Justice
Laramie Briscoe
Contents
Also By Laramie Briscoe
New Release Alerts
Author’s Note
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Reviews
Connect With Laramie
Royal Rebel
Copyright © 2019 Laramie Briscoe
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without express permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and storylines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.
Cover: Laramie Briscoe
Cover Photography: Carian Cole
Formatting: Laramie Briscoe
Proofreading: Danielle Wentworth
Also By Laramie Briscoe
The Haldonia Monarchy
Royal Rebel
Heaven Hill Series
Meant To Be
Out of Darkness
Losing Control
Worth The Battle
Dirty Little Secret
Second Chance Love
Rough Patch
Beginning of Forever
Home Free
Shield My Heart
A Heaven Hill Christmas
Heaven Hill Next Generation
Hurricane
Wild
Heaven Hill Shorts
Caelin
Christine
Justice
Harley
Jagger
Charity
Liam
Drew
Dalton
Mandy
Rockin’ Country Series
Only The Beginning
One Day at A Time
The Price of Love
Full Circle
Hard To Love
Reaper’s Girl
The Moonshine Task Force Series
Renegade
Tank
Havoc
Ace
Menace
Cruise
Laurel Springs Emergency Response Team
Ransom
Suppression
Enigma
The MVP Duet
On the DL
MVP
Stand Alones
Sketch
Sass
Trick
Room 143
New Release Alerts
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Author’s Note
Thank you so much for reading my books!
Thank you so much for following this family from Meant To Be until now, and thank you for being such a support in my life!
- Laramie
Blurb
It is recommended that you read “Heaven Hill Generations” before starting this series, or you will be spoiled and lost!
There goes my hero...
Justice Walker
Everybody looks at me with pity in their eyes. I’m the little girl who was kidnapped by a member of her family.
What they don’t realize is I have my own hero in Caelin Blackfoot, and my protector in my sister. Things are hard, but they’re getting better.
On my sixteenth birthday my wish comes true - changing the course of my life forever.
Chapter One
Justice
It’s dark inside the van.
Those were my first thoughts as I was grabbed and the door was shut behind me. Before I could even glance around, my eyes were covered. I couldn’t see anything. For a few seconds I screamed, before even that was taken away from me.
“Shut the fuck up.”
There were voices I didn’t recognize, and a whole lot of movement.
“We’ve got to get gone before they can track us,” a masculine voice cracked with what I assume is fear. “I don’t want to play with Drew.”
“Too bad about that my dude, this here? This is his daughter.”
For the first time in my life, I feel real fear. I’ve been scared before. Riding on the back of a bike, falling and skinning my knee, learning to sleep with the lights off, having to be in a different class than my twin sister. Those have all been things that have scared me, but this? Terrifies me. And for the first time in my life, I’m not sure my dad will be here to make things better.
“Did anyone see us?” someone else is asking.
God I hope so, my sister and my aunt were with me, and the cameras. Oh God, the video cameras outside of CRISIS. I hope they got a look at the van, that they saw I didn’t want to go.
As we travel, quicker if the way I’m getting jostled around is any indication, I wish I was more like Harley. She would have made a scene, made these people wish they hadn’t taken her.
Me, I do what basically everyone tells me to do. I hate making a scene, and I hate for people to be mad at me. Something tells me this time, it’s going to be the reason I get hurt.
The darkness hasn’t gone away, the only change now is they’ve taken my blindfold off and they’ve taken the gag out of my mouth. Here, it’s dark and damp. My eyes adjusted a while ago, but honestly I still can’t make out much. Nothing that triggers a memory or makes sense anyway.
Men are arguing, but I can’t really hear what they’re saying. One of them is Travis, and I wonder why he’s here with these people who wanted to hurt me. He’s always been the one to make sure we were safe.
Confused, I’m so confused.
Even more confused when I see people I know, the members of Heaven Hill, and Caelin. So much is happening, and then there’s a gunshot. Travis hits the ground, Caelin stands with a smoking gun.
I wake up here, gasping for air; my hands are flat in front of me, feeling the silky fabric of my comforter. Sweat is pouring down my face and neck, and my heart is pounding.
“Justice, are you okay?”
It’s the voice of my sister Harley. Even though we don’t share a room anymore, we’re twins, we know when the other is having a hard time. “Yeah,” I take a calming breath, hoping it works. “Just a bad dream.”
“You always have them this time of year.”
