Widening her eyes at another boom that had the windows rattling, she begged, “Please? I’ll go back to my room when the storm blows over.”
He gave in, scooting over. “Your ass is out of here when it does.”
Ginny raised her hand. “Scouts honor.”
“I know everything about your life. You were never in the girl scouts.”
Ignoring Gavin’s baleful stare, she climbed under the covers. “No, Freddy wouldn’t let me. He didn’t want me selling their cookies. He said he would have to take a mortgage out to pay for the cookies that he and my brothers would eat.”
Snuggling down onto the mattress, Ginny gave a heartfelt sigh at the comfort surrounding her. “This is the best mattress in the whole house. I wore a hole in this side.” Turning on her side, Ginny settled the pillow under her cheek. “Good night,” she yawned out.
“I hear plenty of sounds coming from your side of the bed,” he snapped.
Ginny didn’t respond, pretending to be asleep. She was so sleepy that she didn’t even have to pretend for long.
The swinging motion of the bed woke her. Half-asleep, she turned and saw that Gavin was asleep and having another nightmare. She groggily threw herself down on his chest, feeling Gavin come awake under her.
“What in the fuck are you doing?”
“Trying to sleep,” she muttered against his chest. “Go back to asleep.” Patting his chest, she resumed the sweet dream she was having.
“Roll over.”
“My back hurts.” Patting him again, she snuggled tighter against his chest. “I was going to get my ice pack out of the freezer before you went to bed, but you were so mean to me that I didn’t ask.” Ginny threw one of her legs over both of his.
“You’re snoring.”
“Sorry,” Ginny muttered, placing a hand under her cheek. “That better?”
“Yes.”
“Good, now go back to sleep and quit waking me up,” she groused.
“I’m waking you up?”
“Yes!” Sleepily, she patted him again. “I need to get some sleep. I have to be up early.”
“Why?”
“I have to bury the mirror.”
Chapter Forty-One
“This is the most asinine thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Reaper complained when his boot sank into the mud. It better be mud.
“Shh … you want to get us shot?”
He almost ran her down when Ginny turned to glare at him.
“The Porters aren’t going to shoot us.”
“Yeah right. I’ll remind you of that on the ambulance ride to the morgue,” she quipped before turning around to resume walking.
Dunking his head to avoid a low-lying limb, he nearly went flying over Ginny. His hands went out to catch himself, managing to grab the limb that had almost decapitated him.
“What in the fuck are you doing!”
Sitting on her bottom, Ginny glared up at him. “I’m trying to be sneaky, and you’re not helping.”
“This rid—”
“Will you please lower your voice?” she hissed. “Better yet, go back to the house. I’ll be there in a bit.”
“I’m not leaving you alone out here in the middle of the night.”
“It’s almost dawn.” Raising herself to her knees, Ginny started crawling. “We have to do this before daybreak.”
“Why—”
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
A squeak came out of Ginny at the male voice coming from behind a tree in front of them.
Reaper moved his hand behind his back.
“Keep those hands where I can see them, Reaper.”
A flashlight came on as another man walked out from a tree closer to him. The light was bright enough to shine not only on Ginny and him but also on the man who had stopped them.
“Tate.”
“Reaper.”
“What am I? Chopped liver? I don’t get a howdy?”
“Greer.”
“That’s more like it. What you doing down there, Ginny?” Greer asked. “It’s a little early in the season to be looking for our weed patch, ain’t it?”
“Is it?”
Reaper watched as Ginny got to her feet and started edging back to him, trying to hide the trash bag behind her back.
Did she think they were blind? The white trash bag was easily visible even before Greer had turned his flashlight on.
“Then I’ll sneak back in a couple of months.” Ginny turned to go, but Tate’s cold voice stopped her.
“What’s in the bag?”
“Nothing. I just brought it to use when I found your patch.”
“You were planning on taking the whole crop?”
Ginny turned pleading eyes to Reaper to get her out of the mess she found herself in.
Reaper crossed his arms over his chest. It was her ridiculous idea, he thought unsympathetically.
“Yes. Sorry. We’ll be going.”
Greer moved behind them to block them from leaving.
Reaper’s amusement in the situation ended at Greer’s move.
“Move back to where you were.”
The lethal intent had the sound of a rifle being cocked from another tree and a third man stepping out.
“Lower your weapon, Dustin,” Greer ordered. “They just came for a friendly visit. I invited Reaper over to get a taste of our finest. Didn’t plan on him taking the whole smorgasbord, but we don’t have to be inhospitable just because they didn’t come calling at a reasonable hour.”