Page 95 of Sins

When I looked back at the group, I found Grim watching me. Blood dripped from his hands and his chest heaved with adrenaline. He didn’t have to say anything. I knew he was worried, so I gave a nod to let him know I was back in check.

Sonny held his head as thick globs of saliva dripped from his lips and blood oozed down his arm.

“This could be quick and easy, or I can draw this out and make you regret all your past decisions.” Grim’s voice cut like glass through the cold, damp air. Thunder clapped, and dark clouds hung heavily above us.

“The only regret I have,” Sonny strained his neck and cried out in pain, “was not getting your wife alone and destroying her in a way you could never repair.” Trigger stepped forward when I did and warned me not to intervene. I stepped back in line, but the boys growled and inched closer.

“He’s here.” Rail gave me a crazed look. “Yup, he’s here.”

I jumped when another clap came and shook the ground. “Who?”

“The Reaper.” He nodded at Grim, who suddenly looked taller and bigger as raindrops hit his face. Then on cue, like a movie, the storm beat down. His dress shirt was soaked in seconds, his shirt was rolled up over his forearms, and a few buttons were undone at the collar. It was slicked to his muscles along with his pants and left nothing to the imagination. He wore a look I’d never seen before.Reaper. It was just as Rail described. Grim’s true self was exposed, and I’d never been more attracted to him than in that moment.

“Did you order that hit on Kenna?” Grim’s voice made me shiver, it was so cold, and when Sonny just laughed, he lunged at him, grabbed him by the hair, and held up the spoon.

“Fuck!” Sonny raised his bound hands. “Yes! Yes! I ordered the fucking hit!” He panted. “I couldn’t get close enough.” He jerked about like a vicious animal, and it stirred up the boys even more. “When you went to Italy, I knew it was the perfect time.” He was a madman drunk on pain. “IknewCameron tossed her in the line of fire with Griple, and IknewSimon was in love with her and he’d fucking lose it with him. Everything,” he shook his head and seethed in pain, “everything was perfect, but somehow thatbitchis still alive. Fucking nine lives!” He swung his gross mess of a head toward me, but Grim still had a handful of his hair and he drove his knee into Sonny’s fleshly eye socket. This time Sonny went down hard without a sound. He just lay there, his face in a disgusting puddle of eye juice and blood.

“Brick,” Grim called. “Knees.” Brick splashed some whiskey from a bottle over Sonny’s face, and it shot him out of his stupor with a scream. “Who canceled the hit?” I demanded.

Sonny’s mouth gasped for air as the pain registered again. “I don’t know! I don’t know! I couldn’t figure it out.”

“Well, what do you know?” Grim’s cold voice had zero sympathy for Sonny’s pain.

“No one can stop it!” he screamed and writhed. “We all know, there’s no one who can call off a hit once it’s ordered. Except, maybe—" He looked up toward the sky as if to say God. “Stop at nothing, outlast your enemies, be the fear!” His screams cut through me as he chanted the Potens’ motto. Leal and Zhar growled and strained their heads forward. They begged to be tapped in.

Grim rose and the Reaper finally snapped. He swung his fist into Sonny’s mangled face and sent him backward. Then he reached down and took hold of his arms and snapped them both. He shook him like a rat and tossed him aside.

“Go!” Grim commanded the boys to finish off what was left of him and looked away as if something bothered him. For some reason, that action bothered me. Grim seemed to feed off this stuff, not turn away from it. It was odd.

“Morgan?” My tone said it all.

“Out of all of them, it was Sonny who got to him the most.”

“Really?”

“He tried to take away his family.” He had a small smile like he understood Grim. “First time ever,” he nodded toward him, “that I’ve seen Grim rattled.” I smiled, letting his words fill me, but it was cut short by the terrible sounds the dogs made. Then suddenly they stopped as Grim called a command. Trigger whistled at a couple of his men to gather the body. I knew it would be buried somewhere in the desert. Where, I didn’t want to know.

Grim’s cold eyes found mine, and he hesitated for a moment. He took a breath and shook himself as if to rid his head of the Reaper. His eyes stayed on my face, and I could almost see the moment he became mine again. He swept me into his arms and buried his face into my neck and released a long breath.

“We’re good?” He held me by the shoulders and pressed me away from him to study my face.

“We’re good,” I replied and put a hand up to his cheek. He took it and kissed my fingers.

“All right.” He nodded then turned to the others. “We’re done here.” Trigger swung a leg over his bike, and the others began to disperse back toward the city. Grim took out his phone then waited until the roar of their bikes was gone. I didn’t hear his words. I stood in silence until he finished his call.

“Sonny is finally gone.” I smiled happily, and he nodded and put an arm around me. “It’s such a relief.”

“Yes, and Knox and Dad rounded up a lot of them while we were here. I think we got all the rats, but it’ll take time to make sure. We set traps everywhere and lured them out.”

I blinked the rain from my eyes and processed that part. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“That right there,” he nodded at the men who had tossed Sonny’s body into the back of a truck and were driving away, “was what I needed you to focus on.” He kissed me quickly. “And now we can focus on us.” He grabbed the back of my head and kissed me with a hungry moan. When he released me, I caught Jesse’s happy face as he opened the car door, and we slipped inside. “Let’s go home.”

** *

Grim got a call when we got back to the hotel, and he told me he needed a little time to meet with Trigger and Elio. I showered and changed and waited for him.

My phone buzzed on the table.

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