Devil's Game (Reapers MC, #3)(35)

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 f*cking 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 f*ck’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, f*ck.

“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 * 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 f*ck-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.”