Page 5 of A Reaper’s Devotion (The Reapers #2)

W ith coffee and cinnamon rolls in his hands, Cyrus typed in the code that would lead him to Willow, and he made his way into her room.

She jumped back as he entered and she pressed a hand to her chest. “You scared me.”

He chuckled. “You should have seen me coming.”

“I’m keeping an eye on this situation here.” She pressed the keys and pointed to the camera in the far corner.

“What do we have?” he asked, noticing she held the phone within her grip.

“It’s a tourist and he has a young woman with him, but that move .

.. there, do you see it?” Willow zoomed in, but the angle was wrong, and she let out a growl.

“Look, that there, that sign, that is a sign a woman gives if she is in danger or distress, or someone is with her that shouldn’t be with her.

” She pointed to the woman’s hand that was held behind her back, and she kept opening and closing her palm.

“Trust me, I have seen something like this before. Now, it could be a game they are playing, but we don’t know them.

What if she is being abused? What if she has been taken? ”

Cyrus saw the distress in her eyes and pulled out his cell phone. “I’m on it,” he said. He saw how worried she was. He cupped her face. “Hey, it’s fine. Even if this is nothing and they’re joking around, it is better to be safe than sorry.”

With that, he pressed a quick kiss to her lips and left the room, making his way toward the town square, and calling Daniel as he did so.

He gave the leader an update, and Daniel was already close as he was at the café. They were all aware of the hand signal that had been advised to be taken seriously. He’d seen a demonstration online, but not on a real person.

Cyrus found the couple outside a clothing store.

He kept his distance, holding his cell phone to his ear, and he let out a little laugh, pretending to be on a call.

All the time, he was aware of the man grabbing the woman’s arm, and when he did, she stopped gripping and opening her hand.

He was growling words at her, and the woman looked terrified.

This was a situation. His gut was telling him this shit was real.

There was a limited window, of that he knew, so he made his way over, still pretending to be distracted by his phone call, and he looked away, knocking straight into the couple.

“What the fuck?” the guy asked.

“Wow, I’m so sorry,” Cyrus said. “Babe, I’ve got to call you back, I was listening to you, and I just totally walked into a random couple.

” He shoved his phone in his back pocket and put a smile on his face.

“I’m so sorry about that. My woman and I are getting married, and she is, like, totally freaking out about the wedding. ”

Cyrus looked to the dude and saw he was having trouble controlling his temper.

Now that he was closer, he saw the young woman was trembling.

What was more, he saw the bruises on her arms they couldn’t hide, as they didn’t think to choose a longer shirt for her to wear.

It was clear they were shopping for this very reason.

“I’m Cyrus Tistleton,” he said, holding out his hand. “Welcome to Lost Creek. I’ve not seen you folks around here. You want to tell me—”

“Look, man, I get that you’re sorry for bumping into us and everything, but you can go. It’s all good.”

Behind the mystery man, he saw Daniel approaching, as well as Hank, Old Sheriff Billy, and this made him smile.

“Are you okay?” Cyrus asked, completely ignoring the man.

The girl looked at him with wide terrified eyes.

“You don’t have to be afraid,” Cyrus said. “He’s not going to hurt you anymore.”

“Dude, I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about, but if you don’t step away from her, I’m going to—”

He didn’t get to finish. The man had reached into his pocket, and Cyrus didn’t care if he was going for a cell phone, a damn piece of candy, a gun, or even a fucking knife. He grabbed the man’s wrist and quickly spun his arm behind his back, locking it in place.

“What now?” Cyrus asked.

He had the man on his knees, and there was no escape for him.

“I can’t seem to hear you.”

He applied a little pressure, the man let out a scream, and he sighed.

“You see, that is a good sound. That is always a good sound. Now, sweetheart, this man is not going to hurt you, you see, you entered the town of Lost Creek. The strangest thing about Lost Creek, is, well, we don’t like bad guys.

We fucking hate them. They’re pieces of shit, and from the signal you were giving us, you need our help. ”

She nodded her head, and with the other Reapers here, the matter was taken care of, as she literally broke down.

Her name was Lillian. She was seventeen years old and had to stay behind after school to do some studying.

She is from a different small town, about six hours away.

The man Cyrus held in a tight grip had stopped her to ask for directions.

The next thing she knows, she wakes up in a hotel room.

They found out that other than beating her, he’d not raped her. She was lucky Willow had noticed that sign.

Within the next hour, they had Lillian safe and waiting for her parents to come and pick her up, along with the cops.

They had reported her missing the moment she didn’t arrive home from school.

As for their boy, the identity in his wallet named him as Luke Smith.

He didn’t for a second believe it was real.

Luke looked pissed, as his ass was thrown into a cell.

Cyrus looked at him, and just on principle, he fucking hated him. They needed to find everything out about him before they could take care of him. There was no way they would allow him to walk free.

He stepped out of the sheriff’s office and into the sunshine. It had been a couple of hours since he saw Willow, and he just knew the coffee was going to be cold.

“Good catch,” Daniel said.

The leader of the Reapers was waiting for him outside.

“Do we know anything about our little captive?” he asked.

“Nothing. The dude is being completely silent,” Daniel said.

Cyrus shook his head. “Willow caught it. She recognized the help signal the woman was giving.”

“Help signal?”

“Yeah, you know the one.” Cyrus spun around, put his hand at the base of his back, and then opened and closed his fist. “I mean, I don’t think it has to be this way, it can be just holding your hand out and doing it. That kind of thing.”

“I did not fucking know that,” Daniel said. “Tell her that was a good catch.”

“Will do.” He looked toward the cells. “Do you think we should be worried?”

“They had no destination set on the car. We’ve got his cell phone, and we’ve already hacked into it. He’s got no calls from anyone in the last forty-eight hours. I don’t think he works for anyone.”

