Bounty

by Kristen Ashley

  She lifted a hand to his shoulder, moved into him and slid her hand across, getting up on her toes.

  She gave him a hug.

  He gave her one back.

  They separated but stayed close.

  “Look after my girl?” she asked, knowing she didn’t have to ask it, and she was beautiful, young in a way she’d never get old, but she was still a mother. So she asked it.

  “You got my promise,” he answered.

  She grinned, gave his biceps a squeeze and turned, calling, “Rod, baby, we gotta get this show on the road.”

  Not letting her out of his neck hold, Rod swung Jussy around.

  “Right there, beautiful, two secs,” he replied, bending back to Jussy, taking two seconds, and then in their huddle, their faces still close, Rod started walking Deke’s gypsy back to her man.

  They arrived and broke off after turning into each other and having a long hug.

  Rembrandt stuck a hand out to Deke.

  “Good pancakes. Good friends. Cool dude. Glad to know you, man,” he said.

  Deke took his hand, both got firm before they let go and he said, “Same. Though you’re on pancake duty next time.”

  “Deal,” Rod said. Claiming his wife and pulling her close, he invited, “You two should think of comin’ to Malibu for Christmas.”

  “Beach at Christmas sounds good, but I work winters so I got good weather off,” Deke told him, doing that also claiming Jussy. “That happens, Jussy can go out. I’ll meet you there day before Christmas Eve, but I’ll have to get back day after Christmas.”

  “Not to invite ourselves after a surprise visit, but I’m thinking Jussy’ll wanna be in her new pad at the holidays,” Joss put in, looking up at her husband. “And it’ll be a white one.”

  “You’re welcome here anytime,” Jussy said. “You know it. Except when you show no notice.” She grinned. “But once I get over being pissed, you’re welcome then too.”

  Mother and daughter shared smiles. Rod and Deke shared looks. Then mother and daughter separated from their men to fall into each other’s arms for a hug that lasted a fuckuva lot longer than Jussy and Rod’s did.

  Deke stepped away. So did Rod.

  They gave them time.

  The women took that time.

  Then they moved out of each other’s arms with soft faces, warm looks, and low murmurings that Deke didn’t try to hear because it was none of his business.

  Rod opened Joss’s door and she moved there. Jussy came to Deke. He slid an arm around her shoulders.

  Joss threw her daughter a kiss, Deke a smile and got in.

  Rod gave Deke a hand to forehead salute, shifted his hand in devil’s horns and stuck his tongue all the way out at Jussy, making her giggle, all this as he rounded the hood.

  Joss waved at them all the way down the lane and Deke knew she did because Jussy pulled him to the center of that lane, making him walk with her, following the car on slow feet, watching and waving back.

  When the SUV turned right on Ponderosa Road and they lost sight of it in the pines, they stopped.

  “Right, Mr. T down. Mom down. Mav down. You just have Lace, Dana, and when you deem it time, Bianca to go,” she declared.

  He looked down at her.

  She was looking up at him and still talking.

  “And in case you already hadn’t noticed, which you being you, I’m sure you have, the tough ones are done. Lace will definitely try to get you drunk and pry out your innermost secrets, but she’ll see you make me happy so she’ll be totally down with you. Dana will fuss over you like she’s your mother when she’s only a year older than you. And Bianca will like you on sight, but warning, she’s now tied to a cartel member so if you ever hurt me, with her revenge streak, shit could get nasty.”

  Deke started chuckling and he did it curling her into him.

  He stopped doing it halfway through the kiss he gave her.

  When he pulled away, she took an arm from around him and started stroking his beard.

  “Roddy wants me recording,” she told him quietly.

  Deke’s arms tightened. “Yeah?”

  She gave him a big grin. “Says I’m denying the history of rock ‘n’ roll their next generation of Lonesome.”

  Deke knew Rembrandt wasn’t wrong.

  But he said nothing because that had to be entirely Jussy’s decision.

  She didn’t go there when she went on.

