A Monster's Beauty (In the Arms of Monsters 3)

“Get out,” he said.

She didn’t argue with him and he watched her go. Climbing out of the bathtub, he didn’t care about his nakedness. He walked downstairs, and there was Reaper. The cause of all of his problems.

“Oh, sorry, did I wake you?” he asked as he grabbed the man’s jacket and pulled him out of his slumber, throwing him across the room. His naked dick swung in the wind as he threw Reaper out of his house, heading into the back garden.

Preacher hadn’t even bothered with some slippers to protect his feet. He grabbed Reaper and slammed his fist against the man’s throat, shocking him to the ground as he attacked him. Reaper choked. Preacher slammed his fists and kept on punching, wanting to hurt him. He did have the element of surprise, but it didn’t last long before Reaper was on his feet and retaliating.

“I’m guessing you’ve found out all the fun and exciting details I wanted to keep private,” Reaper said. “You know, like how I married your woman. That must sting a lot. All of this must hurt, big time.”

He slammed his fist into the man’s face again and again. There was no way he was going to allow Reaper to just mock or laugh, or be happy about this, about any of this.

Reaper only laughed. “It must kill you to share the love of a woman. The first woman you ever loved and she can’t even give you the whole deal, can she? She shares her heart with me.”

Wrapping his fingers around Reaper’s neck, he pressed him down, bending him over the wall. It would be so easy to kill him.

“You did all of this on purpose, didn’t you? All along when you were working with O’Klaren, you saw an opportunity and you took it.”

Reaper choked.

Preacher had no choice but to loosen his hold, and Reaper gasped. “Of course, I did. I had nothing to do with her losing that baby, though. I had my own agenda from the start.”

“So all of this is just so you can, what? Have a little fun? You wanted to hurt the girl who dared to fall in love with me?”

Reaper laughed. “You don’t get it, even now. I happen to be in love with her. This isn’t about you. At least, it’s not about you anymore. No, this is about what I feel, and I want her all to myself. I should promote your son. He gave me everything I ever wanted, I just didn’t even realize it.”

Preacher squeezed his throat.

“Kill me,” Reaper said, choking out the words.

He wanted to.

You’re better than this.

Win her back.

Slowly, he let go of the bastard’s throat and stepped back.

“It’s not over.” With that, he entered the house to find Bear standing in the kitchen. The sound of Bethany crying came downstairs, and Preacher knew he was the problem.

“You should have killed him.”

“Last time I checked, I don’t take orders from you.” He walked past Bear. “And the next time you call Robin a whore, you and I will have a whole big issue and you won’t like it.”

****

The following morning, Robin arrived at the library. She’d walked there from Preacher’s house as she needed the space. After feeding Bethany, she’d placed her in the stroller Reaper had brought with him, leaving a note for the men to find when they woke up.

She couldn’t be there to confront them, not after last night. She had to get away, to have some space.

You’re being selfish.

No matter how selfish it was, she had to do it in order to be free.

Seeing the pain in Preacher’s eyes last night, the way he’d ordered her away, it hurt more than anything she’d ever experienced in her life. This was a nightmare. How could she walk away from Preacher when just not being with him hurt more than anything else in her life? Yet, Reaper, why was she even struggling with this decision? It was all fucking wrong. It was nothing but a pain in her ass, every single second of it.

It was late when she finally got to the library, and she let herself through the doors to find Anne already behind the counter, serving a couple of kids.

“Hello … oh my, are you okay?”