by Jamie Begley
Neither did he. Reaper stared at the expensive car smashed into the size of a pancake.
“No. A stake kills a vampire every fucking time.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Striding through the lobby of the church, Reaper gave a brief knock on Lucky’s door. Viper had wanted him to return to the club after leaving the Wests’, but he needed to get a fresh perspective on Ginny’s stalker.
“Come in.”
“You have a few?”
“More than a few. I could use a break. With Willa and the kids staying at Viper and Winter’s, I don’t have anything else to do but catch up on church paperwork and write sermons. I’m good until next year.” Lucky placed his ink pen down on his desk right as his cell phone dinged.
“Excuse me for a second,” Lucky said as he replied to the text. “Sorry. I’m having a new gate installed on the children’s play area. Ginny talked her brothers into making a donation. So, what can I do for you?”
“Actually, it’s because of Ginny that I stopped by. I wanted to pick your brain about Ginny’s stalker. There’s something Shade, Rider, and I are missing.” Shoving his hands in his back pockets, he paced back and forth in front of Lucky’s desk.
“I was wondering if dealing with the Wests would give you a guilty conscience.”
Frowning at Lucky, Reaper stopped at pacing. “Where the Wests are concerned, the last thing I feel is guilt. Ginny wasn’t close to the Wests—Shade reported they hadn’t talked in years. His report said the Wests gave negative feedback to the State on Ginny. There was not one thing positive they had to say about her in her file. The only good deed they ever did was give that other child, Darcy, back to the State.”
“I agree. Lisa gave Darcy back to the State when she was sick and failed to tell the caseworker. If the new foster mother hadn’t reacted fast enough and sought medical attention, that little girl would have died. Do you think Ginny’s stalker could have any ties to the Wests?”
“No. I looked at their hard drive. The Wests weren’t like the other couple. Slate was their only contact to provide their fantasies. I’ve gone over Shade’s and Rider’s information over a dozen times. I’m missing something.”
“Shade did the same thing you’re doing when he was watching Ginny. I’m afraid I wasn’t much help to him or Rider when they asked me for a new pair of eyes.” Lucky twirled his ink pen between his fingers.
Frustrated at himself for not being able to come up with any new ideas about Ginny’s stalker, Reaper stopped pacing in front of Lucky’s window. The Colemans were lifting an iron gate out of a heavy-duty pickup truck. Silas, Jody, and Jacob were straining to lift the gate once it was on the ground.
“There wasn’t much information on Ginny’s mother in the file,” Reaper mused out loud.
“No, there wasn’t,” Lucky said from his desk. “I asked Shade about her. He said he checked that lead out. Her mother died shortly after giving full custody of Ginny to her father.”
“Did you ever meet him?”
“Freddy?”
“Yes.”
“Oh yes, I met him.” Lucky laughed. “He was a character. He had no time for the church or me. He was a nicer version of Greer Porter, but even more mountain-minded about wanting to stay isolated. His children were his whole world.”
“Silas takes after his father.” Watching the men outside work to set the gate up, Reaper couldn’t place what was bothering him. Each day after he had left the Colemans’, it nagged at him that he was missing the component to make everything click into place.
“Do you still have the file that Shade gave you?”
“Yes.”
Reaper heard Lucky open his desk drawer.
“I’ve got it here,” Lucky said.
“Who was at Ginny’s roommate’s party when the first note was found?”
As Lucky rattled off several names, Reaper braced his hands on Lucky’s windowsill.
“Shade checked each of them out,” Lucky said when he finished the list. “He even went so far as to break into their houses and double-checked their whereabouts during each subsequent note that followed. There was no connection.”
The nagging feeling he had been experiencing was so close that he could almost grab it ….
Reaper turned from the window to face Lucky.
Lucky looked up from the file on his desk at his silence. “What?”
“There was no connection.”
Confused at having his words repeated back to him, Lucky stared back at him blankly. “I don’t get it.”
“We’ve been looking at this fucking wrong.”
“How?”
“If there isn’t a connection to Ginny—”
“There has to be … The notes and attacks—”
Reaper shook his head at him. “One of the first lessons I learned when I was in the SEALs was when a problem couldn’t be solved, change the problem.”
“So …?”
“Take Ginny out of the equation.”
Lucky paled. “The problem becomes different.”
“Ginny isn’t the target. The Last Riders are ….” Reaper was flinging the office door open before the last word was out of his mouth. Running through the church, he then ran out the front door with Lucky trailing after him.
Making his way behind the church, Silas, Jody, and Jacob looked at him like he was crazy when he came barreling toward them.
Reaper took out his cell phone and started calling Ginny’s phone number at the same time he asked Silas, “Where’s Ginny?”
“She’s at home.”
Ginny didn’t answer, and her voicemail didn’t click on. Reaper tried the number again.
“Who’s with her?”
“No one. Moses had to take one of his dogs to the vet. Ezra and Matthew are taking Fynn to his mother’s. Isaac was supposed to be there but they—”
“Fuck!” Shouting out the profanity, Reaper started running toward his motorcycle. “Lucky!”
“I’ll get Knox. We’ll be right behind you. I’ll call Viper,” Lucky yelled over the noise of the motorcycle starting.