  “I’m gonna offer Mav staying here for a week or so. Until I got him a firm gig to go back to in LA. Just, you know, see if I can give him what he needs to get to know for certain what he’s got from me so when he gets back to his mom, he’s got that down deep.”

  Deke had a feeling she’d done that countless times before but he just said, “Cool with me.”

  She tipped her head and her gaze went intense. “You sure?”

  “Babe, he’s your brother. He’s in a situation. And you wanna look after him. I’m sure. He starts playin’ you, I sense that, we’ll have another conversation. But now, I don’t sense that. So yeah. I’ll repeat. I’m sure.”

  Her eyes lit, she rolled up on her toes and slid her hand from beard to the back of his head to pull him down to her.

  They kissed again.

  After they were done, she murmured, “I need to start dinner.”

  “Jussy, we had a late lunch,” he replied. “And it’s not even four o’clock.”

  “I still need to start dinner,” she returned.

  Her repetition of that was suddenly intriguing.

  So he tilted his head. “What’s for dinner?”

  That’s when her face lit.

  “Prime rib sandwiches.”

  Deke burst out laughing, doing it turning her, curling an arm around her shoulders, and he put her in a neck hold that was a lot like Rod’s and still totally different.

  Then he walked his gypsy back to her brother, the warmth of her house…

  And her preparations for prime rib sandwiches.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Come to Me”

  Justice

  “Gordon wants me to go on the road with him. Be his assistant. But I got the offer of that gig from The Wash. They want me regular. The money’s better at The Wash, Jussy, permanent gig so it’s stable. But Gordo says that, even if it’s tough on the road, the money isn’t all that great, I’ll be meeting a lot of people, something I won’t do with a gig at a club. Need the money. But need the connections too. Fuck, I don’t know what to do.”

  I was standing in the kitchen, listening to my brother talk in my ear, but I was watching Deke go to the door because someone just knocked on it.

  And I was ecstatic Mav was asking me for advice.

  It was now mid-December. Joss and Rod were descending a couple of days before Christmas to spend the holiday with us, all the way through to the New Year. Lacey had a long break from her tour and was spending Christmas with her folks, but coming out to my place for New Year’s.

  Therefore, Deke and I were going to throw a big New Year’s party.

  I couldn’t wait.

  I’d offered Mav the invitation to come too, but he didn’t have the money to spare and I was vacillating on giving it to him.

  He was getting his shit together, even though, suffice it to say, things did not go well (understatement) when he got home, told his mom about his trip, told her he was pulling the suit, no longer paying an attorney who only took the case to fleece them.

  She’d lost her mind, unsurprisingly. She’d laid into Mav and then she’d laid into me and Joss.

  I’d had a feeling that would be the end. He’d buy her bullshit and I’d lose him. Lose him in a way I wouldn’t get him back because Deke would not put up with him yanking my chain time and again. And I wouldn’t want to make Deke put up with my brother yanking my chain time and again.

  Not to mention, it didn’t feel all that great when he yanked my chain.

  Mav pulled a few shitty maneuvers after that. But throu
gh them he nearly lost a gig Gordon got him, and he’d shot a wad flying out to be with me, a wad he did not have.

  In the end, he realized he needed to eat. He had a lifestyle he was accustomed to as well, one Dad, when he was alive, gave to him regardless of the fact he knew in doing it, he was also giving it to Luna. Mav had blown his chance to continue to live that way and definitely couldn’t be the conduit to give his mother the same.

  So he sorted his shit out, saved the gig, and made peace with me.

  He currently was not speaking to his mother because she wasn’t speaking to him.

  She did speak to the press, airing all this shit bitchily, making another play.

  This backfired very badly.

  The fortunate part of that was, while that brief maelstrom hit us, including smacking Maverick in the face, my brother saw deeper into his mother’s black soul. The other fortunate part of this was that there was no way for Luna to spin it, no matter how hard she tried, to make her look like anything but the greedy, grasping bitch she was.

