by Jamie Begley
“We give him an opportunity to get to me.”
“How?”
“I’ll start a schedule I follow when you’re around and give him an opportunity when no one else in around.”
“Who will be with me?”
“Nickel. And I’ll make sure you’re either in rehearsals with Kaden or on stage. I won’t leave you alone.”
“I didn’t think you would.”
As she carried the watering can back into the kitchen, she heard Gavin’s phone ringing. She unashamedly eavesdropped on his conversation.
“How’s Mason?” Gavin asked. When she’d asked earlier to go to the hospital instead of coming home, he’d told her that Alec would call with an update.
Wrapping her arms around her waist, Ginny waited nervously for the call to end. Thankfully, it wasn’t long.
“Mason if fine. Alec is driving him home. He has a bump at the back of his head and he needs someone to stay with him for the next few days, but the doctor said it’s not a concussion.”
“I’m glad. I’ve been worried sick about him.”
Going to the coffee table, Ginny picked up her cell phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“I’m calling Alec. I’m going to go stay with Mason.”
“No, you aren’t.”
“Yes, I am.” Disregarding Gavin’s decree, Ginny started to call Alec. She was left blinking when he swept her phone out of her hand.
“Do you want whoever knocked him out to come back and finish the job?”
“No.”
“He could think something is going on with Mason instead of me.”
“Whoever did it has been watching me enough to know when and how to get in my dressing room. I’m sure they would know that I was there because I feel responsible.”
“You want to bet his life on that reasoning?”
Ginny bit her bottom lip. “No.”
“Alec is going to stay with him tonight and make sure he’s not left alone until he recovers.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“It’ll have to do, because you’re not going.”
“You enjoy bossing people around, don’t you?”
“What?”
Ginny sat down on the couch to take her tennis shoes off. Then, curling up against the armrest, she pulled a throw pillow onto her lap, making herself comfortable. “You do it to me a lot. I would be upset, but you’re just as bad with men. You expect everyone to follow your orders—Nickel, Alec, his men. I bet you and Viper fight constantly.”
“We used to, not so much anymore.” His pained expression showed it was an unwilling admission. She couldn’t help but try to heal his pain.
“Your both alpha. He’s giving in because he loves you.”
“You don’t know shit about Viper and me.”
Ginny saw his back go ramrod straight as he tried to deny her assertion.
“I don’t have to. I can see it with my own two eyes. With both of you being alpha, the only one that Viper would be able to cave into would be you.”
“Quit saying that as if we’re two dogs trying to piss on the same tree.”
Ginny made a face. “I certainly didn’t mean it like that. Both of you are leaders, not followers. It only stands to reason you would have fights.”
“I’m no leader.” Reacting as if she had hit a raw nerve, Gavin went to the door. “I’m going to get my things and talk with Nickel.”
“I’ll make us lunch,” she offered, beginning to get up.
“Don’t bother. I’ll find something while I’m next door.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you, Gavin.”
“I’m not upset. I don’t care enough about your opinions to give a fuck.”
It took all of her willpower not to burst into tears at his callous remark. However, Ginny would rather shoot herself in the foot before she let him know he hurt her. She would lick her wounds after he left.
Ginny proudly tossed the pillow aside to stand as if he had missed his mark. “That’s fair. You didn’t ask for my opinions. I should have kept them to myself.” Giving him a dismissive nod of her chin, she went to the door to unlock it. “If you’re ready, I’ll lock the door behind you.”
Gavin paused before going through the door. “Are you going to let me back in when I come back?”
“Of course.” She raised her clear eyes to his. “I’ve been making the effort to discover what type of man you are, while you couldn’t care less what type of woman I am. It shows by you having to ask me that question. You might not know me well enough yet to know this about me, but I’m going to be fair and give you a heads-up. You’re not the only one who’s not afraid to ride in storms.”
Chapter Thirteen
Reaper stared up at the dark ceiling with eyes so tired they felt like they were filled with sawdust. Rolling to his side, he used his legs to kick the covers off him. Ginny’s spare bedroom was a fourth the size of his at the club.
His racing mind wouldn’t let him sleep. He kept going back to the way he had spoken to her when she got too close to the truth. He remembered his arguments with Viper when they got out of the service and him trying to get his brother to see him as an equal. What hit him hard was that Ginny’s insight was probably closer to what really had gone down. Even as a child, Viper had been responsible; their mother leaning on him with Ton being deployed. When she left, Viper had easily stepped in as the provider. Entering the Navy, each step up the ladder of command had crafted and honed Viper to become a man to be respected and feared. It was only when Viper left that Reaper started relying on his own strength without having Viper ready to pick up the pieces if things went to shit.
Coming out the service hadn’t been an easy adjustment for Ton. Their father had spent too many nights out at bars, and Reaper had lost count of the fights he had to get him out of. He never told Viper, not wanting him to worry about Ton. When he was old enough to join the service, Ton finally settled down enough to quit drinking, and he took a job that gave new meaning to his life.