Releasing the clutch, Reaper sped out of the parking lot, leaving tire marks in his wake. Opening his motorcycle wide, he raced to get out of town, whizzing past the slow-moving vehicles as if they weren’t even there.
He had to get to the Colemans’ home in time. The pits of hell were open, and he had to get there before it closed. The gateway wasn’t going to close without him … and he was bringing a guest.
Chapter Forty-Six
Raising a clean lavender-scented sheet to the clothes line, Ginny pinned one corner of the sheet before sliding her hand along the line to use another clothes pin to hold the other corner. The wind sent the sheet gently swaying in the breeze.
Reaching for another sheet, Ginny rose to see Trudy standing in front of the sheet that blocked her from being seen from inside. She dropped the clothes pins in her hand into the laundry basket. Fighting the instinct to run toward her sister, she took a step back.
“I told you to not to come here.” Blinking back emotion-filled tears, Ginny managed to give her sister a wobbly smile.
“I lasted a whole two days after coming back from Florida. If I had been able to talk Dalton into going golfing, I would have been here yesterday.”
“How’d you manage to get out today?”
“I told Dalton that Killyama and I were going to the store.”
“He agreed to you being around Killyama?”
“He had Killyama take her temperature and made her take a test in front of him before he let me in her car. I was determined to see you today. I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” Ginny smiled, then gave Trudy a mock-stern look. “I expected you to stay another week in Florida.”
“I came back early for two reasons.”
“Do I want to know why?”
“Probably not.”
Ginny felt Trudy’s gaze critically assessing her.
“Killyama saw you at the
grocery store the other day.”
“I said hi.” Ginny tried to make a joke, but Trudy wasn’t getting sidetracked.
“She said you looked like hell.”
“I’m not sick.”
“I think you are,” Trudy disagreed with her. “Heart sick that Reaper went back to The Last Riders and you’re unable to see him. Evangeline, this is why I tried to spare you this heartache.”
“It’s not in your power to change what’s meant to be.”
“You being this sad isn’t what’s meant to be.”
“I won’t be this way forever. Gavin—”
“Please tell me you don’t think he’s one day just going to realize he loves you and everything is going to be hunky dory.”
Ginny tilted her head to the side to keep Trudy from seeing how upset she was becoming. “Stop, Trudy. You can’t protect me. As much as you want to, it’s too late. It was too late from the moment I saw Gavin. Nothing you can say or do will change how I feel about him. If I could wave a magic wand and take back time, I wouldn’t.”
Tears started marring Trudy’s mascara. “I want you to be happy. You deserve a man who can give you the life you’ve dreamed of having.”
“Gavin is the man I’ve been dreaming of.” Ginny gave a hiccupping sob.
Seeing Trudy start toward her, she quipped, “Behave. Dalton isn’t here to take my temperature. What’s the second reason you’re here?”
“I could tell from your texts how worried you are about Reaper since he left three weeks ago.”
“You could have texted me back without leaving Florida. You could also have had Killyama answer the texts I sent to her.”
“I wanted to be here when I told you,” Trudy expanded on her reasons for being there. “Killy told me that everyone is concerned about Reaper. He rarely leaves his room, and when anyone tries to talk with him, he picks a fight with them or leaves the room to spend hours working out in the basement. Viper and Ton are both worried sick about him.
“He’s working himself to death at the factory pulling extra shifts. The brothers have tried to get him to rest, but when they do it ends with a fight. When Hennessy told Viper that Arin was trying to get approval to begin work on a vaccine, Reaper was there and offered to hook her up with an organization that developed vaccines. He met them during his service in the Navy. He had been stationed in the Philippines during the Ebola outbreak, and the organization was willing to give Arin a sample of the original strain. He’s made himself available to translate for Arin and a couple of the scientists, day or night.
“When one of Arin’s lab technicians went missing, he sent two Last Riders to find her. She’s still missing. Reaper is suspicious, since the technician was an assistant to the main researcher who’s working on the vaccine being developed at Arin’s lab.
“Not only did her technician disappear, Arin’s getting delays that are slowing her trials down. Arin’s lab is non-profit, which depends on private funding that she uses to provide free vaccines in developing countries. Her donors have started closing their pockets. Reaper made up for the shortfall and then some. If she creates a successful vaccine, it won’t be handed over to the big companies who would make millions off it.”
“Will she?”
“They think so. But even if she does, hers will be free. Hennessy doesn’t leave her side when she goes to work, because he’s worried what happened to her technician could happen to her.”
“Does everyone know Gavin is providing the funding?”
“Yes.”
“So, his life could be in danger too?”
Seeing she was concerned, Trudy tried to ease her worry. “They’d have to get past The Last Riders and Killyama to get to him. He’s low on the totem pole, the researcher and Arin are at greater risk.”
Ginny slid the sheet separating her and Trudy when it kept flapping upward, blocking her sight of Trudy. “Do Viper or any of The Last Riders know why Gavin’s become so reclusive since he’s been back?”
Missing Gavin was hurting her so badly. Ginny felt a spark of hope that he was feeling the same … until Trudy squashed that spark.
