“I’m going to be generous and give you a three-minute head start.” Reaper turned his head toward Butcher. “Run.”
Thirty minutes later, Reaper walked out of the copse of trees, returning to where The Last Riders and Moses were waiting—thriving on the high he felt when Butcher’s life left his body when he’d wrapped his hands around his throat.
Getting to Slate, he reached down to jerk him to his feet and he started walking them toward the driveway.
“Where are you going?”
Reaper kept his determined gaze forward as Viper and the other men rushed to keep up along with his angry stride.
“Slate and I are going to finish this together, aren’t we?”
Jerking Slate forward despite his attempts to pull away, Reaper stalked them down the driveway to car that they had planned to use in Ginny’s kidnapping attempt. Seeing the trunk open again infuriated Reaper.
“I’m going with you,” Viper demanded.
Reaper looked in the window of the car to make sure they had left the keys in the ignition. Stupid fuckers.
With a satisfied glee, his emotions switched from fury to a joyous euphoria. All the planning he had suffered in the search for Slate, Butcher, Vamp, and The Count was coming to fruition. All the pain and mental torment he had suffered through was almost over.
“No. I’m doing this alone.”
Tossing Slate into the truck, he slammed it shut.
“If you don’t want me going, take any of us. I don’t care who,” Viper pleaded, trying to block him from getting the driver’s door open.
“Move, Viper!” he snarled. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will. You’re going to need all of them to get rid of Butcher. Find a pig farmer and feed them what’s left. I made it easier for you.” Using his shoulder, he shoved Viper out of the way enough to slide inside, but before he could close the door Viper attempted to stop him again. The movement unintentionally blocked Shade and Razer from helping him.
Using his left foot, Reaper kicked Viper away enough to shut the door, simultaneously locking it as Knox and Moses jerked on the handles to open the other doors.
Locked inside, he started the car.
The Last Riders ran around the back of the car.
Fuckers know I’m not going to run them down.
His joyous euphoria vanished when he saw Ginny slam the door open to Silas’s house. Then all her brothers piled out behind her.
Focused on getting away, Reaper didn’t flinch at the sound of Shade and Rider using rocks to break out the windows behind him.
Instead of going in reverse, Reaper drove forward over the grass, heading toward the outbuilding. Gunning the motor when he sped past Matthew and Isaac’s workshop with everyone running after him, he angled the car between two trees. Hearing the metal crunch as the trees scraped the sides of the car had the euphoria coming back. He made it through.
Expertly guiding the car through the trees, he came out the other side, going too fast and nearly taking out the goat pen. Swerving, he barreled the car toward the access road that Silas used to unload groceries.
Gaining on the road, Reaper pressed his foot down on the gas pedal. Rolling down the window, he threw out his cell phone as he made it to the road.
Rubber burned when he turned toward West Virginia instead of toward the club and town.
He congratulated himself when he didn’t see any motorcycles in his rearview mirror, but he didn’t ease off the gas, either.
Settling back for the drive, he looked down at the gas gauge and gave a smirk that no one was there to appreciate.
Home free, he thought jubilantly. No one could stop him.
Turning on the radio, he laughed hysterically at Skylar Grey’s song, “Coming home.”
“Yes, I am!” Reaper shouted out, feeling the wind rushing through the open windows as he drove. “I’m heading home … and you can’t stop me.”
Chapter Fifty
“Get out.”
Leaving the trunk open, Reaper walked away to stare down over the cliff on the highest mountain in Kentucky.
“Where are we?”
Reaper turned from staring into oblivion to Slate as he dragged himself from the trunk. “I see the brothers took their part while I was getting reacquainted with Butcher.” Slate’s face was so swollen that his features were indistinguishable.
Holding his ribs, Slate had to lean against the car to keep from falling down. “You got your payback. Better not do what you’re planning.”
“You think taking a few hits from The Last Riders and getting cracked with a rifle a couple of times is enough payback for the years of torture you put me through?”
“Maybe not, but it’s all you’re going to be able to get.” Slate raised swollen, slit eyes to him. “You kill me, you’ll destroy everything you and The Last Riders have worked for and put every one of them in jail.”
Reaper folded his arms over his chest. “How so?”
“Crash told me where all the bodies are buried behind the club.”
“Dead men don’t tell tales,” he mocked.
“They do when their federal informants. I’m in witness protection—”
“They’re doing a hell of a job protecting you.”
Slate tried to sneer at him, but the fattened lips just gave him a comical appearance. “I disappear, guess who they’re going to blame?”
“Quick guess. Me.” Reaper was enjoying Slate trying to talk his way out dying. It was a useless endeavor, but Slate could try all he wanted. Nothing would change the outcome.
“Not only you, but the whole fucking club.”
Reaper lifted one of his hands to stare down at his bloody nails detachedly. “After we discovered Crash’s duplicity, do you really believe we didn’t consider the possibility of him telling you? Look around these mountains surrounding the town. The choice is limitless where we could have rehidden the bodies.”
“Maybe so.” Hunching over to grab his ribs until he regained his breath, Slate gave another reason not to kill him. “But did you or any of The Last Riders consider that Crash taped Memphis being killed by them.”
“Did you hand it over to the FBI?”
“I did, but if you let me go, I can recant the testimony about where the tape came from, that Nickel faked the video. I’ll tell them I was doing it for the money, to get a new life … I can say anything you want me to say.”
Slate’s confidence was cracking the longer he talked, seeing he wasn’t making any headway.
“If the tape really exists, why did you have to pretend to stalk Ginny to draw The Last Riders out? All you had to do was tell Viper the tape existed, and he would have given you what you wanted.” Viper wouldn’t have, but it would have given him time to get his ducks in a row to protect The Last Riders.
“He wouldn’t have given me you.”
No, Viper wouldn’t have, Reaper silently agreed.
“Viper had you watched 24/7, even when you took off occasionally. I needed plans to take you. You don’t go down easy. I needed to bring you to me. Viper sent every fucking Last Rider to protect her, but you.”
“That’s why you staked out Rider’s place when Shade and Rider were the only ones to watch her.”