  She’d been torn apart by the media.

  Lacey had gleefully sent me YouTube tidbits of gossip shows ripping her to shreds.

  Joss had done the same.

  The unfortunate part was, we were all dragged along for the ride, even if it wasn’t big news, lasted what seemed like a flash and nobody’s reps took a hit that shouldn’t have (Mr. T saw to that, letting it slip to the press how “Justice Lonesome and her team” attempted to save her brother’s inheritance, this confirmed by a short interview Mr. T made Maverick give).

  Being dragged along for that ride didn’t make Deke happy.

  But as fast as that storm stirred up, it died away when Luna shut her mouth, tucked her tail between her legs and went dark.

  So things were all around good.

  Deke was working. I was in my music room a lot, fiddling with a variety of songs, all of them not songs I was going to sell.

  All of them songs I was considering recording.

  Deke knew this and he listened a lot to things I was doing.

  He liked it all but then again he would. He was my guy and I hadn’t come up against there being anything he didn’t like about me.

  We talked about it, not a lot but more than a little, and Deke listened. Through all this, he made it clear he was with me whatever way I went, back in the biz or just Jussy on the back of his bike.

  Yep, he’d take me either way. He’d be beside me either way. He’d champion me either way.

  That was Deke.

  More good in my life, I had Dad and Granddad’s collection on display. I had their things on the walls and shelves. Dana and Joss had sent all my belongings to me.

  So I was nested.

  I was home.

  And Christmas was coming. Deke would meet Lacey. And Dana said sometime in February she was coming out for a visit.

  “I hate to say this, baby brother,” I spoke into my phone, my eyes still on Deke, “but I don’t know the answer to that.”

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  “I know who does, though,” I shared. “And that would be Gordon. He’s lived the life. Been at that job for decades, Mav. So if he’s advising you go on the road, he wouldn’t fuck you with that advice because he wants a good assistant. He’ll look out for you.” I took a deep breath, watched Deke sign for something and finished, “And if you still have concerns, the person we both know that knows the business inside and out and can advise the right path is Mr. T.”

  “I’m not his favorite person, Jus,” Mav pointed out.

  “He might have been angry at you, but you’re a Lonesome and he’ll take care of you until the day he dies.”

  I watched Deke accept something, nod, move out of the door and close it, turning carrying a stunning spray of Christmas greenery. So wide it had to be four feet across, thick and downy in both depth and breadth, decorated in pinecones, rusted bells, with a big rustic star in the middle that had etched in it the word Believe.

  As Deke moved to me, I could smell the scent coming off it, filling the big space with the aroma of Christmas.

  When my eyes lifted to him, I saw him looking at me.

  I drew up my brows in question.

  He gave a one shoulder shrug, so I looked back down and caught sight of one of those plastic fork things with a little white envelope stuck in the piece, the opening of which Deke was obviously going to leave to me.

  “I’ll take Gordon’s gig,” Maverick said in my ear, and when he did, I noticed he’d been silent. Thinking. His voice was softer when he finished, “But I’ll call Mr. T. Ask him if he thinks that’s the way to go.”

  Maverick doing that, going so far, extending that olive branch, that made my decision for me.

  “Right, good,” I said. “Think that’s smart, Mav. And just to repeat, this tour of Gordon’s starts in the New Year. I got a room open. Joss and Rod and Lacey will all be here. We’re having a big New Year’s Eve party. Would love to have you for Christmas and New Year’s.”

  Deke’s face got soft because he knew I’d been struggling with this decision, and in starting this conversation again, knowing that Mav had earned the end of that struggle. He also knew what the way that decision had swung meant to me.

  “That’d be cool, if Joss and Rod are down with that,” Mav said, his voice still soft. “But, Jussy, like I told you last time, got some gigs happening to keep me going, don’t think I can swing heading out that way.”

  “Christmas present,” I shared. “Plane ticket and someone will be at the airport to pick you up. You’ll have to make do with Granddad’s truck, if I’m not using it, you wanna get around town.”

