by Jamie Begley
About to chastise him for being rude, she decided it wasn’t worth the pain it would cause, especially when he went down the first step. Gavin was right; it did hurt like a mother. Her body was already on fire, and as he continued down the steps, it was like adding gasoline to the flames. She was too weak to even lift her head when she heard a metal door being swung open.
As Gavin went through the door, her eyes collided with Desmond Beck’s as he held the door open for Gavin.
“This way … hurry … I have a Moke waiting,” she thought Desmond said but couldn’t be sure, her thoughts becoming fuzzy when Gavin started running with her.
The blue sky, palm trees, and beach umbrellas swirled in a dizzy mesh of colors until everything coalesced and she couldn’t make anything out. She tightened her grip on Gavin’s shirt when he came to a stop and then she could tell from his movements that he was getting inside the Moke.
“I’m … Throw up.” Feeling the bile rising in her stomach, she flared her hands out to throw herself away from Gavin.
“No, you’re not. You’re too tough to throw up.”
She desperately gulped lungsful of air, battling the nausea down. “I … hate throwing up.”
The rocking motion of the Moke when the other men jumped in made it even worse. She was going to lose it, make a mess all over Gavin and her, and he would never let her live it down.
“Then don’t,” Gavin told her matter-of-factly.
The welcome rush of air when the Moke began moving dulled the rising tide of nausea welling inside of her.
“I’m dying.” All thoughts of being brave in front of Gavin deserted her. She was hurting more than when Allerton had beat her, unaware that she was even talking out loud.
“You’re not dying. You’re losing the adrenaline rush.”
Was the jerk laughing at her?
Disgruntled at the thought, she managed to lift her head. “Are you laughing at me?”
“No.”
Ginny laid her head back down. “You better not,” she warned.
“Or else?”
“I’ll throw up on you.”
“You wouldn’t. You hate throwing up, remember?”
“I’m becoming comfortable with the thought.” She tried to smile at him, then wished she hadn’t when he grimaced at her.
“How bad do I look?”
“Nymph, the same as you did the first time I saw you. You look beautiful.”
“Aw … that’s so sweet. I do feel better. Where are we—”
The Moke came to an abrupt stop, wrenching a startled, high-pitched scream from her throat. Nothing had ever hurt so badly in her life.
Opening her mouth, Ginny thought she said something but didn’t know what or if she’d succeeded in speaking before a thundercloud burst in her head, releasing a flood of darkness that swept her away into oblivion.
A bright light shining in her eye had Ginny trying to turn her head in the other direction.
“Stay still while I finish checking you out.”
Thankfully, the light moved away from her eye and she saw Train leaning over her.
“What happened?” Had Train shoved cotton wool in her mouth to keep her from screaming again? Ginny thought dazedly.
“You fainted.” Train twisted a narrow, plastic bag in his hand, then laid it gently over her lips. “That should help with the swelling.”
“I’ve never passed out before.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
As he ran his hand carefully over her body, Ginny felt uncomfortable under his exploratory touch.
She lowered the ice pack from her lips. “Where’s Gavin?”
“You’re sitting on him,” Train answered as he moved his hands down her side, traveling to her back.
“Oh …” Ginny jumped in pain when Train touched where Allerton’s cane had struck her.
Gavin gently curled his arms around her waist, holding her still when she would have tried to evade Train touching her again. “Stay still.” His stern voice held her in place. “He’s making sure you don’t have any broken bones.”
“Do I?” she asked with interest.
Train’s grim profile turned toward her. “Can you move your leg?”
“Do I have to? It’ll hurt.”
“Gavin won’t let me take off until he knows you’re stable enough to make the flight home.”
“We’re going back to Treepoint?”
“That’s the plan … if Gavin ever lets me get the plane off the runway.”
“Oh … okay.” Ginny looked down at her leg, willing it to move.
“Are you sure you’re trying?” Gavin asked skeptically, looking over her shoulder.
