“I know—”
Reaper struck out again, hitting Crash and doubling him over. “Shut the fuck up!”
Crash stiffened his spine until he stood straight again. “I did what I could. That’s why they kept you alive so long.”
“Thanks for looking out for me.” Filled with scorn, Reaper moved closer to Crash, wrapping an arm around his neck before Crash could react. “I’m going to do what I wished someone had done for me the first month Memphis and you left me to rot in the Road Demons’ basement.” Reaper twisted Crash’s neck unnaturally until he heard the satisfying snap.
Tossing away the man who he had once called brother, he saw the disappointment on all The Last Riders’ faces, each had been waiting for his turn.
“You were supposed to save some for the rest of us,” Viper said as he bent down to take Crash’s pulse.
Staring down at the dead body of a man wasn’t hard for him, because Reaper had been on the receiving end of Crash’s treachery. The others hadn’t. In fifteen or twenty years, would they regret taking part in Crash’s punishment? Either way, Reaper took the regret out of the equation and placed it right where it belonged. On him.
The Reaper didn’t have a conscience, not anymore. By the time he was finished with everyone who had taken part in his captivity, it wouldn’t be the only blood on his hands.
* * *
Turning off the elliptical, he stepped off it to pick up his work-out towel. Wiping the sweat off his face, he slid the towel down his neck to his chest.
“You need some help with that?” Jewell asked, rising from the work-out bench.
Reaper froze in place. Jewell had belonged to the club before his engagement to Taylor. Sexually, she had been up for anything back then, and she still was. Reaper watched her and the other brothers numerous times since he started living in the club.
After a few months, most of the women had made sexual overtures on him, but he ignored them or left the room.
“I’m good,” he said, heading toward the steps that would take him upstairs, planning to take a shower.
“I can go slow, just to let you take the edge off, or just give you someone to talk to,” she said, coming around to block him from leaving when he stopped to listen to her. Taking each end of the towel, she lifted her eyes that were filled with compassion. “I can be anything you want,” she offered.
He grabbed her wrists, pulling her hands away from him. He felt as if his skin were crawling, and she wasn’t even touching his flesh. “When I need something, I’ll let you know.”
Stepping around her, he jogged up the steps. Coming into the kitchen, he saw Shade standing in front of the fridge with a glass at the ice dispenser.
“What’s up?” he asked when Reaper would have left without saying anything.
“Nothing. Going to take a shower,” he said curtly, aware that Jewell had come out of the basement behind him.
Shade’s eyes flicked from his expression, then to Jewell’s unhappy one before he pressed the ice lever for more ice. “Jewell, do you have that report I asked you for?”
Reaper used the opportunity to leave the kitchen as Jewell answered Shade’s question.
Going through the living room and up the flight of steps, he rushed toward his bedroom, shutting and locking his door behind him as rivers of sweat ran down his back. Even with the door locked and bolted, he shoved the desk in front of it.
“Fuck!” he groaned, bolting into the attached bathroom where he jerked his shorts off to get in the shower. Picking up the soap and sponge, he washed each inch of his body. It wasn’t her touch that he was washing away; it was the filth that clung to his skin no matter how much he tried to wash it away.
Thirty minutes later, he stepped out of the shower.
After dressing in a T-shirt and jeans, he moved the desk back, deciding to go downstairs to get something to eat. Slicking his damp hair back with his hands, he unlocked the door.
The Last Riders were just beginning to line up at the counter where the food was laid out. Getting in line behind Lily and Beth, he grabbed a plate when they reached the counter. Willa and Stori were working to keep the food platters filled as soon as they emptied.
“I heard that Penni and her friends were coming for a visit.” Smiling, Willa pushed the ketchup forward as Lily reached for it.
“How’d you find out? They just told me about two minutes ago.”
“Lucky just came through the line. He warned me that he’s getting another tattoo.”
Uninterested, Reaper picked up two rolls and enough butter for four.
“Colton always texts the men when he’s coming to set up appointments for them. The last time he ran out of time to do Lucky’s,” Willa explained, “he promised him he could go first this time.”