Page 52 of Reaper Razed

He pushes some keys into my hand. “Fourth one down.” He nods. “It’s ours if you want. It just needs doing up a little.”

“Really?”

“Really, love.”

I run off towards the cabin, and a boisterous laugh follows me as I glance over my shoulder. Tank is chasing after me. Getting to the door, I unlock it, and as I swing the door open, I’m swept off my feet and carried in through it. Resting me down and sliding his arms around me, cupping my stomach with both hands and resting his chin on my head, which seems to be his new favourite position, I grin up at him. “This is ours?”

“If you want it.” He takes my hand and leads me through the open-plan kitchen, diner, and living room. There are three doors on the side wall. The first and last are bedrooms, and the middle is a large bathroom. The back bedroom has patio doors leading out to a deck, and Tank points out a mezzanine level above the bedrooms. “I thought I could make that space into an art studio for us. We’ll need to secure a yard with Bean coming soon, but what do you think?”

“Bean.” I laugh and shake my head. Ever since that day at the clinic, he’s called the baby Bean, poor kid. “I love it!” I turn and face him. “I love you!”

His eyes widen slightly, and he grins the biggest shit-eating grin I’ve ever seen on his face and pulls me to his chest. “I love you too! I can’t wait to marry you and start this family.”

“What’s your name?” I ask as it just occurs to me that I don’t even know it.

He looks away like he’s embarrassed. “Thomas, Thomas Pershing.”

I cock a brow at him, “That’s where the name Tank comes from, as in Thomas the Tank Engine. I thought it was because of your size?”

He bursts out laughing, then when my face scrunches in concern, he stops. “Oh, you’re serious?”

I slide my arms across my chest and glare at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“My name’s Pershing, as in the make of a tank.” He grins at me.

“Ooooh.” I did not know that was a thing.

He squeezes me back to his chest. “I think the Thomas the Tank Engine thing is cuter.” He smiles and drops a chaste kiss on my forehead, and I gaze up into his eyes.

“It's a family tradition that all the men’s names begin with a T. I’m Thomas after my grandpa, and my dad was Trevor, my great grandpa was Theodor and before him was Trenton.”

“I like that. We’re gonna be happy, aren’t we?” I question, a moment of reality hitting me like a baseball bat to the face.

Sensing my unrest, he says, “I promise to try to make you as happy every day as you’ve made me, allowing me to be this child’s father.” A sad smile forms across his face. “I don’t have any family left, and I can’t… have children of my own.” He looks away as if ashamed. “I should have told you that before. I understand if that changes everything, not being able to have more children.”

“Honestly, I didn’t intend on keeping this one. Just the panic that I might lose him at the clinic and your excitement made me excited, so I will accept our little miracle boy and be more than happy with our life.”

I cup his face and kiss him with all the emotion I’m feeling, all the love, the hope, the excitement and most of all, the contentment that this man has brought to my life over the last week. Hell, is that all it’s been? I carry on kissing him like my life depends on it until my stomach growls, and he laughs.

“Come on, gotta keep Mama's strength up! Let’s get you fed.” He kisses my head and leads me out of the cabin. Locking it up, we head straight across the field back to the apartment.

Steel

I’m in the bar after a long day helping Demi get the coffee shop sorted. It's been over a week and a half since Ray went, and we’ve heard nothing. I’m barely able to focus, but Demi thinks Bran and Bernie are at a fucking gun show, of all things. She has no idea, so me and the boys are getting the coffee shop fitted out. We just need a lick of paint and the furniture, and she’s good to open. We’ve been pulling long days trying to distract us from the fact they’re all missing. Cade, too.

“Steel, fuck!” Dice comes skidding into the bar. “There’s movement at the airfield.”

Standing so fast that my stool flies across the room, I pull out my phone and send everyone a text. As I take off after him, he’s had a search running in the background, looking for any of the vehicles within a twenty-mile radius from the centre of where we lost Dane’s truck to where we picked up the armoured truck. We went back to the airfield and left a load of motion detector cameras. It’s one of those that’s been tripped.

“It tripped while I was in the shower, so we’re about twenty minutes behind,” he says as he flicks through the images on the screens. “This is live, but it’s all recorded, so we can go back and watch it all.”

As we scan the video, we decide to start at the beginning. We’re already behind them, and the airfield is over an hour away. So we wait, and we watch.

The plane is what trips the camera as it taxis towards the hangar. Three people get off the plane, and one of their legs gives out as they get to the bottom. They drop to their knees, down onto all fours. Another one comes up and places a hand on their back, and they shake their head but rise up. They head around the plane and pull out all the equipment from the cargo hold. Next, they pull a body bag out and lay it on the floor, then return and pull another out.

We’re all crammed in this room again: me, Dice, Tank, Priest, Blade, Ares, Scar and Viking, who only just got back from Carmen’s last night. Dozer is on his way and should be here any minute. We all hold our breath. “Can we get a closer look? Who’s in the bags? Fuck!” I yell, grasping and pulling at my hair as I kick the door just as it starts to open.

“Motherfucker!” Dozer shouts out from the other side of the door.

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