Jonny's Redemption (Gemini Group Book 7)

by Riley Edwards

  Sick motherfucker planned this.

  Forced Jonny to protect him.

  “You had one job,” Clifford yelled at Dick. “One goddamn job.”

  Sirens wailed in the distance, radically cutting Jonny’s time to get the situation under control.

  “No, dumbfuck, you had one job and that was to move on. You got away with it, then you had to push it.”

  “He killed my brother,” Clifford returned.

  “No, he didn’t. Mark was just as lazy as you are and he didn’t take care—”

  Jonny’s body jerked when the bullet exploded from the end of Clifford’s weapon.

  Everything slowed as he watched Dick Dillinger’s legs give out.

  No.

  Fuck no.

  In one fluid motion, Jonny pulled the trigger.

  Jarrod Clifford dropped.

  Jonny rushed to Dick’s side, rolled him to his back, and put pressure on the gaping chest wound.

  “Where is she?” Jonny demanded.

  “I…safe…”

  Dick coughed and if the rattle coming from Dick’s chest wasn’t so concerning the blood bubbling from his mouth would’ve been cause for massive alarm.

  “Where’d you put her?”

  “Safe…” Christ Almighty, Jonny didn’t have time for Dick’s games. “Than…yo…”

  Jonny never thought he’d be grateful for the years he’d had to listen to his mother’s drunken mumblings but right then he was thankful he could decipher the dying man’s rant.

  “Thank you for keeping her safe,” Jonny ground out. “Now, where’d you put her?”

  Dick’s bloody lips stretched into a nasty smile and he said, “Dray…woods…safe.”

  “Drayton? Is that where you put her?”

  “Woo…safe…” Dick’s eyes were drooping.

  Jonny felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced up to find Vaughn and a paramedic.

  “Sir, I need you to move.”

  Jonny gladly moved away from Dick and turned to see Jameson moving away from Candy.

  “Go. I’ll handle this,” Vaughn instructed.

  “Clifford—”

  “Go get her.”

  Jonny didn’t have to be told twice.

  28

  I heard shouting. Words I couldn’t make out but I knew the voice.

  Jonny.

  That was why I was rushing down the hall with my hair wet, a pair of sweats on, and one of Jonny’s tees.

  “Leave her alone!” Macy shouted bold as brass, right in Jonny’s face.

  “Macy,” his angry growl rumbled and filled the living room.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  Evie gasped and I turned her way. Chasin had one arm around her shoulder, the other was slanted across her front, and his big paw was resting on her belly. Protective, as was his way. But I wasn’t looking at Chasin. I was focused on Evie. Her lips were pinched and her eyes flared.

  She was trying not to laugh.

  What in the world was going on?

  My best friend wasn’t wheezing and choking because I was injured.

  Maybe I should back up a tad. The rescue had been anti-climactic. All Dick had done was leave me tied to the oven door. Which was surprisingly well-built because I had tried to break the handle then I’d tried to bust the whole door off but I couldn’t get it to budge. If I were into camping, I would seriously buy the make and model of Dick’s caravan. The inside was pretty decent and Dick obviously cared about it because he kept it spotless. The only issue I’d had while I waited for Jonny to find me was I had to pee so bad that when Jonny and Jameson got me loose, I didn’t even kiss my man before I was up and running out the door. Thankfully, it had been Jonny who came outside looking for me or Jameson would’ve gotten more than he’d bargained for.

  I was perfectly fine. Sure I had a bump on my head. It wasn’t bad but after Jonny had found me he insisted—as in against my will, forcibly carried me into the ER so I could get checked out. I didn’t even have a concussion. Though I did, kinda, sort of, have a headache. Not that I was going to mention that. Jonny had been in hyperdrive, alpha protector mode since he’d found me in Dick’s camper.

  Dick Dillinger had succumbed to the gunshot wound to his chest. That wasn’t Jonny’s fault, Clifford had shot Dick. Candy was critical and they flew her to Shock Trauma, which was where Sheriff Baker was as well. Last update Vaughn passed along was Baker was in surgery but expected to make it, and so was Candy. Though, neither of those injuries were Jonny’s fault either. Sadly, a cadaver dog found Anderson Bull in a shallow grave on the property of a junkyard. That was Clifford’s doing as well.