“Train told Killyama they believe it’s because he can’t find Slate, Butcher, and a couple that Reaper is obsessed about finding.” Trudy peeked over the sheet behind her to make sure no one had come out of the house. “Anyway,” Trudy continued, “they think maybe they’re close to finding the couple, but they found Slate and Butcher. They entered the Federal Protection Program. Both of them are going to be given new identities in exchange for complete cooperation.”
“Gavin doesn’t know?”
“They’re afraid to tell him with the mood Reaper’s been in. I think they were hoping the deal would fall through, or they’d grab the men before the feds could hide them. Slate and Butcher were placed in witness protection last week, so shit is going to get real fast when Reaper finds out.”
“He’ll be furious.” Ginny couldn’t blame Gavin for his hatred of Slate. She wasn’t a violent person, but she would make an exception for Slate.
“They’re afraid it’ll send him on a downward spiral that he’ll never recover from. That’s why I didn’t want you to fall in love with him. He’s never going to live a normal life until he settles the score with Slate and Butcher, and I can’t blame him. The little I do know about what happened to him makes me want to take them out.”
“You couldn’t hurt a fly,” Ginny scoffed. “You’d get Stud and Calder to do it for you.”
“It wouldn’t take much talking. The Last Riders wouldn’t be the only ones lining up to take a whack at the fuckers who hurt Reaper. The Blue Horsemen and the Predators want their shot of evening the score for him as well.”
So many people felt Gavin’s pain and wanted to share the load that he was carrying, yet he refused them, just like he wasn’t willing to take what she wanted to offer.
When Trudy turned to look over the sheet again, the wind plastered her dress against her body.
Ginny changed her expression before Trudy turned back.
“Do you ever wonder what our lives would have been like if we had never faked my death?”
Trudy shook her head, pain entering her eyes. “Are you trying to tell me you wish I hadn’t?”
“No.” Ginny sorrowfully shook her head. “That wasn’t what I meant. I’m the one regretting the decisions I made. If we’d have stayed in the islands, you could have lived a normal life.”
“How do I not live a normal life?”
“Having to sneak here to talk to me isn’t normal.”
“I could also be visiting your gravesite. Which one do you think I’m happier doing? Where’s this coming from, Evangeline?”
“Why haven’t you told me you’re pregnant?” she countered.
“I was going to … I just felt bad telling you when I know you’re so unhappy.”
“Do Killyama, Sex Piston, Fat Louise, and Crazy Bitch know?”
She could tell from Trudy’s face that they did. Trudy would have been the first one she told if it had happened in reverse.
Ginny hid her hurt by changing the subject. “Did you bring me a souvenir?”
“When Killyama picks me up, she’s going to place a box behind the bush next to your mailbox. She’s going to put my present to you inside.”
Trudy always waited until she left to give her presents. When they were little, Trudy told her that she was the main present and the other one was to be opened when she was missing her. Ginny never told her it didn’t work. No present in a gift-wrapped box made up for them being apart.
“Bet I know what it is,” Ginny teased, seeing Trudy glance at her watch. Trudy didn’t want to leave, but Killyama was waiting to pick her up.
“Bet you can’t.” Trudy wiped a tear away.
“A seashell charm.”
“No.”
“A coral charm.”
“No.”
They traded a couple of more guesses before Trudy looked at her watch again. “I h
ave to go,” she said regretfully.
“I know.” Ginny bent down to get another sheet.
“Don’t forget—”
“I won’t forget the box; my present’s in there,” Ginny finished. Trudy was always afraid someone would stumble upon their gifts or she would forget about them. Every year they remained apart, Trudy’s fears became more pronounced. Ginny couldn’t understand. She had never forgotten one. She, herself, was the one who was always forgotten.
Ginny raised up to find herself engulfed in a hug.
“I should have told you first,” Trudy said chokingly.
Ginny quickly pulled herself away. “You’re too close, Trudy. You have to think about your baby and Dalton. Quit worrying about me. Your family has to come first from now on, promise me?”
“It was just a hug.”
At her mock-admonishing glare, Trudy gave into her demand.
“I promise.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Ginny closed and latched the goat pen. Giving Millie a pat of approval, she sent her home to Moses. “Go get your treat.”
Smiling as the dog ran off, Ginny started leisurely walking back toward the house. As she strolled through the trees, she felt the wind pick up, sending the limbs swaying. An icy blast of wind managed to sneak under her collar, sending a chill down her spine. She burrowed her hands into her comfortable blue jean jacket, trying to stay warm.
Her head was down as she came out the copse of trees.
“I was beginning to give up hope anyone was around.”
Ginny raised her head, seeing two men walking toward her. Slowing, Ginny continued forward. “This is private property.”
The taller of the two men pointed his thumb over his shoulder. “Our car broke down. I was trying to find someone to call a tow truck for us.”
“This is private property. Leave.” Ginny continued to walk, but she started veering away from the men, turning in the direction of Matthew and Isaac’s workshop. “I’ll call the tow truck for you. You can go wait in your car.”
“Damn.” The stranger’s voice turned snide. “Where’s all the Kentucky hospitality I heard about?”