“You’re going to love this. I haven’t been able to touch a woman, or man, since I was released. Do you enjoy knowing that?”
“No,” Lisa whimpered when he hit the table with the gun.
“Don’t fucking lie! If I wasn’t sitting here with a gun on you, you would be laughing your fucking heads off like you were upstairs!”
“Please, just leave. We won’t say anything, I swear. You can see we’re terrified—”
“Don’t know, don’t care,” he mocked, hatred and fury boiling over until the rage almost took over. “I need a drink. How about you? Where are your manners?” Reaper moved the gun so that it was pointing at Dalt. “I could use something to drink. Dalt looks like he could use something to wash his steak down.” Standing up, Reaper glowered down at them. “I’ll just make myself at home and find us something. I’m trusting that you two won’t move … I’ll be right back.”
Leaving the gun on the table, he went to the kitchen where he took his time grabbing three bottles out of the refrigerator. Coming back to the dining room, he saw the Wests standing in front of the door, blocked by Viper.
“Ah, I see they moved. I was right. Viper thought you would be too scared to run. Bats always fly away when their exposed.”
“Move out of our way!” Dalt screamed, pointing the gun that Reaper had left on the table.
Setting the bottles of water on the table, Reaper walked toward Dalt, who started pulling the trigger.
Reaper snatched the gun out of his hand. “Do you think I’m fucking stupid enough to leave a loaded gun within your reach? Or slam it down on a table?” Reaper grabbed Dalt by the back of his shirt and threw him toward the table. “Go sit your ass down.”
When Lisa opened her mouth to scream out the opened front door, Reaper reached behind his back for his other gun. Giving the unloaded gun to Viper, Reaper pointed the other gun at Lisa. “That gun may be unloaded, but this one isn’t. I’m seriously advising you to go sit down. And if you scream, and I really wish you would, I’m going to play target practice with your fucking tonsils.”
As Lisa went back to the table, Reaper gave a curt nod to Viper to shut the door.
Resuming his seat at the table, he took a bottle of water, unscrewing the top. “The only thing I could find to drink was Perrier. You two are boring as fuck. At every town committee, pretending to live with high and mighty standards so you can look down your nose on everyone else. Wouldn’t they laugh their asses off now if they knew you got your rocks off pretending to be vampires?” Reaper took a drink of the water, then screwed the top back on. “I’d think it was funny as hell, too, if I hadn’t been your teething toy twenty-six times.”
Pointing the gun at Dalt, Reaper hooked his finger around the trigger. “Do you have any conception of how badly I want to knock every single tooth out of your head and shove them up your ass one by one?”
Seeing certain death in Reaper’s eyes, Dalt began crying. “Yes.”
Pointing the gun at Lisa, his finger curled tighter around the trigger. “It makes me sick to my fucking stomach that you were a foster mother. Not one but two children were placed in your care. The only reason I’m not shoving the computer down your fucking throat is because we didn’t find any pictures or tapes of children.
“You’re as cunning as the fucking devil. You knew children grow up and talk, and you were smart enough to protect your reputation not to go there. Or are children too helpless for you phony bloodsuckers? It’s no fun to break someone helpless. No, that didn’t make you feel powerful. You needed a grown man for that. Congratulations, you helped Slate break me.”
Unscrewing the water, he took another drink, then closed it. He stood, maintaining a safe distance from the two at the table. “Viper will be getting worried that I’ve been talking so long. I need to go and put him out of his misery.”
Their expressions mirrored their shock.
“That’s it? You’re not going to kill us?”
Reaper turned back toward them, his long jacket brushing a delicate chair meant more for decoration than for sitting. “I said what I wanted to say. I’m good.”
“You’re going to let The Last Riders inside to let them have us, aren’t you?”
“No. They’ll leave with me.”
Lisa gave a sob of relief. Dalt, on the other hand, knew it was too good to be true.
“You’re going to tell everyone in town what we did.”
“No. When I leave here, I’m not going to think of you ever again.”
Walking to the door, Reaper turned the handle.
“I can’t believe you’re going to let us live.”
Reaper heard the beginning of hope enter his voice.
“You must have misunderstood me. I never said I was going to let you live.”
“Please don’t. I’m begging you ….”
Reaper closed himself off to Lisa’s and Dalt’s pleas.
“You’re going to make us suffer, aren’t you? You’re going to make us go through the humiliation of Knox arresting us, then have us killed? Fuck you! Tell me, how long do we have? A day? A year? Nine years?”
Reaper raised the sleeve of his jacket to look at his brand-new Rolex. “You’re already gone.”
Straddling his motorcycle, Reaper stared at the picture-perfect home, the perfectly manicured lawn, the shrubs placed evenly apart. Fuck, even the mailbox outshined everyone else’s in the neighborhood. The only thing spoiling the picture was the sound of a chainsaw breaking the peaceful atmosphere of the neighborhood.
“You think they’ll call the state police?”
“No. They’d rather die than take the chance of ruining their reputation.”
“What do you think they’ll do, then?”
“I think they’ll try to get the fuck out of dodge.”
Less than two minutes later, the Andrews’ garage door opened and a car backed out. Reaper let the back wheels hit the pavement of the road before lifting his cell phone to text Cash. A loud crash sounded a second before a gigantic tree toppled over, crashing down on top of the car.
“You think they’re still alive?” Viper asked not making any move to get off his motorcycle to go check.
Neither did he. Reaper stared at the expensive car smashed into the size of a pancake.
“No. A stake kills a vampire every fucking time.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Striding through the lobby of the church, Reaper gave a brief knock on Lucky’s door. Viper had wanted him to return to the club after leaving the Wests’, but he needed to get a fresh perspective on Ginny’s stalker.
“Come in.”
“You have a few?”
“More than a few. I could use a break. With Willa and the kids staying at Viper and Winter’s, I don’t have anything else to do but catch up on church paperwork and write sermons. I’m good until next year.” Lucky placed his ink pen down on his desk right as his cell phone dinged.
“Excuse me for a second,” Lucky said as he replied to the text. “Sorry. I’m having a new gate installed on the children’s play area. Ginny talked her brothers into making a donation. So, what can I do for you?”