  Now we were home, I’d taken a shower, and I’d hoped I could get dressed before I had to face all of our friends. Seeing as I was standing naked—well, not naked as in no clothes, but I had wet hair and no makeup which was naked for me—I hadn’t had the opportunity to prepare.

  “Nothing,” Jonny answered.

  His gaze traveled from my face down to my sweatpants, back up to my face, and smiled.

  “Don’t know why yous looking at me like a circus clown. Why the shoutin’?”

  “Yous?” Chasin snickered and I rolled my eyes.

  A few months ago hearing Chasin poke fun at how I spoke would’ve embarrassed me, maybe even made me run and hide. Now, I embraced who I was and where I came from. Every day since I left Kentucky I worked damn hard. I’d just been mistaken about what I was working hard at. I didn’t need to lose the holler to find myself. I just had to find myself. And that discovery had led me to Jonny.

  “Baby.” Jonny barely got the word out before his body started shaking.

  “What’s funny, Jonny?”

  I glanced around the packed room. Alec, Weston, Chasin, Holden, Jameson, and Nixon all had matching smiles. Macy was straight-up frowning. Silver, Charleigh, and Kennedy looked concerned. When my eyes landed on Evie, I wasn’t sure if she was going to bust a gut or burst into tears.

  “What the hell is wrong with all you people?”

  Jonny was standing close but not too close, then suddenly there was no distance between us. I was in his arms and I noted he no longer looked amused. Shadows marred his beautiful blue eyes.

  “Jonny?” I whispered.

  “Worst two hours of my life.”

  “I’m fine.” My hands traveled up his chest and cupped his stubbled jaw. “Totally fine.”

  Jonny’s eyes went to the goose egg on my forehead and I watched up close as he mentally washed away the anger.

  “Yeah, you are.”

  “So why all the shouting?”

  His face softened but his arms around me got super tight.

  “He wanted to go into the bedroom and get you,” Macy helpfully supplied when Jonny didn’t answer, though I still didn’t understand.

  “And?” I prompted.

  “And?” That was Evie.

  “Yeah, and? I don’t get it.”

  “He was prowling around the room like a pissed-off caveman gearing up to barge into the bedroom and drag you out.”

  Now I was extra confused. None of that explained why Jonny and Macy had been facing off.

  “I think you need to find me a new doctor.” I was talking to Jonny. “Maybe the hit to my head rattled me stupid.”

  Something not friendly suffused his features.

  Yikes.

  “Too soon?”

  “Too soon,” he confirmed.

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “Then can you explain why everyone’s being so weird and use small words, because I’m totally lost.”

  “I love you.”

  The fierceness in his tone wrapped around me like a warm, soft blanket on a cold winter’s night. It chased away the chill and heated me up from the inside out.

  That was my Jonny.

  Fierce.

  Protective.

  “I—”

  My words were cut off when Jonny’s lips touched mine. Then in a room with all of our friends, Jonny laid a hot,
wet, deep kiss on me. And I didn’t care one damn bit.

  “What has gotten into those two?” I heard Charleigh ask.

  “It’s like we’re in an alternate universe,” Silver added.

  “Who are these people?” Macy rejoined.

  “I don’t know. I thought for sure she’d kick him in the balls. I mean, she’s in sweats.” I didn’t miss the incredulous tone in Evie’s voice. “And she’s naked.”

  Unfortunately, that did it. Jonny broke the kiss.

  “Please tell your friend any talk of my balls is off-limits.”

  “Just your balls?” I returned.

  “Brother, I’d be specific if I were you,” Holden spoke up. “Cock, balls, fingers, anything that can be measured should be on your list.”

  “Don’t tell him that,” Charleigh chided. “He’s not in the book yet.”

  “Woman,” Holden rumbled.

  “Jeez, they all get snippy when the ruler comes out.”

  The women giggled. The men groaned. And Jonny narrowed his eyes.

