by Jamie Begley
Ginny continued to worry as she shoved a baking sheet into the dishwasher.
When Penni stormed into the kitchen to get a beer and a pitcher of tea to take outside, Ginny slowed down abusing the bakeware. After seeing Penni stomp back out again, she looked out the window and saw Fat Louise, Killyama, and Sex Piston having a picnic with Lily and their children. Had she been deluding herself? Did Trudy just not have the heart to tell her the truth, that they’d never be safe enough to even be roommates? What would it be like to be out there, laughing and having a good time with them? Just once she wished she knew.
Her mouth dropped open when Penni dumped the pitcher of tea over Killyama’s head. A fight erupted between the two women, sending the backyard into a turmoil that had the men running outside to break them apart.
Maybe watching from the safety of the other side of the glass wasn’t all that bad.
Chapter Thirty
“Greer, are you hungry? I can make you something to eat once I put the groceries away,” Ginny shouted over her shoulder, unlocking her door after going to the grocery store with her bodyguard.
Ginny tried not to laugh at the fact of Greer Porter being her bodyguard.
Willa had cornered her when she had gotten off work the day she refused to move into the club. She had managed to talk her into letting the Porters keep an eye on her when she wasn’t at work. Ginny had been hesitant, but Willa convinced her, saying that it would make everyone happier, including her, if they knew she was safe.
“Do they know it’s me that they’ll be watching?”
“Yes.” Willa gave her a strange look. “Why?”
“Because the Porters and the Colemans are feuding.”
“I thought it was the Porters and the Hayes that were feuding?”
“They are. They’re feuding with the Colemans, too.”
“Are the Colemans feuding with the Hayes?”
“No, just the Porters. The Hayes and the Colemans don’t like each other, but they aren’t feuding.” Ginny started thinking about it. It had been a while since she had talked to any of her brothers. They could be feuding with the Hayes since she had moved to town. “Or, at least not that I know of. I’ll have to ask Jessie when I see her around town.”
“I’m sure the feud between the Colemans and the Porters is all in the past, or they wouldn’t have taken the job.”
“Do you mind asking the Porters?” Ginny asked. “I really don’t want to make my brothers mad at me.”
Willa laid a gentle hand on her arm. “You don’t want to ask your brothers yourself?”
Ginny lowered her lashes so Willa couldn’t see the hurt in her eyes. “They won’t talk to me.”
“I’ll have Lucky talk to both the Colemans and the Porters and negotiate a cease fire until this situation is resolved.”
Ginny had been grateful for Willa’s intervention, and it had been Lucky who had told her that both families had promised to put their differences aside until Viper felt there was no longer a need for her to be protected.
It hadn’t been bad. The Porters kept their distance, unless she had to go out, then one of the three brothers went with her. Greer was the one who’d gone with her to the grocery store, saying he had a few things he could pick up. In fact, she struggled getting him out of the store.
“You handy at making biscuits?” he asked as they went into the store.
“Yes.”
“If I make the fixin’s, you think you can make them for me?”
“Certainly, I wouldn’t mind at all.”
“You any good at making sausage and gravy? Got to have something to go with them biscuits.”
“I’ll get sausage when we go down the meat aisle.”
It hadn’t been his last request. Every aisle they passed through, he added to the menu. Before they finally finished, she had a full cart, and nearly forgot the ingredients she had volunteered to pick up for Willa.
Carrying one bag of groceries inside, she called out for her kitty as Greer came in with an armload of groceries.
“Ginny!”
Startled, Ginny turned at Greer’s shout, freezing when he dropped the groceries and started running toward her. Flinging the groceries away from her, he grabbed her arm and started running, trying to drag her out the door.
Frantically tugging herself away, she barely had time to snatch her kitten off the couch before Greer clutched her arm again, this time forcing her out the door at a dead run.
“What …?” she gasped out as they ran across her lawn.
“Gas leak!”
Shocked, Ginny turned to stare at Greer in disbelief when an explosion rocked her house, sending both her and Greer to the ground.
“Smokey!”
Her terrified kitten had wiggled out from under and ran up the closest tree.
Screaming her kitten’s name again, she tried to get back up.
“Stay down!” Greer hissed, covering her with his body as another explosion had sparks landing on the grass next to them.
Greer was lifting her up when the fire department and police cars came down the street with their lights flashing and sirens sounding.
Leaving Greer to tell Knox what happened, Ginny went to the tree, trying to coax Smokey down. “Come to, Mama,” she crooned hiccupping cries from her lips. “Here, kitty, kitty.”
The firefighters turning the water hoses on sent the kitten higher up into the tree. She was still helplessly trying to talk her kitten down when another pop sounded from inside her house.
“Greer, get her a blanket and get her the fuck out of here!” Knox bellowed, picking her up to move her farther away from the house.
“I can’t leave my kitten!” Ginny yelled, trying to throw herself out of his restraining hold.
“I’ll get one of the firefighters to get it down when we get the fire under control.” Knox handed her off to Greer, who frog-marched her to a truck parked behind the fire truck.
