Devil's Game (Reapers MC #3) (10 page)

“Don’t say shit like that, bro.”

Skid laughed.

“My bad. You’re fuckin’ great at whatever it is you do for Burke,” he said. “Probably fetching coffee, delivering flowers. Shit like that. But a regular job? You’d be fucked, man. It is what it is.”

“Sometimes I hate this.”

“Yeah, me, too. But you know what? Sometimes it fuckin’ kicks ass, so let’s focus on getting through the next day or two. Then we’ll head back home and get you laid. She’s not the only pussy in the world.”

“Don’t talk about her like that.”

Skid snorted.

“Fuckin’ pussy.”

“I said don’t talk about her like that.”

“I
was talkin’ about you, asshole. Biggest damned pussy in the house.”

This time I decided tackling him was worth the effort.

I refused to speak when Hunter finally returned, focusing my gaze exactly two inches above his right shoulder. After a few minutes of one-sided conversation, he gave a frustrated sigh and walked me over to Sophie’s room.

She’d been cuffed to a bed just like me, and even in sleep she looked as rough as I felt. Shit. I hoped to hell Skid hadn’t decided to teach her the same kind of “lesson” Liam gave me.

“You okay?” I asked, sitting down on the side of the bed. She opened her eyes slowly, face twisting.

“I need the bathroom,” she whispered.

I looked over at Liam—no,
Hunter
. I needed to remember that. Liam was the imaginary nice guy. Hunter was the giant douche who’d taken dirty pictures of me.

“Can she go to the fucking bathroom?” I asked, not bothering to hide my hatred.

“Yeah,” he replied, his face blank. He walked toward us and I scooted out of the way, glaring at him while he unlocked Sophie’s cuffed arm. “C’mon. Both of you.”

I grabbed Sophie’s hand and pulled her across the hallway and into the bathroom.

“I can’t believe how stupid I was,” I told her, feeling sick. “I actually invited him to come and meet me. I made it so easy.
Idiot.
”

Sophie used the toilet and then washed up, cupping her hands to get a drink. She seemed so quiet, so subdued. I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t more pissed. Hell, she
should
be pissed—at
me
. I got her into this shit.

“Do
you have any idea what’s going to happen to us?” she asked. “Skid scares the crap out of me.”

“Did he hurt you?” I demanded, feeling my blood pressure rise.

“No.”

“That’s good,” I muttered. “This is a pretty fucked-up situation. Toke—he’s the one who cut me at the party—he’s gone off his rocker. This shooting thing makes no sense to me at all, but if it really happened, we’re screwed. Nobody knows where Toke is, not even Deke, and he’s Toke’s president. They’ve all been looking for him since the party. Cutting me was not okay, and Dad wants to make sure he pays for it.”

“Shit,” she said, eyes wide. “So your dad couldn’t give them this Toke guy, even if he wanted to?”

“I don’t think so,” I said slowly, wishing I could fix things—for her, if not for me. Hell, Sophie was a mother. What would her little boy do without her? “I mean, he’s really protective of me. When Toke hurt me like that, Dad lost it. If Dad could find him, he’d be found already. We’re pretty fucked here, Sophie.”

“Do you think they’ll hurt us?” she asked, her face pale.

I thought about my answer carefully. I didn’t want to freak her out, but I wanted to be honest.

“Liam won’t,” I said, and for some reason I believed it. Maybe because he hadn’t raped me? “I mean, he won’t hurt me. I don’t think he’ll hurt you, either.”

She cocked her head at me.

“You do realize he was lying all along, right?” she asked. “Just because you liked him doesn’t mean you can trust him.”

I almost started laughing, because that was rich.

“Oh, I know that. Believe me, I’m well aware that I’m the fuckwit that got us into this.”

“You’re not a fuckwit,” she said forcefully. “He’s a liar and he’s good at it. Not your fault that he targeted you.”

“You guys okay in there?” Hunter called through the door.

“We’re
fine,” I snapped. “Give us a fucking minute, asshole!”

Christ, I wanted to kill him.

Sophie’s eyes widened.

“That was pretty bitchy,” she hissed. “Do you think that’s smart? Maybe I’m reading the situation wrong here, but don’t we want him in a good mood?”

I snorted, thinking about those pictures.

Hunter was such a prick.

“Fuck that. I’m a Reaper and I’ll be damned if I’ll suck up to some Devil’s Jack dickwad.”

“Well, I’m not a Reaper,” Sophie said, her voice quiet but hard. I looked at her, startled—this was the first real emotion she’d shown. “And I’d just as soon not die here and leave Noah an orphan, so don’t piss him off.”

