Bounty

by Kristen Ashley

  So hard he tasted blood.

  Jussy didn’t do the same.

  “No, what you don’t get is that when you came to visit and I was there, I wanted my brother. Not my brother acting like a dick because his mother filled his head with bullshit the entire time he was gone. Dad would get you there, Mav, a day or two before you had to leave us again. You’d see he wasn’t all she said. You’d see he loved you more than life. And that’s what I wanted. That’s the brother I wanted. That’s the son he wanted. Then you’d go back to her, she’d launch right in to fucking with your head, and when he got you back, he had to start all over again. And now he’s gone and all you’ve got is her filling your head with bullshit you know is bullshit because we’ve proved it time and again. And if you were as grown up as you say you are, you’d think for yourself for once and see it.”

  “Not bullshit, you tellin’ me you’re not gonna help me out. If Mom knew I was here, she’d say this,” he swept his hand to the deck, “is exactly how this would go down.”

  “And what you don’t see,” Jussy shot back, “is that for weeks, showing at your place, call after call, I did try to help you out by telling you not to pull this crap and you didn’t listen to me. You dug your own hole. And, baby brother, newsflash,” she rapped out, “a grownup stands on their own two goddamned feet, no matter who’s whispering in their ear. And a grownup is smart enough to think before they do stupid shit and not do it. And if emotion trips them up, they own up to their fuckups. This is your fuckup. Not mine. You wanna lay that trip on me, do it. But I won’t lose any sleep over it because I know it just plain isn’t true.”

  “Wasted good money on a goddamn plane ticket and rental car,” he muttered, burning an angry glance his sister’s way and looking like he was about to stalk off.

  “You don’t know,” Joss began, and Maverick jerked his pissed-off eyes her way, “that mere weeks ago, an intruder broke into this home, kicked the shit out of your sister and nearly strangled her to death.”

  The vibe on the deck instantly shifted. Tense still, absolutely. High alert as well.

  And tweaked.

  “What?” Maverick asked.

  “Joss,” Justice said low.

  “He did,” Joss confirmed casually, eyes locked on the kid. “The man is no longer a threat but not far from where you’re standing, Jussy nearly lost her life to a maniac.”

  “That isn’t even funny,” Maverick bit out.

  “No,” Joss said, dead calm, dead serious, her gaze flint. “It isn’t.”

  Maverick took her in long beats before he slowly turned his gaze to Jussy.

  “Did that really happen?” he asked.

  “Yes, Mav, but—”

  Deke prepared to move when he watched the kid’s entire body wind up before he roared, “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”

  Deke got closer to his woman, doing it stepping slightly in front of her.

  When he did, Maverick’s eyes slashed up to him, he took a step back and then he jerked his head so he was looking over his shoulder at the people in Jussy’s yard, keeping watch over his sister.

  The fullness of the situation he couldn’t totally understand because he didn’t have the information dawned and Deke watched the color drain from his face.

  “She didn’t tell you because you’d hurt her so badly, she didn’t feel you had that right,” Joss announced.

  “Dammit, Joss—” Jussy tried.

  But Joss kept talking.

  “Mostly, that was her excuse for not telling you because, first, it’d freak you out and she’s your big sister, she wouldn’t want to do that to you. Second, because that would open the door to more of you and your mother’s shit and she’d nearly lost her life, she didn’t need to deal with that.”

  “That can’t be why you—” Maverick began, eyes to Jussy.

  Joss spoke over him and he looked back to her.

  “My point in telling you this is, in all you’re missing in all that’s happening, in all you’ve missed for as long as you’ve been alive, when you lost your father, you missed learning a very valuable lesson. The people you love will not be around forever. They won’t be there to catch you when you fall. They won’t be there to listen to your shit when you have to unload it. They won’t be there to laugh with you or give you hell or help out when you need it. So you spend every goddamned second on this earth treating the people you love with the respect and affection they deserve. Because if you lose time with them because you didn’t offer them that, the only person you’ll have to blame, should something happen to anyone else you care about, will be yourself. I sense this will be lost on you as it seems it already has. But it bears saying anyway. I miss your father even if he wasn’t in my life any longer. He meant a lot to me. But months later, I nearly lost my fucking daughter, and I’d already learned that lesson. But I learned it again, fuck yeah. And I’ll never forget.”

