Reaper Unleashed (11 page)

Sarah sighed in relief when Reaper slammed the door to the back of the car and came around to her window. She was still freaking out that he’d insisted that she wasn’t staying here. She almost died when he’d reached for his gun to kill Derik. She didn’t know why he’d wanted to kill him but she’d seen his hand move towards the gun and had acted on instinct, grabbing his hand. He’d allowed it too. She didn’t fool herself that she had stopped him; even with her firm grip on his arm he could have broken her hold.

She was confused by the night’s events and she didn’t know where he was taking her, but she hoped it was somewhere cheap because otherwise she wouldn’t be there for long no matter what he said. She had to be frugal and he’d have to understand that.

“Follow me and don’t try any bullshit. I am not in the mood for it tonight,” he barked as he moved past her window and climbed on his bike. Sarah followed him out of the parking lot headed goodness knew where.

She peeked into the back seat at a sleeping Josh. It had shocked her to walk out of the bathroom to find Josh standing on Reaper’s lap. Then he told her it was fine as if having a two year old in his face demanding he perform was a perfectly normal day for him. She knew it wasn’t and the fact that he’d allowed the boy to do it said a lot about him. Likely more than he’d like it to.

It told Sarah that he was a good man despite his rough, rude exterior. He had allowed Josh to play in his lap while she’d gathered their things. When she’d turned from packing their clothes to find Josh leaning on Reaper’s shoulder with his thumb in his mouth about to fall asleep, she hadn’t been surprised that Reaper had an arm around the boy and was sitting at an odd angle to allow it.

The care he’d shown for her child didn’t help stop the desire she felt for him blazing through her insides. Following his bike along the road, she wondered what she was going to do if he fired her now that he knew she had a kid. She’d get paid at least for this week and then she’d figure it out.

Ten minutes later when Reaper pulled into a garage, she cringed. This wasn’t going to be a low priced place; she could tell by the steel door on the garage and the fancy security system she could see before she even got out of the car.

She shut off the engine and got out, standing near the door. Reaper came over opening the trunk.

“Reaper, I can’t afford this place,” she told him quietly.

“You can. Get the boy,” he grunted, grabbing the playpen and the toys out of the back.

“No, I can’t. This place is likely to be three thousand credits a month and I can’t afford half that.”

“It’s not going to cost anything and I am too fucking tired to argue with you about this tonight. Get the boy,” he growled, glaring at her. He walked past her, heading up a flight of stairs leading to the security panel and a door.

“I will not let you pay for my housing, Reaper! I am not going to live off you.”

“I am too fucking tired and the boy needs to get into a bed and not sleep in a damned cage, so get him and get your sexy little ass up these stairs! Or I will come down there and carry your ass up here. Now move!” he roared before turning and scanning his hand before punching in a code.

She had little choice but to follow him. He would just force the issue if she refused. She wondered again what the hell she’d been thinking when she’d walked into the Blue Bird two weeks ago. She would have to stay here tonight but in the morning she was going to have to find somewhere else to stay because she wasn’t going to live off a man like her mother had. She wasn’t going to do that to her son. Getting Josh out of the car, she turned to find Reaper right behind her.

“Here, let me take him. You get that bag with the applesauce, it’s lighter.” He held out his arms for Josh.

“I got him,” Sarah said, getting irritated with his high-handed behavior.

“Give me the boy, Sarah. I don’t want you to fall on the stairs, they’re steep.”

Sighing because she didn’t want to argue with him anymore tonight, she handed Josh to him before grabbing the bag. Following him into the apartment, she was a bit awed. They entered through a huge kitchen. She set the bags of food down on the counter before following Reaper into the living room. Art was hung all along the walls. Some of it made her blush because it depicted naked women in tastefully done sexual positions. They were mostly statues but there was a painting as well. She saw that he was carrying Josh across the apartment and into a bedroom.

He moved to the right of the bed with Josh, laying him down in the playpen he must have set up before coming back out.

