I nod and let him remove the weapon from my trembling grip.
“Good girl,” Wraith praises. “Are you okay? Can I touch you, sweet girl?”
I nod again, though I still seem to be frozen in place. “I’m sorry,” I squeak out. “There’s blood on your kitchen floor.” I’m not sure why that’s the first thing that came out of my mouth, but it’s true. Blood and a bullet hole. “Oh, and my dad is on your kitchen floor, too.”
With that, I collapse into a pile of tears, held up only by Wraith’s strong, solid arms. He takes off his leather jacket and wraps it around my shoulders, then leads me to the back room. For the first time, I notice broken glass littering the floor, along with what appear to be molotov cocktails? What the hell happened here?
“Come here, Athena,” my giant biker with a heart of gold says. He sits on a small couch in the corner of the room and pullsme down into his lap. “Are you hurt? Did he touch you? When did your dad show up? Fuck, I couldn’t have been gone for more than half an hour. I thought I’d get home before you even woke up…”
“Let her breathe,” Reaper says as he and a few other men join us.
“I will, I just need to know every single thing that happened so I never fail her again.”
I place my hand on his chest and rest my forehead against his. “I’m okay, just shaken up. I… I think I know the permanent location of the auction house.”
“Where?” Reaper nearly shouts.
“What about letting her breathe?” Wraith says in a mocking tone. Reaper glares at him, but then softens. Wraith told me the Prez recently fell in love, and I can see it. He respects the bond we share.
“I’m not hurt,” I reiterate, cupping Wraith’s face in my hands. “I woke up to my dad in the kitchen. He said…” I look away, embarrassed to admit I believed his lie. “He said you let him in, and that you were working together to capture me and bring me back.”
“What? Hell fucking no, Athena. I would never–”
“I know. I mean, I know now.” Wraith looks stricken, which is what I deserve. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to think when he first said it. I’ve been lied to and gaslit my whole life, and, well, I guess part of it makes sense. I mean, why would you be interested in me? You’re like this perfect god of a man, and I’m…”
“You’re my precious goddess, remember?” Wraith murmurs into the shell of my ear.
“Thank you for always being so good to me,” I tell him, nuzzling into his neck.
“As adorable as it is to watch Wraith whisper sweet nothings to his woman, there are still a few questions to answer,” Reaper reminds us. Wraith glares at him, while I blush and climb off of his lap, sitting next to him instead. “I’ll start by how I think we got here, then you fill in the blanks. Some of my men were in the clubhouse early this morning sleeping off their hangovers when we were attacked. You may have noticed the broken windows out front?”
I nod, my eyebrows floating to the top of my forehead. “Is everyone okay?”
“Yes,” Wraith answers. “I went to the clubhouse before you woke up to help clean. I thought I’d be back before you woke up,” he explains. “But now I see it was a purposeful misdirection. God, so stupid. I’m so sorry, Athena.”
“It’s not your fault,” I insist. I explain exactly what happened and what my dad said about the permanent place being located on Monaco Lane near Denver.
“You have what you need?” Wraith asks the Prez, gritting his teeth together. He gets off the couch and starts pacing. Wraith was uncharacteristically quiet the entire time I recounted the events of the morning. Is he upset? I ruined his kitchen, after all.
“Yes, but don’t go doing something rash and short-sighted, like Shadow over here. We can’t afford to fuck this up, do you understand?”
“Yeah,” Wraith answers. “As soon as I kill him, we can move forward with taking them down for good.”
“Wraith!” Reaper snaps. “Stay put.”
Fury ripples off Wraith’s muscles as he stares Reaper down.
“Don’t kill him,” I plead with Wraith. This gets his attention.
Wraith focuses on me, a questioning look in his eyes.
“You can’t go to prison,” I plead, clasping his hand in mine. “I need you here with me. You can’t leave when I’m in the middleof falling for you.” I didn’t mean to confess right there in front of everyone, but I don’t care as long as Wraith heard it.
My beast of a biker drops to his knees in front of me. “Is that true?” he whispers, the hope in his eyes filling me with so much love I feel like I could burst.
“Yes. In fact… I’ve kind of already fallen for you,” I admit.
The bright, goofy smile that lights up his face is something I know I’ll never forget. “Let’s go,” he states, pulling me up off the couch. Wraith has me over his shoulder in the next second. “My woman and I have some additional things to discuss,” he addresses the other men in the room.