  “Jussy, I can’t do presents and—” Mav started.

  “Having you with me the first year we don’t have Dad, Mav, will be the only present I need. Hell, having you with me anytime is a present for me. Seriously.”

  He was quiet.

  Deke set the boughs aside, took the big cylindrical glass bowl filled with layers of limes, cranberries and oranges with their array of pine boughs coming out the top that I got in town at Holly’s Flower Shop to the hutch, came back and put the centerpiece where it should be.

  In the center.

  Through all this, Mav stayed quiet.

  Then he said, “Let me think about it.”

  He’d have to give up his mom on Christmas, this was a concern. They might not be speaking but I had people. As far as I knew, Luna didn’t have anybody. Mav would feel that.

  And Maverick was beginning to understand how it felt to stand on your own two feet, so accepting a plane ticket from his sister when he’d have no problem doing that a year ago was a hit to the manhood he was seeking.

  But he was figuring shit out.

  So I suspected he’d understand what was important and end up sharing Christmas with his family.

  “Right, brother, I gotta go. They’re having the annual Christmas party at our local and we gotta get to town,” I said.

  “Okay, Jussy.”

  “Call me and let me know what you decide…about everything,” I ordered.

  “Will do and…um…well…” he trailed off. I waited. Then he finished it, “Say hey to Deke for me.”

  “I will. Love you, Mav.”

  “Back, Jussy.”

  “Later.”

  “Yeah. ’Bye.”

  We hung up and I looked to Deke.

  “That sounded like it went good,” he remarked.

  I nodded, reaching beyond him to the envelope sticking out of the delivery. “He’s now got multiple offers to consider.” I pulled the card to me and grinned at my man. “Told you he was talented.”

  “Not like I didn’t believe you, babe,” he muttered, his mouth twitching.

  I bent my head, opened the little envelope and pulled out a florist card with a Christmas design on it.

  The message read:

  Jussy,

  Love you. Miss you. You’re always in my heart. I hope I’m still in yours. We’
ll talk in the New Year. Merry Christmas.

  Bianca

  “Who’s it from?” Deke asked.

  I looked up to him and didn’t answer. I handed him the card.

  He read it and even through his beard I saw his jaw get tight.

  But the irritation disappeared when he looked back at me.

  He got close, lifted a hand and cupped my jaw.

  “I should tell her she’s in my heart,” I whispered, my voice gruff.

  “Probably,” Deke murmured.

  “I’ll find a way to do that at the same time sharing I need a little more time,” I told him.

  “Good idea.”

  My grin was shaky.

  This was because I worried about her.

  But I was glad she’d reached out. I was glad she seemed to have gotten it together. I didn’t know exactly how that was, but from what I did know, I wasn’t certain I agreed with the path she was taking.

  That would never negate the fact that she was, indeed, in my heart.

  And always would be.

  “I’ll text her tomorrow. Let her know her delivery arrived,” I said to Deke. “But we should go now, honey.”

  “Yeah,” he got closer, his expression shifting the mood as it filled with amusement. “Warning, Jussy. You’re about to get a full-on blast of Laurie at Christmas.”

  He thought this would freak me.

  He wasn’t the only person who’d told me Lauren Jackson Christmas stories so it might.

  But still.

  I couldn’t wait.

  * * * * *

  “Okay,” my voice was shaking with suppressed laughter, “never in my life would I think Laurie could best Twyla.”

  We were on our way back home from Carnal’s Christmas party at Bubba’s and doing a debrief.

  It seemed the whole town showed up, the place jam-packed, the outside strung with so many lights, it was certain they could see it in the next county. The inside decorated, every inch, in Christmas.

  There were deli trays all around and a big vat of eggnog that I avoided because it was spiked so deep, one sip of it, I couldn’t taste nog, only rum and it went right to my head.

  I didn’t want to be hammered. I wanted to be buzzed sweet and enjoy every second of my first experience with what had become Carnal’s official kickoff for Christmas.