Fixing Justice

by Halliday, Suzanne

  She’d loved living in the desert and getting to know everyone at the Justice Agency. This place had been a lifeline during a difficult time and she’d come to feel a part of the family. But those days were gone and now, nothing was more important than the baby she was carrying. Nothing.

  Tori didn’t consider what she was doing as running. Maybe there could have been a chance for them to find some kind of middle ground, despite his relationship phobia, but his little escapade in New York pretty much squashed that. Trust was a big deal to her. Giving him her body she was going to chalk up to hormones and good, old-fashioned lust. He was, after all, sex on two legs. But trusting him with her heart was another thing altogether, and when it came to a baby – well, she wasn’t a mother yet but suddenly she understood how that five letter word could come between two people.

  The next morning Drae was standing in his kitchen when he heard the front door slam followed by quickly approaching footsteps. Curious who was stomping like a madman in his direction, he rounded the corner and ran face first into a fist smashing into his jaw. The jolt sent him flying backwards onto the floor with a painful thud. Jumping to his feet, he immediately assumed a defensive posture ready to kick the shit out of whoever had just cold-cocked him only to find himself staring into Alex’s rage-filled eyes.

  “I’m gonna annihilate your fucking ass, Drae! You were warned, man!” Alex shouted.

  “What the fuck, Alex?” Drae yelled back, letting his hands go from clenched fists to a gesture of surrender. “Can the condemned man hear the charges before getting jumped with no warning?”

  “Oh, that’s how you’re gonna play this? Don’t act like you don’t know exactly what you did.” The rage emanating off his friend’s body made an impression on him. He’d seen Alex mad before, plenty of times, but this was different. He actually looked and sounded like he really did want to murder him.

  “Back off, bro. You know damn well that one good kick to your leg and you’ll be out of commission for a week.”

  “Well,” Alex bellowed, “Suppose I should expect a low blow like that from you. This time you’ve gone too far!” he yelled as every vein in his neck stood out in stark relief from his skin.

  “C’mon man, you’re scaring the shit out of me here. I’ve never seen you like this. What in the hell is going on?”

  Alex glared at him with a venomous look made all the more dangerous by his brawny physique which was practically bursting with pumped up aggression – directed solely at him. “Y’know Drae, you’re my brother and all that but you really are a miserable human being. Care to tell me what you did to her?”

  “Uh, did to who?”

  “Tori, of course! What in fucking fuck – did you – DO?” Alex’s voice was so loud it could probably be heard from the fucking Space Station.

  Was it possible to know you were giving off a deer caught in the headlights look, because that was precisely how Drae felt. Had news of the screaming match he and Victoria had yesterday made it to Alex’s ears? “What did Cam tell you?”

  “What? Oh, holy shit. Cam’s involved in this too? Motherfucker…”

  “Alright, settle down and let’s get on the same page, okay? Cam isn’t involved in anything but clearly I am.”

  “Damn right you are! She left, as in, she took one of the trucks early this morning and drove into town. I just got an email from her telling me where to pick up the vehicle.”

  “What?” It was Drae’s turn to start bellowing.

  “You heard me. Tori has left. No warning, no explanation, nothing - so I’ll ask again, what the fuck did you do to her?”

  An instant replay of everything that happened yesterday unraveled in his mind. Victoria coming to talk to him, the crazy explosion that led to their wild lovemaking, the ugly argument that followed her throwing up in his bathroom and the God-awful gossip rag pictures that had fueled her anger. He knew she was hurt, mad, maybe even a tad jealous – none of those things made him feel very good about how he’d been behaving but he thought after a night to cool off, he’d have a chance to make things right between them. Apparently he was wrong.

  Why would she leave, he wondered? It didn’t make sense. The hellcat he’d come to love wasn’t afraid of anything as far as he could tell. She’d stand her ground no matter what, even if just to be perverse. Then it hit him. She was carrying his child but didn’t think him man enough to accept the responsibility and especially didn’t understand yet how much he loved her. It had taken a long time to get there but he had. Only she didn’t know that. Fuck me, he thought.

