finger. “And now there’s no going back.”
He takes my lips in a claiming kiss and I feel consumed by a man whose name might bring death but to men has brought me life. And so much happiness.
“I’m yours, Reaper. Te amo con todo de mi. Take me home.”
