Reaper's Salvation: A Last Riders Trilogy by Jamie Begley (read a book TXT) 📗

the loud grumblings coming from that direction, Reaper had no doubt that Ginny decked that room in girly shit, too.

“You’re here!” Ginny enthused as she grabbed his arm. “Isn’t it gorgeous?”

He couldn’t flat-out lie to her with a clear conscience. “It’s exactly like you said it would be.”

“I know, right?” Ginny pridefully surveyed her handiwork. “Sex Piston and Killyama think Trudy’s going to love it. Is it bad of me I wanted more balloons than when Lily had her baby shower?”

“Nothing’s wrong with a little healthy competition.” Congratulating himself on being able to keep a straight face, Reaper took a long look at what Ginny was wearing. Did the woman think he was stupid? She was wearing a dark brown animal dress that came to her knees, with a chunky black sweater that was meant to be loose but was unable to hide the burgeoning belly she was developing.

“How long is it going to take you to get dressed?” She nudged him toward the steps.

Reaper wasn’t fooled by her attempt to distract him. He had been living with her dodging and distracting him every time he tried to talk about her being pregnant for the last two and half months.

“Why do I need to change? I was going to grab something to eat and stay in our room.”

“I have literally told you a thousand times that you have to keep Dalton company. He’s not any happier than you. The least you could do is make it more bearable for him.” Ginny voice went an octave lower. “I don’t think he cares for Sex Piston.”

“No shit? I can’t imagine why.”

Ginny gave him a glare that put his death glare to shame.

“Give me ten minutes, and I’ll be back. That good enough?”

He guessed it was when Ginny gave him an air kiss on his cheek as she moved away after hearing Sex Piston yell from across the room. “Hurry up, little bitch. Trudy will be here any minute.”

Grumbling to himself with no one to hear, he went up to his room with Suki to lay out clean clothes before getting in the shower. Turning the water to hot, he luxuriating in the warmth of the spray. Every fucking bone in his body hurt. He had helped load two delivery trucks with a massive order, after working on the house that he and Ginny were building. This morning they put the wooden flooring in the bedrooms upstairs.

Washing his hair, he felt the length of stubble on the side of his skull was getting longer. He needed to shave it, but he didn’t have the energy. Determined for Ginny and him to be settled into the home before the baby was born was being waylaid by the wet weather and a series of mid-steps that caused multiple delays.

He’d been so distracted with his new life at home, he was surprised to see an email this afternoon regarding the investigation on the islanders’ disappearances. He’d already discovered from meteorological reports that no hurricane had hit Clindale with the force Allerton had described. The discovery had him hiring two ex-military investigators to find out what happened to the islanders. So far, little had been found, and the men were now methodically going through many of Allerton’s patrons to see if they played a part as well.

One of the emails had both good and bad news. What little was left Ginny’s father had been found, and he’d been the only body located in the ocean. He would tell Ginny tomorrow. He wasn’t about to let her party be ruined after she had worked to make it special for T.A.

Stepping out the shower, he dried off, then went into the bedroom to dress. He gave the bed a longing glance and told Suki to stay before going back downstairs. In the time he had been taking a shower, the club room had filled with even more women, who were watching him like a hawk.

He was relieved to see more men than he expected. Calder, Dalton, Stud, Viper, Shade, and Train grouped around at the bar, looking as miserable as he felt.

Moving behind the bar, Reaper took a bottled water. “How did Lucky manage to get out of coming?”

“Prayer meeting,” Razer answered, coming out of the kitchen to take a bottle of beer before he could shut the fridge door. “I volunteered to sub for him, but the lucky bastard turned me down.”

“Why don’t we go and hang out in the kitchen?” Reaper made the suggestion when Sex Piston and Fat Louise began talking about their experiences during child birth.

“And leave them alone with a bar full of liquor?” Viper snorted. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Half of them are pregnant.” Reaper wasn’t ready to give up the idea of escaping.

“The others aren’t. Those are the ones I’m not taking my eyes off of.” Viper positioned himself in the space between the bar counter and wall, when Killyama came out the kitchen carrying a tray of drinks.

Not put off by Viper’s presence, she held the tray out for him. “Place that bottle of Effen Blood Orange on for me.”

Viper’s shoulders went up two inches. “No.”

“You want me to put the tray down and get it myself?”

The sickly-sweet smile that Killyama gave Viper made the skin on the back of his neck crawl for his brother. Viper must have experienced the same side effect because he took the bottle of vodka off the shelf.

“None of the brothers were drinking it, anyway.” Viper made the excuse for himself after Killyama disappeared into the crowd of women.

“I would have given it to her, too.” Dalton gave a mock-shudder. “Train, I don’t know which of you I admire most. You or Calder.”

“Calder gets my vote.” Train laughed from the end of the bar. “At least Killyama won’t kill anyone unless they point a gun at her. All you have to do is look at Crazy Bitch the wrong way.”

The men spent the next painstaking fifteen minutes having to listen to the horror stories of