Bracing herself for the pain, Ginny gingerly lifted her thigh an inch before bringing it back down. “I’m good. We can go.”
Train ran both hands over her thigh. When he was done, he gave Gavin a curt nod. “I wished she had stayed out longer. There’s no swelling in her hands, and her feet have good blood flow. We good?”
Gavin nodded. “You can take off.”
Train immediately headed toward the cockpit.
The plane seemed to be the same size as Kaden Cross’s. With Gavin and her sitting in the front row, she could easily observe Train through the partial partition, sliding into the pilot seat. Ginny couldn’t help but admire how competent he seemed as he pressed several buttons while putting on a headset.
“Don’t forget, Train’s Killyama’s husband, and you’re my wife.”
Ginny drew her eyes away from Train at the tinge of jealousy she heard from Gavin. “I know Train is married,” she muttered around the ice pack. “And no, we aren’t.”
“We are. How’s your back?”
“Sore, but not as bad as it was.”
“When we get closer to Treepoint, we’ll radio ahead and have Dr. Price meet us at his office to check you out.”
The plane gave a small lurch as it began moving to the top of the runway. The sound of the engine ratcheting higher had her gripping Gavin’s arm, knowing she wasn’t buckled in her own seat.
“I’ve got you. Relax,” he soothed.
“Shouldn’t I be in my own seat?”
“You’re fine where you are.”
“I am?”
“Yes.”
Relaxing as the plane started moving, Ginny looked around, seeing Rider was in the co-pilot seat. Then she moved her eyes to the row of seats next to her, seeing Hammer sitting with an ice pack on his nose. The sight of her friend being hurt had Ginny removing the ice pack she was holding.
“Hammer? Did one of Allerton’s men do that to you?”
“No.”
“Then what—”
Ginny glared at Gavin when he raised her hand with the ice pack back to her lips.
“Apparently, my use of the brakes on the Moke was too exuberant.”
Bristling at Hammer beginning to look like a racoon and the pitiful way he was gazing at her, Ginny made her outrage apparent. “Who hurt my brother?”
Gavin snorted behind her. “He’s not your brother.”
“He’s like my brother,” Ginny corrected herself.
“Like doesn’t make it so.”
“Does, too,” she snapped back. “Look at what somebody did …” Ginny moved her accusing gaze to Viper and Cash, who were sitting behind Hammer, and she discovered they weren’t looking so hot themselves. “What happened to you guys?”
Cash had a swollen cheek, and Viper, who was wearing a guard’s uniform, had his shirt ripped from the collar to his shoulder in three pieces. His lips were suspiciously swollen, as if he had been given a lip enhancer.
Cash turned his head to give the man she was sitting on a heated glare. “Apparently, Reaper wasn’t appreciative of us holding him back from going into Allerton’s office before you could get the confession out of him.”
“You heard?”
“The desk outside his office has a camera monitoring what’s going on inside the office.
You took a hell of a risk, Ginny.”
“A risk I was willing to take. When I found out about coming after Gavin, I hatched the idea and asked Hammer, but he refused to help me.”
“Damn straight, I wasn’t going to lead you back to Allerton when I worked my ass off keeping you safe all these years.”
Ignoring him, Ginny continued, “That prompted me to take the DNA test. I knew once my DNA was out there, someone in the government would notice.”
“Fuck, Ginny,” Reaper said.
“Once the FBI contacted me, Hammer’s hands were tied, so he set me up with a friend of his in the FBI we could trust.”
“It’s how Hammer and I managed to set the price of my cooperating with the FBI. Gavin and The Last Riders would be given immunity for any crimes committed, which also included the FBI reneging on their deal with Slate.”
