Reaper's Salvation: A Last Riders Trilogy

by Jamie Begley

  Ginny made a face at him, turning in the water to swim toward him. “I wasn’t going to get hurt.”

  Reaper hooked a hand around her neck to pull her closer to him. “So we don’t have to keep arguing over this, I’m going to make this rule plain and simple. It doesn’t matter what you think, it only matters what I think when it comes to your safety.”

  “I’ve already told you I disagree with your high-handedness.”

  “Are you already breaking your promise to me?”

  “Huh? What promise? I promised not to jump off the waterfall—”

  “Is it too much for me to ask that anything concerning you getting hurt falls under the one and only rule I’m asking for you to follow—if I’m willing to give you the same say-so in regard to me?”

  Her disgruntled expression cleared. “You mean it?”

  “Yes. I swear, I won’t do anything that will endanger my welfare,” he promised, then made an important clarification. “Unless I need to protect you.”

  “Then I promise the same … with the same condition.”

  Reaper frowned. “No.”

  “Then no right back at you.”

  Reaper gritted his teeth. “If you become so afraid of something happening to me and you feel the need to step in, then you have to go to Viper first.”

  “That doesn’t seem fair to me.”

  “I’m a Last Rider; each of the brothers’ wives have a replacement brother to turn to. I want Viper to be yours … unless you want one of the other brothers?”

  “That wouldn’t bother you if I picked someone other than Viper? What if I wanted Shade or Rider?”

  His expression was deadpan. “No.”

  “I don’t see Killyama going along with this.”

  “She did.” However, Reaper neglected to tell Ginny about the chaos that erupted within the club when Killyama found out about the brothers having replacements.

  Ginny glared at him distrustfully, as if she didn’t believe him. “Who did Killyama pick?”

  “Rider.”

  “It seems to me that’s another rule, which would make it two.”

  “No. Just one rule. You won’t even need to go to Viper if you just follow the rule of not getting into any situations where you can be hurt.”

  “Okay. Then if I get a replacement for you, you get one for me. Killyama can be mine.”

  “Fuck no!”

  “I thought you liked Killyama. You’ve given her roses.”

  “I meant I’m never going to need a replacement. Nothing is going to happen to you. I won’t let it,” he said confidently.

  “There’s something extremely sexy about you right now.”

  “It’s all the tattoos,” he teased.

  Her eyes flickered over the tattoos scattered over his body and skull. “I can’t disagree with that. Are any of them for Taylor?”

  A red alert went off in his brain, but he gave her the truth anyway. “No.”

  “Why?”

  “Because good cover-ups are a bitch to find.”

  “Are any of your tattoos for other women you’ve been with?”

  “No.”

  “Good.”

  He rolled his eyes at her satisfaction. “Why?”

  “If any woman is going to leave a mark on you, it’s gonna be me. You make me want to get a tattoo.” Ginny ran a hand lovingly over his shoulder.

  “No.”

  Ginny raised her eyebrows in confusion. “Why not?”

  “Getting a tattoo hurts.” Reaper gave her the simplest answer, withholding the real truth.

  “I can take a lot of pain.” She stopped moving her hand to cup the ball of his shoulder. “Getting a tattoo would be child’s play,” she scoffed.

  “Okay …,” he scoffed back. “In regard to what?”

  “Loving you.”

  Reaper broke away from her to swim toward the bank to get out and shutting down any opportunity to illuminate her about his own feelings.

  “Gavin … come here,” she called out in the same voice he had used with her. “Now.”

  He turned back to face her.

  “Come. Here.”

  She was giving him her ultimatum. If he expected her to obey him when it was important to him, then he had to give as much as he took.

  “Fuck,” he swore under his breath, swimming back to her.

  “Wild man, I didn’t say that to hurt you or to get you say something you don’t want to. I said it to tell you that I don’t need you to take the wheel when I could be hurt.” Ginny lifted her hand out the water to show the palm of her hand. “Fire can be the most destructive force on Earth. It can burn down homes, forests, and civilizations. Nevertheless, we use fire to heat homes, create firebreaks, and build civilizations.”

