Page 108 of Reaper Flame

Rocky caught her by the waist, holding her back as she kicked out.

“You’re not going back in there,” Zander said, blocking her path.“It’s not safe.”

“I’m not leaving without her!” Vixen thrashed around in Rocky’s arms. “We can’t!”

“Let’s all calm down—”

“Get the fuck off me, Red!” she blasted, silencing his attempts at being a mediator. “Or I swear to god I’ll fucking shoot you!”

She grappled around in her jacket with fumbling fingers, looking for her weapon. Rocky was already two steps ahead. He grabbed the gun and threw it for Zander to pick up. His experience as a pickpocket during his teenage years came in handy after all.

“When’s the last time you saw her, West?” Vixen demanded. Her anger dissolved into a blind panic as her breathing grew short and erratic. “What about the rest of you? Where the fuck is she?”

I cast my mind back. I last saw Mieko at the bar with West right before the fight broke out. If West had told her to go, there was only one reason she wouldn’t have left straight away.

Bryce.

“We were at the bar, things were getting heavy, and I told her to leave,” West said. His eyes shone as he tried to remember what happened. The hot anger that had taken over his body to get him through the fight was replaced with anguish. “There was a clear path to the stairs. She had time to get away!”

“We got out the moment the fight broke loose,” Rocky said. His voice shook. “We didn’t see her anywhere, man.”

“Why didn’t she leave when I told her to?” West mumbled, scrubbing his face with his hands. “We all know she has that weird thing with blood.”

Vixen narrowed her eyes and snarled, “Not everyone enjoys showering in it like you.”

Before she castrated West, I had to step in and say what I knew. Mieko wanted to give Bryce the contract. That had to be the reason she didn’t leave when West told her to. The thought of doing something for Vixen would be the only thing that would have made her stay in a place when she was unprotected and vulnerable.

“I think I know why she didn’t leave right away.”

Everyone turned to stare at me.

“What?” Vixen jolted like I’d slapped her. “You better start talking, Candy! We’re not talking about anyone here. She is my fucking fiancée. The girl I love!”

This isn’t how I wanted this secret to come out, but I couldn’t avoid it — not now that Mieko was missing, and it felt like leeches were sucking my emotions dry from the inside. Bryce wouldn’t have stuck around during a fight, either. He was too frail. Could they have left together?

“She went to speak to Bryce,” I said.

“Bryce?” Vixen’s eyebrows drew together. “Why the fuck would she speak tohim?”

Zander’s stare burned into me. Vixen wasn’t the only one looking like they wanted to pin me to the side of the limo and rip my fingernails off.

“She was delivering a signed copy of a contract. His will.”

“His will?” Zander spat.

“But I wouldn’t sign it,” Vixen stammered, shaking her head. “I told him that at the restaurant.”

“Actually…” I took a deep breath, readying for the fallout. “You did sign it, but you didn’t know it.”

“What have you done, Candy?” Zander murmured.

The bitter fury in his eyes didn’t make me feel bad, but the flash of disappointment at how I’d kept this from him made me want to curl into a ball. I thought I made the right decision, but all I could think about now was how stupid I’d been to enlist Mieko’s help. If anything happened to her, I’d never forgive myself.

My cell started vibrating like crazy in my pocket, sparing me from the interrogation for the time being.

I looked at the screen. “It’s Mieko.”

“Answer it!” Vixen screeched. “Put it on speaker!”

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