Page 14 of Reaper
Shaking my head, I reply, “There’s no way I can relax. I’ll help.”
“So, what makes you think they were hired?” Craig asks after a few minutes.
“I don’t know,” I say with a shrug. “Just the way he talked about money, I guess.”
“Any reason to believe someonewouldhave hired them? Any enemies?”
“Not that I can think of.”
That’s not entirely true. Jason is likely pretty pissed at me right now for not giving him money, but he wouldn’t do something so stupid. Especially because he knows the twins are here sometimes.
“What about Barry? Anyone not like him?”
A very unladylike snort escapes. “Barry is, uh, an acquired taste. He can be a dick, but nothing that would provoke… this,” I say, sweeping my hand to indicate the destruction.
“Then we’re back to square one,” one of the other men says as he steps up to me and stretches to shake my hand. “Name’s Inferno.”
I dart my eyes from Craig—Reaper— to Inferno and back again. “Inferno and Reaper. Those are odd nicknames. Next you’re gonna tell me that they’re Volcano, Hurricane, Tornado, and God,” I say with a nervous chuckle.
“Nope. They’re Viking, Acid, Demo, and Grump,” Inferno replies with a grin.
“And they’re road names,” Reaper adds, pointing to his leather vest. “We’re in a motorcycle club.”
“Like that show?”
Reaper’s forehead wrinkles. “Show?”
“Yeah, um…” I snap my fingers as I try to come up with the name. “Oh, um… Sons of Anarchy.”
“Right. Yeah. Like that.”
A thought occurs to me, and I take a step back. “If that’s true, then it could’ve been you that set this all up.”
Reaper narrows his eyes, and I swear there’s a hint of hurt in the green depths. “Because we’d never do something like this to someone like you.”
“Someone like me?”
“Brother, you’re fucking this up,” the one known as Viking says as he joins us. He turns his attention to me and smiles. “We had nothing to do with what happened here. Right time, right place. That’s it.”
Too tired to argue and reminding myself that theydidsave me and my business, I simply nod. “Okay. Well, thanks. I’m glad you showed up when you did.”
“If you really wanna thank us, we could use some grub.”
I laugh nervously and lean the broom in my hand against the counter. “I think I can handle that. Burgers and fries work for all of you?”
“Sounds great,” Reaper says.
I head into the kitchen and get to work. Fortunately, there’s no damage back here. It’d cost me a fortune to replace kitchen equipment. As it stands, I have no clue how I’m going to repair what was done in the dining area, not to mention get the blood stains off the floor behind the counter.
Life just keeps getting better and better.
9
Reaper
“Well, that was… interesting.”
I shove my keys in my pocket and flop onto the couch. We were at the diner for hours, and while we could’ve been there longer, it was clear that Kyra was exhausted. Not only that, but she had to pick up her kids and get them home so they could get a good night’s sleep.