Hammer took over. “When I told my friend that Ginny had witnessed Allerton killing Gyi, and Manny’s beating, he got on board with the plan to expose him. The FBI and CIA had been building a case against Allerton and his charity for years and they’d made little headway. They needed concrete evidence to incriminate him. Ginny’s word against his wasn’t good enough. Ginny’s job was to make him lose his cool, hoping he’d unwittingly make an admission or mistake giving them enough evidence to prosecute. In other words, do what Ginny does best, irritate the fuck out of him by taking him out of his comfort zone.”
She pushed herself up more on Gavin’s lap to situate herself a little better then took over the story again.
“The FBI wanted one of their agents to pose as Allerton’s inside guy.”
Looking back at the men staring at her, she continued.
“I made one more condition, if at any time Hammer was in danger, he would be removed immediately to safety.” Ginny gave a painful sigh as she pulled herself back off him to make sure she saw him as she spoke. “I wanted to leave with you, but I this was the only way I had to get my life back.” Dropping her gaze from the men who were intently listening to her, she was finally able to give Gavin the full truth.
“He didn’t deserve to play the world’s savior. The only time I almost pulled out, Gavin, was when you refused to let me go to Sherguevil Island without you.
She ran her hand along the length of his arm that lay possessively across her to link her fingers with his, heartened when he clasped hers back.
“Why didn’t you?” Gavin asked huskily.
“While I was sure that Hammer was experienced to survive almost anything thrown at him, my decision was easier to make with you going with me rather than Hammer. I’d told myself, if you could survive Slate, you could survive anything.”
“Then why in the fuck did you give in to his demand that you go with the guards if you had that much faith in me?”
“Because, as much as I love you, you’re not bulletproof. You weren’t going to wave and make the bullets bounce off you. Because even as much as I believed you could survive anything, there was still a chance one of those guards could kill you, and it wasn’t a chance I was willing to take. I wanted to tell you that Agent Collins was undercover, but they made it a stipulation and even Hammer didn’t know about that part of the deal. They believed if Hammer was suspicious, it would make it more believable. The same went for Gavin. When he made no effort to conceal his distrust of Agent Collin’s, I continued the charade to keep both of them safe. I thought when Allerton had proof I was telling him the truth, he would let us go or show his true colors. I never imagined he would go off the deep end before I took the polygraph test.”
Unable to bear the weight of her head any longer, she laid her head down on Gavin’s shoulder.
Ginny heard a series of groans coming from the back of the plane.
“He had no intention of letting you take the polygraph,” Agent Collins explained as she watched him approach their seats.
Gavin braced his arm over her legs as the agent sat down in the seat next to Gavin and her.
“When I set the polygraph up the day before and asked for the questions, he put me off by saying his lawyer was still working on them and he would give me them today. When I went into his office, his men were waiting to jump me. I took the payoff from him as part of the setup with the FBI, but someone must have tipped him off that I was doubling crossing him.
"He told me he has lots of people in the FBI and the CIA,” Ginny said.
“I’m not surprised.” The agent shook his head, his expression one of remorse. “The polygraph machine I set up the day before was rigged to make your answers appear truthful, and we’d hidden a listening device within it. It could have been the tip-off, or Allerton could have discovered it, and why he decided to take me and my men out of the picture. Gavin made the better call when he tried to get you out of there. He acted the moment he knew something didn’t feel right.”
She wanted to look to see who was behind them but wasn’t willing to set the pain off again to satisfy her curiosity. “Are your men okay?”
The grave look on Agent Collins’ face spoke of the danger the men had been in. “Thanks to Flores, whose bungalow faces this side of the resort, we had devised a signal. Every half an hour, I was to stand in front of the window at the resort for him to see me through binoculars, so when I missed the signal time, he, Garcia, and Clark were prepared. They weren’t as easy to take down as I was. Flores told me they were hightailing it to the resort when they came across Gavin and The Last Riders.”
“Reaper and I were arguing over all of us going to the FBI’s bungalow while he went on ahead by himself.” Viper took over explaining what had transpired while she was in Allerton’s office. “I went with him while the others went to find the agents, but it was Reaper and I who came across them in their Moke.”