“There is a bathroom through there and your bags are in the corner of the room. I turned on the light in the bathroom so you don’t wake the boy. We can discuss this in the morning. For now let’s just get some sleep.” Reaper ran a hand over his face and she noticed that he seemed worn down. She felt sympathy for him fill her and she nodded. She was tired too.

“Okay, I will call you in the morning but we will be talking about this, Reaper. We can’t allow you to pay for this place for us.”

“I’m sure we will, Sarah. Just not tonight. I’ll see you in the morning. Just come in my room and wake me if I’m not up when you get up,” Reaper said as he walked out of the bedroom. At first it didn’t dawn on Sarah what he’d said until he was out the door in the small hallway.

Then she shot out of the room after him hissing, “What do you mean wake you in the morning?”

“Exactly what you think it means, Sarah.”

“This is your house! We can’t stay at your house!” Sarah voice rose and Reaper shushed her.

“You’re going to wake the kid. I told you, we can argue about this tomorrow. Just go to sleep. I am too tired for this and my freaking head is killing me. Please, just go to bed.” He rubbed between his eyes and she could see that he was in pain. She felt her heart squeeze and she finally gave in. She could deal with it for one night, but in the morning she was going to let him have it.

“Fine, but in the morning we are talking about this and we’ll find somewhere else to stay.” Sarah didn’t wait for a reply, she just went into the bedroom and locked the door, leaning against it and wondering what the hell had happened. After several moments she sighed and walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed. She had a feeling tomorrow was going to be a long day.

Sarah woke the next morning to find Josh missing from his playpen. A sense of panic overtaking her, she jumped to her feet, running out the door of her room into the hallway. Her heart beating so hard that a roaring began to ring in her ears, she rushed into the room he’d most likely head to. She glanced around the living room frantically, not seeing Josh anywhere. She could hear Reaper’s rich baritone in the kitchen. Deciding that she needed help to find Josh, she rushed through the door of the kitchen.

Her insides were churning in apprehension. Josh could be anywhere and in a place that hadn’t been childproofed, who knew what could happen to him. She felt tears stinging her eyes and her hands were shaking.

“I can’t fi—” she began, stopping short at the sight before her.

Josh was in his highchair with a spoon halfway to his mouth and Reaper was drinking a cup of coffee at the table nearby. She couldn’t believe it.

As the panic finally settled, she remembered something else. Last night she had locked the bedroom door. How the hell had Reaper gotten into their room? Her hands landing on her hips, she clenched her jaw. Glaring at him, she took a deep breath to calm the sudden surge of anger. She didn’t want to yell in front of Josh.

“Uh-oh, mad face,” Josh said sagely from his highchair.

“Is it now. Huh– good to know,” Reaper said smirking. Sarah wanted to smack that smug look off his face. She couldn’t, not with Josh in the room, so she glowered at him instead.

“How did you get into our room? I distinctly remember that I locked the door last night,” Sarah asked, her eyes narrowed as she stood in the doorway.

“And I have a key. The boy was calling out Mama for about twenty minutes. You weren’t getting up, so I opened the door to check on you. Josh was up and you were not responding, so I brought him in the living room. He played for a while, then we came in here to eat.”

Reaper examined Sarah. Her hair was mussed and she wore a t-shirt, which clung tightly to her slight chest.  Along with her angry expression, it all added up to her looking sexy as fuck. He felt his cock twitch as he watched her.

Her cheek still had the impression of the pillow and he was really fond of the shorts she had on, which were made from barely enough material to cover her ass. He knew then that he would be keeping her here instead of across the street in the other apartment the club owned. He hadn’t realized that this wasn’t a whim for him until this moment. It was startling to realize that she was here in his house and he wasn’t going to let her leave. He wanted her here with him, it was that simple, and he didn’t bother to fight the need.

He was however shocked that he felt that way because she was a package deal and he knew better than to think otherwise. She came with the boy who sat in the highchair making a mess with applesauce as he tried to eat it. The kid came with her and he was unsure why that didn’t bother him, but it didn’t.