  “Joss,” Jussy whispered.

  Joss turned fierce eyes to her daughter. “Tore me up not to be with you. But Rod says you’re me with longer hair and a few less years. And if I told you what I needed to deal and you went against that, I’d lose my mind. He knows me. He knows you. And he was right. He said I had to do what I’d want you to do. Do what I told you to do. So I did that.” She drew in an audibly harsh breath. “It still tore me up.”

  “I was taken care of,” Jussy replied.

  Joss’s eyes flicked to Deke before they went back to her girl and she returned, “I’m seeing that.”

  “Jussy, who did this shit?” Maverick demanded to know. “And where are they? Did the cops catch him? What the fuck?”

  “It’s taken care of, Mav.”

  “What the fuck?” he repeated.

  “It’s over. I’m healed. Breathing. Safe. It’s all good.”

  “What the fuck?” he repeated, his last word emphasized at the same time it broke.

  Deke went still.

  Jussy shifted closer into his side.

  “What the fuck?” Maverick whispered. “You didn’t call me? Some fuckwad strangled my sister and you didn’t call me?”

  His gypsy pulled at his hand, Deke let her go, and then she was gone. To her brother. In his space. Both her hands to either side of his head, pulling it down so his forehead was to hers.

  “Breathe, baby brother, look at me. I’m right here.”

  “I miss Dad,” he said suddenly, his voice hoarse.

  “I do too, Mav,” Jussy replied, her voice husky.

  “I miss you,” he kept at her.

  “Me too, Maverick,” she whispered, pulling him into her arms. “I missed you too, brother.”

  “You got hurt and you didn’t call me,” he said on a croak.

  “I’m seeing I probably should have done that,” she kept whispering.

  He shoved his face in her neck, Deke saw his shoulders heave and he looked to Rembrandt.

  The man gave him a chin lift, pulled himself out of the chair, and with a tug on her hand, pulled his wife to the back door.

  Deke followed them and with a look to tell Chace he was off duty, he took Chace’s place, leaning against the counter, arms crossed on his chest, eyes out the glass watching Jussy with her brother.

  She got him to sit down with her.

  And Deke watched.

  They started talking.

  Deke watched.

  The men and Twyla came in the front door, everyone started cleaning up.

  And Deke watched.

  Joss and Rod took care of dealing with everyone leaving.

  And Deke watched.

  Finally, Jussy and Maverick got up from the chair and moved to the door.

  Deke got out of the way but he didn’t move far.

  She came in, eyes to him.

  “We’re gonna go out and get Mav’s bag, honey. He’s gonna break in one of the other guest rooms. You cool with that?”

  He examined her face.

  She wanted that.

  She wanted her brot
her near.

  “I’m cool with that,” he said.

  “Can you turn off the pit?” she asked.

  “Yeah, gypsy.”

  “Dude, I was—” Maverick started, looking younger than his already young, the guilt heavy on his face, grief weighing there too.

  “It’s done. Let it be done,” Deke stated.

  Maverick stared at him a second before relief started to slide in and he nodded.

  Jussy moved him into the house.

  Deke watched them move through to the front door.

  His body jerked in surprise when Joss sidled up the counter beside him.

  He looked to her.

  “Full approval,” she whispered, stared into his eyes, did it a long time.

  Then she winked at him and glided away.

  Deke watched her go.

  Then he went out and turned off the fire pit.

  * * * * *

  “I think something’s happened with Roddy and Joss,” Jussy whispered into his throat late that night in the dark while they were lying in her bed, front to front, limbs tangled. “I’ve never seen them like they were tonight, dealing with Mav.”

