Reaper's Wrath (Road to Salvation A Last Rider's Trilogy 2)

“How did you find me so fast?”

“Three days isn’t fast. Fast would have been if I had managed to catch you before you hightailed it out of Nashville Marty told me you switched cars, and he gave me the license plate number. Couple of times I was sure I caught up with you, until I was close enough to read the plates. Knox put a BLO for your car. If you hadn’t been pulled over yesterday, my ass would be in New Mexico, which thanks to some fucker’s negligence you managed to slip past the BLO. Thanks for stopping for the pee break back there. If I had. to go another mile, I would have run out of gas and lost track of you until someone else spotted you.”

Ginny held back her groan. She almost made it to where she had been going. No one would have been able to spot her once she got off the main roads. Oh well … She gave herself a mental shrug. No experience is ever wasted. Next time she needed to take off, she would make sure no one was the wiser about which vehicle she drove, and she’d definitely switch the routes to be more erratic if she was suckered into another speed trap.

“What are you thinking about?”

Ginny looked at him guiltily. “About Marty ratting me out.” Giving him the half-truth wasn’t so bad, she told herself. Ginny didn’t think he would appreciate the deviousness of her other thoughts.

“I was surprised, too, especially since you gave him such an expensive gift to remember you by.”

“You’re really good at being sarcastic, aren’t you?”

“Am I?”

“Yep.” Switching to a slow lane as a semi came barreling up behind her, Ginny waited until it was safe to resume talking. “You seem angry that I gave Marty a vacation, or am I wrong?”

“I don’t give a fuck that you gave him the vacation, or that you gave those kids money, or you gave Kimmy your old car, or—”

Ginny grimaced as Gavin’s voice grew louder as he listed her presents.

“—you even gave Nickel a buy-one-bag, get-one-bag-free coupon for Dirty Dan’s.”

Ginny reached for her soda cup to help her dry throat. Then she gingerly asked, “Are you angry I didn’t give you anything?”

“I’m not mad!” he roared.

Ginny set her cup back down, afraid she would spill it with her shaky hand. “I gave them something to remember me by. I didn’t plan on ever seeing them again.” Ginny noticed Gavin’s anger didn’t ease.

“If, sooner or later, you planned to go back to Treepoint, then why give Nickel something?”

“You know it was just a coupon, right?” Ginny tried to not to laugh at Gavin’s unreasonable anger.

“Then why didn’t you give me the coupon?”

“Because you hate Dirty Dan’s. Nickel doesn’t. He loves Marty.”

A sarcastic snort from Gavin had her biting her bottom lip. If she wasn’t so angry at God, she would thank Him for the small sign He was giving her: Gavin wasn’t as indifferent to her as he pretended to be.

“He doesn’t?”

“He thinks Marty’s an asswipe, too. He just wants to get laid.”

Confused, Ginny frowned at him. “Nickel’s gay?”

“He wants to get laid by you!”

“Do you have to yell so much? You’re going to burst my eardrums. Besides …,” she blithely went on, “Nickel hasn’t ever been anything other than a gentleman to me. I’m sure you’re wrong. Now, back to the coupon—”

“Let’s not. I’m done talking about coupons and Nickel.”

Ginny ignored his sarcasm. She was becoming used to it.

“I have gone back to Treepoint several times and never saw Nickel. So, if I went back, it was iffy if I’d see him. That’s why I gave him the coupon. It was actually the only thing I had on me. I didn’t think he’d like me giving him money.”

“Next time, give him money.”

Ginny filed that information away then continued on as if he never said it. “I left the envelope with a letter explaining—”

“I found it, read the letter. You know what it didn’t have? No coupon.”

“Gavin, it didn’t have a coupon, or money, or a vacation package, or car keys to remind you of me. Do you want to know why?”

“No,” he answered grumpily.

Ginny kept her face forward so he couldn’t see her roll her eyes at him.

“I was never going to let you forget about me.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“We’ll take one room with double beds.”

Reaching inside her wallet for her credit card, Ginny held her card out, leaning over the green rope where she was supposed to remain. Gavin didn’t turn around to take it from her.

Placing the card back in her wallet, she unconsciously started tapping her foot in irritation. He refused to let her pay for anything, even the fuel, despite her objections. She wanted to argue with him but didn’t, concern growing every hour they traveled at how exhausted Gavin was becoming.