“Is that why all of you look beaten up? They mistook you for more guards?” Ginny thought that explained why the Last Riders’ odd uniforms were torn and why they looked as if they had gone through a war zone. If the agents mistook them for Allerton security, they were lucky to be alive.
“No. That was all Reaper.”
Seeing the heated glares sent pointedly toward Gavin, she snuggled back into him protectively. Just with that slight movement, Ginny had to rapidly blink back the dark spots that heralded she was about to pass out again from the pain. Shoving the ice pack onto her forehead, she was able to gather her equilibrium.
“Stay still.”
“I’m going to throw up.”
“Rider, see if there are any drinks aboard,” Gavin uttered, pulling her back down across his lap. He took the ice pack from her and pressed it more firmly against her forehead.
“I will. I know where they are.”
Ginny couldn’t place the voice and, at that point, she didn’t care, her concentration on keeping her stomach from heaving.
“See if there are any crackers.” Shaking out a barf bag that Agent Collins him, Gavin placed it under her chin.
“I hate being sick to my stomach,” Ginny complained.
“So you’ve told me.”
Taking the bag from him, she debated whacking him with it, she was so miserable.
With his hand free, Gavin began gently rubbing her belly. “I find it amusing that you took Allerton beating the hell out of you without making a sound, yet you’re complaining about a sick stomach as if it’s the end of the world.”
“No woman wants to barf in front of others.”
“Believe me; if you do, most of them won’t be watching. They’ll be joining in. They’re a bunch of pansies where puking is concerned.”
The thought of making The Last Riders reach for barf bags had her almost laughing. “You’re not helping,” Ginny berated him through swollen lips that couldn’t really smile.
“Perhaps these will.”
A Sprite and a package of crackers appeared in front of her. Ginny didn’t take the offering after seeing who was holding the items.
“Mr. Beck.” She’d seen him holding the door open for them wh
en they left the resort, and while she wasn’t afraid of him, she wasn’t thrilled to see one of Allerton’s close friends either.
Gavin reached out to take the soda and crackers.
Squatting down next to the seat, Desmond made a wry face at her. “I can understand your hesitation. I’m not proud of myself that I was a business associate of a man capable of doing this to you. I do want to make one thing clear, however. I was not involved in the death of your friends or the villagers who lived on Clindale.”
“Desmond’s the one who gave us the information so we could get onto Clindale. He knew whose palms we had to grease for them to look the other way,” Viper offered the information from his seat. “He also helped get us into the resort.”
“I wondered how you all managed to get there.” Ginny took the opened can of Sprite away from Gavin to take a sip. “How much money are you talking about?”
“That’s not important.” Opening the crackers, Gavin tried to give her one.
Ginny stared Desmond down to get the answer she asked for.
“Nothing compared to how much it took to pay off Gabriel’s assistant; he’d agreed to fake Gabriel’s authorization for the plane to take off … with him on it.”
“Allerton is here?” Ginny tensed on Gavin’s lap.
“He’s handcuffed at the back of the plane,” Desmond confirmed, then tried to ease her trepidation. “Jackal and another man—I believe his name is Jonas—are watching him quite diligently. Although, I doubt he has the ability to move in the shape he’s in.”
Ginny couldn’t help the spurt of pity she felt knowing how much pain she was in.
Desmond’s keen gaze didn’t miss the flashing emotion in her expression. “You feel sorry for Gabriel after what he did to you?”
“That cane hurts,” she said simply.
“I feel certain Gabriel was aware of that fact. If not, he definitely knows now.” Desmond rose to his feet, intending to go back to his seat.
“Wait—do you know how much money they had to spend?” Ginny asked him before he could move away.
Desmond gave her an appreciative smile. “However much, it was money well spent, don’t you agree?”
“I do,” Ginny hastened to agree, not wanting any of The Last Riders to think she didn’t appreciate their help. “But it doesn’t help me figure out how much money I owe them.”