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

“Mr. Beck.” She’d seen him holding the door open for them when 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.”

“Jesus …,” Viper gave a loud, self-recriminating groan. “You don’t owe us any money.”

“But I—”

“Ginny, eat the cracker.” Gavin removed the Sprite from her hand to give her the cracker. “You can pay Viper back in installments.”

Satisfied that Viper would listen to his brother, Ginny took the cracker. “Thank-you for your help, Mr. Beck.”

“Anytime.” Desmond reached into his suit jacket, then handed her a card. No sooner had Ginny taken the card, it was snatched out of her hand to be replaced with the cracker.

“That was rude.” Taking a small nibble of the cracker, she thought her stomach would revolt, but then it settled down enough for her to take another small bite. Her mouth hurt like heck, but the cracker was easing the nausea, so Ginny considered it a trade-off.

Ginny thoughtfully stared down at the cracker in her hand. “Gavin?”

“I haven’t gone anywhere.”

Ginny ignored his attempt at humor. “Where did they take you after the guards took you away? Allerton said, when his men were done with me, that I would be reunited with you and my father. Did you see him? Was he being held against his will? Was my mother there? Did they want to leave with you?”

The way she was sitting, Ginny wasn’t given a good view of Gavin’s face, yet she was able to feel his body tense under her.

“Allerton said that he was going to reunite you with me and your father after his men were done with you?”

Blocking the pain out as much as she could, Ginny used her bottom muscles, which were the only ones not hurting, to slightly turn so she could get a better look at him. The strange tenor in his voice was magnified on his face.

“That’s what he said.”

“Do you think, if I stood and sat you back down on your own, the pain would be too bad?” he asked solicitously.

“You need to go to the restroom?” she inquired innocently.

“No. There’s a motherfucker I need to finish off.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Don’t let him.” Agent Collins appeared as if he was the one who was about to vomit at Gavin’s threat.

Passing him the barf bag, Ginny dropped the cracker so she had a free hand to press Gavin back down into the seat. “You’ll be doing him a favor. What matters most to Allerton is his reputation. If we are able to destroy that, it will hurt more than anything you can do him.”

Gavin looked back at her blandly, not swayed by her argument. “You have no idea how painful I can make his death.”

“As painful as having him confess to what he did to the islanders? Or watching his bank balance dip to the negative when all the lawsuits come his way from misrepresenting his charity? Or watching everyone turn their backs on him when they discover how evil he is?”

“I can’t do all that, but I can come close.”

“Coming close doesn’t count. I want him to pay publicly for what he has done. I don’t want one person on Earth to be able to defend his actions.”

“That’s a tall order. Allerton has enough money to spin his defense any way he wants.”

“How can he spin it when I have him on tape bragging about what he’s done?”

“You have it on tape?”

Ginny gave him a cat-who-ate-the-canary grin. “Agent Collin’s does.” Looking at the man sitting next to Gavin, she had Agent Collins confirm what she was saying. “You said that you would tape any conversations between you and Allerton.”

Agent Collins uncomfortably shared a