Page 116 of Reaper

Erik gives me a sheepish look as we all step out of the bathroom and walk down the hallway. “I’m sorry, Lark. I didn’t realize you didn’t know. I should have phrased that all that better. I always get pissed off when I think about everythingthat asshole did, not just at your house and supper club, but everywhere else. Assuming it’s the same person, that is. That’s part of why I joined the team as their arson investigator.”

I stop and blink up at him in shock. “What Reaper said earlier makes more sense now.”

Mama Astrid pauses in the doorway of the kitchen. “I’ll whip up some soup real quick for you, Lark, to help ease your stomach.” She gives my shoulder a squeeze as she walks into the kitchen and Erik and I continue into the main room and sit down on the couch again.

Erik frowns. “What did Reaper say?”

“At first when I told him I wanted to find out who you were, I said I wanted to wait until Reaper got back so that he’d be here. He told me that he’d rather I find out today before he left because of these fires that started popping.”

Erik gives me a grim look. “Yeah, I’m investigating them. I can’t really speak on them, but if you ever need someone and can’t get a hold of any of the club members, you call me, you hear?”

I give him a small smile and nod. “I hear you, and I will,” I tell him right as the door to Church opens up.

Reaper spots us and makes a beeline for us. I chuckle when he picks me up, sits down, and sets me on his lap. His silent, questioning gaze asks me if I’m okay and I nod, letting him know that I am.

We sit and chat for a while, and when Mama Astrid brings me a big mug of soup, I gratefully take it. My stomach is still churning at the fact that we could have all been killed in the fire, but then another thought creeps in.

Something I’ve never thought of before, and it’s probably only because of my stalker that I’m thinking about it now.

What if someone didn’t realize we would be home and wanted to erase everything in my past? So that they could swoop in and ‘rescue’ me after everything burned down?

A chill runs down my spine.

Could the arsonist really be my stalker?

Fuck, if he’s behind the fires, did he do that so he could try to ‘dictate’ or ‘control’ my future?

Instantly my mind goes to Zac, Khloe’s ex-boyfriend, and then to that asshole therapist, Dr. Ashcroft. Another chill races down my spine.

Khloe and Zac had broken up not too long after Reaper and I officially got together back in October. From what she’d told me, he’d become even more demanding and more controlling toward her than he had been and she had finally had enough. She packed everything of his that he’d left at her house and had it sitting by the driveway for him to pick up once he was done with his shift. Since then, I’ve heard rumors of Zac going off the deep end. He even got suspended for a while at the fire station because of some shit he tried to pull on a female coworker.

Then there’s all that stuff Dr. Ashcroft had said. That someone might be punishing me for something. Or a ‘perceived’ something.

Try as I might, I can’t fully shake off those thoughts. Sighing, I finish my soup before putting the mug on the table and leaning back against Reaper’s chest. As I try and refocus back on the conversation, I realize they’re talking about the idea I proposed.

Reaper faces me. “Darlin’, we’ll be heading out after lunch. Odin, Mama Astrid, Razor, Punisher, Beast and Python will be going with me. Beast and Python will stay the full two weeks. When we switch next week, then Devil, Loki, Smithy, Cannon, Atlas, and Doc will head out.”

I nod, though I still can’t shake off my thoughts.

“Did everything go okay with Erik?” he whispers in my ear.

“Yes, talking with him really helped. You were right. We were avoiding each other because we both thought the other would hate us because we’d been hurt.”

His face softens as he kisses my temple. Then he quirks an eyebrow at me. “But?”

I nibble on my lip. “He told me some more things about the fires that I didn’t know about. Apparently, Ma and Granny withheld some information from me, and I get why they did that at first, but it kind of stings that I found out from Erik rather than them.”

His brow wrinkles in confusion. Guess it wasn’t just me that didn’t know about that.

“He said that all the doors and windows were tampered with. They had to use an axe to break down our door to get to us. Then they found evidence that the supports for both sets of stairs were tampered with too.”

Reaper’s face hardens. “I’d seen the door hacked up, but I didn’t realize it had been tampered with.”

I hesitate and he nudges my hip.

“But I don’t think that’s what’s really bothering you. What is it, Darlin’?”

I chew on the corner of my nail as I try to put all my thoughts in order.