Page 158 of Reaper

Thor quirks an eyebrow at Patch who gives him a chin lift. “I agree.”

His gaze lifts to Mae and Timber. “You both should get a heavier vote because Mae and your children were threatened as well. What say you?”

They share a quick look before turning back to Thor. “We agree,” they both say in unison.

Thor straightens before turning to me and nods. I pull out my phone, sending the required texts as he turns back to Crystal.

“Since you live here at the clubhouse, this will be easier than it was with Star. Your remote is being removed from your car and your things will be searched to make sure you don’t have duplicates of any keys. Your room will be emptied and everything will be bagged up. What doesn’t fit in your car can either be taken away by a friend of yours or it will be trashed as soon as you leave our property. Since this is a full-out ban versus a regular ban, that means you cannot live in any town that has a Steel Archangels clubhouse. And in case it happens, even though it hasn’t so far, the ban applies to any town where the Steel Archangel’s owns a business. Pictures will be sent to every President so that you can’t try to pull one over on us again. Keep in mind, we have ways of finding out if you try to put the slip on us. If you disobey me, you’ll find out exactly how an MC doles out its vengeance.”

Crystal stutters but then goes silent as all the Old Ladies step up together, each of them brandishing a blade and pointing it at Crystal, who pales so quickly I wonder if she’ll faint.

“Old Lady-style,” Half-pint, Mary, Lark, Mama Astrid, and Mae all say in unison.

Lark’s eyes narrow even further on Crystal. “You’re fucking lucky it’s the Christmas season, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have suggested the ban. You’d be taking a fucking dirt nap instead. Permanently.”

Crystal’s eyes widen even further as a shiver of fear runs through her, but then her eyes blaze in anger and I wonder if we’ll end up regretting giving her leniency.

After a few moments, Thor looks over at Half-pint and she sheaths her blade, the others quickly following suit.

“Everyone, might as well continue eating while we wait for word that her shit’s been packed,” Thor declares.

Levi says something quietly to Thor and she slips out of the kitchen, heading to Thor’s office. Most likely to gather money for Crystal’s last paycheck. We didn’t offer that same kindness to Star since she stole from the kids’ Christmas drive fundraiser and add in the fact that we didn’t recover all of it.

I grab a plate for Lark, knowing she must be starving after last night and hand it to her before guiding her in front of me in the line. Her hands tremble and a quick look at her face lets me know it’s from anger at what Crystal’s done more than anything else.

I make my own plate up and after getting a fresh mug of coffee, since I can’t stand cold coffee and my previous mug had gone cold, I step into the living room and sit on the couch with Lark.

“Wait, are Levi, Thor, and Dragon okay with us sitting in here?” she asks and Loki nods at her as he sits on the other side of her.

“Yeah, they’re okay with it, so long as we don’t make a mess that is.”

With that reassurance, she starts eating, but I think for most of us, we aren’t tasting it. More than once, I look around the living room and into the kitchen to find most of us are staring down Crystal, making sure she doesn’t make a move as she sits there. As for Crystal, she sits with her arms crossed under her chest as she scowls and her glare bounces between each of the Old Ladies, when really the only person she has to blame for this mess is herself.

Ten minutes later, almost all of us have finished eating when the front door opens and all four Prospects come in. Sasha steps forward, handing a set of keys to Half-pint.

“All her shit is out on the porch. We can keep watch over her as she loads it up if you guys still need to finish things up here.”

Half-pint says something in Russian back to her which as Sasha grinning devilishly and Lex and Ethan smirking.

Mary stifles a laugh which has Lark sitting up straighter.

“Wait, that reminds me. What did you say yesterday that had you four as well as Thor, Dragon, and Mary laughing?”

They all chuckle again as I frown, trying to remember what she’s talking about.

Half-pint shares a look with Lex, Ethan, and Drae who cross the room and damn near drag Crystal out of the house. None of them are holding her tight enough to hurt her, but you wouldn’t know that based off her fake shrieks.

“O????????? ????????. Circumcised shotgun,” Sasha replies as she laughs again, the rest of us laughing along with her. “It is very, very slang and is hardly used anymore, if at all, but for some reason, that’s what I thought of when you pulled out your sawed-off shotgun.”

Patch turns towards Mary who is trying to look very innocent. “How did you know what Sasha said the other day and what Levi said just now?”

Mary quirks an eyebrow at him. “Babe, besides English, I speak Greek, Spanish, and a little German. Did you really think I wasn’t going to learn Russian when we were living with four people who like to speak it frequently?”

“Ahhh,” Patch drawls out, looking a little sheepish. “Good point.”

At his response, all of us start laughing again.

“I better head back out to make sure they don’t need any help with that bitch. Let us know if you need us to do anything else, otherwise when we’re done, we’ll go back to picking up and cleaning the clubhouse,” Sasha says before heading back outside.