Justify

by Kristin Harte

  “Thought you were coming back tomorrow,” I said as I hopped into the passenger seat. “Alder know you’re here?”

  “You really think my brother would send you to a job site when Katie’s at risk?”

  No. Probably not, which finally turned my anger into a feeling close to excitement. Mission time. “So, what’s the situation?”

  “We found Rock.”

  Motherfucker. The man who’d grabbed Katie, who’d caused her to burn her hands, who’d stolen my gun. The afternoon was looking up. “Where?”

  “He’s at the Soul Suckers clubhouse over the county line. We’ve got about forty minutes before he’s set to leave. Some sort of errand for the Pres. Parris promises he’ll be alone.”

  Parris. Deacon’s friend, former Marine, and a member of a motorcycle club himself, though not the Soul Suckers. I didn’t care for any of them, though—didn’t matter the colors on their backs. Not after all that had happened in the last few months. But Alder and Deacon trusted Parris, so I’d follow their lead… Until he proved me wrong.

  I buckled in as Bishop pulled out of the alley. “Katie’s going to know something’s up if Anabeth comes strolling into the restaurant.”

  “She won’t be,” he said, his words clipped and concise. “Finn’s keeping an eye on her at my place.”

  His youngest brother, former addict, and the man who’d almost killed Anabeth back in high school. True, it’d been somewhat accidental—no way the kid could have known she’d react so badly to whatever drug they’d been doing at the time—but that didn’t mean Bishop had forgiven him. Or trusted him.

  “You sure that’s a good idea?”

  “Fuck no, but she’s sick, and I wasn’t leaving her in Vegas. Deacon’s on the roof keeping an eye on Main Street while we take care of this shit, and Camden’s MIA, so Finn gets the job.”

  Ah, so Alder assigned him there. No wonder Bishop was so pissed about it. “So this will be a quick job—in and out.”

  “Abso-fucking-lutely. No way am I leaving Anabeth alone overnight.”

  Good, because Katie wasn’t spending a whole night without me around either. “So what’s Alder’s plan?”

  “Alder isn’t laying out the rules today. It’s you and me.” Bishop held out his fist, giving me the chance to bump it as he roared down the highway. “We do this our way. Show up, grab the guy, beat the fuck out of him, and get your gun back. Easy.”

  “Nothing’s ever that easy.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ve got women to get home to, so we’re going to have to make it that easy.”

  The plan went better than I would have expected. Rock left the clubhouse just as Parris had said he would—at the right time and all alone in his car. No bike, which made our job that much easier. We followed a good distance behind him until he reached a secluded part of the highway, then Bishop played bumper cars with him until he finally drove off the road.

  Step one: easy.

  My first sighting of the burns on his face—the ones Katie had caused when she hit him with that hot pan—made me both oddly proud and irrationally pissed. Bastard deserved a hell of a lot more for grabbing her, but she’d held her own. Of course, if I’d been a little faster or more observant, we likely wouldn’t have been in a situation where she’d needed to defend herself anyway.

  Fuck, that guilt was a heavy burden to carry.

  I’d make it up to her, though. Gloves on and scowl in place, I tightened my grip on my gun and hurried to the car door with Bishop right on my heels. He’d gone in first when we’d taken out the fucker holding Anabeth hostage. This guy had hurt my girl, so it was my turn to lead the mission.

  A job I didn’t take lightly. “Get the fuck out of the car, or I’ll burn you out.”

  Rock opened the door, holding his hands above his head and looking like a man who knew his number was up. “You don’t want to do this, man.”

  “Do what? We’re not doing anything. We’re not even here, are we, Bishop?”

  “Nah. Not at all. We’re just a figure of your imagination working on getting a little payback.”

  “See?” I said, keeping my gun trained on him as I shrugged. “We’re not really here. Consider us like the conscience you obviously don’t have—you came for my woman, so whatever we do to you? It’s justified. I mean, not that we’re going to do anything, since we’re not here and all.”

  “Nope,” Bishop said, popping that P like a motherfucker. “Not here. So anything we do? Never happened.”

