Page 3 of Merciless
He smiled as he lit up again, like he was enjoying some secret I wasn’t privy to. “It’ll be okay, Reap. Just wasn’t what I expected to see today.” He went quiet again, now seeming peacefully resigned about everything, before his eyes bounced back to me. “I saw your death too.”
“Didja now?” I pulled out a cigarette of my own. “Don’t tell me—on the cafe racer in the desert with an Uzi in each hand. Wait, actually.” I lit up before moving on to my better idea. “At roughly like forty-five or so. Older than now but nottooold, you know? Please tell me I die from cardiac arrest while mid-stroke in the best pussy of my life.”
Daren laughed genuinely this time, a bright sound that all the women loved. “That’s a better guess than you might think.”
“Yes!” I pumped a fist. “Tell me what she looks like. And seriously, do I actually die before I start having boner problems? Because that’s what’sreallyimportant.”
“Sorry, bro.” Daren smirked. “You’re gonna be old as shit. A fucking grandpa.”
“Aww man, seriously?” I huffed out a disappointed sigh. “I’m no fucking MC president worth his salt if I live to old age. We’re meant to go out in blazes of glory.”
“Shit’s gonna change in the next few years.” He got that faraway look again, tapping the ashes off the end of his smoke. “Some of it will be really fucking bad, but not all of it will be.”
I snorted. “Now that’s the cryptic bullshit I was expecting. But hey, listen.” I walked up next to him and grabbed the back of his head for some brotherly roughhousing. “You’re not fuckin’ dying on my watch, okay? I mean it. If I gotta live to be an old fart, so do you.”
My brother just humored me with that secretive smile again. “Fuck yeah, Reap. I’ll be there for all of it.”
One
MARIPOSA
PRESENT DAY
Ifelt haunted.
I floated around like a ghost haunting my house, even haunting my own body. I didn’t feel alive, but trapped inside a vessel. And I haunted those who surrounded me, namely Jandro, Gunner, and my in-laws.
Reaper’s parents, Finn and Lis, were staying with us temporarily, in order tosupport us. Whatever that meant.
Ever since Reaper and Shadow were taken, and Tash’s forces disappeared from Four Corners like a dark fog, my father-in-law and two remaining husbands talked late into the night. They sat around the living room or at the kitchen table, talking over whiskey in hushed voices. When I asked about these talks, Jandro or Gunner would squeeze my shoulder and assure me vaguely that they were figuring out how to get our other two back.
By the third day, I’d had enough of waiting.
I opened the garage door and started up my dirt bike, not caring who heard at seven in the morning. Foghorn answered the roar of my bike with a crow, which prompted Jandro to come running from the backyard.
“Where are you going?” he demanded, immediately suspicious as he stepped in front of my bike.
“Where do you think?” I shot back.
His face hardened, then both of his hands fell to grip my handlebars. To stop me. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Let go, Jandro.”
“They’ll take you too, if you go,” he hissed back through clenched teeth. “Underworld, sky, and the thread that ties them together. They’ll have all the pieces they need, and then where will we be?”
“If you don’t let go, Iwillrun you over.”
“Mari,” Jandro pleaded, his face cracking with emotion. “Why are you doing this? You can’t help them alone.”
“At least I’ll be doing something!” I screamed in his face, my resolve breaking with the realization that he was right. “Not sitting on my ass here. Planning, talking, and not doing shit!”
A sob escaped my throat and my vision blurred. The next thing I felt was Jandro pulling me into him, his arms cradling my face and back as he pulled me into his chest. I was sick of crying, sick of worrying, speculating, andwaitingfor something to be done. Every second that passed felt a tiny step closer to losing Reaper and Shadow. And that feeling only amplified the pain creeping into my system like a poison.
At some point, Jandro turned off the bike and led me inside. The sullen faces of Gunner and my in-laws in the living room indicated they’d caught on to what I was about to do. I didn’t care. I’d happily throw myself in the path of danger if it provided even the slightest chance of getting my men back.
Jandro led me to the loveseat where Gunner sat, holding his arms open for me. I sagged limply against him, accepting his embrace with no enthusiasm, while Jandro sat down after me. The two of them wrapped around me, sandwiching me protectively between them. Under any other circumstances, I would have loved and enjoyed it. But I only felt smothered, even suffocated.
“Mari,” Finn began in a choked voice, his hands clasped with his wife’s from where they sat across from us. “Please believe me when I say we know how frustrating these past few days have been.”