Greer lifted Ginny onto the seat, then got in beside her. Tate, one of Greer’s brothers, sat stoically behind the steering wheel as he pulled out to do a U-turn to drive out of her neighborhood.
Staring sightlessly out the window, she saw orange flames glowing in the rearview mirror. Her neighbors were standing outside their homes, watching as everything she owned burned to the ground.
Her fight gone, she scooted out of the truck when they arrived at the police station and took a seat in the lobby as Tate and Greer took a seat next to her. All three sat there, listening as the dispatcher talked back and forth to Knox.
She twisted the blanket around her when she heard Knox radio the dispatcher to send for a tow truck to her address to pick up a burnt car.
“Let’s go sit in Knox’s office.” Greer started to rise.
Ginny shook her head.
“Maybe it’s not as bad as it sounds,” Tate said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
She stared ahead dully, looking out the plate glass window, watching as customers went in and out of the diner. Their lives went on unaffected by what had turned hers upside down once again.
Greer reached up to put more of the blanket around her. “Your car insurance should pay—”
“It was a used car. I only had liability.”
Ginny appreciated Greer’s and Tate’s encouragements and staying with her. And they were still with her when Knox, Viper, Shade, and Jackal came into the station, their faces grim masks.
Jackal looked like he had tangled with a mountain lion. His face was covered in grime, his T-shirt fared better, and his pants were ripped practically to shreds.
Viper moved to stand in front of her. “Your house is gutted. The Last Riders will make this right.”
“What caused the explosion?”
“We won’t be able to tell for sure until it’s investigated,” he hedged.
“You believe it has something to do with me working for The Last Riders, or you wouldn’t have to make it right.” She turned from staring out the window to squarely
meet Viper’s eyes.
“The insurance I have will only cover the cost of the loan I took for the house. I haven’t lived there long enough to build up any equity.” Ginny went back to staring out the window. “I won’t even get enough to get back the deposit I put down on it.”
“I’ll make it right. You’ll get your deposit back, and I’ll personally buy any house you want.”
“No. Thank you, but no. If I get enough out of the insurance to pay the loan off, I’ll be okay. My kitten is dead, isn’t she?” she asked, bracing herself for the answer that she knew was coming.
Jackal moved in front of her. “I climbed the tree to get it. When I was coming, she jumped out of my hand and ran into the street. One of your neighbors accidently hit it when he was trying to move his car from the driveway next to yours. I tried to save it.”
“I know you did. We heard the car almost hit you, too.”
She had nowhere to go. She had no idea what she was going to do. She had nothing left, except the clothes on her back. She couldn’t call Hammer or Trudy; what if Viper was wrong and the explosion had nothing to do with The Last Riders. It could have been the enemy she had been running from since she was three years old, testing to see if Hammer or Trudy made contact.
“Viper, is your invitation for me to stay at the club still open?” She’d had to clear her husky voice to get the words out.
“Yes.”
“Then, would you mind if we go? I’m tired.”
“Of course.”
When she rose, the men parted to let her go first, except for Shade. His enigmatic gaze caught hers.
“How did you know the cat was dead?”
“Because anything I love always gets destroyed.”
Ginny stood staring at the shell of the home that she had been so proud of owning. Not only was it in ashes, but so were all the dreams and hopes she deceived herself that she could make come true. The truth was her dreams were never going to come true. If she stayed in Treepoint, she would always be outside looking in.
The night her house was destroyed, Penni had offered her a job as a caterer for the band she managed. Ginny waited until Penni was ready to leave before making up her mind to accept the offer.
The Last Riders thought she was leaving because Raci—the woman responsible for giving out her name and address—had offered her up to the cartel to strike at the club. Willa confessed to her that Raci had done it to save her cousin and husband, who had been kidnapped by the same cartel that killed Fat Louise’s father and sister. Willa hoped the information would keep her from leaving. It didn’t.
Raci had picked the one person who she thought had the least repercussions. Ginny didn’t have a husband or a lover who would miss her. Instead she had friends who would forget her, and jobs that could be done by someone else. She was expendable. Even Trudy had four friends whom she considered sisters. Truthfully, they were more like sisters to her than Ginny was. At least Trudy wouldn’t have to worry about being blown to smithereens if she decided to stay the night at her house. She would be taking her sister’s life in her hands, even if they pretended to only be friends like Beth and Lily.
Losing Smokey had shown her that the farther distance between herself and others, the better. It was what Hammer had been trying to tell them whenever she and Trudy wanted to get together. The kitten would have been better off at the animal shelter than with her, just like Trudy would be better off with her gone.
A strong gust of wind sent her hair swirling in disarray. Battling back against the wind, a dose of cold, hard reality suddenly struck her. The cartel had actually done her a favor, proving she wasn’t strong enough to take on Allerton yet. Especially not if she wanted to keep Trudy out of harm’s way.
For her to take Allerton on, she had to get to the point where nothing else mattered but taking him down. To do that, she needed to strategize like a master chess player. Not only that, but she had to become physically and mentally stronger. She needed to become a force to be reckoned with, and to do that she needed to be alone. Only when she managed to defeat Allerton would she be able to quit looking from the outside in, and she would finally be able to join the lives of those she loved.
