Series: Straight to Hell MC Series by Sam Crescent
Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Grace walked over with the gun he kept in the glove box.
“He said you get to live,” Grace said, passing Reaper the gun, then bending over to take the judge’s weapon away.
He couldn’t have been prouder of her in that moment. But he felt dizzy. The adrenaline had been keeping him going, but he knew this was the final show. His vision was blurry, his legs giving out. He wobbled.
“Reaper!” Grace ran up to him, holding his large frame with her much smaller one.
He sat back down against the barn. “Check on her,” he said.
Grace was crying and not moving away. He didn’t want her to watch him die.
“Baby, look at me. I’m not going anywhere. Go check on her.”
He knew he was lying, even though he’d promised her otherwise.
Once she’d left to check on Phoebe, that asshole turned to him, still clutching his leg.
“She just shot a judge. Do you have any idea what happens now?” He chuckled through the pain.
Reaper had to get to Grace, to tell her to contact Lord. He didn’t want any of this heat coming down on her once he was gone. He struggled to his feet, walking away toward the car, but he couldn’t fucking make it.
Grace saw him and rushed over, helping lower him down to the grass.
“Where’s the bleeding?” she said. “You’re pale. You’re shaking.” Tears were tracing down her cheeks. “You’re so cold. Reaper, you can’t die on me!” She was sobbing like a baby, frantically trying to get his shirt off to find the wound.
He grabbed her wrist. “Stop, Grace.”
“No!” She dropped down on the grass beside him, holding onto him and crying against his shoulder.
“Knew you were trouble the second I saw you at the shelter,” he said, his voice growing weaker.
“Shut up,” she said, through her sobs.
“Bossy. There’s my girl.”
His eyes drifted closed. He could barely keep awake at this point.
“Please. I can’t do this without you, Reaper. Please don’t leave me. You’re all I have.”
“You’re strong, Grace. Look what you just did.”
She shook her head. “I love you, Reaper. I want to have a family with you. I want to have pie with you at the diner.” Grace was struggling to speak through her emotions. “You’re not allowed to die. Do you hear me?” She shook him when he nodded off.
“I’m still here, baby.”
Then he heard it. The most beautiful sound in the world. The engines rumbling toward them.
Next thing he heard as he drifted in and out was Brick’s voice. “Jesus Christ, brother.”
“Took you fuckers long enough.”
“Traffic.”
They both chuckled, but it hurt.
“Take care of Grace,” Reaper mumbled. “Lord has her contract...”
“You’re going to be fine, big boy. I don’t want to hear that shit. Get him up,” Brick said.
Strong arms were hoisting him up and he felt like he was floating. Lord was there. At the center of it all.
“Do you know who the fuck I am?” Cartwright said.
“Yeah,” Lord said.
“I’m a superior court judge, and your men killed police officers.”
Lord glanced over at the dead cops. “Those weren’t cops.” He bent down beside the judge. “Badges don’t make men good. Same way a robe didn’t make you one.”
“You have no idea what kind of people I know!”
“Funny. They don’t seem to be coming,” Lord said.
Reaper’s vision was going in and out.
“Go ahead. Kill me, then. That’s what your kind does, doesn’t it?”
“Dead judge. Dead cops. Bunch of outlaw bikers standing around.” He nods. “Makes a pretty fucking story,” Lord said. “Problem is that’s not the story you’re getting.”
“I destroyed the drive. You have nothing on me.”
Lord laughed, standing back up. “The second that drive hit my tech guy’s hands, it stopped being the only copy.”
“Kill me!”
“No. You get to watch your whole fucking world burn,” Lord said. “And if my brother dies, prison is going to be the safest place you’ll ever live.”
Reaper couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore.
He heard Grace’s beautiful voice. “He’s going to be okay, right?”
Reaper heard voices all around him.
“Don’t fucking do this, brother,” said Stump. “You hear me? Your woman’s right fucking there. You don’t leave her like this.”
“Get him to the car!”
Reaper felt her hand around his. “Please stay with me.”
He tried. Fuck, he tried. He’d fought his entire goddamn life. Fought men. Bullets. Death itself more times than he cared to count. But he’d never had as much to live for as he did now. Reaper wanted to tell her he loved her, but his mouth wasn’t working. He was slipping away, faster and faster.
Then the darkness took over.
Chapter Eighteen
Three Months Later
Grace looked up with a smile as Phoebe entered the coffee shop. The news was playing, and once again, reports of Franklin Cartright and all his dirty deeds had been aired out to display.
When Cartright thought he’d destroyed the only copy of the flash drive, it had already been copied and later uploaded onto the Internet to every major news station. Everyone saw the dirty judge for what he was. Mayors fell, governors, cops, businessmen. There was so much fallout, that the Straight to Hell MC didn’t even matter. The club stayed out of danger.