Page 194 of Reaper

It’snearingsunsetthenext night and Lark, the club, and I are gearing up to head out hunting. Last night, after Smoke got us hooked up with the trackers, I sent people out to start casing Zac’s house. About a month ago, he’d bought a two-story house on the outskirts of town. Before that, he was living in an apartment, which of course, you could only gain access to the building with a fob and they have their own security. We had contemplated swiping a fob, but then after casing the building, decided against it. Those at the doors knew every resident. They would have sounded an alarm quickly if we tried our route and then we never would have made it past the front door.

As for his new house and it being in the country outside of town, it will make it easier for us since we don’t have to worry as much about neighbors. While there are none in the line of sight of his house, if we have to open fire, the neighbors will hear the shots. Well, so long as he doesn’t have a silencer on his gun like we do. And that’s if we end up running into Zac or someone else.

My thoughts sour again at the thought of Zac buying a house that’s so secluded. The lack of close neighbors was probably part of why he bought it in the first place. Especially if that’s where he planned to hole up while he had Lark. However, there is a silver lining to his house’s location. On two sides of his property, the forest butts right up next to it which will give us ample amount of cover.

I glance over at Lark. Her brown hair is wrapped up tight in a braided bun that she’ll later cover with a stocking cap. She’s dressed in a thick black sweater; black cargo pants, her pockets bulging with supplies; and black boots. A harness is strapped to her chest to which two handguns are secured. Another harness is around her thighs and to those, she has a couple of knives strapped to them. She also has a few other blades hidden in various spots.

Walking over to the closet, I pull out a box I’d wrapped earlier. When I bought it a few weeks ago, I hadn’t intended on giving it to her this early.

“Darlin’,” I start and then clear my throat as I turn toward her. I cross the room until I’m standing in front of her and hold out the box. She straightens up after verifying her thigh harnesses are properly secured and looks at me, a question in her eyes. “I wasn’t originally planning to give this to you this early, but something tells me that I should give it to you now.”

She looks at me quizzically but takes the box from my outstretched hand. Setting it on the bed, she unwraps it and gasps before doing a little happy dance. The sight brings a smile to my face. I quickly learned that yes, while Lark does like flowers and jewelry and that sort of thing, she loves guns, blades, woodworking and brewing supplies even more.

Inside the box is a matte black911 Springfield Armoryhandgun and I bought an ankle strap for her, as well as one thatgoes around her waist. It’s an almost exact replica of the one she’d been practicing with at the range as of late.

“How did you know I wanted one?” she asks as she picks it up, checks the safety and then chamber before getting a feel for its weight.

I smirk. “Darlin’, this has been your weapon of choice for the last month or so down in the range. I figured it had been added to the list of guns you wanted.” She’s also been training with the other guns we have so that later on, she’ll be familiar with all of them should the need arise in the future.

She sets the gun back down in the box and comes over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. She tilts her head back expectantly and I lower my head, obliging her silent request for a kiss.

“Thank you, Anthony. You are too good to me.”

My chest warms as I cup her cheek. “Nah, Darlin’. You deserve this and so much more. I don’t deserve you, Darlin’, but I’m a selfish bastard that isn’t going to give you up.”

Leaning back down, I kiss her, trying to pour the rest of my emotions I have difficulty expressing into the kiss. She melts into me, kissing me back. When I pull back, her eyes are wet with unshed tears. A second later, one rolls down her cheek and I dry it with my thumb.

“Stay safe tonight, Hercules.” Her voice cracks, and a few more tears roll down her cheeks.

I rest my forehead against hers. “I will but you gotta promise me the same, Darlin’. I need you safe and back in my arms.”

“I will.”

I kiss her once more before stepping back. She wipes her cheeks and then turns back to the gun. As she straps on the holster, I do a double check of my own weapons—a couple of handguns, extra clips, and a few knives. Even though there shouldn’t be anyone else around, we’re heading in without ourcuts. We want nothing to tie this back to the club if at all possible.

Lark finishes up securing her new gun to her waist and pulls her sweater down over it. She slips on her leather jacket over it, effectively hiding all of her weapons except her thigh holsters. After slipping on my own leather jacket, we make our way downstairs, and out into the night. A few minutes later, we walk into the main room of the clubhouse. Glancing around, I nod at seeing everyone here and ready. Tonight, Devil, Punisher, Razor, Smithy, Loki, Doc, Odin, Beast, Ryder, Gunner, Axe, Timber, Patch, Lark, and I are heading out while Smoke, Python, Atlas, and Cannon will be staying back to monitor our camera feeds as well as the police scanners. Each one of us is wearing a body camera as well as our normal communication devices.

“All our equipment is set up in Church, Reaper,” Smoke says as he tilts his head towards Church. “We’ve done checks and everyone’s body cameras are working.”

I give him a chin lift. “Okay. Lark, Devil, Punisher, Razor, Ryder, Loki, Beast, and I will be heading into the house. We’ll place some cameras around as well. Smithy, Doc, Odin, Gunner, Axe, Timber, and Patch will watch the perimeter. Those on perimeter watch will also place the exterior cameras.” I pause as I look at everyone. “Stay safe. Stay hidden. Don’t leave any trace that we were there. From what we’ve seen and managed to find out from our contacts, Zac shouldn’t be home tonight, but we should be prepared for it if he comes home early. Python was able to put a tracker on his truck yesterday and Drake and Nathan have been switching off trailing him. So far, it seems like he hasn’t realized it’s there. Any questions?”

Glancing around one more time, I nod in satisfaction that no one says anything. We all know our parts.

“Let’s head out.”

I snag Lark’s hand and gently tug her close to me as the others file outside. “Stay by my side tonight, Darlin’.” A whirl of emotions well inside me. I don’t want Lark anywhere near Zac’s house in case something happens and she gets hurt. I’m also worried about what we’ll find and how that will affect her.

Her eyes soften and she turns her hand until she’s able to entwine our fingers together. “Already planned on it, Hercules,” she tells me with a smirk and then her eyes take on a hard glint. “Now, let’s go find out what that asshole is hiding.”

Fifteen minutes later, Loki pulls into the drive leading to an abandoned farm that’s for sale. Rounding the corner of the drive, he pulls forward enough to where our vehicles, two cargo vans that we’ve modified to suit our needs, will be out of sight for the most part. He parks and we all file out into the cold night. With the recent snowfall, we know we’ll be making visible tracks in the snow and Razor had pointed out that if things go seriously sideways, our footprints could be tracked back to us. So, where possible, everyone will try to minimize their tracks or we’ll cover them up after we’re done.

With a silent nod to everyone, we quietly make our way into the woods with Loki, Lark, and myself in the lead. After walking for about five minutes, Loki pulls out his phone, double checking we’re heading in the right direction before tucking it back into his pocket.

Suddenly, Lark stops and raises a closed fist. Both Loki and I walk over to her, and she points at the ground and then up into a nearby tree.

“This looks like someone was camped out here for a while,” she whispers. I can almost feel my brothers tense behind us as we start looking around more closely.

The snow’s been trampled around the base of the tree and from a quick glance around, there are more sticks on the ground surrounding this tree than the others. Looking up, I frown when I can see notches and bark scraped away in a pattern that mirrors where rope was used. I glance around again, looking at the other trees, but none of them seem to have the same markings.