  “Let’s go,” Drae barked, grabbing the keys to his truck and sprinting past Alex for the door.

  “Where exactly are we going?”

  “Light a fire under Cam and have him meet us at her apartment. We do surveillance for Christ’s sake – hopefully she left some sort of clue,” he murmured, his thoughts careening all over the place.

  Once in the truck, Drae floored it out of the drive and drove like a madman up to the main house while Alex tapped a text out to Cam. When he was finished he grumbled, “You gonna let me in on what’s going on?”

  “Eventually.”

  Less than two minutes later he brought the vehicle to a screeching halt outside the building where Victoria had been staying. Leaping from the cab, he took the steps two at a time after leaving the driver’s side door open with Alex still exiting the truck.

  He didn’t bother to try knocking. She was already gone and had left the door unlocked so he simply shoved it open and dashed in. His heart sank as he took in the scene before him. Two large suitcases sat in the middle of the room with a garment bag draped over top. Next to that were three big boxes, neatly addressed and ready to be shipped along with two envelopes. One addressed to Alex and another for him. Ripping open his envelope, he found a single sheet of paper on which she’d scribbled,

  Draegyn,

  By now you’ve read the papers I left you. Shit, he’d forgotten about them after reading that damn tabloid article.

  I’m sorry to have messed up your perfect life. Oh my fucking god.

  Will be in touch once I’ve made some decisions. This can’t be happening.

  Some truces don’t always work out. Is this what a heart attack feels like?

  He dropped onto the sofa as the sheet of paper slipped from fingers too numb to feel anything. “I’d consider hitting you again,” Alex bit out, “But from your look, it seems like Tori landed a knock-out punch.”

  He looked up into Alex’s scowling face but words didn’t find their way out of his mouth. Shaking his head in censure, Alex reached for the paper Drae had dropped and read the four short lines.

  “What papers and what kind of decisions?”

  Feeling vacant and hollow, Drae struggled to answer. “I forgot about the papers.” At Alex’s renewed scowl he let the rest pour out as Cam came pounding up the steps and into the apartment. “She came by to talk yesterday and we, uh….we got sidetracked.” He ignored the dark look of fury directed at him. “An argument broke out and we said some stupid shit.”

  Cam added, “That was one seriously pissed off lady.”

  “Yeah, well – she had good reason. Somehow she got hold of a gossip magazine that ran a story about me and Jessamyn Winters. All lies by the way,” he added quickly with a malevolent scowl of his own. “Anyway, the story did more than insinuate we were friends with benefits and, unfortunately, there were a few paparazzi shots that made it worse.”

  Cam whistled and did a bit of tut-tutting while Alex dialed his rage back a notch and asked, “These papers. Are they about a divorce?”

  “A what?” Cam wheezed, caught completely off-guard by what he was hearing.

  “Probably,” Drae groaned, hanging his head in his hands. “Fuck.”

  Alex took it from there. “For those of us just tuning in, Mr. I-Don’t-Ever-Want-to-Get-Married St. John and Miss I’ll-Kick-Your-Arrogant-Ass Bennett had themselves a drunken wedding ceremony while on a work assignment i
n Las Vegas.”

  Cam whistled again as his eyebrows shot to the ceiling in surprise. “Explains the angry, pissed off thing.”

  “Exactly,” Alex bit out.

  Still trying to get up to speed, Cam asked Alex, “How do we go from drunken Vegas wedding to naughty actress and the paparazzi?”

  “Well now, there’s the million dollar question but I suspect the two intersect in New York while he was doing a protection detail. Am I right?” Drae could only nod. Cameron chuckled, not that Drae could blame him. When he heard someone else explain it out loud, it did sound like the plot to a bad chick flick.

  “Wow. I go away for a few weeks and all hell breaks loose. Whatsamatter Drae, you jealous of me and Lacey getting hitched?” he smirked. “Went about things the wrong way.”

  “Bite me,” Drae snapped.

  “So – let me guess,” Cam continued as he fixed Drae with a pitying look. “You freaked out, acted like a dick, said all the wrong things and basically made the lady feel like shit. Am I anywhere near the truth?” he asked looking back and forth between Drae and Alex.

