Page 171 of Reaper

“Freeze and don’t say a fucking word or my partner will kill the boy and girl,” he pauses as he half chuckles, half wheezes. “Or better yet, scream. Me and my friends wouldn’t mind using the girl to within an inch of her life before she succumbs to the same fate.”

I swallow thickly as my mind races on how to get us all out of this. There’s no way I’ll let them hurt Chris or Sway. Scanning the parking lot, there’s still no sign of Drake or Nathan. Where are they? Shit, did these assholes do something to them? My gaze snaps back to the van, but I can Chris and Sway are still unaware of the danger they’re in.

“Don’t hurt them,” I hiss and then bite my tongue as he shoves the barrel of his gun harder into my back as he grips my arm painfully.

“I said not to say a word, bitch. Now you’re coming with me. If you behave, the brats will be spared, though I can’t say the same for your guard dogs.” He wheezes as he laughs and my stomach drops. He roughly takes my arm and digs the gun even harder into my back as he turns me away from the van.

The asshole then leads me over to a dark SUV and as he pulls open the door, Chris looks over and his eyes widen when he realizes what’s happening. I subtly shake my head ‘no’ in aneffort to keep him from coming after me. I’m not wearing my cut, but I am wearing the paracord bracelets Levi made as well as the necklace and earrings I got from Python. Not to mention there’s a tracker in my phone and purse. I just hope that Chris gets ahold of Anthony or someone else in the club rather than coming after me himself.

“Get in,” the asshole hisses as he forcefully shoves me inside the SUV.

I stumble at his rough push but manage to catch myself before sliding across the leather seats to the far door. Laughter surrounds me when I try the door handle, even though I knew it would be locked. It was worth the shot.

My gaze snaps to the two men in the front seat, but I don’t recognize either of them. Both of them exude a dangerous aura and my skin crawls at the icy, cold looks they both give me. Noise from behind me has me spinning, but I’m not quick enough to pull away from the needle that jabs into my neck.

“Ah!” I cry out right as a bag is pulled down over my head.

Someone roughly grabs my hands and the bite of the plastic along with the tell-tale ‘zip’ sound lets me know they’ve zip tied my wrists together.

I try to stay awake, but whatever they gave me starts to win.

“Boss, we got her,”one of the goons says, and then I lose my battle against the darkness.

Chapter 64

Reaper

Withagrunt,Itighten the last nut on the tire of aHonda CRVI’ve been working on for the last hour. The owner had just bought the SUV for his daughter’s sixteenth birthday and immediately splurged to get snow tires put on. Not a lot of people put snow tires on their vehicles, but personally, I think more should. They provide better traction and handling on icy and snowy roads when winter rolls around this neck of the woods.

“Boss!” I hear Mark yell from the office and I scramble to my feet at the urgency in his tone.

He gestures for me to come to the office as he talks into his phone. My chest tightens as I look around for my own phone and frown when I don’t see it. Did I leave it in the office? Shaking that off, I cross the shop and Mark damn near slams the door shut behind me. He switches the phone, my phone I realize, over to speaker and my chest tightens even further at hearing Chris’ frantic voice come over the line.

“Reaper’s here now, Chris.”

“Someone took Aunt Lark,”he chokes out and my stomach sinks.“We went to get groceries and a few more things for Sway and me after school. I don’t know where Nathan and Drake went.”

“Where are you?”I ask him.

“Sway started following them. We stayed a few car lengths behind them, but then we lost them at a light change. They were headed for the interstate when we lost them. Uncle Reaper… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Chris. It’s not your fault,”I try to reassure him, but from the strangled sound that comes over the line, I don’t think he’s going to believe me anytime soon. It’s only been a couple of days, but the bond between Chris and Lark, hell even Sway for that matter, is unmistakable.“What did the car look like?”

“Black SUV, tinted windows. We only got part of the license plate. MA803. There were two people in the front. Besides the guy that grabbed Aunt Lark, we couldn’t see if there was anyone else in the back.”

I force myself to breathe regularly and to not clip my words. Chris might not realize my anger is at the assholes that took Lark and might think I’m angry with him.

“Lark’s wearing multiple trackers, so hopefully we’ll find her soon. Head back home. I’ll call Emma and let her know what happened.”

“Okay.”

“Keep alert on the drive back. Let me know when you guys get home.”

“Will do,”he pauses, exhaling loudly.“Let us know when you find her. And… Uncle Reaper?”

“Yeah?”I ask, worried he’ll say something he shouldn’t in front of Sway.

“Make it hurt when you catch them.”