Justify
Page 20
My girl needed safety and security, and I hadn’t given that to her. Not really. Not yet, at least.
To secure her future, I needed to put mine in jeopardy.
I needed to do some killing.
* * *
Sneak Peek
Alder
The evidence of someone else’s depravity had become the ultimate sign of my failure as a man.
Scars. They riddled her body, covered her back in a mishmash of raised flesh that made my blood burn hot with rage. Every line, every lash, was a bitter reminder that I’d failed her. Even though I hadn’t known her when those marks had been created, I saw them as my own personal defeat. The man who had hurt her, who had broken her skin and made her bleed, who had branded her as if she were nothing more than livestock, was still alive. Still a threat to us. Still pulling strings that endangered my girl, my town, and my family.
Still instilling fear in the woman I loved more than life itself on an almost daily basis.
I never knew what sort of mood my Shye would be in when I got home from work. She was a happy person at her heart—kind and loving, nurturing almost to a fault. She’d normally have a smile on her face and a few words for me about how she’d missed me. She’d ask me about my day and give me a little hug and a kiss. Those days were my favorite because I got to tell her how much I missed her, too. How much she meant to me. Got to run my hands over her curves and feel her hot little body pressed against mine.
But every once in a while, maybe one day out of fifteen, she wouldn’t be waiting in the kitchen for me. She wouldn’t be smiling or happy or ready for me to paw all over her. She’d be tucked into a dark corner or curled up under a blanket. Her face would be blank or maybe tear-streaked, her muscles tense. I’d come home to find my girl trapped in memories I couldn’t rescue her from and surrounded by demons I couldn’t slay for her.
I knew today would be one of the bad days the second I pulled up to the house.
“She’s been quiet.” Three words. That was all Finn needed to say for me to understand exactly what I was walking into.
“Thanks. I’ll take care of her.” I hurried up the steps and across the porch, leaving my brother to head home without a goodbye. My mind was already focused on my girl, on what she needed, on finding a way to pull her from her fear cycle as quickly as possible. I opened the front door slowly and called, “Shye?”
Nothing. No response. Which wasn’t like her. She had to be hiding somewhere in the house. Not from me—never that. Thank Christ the woman didn’t fear me because I think that would have broken my heart to have to see. No, what Shye feared she wouldn’t find inside of me. Not ever.
I headed to Shye’s normal hiding spot, crossing the smoke-gray floors with quick but quiet steps. She loved my beetle kill pine floors and the neutral colors of my little house in the woods. She had said it felt like a home to her right from the start, which was what I’d wanted. I would have changed anything—ripped the whole damn structure down and started over for her—but she’d loved my place from the moment she’d moved in. So it was now our place, but she had her preferences on where she spent her time. Her spaces that seemed more comfortable for her. One of those was the entertainment room—big, soft couches with matching armchairs furnished the room, a respectably sized television hung on one wall, and my books lined shelves that circled the rest of the room and framed the large windows looking out over the valley. Dark and comfortable, the room had always been my favorite one in the house. Shye must have agreed.
I found Shye curled up in one of the leather armchairs, a soft blanket covering her and a book left open in her lap. She looked completely relaxed at first glance. Just a woman staring out the window at the beautiful fall day outside. But then she turned slightly, just enough for me to see the red rimming her eyes and the paleness of her face. The pinkish tinge along her cheeks from the tears. She’d been crying. Again.
“Honey? Are you okay?”
She finally faced me and gave me the wateriest smile known to man. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
Because she was probably stuck in the rut of reliving memories. Of the years between when her dad died and when I had snatched her away from her solitary life. Of how her stepbrother had tortured her, beaten her, and threatened her very life.
All things I needed to deal with at some point. Soon.
A Note From Kristin
This book was much more of a joy to write than I’d thought it would be. It was also supposed to come later in the series and feature a different pairing. Thankfully, Gage always gets his way.