Most kids annoyed Reaper, but Josh wasn’t much trouble. The kid had really only called Sarah twice this morning. The real reason he’d opened the door was that Reaper hadn’t liked the locked door between them when he woke. Unlocking the door was something he’d have done even if the kid had been asleep. He didn’t tell her that though, he just drank his coffee and glanced at her from over the rim. He recalled how the sight of her sleeping form on the bed had made his chest ache. She’d looked so peaceful.

After deciding to let her sleep in because he couldn’t bear to wake her, he had taken the kid into the living room. His choice likely had something to do with the sight of her leg drawn up on the outside of the covers displaying that sweet, tight ass in those tiny little shorts. He might become very fond of that scrap of material, he decided, feeling his dick stir.

Having shut the door to her room and his, he’d let the boy toddle around for a bit this morning. There had been only one upset this morning. When Josh told him he had to go to the bathroom he had been a little freaked, but they’d managed.

When the kid had asked for applesauce he assumed it was a normal breakfast food for Josh because Sarah had brought four jars with her last night. He given Josh a large bowl and made some coffee for himself and Sarah. Now, he was reading one of his favorite books, a thriller, and drinking his coffee while watching the boy paint his whole body with applesauce.

When she’d entered looking panicked, he’d felt a little bad for not waking her up to tell her he was taking Josh, but then her look had turned sour and her eyes had narrowed. He’d known she was mad about something, but the kid had confirmed it.

The boy and he should get along just fine, he decided. Josh wasn’t annoyingly whiny like Toper’s kids and he didn’t ask a ton of questions like Mrs. Black’s daughter from across the street did. She was twelve and he almost ran when he saw her coming because she was a pain in the ass.

Reaper gazed at Sarah, who walked to the counter, grabbed a coffee cup and poured herself some. She then walked over and kissed the boy on the head before sitting down across from Reaper, a glare still directed at him that made him raise his brows at her boldness. She calmly put three spoonfuls of sugar in her coffee and then took a sip. Her eyes closed and she sighed. He’d guess she didn’t get to ruin a fine cup of coffee often. The little tin he’d seen her bring couldn’t have cost more than three credits and she’d just dumped half a pound of sugar into his seven credit an ounce coffee. He wanted to protest, but the anger in her look stopped him.

“Let’s talk about this…situation. Josh and I can’t stay here in your house, Reaper.”

“Yeah, you can, Sarah, and you’re going to,” Reaper told her calmly, frustration riding him hard at the thought of her leaving.

She frowned at him over the rim of her coffee cup. “I don’t take orders from you, as—jerk,” she amended, not wanting to teach her son a new word.

She was seething with irritation over the way he sat calmly across from her and didn’t seem to notice that she was telling him that she wasn’t going to be following his orders. She knew that his biker gang jumped to meet his every command and the women who worked for him hung on his words as if they were law. That wasn’t her. She didn’t plan on jumping every time he commanded her to. It just was not going to happen. She knew that he didn’t like to be denied something he wanted. She also knew he was going to have to get used to being disappointed because she wasn’t a damned pushover. 

“That’s where you’re wrong, baby. You do take orders from me and you’ll find that I don’t allow anyone to deviate far from the plan once I make it,” Reaper told her before leaning forward slightly, his eyes narrowed into dark slits of smoky grey.

Glowering back at him with just as much fire, she snarled, “I don’t think so.”

“You want to keep your job, then you’ll be doing what I want. I’m the boss and that means if you work for me, you do what I require you to and that’s that, baby,” he told her matter-of-factly. She wanted to throw a fit, to stand up and jump up and down in a display of childish rage. The only thing stopping her was Josh and the fact that she needed this job, at least for the moment.

She was out of options unless she wanted to become her mother. Of course, that might be what he wanted, she thought in horror. That thought had her gritting out, “I’m not sleeping with you for credits, Reaper.”

Her fury was filling her up, making her feel like she might burst into flames at a moment’s notice.

“Do I look like I need to pay someone to sleep with me? I can get pussy anytime I want it, Sarah.” His jaw clenched and his fists balled on the table. The look he gave her was the same he’d used on her last night. It was cold, almost arctic.

“Then what the hell do you want me to do?” she demanded, observing him warily as she waited for him to speak.

