“He didn’t deserve to play the world’s savior. The only time I almost pulled out, Gavin, was when you refused to let me go to Sherguevil Island without you.
She ran her hand along the length of his arm that lay possessively across her to link her fingers with his, heartened when he clasped hers back.
“Why didn’t you?” Gavin asked huskily.
“While I was sure that Hammer was experienced to survive almost anything thrown at him, my decision was easier to make with you going with me rather than Hammer. I’d told myself, if you could survive Slate, you could survive anything.”
“Then why in the fuck did you give in to his demand that you go with the guards if you had that much faith in me?”
“Because, as much as I love you, you’re not bulletproof. You weren’t going to wave and make the bullets bounce off you. Because even as much as I believed you could survive anything, there was still a chance one of those guards could kill you, and it wasn’t a chance I was willing to take. I wanted to tell you that Agent Collins was undercover, but they made it a stipulation and even Hammer didn’t know about that part of the deal. They believed if Hammer was suspicious, it would make it more believable. The same went for Gavin. When he made no effort to conceal his distrust of Agent Collin’s, I continued the charade to keep both of them safe. I thought when Allerton had proof I was telling him the truth, he would let us go or show his true colors. I never imagined he would go off the deep end before I took the polygraph test.”
Unable to bear the weight of her head any longer, she laid her head down on Gavin’s shoulder.
Ginny heard a series of groans coming from the back of the plane.
“He had no intention of letting you take the polygraph,” Agent Collins explained as she watched him approach their seats.
Gavin braced his arm over her legs as the agent sat down in the seat next to Gavin and her.
“When I set the polygraph up the day before and asked for the questions, he put me off by saying his lawyer was still working on them and he would give me them today. When I went into his office, his men were waiting to jump me. I took the payoff from him as part of the setup with the FBI, but someone must have tipped him off that I was doubling crossing him.
"He told me he has lots of people in the FBI and the CIA,” Ginny said.
“I’m not surprised.” The agent shook his head, his expression one of remorse. “The polygraph machine I set up the day before was rigged to make your answers appear truthful, and we’d hidden a listening device within it. It could have been the tip-off, or Allerton could have discovered it, and why he decided to take me and my men out of the picture. Gavin made the better call when he tried to get you out of there. He acted the moment he knew something didn’t feel right.”
She wanted to look to see who was behind them but wasn’t willing to set the pain off again to satisfy her curiosity. “Are your men okay?”
The grave look on Agent Collins’ face spoke of the danger the men had been in. “Thanks to Flores, whose bungalow faces this side of the resort, we had devised a signal. Every half an hour, I was to stand in front of the window at the resort for him to see me through binoculars, so when I missed the signal time, he, Garcia, and Clark were prepared. They weren’t as easy to take down as I was. Flores told me they were hightailing it to the resort when they came across Gavin and The Last Riders.”
“Reaper and I were arguing over all of us going to the FBI’s bungalow while he went on ahead by himself.” Viper took over explaining what had transpired while she was in Allerton’s office. “I went with him while the others went to find the agents, but it was Reaper and I who came across them in their Moke.”
“Is that why all of you look beaten up? They mistook you for more guards?” Ginny thought that explained why the Last Riders’ odd uniforms were torn and why they looked as if they had gone through a war zone. If the agents mistook them for Allerton security, they were lucky to be alive.
“No. That was all Reaper.”
Seeing the heated glares sent pointedly toward Gavin, she snuggled back into him protectively. Just with that slight movement, Ginny had to rapidly blink back the dark spots that heralded she was about to pass out again from the pain. Shoving the ice pack onto her forehead, she was able to gather her equilibrium.