“Are you ready?” Penni asked, waiting beside the car with a man who worked security for the band. It was how Penni convinced Shade to let her leave.
“I’m ready.” Ginny reached down, picking up the black trash bag of the few things she managed to salvage from the rubble.
As she walked toward the car, Penni got in the back seat while the guard took the bag from her to put in the trunk.
Ginny put a hand on the roof of the car, bending down to dip her head in before getting inside. Another strong gust of wind sent her hair whirling as if a Tasmanian devil was aggravating her. It reminded her of when Silas would sneak up behind her and Leah to mess up their hair.
Unable to help herself, she laughed as she dived into the car to escape.
“See? I told you it would be good for you to stop and say good-bye,” Penni said when she heard her laughter. At first, she thought Penni was crazy when she suggested stopping and saying good-bye to the burnt-out shell of her former home. Ginny was glad she had; her head was much clearer.
Ginny ran her fingers through her fine hair to untangle it. “It’s not good-bye,” she said, buckling her seat belt and staring straight ahead. “It’s just for now.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Gavin stirred on the cot. The Navy man, who was still somewhere deep inside of him, who had been hidden for so long, had him opening his eyes, trying to recognize the sound that used to be a part of his past, trying to rationalize what it meant. The heroin they had just shot through his veins placed images and sounds in his mind that he couldn’t unscramble enough to know what was real and what was imagined.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood erect, while his hearing increased, just like it used to back in the day, right before a mission, yet the drug lulled him back, telling him it was just another figment of his imagination.
Closing his eyes, he figured the drugs must have been a new concoction of Butcher’s. Not only the part of him that had once been a Navy SEAL, but every visage of being worthy of being a Last Rider was gone. What was left was just a ghost of the man he used to be.
Hearing the sound again, it didn’t inspire him to fight through the poison that was killing him day by day, too beaten down to give a damn anymore. Being saved was something Gavin no longer wished for. Hell, the only thing he prayed for now was to not be saved. Through all his unanswered prayers, his one last hope was that this single fucking prayer would be granted. He no longer looked to God to answer his prayers, or even The Last Riders. No, it was Slate who he begged to send him to Hell—to grant him the death that, no matter what Butcher pumped into his body, remained just out of reach. That was the downfall about being the Reaper—you were already fucking dead.
So, when he heard the deathly quiet footsteps of multiple men come down those dreaded wooden steps, he didn’t want to believe it. Not even when a heavily tatted man, who he used to call a brother, appeared in his glazed vision.
Ten years of his life had been spent in this six-by-ten basement. Ten years he would never get back. And, even if he did get out it, he would no longer have a life worth living, not after what he endured. That was why he had stopped trying to run. Seeing the sightless eyes of the woman he had killed had effectively shackled him to the basement, as if wearing leg irons too strong to escape.
An inked hand filled his distorted vision. He prayed it was another hallucination from the heroin coursing through his veins, like he would see with Taylor. He was convinced this new vision was just another head trip. But, unlike the ones he was used to, the inked hand didn’t fade away; it felt as if he was being touched for the first time in years by someone who actually cared. It was the moment he knew he should have prayed harder, terrified the face bending over him wasn’t a mirage and the soulless eyes were ones he recognized.
&
nbsp; Shade was a man incapable of failing a mission. He was the first person who he prayed to see come through the door when he had first been locked in this hell … but now he was the last.
Gavin had seen that look of determination on his face too many missions to count. Reaper was getting out of here—and he was fucking getting out alive.
Shade would see to that.
The world deserved Gavin James, not Reaper. Releasing Reaper would release a wrath unlike this earth had ever seen. It would be a Hellfire scorching every inch, until all the beautiful and ugly things died, burning to the ground until only one thing remained—ash.
Fighting to keep himself there, to keep Reaper where he belonged, was all he knew to do when Shade and now Train fought to get him up. His brothers had good intentions, but they didn’t see that Gavin wasn’t the one they were saving. They were too late; Gavin was gone.
They were releasing the very thing that The Last Riders had spent their lives protecting everyone from.
He struggled against the fake Shade and Train, created in a drug-induced mind, a state of consciousness that could no longer distinguish the difference between reality and fantasy, like a gamer lost in a virtual reality. There was only one reality his mind could accept. Having his hopes crushed so many times, the very thing he wanted became another enemy just out of reach.
Gavin fought against the captor who wore a mask that looked like Shade’s face; he vaguely remembered how he used to fear him from time to time, but now the Reaper was being unleashed, they were matched.
“Move away, Train, Shade. Let Killyama take him.”
He heard the command from a man he hadn’t even known was there. Instantly the figures of the men he knew released him. Falling back down onto his cot, the drugs weighed him down like a ton of bricks.
“Come with me, Gavin. I have something to make you feel better.”
His crazed eyes moved from the soulless ones to see the silhouette of a woman reaching through the haze. Thinking Taylor was there once more, he waited for her to disappear again when her hand touched his arm and lifted him. The face near his wasn’t Taylor’s, but he didn’t fight her like he had the others. He couldn’t have another woman’s death on his conscience.