Reaper's Salvation: A Last Riders Trilogy by Jamie Begley (reading e books .txt) 📕

“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