“They replied as Bob and Abby.”
“At least one of them has an imagination.” Reaching for a towel, he began drying off. “Have you responded back?”
“Not yet. I was waiting for you to confirm they were one of the couples you were searching for.”
“Send me the link to my burner phone.”
“You’re not thinking of going out, are you?”
“Just send me the link.”
Getting dressed, he went to his room to take out the burner phone that Viper had packed for him. He heard the front door open and close, then light footsteps going up the steps. Ginny had said that she was going to take her shower once Silas put the steaks on.
Turning the phone on, he pulled up Viper’s text messages, then pressed the link.
Reaper still felt the rush of adrenaline when he realized, if he planned it right, the Coleman’s wouldn’t even know he had left. Brad and Cami deserved his personal good-bye.
Responding to the request, Reaper then turned the burner phone off. He wouldn’t turn it back on until he was well away from Treepoint.
Calling Viper back, he set his plan in motion. “I need wheels.”
“You’re going to leave the Colemans? Let one of the brothers handle it … We can keep them on ice for you.”
“I’m doing it tonight, with or without your help. I’ll be coming back here. I don’t have to get close to them to do what I want.”
“What do you need?”
“Wheels.”
“What type?”
“Big, with a lot of horsepower.”
“When?”
“Nine. I plan to have an early night. Park it at the Colemans’ turn-off. Make sure it’s spic and span. I don’t want to carry any germs back here. Pick up in the morning by 0600 hours. I’ll make sure it’s just as clean for whoever does the pickup.”
“Have you gotten the test kits from Arin?”
“Hennessey delivered them an hour ago.
“Going to need a couple of brothers who won’t mind being up close and personal with Brad and Cami. They’re going to text me a video of them taking their temperatures, but I can vouch for how good they lie. If none of the brothers want to go, then I can go on my own. Just find someone to take over for me here.”
“Already have two volunteers. Moon and Jesus can stay at Jesus’s sister’s rental house. Make sure you keep your distance from them to keep the Colemans safe.”
“To save time and so I don’t have to listen to you bitching, I didn’t plan on getting close to either of them, or Cami and Brad.”
“You need anything else? I’ll put a box of the test kits for you and the Colemans in the truck for you. Arin’s lab doesn’t have approval for the tests yet. She’s giving them to us as research subjects. If they work, it’ll take at least one worry off our minds.”
“They’ll work. Arin has the best private lab in the nation.”
“Don’t forget to take them when you drop the truck off.”
“I won’t.”
“Be careful. I hope you get them. May the motherfuckers rest in hell.”
“Resting will be the last thing they’ll be doing when I’m done with them.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
“I haven’t seen him this happy since he’s been here.”
Ginny kicked her heels back on the siding of the house as she sat on the edge of the porch. Feeling Silas drop down beside her, she worried her inner lip, afraid of what he would ask. She couldn’t lie to Silas, as much as she loved Gavin.
“The mountain air is good for him.”
“Yes, it is.”
Though Silas seemed to agree, Ginny knew she wasn’t off the hook yet. Her brother had helped raise all of them; he was an expert at letting you walk into a trap of your own making. Unfortunately, her knowledge of that didn’t keep her from barging ahead.
“He’s probably just relieved that all of us tested negative for the virus. I’m glad The Last Riders were able to get testing kits.”
Silas twisted sideways to lean his back on a porch post, staring at her intently.
“Funny how he didn’t tell us last night before we went to bed that he was meeting Viper this morning.”
“Gavin said Viper texted him late last night and he didn’t want to wake us.”
“He could have told me at five when I was making coffee in the kitchen. Would have saved him having to sneak back in.”
Ginny started worrying her upper lip when her lower one split. “He probably didn’t hear you.”
Technically, it wasn’t a lie. Gavin wouldn’t have heard Silas in the kitchen from where he left.
“Quit biting your lips. Never play poker, Ginny. You always bite them when you’re trying to get out of lying.”
“I’m not lying—”
“I didn’t say you were,” Silas patiently continued with the same rapport they had shared from before her family had been torn apart. “I said trying.”
Ginny sat at the same spot she used to sit, where she could see cars passing on the road below through the trees. She and Silas would sit there every evening and watch the cars as they talked. He had listened as if her feelings were the most important things to him. So much of the advice he had given her she still used today. Silas was being too kind and honest to continue bluffing that Gavin hadn’t left last night.
“I don’t know where he went,” she admitted. “Are you going to ask him to leave?”
“No. I’m not concerned that he could have been infected while he was out. What I am concerned with is him not knowing the dogs have the run of the property at night. If Moses hadn’t pulled the dogs back, Reaper would be nursing several bite marks this morning.”
“Or still stuck in a tree. Remember when Lindsey wanted to surprise you with a box of Valentine’s candy. If Isaac hadn’t heard her screaming, she would still be stuck up in that tree.”
“She learned her lesson and never came back to the property.”
Ginny finally understood what Silas was trying to do. “You want him to stay.”
“Wasn’t that what I was saying?”
“You like him, don’t you?”
“Reaper is a hard man to like, but yes, I do.”
“I do, too,” Ginny admitted, smoothing her hands over her thighs.
“I know.” Silas placed his hand over hers.
“Am I that obvious?”
“To me.” He smiled. “I also know how you knew Reaper didn’t spend the night in his bed.”
Blushing at what Silas was imagining had her barging ahead before her words could catch up. “Nothing happened … I swear… He has troub— Gavin doesn’t sleep well.”
“Slow down, Ginny. You’re over eighteen, and so is he.”
“It’s not like you’re thinking.”
“Ginny ….” Silas tried to slow her down again.
“I wouldn’t disrespect you by … in your home.”
“I heard him too. You calm him down so he can sleep.”
“Yes. Please don’t say anything to him. He wouldn’t want you to know. Gavin doesn’t even realize I’m there.”