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“The Road Reapers…”
“Yep, see, after they beat the shit out of me, I couldn’t even see in one eye. They kicked me in the face and knocked out my front tooth. I needed plastic surgery to correct a couple things.”
She points at different parts of her face to show where she’d suffered the most damage. I sit giving no discernible reaction, despite the mounting panic and disbelief inside me. It’s too much information at once. Too confusing and overwhelming to process.
“That’s when the Kings took me in. They gave me a place to recuperate and lay my head down. But I don’t think they realized who I was and what I was running from.”
“Yet you repay them by betraying them?”
Her stare chills into pure frostiness. “Don’t you go around judging me! You’ve done exactly what I have—those men treated you great, even Mace after a while, and you were lying to their faces! If you’re gonna point the finger at anybody, you point that shit at yourself! What I’m doing… it’s different. I’m proving my loyalty once and for all.”
“You’re working for the same men who beat you to a pulp? How does that make any sense?!”
“I betrayed my oath,” she snaps, her lips pinched around her smoldering cigarette. “I deserve what happened to me. Besides, they’ve realized they need me. I’m their best chance at survival. The club and town have both been dead for years. I’m the one bringing them back to former glory.”
“The Road Reapers are nobodies.”
She cackles. “Oh, girly. You’ve got no idea, do you? You don’t know a thing about us? If anything, you should be cheering us on. Your allegiance should be withus.”
I don’t understand what Velma means, though there’s a sick glint in her eye as she seems to take joy in keeping whatever it is from me.
I focus on what I do know.
“So you’ve set me up. You’ve set us all up,” I say in a burst of hot irritation. My hand curls in my lap; Velma’s men may be outside the door, but inside we’re alone. How long would it take them to bust the door down if I were to whoop her ass?
“If you were smart, you would’ve noticed,” she says. “It was me who welcomed you into the club with open arms. It was me who gave you a place to lay your head. Right under the same roof as Mason. It was me who dropped out and made you take my place for the fundraiser. That trip to Lenton to see Tom was all me. So was the informant hoax. I even told Sandie to search your room for that book. I knew you kept all your thoughts in there, like some stupid fucking teenager. Dear diary, today my adopted daddy died—”
It slams into me in a collision so heavy, I feel like I’m being crushed to the bone. Some invisible force with the power to wreck me in a single blow. I release a strangled breath and wince as a pounding pain starts up in my temple.
This can’t be happening. It can’t be true…
“The Road Reapers were behind what happened to Pop,” I say. “You were involved. You already knew who I was before I even told you my name.”
“We had to find a way to take advantage of Tom being gone from the Kings. Some way to start a war between our two biggest rivals, the Hellrazors and the Kings.”
“So you killed Pop?”
“It was time for his senile old ass to go anyway. We knew the Hellrazors would retaliate. They shot up Bush’s trailer.”
“Then the Kings killed another Hellrazor.”
She nods. “The two clubs were too busy fighting to think somebody else could be behind it. They underestimate us Reapers.”
“You dropped the bandana on purpose, knowing I’d find it and think it was the Kings.”
“Notme, girly. But my Reaper brothers, that’s for damn sure.”
“Why not kill me that night?”
“That was up in the air. It could’ve gone either way. They could’ve taken you out or they could’ve let you live knowing your stubborn, nosy ass would come to Pulsboro for answers—and if you went anywhere else, like Wheaton or Portales, we’d find a way to nudge you on track. The guys thought about killing you when they killed Jacob, but then those sirens went off.”
I cover my face in my hands, still reeling from the revelations being unloaded onto me. “I’m guessing you sent me to the basement for the tables and chairs because you knew I’d see those photos and then assume it was the Kings.”
“Now you’re getting it. I even drew X’s on the right faces to really get you going. Every moment of yours has been handcrafted by yours truly. Every part of this war between the Kings and the Hellrazors is yours truly. Me and my Reaper brothers. It’s been a great time pitting you idiots against each other. They almost killed each other a few minutes ago at the Hellrazor’s bar. I’m sure Mace told you why he’s in Wheaton tonight.”
“I hope it was worth it. Choosing the team you have.”
“Believe me, it will be. I’ll finally clear up my reputation. But you… you’re not gonna be so lucky. You’re a bargaining chip. Now that the Kings all but butchered the Hellrazors, all that’s left is to pick off the Kings. That’s where you come in. You’ll help us end the Kings once and for all.”