  She stroked the skin of his lower back and kept whispering.

  “On the outside, he’s the quintessential rocker. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, the more of all of that, the better, in his case, drugs being booze. But he loves her. He loves her so much, honey. And he’s never even looked at another woman, as far as I could see. He’d never step out on her. I think she sees that. I think she sees how deep that feeling goes for him. I think she understands how precious it is. I think she finally gets it.”

  “Yeah,” Deke murmured, drifting his fingers through her hair.

  “It worries me,” she went on. “What she said, making it sound like she should have stood by Dad even though he shredded her trust. She’s not that woman. No woman should be that woman. She believes in herself enough to know she doesn’t have to take that.”

  “Love is strong enough to find forgiveness, gypsy,” Deke told her. “Even in extreme circumstances like that. Bubba cheated on Krys repeatedly. Let her down so many times, hard to count. She got shot of him, he loved her enough to turn that around. Loved her enough to prove that to her. Pulled out all the stops. And she loved him enough to find it in her to forgive. Been years now, those two are as tight as Tate and Laurie. Lexie and Ty. They put it behind them and now they got that. Your mom, lookin’ back, maybe she’s seein’ what could have been if she was strong enough to forgive at the same time seein’ what she got out of that, realizin’ it’s far from a raw deal.”

  She pressed her face deeper into his throat, muttering, “Yeah.”

  She fell silent and he fell into it with her, running his fingers through her hair, the curls, like always, wrapping around like they had minds of their own and didn’t want him to let go.

  “I’m not giving him any money.”

  These words were so quiet, Deke automatically dipped his chin in an effort to hear them all.

  “Maverick?” he asked.

  She nodded against his throat. “I decided. I’m not giving him any money.”

  “You share that with him during your talk?”

  She nodded again, saying, “He’s good at a sound board, Deke. Like, really good. I was all about the music, playing guitar with Dad, Granddad, Aunt Tammy, Uncle Jimmy. Maverick, when he was on the road with us, he was always with Gordon, Dad’s sound guy. Always up in the booth or wherever the board was set up. I think he needs direction. He definitely needs to grow up. And he needs money. I think he’ll feel good, being in the business, his family’s business, doing something he’s talented at doing.”

  “Think you’re right, Jussy,” Deke agreed.

  “Yeah,” she replied. “So I told him I’d call Gordon. Mr. T. Make a few other calls to people I know. See if I can get him some gigs. Paying work. Get him started. He can launch from there and I told him I wanted him to do that, to find his way, but I’d be there for him. Sound folk, good ones, they don’t make millions, but they do all right. He won’t be able to keep his mom the way she’s used Dad through Mav all his life to keep her. Not if he wants a good life himself. He needs to cut himself loose. And I think he’s seeing that and that’s good too.”

  “That’s definitely good,” Deke confirmed.

  “So, I’m not gonna give him any money. I’m gonna help him find his way. Help him grow up. And then, if he pulls his shit together, maybe,” he felt her shake her head, “I won’t ask Dana to do it but maybe I’ll give him his part of my share of Dad’s money.”

  Deke didn’t say anything to that.

  She tipped her head back and asked, “Do you think that’s right?”

  He looked down at her. “I think it’s your money, gypsy, your brother. So I think whatever you decide is right.”

  “Okay,” she returned, giving him a light squeeze of her arms. “But if it was you. Your dad. Your brother. Your money. Do you think it’s right?”

  “Yes, Justice, I think it’s right.”

  He saw the flash of white of her smile in the dark.

  “I knew it. Totally. I sat out there with him, listening to him, getting the gist that he was realizing his mom was playing him, maybe not all these years, but definitely with this latest fiasco. And I got a definite hint that he knew after those three attorneys advised against it that shit was not going to go right, but she kept pushing it and it was just habit for him to let her. Now he’s lost so much, not just the money, but being with people who loved Dad while we were all grieving so that could help him, he could help them, that ‘them’ being me, he’s beginning to see. And it’s cutting deep. But I knew I couldn’t give in. I shouldn’t prop him up. I had to guide his way. And I knew this because the whole time we talked, I thought, if my man was in this situation, what would Deke do?”