  Rock looked from Bishop to me and back again. “He didn’t tell us anything about the girl, just to grab her and bring her to him.”

  “He who?” Bishop asked. Not that I needed the confirmation. I knew the words Rock was going to say before he opened his mouth.

  “Baker. He ordered the job.”

  “And you carried it out.” I gave him a grin. “Or you tried to, really. Nice burns, by the way. Bet they hurt like a bitch.”

  He didn’t like that. “Fuck you.”

  “No thanks. My dick gets enough attention.” I nodded at Bishop, the signal that it was time to get down to the business of why we were there. “Where’s the gun you stole from me?”

  Rock’s face went blank, a sure sign he was about to lie his fucking head off. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You think he’s telling the truth, Bish?”

  “Not even close.”

  “Yeah, me neither.” With every bit of strength I could muster, I kicked Rock in the knee, enjoying the satisfying crunch of his joint as my boot made contact. Getting even happier when he fell to the ground with an anguished sort of scream. One that wasn’t anywhere near as painful to listen to as Katie’s had been the night she’d burned her hands. I wanted more from him, and I’d get it. Just as soon as we accomplished our goal. “Where’s my fucking gun?”

  “In the car,” Rock said with a gasp as he curled into the fetal position and clutched his knee. Bishop headed to the other side of the vehicle, tugging on his gloves before opening the passenger door and ducking inside to search. Me? I wasn’t done with Rock yet.

  “Bet you wish you’d grabbed it when we came up behind you, don’t you?”

  “Won’t matter,” he said, uncurling from his position and groaning as he tried to straighten his leg. “Whether I take you out today or one of the other guys does it tomorrow—you’re done.”

  I leaned over, shoving my gun right in his face. “I think you’re the one who’s done, friend. The only question is how quick we’ll make it. Why did Baker want the girl?”

  “Don’t know. He’s had a hard-on for her for years but said he couldn’t get her in Boulder or some shit.”

  Denver, but I didn’t need to correct him. “He never mentioned his relationship with her?”

  “What relationship?” he said, almost laughing. “The guy wanted her—said she owed him something. That was all I needed to know. I don’t plan the jobs, I just get the shit done.”

  “Not this time.” I looked up as Bishop came back around the car.

  “Looking for this?” He handed me my gun—my favorite Beretta—then pointed his own at Rock. “I think we’re done here. Unless our friend has anything else he wants to say?”

  “Yeah.” Rock sat up and leaned against the side of the car, looking awfully pale. “You Justice fucks are all dead. Pistol’s going to raze the whole fucking town when he finds out. Maybe not your women, though. He might give them a pass.” He looked right at Bishop. “I hear he likes to make the redheads bleed.”

  I saw Bishop’s face change, nearly felt the rage come over him. No way was I making him sit back and watch me do what he wanted to. Katie had gotten her own revenge—so long as the guy was in the ground, I’d have mine. “Take it, B.”

  Bishop fired one shot—a clean hit to the center of the forehead. Job done. Rock slumped to the side, most likely dead. Though if he wasn’t, he would be soon enough.

  “How are we handling cleanup?” I asked as I holstered my g
un and tucked my Beretta into the back of my jeans. After checking it was unloaded, of course. No sense being an idiot and shooting myself in the ass when I had work to do.

  “I say we take him out to the gorge and let his car go over the edge. An unfortunate accident for an unfortunate human.”

  “You don’t think the bullet wound will be a little obvious?”

  He shrugged, completely casual as he said, “We’ll leave the seat belt off and make sure the fucker burns at the bottom.”

  That meant going to the bottom with him. “That’s a long hike down.”

  “It’s gonna feel like a longer one coming back up, so let’s get moving. Trunk?”

  I nodded. “Trunk.”

  We hefted Rock into the trunk of his car, working together to keep the bloody parts away from our clothes. Once done, I slammed the lid and held out a fist to Bishop. “I’ll lead. You keep my six clear.”

  “I do love riding your ass.”

