Chapter 59: Reaper’s Forces [II]

Leo leaned back against the concrete pillar of what had once been the casino, now transformed into a high-tech command center. He folded his arms as he watched two tactical operatives review high-resolution schematics of the royal hospital’s ICU. Live surveillance feeds cycled across the main digital display, tracking every entrance, elevator bank, and hallway surrounding Darius’s room.

The doors swung open, and his sister, Rosé, came striding into the room. She walked right past Leo without so much as a glance in his direction, carrying a neatly wrapped sandwich and a bottle of soft drink. Her entire focus was fixed on one of the operatives seated in front of the screens. The moment the operative noticed her approach, his stiff posture faltered.

His shoulders slumped as a look of sheer, exhausted dread crossed his face.

Beside him, his partner glanced between them, already knowing what was coming, and let out an amused chuckle as he shook his head.

That was another surprising change that had taken place since the Reaper’s forceful takeover.

Rosé had fallen out of her so-called love for Prince Darius the moment she realized he was completely out of her league and had instead become hopelessly infatuated with one of the men who had arrived with the Reaper’s forces.

The poor man had not enjoyed a single moment of peace since she set her sights on him.

Every day, she found some excuse to hover around him. If she wasn’t bringing him food, she was bringing him coffee. If she wasn’t bringing him coffee, she was asking whether he’d slept enough, eaten enough, or worked too hard.

Leo had even caught her trying to sneak into the man’s sleeping quarters two days ago and had firmly stopped her.

Rosé opened the container, unveiling a neatly made sandwich, and thrust it toward him.

"You need to stop for a minute and eat something, baby. You haven’t touched a bite since morning, and it is absolutely wrecking my poor heart to watch you starve yourself."

The man closed his eyes briefly and let out a heavy sigh of resignation. He reached out to take the sandwich, but Rosé immediately pulled it back out of his reach, shaking her head with a stern pout.

"No, no, honeybee. Keep working," she insisted, taking a small step closer and holding a bite right in front of his lips. "I’ll feed you so you don’t have to stop. Now, say ahh."

For several seconds, the man simply sat there, staring at her as though he were reconsidering every life decision that had led him to this moment. His partner, who couldn’t hold it in any longer, snorted before completely losing it.

A bark of laughter escaped him. He laughed so hard he had to grab the edge of the desk for support. "Oh, this is priceless," he wheezed. "Absolutely priceless. I never thought I’d live to see the day Razor would be reduced to this. The man who once stared down an armed battalion without blinking is getting bullied into eating a sandwich by a lovestruck woman. This is the greatest thing I’ve ever witnessed."

"Do you want me to save him?"

Marcus’s voice came from beside him so suddenly that Leo nearly jumped. He hadn’t even heard the man enter the room.

"Just let her be," Leo sighed, not bothering to glance at his boyfriend. "It’s good that Razor managed to take her attention. I’d rather not have her wandering around causing trouble the way she used to."

Marcus scoffed. "Trust me, nobody wants that." He jerked his thumb toward the hallway. "By the way, Tractor wants to have a word with you."

Leo finally glanced at him before shifting his gaze back to his sister. Rosé was now happily feeding Razor pieces of the sandwich while the poor operative sat there with the hollow-eyed expression of a man who had long since accepted his fate. His partner was still trying — and failing — not to laugh.

With a faint shake of his head, he pushed himself away from the concrete pillar and straightened his jacket. "Let’s go then. We don’t want to keep the man waiting," he muttered as he made his way toward the door. Marcus fell into step beside him, and the two of them left the command room.

*****

Tractor’s nickname was not an exaggeration.

If anything, it was an understatement. Leo never believed he would ever find a man bigger than Marcus. Standing well over six feet seven, the man looked less like a human being and more like a piece of industrial machinery that had somehow learned how to walk. His massive frame was packed with enough muscle to make the other men around him look almost average by comparison. Thick arms, covered from wrist to shoulder in faded black tattoos, strained against the sleeves of his dark shirt. Old scars crisscrossed his knuckles and forearms. His neck was thick as a tree trunk, his shoulders broad enough to block most of the doorway, and every movement carried a heavy, deliberate weight that made it easy to understand how he had earned his nickname.

The tattoos stretched beyond his arms.

Dark ink disappeared beneath the collar of his shirt and crawled up the side of his neck. A grinning human skull was visible beneath one ear, while jagged black patterns wound around his throat and vanished beneath the fabric. Combined with his shaved head and permanently intimidating expression, the man looked like the sort of person who could punch through a concrete wall simply because it happened to be standing in his way. From what Leo had come to know, Tractor was one of the Reaper’s most trusted subordinates, effectively the organization’s second-in-command whenever the Reaper himself was absent.

The sheer amount of authority the man carried made it obvious why everyone listened whenever he spoke. "Hey, Leo, my man!" he bellowed, a wide, boisterous grin splitting his face the second he saw Leo and Marcus walk into what used to be Leo’s private office, now converted into one of the Reaper’s Force Operations Offices.

"And Leo’s baby boy!" he added, his grin widening even further.