Entering the service, Reaper had found his purpose in life. He took the skills he was taught and moved up the ranks just as quickly as Viper had, until he landed on the team that Viper commanded. They hadn’t butted heads then, because it had been Viper’s job to look out for his men, and Reaper’s job to follow his orders.
No, what had changed the dynamic of their relationship was when they started the club. He had presumed the fights were because Viper didn’t respect him and only saw him as a younger brother. Ginny’s viewpoint had him seeing the flip side of the coin. Had the problems with Viper been because both of them had such dominant personalities and only one could win, and not because they saw the other as stronger or weaker, older or younger?
Rolling to his other side, Reaper replayed memories of past arguments with new eyes. Did she have a point, or was Ginny getting into his mind? He’d been afraid of this exact thing happening. His emotions becoming chaotic, another scene flashed through his mind of the couple who pretended to be kidnapped—the people who duped him.
Clenching his hands by his sides, he grasped the sheets to keep himself on the bed instead of getting up to pace. He had locked the door of the bedroom, but he hadn’t barricaded it because he hadn’t wanted her to hear him moving the furniture around.
Reaching for the extra pillow beside his head, he pulled it over his eyes, trying to block the seam of light underneath the door. He kept imagining shadows moving from the other side. Hyper-aware of every sight and sound made it more difficult to sleep. He had tried every sleep aid to help him, except medication, which he refused to take. He was so tired, he felt it in his bones. What little sleep he did manage to get was sporadic and not certainly not deep.
Wearily, he dozed off, only to wake gasping for air, covered in a cold sweat. Sitting up on the side of the bed, he flicked the light on, seeing the two pillows in two different areas of the room and the blanket barely hanging onto the front of the bed.
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br /> Picking up his watch, he saw he’d been asleep for two and a half hours. Knowing he wouldn’t fall back to sleep, he went to his duffle bag to take out his computer. Making himself comfortable on the bed, he opened it, going to the file that Shade had sent him on Ginny.
Reading through the pages, he discovered she hadn’t had an easy life. Ginny’s mother had signed her parental rights over to her father when she was four years old, leaving her to be raised by her father, Freddy Coleman.
This was his second time reading the information, and he still raised an eyebrow at the number of children Freddy had fathered. At his death, he’d had ten children, and from the information given to him, he had been a good father, if not a little unconventional with the way he had raised them. Even with most of the children born from different mothers, he had managed to keep a good relationship with them. Why had it been so different with Ginny’s mother? As far as it was written on the report, Ginny had no contact with her once she signed her rights away.
Scrolling down farther, he reread where her sister, Leah, and her father had died in an accident when they were riding a four-wheeler. Not long after that, Ginny was removed from the care of her brothers to live in a foster home until she had graduated.
Skimming through her school records and the jobs she held once she was on her own showed she was a hard-working and reliable employee and was determined to make it without any help. Not like there was any help offered. Neither the Colemans nor her foster parents had displayed any interest in her welfare.
Reaper was rereading the report for that very reason. Why hadn’t her brothers tried to maintain a relationship with their sister? The Wests were her foster family, so it could have been they never developed a connection to Ginny, but why hadn’t her brothers, especially the older ones, tried to keep an eye out for her? Her brothers kept to the same isolated lifestyle they had before their father’s death. The only time they left their property was to work the menial jobs they held in town or to go to the store. From the reports, none of them had a girlfriend in the past or even currently. Reaper found that unbelievable, making a note to tell Shade to investigate further.
Scrolling down, Reaper continued reading about Ginny’s stalker. It hadn’t been her first. No, that dubious honor belonged to her first boss, Carter Dawkins. Old enough to be her grandfather, he had made a pest of himself when Ginny worked for him at his insurance office. He skimmed through Knox’s meticulous reports of the times he’d been called in as sheriff to cease Dawkins’ harassment of her. Ginny had only called once; the other calls had come from a cook at the diner, concerned with the way Dawkins was watching Ginny. Since the old fucker was now six feet under, Reaper knew he wasn’t the one currently making her life miserable.
Ginny’s friendships had been few in Treepoint. She developed a close relationship with Willa after she worked for her. Lucky, as her pastor, had been her school mentor when she was younger. Other than that, there were only casual friendships. Like her brothers, she never dated.
The fact he couldn’t get around was when she worked for The Last Riders, Ginny retained a professional relationship with the members. Reaper found it hard to believe that a young woman her age hadn’t developed a liking to one of the brothers, considering how many hours she spent at the club. If she had been with someone, she was either skilled at hiding or Shade hadn’t included it in the report, which could have been the case.
But Shade’s report was detailed, even going so far as making notations to the side, yet he hadn’t delved deeply into the confidential aspects that only someone close to Ginny would know. Shade probably hadn’t done so because it wouldn’t have a bearing on who was stalking her, and it didn’t, other than the fact Reaper’s curiosity was piqued.
After leaving Treepoint, she had moved to Queen City with Penni, Shade’s sister, going to work for Mouth2Mouth. From there, Shade’s probe into Ginny’s life came from Penni. Other than Penni, she had several friends, none of whom Penni described as close. She had found a roommate once the band quit touring. Gianna had been a friend of a friend who worked for Penni. Again, there was no reference to Ginny’s dating life.