I’d originally planned for the third book in the series to be Deacon’s story. All my notes for RETALIATE regarding tertiary characters were about him, but Gage…well, Gage refused to be denied. At some point along the way, he popped into my head, shoved Deacon aside, and basically told me to fuck off with my planning. Katie was his, and he wouldn’t give her up.
The man gave me no other options.
Thankfully what came from that moment was Gage and Katie’s story of what happens when opposites attract. I hope you love it and them as much as I do.
Next up—we go back to the beginning with Alder’s tale of what happens when he needs to snip a few loose ends. What? Did you think I’d forgotten about Shye’s stepbrother? I didn’t—and neither did Alder.
* * *
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Also by Kristin Harte
Justice, Colorado
Where the vigilantes have all the legal authority.
In Justice, Colorado, the Kennards run everything, including the only big business in the area. Their sawmill employs most of the town, and the Kennard brothers live up to a long family history of keeping their neighbors and coworkers safe—until a motorcycle club comes to town and starts causing trouble. Big trouble.
The kind that ends in funerals.
The kind no law enforcement can help them with.
PAYBACK
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JUSTIFY
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Filthy, taboo, smart erotic romance is what you get when Ellis Leigh/Kristin Harte and Brighton Walsh team up. Are you ready for a little extra heat?
The first three books in the Temperance Falls series feature taboo relationships and May-December romances. After all, it’s summer on the island, and these couples are out to get a little sweaty.
Daddy’s Best Friend
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The brewery duet features two of our favorite businessmen on Temperance Falls. One has been waiting for the right time to make his move, the other gets blindsided by the woman of his dreams. Together, they’re brewing trouble along with their amazing craft beers.
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One Night Stand to More Romance
Tapping That Asset
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Acknowledgments
I got the final proofread copy of this book while staying in a hotel for the Chicago North RWA Spring Fling event. Damon Suede had given a presentation on branding that inspired me and a keynote that reminded me of the big picture not just in writing but in life. The incomparable Beverly Jenkins was there as well, and she took us to school on the issues surrounding being a woman of color in our industry. I have noting but love and thanks for them both and will forever be grateful for their words, their smiles, their openness, and their phenomenal dancing moves. Katie would approve.
Once again, Lisa Hollett with Silently Correcting Your Grammar had to put up with my crappy punctuation, my ridiculous typos (seriously—they’re so bad sometimes), and text messages at all hours of the day. And she does it all with a tiara on her head, a glass of wine in her hand, and a smile on her face. At least she does in my imagination.
Franci Neill took her red pen to Gage and Katie’s relationship, and lived to tell the tale. She’s claimed Gage as her own—fair warning.
As for my Bitches™, there’s no greater group of friends to be found. Trust me—I’ve looked. Row, bitch. Row.
About the Author
Kristin Harte started off as a chemistry major in college but somehow ended up writing romances featuring ex-military heroes and the women who knock them to their knees…literally and figuratively. She likes drinking in the shade, snuggling under a warm blanket on a cold evening, and researching how to blow things up. Her children know nothing of what she writes, and her husband just hopes he’s not at their Chicago-ish home the day the government shows up to confront Kristin about her Google search history.
When not writing good men doing bad things, Kristin can be found writing paranormal romance as Ellis Leigh or co-writing naughty novellas as London Hale.
* * *
www.kristinharte.com
Kristin@KristinHarte.com
Justify: A Vigilante Justice Novel
Copyright © 2017 by Kristin Harte
* * *
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-944336-54-7
EBook ISBN: 978-1-944336-53-0
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
Edited by Silently Correcting Your Grammar, LLC
Cover by Jay Aheer of Simply Defined Art
For inquiries, contact Kristin@KristinHarte.com
Contents
JUSTIFY
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
REPARATION SNEAK PEEK
Sneak Peek
A Note From Kristin
Also by Kristin Harte
Have you met Ellis Leigh?
Don’t forget London Hale
Acknowledgments
About the Author