That took the wind out of me. Shit, I needed to be
thinking
. I knew it was up to me to get us out of this, and to pull it off I’d need to use my head. Damn. We finished up and left the bathroom. Hunter jerked his head toward Sophie’s bedroom. It took everything I had to obey him quietly, but I kept picturing Sophie’s boy and reminded myself I had to be smart about this.

“Go lie down on the bed.”

We did what he said. Thankfully, he only cuffed one hand each, which was far more comfortable than having both stuck up over my head. I tried to ignore him as he leaned over me, tracing a finger across my cheek.

“I’ll bring you some food,” he murmured.

“I’m gonna buy a bright red dress to wear to your funeral,
Liam
,” I hissed. Shit. I needed to control my tongue …

“Yeah?” he asked. “Make sure it’s short and shows off your tits.”

“I hate you.”

“Keep tellin’ yourself that,” he muttered, then walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

I
closed my eyes, trying to picture a dress bright and slutty enough to send just the right message as I stood over his coffin. Sophie cleared her throat.

“Don’t worry,” I muttered. “We’ll find our way out of this. We’ll escape somehow. Either that or the guys will find us.”

I wondered if she believed me.

Probably not. I didn’t even believe myself.

I slapped together two peanut butter sandwiches, feeling strangely guilty because Skid and I had killed all six pizza pockets between us while we played Halo.

That left sandwiches and stale potato chips for the girls.

Why I gave a shit about what Em ate, I didn’t know. This wasn’t me—I didn’t worry about women, or take care of them. Feed them. Okay, so I kept an eye on my sister, but she didn’t count. I grabbed a couple handfuls of chips and dropped them on the paper plates next to the sandwiches, then tucked two bottles of water under my arm. Em was so not getting an energy drink. Fuck. Like I needed her more riled up …

When I entered the upstairs room, I felt like an even bigger dick because they were obviously hungry.

“You’ve got ten minutes,” I said, unlocking their cuffs. I frowned at Em, then pulled out a chair from the desk, spinning it around to straddle it. Both girls ignored me pointedly, tearing into the food like starving prisoners.

Then
again, I guess they were.

“In a minute we’re going to call your dad,” I said. “Let him know you’re alive, and find out if he’s made any progress.”

No response. My mood grew darker as they finished their food, Em still refusing to look at me.

“Lie down again.”

I cuffed Sophie first, then walked around to Em. I leaned over, then felt something touch my back. Fuck, were there spiders in here?

Sophie shrieked and spat a mouthful of blood at me.
The fuck?!

“Jesus Christ!” I yelled, because I shit you not.

Bitch. Spat. Blood.

“Oh my God, are you all right?” Em screeched at Sophie, nearly taking out my eardrums in the process. “Hunter, you need to get her to a doctor!”

What was going on here? Blood and spit ran down Sophie’s chin, confusing the hell out of me. Her eyes were bright with some kind of emotion I couldn’t read. Something was off with this situation in a big way. Blood doesn’t just shoot out of people.

“I’m tho thorry,” she mumbled. “I bith my tongue and ith thcared me.”

I looked down at my arm again, which was covered with red spray. Just what I needed.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” I muttered. “What the fuck’s wrong with you? Shit, you got any diseases?”

“No, I don’t hath any ditheatheth,” Sophie mumbled, her tongue getting in the way. Then she seemed to bite it again. “Owth!”

Good. I hoped the damned thing fell off.

“Drive me fuckin’ crazy. I’ll get you a piece of ice to suck on. Jesus, that’s fucking disgusting.”

I left the room, slamming the door behind me.

What next?

Five
minutes later, I scrubbed the blood and spit off my arm while frowning at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. Sophie and Em were up to something. I wasn’t sure what. Not that it really mattered … It was pretty clear to me by now that I was looking at a complete clusterfuck.

I’d broken Em, or at least I’d tried to. I’d terrorized Sophie, who hadn’t done shit to deserve it. We weren’t any closer to getting Clutch back, and Burke was fucked when it came to the election if we didn’t put a lid on things.

In a few minutes I’d be calling Picnic Hayes. I wasn’t sure if I’d be meeting with him to talk business or facing my own execution.

Good times.

I walked down to the kitchen and dug through the freezer, finding an ice cube. Then I wrapped it in a napkin and took it back upstairs, along with a disposable cell phone. I handed Sophie the ice, which she popped into her mouth.

“We’re going to call your dad again,” I told Em. “I’ll let you talk to him for a minute, then I’ll see where the situation’s headed.”

“What about Sophie?” she demanded. “Ruger will want to talk to her.”

“Ruger can fuck himself,” I said impatiently.

“Pleathe?” Sophie whined, reddish drool sliding down her chin, making her look like a zombie. I don’t think she could’ve looked more disgusting and pathetic if she’d had a full Hollywood makeup team. “My boy—Noah—he’th got a prethcription he needth. Ruger doethn’t know where it ith. Let me talk to him for two minuteth. Pleathe.”