She’s right. Our birthday, for some reason brings me back to that night. Maybe it’s because Travis hasn’t had a birthday since it happened. This will be our sixth. Sixteen, is this the year he’ll notice me? Shaking my head, I do my best to listen to what Harley’s saying.
“I can stay with you if you want.”
“No, I’m okay,” I pull my covers back, swinging my legs over the side. “If I take a shower, I should be fine. I just need to wash this sweat off of me.”
“Well,” Harley gets up, and it’s like looking in a mirror, there’s not much about us that’s different. Except I still have a turquoise streak in my hair. “If you don’t need anything, I’m going to go back to bed.”
“I’ll be fine, I
promise.”
She hugs me before she leaves.
I repeat what I told her. “I’ll be fine, I promise.”
The water does what I expect it to do, calms me down enough so that my anxiety isn’t through the roof. Somehow, I’ve kept myself on an even keel for most of my life. Nights like this though, they tear me up. When Harley and I decided to go to our own rooms, Mom and Dad gave us our own bathrooms off of our rooms, probably to keep everyone from arguing, and to give our brother his own space. He may be ten years younger than us, but he’s equal parts a pain in the ass and the light of our lives.
I do my best to dry my hair, if I go to sleep with it too wet, it’ll look crazy in the morning. After I’ve dried it as much as I’m going to be able to, I lie back against my pillow, sighing. Even though I’m not totally freaking out anymore, I’m not sure I can go to sleep. Reaching over to my nightstand, I grab my phone.
J: Are you asleep?
C: No, but you should be. You have school tomorrow and then a big weekend.
J: Had a bad dream.
C: You know dreams aren’t real, right? And you know at the end of the dream, I save you.
J: LOL! It’s always got to be about you doesn’t it?
C: Well, I am your hero.
Even though he annoys the shit out of me, I think back to the time I told him he was my hero. Those words had been so important, and I know he’d needed to hear them as much as I’d needed to say them. Now though, he likes to throw it in my face, typically when I wake up like this. I’m giggling now, not thinking about all the heavy stuff I was before.
J: Thanks, Caelin.
C: No problem. See you on Saturday?
J: Definitely.
C: Sleep good, sweetheart.
J: I will.
I try like hell not to the let the sweetheart make my stomach do flips. He’s a natural flirt, and he calls everybody pet names, but that doesn’t stop it from happening. For years I’ve watched Caelin. He’s had girlfriends, of course, but none of them were serious. Saturday is my and Harley’s sixteenth birthday, and I can think of nothing better than having my first kiss. Of course that kiss will be with Caelin, it’s been the dream since I knew what kisses were.
But I’m nervous, he’s probably going to reject me.
Then again, what if he doesn’t?
Chapter Two
Justice
Six Years Earlier
“Do I have to talk to you?”
Doc Jones looks at me, her eyes sad. “You don’t have to, but I think it would be best if you did, Justice. What happened to you wasn’t right.”
People want to talk, all the time. They’re constantly asking me if I’m okay. Do I need this or that? The only people who treat me like I’m not broken are my sister and Caelin.
“It just makes me so angry,” I feel the tears coming and I’m even more angry. I hate that what happened affects me this way. “Every time I think about it, I want to kick something, or hit it.”
“Have you tried that?” She asks softly.
I shake my head, tears pulling over the edges of my eyes. “No, my mom and dad always worry about what happened. I don’t want them to worry anymore, especially since Mom’s pregnant.”
“It doesn’t mean you have to treat her differently.”
“But I do.”
Doc Jones wheels over to me. We stare at one another for a few moments before she grabs my hands in hers. “Tell me this Justice. How does you treating your mom differently because she’s pregnant differ from her treating you differently because you were taken?”
Sometimes I hate her logic. Even at this age, I know her logic is sound and it slightly pisses me off. “It doesn’t,” I answer honestly
“Okay then. You need to be honest with not only your parents, but yourself. Life isn’t easy, Justice. There are going to be hard times, but we’re all going to be here to get you through them. You don’t have to do this on your own.”
“I know.”
“Do you, honey? I get the feeling you don’t want to make waves, only because you’re scared it’s going to put more attention on you. If you need something, you have to tell the people around you. They aren’t mind readers. If they were, they wouldn’t keep asking you what you want for your birthday.”
I laugh slightly. Harley and I are going to be eleven next week. It’s weird how differently it feels from ten. I’ve lived an entire lifetime in the year from ten to eleven. Grown up in ways I never imagined possible.