  Deke let out a low bark of laughter and pulled her deeper in his arms, twisting her hair in his fist.

  “You’re so full of it,” he muttered.

  “No. Totally. I’m getting a bracelet with W.W.D.D. embroidered on it,” she stated, a smile in her voice. “I’m gonna look at it every time I’m in a situation, which seems to happen a lot in my life, even though I try to keep my head low.”

  “Shut it.” He was still muttering, but doing it grinning.

  “I am. I’m special ordering it tomorrow.”

  He smiled down at her even as he used his fist at the back of her head to gently shove her face again in his throat, repeating, “Shut it, gypsy.”

  He felt her kiss the bristles of his beard there.

  They had a quiet moment before, her voice sounding drowsy, she said, “Downer end to a good party.”

  “We’ll have another one.”

  She snuggled closer. “Yeah. We will.”

  He bent his neck and said into the top of her hair, “Go to sleep, baby.”

  “I will if you will,” she replied.

  “I will,” he promised.

  “Okay, Deke. Love you, honey.”

  “Love you too, gypsy.”

  She kissed his throat again and settled in.

  Not long later, he felt her body relax into sleep.

  And once he felt that, Deke followed her there.

  * * * * *

  “Stings a little,” Joss stated late the next afternoon, and Deke tore his eyes from Rembrandt and Jussy across the drive, their backs to Joss and Deke.

  Rod had Jussy in an affectionate neck hold and they had their heads bent together.

  Deke looked to Joss to see her looking at the house.

  That was when Deke turned his attention to the house and he could see Maverick through the window, sitting at the couch in the corner, the TV on and slanted his way.

  He’d given his somewhat stilted and totally awkward good-byes at the door. But he wasn’t an asshole. Didn’t wake up as one. Was quiet, watchful, but cool all day. There was definite affection between him and Justice that he was out of practice g
iving to his sister, but since she never was out of practice with that, he warmed up quickly.

  With Joss and Rod, he was wary, but that started to go too as the day progressed because Joss and Rod guided it there. What was done was done, they were moving forward, and they communicated that to him.

  Deke saw the routine playing out and he suspected that routine was not lost on Jussy, Rod or Joss. The kid emerging out from under the bullshit his mother piled on him, seeing the people around him for what they were. And it said a lot about Rod and Joss (Deke knew Jussy would give that to her brother) that they didn’t give up, thinking it wasn’t worth the effort since he’d go back to the woman who’d twisted his head and fucked up the entirety of his life, and he’d allow himself to get piled in it again.

  Now it was up to him to go back and not allow himself to get piled in it again.

  “Joss?” he called when she said her words and didn’t continue.

  She started and looked up at him like she forgot he was there. Then she gave an apologetic smile.

  “Sorry. Just that,” she tipped her head to the house, “he looks so like Johnny did at that age.”

  Yeah, that kid looking like the man she loved deeply, gave him a beautiful baby girl, then lost him for decades. That would fucking sting.

  She shot a sidelong glance at Rod and Jussy, who were still in their huddle, before she turned her back on them, got closer to Deke and dropped her voice.

  “That kid, maybe he’s got good in him,” she began. “He’s got Johnny in him somewhere so that could be. But, Deke, get me, he plays this game a lot. Always has. I wanna hope for Jussy, and also for him, that this latest bullshit is gonna get his head out of his ass. But history has proved that could very well be an impossible task. Jussy’s gonna give it her all. You gotta—”

  “Joss,” Deke interrupted, also saying her name low, but he didn’t go on.

  She stared in his eyes before hers started shining.

  “Right, you got this,” she murmured.

  “Yeah,” he stated. “I got this.”

  Her lips curled up in a smile that was natural, but it was uncomfortably too sexy considering the woman was his woman’s mother. But Deke figured it was the only way she could do it.