She hid the shiver that brief touch caused, but it was impossible to hide her nipples tightening into hard peaks.
She noticed that he noticed. Though, he said nothing. Instead, he took her coat in one hand and dug into his front jeans’ pocket with the other, pulling out her car key. He slipped it into her coat pocket, making sure she saw him. Then he moved away to hang it right next to his cut by the door.
An unspoken assurance she could leave whenever she wanted to.
“Who are you?” she whispered, her throat convulsing as he moved back to stand in front of her.
He was so damn tall. She was tall for a woman at five-foot-eight, but she felt tiny next to him. Almost petite.
His thumb brushed over her forehead, pushing a lock of hair out of her face, then he buried his spread fingers into the hair above her ear. “Judge.”
“Is that your real name?”
“No,” he answered softly, his eyes pinned on her mouth.
She licked her lips. “What is it?”
“Judd.”
The longer he stared at her lips, the harder it was for her to catch her breath. “And why Judge?”
“Why not?”
“Is there a story behind it?”
“It matter?”
She guessed it didn’t. “You answered my question with something I already knew. What I want to know is who are you?”
“Who are you?”
She blinked up at him. His thumb was massaging her temple, his fingers gripping her hair. Not roughly, but, even so, holding her there. A prisoner to his touch.
“Why do you know things about me?”
He released her suddenly and Cassie was relieved he moved away, allowing her to think more clearly, letting her catch her breath.
“Promise you’re gonna hear me out.”
Well, that just put her on edge. And not a good one.
“Been on your feet all night. Get off ‘em.”
Huh?
“They hurt?”
What the hell was he talking about?
“Your feet. They hurt?”
She pinned her eyebrows together. “Y-yes.”
“Take a load off.” He jerked his chin toward the couch, where Jury was already curled up in one corner but keeping an eye on them both.
She moved toward the couch only because, yes, her feet hurt, and it would be nice to get off them. A hot shower usually helped somewhat with her sore feet and back. A soak in a tub would be better but filling the tub would take too long every night and might wake up everyone in her sister’s house.
“Shouldn’t wear a boot with a heel,” he said, going into the kitchenette and opening the fridge.
“It helps with tips.”
His head popped up over the open refrigerator door. “The boots?”
She waved a hand down her body. “The whole outfit.”
His head disappeared again for a second and when he straightened, he slammed the door shut and had a beer in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. He handed the water to her.
He remembered she didn’t drink beer. Hmm, a man that listened and remembered. Those were a rare breed.
“Sit,” he grunted. “Jury, off.”
The dog scrambled from the couch to the floor and Judge waited for Cassie to take the dog’s place.
She did and put the water bottle on the floor at her feet.
Judge settled on the other end of the couch, cracked open the beer, guzzled half of it and put the bottle down on the floor. He twisted toward her. “Take your boots off.”
She stared at him. “Why?”
“When’s the last time someone did somethin’ nice for you?”
“When’s the last time someone did something nice for you?” she repeated the question back to him.
He shook his head. “Not talkin’ ‘bout me.”
“Heather and Tyler letting Daisy and me move in was more than nice.”
“When’s the last time a man did anythin’ nice for you?”
Why was he asking this? “I... I don’t know.”
“Take your boots off.”
“I don’t understand why—”
“Take your fuckin’ boots off, Cassie.”
This was just weird. Coming up to his apartment was a mistake. “I need to get home.”
“Kid’s asleep. Sister’s home. You got time.”
“I came here to find out why you’re following me and why you know things about me that are none of your business. Not to get comfortable.”
She froze and her heart seized when he surged forward, grabbed one ankle, pulled her leg up and unzipped her boot.
“Hey!”
He had the boot pulled off and tossed across the room before she could scramble away from him. Then he pulled her foot into his lap and began to work the sole with his big, strong fingers.
Oh.
Oh shit.
Holy shit.
A groan slipped from between her lips.
His lips twitched at her reaction. “Feel good?”
“Yes,” she breathed, leaning back against the arm of the couch, getting more comfortable. “Oh... my... God.”
He grinned. “Like that?”
“Yesssss.”
“Get your other boot off,” he ordered as he continued to massage her foot.
She didn’t hesitate this time. This time she quickly unzipped the other boot and plopped her foot right into his lap, so she was sitting sideways on the couch.
She groaned as he began to massage her feet with both hands. “Holy shit.” She closed her eyes and dropped her head back.
Whatever he was doing felt like heaven.
Pure heaven.
Oh God, it was better than sex. Way better.
A little whimper escaped her as he dug his thumb deep into a sore spot.
She almost sounded drunk when she asked, “How’d you know my feet hurt like that?”
“Aunt was a waitress. My uncle, Deke’s pop, used to massage her feet after her shift. Kept their marriage alive. Afterward, we’d hear them go into their room and bang one out.”
Her eyes popped open and her head jerked up. “What?”
Was he expecting them to “bang one out” after he was done massaging her feet?
