Page 232 of Reaper

“I really did mean what I said before. We will try to find Genivieve. If we are able to find her, we will make sure she goes to a good home.”

He swallows thickly. “I know, and I thank you for that. Especially since you don’t have to.” He clears his throat and looks around sheepishly. “I’ve had a lot of time to think in here, and more than once one of the club members has come down here and told me what a fucking idiot I’ve been. I’m sorry, Lark. I do love you. I thought if you spent enough time around me that you’d grow to love me too, but I see the error in that now. If Genivieve ever does find out about me, please let her know that I love her too. And that I’m sorry for everything that I did to you, Lark.” He takes a deep breath and looks up at me. “I’m ready.”

I swallow thickly at that, but step around him. Lark swallows thickly as well before turning and walking back toward the front of the room, knowing that she did that purposefully. I take that moment to slide the knife across his throat, slicing deep enough so that he’ll go quicker that way. He sputters and gasps, but soon, he too falls silent.

Doc and Patch go around the room, verifying that everyone’s dead. When they’re done, I look up at my brothers. Without another word, they start their routine.

Crossing the room, I head towards Lark who is talking quietly with Loki, and as I get closer, I realize he’s talking with her about her boots.

“Wash up and then grab your things and head to the locker room,soeur(sister). Leave your boots by the door, we’ll clean them for you.”

Doc stops me before I reach her. “Reap, you should clean up and head up with our Queen. I think she might need you after this.”

I give him a chin lift in thanks as my tense muscles loosen. I think she will as well. Especially with that last conversation with Darren.

Clasping him on the shoulder, I follow Lark to the wash basin. After we wash up, we leave our boots right inside the door and I follow her toward the locker rooms.

Chapter 88

Lark

Mymindisreelingas I step into the locker room. I strip on autopilot, putting my clothes in a bag and then take out my hair. Thank God Anthony’s in here because he seems to be able to sense that I’m off kilter right now.

Mainly because of Darren’s earlier request about Kelly and his parting words.

I’m sure I’ll process everything I did later tonight, but I don’t regret it.

Any of it.

I understand Levi so much more now. And what she told me when she found out I took part in the previous interrogations? I feel her words down to my bones.

I will do whatever I need to to protect my new family.

Turning on the shower, I check the layers of tape that I know are covering multiple layers of plastic around my wounds on my foot, but it’s thankfully still fully secure. Doc knew I’d have to shower after handling things, so he made sure my wound waswrapped securely. Okay, maybe he might have overdone it some, but I welcomed the care and precaution.

I step under the warm water, close my eyes, and sigh as it beats down on my muscles. Feeling hands in my hair, I hum softly as Anthony starts washing my hair. I’m surprised he’s doing it since he can barely fit in the stall with me. As his fingers work, he doesn’t talk, and right now, I’m grateful. Oh, I’m sure he’ll ask how I am later, but right now, I need to sort my jumbled thoughts.

Darren apologized to me.

He thanked me for saying we were going to try to find and save Genivieve.

The man who had planned to do terrible things to me, thanked me, and then apologized. I’m actually kind of grateful Anthony took his death on his shoulders, cause at that moment, I’m not sure if I would have been able to do it.

When he finishes washing my hair, he moves on to washing my body, and my thoughts suddenly shift to sorting out my thoughts to the report Doc gave me earlier. Nerves war inside of me, worried about how he’s going to take the news. I mean, I know he’ll be okay with part of it, but… all of it? I don’t know.

His hands gently pull me out from under the spray, and I blink out of my thoughts as he wraps a towel around my body. “I’ll be just a few minutes,” he says and then disappears in the same stall I was just in. It’s then that I realize the stalls are wider than they used to be. It looks like they turned the three stalls into two.

I dry off and then wrap the towel around my hair, hoping it will suck off more of the moisture out of the strands. Grabbing my lotion, I lather it on. Then, I slip on clean clothes from my cubby down here before putting on my cut and ring. Grabbing my comb, I work out the tangles and then throw it up in a messy bun. Sitting down on the bench, I pull off all the tape and plastic off my foot before checking the glue. I breathe a sigh of reliefwhen I find it still secure. I don’t rewrap it since Doc said I should let it breathe as much as possible.

As I wait for Anthony to finish his shower, my thoughts drift back to what I just did and what we learned. We didn’t learn much new information, since I had learned a lot at the warehouse, but there were a few new things. However, I really wasn’t able to hear much about what the guys learned from Richard’s minions.

My eyes burn as I think about Grace. Fuck. How are we going to stage their deaths? Will Grace grow up to be a better person now that Kelly won’t be in her life? I hope so. Before tonight, I could see her turning just as vile as Kelly as she grew older, but I honestly believe that if that had happened, it would have been a case of changing who she was to get Kelly’s attention. Maybe even affection.

Anthony’s calloused hands grip mine and I blink out of my thoughts. He’s crouched in front of me, his blue-gray eyes look at me in question. I give him a small smile.

“I’m good, just thinking about what we learned.”

He returns my small smile. “Let’s get you upstairs and you can rest. You’ve been on that foot for a few hours now.”