REAPER: GOLDEN SKULLS M.C. by Rebecca Joyce (elon musk reading list TXT) 📗

The Golden Skulls were not what they seemed. They were the same as the others. The vile creatures lurked in the night, stealing and taking what didn’t belong to them. They were part of the bigger scheme to sell, trade, and rape those who were innocent. I didn’t need to see anymore. I’d seen enough.

When Grimm placed me on a table, I was thankful to know that a medic, a real genuine person who only wanted to help me, worked furiously to make sure that I was okay. I wish I had told him I wasn’t worth it. To save the others. To let me die, but I couldn’t. I hadn’t been able to say anything for days now. My throat felt like a barren desert, and I couldn’t force my lips to move. In fact, my whole body felt off as if I were no longer part of it. I was thankful for that because I couldn’t feel what he was doing to me.

“Remi, oh God, baby, what did they do to you?” Healer whispered, looking down at me as if I were something precious to him, but I knew better. He was just playing along for the others. To make it seem liked he cared. I knew he didn’t. He was a Golden Skull. He was with them, but I knew better.

“Remi, hang on, sweetheart. Just hang on,” he kept saying over and over again. What for? I wasn’t going anywhere. He could do what he wanted with me. I was just a shell. I wasn’t there. I had delved so deep within my mind, I felt nothing, not even the needle he stuck into my arm. I just laid there, letting them do whatever they wanted. I had all I could take. My body was not my own anymore as I just waited for my heart to stop beating. I tried to move on, to find something better. To live without pain or fear. I wanted to die.

Why wouldn’t they let me die?

People moved about me as Healer shouted out orders, the others doing his bidding. I thought about warning them, to tell them not to trust him, but Grimm returned, gasping for breath.

I really liked Grimm. He was sweet. Gentle and kind. He was just an illusion like the others. No one could be that kind and be a monster. He was like the others, even though I had a hard time believing it, but the cut on his back told me everything I needed to know. He was with them—the others.

I heard someone scream in pain, anger, and sorrow. I wished I could go to that person and tell them it would be alright, but I couldn’t.

“Get him out of here!” Healer shouted.

There was a scuffle. I couldn’t see who it was, but it was close. Then I heard him, and I scurried deeper into my mind. He was here. Close to me. The very reason I was taken in the first place. Their leader. Death himself had come.

“Don’t make me leave her.”

“Reaper let Healer do his job. Come on, man. Others still need our help.”

“I don’t care. I can’t leave her.”

“I get it,” Grimm spoke softly to him. Though I don’t know why. He was to blame for all of this. He helped the others. He profited from selling me. I hope I made him a lot of money. I hope he choked on it.

“You love her. I know you do. I saw it every time you looked at her. She will survive this. I know she will. She is strong.”

He doesn’t know love. He knows death. I wondered if Grimm knew that about his President. Did any of them really know who their President really was? The depravity that ran in his veins.

“That’s the most words I’ve ever heard you say,” I heard the devil himself reply.

“I speak, but only when I need to.”

I don’t know when someone closed my eyes, but I never opened them again. I could hear everything, though, and that was enough. I figured not seeing what was going to happen was best. I’d seen enough for many lifetimes.

I just wanted the darkness. I welcomed it.

I was comfortable. Too comfortable and warm.

Where was I? I could hear machines in the background making an annoying beeping sound. I wish they’d turn that off. I was starting to feel again. I didn’t want to because, with feeling, the pain would come back. I still couldn’t move, and I was grateful for that.

Moving meant pain.

I felt someone holding my hand. I wish I could open my eyes and see who it was, but I was so tired, I drifted back into nothing.

Someone was talking. Coming out of the darkness, I tried to listen as they spoke, but I could only hear muffled words. Why wouldn’t they just leave me alone?

“We’re heading back tonight. Phantom and Player already left. They have the computers and hard drives from the chapter. They will gather as much information off them as possible before wiping them clean and destroying them. No one should see that shit.”

“What about the dead?”

I knew that voice. It was him the devil. He was too close. Was he the one holding my hand? I cringed, wanting so much to pull away. I didn’t recognize the other voice, probably another member of the Golden Skulls, just as evil as their leader.

“Bayou’s cousin said he would take care of them properly, making sure each one is identified and their families are notified.”

“Tell the sheriff, those who aren’t claimed, that I will pay for their burial.”

Why would he do that? He killed them all. He was complicit in their demise. He knew about everything and did nothing. He should be in jail, not burying the ones he sent to death. He wasn’t making sense. He sounded remorseful, sad almost, but he was one of them—those who hurt, raped, beat, and killed.

He was their leader.

He was with the others.

“Already did.