  Ginny bore her eyes into his. “You joined the Navy to be a warrior, Gavin. Your service to your country forged a strength in you that was hammered down, then tempered during your kidnapping, over and over again. All this time, you think it destroyed the man you were. It didn’t. You’re still the same man, except stronger. A steel so powerful that it can no longer be wielded in someone else’s hand. A steel so indestructible that it can be used as a sword or a shield against your enemies, or to protect those you love.” Ginny raised her hand higher to tap a finger on his brow. “You still believe you returned to The Last Riders as a prodigal son.” She dropped her hand to his heart to tap on his chest. “You didn’t. You came home a gladiator.”

  She let her hand fall back to the water. “I can tell you don’t believe me, and that’s fine. Just know one freakin’ thing in that hard head of yours. You … will … never … ever … fight … alone again, and you can take that to the freaking bank.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “I knew there was a reason I married you.”

  “We’re not,” Ginny fervently denied.

  “Are, too.”

  “Not.”

  “Are.”

  Ginny wiggled the fingers of her left hand in his face. “You see a ring here? You don’t. There’s nothing here. Zip, zilch, nada.”

  “I have something more important—a legal paper.”

  “Until Pastor Dean says the words, I now pronounce you man and wife, you may be married in what corner of the universe you live in, but in mine, I’m still single and fancy-free.”

  “You live in the same universe as I do, and we’re married.”

  “I never believed there could be a man more stubborn than Greer Porter, but I was wrong. You beat Greer.”

  “I take that as a compliment.”

  “You would,” she scoffed.

  “People in town just misunderstand him.”

  “Since when did you two become BFFs?”

  “We’re not BFFs; we’re kindred spirits.” Reaper nearly swallowed his own tongue on that whopper.

  Ginny went under the water. He didn’t get worried until she didn’t pop right back up. A few seconds later, he turned in the water to see her getting out, wringing her ponytail out.

  “Playtimes over?” He laughed, getting out too.

  Ginny shrugged. “You only said that to irritate me. I decided to not let it get to me.”

  “How magnanimous of you,” he quipped, shaking the excess water from his hair.

  “Gavin James, you’re being a dick, and I know exactly what you’re doing.”

  “What am I doing?” he asked with mock innocence.

  “Putting the cart in front of the horse. That way, when we go back to Treepoint, you don’t have to decide a future for us. It’s all written down on paper if you decide to continue this relationship. Yet, if you decide to break up with me, you can use the same piece of paper to say it wasn’t legal. No, thanks. You can ride on your high horse all you want, it’s not going to change the facts, which”—Ginny wiggled her fourth finger at him—“plainly states I’m the one who is right.”

  “Quit wiggling that finger at me. If you want a ring, I’ll buy you one when we get home.”

 
“Buy one if you want to … just don’t expect me to wear it.”

  “You’ll wear it.” The laughter left his voice.

  “Nope, I won’t.” Ginny raised her chin obstinately in the air.

  “You will.” His voice became even firmer.

  “Won’t.” Hers became softer.

  “Will,” he promised.

  “I guess we’ll see who’s right and who’s wrong.” Reaching for her clothes, she turned her back to him as she got dressed.

  “Yes, we will.” Turning his back to her, Reaper got dressed, silently vowing to stop at the jewelry store in Treepoint as soon as the plane landed … until he remember he killed the owners of that store.

  “Fuck.”

  “You say something?” Ginny looked up from putting her shoes on.

  “Does Jamestown have an airport?”

  Ginny stared at him as if he had a concussion. “I believe anyone flying in and out uses the same one on the outskirts of Treepoint. At least, that’s the one that Dalton used when he flew in to see Trudy. Why?”

  “No reason. Just curious.” With his shoes on, he reached for the backpack, then held out his hand expectantly to help Ginny get to her feet.

