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Three
Kitty
He was gone. Again. Sighing, I climbed out of bed and quickly showered, praying that Hailey would sleep long enough to get myself clean. It was a rarity these days, so I took full advantage of my time when she slept. Enjoying the quiet. I managed to get washed, do my hair, and apply a little bit of lip gloss when I heard my spirited daughter cry. Smiling, I left the bathroom to find her standing in her crib, holding onto the rails for dear life.
“Well, look who is finally awake, sleepyhead,” I said, picking her up and hugging her to me. “Did you have a good night’s sleep?”
I knew it was useless talking to her. She was only six months old, but I read that talking to them regularly instead of the baby gibberish was more beneficial to their cognitive learning, and I was all about my baby girl learning as much as she could. Taking my time changing her and getting her dressed for the day, we were headed downstairs when I heard someone knock on the front door.
I stopped instantly and shouted. “Who is it?”
When a gruff voice replied, “Reaper.” I sighed. What the hell was he doing at my house so fucking early in the morning.
“One minute!” I yelled back, quickly placing Hailey in her playpen in the living room and returned to the front door to see what Reaper wanted. Opening the door, I should have been afraid of the hulking mammoth of a man, but I wasn’t. Nothing scared me anymore. I survived the clutches of hell and lived to talk about it. So no, nothing frightened me, especially not a man known for slicing people up to acquire their soul. Nope, it was just another day at the Golden Skulls compound. Nothing new here.
“What?” I asked sharply.
“Can I come in?”
“Why?”
Reaper growled. “Kitty, I’m not in the fucking mood.”
“Oh really, I didn’t know we were sharing feelings,” I replied, sardonically walking away from him. “How’s this for you? I don’t like that my fucking husband is gone again. I don’t like raising my daughter alone. I don’t like being on lockdown. And I really don’t like you!”
“God, you can be a real bitch.”
“Back at ya, fucker. Now, what the hell do you want?” I asked, walking into the kitchen turning on the coffee pot. I was in no mood for whatever Reaper wanted, and as far as I was concerned, he could go to hell. Sitting down at the table, I grabbed a pack of smokes and lit a cigarette. I typically didn’t smoke in the house, especially around Hailey, but at the moment, I knew my daughter would forgive me.
“Smoking isn’t good for the baby.”
“And neither is global warming, but hey, we can’t have everything, can we?”
Sighing, Reaper took a seat, grabbed my cigarette, and put it out in the ashtray I kept on the table. “Look, I’m sorry about Bullseye, but I need him to do something for me. I can’t tell you what, but he won’t be gone long.”
Getting up, I walked over to the cabinet nearest the sink, opened it pulling out two coffee mugs. After pouring us both a cup of black coffee, I returned to the table, handed him one, and sat down. “He never is. Just long enough to kill whomever you need dead.”
“Damn it, Kitty, is he telling you club business?”
“Nope, doesn’t have to. I know who I married.”
“Then you know this is just business.”
“When that business starts interfering in my life and my daughter’s life, it’s no longer business. It’s personal!” I shouted, slamming my hand down on my table. The nerve of this bastard! He comes into my house and spouts shit that he already fucking knows will piss me off, yet he does it anyway. I really didn’t have time for his bullshit. I needed him to get down to brass taxes and fucking fast. I had shit to do today and chewing the fat with Reaper wasn’t one of them. “Why are you really here?”
“I was going through Pop’s things and found this. I want to know what you know about it?” he says, pulling a small picture out of the front pocket of his cut, handing it to me. Taking it, I see a picture of an incredibly young Dylan, baby Layla, and James Doherty. Looking up at Reaper, I say nothing and hand him back the picture and lie my ass off. “Nice pic of you, Mia, and your dad.”
“It’s not Mia or me,” Reaper replied, putting the picture back in his cut.
“Then who is it?”
“That’s what I want you to tell me.”
“How would I know?”
“Because I think you do. Kitty, you are the biggest ballbuster I know, but I also know you have eyes and ears. You were always in the clubhouse when you were younger. Nobody paid you any mind when you were hiding in plain sight. I know you heard things, saw things. Nobody cared because you never talked. Whatever went into that vault of a brain of yours never comes out. Ever. So, explain this to me, why does the small baby in the picture look like Hailey?”
“All babies look the same.”