Judge wasn’t looking at her but was concentrating on her sock-covered feet with a smile. “It was tit for toe.”
Tit for what? “Tit for tat?”
“He got her tits after massagin’ her toes.”
Cassie slapped a hand over her mouth to smother the laugh. “Was that a joke?”
He grunted. “Kinda. But it was true.”
“I take it they had a good relationship.”
“Yeah.”
“You were close with them?”
“Yeah.”
“Family should be important.”
“Should be.”
She groaned as he hit another sore spot. “I agree. They should be. I’m thankful for my sister and her husband.”
“Why’d you run?”
She lifted her head again. “Tell me why you know things about me first.”
His fingers slowed and she wanted to complain, but she had no right to, so she didn’t.
“Own Justice Bail Bonds.”
Cassie shot up and jerked her feet from his hands, curling her legs under her. “What?”
“My cousin, Deke, and I run a bail bonds business.”
“Okay...”
“Lookin’ for your husband.”
“You’re not the only one.”
His green eyes hit hers and held. “You lookin’ for him, too?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know where he is?”
“No. If I did...”
“If you did...?”
“I’d finally be divorced.”
He nodded. “Kinda figured that.”
“How?”
“Feet,” he demanded, his hands held out.
She sighed and uncurled her legs, putting her feet ba
ck in his lap. She jerked as he peeled off her socks and tossed them to the floor. He began to rub her bare feet.
And, holy shit... It made her melt like butter.
If he was some psycho killer, he knew how to bring down her guard.
But instead of going all Ted Bundy on her, he began to talk. “Got a call from a bondsman in Rochester about your husband jumpin’ bail. Told me you came to Manning Grove and to keep an eye out for Lange. We catch him, we make a little scratch.”
“Why would he come here?”
“To be with his wife and kid.”
She blinked. “He’s not looking for me.”
“Yeah, figured that out.”
“How?”
“Deke went up to New York and...”
His cousin went to Rochester? “And?”
“And got some info up there. From someone you know. Found out you two had split a while back. Before he got charged. Assets were seized while you were waitin’ for the divorce to go through.”
Well, someone got their information right for once. “Yes.”
“That’s why your finger don’t have a mark.”
What? She lifted her left hand and glanced at her ring finger. “I removed it after I kicked him out.”
“Wasn’t gonna give him a second chance?”
It seemed he was being honest, so she might as well be the same. Especially since they were both looking for Dennis. And if Judge found him, it would benefit Cassie, too.
In fact, if Judge or his cousin found Dennis, she could get him to sign the divorce papers and it might be the first step in being free of her hopefully soon-to-be ex-husband’s mess.
“I considered it. If he would have gone to counseling for not only our marriage but his gambling addiction, but he refused. So, I refused to let him back in the house. He spent every damn dime we had saved. He wanted to put a second mortgage on our home. He spent our entire retirement. Everything was gone. Just... gone.” She flung her hands up. “Just like that. Any money we had disappeared into thin air. Everything we worked for. Everything I worked for. He just...” She shook her head. “He left me and Daisy with nothing. Nothing.” Her throat tightened. “He left his daughter with nothing. Not even the little we had put aside for her college fund. He drained that, too.”
A muscle ticked in Judge’s cheek and his grip tightened on her feet. “Yeah.”
“And that was before I found out about the embezzlement, which made it so much worse. Right now, I’m paying for his crime. His daughter is, too.”
His fingers relaxed a little more as he massaged. “Bondsman thought maybe when he bailed and you left town, you were settin’ it up to meet him here, or maybe somewhere else and this was just a stop on the way.”
Of course. Because almost everyone thought she was involved. She was disappointed that so many people thought so little of her own integrity. “No. The only reason I’d ever want to see him again is to get him to sign those papers. To set me free.”
“Your daughter.”
She stared at Judge. Those two simple words, the child she and Dennis shared, made things way more complex. “Yes. My daughter keeps us bound. But he’s guilty. They have too much evidence against him. And once he goes to jail, it’ll be up to Daisy, once she turns eighteen, whether she wants a relationship with him. I will not take her to prison to visit him. Does that make me a bad mother?” She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. But he should have thought about her before he stole all that money from her. He had the opportunity to turn himself around before it got that bad. He chose not to.”
“Addictions are rough.”
While she understood addictions were difficult and could rip families apart, he refused to get help. She couldn’t help someone who wasn’t willing to help himself. And she had herself and her daughter to protect.
Plus, she was angry. At him, for hiding it so well for so long, and at herself, for not seeing it.
“Maybe so. But losing your daughter should be much rougher. That’s how I see it. I would do anything for her. He proved he wouldn’t. All he had to do was get help. He didn’t even try. He didn’t even want to make the effort. That’s when I knew I was done. When Daisy was done. I told him if and when he got help, I’d consider Daisy having a relationship with him again. But that never happened because he got arrested and charged. And then my life... our life... began to crumble even further. Her father’s name was in everyone’s mouth. What he did was unforgivable. But worse was where he stole that money from. That foundation trusted him. He’d worked there for years. That was one reason I left, because I didn’t want Daisy dealing with the shit her father left behind. I wanted to make a fresh start where people might not know us.”
