“Ethan will send the elevator back,” Desmond promised.
Reaper pushed the button.
“Beck, if this is a setup, you’re going to be the first motherfucker I take out,” Viper warned. “How’d you manage to get Allerton’s assistant to agree to help?”
“Not from the generosity of his heart.” Desmond stared at Viper cuttingly. “King and Shade gave me carte blanche to spend what I needed to spend. What you paid Abbott Varela’s ship captain to let you stow away and get you to Clindale is chump change to what you’re paying Ethan. Without him, we won’t be getting off this island.”
The metal doors opening had Viper and Desmond going out first.
“Clear.” On Viper’s signal they rushed out.
Reaper started toward Allerton’s office. “Reaper, hold.”
Viper and Desmond had gone behind Ethan’s desk to stand next to the assistant, who’d handed Viper one of his earbuds.
Reaper joined Viper and they all watched a bank of computer screens. On one of the screens they saw what Allerton was doing to Ginny. Enraged, Reaper moved away from the desk. The motherfucker was dead.
“Wait—we can’t go in there yet.” Agent Garcia blocked him.
“Why in the hell not?” Reaper was prepared to throw the agent over the desk if he didn’t move.
“Listen to her. Ginny’s getting a confession out of him.”
With the furious pounding rushing through his head, Reaper could barely hear the low voices coming from earbuds.
“Listen,” Agent Garcia urged.
“This may help.” Ethan reached under the flap of his suit. At the movement, he had eight guns pointed at him. “I was only going to raise the volume.” He pointed to the white plastic cord that extended upward to the collar of his shirt. “They don’t know I’m listening in.”
Reaper nodded, so Ethan could turn the volume up, and they all heard Allerton and Ginny.
“Depends on a need-to-know basis.”
“In other words, when you use the tapes to blackmail them to get what you want?”
Reaper and the others watched the computer screen as Ginny’s voice sounded through the headset.
“Can you make a copy of this tape?”
“When you’re ready, all you have to do is press this button.” Ethan showed them the button on the computer. “It isn’t equipped with sound.”
“Then fuck it.” Reaper again tried to move toward Allerton’s office.
“Wait—the polygraph machine is in there,” Garcia said. “It’s on the table. It has a recording feature; the conversation is being taped. That’s why Ginny is asking Allerton questions to incriminate himself.”
“Ginny knows she’s being recorded?” Reaper didn’t take his eyes off the computer. Allerton stood over Ginny with a cane in his hand.
“Yes,” Hammer interjected. “The idea was to make him so frustrated that he would slip up, which the bastard is doing. Give Ginny a few ….”
Shade and Rider stepped off the elevator and walked toward the desk as the men continued to listen and watch an infuriated Allerton talk to Ginny while holding a cane poised above her head.
She was on her knees, proudly refusing to cower, even as he swung that fucking cane again. His nymph was battling a demon, with only the power of her voice. Despite being tortured, she was leading the demon to his own destruction.
Every man listening and watching had the same expression. Ginny had earned a purple heart in their eyes.
When Allerton raised the cane higher above his head, Reaper knew how much force he was going to exert, and it was about to come down on his nymph.
He fucking snapped.
Shoving the agent out of his way, he went for the door. Viper and Hammer tried to stop him.
“Wait—she’s trying to find out about Clindale,” Hammer gasped out when Reaper’s fist struck out, hitting his cheekbone. Hammer fell backward and landed in the computer chair, which slammed back into a small table with a coffee maker, sending it crashing against the wall.
Trying to peel Viper off him, Reaper continued to move down the hallway. Rider went to his other side, and found himself dragged along in Reaper’s wake.
“Let me fucking go … I’m going to kill that motherfucker.”
“Just a min—” Cash huffed, while grabbing him around the waist.
Reaper used his strength to throw the three men off. Viper was easier to rip off, because his brother didn’t want to hurt him; Rider was harder. Reaper knocked him off by barreling into the plotted plant, forcing the plant and Rider to go face-first into the wall. With his arms free, he reached behind him to pull Cash over his shoulder and he sent him flying into the door. Unconcerned with the brother’s welfare, Reaper picked him up and tossed him into the agent, whose face went pale when he saw Cash flying toward him.
“Shade?” Reaper’s tone of voice stated exactly what he wanted from the brother as he grabbed the doorknob.
“Ready,” Shade coldly directed him. “Now open the fucking door.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Rising from the chair, Reaper placed it under the doorknob. He turned off the desk light, then went to the other side of the bed and slid in slowly, so as not to disturb her. She was sleeping on his side of the bed. When she had crawled in, he hadn’t had the inclination to tell her to sleep on the other side. He was too happy she was there, in his bed, in his room, with him.