Page 166 of Reaper
“Julie, this is the official copy Python got from the police. I hand delivered it to Reaper. Python hasn’t altered it,” he tells her, but Julie stubbornly raises her chin. He sighs and gives Python a chin lift, indicating to him to start the video.
Julie tries to look away, but I grasp her chin again and make her watch.
She crumples against me when we get to the part where the cameras give a clear picture of Roger clipping Anthony’s bike and sticking his head out the window as he shouts obscenities out the window before he speeds off, clipping another car in the process.
“It wasn’t him, it wasn’t him, it’s fake, it wasn’t him,” she mutters softly as she shakes her head, obviously not wanting to believe Roger purposefully caused the accident.
“How long have you been seeing Roger?” Anthony asks Julie, but she doesn’t seem to hear him as she keeps muttering to herself.
“She started seeing him three months before the accident. They were engaged after a month, and he moved in. Then, a few months later, he pawned off her ring to pay his dealers before smoking and drinking the rest of the money away,” Chris replies for her in a detached voice.
Glancing over at him, my heart breaks at seeing his blank face watching his mother repeatedly deny the truth and it hits me smack in the face.
Three years.
For three years he’s been trapped here with the person who did this to him and trapped with a mother who won’t stand up for her son.
Julie seems to shake herself out of whatever fog she’s in and wrenches her arm out of my hand as she sneers at Anthony.
“Get off my property or I’m calling the police to report you for trespassing and harassment,” she hisses and Chief Riggs sighs.
“I never thought I’d see the day my sweet little Julie, the same Julie that used to follow her older brother around everywhere, could be this blind.” He pauses as he looks between Chris, Anthony, and finally back at Julie. “I just hope that when you finally come back to your senses that your family will forgive you.”
He turns, pats both Anthony and Chris on the shoulder before walking back to his car and drives off. Julie continues to glare at Anthony, but I turn my attention to Chris, determined to help him in any way I can.
“Chris? What do you want to do?”
He blinks, and my heart breaks even more when he seems surprised by my question. That I care about whathewants to do.
“I want to go back to the clubhouse with you and Uncle Reaper.”
Julie’s expression falls but she quickly masks it. “Fine. If you’re going to repay everything I’ve done for you, everything I broke my back to give you, everything I’ve done to take care of you by going and hanging out with these criminals, then fine. Your stuff will be on the curb by morning. You can come and pick it up. Or not.”
She turns to go inside but I snag her arm at the last second, spinning her to face me, but before I can say anything, Chris beats me to it.
“Everythingyoudid and brokeyourback for?” he scoffs and shakes his head. “Ever since Roger came into your life, I’ve been an afterthought. Even after he took my ability to walk away from me. The motorized wheelchairs that Uncle Reaper bought me? One after another, he tampered with them until they finally broke beyond repair. After the second time it happened, I put cameras out and caught him doing it to the third wheelchair Uncle Reaper got me. After that, I told him not to bother and just used a normal wheelchair. I didn’t want him wasting money when Roger was going to ensure it wouldn’t last for long. Same for the chair lift. I got to use it for a year and that was only because I kept fixing it myself when Roger wasn’t home until he broke it so badly it was beyond repair.”
A tremble works through Julie’s arm that I’ve still got a hold of and I glance at her out of the corner of my eye. Shock runs through me at the surprised and stunned expression on her face. Did she seriously not know Roger was pulling all this shit? Or is she so naive that she believes everything he tells her?
“All the money you sent each month, Uncle Reaper? Roger takes almost all of it, leaving us with just enough to pay the bills and fill the fridge a couple of times a month. He takes Mom’s paychecks as well. I’ve had to get a job after school to pay for my clothes and other necessities, though if I’m not careful with them, Roger destroys them when I’m at school. I couldn’t even continue my physical therapy after a few months because of him.”
The lethal stare Anthony pins Julie with has her shrinking back against me, but I’m right along with him in how pissed I am.
“When did you place the cameras, Chris?” he asks him while not breaking eye contact with Julie.
“A couple of months after the accident. For the hard to reach ones, one of my friends came and placed them for me.”
“Are they still recording?”
“Yes, I have them backing up to an external hard drive.”
“And your room? Is it the one on the ground floor that I kitted out for you?”
Julie’s gaze lowers as she swallows thickly, and I know the answer before Chris even speaks up.
“No. Roger declared it his and Mom’s room. The main floor office became his card room and where he does his drug deals. My room and Grandma and Grandpa’s rooms on the second floor, he trashed and basically made them uninhabitable.”
I stare at Chris in shock. Then my blood boils even more. Where the fuck is Chris staying? I know for a fact that the house doesn’t have a basement.
