Page 9 of A Reaper's Devotion
“What now?”Cyrus asked.
He had the man on his knees, and there was no escape for him.
“I can’t seem to hear you.”
He applied a little pressure, the man let out a scream, and he sighed.“You see, that is a good sound.That is always a good sound.Now, sweetheart, this man is not going to hurt you, you see, you entered the town of Lost Creek.The strangest thing about Lost Creek, is, well, we don’t like bad guys.We fucking hate them.They’re pieces of shit, and from the signal you were giving us, you need our help.”
She nodded her head, and with the other Reapers here, the matter was taken care of, as she literally broke down.Her name was Lillian.She was seventeen years old and had to stay behind after school to do some studying.She is from a different small town, about six hours away.The man Cyrus held in a tight grip had stopped her to ask for directions.The next thing she knows, she wakes up in a hotel room.
They found out that other than beating her, he’d not raped her.She was lucky Willow had noticed that sign.
Within the next hour, they had Lillian safe and waiting for her parents to come and pick her up, along with the cops.They had reported her missing the moment she didn’t arrive home from school.As for their boy, the identity in his wallet named him as Luke Smith.He didn’t for a second believe it was real.Luke looked pissed, as his ass was thrown into a cell.
Cyrus looked at him, and just on principle, he fucking hated him.They needed to find everything out about him before they could take care of him.There was no way they would allow him to walk free.
He stepped out of the sheriff’s office and into the sunshine.It had been a couple of hours since he saw Willow, and he just knew the coffee was going to be cold.
“Good catch,” Daniel said.
The leader of the Reapers was waiting for him outside.
“Do we know anything about our little captive?”he asked.
“Nothing.The dude is being completely silent,” Daniel said.
Cyrus shook his head.“Willow caught it.She recognized the help signal the woman was giving.”
“Help signal?”
“Yeah, you know the one.”Cyrus spun around, put his hand at the base of his back, and then opened and closed his fist.“I mean, I don’t think it has to be this way, it can be just holding your hand out and doing it.That kind of thing.”
“I did not fucking know that,” Daniel said.“Tell her that was a good catch.”
“Will do.”He looked toward the cells.“Do you think we should be worried?”
“They had no destination set on the car.We’ve got his cell phone, and we’ve already hacked into it.He’s got no calls from anyone in the last forty-eight hours.I don’t think he works for anyone.”
“So, nothing to worry about?”Cyrus asked.
Lost Creek seemed to be a magnet for fucking trouble.Cyrus was always waiting for problems to escalate.His parents had warned him that shit could evolve quickly if he wasn’t careful, and that was why he kept his feet firmly on the ground and took every incident seriously.
He didn’t want to lose the town.He couldn’t remember what it was like prior to the Reapers taking the town, but he certainly knew what it was like now.Being able to protect that girl today was an absolute necessity.
“We’ll see,” Daniel said.“For now, all we’ve got to do is wait.”
With that, Cyrus said his goodbyes and made his way over to the building where Willow would still be hard at work.He was tempted to go and get more coffee, or at least a cinnamon roll, if Willow had eaten the two.
Entering the secure room, he saw Willow was on her feet, and she moved toward him.
“Thank God,” she said, and threw her arms around him.“It was real, wasn’t it?That wasn’t just some test you guys had given me.That was likerealreal?”
He wrapped his arms around her and couldn’t resist putting his face against her neck and breathing her in.She smelled like vanilla.It was a scent he really enjoyed.Cyrus had waited a long time to hold her in his arms.
This seemed surreal to him.He’d waited a long time—too freaking long—and just holding her, he knew he wasn’t going to waste any time in claiming her as his own.
****
“You didn’t eat them?”Cyrus asked.