“So, nothing to worry about?” Cyrus asked.

Lost Creek seemed to be a magnet for fucking trouble. Cyrus was always waiting for problems to escalate. His parents had warned him that shit could evolve quickly if he wasn’t careful, and that was why he kept his feet firmly on the ground and took every incident seriously.

He didn’t want to lose the town. He couldn’t remember what it was like prior to the Reapers taking the town, but he certainly knew what it was like now. Being able to protect that girl today was an absolute necessity.

“We’ll see,” Daniel said. “For now, all we’ve got to do is wait.”

With that, Cyrus said his goodbyes and made his way over to the building where Willow would still be hard at work. He was tempted to go and get more coffee, or at least a cinnamon roll, if Willow had eaten the two.

Entering the secure room, he saw Willow was on her feet, and she moved toward him.

“Thank God,” she said, and threw her arms around him. “It was real, wasn’t it? That wasn’t just some test you guys had given me. That was like real real?”

He wrapped his arms around her and couldn’t resist putting his face against her neck and breathing her in. She smelled like vanilla. It was a scent he really enjoyed. Cyrus had waited a long time to hold her in his arms.

This seemed surreal to him. He’d waited a long time—too freaking long—and just holding her, he knew he wasn’t going to waste any time in claiming her as his own.

****

“Y ou didn’t eat them ?” Cyrus asked.

Willow laughed. “No, you brought them for us to enjoy, and I wasn’t just going to eat them myself. Now, if you’re asking if I was tempted to eat them all, that is a whole other story.”

She loved watching him laugh.

After they ended their hug, she wasn’t sure if it extended longer than was appropriate. She had never hugged a guy before. Not even kissed a guy. It always made her laugh that she wrote such elaborate, in-depth sex scenes and had never been touched by a man.

“I can’t guarantee the coffee is going to be good,” she said, and took a sip of her own. “It’s not bad, but you’ve got to actually like cold coffee.”

“I drink it iced from time to time.”

She waited as he took a sip, and then handed him the wrapped cinnamon rolls. There were grease stains on the packet from where it had been sitting for the last few hours. The cold cinnamon roll was still as delicious as before. One bite, and her mouth was still watering.

“Damn, that is a good cinnamon roll.”

“They are good, but you know, my mom’s were amazing.”

“They were?”

“Yeah, they were, and her lasagna.”

“Don’t say any more, I know how good your mom’s lasagna was. Trust me, I would have happily eaten it all to myself.”

This made her happy.

“Yeah, she was a damn good cook.” She laughed. “She would often say I would miss her for her cooking.”

“Are you okay?” Cyrus asked after a few moments.

“Yeah, I’m good. I know it’s crazy but she got me ready to handle it all.

We knew it was coming, and she wasn’t afraid.

Or if she was, she didn’t show it. I think she was ready.

” She laughed. “She would often say that was why Dad had to leave so soon. He was going up there to get everyone in tip-top shape for her.”

He saw there was still sadness in her eyes.

“She was a good woman and your dad was a good man.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I know Mom adored you. She would tell me I would have to snatch you up before anyone else did.”

“Consider me snatched,” he said.

Willow took a deep breath. “I’m ... uh, I’m not used to this.”

“I know,” he said.

“I know you haven’t dated, Willow. Trust me, in a small town, we all know each other’s business.”

Not all of their business. She had been able to keep it a secret about what she did to earn money. Not that there was anything wrong with writing erotic books. They had kept her entertained through some of the most painful times of her life.

She looked at Cyrus and it was strange as she wanted to tell him so badly. It was her little secret, though, and she didn’t know how to blurt out what she did.

“Are you looking forward to going dancing tonight?” he asked.

“Yes, I am. I think after all this excitement, I’d like to go out.”

“What do you think then?” He pointed toward the screens.

“It’s ... good. I mean, I’m not going to say it is the most thrilling job on the planet, but I like it. I feel like I’m contributing to the town.” Especially after the last decade of feeling like she hadn’t done a damn thing.

“You know you don’t owe anyone anything, right?” he asked.

“I know. I know. I just, I want to do this. Like today, I helped with that woman, or young woman. She needed help, and I was able to help. Today has been a really good day.” Cyrus’s cell phone went off, and he glanced down with a grumble.

“I’m needed at the school. It looks like some asshole kids have decided to mess with the damn electrical points.

” He rolled his eyes. “You know, I was a kid in high school, why can’t they just do shit, like looking bored? ”

Willow couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re saying you weren’t rebellious?”

“Oh, trust me, I was, but I didn’t cost the school a fortune.” He shook his head, getting to his feet. “You owe me a hot coffee and one of your mom’s cinnamon rolls.” He came in close and Willow was shocked as he kissed her.

It was so natural of him to do that, and it took her by surprise, but she would be lying if she said she didn’t like it.

“Until tonight,” he said.

She couldn’t help but feel her heart start to race.

“Oh, Willow,” he said.

She thought he had already gone and she was touching her fingers to her lips. They tingled from where he touched.

“I do know all of your secrets, W. Evans.” He winked at her and then left the room.

At first, Willow didn’t move. W. Evans was her pen name. It wasn’t exactly original as her mom had told her to just use her name, but she had been too scared. How did Cyrus know she wrote under that pen name? She didn’t know how he had found out, and if he had told anyone. Why did he tell her now?

She paused and suddenly didn’t know why she was panicking.

He winked at her and there had been a smirk on his lips. Also, he was taking her dancing tonight. What did that mean?

“It means, Willow, that you think too damn much.”

Her mother had told her repeatedly that she had a very negative disposition and she thought too much. She needed to learn to lighten up.

“That’s what I am going to do, Mom. I’m going to lighten up and just have fun. That is exactly what I am going to do.”