Page 16 of Reaper
At that moment, he realized why she looked at him with worry.She thought that he would change his mind about her once he learned about her past.
Fuck that.He tightened his arms around her and pulled her closer.Although he couldn’t reassure her with the words that stuck in his throat, he could with his touch.
With a sigh, she continued.“We moved around until whatever landlord who had rented to them realized that my parents didn’t have any money to pay them.At the same time, they had been posing as dealers to get the product they promised to sell, instead using it all themselves.Within a couple of months, the dealers realized they’d been ripped off, but by that time we would be long gone.This happened more times than I could count.
“When I was fifteen, their luck ran out.I walked in after school to find the dealer waving a gun at my parents, screaming incoherently at them.They were both high so I don’t think they realized the danger they were in.I must’ve done something to startle the gunman because he started shooting at them when the door closed behind me.I was too stunned to move as I watched my parents die in front of me.He raised the gun at me and at the time, I had no idea that I had any powers, but my hands shot forward to stupidly block the bullet.With my slight movement and without realizing what I had done, I turned the gun around and when he pulled the trigger, he shot himself.”
The silence in the room turned excruciating and when Ax spoke up this time, Reaper was grateful to him.
“You did what you had to do to survive.No one would’ve blamed you for that.You were just a girl.”
“My parents taught me to avoid the police, at all costs, and that’s what I did.I searched through their pockets and grabbed all the money I could find before I ran.I feel horrible for that,” she mumbled.
“You shouldn’t.You also stopped a robbery where the clerk was about to be killed.You exposed yourself to save another person.You did what you had to in order to save yourself.No one blames you for that.I’m proud of you for keeping your head and finding a life for yourself,” Reaper said.
“What?” Liv cried.
“That’s how the bastards at Standard learned about her powers.The one who kidnapped her witnessed her powers firsthand.”
Growls and snarls ripped through the room and Ara started in his arms.
“About time you brought her to us.We can protect her together,” Ghost said.
He squeezed Ara tighter to him, reassuring himself that she was safe.
“Yeah, about that.I wasn’t actually with her since she escaped Standard.She disappeared, twice in the same night, and I…found her last weekend.”
“She avoided you for a month?” Gunnar asked.
“Yes,” Reaper growled.
The rest of the assassins laughed their asses off while he pulled her closer to him.Ara took him by surprise when she tucked her head underneath his chin and absently rubbed his chest to soothe him for several minutes.
Soon, he sensed the troublemaker came closer to them, and Ara must’ve sensed her too, because she unfurled herself and glanced up at Jade.
“Can I ask you a favor?” Jade asked.
Ara straightened and nodded.
“I’ve been curious about this since you threw Reaper close to a mile back to the warehouse.Can you, you know?”Jade pointed to the ceiling and waved her hand around.
Before Ara could answer, everyone spoke up and asked for turns after Jade.Ara turned and smiled a knowing smile at Reaper, before she turned back and nodded.They moved quickly to push the furniture out of the way, but before they could turn to Ara and tell her they were ready, she had launched them into the air.
“Holy shit,” Xander mumbled.
Ara laughed before she started moving them around the room.Some of them asked her to flip them, others wanted to shoot from one side of the room to the other as fast as she could manage, and all had a great time.
Reaper looked for any stress in her motions, but she had no signs of fatigue or problems with moving ten bodies in separate directions with varying speed.She turned to him, and before he could protest what she had in mind, he found himself whizzing by several of the assassins, laughing.
He growled when Hunter asked Ara whether she could raise them to the ceiling and drop them until they almost hit the floor, but it turned out to be more fun than he realized.The free fall was both exhilarating and terrifying, and this one time, he enjoyed being out of control.
After several drops and flips, Reaper noticed that Xander looked pale and sickly.When he glanced at Ara, she must’ve noticed the same thing because she lowered Xander until he stood in front of her.
“Are you okay?”
Xander groaned and dropped his hands to his knees.He inhaled deep breaths and groaned again, but neither being on the ground or deep breaths seemed to be helping him.Ara reached for Xander’s hand and squeezed lightly.It surprised him and the rest of the group when color flooded to Xander’s face and he straightened.Xander’s gaze bore into Ara’s, but she remained worried about him and scanned his face for any sign of sickness.
“How did you do that?” Xander asked.
