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

“She’s a nice person.” Only her iron will kept her voice from cracking.

The loud honk from the yard had them going outside.

Apparently uncaring of Viper watching, he placed a kiss on her lips. “When I come back, I’ll be bringing that door.”

“You going to tell Silas why you’re wantin’ to put that door up?” she teased, despite her heart breaking. He wouldn’t be coming back once Taylor and he made up. If his feelings for Taylor were over, he would have mentioned her being at the club. The internal debate going on in her head had the question sounding uncharacteristically “Kentucky twang” that would come out when her emotions went haywire.

“I’ll leave that up to you,” he said, going down the steps.

Turning at the bottom of the steps, Gavin must have seen her expression, because he walked back up the steps. “I’ll talk to him, okay?” Rubbing a thumb over her trembling bottom lip, he pulled her into his body. “If it’s going to make you uncomfortable, when I come back, we’ll talk it over and find another place for us to stay. Now, will you behave, or am I going to have to shove that horn up Viper’s ass?”

Hearing him talk of their future and finding another place to live, she smiled and yet her heart still broke. “I’ll behave.”

Hugging him closer to her, Ginny memorized every detail from his tattoos to his smoldering eyes and the incredible strength she felt emanating off him. She had known the deal with the FBI was going to be hard, but she hadn’t expected it to feel as if a lung was being ripped out of her. Having Gavin confess he no longer felt like a man the night before had broken the line of what she should or shouldn’t do; however, making love with him was a decision she would never regret. She loved him and wanted to reassure him he was exactly the man she needed. While he promised he would return to her, she knew he loved another woman, but for that moment in time, he had been hers. Ginny had to atone for many mistakes in her life, but making love with Gavin wasn’t one.

Ginny stifled her plea to come back as Gavin waved to Matthew and Isaac before he got inside Viper’s SUV.

It was too late to back out of the deal she made with the FBI; it would endanger the people she loved. Any hurt she felt over Gavin not telling her about Taylor was inconsequential. He deserved to be with the woman he spent years loving—just as she deserved to face the consequences for stealing from Gabriel Allerton.

Hammer, however, didn’t deserve the position she’d put him. By taking the DNA ancestry kit, she wound up using him to help broker the deal with the FBI. Though, she’d been secretly relieved he not only agreed but demanded to accompany her back to Clindale Island.

His steadying presence was the only reason she was able to sit calmly beside him while terror of facing her past twisted her stomach into knots. Every dip and bounce of the plane had her gripping the arms of her seat, expecting it to either explode or plunge toward the ground beneath them.

The FBI had promised to keep her safe, yet Ginny knew Allerton’s tremendous wealth would make it easy for him to accomplish the goal of removing her from existence, regardless of how many lives he would take in the process.

“Are you regretting the deal?”

Ginny looked away from the small window to Hammer. “Are you regretting wanting to come along?”

“Regrets mean I messed up in the first place, so no.”

“I wish I could say the same. I have too many to count.”

“I’m not going to let him hurt you.”

“I’m more worried about you getting hurt.” Ginny stared at Hammer’s rock-hard features. She would never describe Hammer as being a father figure to her, not even a big brother. He had been her protector. Even after she passed the age when he could have washed his hands of her, he hadn’t. She’d always known he was only a phone call away, and he would risk his life to protect her. Hammer was an oddity, a man who no longer existed in this day and time. A knight.

Feeling guilty, she looked away from him. “I shouldn’t have let you come. You have Mika and Jonas.”

“Shut up.”

Ginny turned back to face him. “You know I love you, right?”

Hammer’s face turned harder. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”

“One thing I’ve learned in life is you can’t make promises that are impossible to keep.” She had learned promises were as useless as a two-dollar bill—no matter how much people wanted to keep them, life ultimately took what it wanted.

“I’ve kept every promise I’ve ever made.”

“Then I want you to remember the one you made to me. If this goes bad, I want you to do whatever you have to do to get yourself out without me.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“You swore to me.” Ginny had no intention of letting him off the hook from his promise. “I expect you to keep your promise.” He might not be able to keep his promise about her safety, but she would make sure he protected his own life. “Jonas and Mika would be devasted if anything happened to you,” Ginny emphasized, reminding him why it was so important he survived.

“You’re just as important.”

Ginny didn’t respond. She would be missed by T.A. and her brothers if anything happened to her, but she wasn’t important to them. T.A. had Dalton and her friends, and her brothers had each other. She wasn’t so important that losing her would make a difference in their lives. It was just one of the reasons why she made the deal with the FBI—she was expendable. Gavin wasn’t. And even though Viper had Winter and Aisha, he needed Gavin to make him whole.

“You’re important to me.”

Ginny stared at him ruefully. “No, I’m not.”

“Believe me; you are.