fire and rose from the ashes, made into something unbreakable.
Maybe that was why I was drawn to Trish at such a young age. She’d only been ten at the time we met. Eighteen years ago. The exact same day that I accepted the Devil’s Ride and met the perfect, tainted, and beautiful soul that I would later meet in a rundown bar on the outskirts of Hawthorne, Nevada. Her aura had always been bright and beautiful, but it changed over the years. Something happened to her and I needed to find out why it wasn’t the same.
I knew one thing though.
Tricia Holloway was a survivor.
Just like me.
We were two people with a painful and tragic past. Two souls lost in an unforgiving sea of monsters. Neither of us was good at traversing this life alone. We needed one another. Our souls had latched on, digging in deep into the flesh and bones of the other.
It wasn’t just her. Or me. It was us.
That was the way I saw it. My Reaper knew without a doubt that Trish was ours. She was destined to ride the Nevada desert on the back of my bike and tame the wild beast within. The same way I was destined to protect and care for the sexy little blonde and her numerous scars.
Trish’s memory never faded over that eighteen years.
I kept her close and hidden in my memories and my heart. Her stuffed bear was in a box in my bedroom closet. Someday soon I would show it to her and prove that she remained a part of my life all this time. Her aura was special to me and that hadn’t changed.
Oddly enough, I was the only one among my brothers with this gift.
No other Reaper saw the aura of those taken. The soul? Sure. We all got a brief glimpse of the soul once they were reaped. It was par for the course. A normal occurrence when you were commissioned by the devil himself. Souls were just an extension of the body. We had to die to transition, just like the vampire myth. There might not be any blood involved but the soul had to leave the body and that was complete and total permanent death.
“What you want, pres?” Rael asked, putting on his apron.
This was about to get messy.
“Find out what you can.”
“Want them alive?”
“For now.”
“Any limits?”
Hell no. “Nope.”
His dark laughter sent a chill up my spine. Crazy fucker.
I turned on my heel and climbed back up the steps, making my way back to Trish. She had the night off and wanted to spend it together. A loud cry of pain echoed up from below and I shut the door at the top of the stairs, turning the lock. Rael had a key and Mammoth and Ex were with him.
Trish’s laugh was close by and I realized she was waiting for me. I made my way through the clubhouse and found her in the common room. Most of the brothers were settling down with their women or club whores, playing pool or drinking at the bar. My gaze roamed the space and landed on my ol’ lady.
The second I saw what she was wearing, I lost my shit.
Short jean shorts barely covered her ass and nearly half the delicious mounds were visible as she sat on a stool at the bar and crossed her long bare legs. A tight tank top was missing the bottom portion and bared her entire stomach and part of her hip bones to the entire club. A black leather jacket that barely had enough material to boast that description covered her arms and shoulders while her tits were pushed upward together by a bra that exposed more than it concealed. Little black boots with heels were on her feet and I suddenly wanted to see them up in the air as I thrust inside her.
When she saw me, Trish winked.
She must have been fuckin’ high to think I was letting her go anywhere dressed like that. With me or without me. Didn’t matter. No man was going to stare at her rack or her ass except for me.
I stomped over and yanked her up from the stool, slamming my lips down on hers. A few shouts of encouragement and whistles erupted around us as I flipped off the room. Laughter followed.
When we separated, Trish was flushed.
“Anyone see my ol’ lady dressed like this again, send her back to my room!” I shouted.
More chuckles and a few shouts