“Manning Grove.”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “Maybe. My sister offered us a place to stay temporarily. To escape the shit show in New York. I jumped on it. Daisy needs family. More than just me. She wasn’t getting that in Rochester. My innocent little girl was caught up in shit that she didn’t even understand. So, I packed what little I had left, what hadn’t been seized and we came here. A place where I could gather my thoughts and make a plan.”
“Bet that plan didn’t include workin’ in a bar.”
“No, it didn’t. But I am grateful that Stella hired me. It’s a start. And it’s giving me more than what I had. Which was nothing.”
“Somethin’ is better than nothin’,” Judge mumbled.
Cassie’s head snapped up. “Yes. Something is better than nothing.”
“It’s a sayin’ Trip lives by. He resurrected our fathers’ club not long ago. It had been destroyed, burned to the ground, and he had a plan to rebuild. You remind me of him. Startin’ with nothin’ and tryin’ to make your way. Takin’ what little you have and buildin’ on it.”
“I thought my future was set.” She shook her head. “I was dead wrong. And it’s hard to start again with what Dennis did still hanging over us. I need this divorce. I need to be able to start fresh without worrying if every dime I make will be taken from me to pay off Dennis’s debts. I shouldn’t be responsible for the crimes he committed. My only crime was being blind to it all.”
“Wasn’t your fault.”
She sighed. “Yes? Well, tell that to everyone else.”
Chapter Nine
His fingers slid over her bare feet, over her warm, smooth skin. She had tensed while talking about the shit Lange had created for her and their daughter and he was determined to get her moaning again, even if it was just with his hands on her feet.
“So, you were following me to find Dennis, thinking he would search us out? Or that we might be planning to go on the lam with him?”
“Yeah.”
“Now you know he won’t. He isn’t stupid. He probably figures someone would be watching us. Plus, I’m sure he knows I need him to sign those damn papers.”
Judge traced his fingers around her ankles, moving up slightly to squeeze and massage her lower calves.
“Oh,” she groaned, her eyes fluttering for a second as he moved his hands higher. “Uh... So, you no longer need to follow me. Or sit outside my sister’s home.”
He moved back down to the soles of her feet and then worked his way partly back up her calves. “Started to follow you to find Lange. Soon as I knew your divorce was pendin’, the reason changed.”
She lifted her head from the armrest and searched his face. “What was the new reason?”
“Make sure you made it home safely.”
She frowned. “Why? Why would you care about my safety?”
“Got a little girl to take care of.”
“So do a lot of other women. Do you follow a bunch of women home?”
When he ran into her at the municipal parking lot that first day and then again at the old warehouse lot, he thought she may be shy and submissive. He was quickly finding out the woman had some bite to her. And exactly where her daughter got her sass. “You leave late at night.”
“So? This town seems
safe. Way safer than Rochester and sometimes I used to get home late at night while I lived there.”
“Didn’t have me to watch you.”
She sat up and began to pull her feet from his lap, but he grabbed her ankles and held her there.
“It’s not your job to watch me.”
“Didn’t say it was.”
“How about you give me your number and, if I see Dennis, the first thing I’ll do after I get him to sign those damn papers—and kick him in the nuts for all the shit he put me through—is give you a call so you can haul his ass back to the pokey.”
Judge fought to keep his expression blank. “The pokey?”
He lost that fight. Especially when she asked all sassy-like, “What? You don’t call it the pokey?”
He smirked. “Baby, no one calls it the pokey.”
“I do.”
“Yeah, got that.”
“Okay, back to business...”
Yeah, Judge was good with getting back to business, but not the business Cassie was talking about.
Pulling on her ankles, he slid her down the couch until her ass was against his knee. Until she was nice and close.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Gettin’ down to business.”
“I said back to business.”
“Okay, then. Gettin’ back to business. Whatever you wanna fuckin’ call it.”
“I didn’t come up here for that.”
“Didn’t bring you up here for that, either.”
“We were supposed to be talking.”
“Done talkin’. Lange ain’t comin’ to Manning Grove. Nothin’ left to talk about.”
“This is more than that.”
“Wasn’t gonna be ‘til you said you kicked his ass out a long time ago. He was a stupid fuck and gave you up.”
Cassie’s mouth dropped open. “I have a daughter.”
“Yeah? And I have a son. Didn’t you fuckin’ notice? It’s just me and you on this couch, Cassie.”
“I need to go.” But she made no move to get up.
He released her and held up his palms. If she wanted to go, he wasn’t going to force her to stay. He wanted more from her than just conversation, but that would be up to her. “Then go. Key’s in your coat pocket. Can go at any time. Ain’t holdin’ you here. Your choice.”
Her throat convulsed. “My choice for what?”
Blood & Bones: Judge (Blood Fury MC Book 3) Page 12