“I hate the dark,” I whisper. “Hate it. The van was dark. As soon as I got in, they covered my eyes and put something in my mouth. Before that, I was never scared of the dark.”
“Have you tried being in the dark by yourself since then?” Doc Jones asks carefully.
“Once. I was in the bathroom when the power went out. I freaked,” I admit. “I was screaming and Dad had to come and get me. That’s when he asked me to come start talking to you.”
“Not that you’re actually talking to me,” she nudges my knee.
“The truth is,” I start picking at the polish on my nails, “There were so many bad things that could have happened to me, but didn’t. In some ways I feel very lucky, but in other ways I’m scared to go out in public,” I admit. “I’m scared someone is going to take me again, but this time they’ll do all the bad things I imagine at night while I’m trying to sleep.”
“Are you tired?” She runs a hand under my eyes.
There are dark circles there, I don’t sleep much. “Exhausted. When I put my head on the pillow, my mind races.”
“With all the bad things?”
I nod. “I can’t make it stop, even though none of it actually happened, I can’t help but think about all the what if’s.”
She and I are quiet for a while; Doc turns her wheelchair to the flower garden, holding her hand out for me to grasp. “These flowers,” she nods to the garden, “make me happy. Every morning I wake up and look out at them, I know I’m alive and that I was loved enough to be taken care of. The Blackfoot’s made sure I got this room because they knew it would please me. Because they know what makes me happy. When I go to bed at night, I think about this view and these flowers, because they make me happy. What makes you happy, Justice?”
The question is hard to answer, and I’m unsure why. So many things used to make me smile and enjoy life. A fresh brownie or cookie from Harper’s bakery. A new haircut from Christine, spending the afternoon with just my mom and me. Hanging out with my sister. I don’t find any comfort in most of those things anymore. It’s like the little girl and her ideals died when she was pulled into the back of that van. There’s one thing lately that makes me smile. “Caelin makes me happy.”
She laughs. “He makes a lot of people happy, Justice.”
“He’s my hero.”
“Just make sure you don’t put him so high on a pedestal he can’t fall, Justice,” she squeezes my hand. “Caelin isn’t perfect, he has faults like the rest of us, but I would agree with you. He makes me happy too.”
I wonder if she can see it. How I look at Caelin when I’m around him now. It started so innocently and so slowly. This infatuation I have with him is embarrassing, but I don’t think he knows. I hope he doesn’t know, my stomach has started somersaulting when he’s around, my hands shake, and my face feels like it’s on fire.
“I rode on his bike over here,” I whisper.
She looks at me, wide-eyed. “You don’t ride bikes.”
“I do with him.”
“Hey ladies.”
Speak of the devil and he appears.
“You ready?” He looks over at me. “I gotta get to the shop, but I promised Drew I’d drop you at Liam’s.”
He comes into the room, all tall and commanding. Owning it like he tends to do. Going over to Doc Jones, he leans down, kissing her on the cheek. I wish he’d do that to me. But he never has. He’s never once done something that can’t be construed as friendly. No matter how much I wish it were r
omantic.
“You doing okay?” He asks her, wrapping her in his big arms.
“Better now that you’re here.”
See I knew it, she’s as in love with him as everyone else is. It’s like we can’t help it. His personality is infectious, even when he’s serious. I’ve never known anyone like him before, and I consider myself lucky he’s in my life.
“C’mon Lil Bit, we gotta go.”
I’m not sure when the nickname started, but I know it came from the fact I’m so much shorter than he is. There’s a part of me that hates the nickname, there’s another part that feels special he gave it to me.
“Remember what I said,” Doc Jones looks at me, her eyes boring into me. If anyone can read my mind, I’m sure it’s her.
“I will.”
As we leave, Caelin puts his hand on the small of my back, escorting me out of the room. I wonder if Mom gets this excited feeling in her stomach when Dad does the same for her. That’s how I know Caelin’s a good guy, he does the same type of things my dad does.
“You ready?” He asks as we exit the building. His bike sits near the front, shining brightly. I still have my turquoise streak in my hair I got not long after the kidnapping, the one for Caelin It makes me nervous, riding the bike, but with him, I feel like nothing can hurt me. Maybe I’m naive, thinking he can keep all the bad things away, but we all need that one person we feel safe with. He’s mine.
Justice (Heaven Hill Shorts Book 3) Page 1