Page 23 of Nikolai (Kansas City Reapers)

“Well, we wanted to stay away from the major areas where we’d been stationed, for one thing,” I answered her.

“Uh, isn’t Fort Leavenworth like just a hop, skip, and a jump away on the Kansas side?” she rolled her eyes with a snort of a laugh. “Didn’t think that one through, did ya, boys?”

There was a roll of soft laughter that echoed around the room from each of us, our eyes meeting for a moment.

“What? What am I missing?” she all but pouted.

Sully cleared his voice loudly, deciding to answer for all of us. “Well, that’s an army base. And none of us here are in the army. It’s just… different.”

“How is it different?”

“It just is,” every one of us answered in unison.

“We don’t have anything against the Army. It’s just a different branch than the rest of us, and Leavenworth doesn’t have the same feel as some of the places we were stationed. So it doesn’t bother us,” I added, finishing my own food and relaxing at the table as well.

“Okay, so if you all weren’t in the Army, what part of the militarywereyou in?” Maddy asked with genuine curiosity. It made me smile to see her so invested in our lives after having known us for only a few short days.

“Niko, Deacon & I were all in the Marines, while Jax was in the Air Force, in intelligence,” Sully answered her, standing to collect everyone’s dishes, shooting a look at anyone who dared try to get up and help. He got weird about his meals sometimes, the big teddy bear.

Maddy nodded understanding, although I wasn’t sure how much of that actually made sense to her. “But what do you do now, though? Or is this it? Just lounging about doing nothing?” She smirked at me, and that brattyenergy was hard to ignore. It seemed to come so naturally to her.

“We started our own car business, Reaper’s Repair and Restoration,” Deacon answered.

“So, you’re just a bunch of mechanics now? Seems like a big demotion, if you ask me.” There was no judgment in her tone, but I could tell the guys definitely felt judged.

“Mechanic doesn’t quite hit the nail on the head, darlin’,” Deacon drawled, his back straightening a bit in affronted annoyance. His voice took on a more lecturing tone. “We restore vintage cars and customize newer ones. We do custom paint jobs, tricking out rides, and more. It’s quite intricate stuff if I’m bein’ honest.”

“So, more like that old TV showPimp My Ride.You know, the one from back in the day?” Maddy’s voice was completely sincere, but I didn’t miss the slight twitch of her lips as she restrained a smile. She was fucking with Deacon and pulling it off beautifully. I smiled, letting her carry on her little game.

“Ouch!” Deacon exclaimed, clutching his chest as though he’d been wounded.

Haven’t we all, brother? Haven’t we all?

“Maddy…” Sully pouted, a look of true hurt on the big lug’s face. “You wound me. I thought we were friends.”

“Okay, alright. I’m sorry,” she apologized—sort of—throwing Sully a wink and a smile.

“If you want, I could show you around the garage tomorrow,” Sully asked, the look of pure hope on his face enough to make anyone agree. Not Maddy, though.

Her face contorted into a look of distaste. “No offense to any of you, but if I wanted to hang out in a stinkygarage, I would have become a mechanic. Not my jam. But thanks, big guy.”

Her eyes softened as she saw Sully’s face crumple into a pitiful look of despair. Reaching over the table, she took his hand in hers, drawing his attention.

“But how about we bake something together soon?”

His eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. Smacking his hand across his thigh, he all but squealed, “You bet your sweet ass we will!”

With that, the tone of the night shifted, each of us feeling the stress of the last few days dissipate, at least a little.

In no time at all, dinner was cleaned up, and Maddy had retreated to her room, claiming to be exhausted from the day’s events. Not that any of us could blame her.

I, for one, was beyond grateful for the small blessing of her absence. It gave me a much-needed moment of peace to do what I really wanted to do.

I letthe steaming water soak into my bones as I relaxed against the side of the hot tub. This, this right here, was exactly what I needed. The last few days had been nothing but stress mounting on stress. And it wasn’t like I could partake in my usual form of stress relief. Something told me that Maddy finding that room in the basement would bring me nothing but trouble. More trouble than it was worth.

So the hot tub would have to do, at least until this case was handled, or a new safe house had been vetted.

“Imagine meeting you here,” a decidedly feminine voice called from the direction of the house.

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