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

women are concerned, they tend to lose their judgment. While I’m not above taking advantage of their lapses, I have lived my life above reproach. I have not had to refute claims of any sexual crimes. I keep my sexual activities to those who are willing, and where I can’t be accused of coercion. It’s not as stimulating or exciting, but then, neither do I have to bow to a woman’s demands or deal with an unexpected pregnancy. Too many of my friends have been held hostage to the dictates of their child’s mother, both financially and emotionally. I am accountable to no one but myself.”

Ginny let her eyes spew the hate she felt. “That’s not true. Just because your crimes haven’t been discovered, doesn’t make you’re unaccountable. One day your crimes will catch up with you.”

“If that day comes, which it won’t,” Allerton continued, unperturbed by her threat, “I have several residences where I can live just as comfortably as I do here.”

“My death won’t go without punishment.”

“By whom? The Last Riders?”

The whizzing sound of the cane was the only forewarning she received as Allerton brought it down on her shoulder.

Ginny winced in pain but didn’t lower her hate-filled eyes from his.

“Please,” he scoffed, “they won’t even be a thorn in my side. Your parents?”

The cane whizzed again before striking her other shoulder.

Ginny held Gavin’s image to keep strong. He had suffered for years at Slate’s abuse; she could bear whatever Allerton dished out to get the answers she needed.

“Jasper?” Allerton gleefully went on, trying to tear her down mentally and physically. “You’ll be seeing him when Nino reunites you with Gavin. He was no threat to me. Soleil? She has been loyal only to me, even before your disappearance. Why do you think your parents remained on Clindale after there was no further need of them to do so, and why does she stay on Sherguevil with me now?”

“You tell me.” Flippantly Ginny asked the question wanting the answer more for Trudy than herself. Her sister deserved her own answers.

“Jasper was a brilliant engineer, unfortunately for him, too brilliant. I needed him on my team. No one doubted Jasper’s integrity, and it was much easier when several of my patrons needed permits. It took awhile for him to decide to get on board, but eventually Jasper agreed.”

“You blackmailed him, forced him to give the go-ahead for permits,” Ginny guessed.

Allerton smug grin became even more pronounced. “You give me too much credit. I wasn’t the one who blackmailed him.”

“What did Mother use to blackmail him?”

“You’ll have to ask her that question. I left that tedious task to her.”

“You’re lying.”

“How does it feel to be lied to?” He said as he swung the cane.

The pain doubled from the two pronged attack of him using the cane on her while gloating about her mother’s betrayal of her father. It hurt deeply, grinding the last visages of her happy childhood memories into the dust, hurting her more gravely than the cane flying at her skin.

Ginny refused to be defeated, not willing to give Allerton anymore satisfaction by deriding her father instead of filling in the gaps of her history.

“You actually think four agents disappearing won’t hold any ramifications from the FBI?”

Allerton stopped swinging the cane to point it at Agent Collins. “My dear, I hate to disillusion you, but your little jig with the FBI is up. I never put my eggs in one basket. I knew the real purpose for your return to Sherguevil Island was to get me to incriminate myself. Agent Collins was a double agent, pretending to be on my payroll while in reality he was gathering information to incriminate me. Fortunately, I have multiple sources in the FBI and the CIA; they warned me of the deception. Needless to say, the four agents will disappear without a trace, just like you and Gavin. Those on my payroll will bury the disappearance beneath miles and miles of red tape where it will never be found.” Giving a malicious chuckle, he brought the cane down on her shoulder with such force she fell to her side.

“Ginny raised her hand to push her hair from her face to look him in the eye. “Just tell me one thing … What was the artifact you think I stole?”

The cane stopped midswing, as if he was taken by surprise. “You really don’t remember?”

“No,” she said truthfully.

His chuckle melted into a frown.

“You took it. I saw it with my own eyes.”

“How?”

“On videotape. All the interiors of the ships coming into the island are set up with surveillance when visitors dock their boats for screening.”

“Why am I not surprised you lied?” Scornfully spat out at him. “You make that a habit, don’t you?”

The expected swing of the cane didn’t come because of her snide remark. Instead, it gave him the opportunity to gloat. “Sometimes my guests need motivation to come to an agreement with me.”

“Agreement? You mean kiss your ass?”

Ginny saw little black dots when he struck out at her.

“That day, with the owner being present, I couldn’t get access to the camera. The owner was there and found the artifact missing. He didn’t know who had taken it, only that it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. He searched for it before he called for my assistance. One of the crew had accidently left a deck door unlatched, which is how you must have gotten inside. By the time we got to the boat, all we had to go on was a vague description of Gyi’s son going to different boats at the marina and looking for something or someone. We only knew what the owner told us—the artifact was missing. Naturally we assumed it was Manny. Unfortunately back then, I didn’t have the state-of-the-art equipment to work with or the feed would have gone to my office. I had to wait until I got access to the equipment on board the owner’s boat to see what Manny had stolen. By then,