Page 8 of A Reaper's Devotion
Chapter Three
With coffee and cinnamonrolls in his hands, Cyrus typed in the code that would lead him to Willow, and he made his way into her room.
She jumped back as he entered and she pressed a hand to her chest.“You scared me.”
He chuckled.“You should have seen me coming.”
“I’m keeping an eye on this situation here.”She pressed the keys and pointed to the camera in the far corner.
“What do we have?”he asked, noticing she held the phone within her grip.
“It’s a tourist and he has a young woman with him, but that move ...there, do you see it?”Willow zoomed in, but the angle was wrong, and she let out a growl.“Look, that there, that sign, that is a sign a woman gives if she is in danger or distress, or someone is with her that shouldn’t be with her.”She pointed to the woman’s hand that was held behind her back, and she kept opening and closing her palm.“Trust me, I have seen something like this before.Now, it could be a game they are playing, but we don’t know them.What if she is being abused?What if she has been taken?”
Cyrus saw the distress in her eyes and pulled out his cell phone.“I’m on it,” he said.He saw how worried she was.He cupped her face.“Hey, it’s fine.Even if this is nothing and they’re joking around, it is better to be safe than sorry.”
With that, he pressed a quick kiss to her lips and left the room, making his way toward the town square, and calling Daniel as he did so.
He gave the leader an update, and Daniel was already close as he was at the café.They were all aware of the hand signal that had been advised to be taken seriously.He’d seen a demonstration online, but not on a real person.
Cyrus found the couple outside a clothing store.He kept his distance, holding his cell phone to his ear, and he let out a little laugh, pretending to be on a call.All the time, he was aware of the man grabbing the woman’s arm, and when he did, she stopped gripping and opening her hand.He was growling words at her, and the woman looked terrified.
This was a situation.His gut was telling him this shit was real.
There was a limited window, of that he knew, so he made his way over, still pretending to be distracted by his phone call, and he looked away, knocking straight into the couple.
“What the fuck?”the guy asked.
“Wow, I’m so sorry,” Cyrus said.“Babe, I’ve got to call you back, I was listening to you, and I just totally walked into a random couple.”He shoved his phone in his back pocket and put a smile on his face.“I’m so sorry about that.My woman and I are getting married, and she is, like, totally freaking out about the wedding.”
Cyrus looked to the dude and saw he was having trouble controlling his temper.Now that he was closer, he saw the young woman was trembling.What was more, he saw the bruises on her arms they couldn’t hide, as they didn’t think to choose a longer shirt for her to wear.It was clear they were shopping for this very reason.
“I’m Cyrus Tistleton,” he said, holding out his hand.“Welcome to Lost Creek.I’ve not seen you folks around here.You want to tell me—”
“Look, man, I get that you’re sorry for bumping into us and everything, but you can go.It’s all good.”
Behind the mystery man, he saw Daniel approaching, as well as Hank, Old Sheriff Billy, and this made him smile.
“Are you okay?”Cyrus asked, completely ignoring the man.
The girl looked at him with wide terrified eyes.
“You don’t have to be afraid,” Cyrus said.“He’s not going to hurt you anymore.”
“Dude, I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about, but if you don’t step away from her, I’m going to—”
He didn’t get to finish.The man had reached into his pocket, and Cyrus didn’t care if he was going for a cell phone, a damn piece of candy, a gun, or even a fucking knife.He grabbed the man’s wrist and quickly spun his arm behind his back, locking it in place.