  “Please tell me Charleigh’s joking.”

  I didn’t get a chance to answer before giggles turned into fits and the groans turned into a roar of laughter.

  “Thank you,” I murmured.

  I was mesmerized—the blue of his eyes danced, a sweet smile played at his lips, all the darkness was gone. No mask. No hiding.

  Just me and Jonny in a room full of our friends laughing after a really shitty day. Jonny’s was worse than mine; all I had to do was sit and wait while Jonny and the rest drove all over hell and creation looking for me.

  “This is ours,” I told him. “We earned this, Jonny. We deserve it.”

  “Yeah, baby, we do.”

  “Who’s ordering food? Evie looks hungry.”

  And with Macy’s question, the spell was broken but that was okay. I knew with absolute certainty I’d have thousands more quiet moments with Jonny.

  “Why are you throwing me under the bus?” Evie grouched.

  “Okay, Charleigh looks hungry?”

  “I could eat,” Charleigh readily agreed. “Though we should call Mandy to see if she can bring the kids over if we’re all staying.”

  Kids.

  Gah.

  I’d forgotten about the gaggle of children who were not with their parents.

  “I’ll call her.”

  McKenna pulled her phone out to call her sister.

  “Mom and Dad have Rory, Caleb, and Joss,” Macy said. “Is it okay if they come by?”

  Jonny’s lids drifted closed and he shook his head.

  “If I ever made you feel like your parents aren’t welcome—”

  “Stop, Jonny. You never have but this is your home and we’re taking it over. I don’t want to impose.”

  “We’re family, there’s no such thing as imposing.”

  “Thank fuck. He gets it,” Nixon hollered.

  Yeah, he did. Jonny got it.

  Family was family.

  And he had a big, loud, totally imposing one.

  It had been crafted with love and friendship. Trust and honesty.

  Later that night after everyone left, Jonny Spencer laid in his bed, Bobby tucked close. Her head was resting on his shoulder, her palm over his heart. And he counted his blessings. There were many; therefore it took all night and into the early morning hours.

  The sun was kissing the horizon when his eyes finally closed.

  Though they didn’t stay that way for long.

  “Bobby.”

  Rough with sleep, the growl slipped past his lips as Bobby’s lips wrapped around something else. Her tongue glided down his hard length then back up and she swirled it around the head of his cock.

  “Mornin’.”

  It was a great morning.

  “Climb on, baby.”

  “Nuh-uh. I like where I’m at.”

  Voice husky.

  Tone hungry.

  Mouth sexy as fuck-all.

  Fuck yeah, it was a great morning.

  Jonny wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to count her mouth as a blessing, but it could be argued the way Bobby sucked his cock wasn’t only a blessing but a goddamn miracle.

  “Two minutes, then I want you on my face.”

  She took more of his cock and groaned. The vibration ricocheted through his balls, up his spine, and he grunted his approval. Two minutes later, she was sitting on his face moaning hers. Three minutes after that with Bobby’s tight, wet pussy was hugging his cock, they proceeded to make a great morning into a phenomenal one.

  29

  Jonny stood in the front yard of his childhood home, confusion warring with anger and a whole slew of other emotions including, pain, joy, regret, and happiness. The battle was raging when he pulled his phone out and called his uncle.

  “Jonathan, son, how are you?”

  Jonny gritted his teeth.

  “Half the house is demolished.”

  “You knew it was happening,” his uncle reminded him.

  And he had. Anita had called him. The conversation had been strained and short, but she was sober. She also sounded timid when she told him her plans.

  “We discussed this. I thought you were on board.”

  Jonny was, or at least he thought he was, but seeing the home he grew up in—even if those years were pain-filled and shitty—was still a hard, bitter pill to swallow.

  “I gotta call Ma.”

  “Jon—”

  “I’m fine, Uncle, I just need to tell her something.”

  “Okay then. We’re still on for next week.”

  Shit, was their visit to New York already next week?

  “Yep. We’ll see you then.”

  Jonny hung up and stared as the bucket of the backhoe surgically demolished what was left of the living room.

