Page 143 of Reaper

Thankfully, they go up the back stairway so that we don’t tip off the guys right away that Miracle and I aren’t down in the panic room.

As we climb the stairs, my mind drifts back to the widow’s walk on top of the clubhouse. I noticed it when we arrived the other day, and it seemed pretty similar to the one our clubhouse has. It’s not only an open-air area like some widow’s walks. While yes there is a wrought iron decorative fence along the edge, there is also a small, enclosed room up there too. If you wanted to, you could sit in there and see in every direction as there are three windows on three of the four walls. On the fourthwall, there are two windows and a door that also has a window in it. Since Sasha and Lex were able to use it to pick off attackers before, that means the windows can be opened. Laying on the exposed section of the widow’s walk would have made them sitting ducks.

On the third floor, Lex stops at a door by the stairs and gestures to it. “Try thumbprint, make sure it work.”

Miracle snickers. “Are you sure it’s not so that it’s her name and not yours tied into their program for who gains access to this room?”

Lex smirks at her and shrugs. I bite my lip as my shoulders shake with silent laughter.

“It was my idea so might as well put my name on the line so to speak.”

Taking a deep breath, I place my thumb on the screen and it lights up green. Opening the door, I step inside and quickly take stock of the room before crossing it and picking up a sniper rifle with bipods already attached. My lips twitch when I see a silencer right by it and after checking the rifle out and making sure I’m happy with it, I attach the silencer. Next, I open a metal container on a shelf below the rifles to find it full of cartridges. Picking one up, I step aside to let the others grab theirs.

“Here,” Ethan says as he hands me a vest and a helmet.

Setting down my rifle and container, I strap on the bullet proof vest and helmet. Once those are on, he hands me an earpiece with an attached microphone. Then he does the same to Miracle before giving her a camera like the one I wear with my cut.

“This will connect you to the rest of the club. I’m sure Smoke is handing these out to them as well.”

A few moments later, we’re all kitted up and we head up to the widow’s walk. Lex opens a trap door above us and he crawls out into the enclosed room. When it’s my turn, I breathe a sigh of relief that it looks like I’ll be able to be on my kneesor sit on short stools that are nearby and have my upper body mostly protected by the section of wall that’s under the windows. There’s even a ledge under the windows that will let us place the bipods of our rifles on them and it’s big enough that we can rest our arms on it as well.

“Walls and glass are bulletproof,” Sasha tells me as she takes the south side and starts setting her stuff up after opening the window in the middle.

“That’s a relief,” I reply as I take the west side. Remembering bits of what I overheard Smoke say downstairs moments ago, I take a gamble and set something up, hoping Smoke will see it and that it’ll give him an extra set of eyes so to speak.

A few moments later, all four of us are in position and I can hear Ethan setting up extra containers of cartridges for all of us.

I curse under my breath as I look through my scope and into the forest. Even though it’s winter, there are a fair amount of evergreens that can be used as coverage, and for the others, the trees are thick enough to hide in or behind. Whoever these men are, they’re good.

But not good enough.

“Ten tangos to the west in the trees.”

Cursing comes over the line of my earpiece as well as a deep sigh.

“Darlin’…”Reaper starts to say and my chest tightens as my worry increases. I know he’s going to be mad at me for doing this, but I hope he isn’t going to go ballistic. Muffled, heated voices come over the line but I try not to focus on them as I scan the tree line.

He sighs again.“Thanks for being our eyes, Neith. They took out most of our security cameras on the west side, so we don’t have a visual of them.”

A warm fuzzy feeling goes through me at him calling me by my road name.

“What else can you see?”Thor asks, his voice tight with anger, but I don’t know if it’s directed at us or the situation. Thank fuck I picked up on the slight difference between his and Dragon’s voices this weekend. Thor’s voice has more of an authoritative edge to it than Dragon’s, which makes sense since he’s the President of all the clubs’ chapters. Also, Dragon is more laid back with how he talks whereas Thor is more, I don’t know, precise and more thought out.

“No movement to the east,”Miracle tells him, and I hear more cursing come over the line. If I’m not mistaken, it’s Cannon’s and Atlas voices.

“Five to north,”Lex says.

“Nothing to south,”Sasha replies, and I’m surprised to hear frustration lining her voice.

“Alright, do you have anyone up there with you?”Thor asks.

“Ethan and he’s got us set up with extra bins.”

“Ethan, get kitted up and take Sasha’s place. Miracle, I don’t know how good of a shot you are.”

“She’s my level, Thor. Reaper can attest to it,”I reply before Miracle can, but then I realize Thor doesn’t know how well I can shoot. I’m just about to tell him when I hear someone scoff.

“Stop selling the both of you short, Neith. Thor, they both are better than our Russian duo.”