Reaper's Claim Book 2
Autorzy
Simone Elise
Lektury
410K
RozdziaĆy
30
Abby finds herself entangled in the dangerous world of the Hellbound gang, where loyalty is tested and survival is uncertain. As she navigates this treacherous path, her past and present collide, forcing her to confront old flames, family ties, and her own identity. With her twin sister Kim and former lover Reaper by her side, Abby must decide whether to embrace the darkness or fight for a chance at redemption. Will she find a way out, or will the gang's grip prove too strong?
Painkillers
SEASON 2
âProduced by: Jenn Shermanâ
âWritten by: Ilan Benjamin & Ellis Stumpâ
âSound by: Oskar Allen & Fionn McNeillâ
ABBY
How did I get here? How the hell did I get here?
Thatâs all I kept asking myself as I watched the guys around me throw bills at the half-naked girl sliding down a pole.
I was sitting in a plush chair in the Red Flower, a high-class strip club in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by strangers and the stink of sweet perfume and cigarettes in the air.
Two hours East of Satanâs Sons territory.
Two hours away from my home. From my father, my twin sister, from himâŠ
Kade.
But none of that mattered now. I had a new home. A new purpose. And, whether or not I cared much for strip clubs, I certainly had good reason to be distracted right now.
âBeautiful, I am taking you home with me!â one of the men shouted at the poor girl, making it rain.
I rolled my eyes. No woman, stripper or not, would touch that fat, hairy jerk-off with a ten-foot pole.
Still, as long as the men were looking at her, it meant they werenât looking at me.
And that, I could live with.
I took another sip of my whiskey, trying to swallow down all my regrets, doing anything to avoid dwelling on the past, when I felt someone slip into the seat beside me.
âEnjoying the show?â
I turned to see Damon, a gin and tonic in hand, his slick signature houndstooth suit hugging his muscular frame.
The guy was built like a cage-fighter but dressed to impress. His teasing light brown eyes revealed what a player he was.
Look long enough into those, and youâd swear he was your protector. Women flocked to him. Hell, I guess I was even guilty in that regard.
But, hell no had I given into the manâs advances. After what Iâd been through...men, all of them as far as I was concerned, werenât worth a bloody second of my time.
âNothing I havenât seen before,â I said, taking another bored sip of my whiskey, enjoying the burn.
âThatâs what I like about you, Abby,â Damon said with a chuckle. âYou canât be surprised. Not by a naked girl. And not by a man, strapped to the teeth.â
I vaguely noticed the outline of his handgun beneath the suit jacket. A snubnose from the look of it.
When you were raised around bikers, you learned to recognize these kinds of details.
âThere a reason youâre talking to me right now instead of getting a lapdance?â I asked, exasperated.
âThere is,â he said, nodding. âAnd you know exactly what itâs about.â
Business.
He neednât say it for me to understand. Ever since Iâd met Damon in a dive bar off the interstate, apparently his dive, heâd made it abundantly clear what I was to him.
Not just a sharp mouth with a pair of nice tits. No, what Damon saw was potential. He saw a coldness, a brutality, in me I hadnât ever recognized untilâŠ
Until Reaper left me alone after all he had promised.
Until my heart was shattered into a million pieces.
Until I decided to leave the Satanâs Sons and drive toward nowhere with only one goal in mind: destroy the person Iâd always thought of as Abby Harrison.
And become someone new.
When Damon had introduced me to the Hellbound gang, Iâd been wary at first.
So they didnât have patches or Harleys, so what? They were still a bunch of killers.
Their glitz and glam didnât fool me for one second. Buy all the high-shelf liquor you like; a gang is still a gang.
But unlike the MC in which I was born and raised but never allowed to be a participant, Damon was making me a legitimate offer. Not just to be some slutty club girl.
No, Damon wanted to give me a job within the ranks of Hellbound.
A job, he claimed, that only a girl like me could do.
âWell?â he asked, impatient. âBlake isnât going to wait forever.â
Blake. The boss man. Damonâs cousin who rarely came out to bars like this, who preferred privacy, and who ran Hellbound like a tight fucking ship.
I still hadnât met him. But everyone spoke about Blake as if he were some sort of God. All-knowing. Scary as fuck.
I felt a shiver go down my spine at the mention of his name and tried to hide it by finishing off my glass of whiskey.
âIâm not sure,â I said. âYouâre asking a lot.â
âLook around, Abby,â Damon said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
The feel of his calloused hand against my bare skin almost made me flinch. I hadnât let any man touch me since Kade and for good reason.
But Damon was just trying to reason with me. Not flirt. For the most part, anyway.
âYou see these guys around you?â he asked, pointing from one to the other. âEric, heâs been a part of our family for six years.
âLiam?â he continued. âOnly a few weeks. Green, but heâs already given up a lot to call himself Hellbound.â
I looked from Eric to Liam. I hadnât spoken much with either, but I could recognize their loyalty from a mile away.
âAnd?â I asked. âWhat about them?â
âThey proved themselves to be a part of this family, Abby. Are you ready to do the same?â
It was hard to believe that a sweet-looking kid like Liam, blushing as a woman stuffed her tits into his face, had done what Damon was talking about.