  “I don’t want to go. I have a terrible feeling I’ll never come back.”

  “You’ll come back, I promise.”

  Unhappily, she took his hand as he helped her get to her feet, then they made their way back down to the main village. When he would have kept going, Ginny paused beside one home that had been scattered in different directions; it had been larger than the rest.

  Sensing she needed a moment alone, Reaper took a couple of steps ahead while keeping Ginny within his eyesight. From where he stood, he couldn’t hear what she said, but when she turned and walked toward him, he saw the resolved posture of her body.

  A visceral image of Taylor came to his mind; the differences between the two women were striking.

  Taylor’s image no longer produced the same feelings they once had. If he was truthful to himself, those feelings had been gone even before his kidnapping. Ginny was younger than Taylor, more playful and outspoken, yet she knew her own mind. Taylor wouldn’t even make a decision on which flavor cake she wanted or what color to paint a wall without getting his feedback. There was no depth to Taylor, and he was still trying to figure Ginny out. One minute she was high-spirited, the next she was ruminating, her mind a million miles away. Like now.

  He could feel she was holding something back from him. The fierce go-for-broke expression on her face sent fear spiraling through him.

  When she would have walked past him, he caught her hand. “Together, Ginny, or not all.”

  Lifting her grief-stricken eyes from the ground, she came back to earth. “I love you, but he has to pay, one way or another,” she vowed.

  “I don’t have a problem with anything you want to do, as long as we do this together.”

  Ginny seemed to be grappling with whether to say something. Then her face cleared as if coming to a decision. “Together.”

  Agent Collins was waiting for them on the dock when they arrived back to Sherguevil Island. Reaper got off the boat, then lifted Ginny to stand next to him. “Allerton is waiting to speak with you. I’ll take the backpack.”

  “Like that’s a shocker.” Reaper contemptuously handed the backpack over.

  The agent gripped the pack by one of the straps. “The sooner we get this over, you’ll be allowed to go back to your bungalow.”

  Reaper walked beside Ginny as they made their way toward the Moke and waited until Ginny was seated before going to the other side. He was getting fed up with this shit. Wanting to lash out at the agent for being Allerton’s errand boy, he restrained himself from sharing his contempt of Collin’s disregard to prioritize Ginny’s protection instead of giving in to Allerton’s orders. It simply conveyed whose side he was on.

  Allerton kept them cooling their heels in his waiting room for twenty minutes, which wasn’t surprising to Reaper; he had a good guess what the asshole was doing. Ginny was coming to the same conclusion, red staining her cheeks as she continuously rubbed the small seashell she brought back with her between her fingers.

  “Quit it,” he ordered.

  “What?” Her gaze shied away from his.

  “You know what. You haven’t done anything to be embarrassed about. He’s the fucking pervert for watching.”

  Agent Collins appeared to be chewing his tongue at overhearing his words to Ginny.

  Allerton’s assistant came out of his office before the agent could unglue his tongue from the roof of his mouth. “Mr. Allerton is ready for you.”

  Allerton waited until the assistant closed the door, leaving the four of them inside before speaking. “I hope your visit today was productive?”

  Instead of answering Allerton’s question directly, Ginny looked around the large office. “I expected my mother to be here.”

  “She wasn’t feeling well, so I suggested she remain at her bungalow and have an early night. If she isn’t feeling better by tomorrow, I’ll make sure she goes to the treatment center to see one of the doctors I keep on staff.”

  “I could go and check on her after we finish here,” Ginny suggested.

  “I think it’s better to retain your distance from Soleil until one of the doctors gives her a clean bill of health. Your trip to Clindale?” Tacking on the inquiry, Allerton quelled any further attempts for Ginny to ask about Soleil.

  “The only part of the island I vaguely recalled was the waterfall, but I can’t be sure if it was that specific one or because it was similar to a few I saw in Hawaii when I toured with Mouth2Mouth. It’s a beautiful island, but all islands are speculator when you see them, so I can’t say with certainty that—”

  “Mrs. James, whether you remember the waterfall or not has no bearing. I was asking if you recall memories that would help in retrieving the item stolen from me.”

