Page 114 of Reaper Flame

“I can’t lose anyone else,” I confessed, unable to stop tears from falling. “I don’t think I’d come back from it. It’ll destroy me.”

“That’s why you don’t belong with him,” Zander said. He ducked down in front of me, putting his hands on my knees and staring into my face, leaving me with nowhere to hide. “That’s why you are one of us. You put those you care about before yourself. Hiram would never understand that.”

“You’re the strongest woman I know,” West said, wiping my tears away with his thumb. “You can’t let him win. That’s not who you are.”

“He’s already won, West.” I sniffed. “He always does.”

“Not this time,” West growled. “You have us by your side.”

“But we can’t do this without you,” Rocky said. “We need you. You know Hiram better than anyone.”

“That’s why I know we can’t beat him,” I muttered. My heart sank. “No one can. He will never let me go.”

A black cloud descended over my thoughts, taking me back to my first months in Blackthorne Towers. Instead of being whisked away by a handsome prince, the devil had kidnapped me. He forced me to obey. I could still feel the chains around my ankles that had been a regular feature in my life during that time. The cuffs may be gone, but Hiram still held my brain in a chokehold. A prison I couldn’t escape from.

“If you give up now,” Zander said, “we may as well order Mieko’s tombstone and be done with it. That is, if we find the pieces of her to bury and put her back together like a jigsaw.”

It wouldn’t be the first time Hiram thought a treasure hunt of limbs was a good idea.

“Are you serious, Zander?” Rocky looked at him in disgust. “Our girl’s hurting here and you’re saying shit like that? Just look at her. She’s fucking shaking!”

“It’s the truth, and Candy knows it,” Zander said, squeezing my knees, then spoke to me directly, “The pain you’re feeling is nothing compared to how you’ll feel if we don’t act now.”

His words jolted me back to the present.

I blinked my tears away and took a deep breath. “Zander’s right.”

We were on a ticking clock. The only thing I’d regret more than Hiram taking her would be not trying to get her back.

Zander grinned smugly. “I always am.”

He pulled me out of the pit with a few words. I may have questioned myself, but Zander didn’t. He held me to account and saw me for the person I wanted to be — not a victim, but a motherfucking survivor.

I scowled at him. “Now is not the time to be an arrogant ass.”

Zander’s smile widened. He knew he had me. He reminded me what really mattered. Mieko. The Sevens. They were my anchor in an endless sea with no horizon in sight.

“And she’s back,” Zander declared. “We need you to stay with us, little one. Can you do that?”

I nodded. “Mieko needs me.”

“What are we going to do to bring Mieko home?” Zander asked. “What is Hiram’s next move?”

I put myself in Hiram’s shoes. I’d been around him during hostage situations in the past. What would he be thinking?

“We wait,” I said without hesitation and against all of my other instincts. “He’ll be in contact soon.”

“How do you know?” Rocky asked.

“This isn’t my first front-row seat at a Hiram circus,” I said, then jumped up as another idea came to me. “In the meantime, I’m going to need all the make-up you can find and Blackbird’s body moved to the freezer.”

West’s mouth fell open. “Make-up?!”

“I think the Blackbird could do with a makeover.” I rolled my eyes sarcastically, then turned serious. “Come on, West! Hiram will want to see proof of life.”

“It may not be perfect,” Zander said. “But it should buy us enough time…”

We sprung into action. Rocky set to work clearing the large chest freezer in the club’s kitchen while West lugged the Blackbird’s dead weight upstairs.

---