“You’ll still come in to the club two nights a week to deal with the suppliers and handle the invoice filing, but I’ll do the books from now on. You will also start working here. I have a woman who cleans once a week, but now you’ll do that. You’ll also make meals and get the food and do shit like that.” Reaper nodded his head at the end of his speech.

“Fine, but we don’t have to live here for me to do that, Reaper,” Sarah told him snidely as she grabbed a towel to wipe Josh’s hands and face.

“Down, mama,” Josh demanded as she finished cleaning his hands.

“The hell you don’t!” Reaper growled, his look dark and threatening.

“Oh, don’t give me that look. It’s not going to work on me,” she told him, her scowl hot as she lifted Josh down from the highchair, holding him on her lap. He wiggled, trying to get down to run around, but she refused to let him.

“Sarah, I am not going to ask again. I don’t want to deal with the kid getting in the way of you being here. If your focus is on getting back to him, then I won’t get what I want, a woman to take care of my house and feed me.” Sarah knew that he was coming up with any excuse for her to stay here.

She had already figured out that he wanted her to stay here, but what she didn’t know was why. She looked at him, trying hard to figure him out. Reaper had always been hard for her to read because his emotions seemed locked behind a wall. It was frustrating. She’d learned to read people by their reactions to situations, but somehow he managed to hide most of what he felt.

Over the last two weeks working at the strip club she had worked at figuring him. She was close, but some parts of his personality seemed so shielded that she wondered if he knew why he did things sometimes. She knew that he wanted her and it had nothing to do with feeding him or keeping his house clean. It was sexual. She felt it every time he touched her, but he was also playing a game. She just wasn’t sure if he knew he was doing it. She meant what she said, she wasn’t going to sleep with him for credits. She wasn’t a freaking hooker, after all.

“Down!” Josh demanded again only louder.

“Can you hold him while I drag the playpen out of the room for him to play in?” she asked. He shook his head.

“Just let the kid down and prop the kitchen door open, he’ll be fine,” Reaper told her, waving into the other room.

“Are you serious? There’s like thousands of credits worth of fancy art in there.” She waved her hand towards the living room, her mouth open in shock.

“So? Most of it’s secured to the wall so it can’t fall on him. It’s fine.”

“He could still break something, Reaper,” Sarah told him feeling exasperated.

“So what? It’s just stuff. As long as the kid can’t hurt himself, I don’t care,” Reaper replied, getting up after downing the last sip of his coffee. He didn’t tell her that the kid had already broken the tree that was made of bronze and attached to the wall on the far side of the living room; it would only upset her. She was not used to stuff as expensive as the things he had littered all over the house.

He’d been collecting for years, some from people they’d killed and others he’d bought. He liked art and he’d gotten shit from more than one person in the club over it. He liked having the best of things and he was sure some cracked up doctor would say that was a throwback to a time when he’d had next to nothing.

It was also likely why finding out Sarah had so little to call her own had pissed him off so much. Last night it had only taken him one trip to the car to load it all up. He didn’t like that one damned bit. The kid needed stability and she’d been working so hard to give it to him. I mean, fuck, she’d walked into a biker bar and stripped for the owner. She wasn’t going anywhere. She had better get used to the idea because it wasn’t going to change. She belonged to him now.

“You can’t be serious, Reaper, he’s two and he is liable to break something.”

“Like I said it doesn’t matter. He likes the tree, but watch him around that one. It’s possible it could cut him if he grabs the thinner branches at the top. I’m having it moved tomorrow. I’d do it today, but I need help because it’s heavier than it looks. For now I need to get to the club. I’ve got shit to take care of. Laundry’s in the hamper in my bathroom and the guest bathroom needs to be cleaned. Those assholes who come over here always leave it a fucking mess.”

Reaper would be talking to them about that too; she didn’t need to be cleaning up after those fucks. He’d make damned sure they didn’t leave any more messes for her to clean up. He would make them come over and clean the damned thing first, but he had to give her something to do. Otherwise she would catch on to the fact that this was all just a way to have her where he wanted her.