Taming Blade (Kings Reapers MC Book 5) by Nicola Jane (mini ebook reader TXT) 📕

at least they get along. I weigh up my options—take her with me, or leave her here and hope she’s still around when I return. Maybe she won’t notice I’m gone.

“This is the address. You’ve got twenty minutes to get there,” snaps Riggs.

“No problem, Pres,” I say, then pause. “Actually, just one problem. I don’t have my bike.” He holds out his bike keys with a look of irritation on his face and I smile gratefully. “Thanks.”

I go over to Tillie. “Fancy getting out of here?” I ask and she smiles. I take her by the hand and lead her from the bar. “I just gotta pick something up. Means we gotta go on a bike,” I say, stopping next to Riggs’ bike.

“Blade, I have a dress and heels on,” she mutters.

“It’ll be fine. No one will see. Trust me. I’ve had loads of girls on my bike in skirts.” As the final word leaves my mouth, I wince. “Including the drunk version of you,” I add, passing her Riggs’ spare helmet.

Having Tillie pressed against my back, clinging on for dear life, is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. When I finally stop the bike by the pick-up point, I’m so hard, it’s almost painful. “Wait here,” I say.

“No way,” she hisses, looking around the dark car park. “It’s creepy.”

We’re at a disused warehouse and there’s nobody about. I sigh. “Fine but stay quiet. If anyone speaks to you, don’t answer.”

I push on the large wooden door, it creaks open, and I spot a dim light inside. I whistle once and a man steps from the shadows. “Kings Reaper,” I say to identify myself.

“Riggs?” he asks.

“No, but he sent me.”

“And who’s with you?” he asks.

“We gonna do this or not?” I growl. I’m impatient and I wanna get out of here. Something feels off.

“She stays out there,” he demands, and I feel Tillie grip my hand tightly.

“Forget this bullshit,” I snap, turning away. I hear a click and my knife sails through the air before I’ve even processed that the click of the trigger is his gun. It’s an instinct that I’ve had since I was a teenager—no one could ever sneak up on me.

The man falls to the ground with a heavy thud, and Tillie squeaks. She’s gripping my hand so tight, I think she’s cut off my blood supply. “It’s okay,” I whisper. “Keep calm.”

“Keep calm,” she hisses. “You just killed a guy and you’re telling me to keep calm.”

I move towards him with her clinging on to me. “Sunshine, I probably didn’t kill him,” I say with a shrug. “Maybe just . . .” I shrug again, peering at his lifeless body. “Okay, maybe killed, but it was him or us.”

“Him or us?” she snaps. “He was at the other side of the damn warehouse. What was he gonna do, run at us from all the way over there?”

“He was about to pull a gun. I heard the click.”

“What!” she hisses. I reach into the guy’s pocket and pull out his gun, raising my eyebrows at Tillie in an ‘I told you so’ manner

I take out my phone and put the call in to Riggs. “Pres, another problem,” I say when he answers.

“I send you to do a simple job and you call with another problem,” sighs Riggs.

“This time, it wasn’t my fault. I need a clean-up team ASAP.” The line falls silent for a second and I imagine Riggs pinching the bridge of his nose like he always does when he’s trying to stay calm. “I had a bad feeling the second the guy spoke to me. He was shifty, Pres. Then he pulled a gun when I tried to walk away.”

“Did you get the package at least?”

“I’ll go look,” I say, stepping over the lifeless body. “There’s nothing on the desk, Pres. How big’s this package?”

“Twenty grand big,” he says dryly. “Should be in a bag.” I look around, but there’s nothing here and I relay that.

“He was expecting you. He wasn’t happy when I said you’d sent me instead. You think it could be a setup?”

“Get your arse back here,” he snaps, disconnecting the call.

Tillie is frozen, her eyes fixed on the dead body. A knife sticks out of his chest, exactly where his heart once beat. I pull it out and she winces, then I wipe it on the guy’s jumper and stick it back in my kutte. “Just so you know, this has been the worst date ever,” she announces, folding her arms over her chest. She’s shivering, and I don’t know if that’s from shock or the weather, but I shrug out of my jacket and pass it to her.

“I’m really sorry. This isn’t what I had planned,” I say.

“How can you be so normal?” she asks. “He’s lying right there and you haven’t even checked to see if he’s breathing.”

“He isn’t. His pupils are fixed and dilated,” I say, peering closer at the guy’s eyes. I pull out my phone and snap a photo for Riggs.

“Oh my god, now you’re taking trophy shots?” she wails. She spins on her heel and marches to the exit. I rush after her, wrapping my arms around her waist and stilling her.

“Sunshine, relax,” I whisper into her ear. “I’m in an MC. Sometimes shit gets messy. Technically, I saved your life tonight. If you look at it like that, it’ll make you feel better.”

She spins to face me and her expression is full of rage. “If you hadn’t brought me here in the first place, I wouldn’t have been in danger.”

“That’s true,” I admit. “Bad call on my part, but I thought leaving you in the bar was bad date etiquette.”

She prods a finger into my chest. “No, Blade. I’ll tell you what bad date etiquette is . . . you bringing me on a date to your trashy local bar with a bunch of your violent friends. Then dumping me on a group of women I don’t even know,