  “I’d say you hit the nail on the head,” Alex replied drily.

  Gesturing with his head at the other envelope in Alex’s hand, Cam asked, “What’s that say?”

  “Uh, well let’s see. It’s your basic thanks for everything resignation letter along with a bunch of please don’t be mad at me thrown in for good measure. She loved working for the agency, blah-blah-blah but this is also Drae’s home and she couldn’t stay with the way things are. Ship her stuff to her mother and give Carmen and Ria a hug good-bye. Reading between the lines there’s a shit-ton of hurt mixed with regret. Good going there, bro.”

  Two pair of disappointed eyes turned on him. Drae stood, murmuring, “I gotta hit the head,” and staggered off to the bathroom. He didn’t really, but the way his chest tightened each time he realized she was gone, made him need a moment. It in no way helped his frame of mind when he shut the bathroom door only to be assailed by Victoria’s scent. It clung to everything in the small space. Perfume mixed with shampoo and bodywash made his senses reel. He leaned on the edge of the sink and held on fast, trying to calm his nerves.

  That was when he saw it. A small white stick tossed in the trashcan and the remnants of a box looking like it had been hastily torn open and just as quickly discarded. He reached for the stick with badly trembling hands. There was no mistaking what he held – the two lines on the end of the stick labeled PREGNANT, stared back at him. All the oxygen got sucked out of his lungs, making his head spin uncomfortably.

  Stumbling like a toddler just learning to walk, he lurched out of the bathroom and into living room, the pregnancy test still clutched in his hand. Alex and Cam both stopped talking and looked at him. He didn’t doubt for a second he was pale as a ghost. It was Alex, in his role as big daddy, who reacted to the sight of his pallor and the damning stick he held in his hand. This time when he punched him, Drae didn’t even try to defend himself from the hit. In his mind he deserved that and more.

  Cam stepped in, being the biggest physically of the three, and managed to restrain Alex from beating him to a bloody pulp. There was a lot of yelling and swearing, none of it coming from Drae, followed by an angry sounding Alex leaving a message on the voicemail of Victoria’s mother asking her to call him back ASAP.

  Drae never realized how shock could slow down the thought process until this moment. It was like trying to think in a thick, dense cloud that made everything feel like a slow-motion slog. He was going to be a father. Jesus. He and Victoria had made a baby together. Keep breathing, just keep breathing.

  Suddenly, his thoughts became crystal clear when he remembered her delicate body shaking uncontrollably as she heaved up her guts into the toilet. Thoughts of her paleness, the hollows he noticed in her cheeks, and the way she screamed at him afterwards kicked him harder in his conscience than any punch Alex could have thrown. The dots continued to connect in less than flattering ways for him. The childish way he’d reacted to their marriage, him running off to New York without a word, that damn tabloid story, and the way he couldn’t keep his hands off her, all without any words of feeling or commitment on his part attacked not just his already smarting conscience, but his heart as well. What the fuck had he done?

  Cam finally broke through the fog. “Where do you want to start?” Leave it to the surveillance expert to get them back on track.

  Alex answered first. “She left the truck at the market off the interstate. We should check that out first. Hopefully her mother will call me back, and maybe she’ll know more.” Looking at Drae who was walking in circles, he shook his head and scraped his hand back and forth through his hair. “Get the zombie an ice pack for his face.”

  Alex stayed at the Villa while Cam drove Drae to where Victoria had left the truck. The ride was one of the most uncomfortable half hours of his life.

  They didn’t have any trouble locating the vehicle. With the extra keys Cam remembered to grab, they checked the interior of the cab for clues but found nothing out of the ordinary. Frustrated, Drae was pacing and checking his phone praying that Victoria would reach out to him when he heard Cam shout, “Bingo!”

  “What’d ya’ find?”

  “Nothing yet buddy but take a look down the street.” Cam said pointing over Drae’s shoulder. Whipping around to follow Cam’s pointing he saw in an instant what his friend was referring to. A car rental place. Bingo, indeed.