  Then he dialed his mother.

  “Jonathan.”

  Shy. Timid. Sober.

  “Hey, Ma. I just wanted to let you know that…um…”

  Let her know what? The house was being demolished? She knew that. Work had started? She likely knew that, too. That all his boyhood memories were literally being loaded into a dumpster?

  “You’re there,” she whispered.

  “Yeah.”

  “I know I’m thirty years too late, son,” Anita said.

  “Too late?”

  “Should’ve burned that house to ash and been a mother. Instead, I kept you locked in my misery. I failed you. I failed myself. I will regret what I’ve done to you until the day I die. I regret every mean, horrible thing I said to you. I regret the mean, horrible things I cannot remember saying to you but I know I said them. Erasing that house will not take back the things I’ve done. It will not give you back the childhood I ruined, or any of the days, months, years I stole from you. But today is the beginning. Today the physical reminder of what a horrible woman I became will go. And tomorrow I can begin to make amends. Days, months, years, for the rest of my life I will seek your forgiveness. I love you, son. You’re the only person I ever loved.”

  Jesus fuck.

  That wasn’t the first time his mother had apologized. The first time was the day after Bobby had been kidnapped when Anita was allowed phone privileges from rehab. That was a month ago and since then Anita called once a week. The conversations were short, they were strained, but each one she was sober. And each time she acknowledged the pain she’d caused the knot in Jonny’s gut lessened.

  “Well, Ma, I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t burn it down. You know Chief Wilcox isn’t a fan of arson,” Jonny said in an attempt at levity.

  “Yeah, well, he was less of a fan of Calvin so I don’t think he’d arrest me. But I don’t think the neighbors would’ve been pleased.”

  That was another thing, Anita had not referred to Calvin by anything other than his name. Not “your father” not “my husband.” The man was Calvin.

  “Right. Well, I’ll let you go, Ma, I just wanted to let you know work started.”

  Th
ere was a beat of silence then in a slightly more confident tone she said, “I’d like it if someday when you’re ready, we could start making memories. A fresh start. I’d like to get to know my son. When…you’re ready…of course. No pressure. I mean…”

  “Ma.”

  “Yes, Jonny?”

  “Bobby and I will be there next weekend. If you’re up to it we’ll stop by and see you.”

  “Um…well…I’m in rehab.”

  “And?”

  “Well…what she already must think of me.”

  Jonny was thinking about Bobby when he started to explain to his mother what Bobby thought about the situation so he smiled as he spoke.

  “She loves me, Ma.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “No, you don’t get it, she loves me.”

  “I’m happy you’ve found that.”

  “No, Ma. She loves me. Loves all of me, everything that comes with me. She is loyal and protective and sometimes I swear I think she wakes up in the morning with the sole purpose of making my life better. So when I tell you she loves me, I mean she wants me happy, she wants you healthy, she wants a family. She wants to love you. I’m not telling you this to be a jerk, Ma. But I remember you before Doug came to live with us. You were a good mom. I remember times after he got there when you weren’t drinking you were a funny and sweet and good mom. That woman I remember is a woman you can’t help but love.”

  “I want to be that woman,” Anita whispered.

  Jonny’s eyes drifted closed and he let the velvet pain of that score through his heart.

  “Good. Then we’ll see you next weekend.”

  “Wait.”

  “Yeah, Ma?”

  “I love you.”

  The phone went dead and the pain of those words so close on the heels of the others ripped through Jonny with such a force his torso jerked. His eyes flew open when another crash boomed around him as a large section of the house crumbled.

  Jonny was no longer confused.

  He also didn’t need to watch, so he folded into his truck and drove away.

  Good riddance.

  “It’s done?” Bobby asked, her tone incredulous.

  They were sitting on the back deck and Jonny had just finished telling her about the house being demolished and his call with his mother. He’d also told her the State Police had finished their investigation into Jarrod Clifford and Dick Dillinger. Jonny had been cleared, though that had happened weeks ago. Baker was back at work on light duty. Candy Bull had recovered and laid her husband to rest, with Bobby and Jonny in attendance at the memorial service.