  If I didn’t love the man like a brother, I’d likely throw him into the gorge. But that would take time—one thing we didn’t have enough of. I wanted to get back to Justice, to Katie, and I knew Bishop felt the same about Anabeth. Which was why it took me completely off guard when he pulled me to a stop before I could get behind the wheel of Rock’s car.

  “You know I’ve always got your back.”

  As if I’d ever question that. “Yeah, man. I know.”

  “No, I mean…” He glanced at the car then back at me. “If shit goes sideways here, I’ll be pulling off to get out of the way.”

  Meaning if it looked like I’d get popped with a dead body in the trunk, he wouldn’t be sticking around to help me. It wasn’t personal—it was preservation. We wouldn’t leave a man behind, but we would make sure the mission got completed. I knew he’d do whatever it took to get me back out. “I know that too. We’re good.”

  “Truth time? If you go down, I’m getting Anabeth the hell out of Justice. With Camden gone, there just aren’t enough trained men around for me to risk her.” He grabbed my arm, holding tight. Looking me square in the eye as he said, “And I’ll take Katie with me.”

  Something inside my chest lurched. If anything went wrong, if I ended up in jail, Katie’d have no one to protect her. Bishop knew that…probably better than most because he’d just gotten Anabeth back right in the middle of all this shit. We’d already had to kill to keep his woman safe. Him promising to make sure mine would make it through under his guard? There were no words for how much that meant. Save for five.

  “All in, all the time.”

  He nodded once and let me go. “Let’s get this shit done. I want to go home.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Katie

  The kitchen—and therefore, my entire world—wasn’t the same without Gage in it. A really weird thing to think about considering he hadn’t been in either very much. Not in the grand scheme of things. He hadn’t grown up with me or gone to school with me, hadn’t worked with me or been my neighbor. He’d simply appeared one day, and since then, he’d always been there.

  On second thought, always seemed excessive. He hadn’t always been there…he’d just spent a lot of time in The Baker’s Cottage kitchen and thus with me since I’d opened the place. Lots of very quiet time on his end, making my nerves flare hot and bright as he listened to me babble on about everything and nothing.

  Not that he was the only thing making me nervous, because even though he’d left, I couldn’t relax. The butterflies I tended to get when around Gage had stayed put in my stomach, my nerves refusing to settle and even growing worse the longer I spent without him. Four days under his constant watch, and I was ruined. Absolutely ruined. The fact that I didn’t have that big, burly shadow looking out for me was a reminder that things could go wrong quickly. And then what? What would I do if he wasn’t there to fight with me? Not to protect me, really, just…to have my back. And for me to have his. Because things could just as easily go wrong up on that ridge as they could here in town. A thought that didn’t do a damn thing to help me relax.

  Alder sat on the stool in the corner, my guard in case the Soul Suckers showed up, but his presence didn’t instill the same confidence in me as Gage’s did. Alder seemed like an excellent protector—tall and mean-looking and altogether scary when he got mad—but he wasn’t my wild mountain man. He didn’t watch me the way Gage did. In fact, he tended to keep his eyes on Shye. Understandable, and yet…I almost felt like a third wheel in my own kitchen.

  But Gage hadn’t left me alone with only Alder and Shye. He’d left me with his dog too. Rex had stayed with me throughout the day, keeping tight to my legs and staring at me every time I moved an inch. The dog had done exactly as his owner had told him to—he’d guarded me. And he’d done it with cocked ears, an almost constant tail wag, and a goofy doggy smile on his face. I was seriously beginning to fall in love with Gage’s dog. How was he so smart and still so adorable?

  “You know, the health department will close me down if they see you.” I shook my head when Rex wagged his tail harder and looked up at me. The beast wore such a loving expression, I couldn’t deny him. “Yeah, yeah. Just…hide in the back if anyone comes in, okay?”

  I tossed him a piece of beef fat from the counter, frowning when he scarfed it down and whimpered for more. I’d already fed him a few times, something I was sure I’d hear about from Gage. But I couldn’t tell Rex no when he seemed so sad and hungry.

  I was a sucker. “Greedy dog.”

  Rex scooted closer, still looking up at me, still wagging his tail. Irresistible and completely distracting, just like his owner.