Finishing Shade’s notes, he summarized by saying that, other than working, Ginny had led a reclusive life, only going out occasionally with the casual friendships she made in Queen City, or when she visited with Willa in Treepoint.
Rubbing his eyes, he closed the computer. There had been no interest in men anywhere in the research from her childhood to now, yet she told him she loved him. Why?
He wanted to dodge the question, but if he was going to identify the stalker, Reaper had to look in the unlikely spots to find what Shade and Rider had missed. Her stalker made himself known after Ginny sang for the first time at a nightclub; had the stalker, like him, felt the same connection, except Ginny was unaware of it? Or was she? He was going to have to ask, which was a conversation he didn’t want to have, as it would expose the connection he had felt.
Closing his eyes, he drifted off just as the sun was beginning to shine through the top of curtains, lightening the walls with a pale amber glow.
Forcing himself go through his emails after making himself breakfast, Reaper didn’t look up from the computer when he heard Ginny come into the room.
“Good morning.”
“Morning.”
Opening an email from Viper, he started reading, tuning her out as she went to the kitchen.
“You’re up early.”
He didn’t respond, continuing to work on the computer.
“I can make us something to eat, if you’re hungry?”
“I ate.”
“Couldn’t have been much. I don’t see any dishes.”
“I did them.”
“You already did them and put them away?”
“Yes.”
“I knew you were the perfect man for me.”
His attention flew from the computer screen to Ginny, whose smile showed she achieved her goal.
“I’m going to make a cup of coffee. Would you like a cup?”
“No, thanks. If I want one, I can get it.”
Her smile disappearing, she turned from the counter to get her coffee.
Staring at the computer screen, he couldn’t remember where he left off and had to start over. When he read the email for the third time, he admitted to himself that he was listening to the small sounds Ginny was making instead of concentrating on working.
Answering Viper’s email became a trial in endurance when she took a seat opposite of him, taking a bite of her toast as she stared a hole through the back of the computer. He ignored it as long as he could before raising glowering eyes.
“What?”
“Are you usually this quiet in the morning, or is it just me?”
“Both.” Becoming exasperated, more at himself for letting her divert his attention, he added, “I’m trying to work.”
As she stared at him thoughtfully, Reaper tried not to squirm uncomfortably. His eyes dropped to her throat when she swallowed a bite of her toast, trying to prepare himself for what would come out of her mouth next.
“Go ahead. I won’t say another word. I promise.”
Well, that wasn’t fucking good.
Taking a sip of her coffee, she took her cell phone out and started doing something on it.
Lowering his gaze back to the email, he tried again to focus, unable to prevent himself from looking at her intermittently through his lashes as she finished her toast and coffee before gathering her cup and plate and going back to the kitchen. When she didn’t come back to the living room, he began to wonder what she was doing. The more he told himself not to look, the more he wanted to. Hearing her opening and closing cabinets, then going to the refrigerator had him thinking she was doing it to irritate him. He was about to give in to his curiosity and ask what she was doing when she breezed out of the kitchen and went into her bedroom.
With her finally gone, he was able to finish Viper’s email and had pulled up
another when she breezed back in again, carrying a jacket.
“Where are you going?”
When Ginny pinched two fingers together and slid them across the front of her lips, then pretended to throw something over her shoulder, he knew he was getting payback.
“Locking your lips and throwing the key away is juvenile. I need to get this done, but hey, if you want to go out ….” Snapping the computer shut, he started to get up to go with her, irritated the work he told her he wanted to get done would have to wait. When he would have gotten up, though, she raised a hand to stop him as a knock sounded on the door.
Walking to the door, Ginny flicked the locks before opening the door.
“Don’t open ….” He got up so fast his thigh hit the leg of the table.
She didn’t listen, opening the door as Reaper came to limping stop to see Nickel on the other side.
“You ready?” Nickel asked, eyeballing him from over Ginny’s shoulder.
“Yes. I hope I didn’t disturb you.” Ginny gave Nickel the same sweet smile she gave him that turned his dick on like a circuit breaker.
“No.” Nickel grinned at her. “I could use some groceries, too. Rider only left half a jar of peanut butter and a few cans of soup. You mind if we grab some lunch before we go? I’m starving.”
“Works for me. All I’ve had is toast. You in a mood for some burgers?” Ginny asked, placing her phone in her purse.
She was taking him to their restaurant? Technically, it wasn’t their restaurant, and he hadn’t wanted to go back, but she didn’t know that.
“Are you kidding? I eat so many burgers the brothers call me the burger king,” Nickel bragged.
“Since when?”
Nickel glared at Reaper at the snide question.
Ginny ignored the exchange between them, going through the doorway as if he didn’t exist. “Then you’re going to love the restaurant I’m going to take you to.”
How in the fuck did she consider that dive a restaurant?
“Ready?”
“Ready is my middle name,” Nickel joked back at her.