  Allerton’s patience was running thin; his brooding anger was becoming more visible. “Nothing from the village sparked your memory?”

  “How? There was nothing left. Sorry, it was a massive failure.”

  “I wouldn’t say it was a failure, just one more step in the process. You said yesterday you would take the polygraph if I let you go to Clindale. I kept my end of the bargain. Anticipating this outcome, I gave Agent Collins a private office to conduct the polygraph in the morning. Will nine o’clock be fine, or would twelve suit you better?”

  “Nine.”

  “Very well. Goodnight.”

  Reaper remained in place as Ginny and Agent Collins moved away from the desk at Allerton’s perfunctory dismissal.

  “I’m taking into account the importance of you getting your artifact returned, but whatever plans you and Collins have made for the polygraph better include me being present with the list of questions for me to approve beforehand, or my wife will not be taking the test.”

  “Of course, Mr. James, you stated the conditions before. My memory isn’t the one that’s faulty.”

  “Our driver is waiting, Mr. James,” Agent Collins spoke from the doorway, breaking the tug-of-war between him and Allerton.

  Reaper turned on his heel to take Ginny’s arm.

  The agent gave him a sharp glance when the elevator doors closed. “That was extremely rude.”

  “Fuck you.”

  The agent was first off the elevator, the heels of his shoes clicking on the polished floor as they walked through the maze of corridors.

  He held the door open for them to go outside. “How do you think antagonizing Mr. Allerton will benefit your wife, Mr. James?” Agent Collins kept his tone even as he joined them outside.

  Reaper was sick of all the bullshit, stopping midstride to confront the man behind him. “How about you give me the straight-up truth? From where I’m standing, this shitshow is all about throwing Ginny under the bus. What I don’t get is why you’re aiding and abetting Allerton?”

  “I am not aiding Mr. Al
lerton. I’m facilitating both Mrs. James and Mr. Allerton to reach a mutual conclusion that will allow both of them to move onward with their lives.”

  “That son of bitch has billions of dollars; he can buy any fucking artifact he wants. I’ve offered to make restitution, and Allerton’s refusal shows he has no intention of moving on. I’m giving you fair notice, after Ginny takes that polygraph, I want a plane waiting to take us back to the States.”

  “Mr. James, what you want doesn’t matter, nor what I want. After the test, if Mrs. James shows no deception, I’m sure Mr. Allerton will allow both of you to return to the States.”

  “And if she fails?”

  “Then we’ll cross that bridge when we come with it. Mrs. James says she has no memory of the event. If she’s being truthful, I can see no reason for Mr. Allerton to prevent both of you from leaving, if that’s what Mrs. James desires.”

  “Why in the fuck would she want to stay?”

  Agent Collins looked inquiringly toward Ginny. “To stay with her mother until her father arrives back to the island. Which would you prefer—to go or to wait for your father?”

  Instead of Ginny immediately saying she was ready to get the fuck off the island, she gave him a pleading look for understanding. “I want to do whatever Agent Collins advises.”

  What the fuck? Was he in a bad episode of The Twilight Zone?

  Wanting nothing more than to get their asses out of there, Reaper wanted to shake Ginny silly for showing support to the agent. Instead, snapping his mouth closed, he strode rapidly to the Moke, leaving Ginny and Agent Collins to hurry after him.

  Already seated in the Moke, he shrugged his arm away when Ginny reached out to touch him. The short drive didn’t alleviate his anger. However, despite how furious he was, when he stepped out the Moke, he stopped long enough to help Ginny out, then took her arm to hustle her into the bungalow. Once inside, he refused to release the simmering anger.

  Certain the electronic devices he destroyed each time they left the bungalow had been replaced, Reaper went in the bedroom and began sweeping the room. Rather than return to the living room where Ginny was, he sat down on the side of the bed to stare at the devices clenched in his fist.