Liam had killed.
And now Damon wanted me to do the same.
âWhat do you say, Abby?â he asked me again. âAre you ready to be one of us?â
I may have killed the idea of Abby Harrison.
But was I ready to become a real killer?
REAPER
The moment I first met Abby, I knew the girl would be the death of me. And, killing the Reaper himself, thatâs saying something.
Yup. I knew she would be a disaster. I knew she would fuck me up and leave me in pieces. I knew it all, and still, I chose to call her mine.
And look what itâd fucking done to me. Nothing could have prepared me for this.
âYou want another line, baby?â the girl purred beside me.
She was wearing nothing but a G-string, but everything about herâfrom her raccoon eyes to her insatiable appetite for substancesârepelled me.
I kept her around anyway. Company, even the worst kind, is better than nothing.
âGive it to me,â I growled.
She did as she was told, handing over the mirror with the coke cut up with who-the-fuck-knows-what.
Weâd been doing eight-balls for the past two weeks, only stopping to buy more booze and occasionally mess around.
No fucking, though. I knew nothing good wouldâve come of that.
That and, perversely, I guess I was still trying to save myself for Abby.
Which is fucking crazy considering sheâd high-tailed it outta there after I left. Before I could come back and try to fix things.
Why had I let Amber blackmail me into running away?
Amber, who was halfway across the country now, doing God knows what. The whole Shields clan had fucked off, leaving me in the wreckage.
And now Abby was gone, too. Ghosting me. Would either of us ever get a chance to explain ourselves?
At that moment, I didnât care about the sins of the past or the mistakes made. I cared about what she was doing right this second and if Iâd ever hear from her again.
Hope, thatâs what really fucking kills ya.
I was about to snort another line when my phone buzzed on the glass table. Iâd been ignoring it for ages, but seeing the name of the sender, I couldnât help myself.
I had to check.
Trigger
heads up
Trigger
roach is comin to see u
Reaper
The fuck does he want?
Reaper
How does he even know where I am?
Trigger
ur not a hard man to find, reaper
Trigger
think its about abby
I lowered my phone, eyes widening in disbelief. What could Roach possibly want to talk to me about? Ever since heâd caught me fucking his daughter, Iâd basically been dead to him.
Iâd assumed ever since I ran away, after Amberâs threats, that Abby had been done with me. That sheâd returned to Kim and her fatherâs side and that was that.
But if Roach was on his way here right now, this had to be serious.
I threw aside the mirror, the coke, all of it, and stood up with a start.
âWhat the hell?!â the girl said, scrambling to gum the scraps. âWhy would you do that?â
âGet out,â I said.
âAre you serââ
âNow.â
She looked into my eyes, and I saw fear take over. She knew I wasnât fucking kidding. She got up and, without another word, ran out of the room.
I took a breath. I had no idea how long itâd take Roach to get here, but I had some cleaning up to do.
Before I could even stash away the remains of the drugs, though, there was a heavy knock on the door.
Fuck, that was fast.
âOne second,â I said, stuffing what I could into a drawer and making my way toward the front door.
I opened it to see the Prez himself, looking pissed that he even had to be here.
But worse than thatâthe man looked worried.
âWe need to talk, Reaper.â
***
I was pacing, unable to sit still, losing my shit. I couldnât believe that sheâd been gone for three months and Roach was only telling me now.
Abby wasâŠmissing? What the fuck did that even mean? Missing like lost keys or something?
âWhere the hell did she go?!â I shouted.
âI donât fuckinâ know!â Roach roared in return. âYa think if I did, Iâd be here?â
I shook my head, feeling two weeksâ worth of blow and zero food taking its toll on my strung-out body.
âWill you sit down already for Chrissake?!â he said, exasperated.
I didnât feel like sitting. But I did it. Just to get more answers outta the bastard.
âSpill,â I said. âWhat do you know?â
âNothing,â he admitted. âThe only reason Iâm even here now is because Kim went looking for her on her own. Sheâs gone too now. Both my girls. I...â
Roach choked up, looking away. I knew this was the one tough bastardâs soft spot. The idea that both of the twins were missing.
It was clearly fucking him up.
Now, who knew where either of the girls were.
âI donât know what to do,â he admitted. âYouâre the last person on fuckinâ earth Iâd want to turn to, but if theyâre in danger...â
âYou need me.â
He nodded, only now taking in my appearance and the shithole apartment I called a home.
âI mention ya look like shit?â he asked.
âIâll put on make-up for you next time,â I spat back.
For a second, Roach almost smiled. But then the dread settled back into his expression, and he looked down at his hands. A father, terrified for his children.
âWhat the hell do we do, Reaper?â
I stood up. âIâll tell you what we do, Roach. We find âem. Both of âem.â
He looked into my eyes and could see I meant it.
Shit, Abby Harrison might have turned my life upside down. But I wasnât about to let her disappear.
Iâm coming, Abby, I thought. Even if it kills me, Iâm going to find you.
