Page 228 of Reaper

“Soeur(sister)?” he asks instead as he reaches out his hand, palm up.

She hands him her knife and he slowly slides the knife down Richard’s chest, the skin damn near parting like butter.

“You’re mine, Richard, for what you attempted to do toPépère(Grandpa).”

I freeze at the venom in his voice, but then I remember.

Loki moved here almost ten years ago to help his grandpa run the bar. Back then, though, it wasn’t called The Steel Bars. It was called Crossroads Watering Hole, since his place sat onthe corner of one of the busiest intersections in town. It was basically a dive bar but with food. I know you’d think it’d be more like a tavern, but it was where all the old folks would go to shoot the shit. Most of them were from an old MC that disbanded years before the Steel Archangel’s staked their claim here in Junction Creek. When Loki took over the bar, with his grandpa’s approval of course, he changed it to a biker bar. All those old folks still come in, but things have changed. They used to talk about anything and everything. Sometimes they were worse than old biddies whose main purpose was to gossip. Once Loki took over, they started sharing stories about their riding days. It gave them their spark back.

But the reason Loki came up from New Orleans was because Richard was trying to take over and wouldn’t stop harassing his grandpa, Adam Collins Sr. The fact that Adam Sr. was growing older wasn’t helping the case either. Someone had tried running his grandparents off the road to kill them both. We always suspected Richard was behind it. He’d been trying to buy the place since it was in a prime location area. Both his grandparents nearly died in that accident but thank fuck they didn’t. Loki and his family would have been devastated if that had happened.

Seems it actually was Richard behind the accident.

Lark hums. “Let’s get them rearranged and then you can get whatever you need out of him. Just remember, I get to get in a little time with him as well.”

The look they share has more than one of us chuckling while our guests have paled significantly.

Once they are done arranging everything, Kelly, Crystal, and two of Richards men are on one side. Zach, Richard, and his two other men are across from them. Darren is positioned at the back so he can see everything. Right now, though, his gaze is locked in on Kelly who’s glaring at all of us but at the sametime, gives off the feeling that she’s looking down at us. Just like Richard is trying to do.

Lark moves to stand near the front in between Zac and Kelly. Her gaze locks with mine, and she ever so slightly tilts her knife toward Kelly and then tips her chin toward Zac. My lips twitch, but I bite my cheek to keep from smiling.

Moving to stand in front of Zac, I let him see the monster inside me. “Looks like it’s my turn to have a little fun with you while you watch my fiancée at work. See, at the beginning, I too thought Lark was ‘too pure’ for our world.” I pause and when I see the satisfaction and ‘I told you so’ look he gives Lark, I can’t stop my dark grin. “But after not even five minutes of talking to her and actually fuckinglisteningto her, I knew I was an idiot. Lark’s never been ‘too pure’. Now you on the other hand, have only looked at her skin deep. You don’t know therealLark, unlike me.”

He sneers. “It’s because of you that she’s become this way. You made her do this and changed her.”

Smirking, I shake my head. “You still don’t get it, but maybe after a while, you will.”

I give him my back and head straight to the cabinet to get my own knife. I always start and end with a blade. The other stuff, I save for getting answers.

A few of the others follow suit, grabbing blades and then heading towards the rest of our guests.

Walking back over to Zac, I make sure he can still see Lark while she works on Kelly and Crystal as I get to work slicing into his skin. I almost wish we had another woman who was okay with doing this, so she’d only have to work on one of them. Then again… my mind turns to a certain woman. I’m pretty sure she’ll be joining the ranks soon, and I bet she’ll be down here before long.

Zac curses at me as I work, promising retribution for what I’m doing and for what I’m supposedly ‘making’ Lark do. I’d purposefully left off his duct tape, wanting to know when he’ll reach his tipping point.

“We know you were behind the fires at Lark’s place. Were you also behind the fires everywhere else around town that night?”

He doesn’t answer, so I step behind him. As I continue to work, I peek over his shoulder at Lark. She’s talking lowly to Kelly as she slices into her skin. Kelly’s eyes are red and angry as tears streak down her red cheeks. Her arms strain against her restraints as she tries to edge away from Lark.

Suddenly, she rips off Kelly’s duct tape and Kelly screams. As her scream tapers off, she pants, but the tired look in her eyes is actually disappointing. Lark’s barely done anything to her.

“Are you going to talk?” she asks her and after hesitating a second, she nods weakly.

Richard screams beneath his duct tape and Kelly’s face twists as she looks over at him.

“Why the fuck would I keep your secrets when you’re constantly trying to boss me around and manipulate me? I fell for your lies before I married Aiden, I’m not covering your ass after everything you’ve done.”

“What’s he done?” Lark asks and Kelly’s face brightens while Richard’s turns redder with anger.

Shit.

I hope he’s not going to have a heart attack before we get answers out of him. Loki frowns, pausing in his work on Richard’s chest, and we share a look. He noticed it too.

“The better thing would be to ask what hehasn’tdone,” she hisses as her eyes turn cold and hard. “He’s the one behind the rest of the fires. He ordered his men to go out and set them and to make sure that the buildings were so ruined they’d have to be leveled. He wanted to scoop them up at a cheaper price.Zac caught wind of his plans somehow and approached Richard. He wanted to be the one that set the fires to your places, Lark, because of his own agenda. Once Richard heard what Zac planned to do, he was more than happy to let him take over.

“But you were never supposed to live. Richard wanted you dead so that your mom, uncle, and grandma would be more tempted to sell since their heir would be gone. When he found out you survived, he went ballistic. That’s when things really changed. Richard turned to even darker measures. He aligned with Kristoff and helped fund that new drug, Aphrodite’s Curse. I didn’t know what it was at first. Even though we were both working together to ruin you and her family, he wouldn’t let me be a part of those meetings.”

Richard huffs and rolls his eyes. Loki narrows his eyes at him and rips off his duct tape covering his mouth.