Soleil was the only one who could identify him as the man who had rescued Evangeline from the ocean and was responsible for her disappearance into oblivion. Soleil had been given the choice to go into witness protection, yet she had refused. Desmond hadn’t been surprised. When he had his father ask an old college roommate, who was a highly ranked official in the government, Desmond had made sure the only stipend was the child would be lost in the system. No one would be able to find her, regardless of the money that could be used if the operation failed.
No one had, either, until Evangeline had exposed herself to protect the man she loved. Making a deal, she secured Gavin and The Last Riders from being prosecuted.
Going to Sherguevil at King’s asking, he had been able to see the woman the child had become and the man she was married to. Her appearance had changed, along with her name.
He’d had no intention of helping Ginny, not ready to show his hand when Ivan still remained out of his reach until he was introduced to her husband, Gavin, which was the other reason King and The Last Riders were trying to get them back to the mainland. Reaper was the club’s president’s brother.
All his plans burnt to ashes when he had seen Reaper. The man had looked as if he had walked through the torments of hell and what came out was a creation made from nightmares. When you looked at Reaper, you didn’t see a soul in his eyes; you saw pain … a haunting pain that only those who had walked through hell also could understand. Desmond had walked those paths himself and probably still would be, if not for King.
After meeting the couple in the flesh, he had to rearrange his plan of non-action. Every time he looked at Ginny, he saw the child he had pulled out of the ocean, and the way Reaper looked at Ginny when she wasn’t watching reminded him of the way he would stare at Aanya. Weighing the benefits, Desmond had aided Ginny, Reaper, and The Last Riders’ escape.
Assuming Gabriel’s position on Sherguevil and Angel’s World Rescue had given him the advantage, unexpectedly placing him in range of finally being able to make Ivan pay for Aanya’s death. The downside was that he was going to have to put Ginny and Reaper in danger and use Haley. He had set her on the sideline, waiting for the opportune time to use her.
The time had come, and as much as he wanted to leave Haley out of his machinations, he couldn’t unless he told her the full story and was willing to expose his ugly past. He would have to trust her, and he had never given that level of trust to anyone but King. He had killed to protect his new identity and felt zero remorse at doing so. Yet, no amount of liquor, or reasoning, made him feel better about what had happened downstairs. He had deliberately pushed Haley away from getting closer while taking the easy way out of getting rid of Janine.
She had been right; he had been killing two birds with one stone.
He drained another fourth of the bottle, his vision becoming blurry.
He could kill a man without giving it a second thought, yet killing a woman had him reevaluating if he had done the right thing.
The bitch was going to kill her pregnant daughter.
Drunkenly, he told himself it had been Soleil’s plan all along. She’d been begging him for his cooperation to get near Ginny, so he knew the bitch was being shady, yet he had gone alone and drove her to Treepoint to keep an eye on her.
His only stipulation was to tell Ginny the truth about Gabriel being her father and to give her the pin and video drive he had taken the night Aanya had died. Soleil didn’t know what was on the drive, or where it had come from. Desmond had told her it would make Ginny trust her, show a good faith effort to get her daughter’s support and get the FBI off her case. He had been bullshitting her the same way she had him by agreeing.
The image of Soleil pleading with him to stay in the car was scored into his mind.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out she was going to double-cross him. So far, he had played along with Soleil, the woman who had been pretending to be afraid for her life was more afraid of life without Gabriel than what her lover would do to her. She held all of his secrets from the sheer fact that she would never betray him the way she had Jasper. That was why the FBI wanted the information she had. Soleil didn’t need Ginny to bargain for her.