The Reaper Incarnate (Reaped, #0.5)

by C.A. Rene

“I noticed the tracker when I got into the cab.” Her voice hits my back and I turn to see her standing in the kitchen area, flipping her knife in the air. “Smart.” “What is this place?” I ask as I holster my gun. “I grew up here.” She nods to the Barbie house. “That was mine. My sister worked overtime for two weeks just so she could afford that for Christmas.” Alarm bells begin to ring, but I step toward her, eager to hear more about her. I want to know why someone so beautiful and obviously tough ended up where she is. “Our mother was a junkie and practically lived on the street. She only came back here when she remembered she had to eat. My sister Jan was six years older than me and by fourteen she had to drop out of school to raise me.” She slams the knife’s blade down into the counter. “That was the beginning of the end.” “What happened?” I ask, completely entranced. “She got a few jobs, and I would stay with the neighbors while she was out. Things were good until my mother started coming back around. She would beg Jan for money and when that wasn’t enough, she began to pimp her daughters. I was ten years old when I had my first client.” The bile rushes up my fucking throat and I swallow several times to keep it from spewing. “My sister had it worse. She was attractive and clearly becoming a curvy woman. The men loved her, and my mother was making a killing. This went on for a few years and once I hit fifteen, my sister promised we were leaving. She had found an apartm...