  The manager at the rental place was all kinds of understanding but there was only so much he could tell them. Yes, a Victoria Bennett had rented a car but beyond that the details got murky. She paid up front for a thirty-day period, unlimited mileage, add-on insurance. He would not however give up the credit card details and just before Drae reached over the counter to grab the guy by the neck and force the information from him, Cam stepped in and stopped him with a look.

  Back in the parking lot, Cam reminded Drae in blunt and specific terms that finding people was what he did best, earning his friend a sheepish look and a grumpily muttered, “Understood.”

  “You okay to drive?” Cam asked.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he answered. “I’ll meet you back at the Villa.”

  “What are you going to do, Drae? Don’t go off half-cocked. It won’t help.” Drae paused and looked at the sky shaking his head with hands pressed on his waist. He’d made so damn many mistakes. Luckily for him he had brothers, true brothers – not just the kind that come with matching DNA – who had his back.

  “You don’t have to worry. I won’t do anything without you, but I want to stop at home and grab the papers she left. More clues, y’know?”

  “Good thinking, buddy,” Cam replied. “Look Drae, if it helps any, I kinda know how you feel right now. I’m happy to pass my Ass-Clown of the Year trophy off to you. My lovely wife had to damn near rearrange my brain before the light made it through years of dark. Know what I mean?”

  Drae snorted a laugh and gave him a not surprised to hear it look. “Shit. Men really are dumb as dirt where women are concerned, huh?”

  Laughing heartily, Cam slapped him good-naturedly on the back. “Now there’s an understatement!” Drae climbed in the truck and thanked his good friend for being there.

  Cam grinned. “I didn’t get to know your lady very well before the wedding, but she’s one smart cookie. And unless you ran over her dog and drove away laughing, I’m pretty damn sure you can fix this.”

  Tori had been behind the wheel for way too long. It would take about eight hours to make it to the coast, and she’d had enough for one day. She had stopped for a pretend lunch that stayed in her stomach for less than an hour before reappearing in her latest bathroom drama. Was there anything worse than getting sick in a roadside rest stop? She didn’t think so.

  There was something about driving in silence that made her mind wander all over the place. Had she done the right thing by leaving? She didn’t know. Her mom had been duly horrified when Tori immedi
ately burst into tears at the start of their call. The best advice she could give her was to slow down. She didn’t know Draegyn but she did know Alex and dear old Mom refused to believe that he would be close to or trust anyone who didn’t have at least some integrity.

  The tears had gotten worse when her mother suggested pregnancy hormones were shading her judgment. Did she think she didn’t know that? Of course she did – it was something she considered when she’d jumped on Draegyn and went off like a sex-starved wanton. But the paparazzi pictures had carved out a hole in her heart that she couldn’t ignore. Even if nothing intimate had happened with that awful woman, he’d still been with her. Who did shit like that? The man she was in love with, that was who.

  Each time she said those words, her soul felt like it weighed a ton. Why didn’t he love her back or at least like her back? Sex wasn’t enough. Maybe for guys it was but not for her.

  She needed to pull over and get a room for the night. By tomorrow afternoon she’d be in Los Angeles. Why she chose L.A. she didn’t really know except that it was away from Arizona and big enough that she could disappear for a while and get her shit together. Right now though the priority was a decent hotel, a shower, and something, anything, to calm her stomach. Tomorrow would have to take care of itself.

  A week had gone by and Drae still didn’t know where Victoria was. Not for sure, anyway. He’d acted like a complete lunatic with her lawyer after reading the papers she’d left. The female attorney was a definite shark, and he had no doubt she could probably eat Ted Collins for lunch. His legal people were all top notch but this lady had a nail his balls to the courthouse door shtick going on that earned her a demon reputation as a divorce lawyer.

  Divorce. The word made him shudder. For someone who never wanted to get married he suddenly found the idea of divorce even more odious. He understood why Tori had done what she did. The dates on the paperwork were after she’d seen the tabloid story, a fact that made remorse churn in his gut. He couldn’t imagine anything that could have hurt her more than to see photographic proof that he’d been cavorting with a glamorous actress. When he finally caught up with her he vowed to make it very clear that the plastic starlet was nothing compared to how beautiful he thought she was.