Page 40 of Reaper

I give him a tight smile when he looks back at me over his shoulder as he walks over to Ma and Khloe.

Exhaling, I try to calm my nerves, but this little interaction has already proven that staying here is going to definitely try my patience with Zac. I just hope that he isn’t around that much. I don’t think he’d do anything to hurt me, but you never know. With him already being creepy, I should be careful around him.

And try not to be alone with him.

Taking another deep breath, I follow Ma and Khloe up the stairs and close the door behind me.

“I set Granny up in the bedroom down here, so Emma and Lark, you can pick which bedroom you’d like upstairs.”

Heavy footsteps descend down the stairs, and on instinct, I look up in time to see a sheepish look cross Zac’s face.

“Ah, sorry, Babe. I figured you’d want Lark in the room next to yours, so that’s where I put her bags.” He clears his throat as he rubs the back of his neck.

Uh, yeah, that’s going to be a hard no. There’s no way I’m going to take that room and hear my bestie getting fucked. No way, no how. Especially not by Zac.

“Uh, thanks, but I always liked the green room because of its view of the forest, so I’ll claim that room.”

Khloe turns to grin at me, so she misses the scowl that crosses Zac’s face before he stomps into the kitchen. What was that about?

“Kind of figured that’d be the one you chose since that’s the room you always pick. Now, you three look dead on your feet. There are fresh towels in each of the bathrooms and Lark, I put some bandage supplies up there for you as well. I figured after going to your guys’ house today that we’d order in comfort food tonight.”

“That sounds perfect, Khloe,” Ma tells her as she gives her a hug and heads upstairs.

Walking over to her, I wrap her in a hug. “Thank you, girl, comfort food sounds perfect after today’s whirlwind and Aiden stopping by. I’m going to freshen up and then take a small nap before dinner.”

Khloe pulls back abruptly, though her arms stay wrapped around my waist, and she narrows her eyes at me. “What the fuck did that cunt licker want?” she hisses.

Sighing, I shake my head. “I think they’re still after us, but his excuse was, and I quote ‘he wanted to make sure I was okay’,” I say as I make air quotes with my hands.

Khloe scowls. “Only took the bastard a fucking month.”

I huff. “That was my reply as well, but Reaper and Devil put him in his place.” Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Zac’s muscles tensing in his back and his arms. Determined to ignore him, I refocus back on Khloe. “He left after I threatened to put a few extra holes in his body.” I don’t tell her about the threats Reaper and Devil gave him. For some reason, I feel like I need to keep mum on those details.

Khloe smirks. “Good. Now head on upstairs. I’ll come wake you in a couple hours if you aren’t up already so we can figure out what we want to eat for supper.”

Nodding, I head upstairs and grab my luggage off the bed in the room next to Khloe’s before rolling them down the hall to the room I always use whenever I crash here. Since most of my stuff didn’t survive the fire, Ma and Khloe wanted to go out shopping for new clothes, shoes, makeup, and other bathroom supplies for me about a week after the fire. Knowing I’d want to get the bulk of the supplies later myself; I just had them get me a week’s worth of clothes and two pairs of slip-on memory foam shoes. I knew it’d be a while before I could easily tie my shoes again, so I decided to go with ease and comfort for now.

Hearing Ma in the room next door, I walk through our adjoining Jack and Jill bathroom and knock on the doorframe to her room since her door to the bathroom is currently open. She looks up at me and gives me a small smile.

“Want me to help you wash your hair?” she asks and I nod as a return her smile.

“Yeah, I want the smoke off me, but I don’t want to have to redo my bandages until tomorrow. With Reaper helping witheverything, I didn’t get any soot on them, so they should still be good.”

She walks over and shuts and locks the main door to her bedroom and I go and do the same to mine before grabbing fresh clothes and my bathroom supplies out of my bag.

Walking back into the bathroom, I strip. While at first it was weird to be naked around Ma after the fire, I’ve gotten used to it seeing as I still can’t do everything on my own yet. That and at the time, I much preferred having her help rather than some random nurse.

Twenty minutes later, I finish combing my hair and slip into a baggy t-shirt and leggings. Crawling into bed, sleep claims me almost instantly.

Chapter 18

Lark

Lastnightwasexactlywhat I needed.

We ended up ordering in tons of Chinese food and ate family style while we watched an old favorite movie of mine,Today’s Special. Normally, I like to have the movie on in the background when I’m cooking since it’s about a chef named Samir, who is of Indian descent. He finds out his dream of being the head chef at his boss’s new restaurant is shattered when his boss chooses someone else. On a whim, Samir decides to head to Paris to tutor under a famous chef, but before that happens, his father has a heart attack. Despite not getting along with his father, family obligation has him telling his mother he’ll watch over his father’s Indian restaurant. Along the way, he learns to embrace his Indian heritage and ends up falling in love. It’s one of my all-time favorites and thankfully, both Khloe and Miracle, as well as my family, like it as well.

At first, Zac had a conniption that we were planning on eating in the living room. That had me wondering how long, or even if,he has been living here. We normally eat in the living room when we have get-togethers, so Khloe quickly told him to suck it up. That it was her house, so it’s her rules. He also wasn’t impressed that we wanted to get Chinese and he insisted that we should be having a more nutritious meal. Especially me since my body would need the nutrients for healing.