Agent Collins looked away from her sympathetically. “I believe she does, yes.”
Picking up the bracelet, she gave it back to Gavin. “You can keep it until you make a copy of the tape.”
Gavin pocketed it for safekeeping.
“I’m tired, Gavin.”
“Then go to sleep. I’ll wake you when we’re about to land.”
Ginny gingerly laid her head on his shoulder as Gavin continued to massage her neck, easing some of the strain. She couldn’t understand why she didn’t feel more euphoric. With the tape recording on her bracelet, and the tape from the lobby showing what had taken place in the office, everything Allerton had worked to distinguish himself as—a defender of humanity—would be demolished.
Lifting drowsy lids, Ginny saw Agent Collins adjust himself uncomfortably in his seat.
“I’m too old for this shit,” he grumbled, adjusting his tie. “When I get to the office, I’m retiring.”
She instantly woke up. “You can’t!”
Realizing she heard him, Agent Collins turned in her direction. “My retirement was in the works when I was asked to take this case. My body has had it. Not only that, but I failed to protect you and the men under my command. I’m more than ready to step down. I don’t have the heart for it anymore. Do you think, if I had the opportunity, I wouldn’t have done the same thing with that cane as Gavin did?”
“You wouldn’t have,” Ginny disputed with surety.
“Probably not,” he said wearily. “I would have shot him.”
Ginny didn’t argue with him. She could kind of see him doing that.
“See the case through, and if you still feel the same way, then retire. Hammer told me you were chosen for this case because you have integrity. Allerton will be counting on his money and prestige to buy himself out of reaping the justice he deserves. You have to be the firewall that prevents it from happening. If not you, then who else do you think will be able to say no to the money he can throw at them? I didn’t risk my life and Gavin’s just to see him walk away. Please … wait.” Ginny gave him an encouraging grin. “I’ll even spring for your retirement party if you do. I have a friend of mine I’ll introduce you to. You two would be perfect together,” she coaxed.
“I’m too old. I’ve missed my chance. No woman would want an old fart like me.”
“Aw … that’s not true,” she insisted. “You’re not old. I would date you”—Ginny ignored Gavin going rigid under her—“if I didn’t love Gavin so much.” Giving the agent a sweet smile to show she meant it, she felt another hair parting from her scalp.
“Stop that! It hurts,” she hissed up at Gavin.
“Purely an accident. Besides, there is no way that hurt you.”
“How do you know? You’re not the one who’s getting his hair plucked out one hair at a time. Pure my butt, it does hurt …,” she add plaintively. “I’m tender-headed.”
“No, you’re not.” Dissing her with a hiss of air, Ginny saw red.
“How would you know? It’s not your head that’s getting snatched bald—”
Gavin leaned his head forward so he could look her dead in the eyes with an expression she recognized instantly. It was the one that said he could tear her apart in seconds when they were having sex, when he would roughly grab her hair to tilt her head back and she would melt into the flames of his ….
Ginny cleared her throat. “Never mind.” She snapped her mouth shut as she caught Agent Collins’ amused gaze.
“You don’t want to finish what you were saying?” Gavin prompted.
There was no way she was going to let him one-up her. She had her dignity to uphold.
Leaning her head back on Gavin’s shoulder as if she was going back to sleep, she painfully raised an arm over the top of her hair.
“Mr. Beck … would you mind bringing me another soda?”
Chapter Thirty
Smothering a yawn, Ginny sat in Viper’s SUV as she waited with Gavin for Viper to come out of the sheriff’s office. As soon as they’d landed, Knox had been waiting for them at the airport to transport Allerton back to his holding cell. Viper and the federal agents followed Knox straight to the sheriff’s office to have copies of the recorder made. The others on board had taken off in Shade’s and Cash’s vehicles.
“I still say we should stop by Dr. Price’s office and have him check you out.”
“No, I just want to go home.” Ginny put an end to that suggestion. “I’m sore. I’ll be fine in a couple of days.”
“Don’t you think we have something to discuss?”
“Like what?”
“About where we’re going to be staying.”
Her heart plunged. She had assumed he would be staying with her at Silas’s house. Was this it? The great send-off? Was Taylor still at the club? Was that why he wanted to get rid of her?