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

childbirth experiences. The stories sent his gut twisting in worry for Ginny and the child she was pretending wasn’t resting below her heart.

At first, he’d mistakenly assumed she was waiting to tell him until after she knew for sure. Then, after her arm was sprained and she never mentioned birth control again, he assumed she was waiting until the perfect moment. Each day that passed, Reaper came up with a different reason until he came to the realization that he wasn’t capable of figuring how Ginny’s mind worked.

His best guess so far was that Ginny wasn’t going to admit she was pregnant until he admitted they weren’t married. The woman didn’t know him at all if she thought he was going to cave. He could be just as stubborn as she, or at least until he convinced Lucky to give him permission to marry her, which, by the way that was going, Ginny would be on their third child before Lucky conceded. He told himself to be patient, he could outwait her. Time was on his side how much longer could she pretend to be pregnant before she started showing?

Jerking his thoughts away from killing a man of the cloth or ask him how far along Willa was when she started showing, Reaper tuned back to the conversation the men were having, then wished he had stayed in never-never land at hearing Viper and Razer arguing about whose wife had the worst child birth.

“Beth had two kids during a blackout, in the middle of the night, while men were trying to kill her and breaking into her house,” Razer bragged.

Viper made a slicing wave of his hand. “Winter might have had only one kid, but she nearly fucking died when that drug cartel was ….”

Reaper switched off, going back to what the women were saying. At least their conversations didn’t involve death.

“Did you hear the new doctor in town has two sisters?” Willa shared with the group. “One is a midwife, the other is a doula.”

“Really? I didn’t hear that.” Trudy paused while opening a present. “Is it too late for me to use a midwife?”

“Yes, it is,” Dalton provided the information, proving he wasn’t the only one listening.

“When I have a baby, I plan on using a doula and a midwife,” Ginny stated implacably as if it was a forgone conclusion.

“Oh … hell, you’re not. Your ass will be sitting in a hospital, begging for an epidural,” Reaper yelled.

The group in women went silent.

Reaper placed his hand on the counter to steady himself for the death glares sent his way from the women.

“Then it’s good thing you won’t have any say in the matter.” Ginny shifted on the couch to give him the cold shoulder.

“What happened to you being tenderhearted?” Reaper mocked. “You think that snatch isn’t going to hurt like hell when you try to squeeze out a bowling ball?”

When the women gave Ginny expectant looks, waiting for another comeback, Reaper also prepared himself for what she would say next. Instead, she turned to Willa but he couldn’t hear what she was saying, so he looked at the brothers who were also trying to listen in.

“Ginny asked Willa if midwives give epidurals,” Shade provided.

Winning that particular battle, Reaper was able to ease his guard for a sixty-second reprieve when he saw someone coming in the front door. Silently, he groaned. “Some days, it doesn’t pay to get out of the fucking bed.”

Viper gave a low whistle under his breath when he turned to see what Reaper was staring at.

“You’re fucked.” Viper sympathized, seeing the woman who walked through the door.

Reaper agreed. “Tell me something I don’t know. You might as well go ahead and dig my grave.”

Viper didn’t argue as the woman swatted the baby foot balloon away.

Reaper started toward the door, in the hopes of getting Taylor out the door before the group of women noticed her. Moon must have said a few words to Taylor before letting her inside, and from the glitteringly angry look she was giving Reaper, she must not have liked what Moon said.

“I don’t understand why Moon has to be so rude to me.”

At one time, Reaper would have hastened to smooth it over. Those days were gone.

“What are you doing here?”

Taylor’s expression went through a rapid-fire change. “I came to see you. I came before, a few weeks ago, and Viper told me you weren’t in Treepoint.”

Conscious of the room going silent, Reaper stopped moving toward her, keeping six inches between them. “We have nothing to talk about. You’ve wasted a trip both times.”

“Let’s go upstairs to one of the rooms to talk privately.”

He raised his hand to stop her when she would have come closer. “You’re good where you are.”

“Gavin, please don’t be this way. I know I hurt you when I came to the rehabilitation center, but what was I supposed to do? I was married, with my son on the way. I was confused.”

“You aren’t confused any longer?”

“No. Gavin, you know I love you. I’ll always love you.”

Reaper stared coldly at the woman who he had once thought he would marry.

The stark difference between Taylor and Ginny went far beyond appearances. Plus, there hadn’t been a ring of truth in a single word Taylor said.

Dressed in a hot pink skirt and a tie-dye top, she managed to come across as both sexy and classy. Back in the day, it would have given him a hard-on at the sexual confidence Taylor was an expert at achieving.

In hindsight, Reaper could see it was the sexual challenge that had attracted him to Taylor. During the year of their engagement, the challenge had begun to dull. Seeing her now, with his mind clear of the drugs, and with Greer and Silas helping him to deal with his kidnapping, he saw the future he and Taylor would have had. They wouldn’t have made it through two years of marriage, if that, and would probably have had a child dealing with the fallout.

They were