“I needed Viper to switch it up. It worked didn’t it?” Slate’s gloating didn’t have the full effect he wanted with his front tooth missing.
“That’s why you tried to kidnap her?”
“I would have had you back in Nashville, if the fucking bitch hadn’t taken off.”
“You wouldn’t have found me so easy to kidnap a second time. Why did you decide to use Ginny in the first place?”
“I saw her singing in Queen City. Took me a few hours to recognize her, but I remembered where I had seen her before. Then bingo,” Slate couldn’t help but gloat at his cunning. “Crash used to send pictures of people that regularly came to the club. I checked with my contacts….”
“You mean Vamp and the Count?”
“Took you long enough to figure that out didn’t it?” Slate gave a half smile with his swollen lip. “They told me how close Ginny was to the Last Rider’s, and they felt responsible for Ginny’s house burning down. I had the note put in Ginny’s apartment to see if the Last Rider’s would react. They came through like a champ.”
“How did you put the note in Ginny’s apartment?”
“Her roommate’s boyfriend has a habit that Butcher used to feed before he got all educated. Butcher is from Queen City; it’s why we hid out there. Several of his old contacts came calling.”
“So, you blackmailed him to do your dirty work for you?”
“Wasn’t hard. When the nerd was using, he used someone else to buy the drugs, but Butcher lied to him. Told him we had it on tape him purchasing the drugs from the buyer that Butcher sold the drugs to.”
“And he believed you.” Reaper shook his head at the terror Gianna’s boyfriend must have felt at having to do Butcher’s bidding.
“He was afraid not to. He knew we would kill him if he didn’t.” Heaving himself upright from the car, Slate stumbled to a large rock to sit down.
“All of this bullshit,” Reaper jeered at him, “just because you blamed me for you being dishonorably discharged. Your hatred of me—”
“I don’t hate you … I love you.”
Slate’s confession rocked Reaper to his core.
Slate nodded, giving a bitter laugh at the expression that must have been on Reaper’s face. “I loved you, and you didn’t even notice.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“If I made any overture when we served together, I could have lost my career. I lost it anyway … and you.”
“I wouldn’t have reported you. I would have just told you—”
“You would have told me no.”
“So, you knew I couldn’t tell you no if you kidnapped me.”
“I could hear you say yes anytime I wanted to hear it.”
And he had … over … and over ….
Reaper shut out all the outrage he felt, letting the cold stillness back over him. Turning around, he stared out over the cliff that was so high you couldn’t see the bottom; all you could see was the top of trees.
The overcast sky was growing darker.
“Which do you prefer: Going off this mountain while there’s still enough light to see where you’re going or waiting until it’s dark so you can’t see a fucking thing?”
“You’re not going to kill me. You’ll destroy The Last Riders. Fuck the FBI, we can take off to wherever you want to go, you love the beach we….”
Slate was still trying to bargain his way out.
“So I can live the rest of my life at your mercy?” Reaper mercilessly jeered at him.
“It wouldn’t be the same. You know how I feel about you now.”
The clouds above grew darker as ominous thunder echoed from the sky. A flash of lightning streaked across the heavens above as the storm gathered strength. Sprinkles of rain fell, hitting his upturned face, mixing with the tears coming out of his eyes.
Stalking toward Slate, he jerked him up and dragged him to the edge of the cliff. “You love me?” Reaper took him by the other arm to lift him in the air. “You want to be with me?” Reaper yelled at him in torment. “You can fucking spend eternity with me, because that’s the only way you’ll ever touch me again!” Shouting at the top of his lungs, Reaper turned to dangle Slate over the cliff when bright headlights hit them.
Temporarily blinded by the lights, Reaper lost his concentration for a split-second, which allowed Slate to struggle out of his arms. The force of the struggle had both men losing their balance. Reaper started falling backward, toward the ground, while Slate started falling over the cliff. Desperately trying to save his own life, Slate tried to reach for Reaper. The momentum would have sent both men over the cliff.
Blinking his eyes against the pouring rain, Reaper saw a flash of fur before he was flung to the ground, and then he heard Slate’s scream as he went over the mountain.
“No!” Reaper yelled, determined to go over the mountain after him.
Wiping his eyes to stare up at what had pinned him down, he saw Suki laying on his chest. When he desperately tried to shove the dog off him, the dog whined.
“Stop, Gavin. If you throw yourself off, Suki will go with you.”
Raising up onto his elbows, Reaper looked toward the man highlighted in front of the truck. Pushing back his soggy hair, he tried to make out who it was.
As the silhouetted figure walked closer, a flash of lightning revealed the features of the person who had prevented him from ending the painful existence of his life.
“Take her and go away.” Doing something he swore he would do never again, he begged, “Please … please, just go.”
Chapter Fifty-One
“I can’t do that.” Silas went to his haunches to stare down at him.
“Please ….”
“I can’t let you end your life. It means too much to so many people.”
“It doesn’t mean anything to me,” he sobbed. “I just want the pain to end.” Unable to look at Silas, he turned his head away to stare at the vast opening that should have been his final resting place.
“At one time, it meant a great deal to you.”
“Not anymore ….”
“Why not? Everything that’s important is still here, waiting for you.”
“It’s not the same.”
“No, but you’re not the same, either. You’re older, wiser, can appreciate life differently.”
“I want my old life back!” he screamed out to the heavens above him.
“Do you? What part of that life do you want back that wouldn’t be there if you wanted them?”
“Taylor!”
“She’s the best you can come up with? You no longer love her. If she told you she would marry you right this second, would you?”
“No.”
“Why not, if you love her as you say you do?”
“Go away ….”
“Why. Not?”
“I don’t want talk about this.” Rolling to his side and away from Silas, he nudged Suki off his chest to sit up. Before he could stand, she plopped herself down on his lap, whining.
“Why is she crying?”