  I’d fallen behind that morning because of Gage’s tendency to steal all my attention. Not that I would complain out loud about any of it—having a big, bearded, sexy man throw you on a counter and eat your pussy like it was a veritable feast wasn’t something to complain about. Especially not when I remembered the feel of his thick fingers inside me, the arousing scratchiness of his beard against my skin. The way his voice deepened and his words seemed to fuel the fire burning with me.

  I can’t wait for you to ride my face.

  Yeah, not a damn thing to complain about except that he’d needed to go into work. I hadn’t been able to keep my heart from racing since he’d left, hadn’t found my place of calm either. Even the monotony of the tasks I’d done a million times couldn’t clear my head. I knew it was because Gage wasn’t with me, but still—this was my kitchen, and no biker gang was going to make me feel uncomfortable in it.

  Except, as I stared down at my gloved and bandaged hand, I knew that thought was a lie. They’d already made me afraid to be here alone. It was easy with Gage spending all his time with me, but without him? Being out of the safety of his watchful eyes? I just wanted to go home and hide. A fact that made me feel weak and useless.

  “Gage is going to kill you,” Shye said as she barreled through the doors. Alder grinned and grabbed her arm, tugging her between his spread legs to hold her close. To nuzzle her neck and kiss her collarbone. That was when I looked away—third wheel for sure in a kitchen I no longer felt safe in. Definitely weak.

  “He won’t kill me. He’ll just…be a little mad.” Okay, little was an understatement. He’d heard the same instructions from the doctors that I had—no working, rest the hands, easy stretches every day to keep the skin from tightening too much, but that was it.

  Yeah. Just like with the dog, I couldn’t sit still knowing the people of Justice were hungry and wanted my food. So I’d cooked a few dishes. Nothing too much—a batch of bread from some dough I’d frozen the week before, a chicken and rice soup, along with a beef stew that came together quickly. Just a couple of things to package and sell on a carry-out basis. Nothing too strenuous. My hands barely hurt from the effort. And if my fingers wouldn’t straighten all the way because the muscles felt tight, well…I’d work that out later.

  Okay, yeah. Gage was going to kill me.

  “Let me help you.” Alder jump
ed up, grabbing the empty stock pot I’d been shoving along the counter, too worried about hurting myself more to actually lift it. “Where do you want it?”

  “In the sink. I need to rinse it out before I put it in the dishwasher.”

  “Consider it done.” He headed to the sink, Shye smiling after him.

  “You are so gone,” I said once he was out of earshot, shaking my head. That girl had fallen hard and fast for the former Green Beret. Not that I could blame her. Alder looked at her the way anyone in their right mind would want to be looked at—as if she were both something to eat and someone he’d never get enough of.

  Luckily, she seemed to realize how good she had it. “Yeah. I am. Though I have a feeling you’re not far behind me.”

  My face heated, and I—for once—had nothing to say. Obviously, my attraction to Gage Shepherd was strong enough for the little blonde to notice, and I wasn’t about to deny that. I just…didn’t know what to do about it. Other than let him have his way with me whenever and wherever it pleased him.

  Shye laughed and headed back into the dining room, manning the front and selling orders for me. Alder soon followed her, leaving me alone in the kitchen with Rex and my soups. I didn’t mind his absence. Not really. At least, not at first. I kept expecting Gage to come through the doors, though. Kept waiting for him. And all day, the anxiety I’d felt at his not being there had grown. I hated it—hating feeling so reliant on him. Hated knowing those biker bastards had gotten to me. Hated the fact that, hours after I’d assumed we’d have left, my hands had started to ache horribly and I just wanted to go home to rest.

  The restaurant grew quiet as the hours passed, the orders for soup and bread tapering off to nothing. I almost had my kitchen clean and back to rights when I finally took a step away from my tasks and looked up. But this time, I wasn’t disappointed.

  Gage.

  He stood in his usual corner, looking unusually rough and grim. And dirty. Filthy, really. Dried mud made his jeans appear awfully stiff, and he had more dirt on his face and hands. My god, the man must have come straight from the job site. Or from burying a body. He looked that filthy and lethal in the moment.