I studied her, then took a quick look at Em. Both seemed way too eager.

“You’re full of shit,” I said.

“You want a seven-year-old kid to die?” Em asked, glaring at me. “Not enough to kill two women, now you’re gonna take out a little boy, too? You’re a hell of a man, Liam.”

Jesus
Christ. Take a few pictures of the girl naked and covered in fresh come, and she went full bitch.

“Do you never shut up?” I asked. Fucking woman was determined to drive me insane. Still, I considered the request … It probably didn’t matter. Let Sophie call Ruger—maybe it’d quiet her down. If it gave me two minutes of blood-free peace, that’d be worth the cost of admission right there.

I popped open the phone and hit the number, setting it on speaker. We listened as it rang, and then Ruger answered.

“Yeah?” he asked, his voice tight.

“It’s Thophie,” Sophie said, her swollen tongue twisting the words. “I’m here with Hunter and Em, they’re lithening.”

I snapped the phone shut, annoyed. Should I really be surprised she’d try and warn him I was here? Probably not, but I wouldn’t let her get away with it, either.

“No fucking games,” I growled. “You’re done.”

Sophie nodded and put the ice back in her mouth. So much for her desperate need to talk to Ruger about medicine for the kid. There was a lot more going on here than I could follow.

Bullshit all the way.

I glanced over at Em, who was still glaring at me. So far as I could tell, she only had the one expression at this point. I don’t know why it bothered me so much. I wanted her to hate me, right?

“Calling your dad now,” I told her. “Be a good girl, Emmy Lou—or did you need another lesson?”

She flinched and looked away. I smirked at her cruelly, hating myself because I wanted a smile from her so bad. The phone started ringing, and then Hayes’s voice came through the speaker.

“Picnic.”

“Hey, Daddy,” Em said. “We’re okay for now.”

She glanced up at me, an unspoken question in her eyes—would they stay okay?

“What the fuck’s wrong with Sophie?” Picnic asked. “Ruger says she wasn’t talking right.”

“She
bit her tongue,” Em said. “Don’t worry, she’s fine. But you need to get us out of here.”

“We know, baby,” he said, his voice softening. “We’re working on it.”

Very touching.

This guy was definitely gonna kill me. I know I would, in his place. Maybe I should’ve screwed her after all, I thought wryly. If I was going to die over a woman, would be nice to actually collect … I studied Em, whose eyes were suspiciously moist.

Well, fuck.

“That’s enough, girls,” I said, pulling away the phone. I turned and walked out of the room, putting it to my ear.

“Hayes,” I said. “We need to talk.”

“We’re talking,” he said, although I heard restrained fury in his voice.

“Em says you don’t know where this Toke asshole has gone,” I said. “Says he’s on his own. That true? You can’t control your own men, now?”

“It’s complicated,” he replied. “But that’s the essence of it.”

“I don’t buy it. I know Em thinks that’s the case, but sounds like Reaper games to me. You using your own daughter to play me?”

Picnic sighed.

“I wish to hell I had that much control over the situation. We voted to pull Toke’s patch before he grabbed your boy. He’s out bad.”

Shit … Every instinct I had said he was telling the truth.

“I want to save this truce,” I said slowly. “I think you do, too. But that can’t happen until we have our guy back. And it needs to happen today.”

“I want those girls back. Safe. They got fuck-all to do with this.”

“We got ourselves a hell of a problem here,” I muttered. “I want to meet, talk it out in person. You convince me you’re telling the truth, give me something to take to my club. Maybe there’s still a
way out of this. The girls’ll stay with my brother—they’re my safe passage.”

“Where do you want to meet?”

“Spirit Lake,” I told him. “Two this afternoon. And Hayes? You touch me, Sophie and Em are dead. In fact, you better hope I drive careful, because unless Skid sees me in one piece at the end of this, he’ll take it out on them. He’s a mean bastard, doesn’t give a shit that they’re women.”

Silence stretched between us.

“I hear you,” he muttered. “We’ll be there and you’ll walk away safe. For now. Someday you’re gonna pay for this.”

“I’m aware,” I said, and I felt a grin tug at my mouth. “Although I have to admit, you don’t scare me half as much as your daughter does. She’s a tough little bitch, isn’t she?”

More silence.

“Tryin’ to decide how to take that.”

“Take it to mean she’s not afraid to defend herself,” I said, wondering if I’d lost my mind. Burke always said never give out more information than you need to, and he was right. Yet here I was, either bragging on Em or bitching about her. Wasn’t sure which. “You did a good job with her. She made me, right before I grabbed her. Took off running, tough to catch. She’s a fighter.”

