Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 140795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“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.