Reaper's Salvation: A Last Riders Trilogy Jamie Begley (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📖

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