“Fuck you,” Picnic said. “I’m gonna kill you.”

“Maybe, but it won’t be today. Not if you want her back. I’ll see you at two. Bring whoever you want, but don’t think you can follow me afterward. If I’m not home on time, Skid will pull the trigger. I’ll leave the target up to him. Until then, make sure you’ve done everything you can to find Toke. There’s more at stake here than you realize. We aren’t careful, we’ll start a war that could destroy both our clubs. The cartel loves shit like this.”

“Fuck you,” he repeated.

I smiled and hung up the phone.

Em’s dad was a tough bastard. As much as I hated to admit it, I kind of liked him.

Shit.

All
other issues aside, being held captive was boring.

I lay in the bed next to Sophie, one hand fastened to the headboard. Thank God for that—no matter what else happened, at least we were together. I felt pretty good about what we’d accomplished during the whole phone call incident. I’d managed to lift Hunter’s Leatherman tool from his pocket while Sophie distracted him by spitting blood. Impressive thinking on her part, because it’d been truly disgusting. Then I’d grabbed his wallet when she called Ruger.

Now I had both items hidden under the mattress, ready and waiting for our escape attempt. I wasn’t sure what use the wallet would be, but the Leatherman was worth its weight in gold. I was almost positive I could use it to pick the locks on our handcuffs.

Lock picking. Another fun hobby Dad had shared with us girls … I also knew how to hot-wire a car, although I only seemed to get it right about half the time.

Naturally, Kit always nailed it on the first try.

Thinking about her almost made me cry. I wanted to see her again so bad …

“When do you want to try our escape?” Sophie asked, her voice a whisper. I started to answer, but before anything came out, the door opened. Hunter walked into the room. He came over and stood next to the bed, studying me. To say the silence was uncomfortable was one hell of an understatement.

“I’m gonna go see your dad in a bit,” he said, holding my eyes. There was something intimate and scary about his gaze … I blushed, and wondered if it all screamed “Guilty!” to poor Sophie. I sure as shit
felt
guilty—it wasn’t enough that my stupidity had brought this down on us. No, I’d all but had sex with the enemy, and I have to be honest. I’d have gone all the way if he’d asked me to.

Might
as well hand him the keys to the Reapers’ clubhouse while I was at it, because that’s how loyal I’m not.

Fuck it. No more.

“Em?” he asked, and I blinked, realizing I’d missed something.

“What?”

“Roll your hand over so I can get to the lock,” he repeated, his voice quiet and firm. “I want to talk to you before I leave.”

I did what he said, shooting Sophie a glance. She bit her lip, obviously scared for me. She really, really didn’t deserve this situation.

“C’mon,” Hunter said, taking my hand and pulling me to my feet. He grasped my upper arm, leading me out the door and across the hallway to his bedroom.

“Have a seat,” he said quietly. The only place to sit was the bed, which held such fond memories.

“I’ll stand.”

“Sit on the fuckin’ bed, Em,” he growled, and I realized he might be quiet right now, but he was anything but peaceful. I sat. Hunter came and crouched down in front of me, hands resting on my knees, face-to-face. I didn’t want him touching me, and it took everything I had not to kick him in the face. I’d already learned, though. No point in attacking unless I had somewhere to go with it.

“I want some information from you,” he said. “I’ve got a meet with your dad in an hour. I need him to tell me the truth about Toke, and I need to make him listen about the truce between the clubs. What can you tell me to make that happen?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked, raising my brows. “You already used me to screw my club. Fool me once, asshole. I have nothing to say. Nada.”

“Babe, I know you believe Toke is out of control,” he said, his eyes earnest, boring into mine. I squirmed, uncomfortable with his intensity. “And I think there’s a pretty good chance your dad is telling the truth when he says that’s the story. But here’s the thing … Right now, only a few guys in my club know what’s happening. We
can keep a lid on it for one more day at most. Once the rest find out, we’re looking at a war and nothing can prevent it.”

“Fuck. You.”

He smirked.

“Later, sweetheart. Now try to keep your mind on business for me like a good girl.”

“Jesus, you’re a perv!”

“Yeah, you’re right about that,” he replied, grinning. Then his smile faded. “I’m gonna fill you in a little on some shit we don’t talk about, okay? That’s how fuckin’ serious this is. There’s two groups in my club. One side—which includes me, Skid, and our brothers in Portland—wants peace with the Reapers. We aren’t too happy with the way things have been these past few years. I hate to admit it, but a lot of the Devil’s Jacks have lost their way. More interested in money and territory than living free and brotherhood. Our national president is weak, babe. The Jacks have been running loose, and it’s time for someone new to take over, clean house. Up until last night, we just about had things lined up to control the next election. Toke fucked that up for us.”