Page 230 of Reaper

I lower the flame, tracing down his throat and chest in the same spots she’s burned. I would do his arm and hand but that’d be a little hard with how he’s currently strung up.

Shutting off the flame, I pick up my knife and slice the cheek I’d just burned. I look over my shoulder at Lark who’s got Crystal’s hair in a vice grip and her head is yanked back at an odd angle as she cuts the strands. Everyone in the club knows Crystal’s vein as fuck and she shrieks in outrage when Lark drops the hair in a biohazard bag we’ll burn later.

“Darlin’? Want to tell these two assholes your news?”

A slow, satisfied grin pulls at her lips as she walks over to me and places a hand at the small of my back. Worry instantly eats at me when I feel a small tremble in her fingers, but I don’t press her about it right now. She told me she’d tell me if things got too rough down here and I have to trust her.

Then I notice her gaze is locked on the burns I just gave Zac.

She slides her gaze over to Richard and gives an approving nod. She steps up beside Loki and rests her blade on the skin of Richard’s pec. Not quite biting into it, but she is applying a bit of pressure to it.

“Even if you had managed to get me to sign those papers, you still wouldn’t have gotten anything of ours.”

The room damn near goes silent except for the grunts from the men Devil, Beast, Punisher, and Odin are working on.

“W-What do you mean? I’ve seen the paperwork. Everything’s in your name. Everything. Nothing’s been changed. I’d know. My contacts in city hall and in the lawyer’s office would have told me if they had.”

Lark laughs, low, dark, and raspy. “See, that’s where you’re wrong.” She pauses and drags the knife down his pec.

“It took a bit of work but we found out who your contacts were, and well, now they’re in our pockets.”

Panic flares in Richards eyes but Lark ignores it and continues, never taking her eyes off him.

“Everything we had was changed seeing as I’ll be getting married here soon. To protect my family’s legacy, not only doesthe paperwork need my signature, but they also need Reaper and Devil’s signatures.”

Richard’s brows lower at that as he tries to think through why she’d require our signatures, and she smiles a dark smile that’s full of teeth and sends a shiver down my spine.

“Should anything happen to me before Reaper and I have children, and so long as my uncle doesn’t have any children at that point, then Reaper inherits everything. If something also happens to him, then the Steel Archangel’s inherit everything, which is why Devil’s signature is also needed since he is the VP of Junction Creek’s chapter.”

Richard’s face pales before he starts spewing obscenities at Lark, getting so angry, spittle starts flying from his mouth.

“Like I said before,” Lark says, ignoring his tirade, “you will never get your hands on our land. And if you’d have listened to Reaper a long time ago, as well as the rest of the people in this town, you would have known that we don’t want to have Junction Creek turned into a white-collar and upper crest version of the Wisconsin Dells.”

“You stupid fucking cunt! I don’t give a fucking rats ass what this town thinks! I own and will own almost all of it before long and then I’ll do as I fucking please! I’ll ruin you and the club and then take what’s rightfully mine!”

I snag her waist and pull her into my side when I recognize the look on Loki’s face. He steps forward and Richard howls in pain as Loki drives his blade into Richard’s thigh.

He grabs another blade that Smithy brings over and taps Richard’s cheek with the flat of it. “Now, now, remember what I said about you threatening my family members? It really pisses me off when people don’t pay attention. Did you know that?”

I tune him out as I look over what Lark’s already done to Kelly and Crystal. Both of them got a bit of the beautification process as Half-pint calls it. Their hair is chopped close to their headsand in uneven chunks. I know she would have ripped their nails off but with this many people in here, it’d be a bit hard.

Hmmm. Might need to fix that for her going forward.

She’s sliced into their bodies multiple times, some of them rather large and deep, and I wonder if it’s time to move things along.

As if she was reading my mind, Lark raises her eyebrow and glances up at the upper shelves where Half-pints special toys are stored. I grin and wink as I pat her hip, letting her know I’m okay with it.

I turn back to Zac, whose eyes are locked on Lark, so he doesn’t know I see his eyes widen dramatically and his body starts trembling when she comes closer with her two boxes for the ladies.

Inside are the metal claw bras and the metal dildos.

All of our guests go silent as they watch in fear as Lark starts assembling the metal claw bras.

“You know, we have a pretty low tolerance for those who drug and rape people as well as the people that help them achieve their goals. We’ve already dealt with Alvin, Ryan, Dane, Justin, and Elijah.” She pauses as she looks up at Richard and fakes innocence as she raises her hand to hover in front of her mouth. “Ooops! Or did you not notice that you could no longer find your pathetic lackeys?” She shrugs and goes back to assembling. “They all broke pretty easily, and it looks like the rest of your lackeys seem to have broken just as easily,” she says as she points at them with a metal section.

I look closer at them and notice all of them are hanging limply from their chains, but from the slow rise and fall of their chests, they’re alive. Just barely.

“Now, these little babies, as well as a few others, are something my future sister-in-law designed and had made. This device is a metal claw bra and the tips are kind of like fishing lures. Whenthey pierce under your skin, little hooks will drag and claw at the muscles under the skin.” She pauses as she hooks the chain around Kelly’s neck and secures her bra in place and then does the same for Crystal. Then she takes the box Atlas hands her and pulls out the metal dildo. “These guys are exactly what they look like. Metal dildos which everyone will get the pleasure of enjoying. Now, this isn’t just a metal dildo. They also come with a special feature just for special people like you guys.”