Bounty

  And Deke had watched Ty fight it with Lexie, nearly lose her, and make adjustments to the man he thought he was just so that shit would not ever happen.

  Chace had fought Faye too. She was shy, sweet, but she loved him so it didn’t take her long to pull her man’s head out of his ass.

  And it was Emme who fought Deck, and even if the demons she was battling were fierce, he never gave up.

  His buddy Ham, and his wife Zara, on the other hand, had history together. It wasn’t all pretty but what was far uglier was the baggage life had given them. In the end, they both were smart enough to know, you got a shot at good and a possible life where you faced the bad with someone who meant everything to you, you didn’t squander it. So they hadn’t. And Ham just that week told him Zara was knocked up with baby number two.

  Deke had garbage in his past he had to work through. He was aware of it. He knew he had to get past it to give Jussy what she wanted—giving them a go.

  Deke also knew he was a simple man but he wasn’t a stupid man.

  He’d watched and he’d learned.

  He might not have been quick on the uptake.

  But after he got Jussy through that day, and that night, he sure as fuck would be in remedying that because one thing he’d learned from all the watching he’d done was a man’s garbage got sorted a fuckuva lot faster when he was man enough to let a good woman help him rifle through it.

  And set it aside.

  * * * * *

  “Is this normal?” Jussy asked.

  He glanced her way then back to the road.

  It was after their showers, the water tanks filled and in the bed in the back of his truck. They were heading to his trailer to dump them, pick up their contribution to brunch (a case of beer, a bottle of bourbon, and some casserole Jussy had thrown together last night, put in the fridge and would bake at Krys’s place).

  “Is what normal?”

  “Brunch at Krys and Bubba’s,” she explained. “Krys doesn’t strike me as a brunch-type person.”

  She wasn’t.

  What she was was a woman who knew a friend of hers had been attacked and left with the threat that the attacker would return in a week, that week had passed, and now Krys was doing what she could to keep her mind off the fact that day had come.

  “Think she’s tryin’ her hand at domesticity,” Deke noted, and maybe it wasn’t a total lie.

  “God, if brunch is domesticity, I want no part in it,” she muttered.

  Deke grinned at the windshield.

  Anytime she said shit like that…

  Hell, every time and there were a lot of them.

  Fuck, it was beginning to feel like Justice Lonesome had been made for him.

  “Not a quiche kinda person?” he asked.

  “Quiche is to food what pet sweaters are to little dogs. An evil invented for unfathomable reasons.”

  “Hear some of them little dogs get cold,” Deke noted, still grinning.

  He knew she turned her head his way when she replied, “They have fur, Deke.”

  “Some of it’s sparse, Jussy.”

  “Then don’t force them out into the cold while you go shopping or wander the park or whatever these people do with accessory dogs. Little bugger gets his or her walk and does his or her business then goes home to camp out in front of the fireplace or the furnace register. They need exercise, throw a damn toy for them in the living room. Don’t dress them in a ridiculous sweater and make them prance through snow that’s taller than them. It’s undignified and inhumane.”

  Little dog sweaters, inhumane.

  Deke kept grinning as he teased, “Do you need more caffeine?”

  “No, talking about this, I think I need a little dog, without the sweater.”

  He glanced at her again, no longer grinning. “Babe, you get a dog, that dog has a bark that’ll scare the shit outta Ty. Not a dog that’s yappy and wouldn’t scare the shit out of Vivie.”

  “I’ll get one of both,” she decreed.

  “That’s acceptable,” he muttered.

  There was a beat of silence before she asked, “Is there a dog that’ll scare the shit outta Ty?”

  “Maybe, that dog is a wolf, but even then, not sure that’d do it,” he answered through his phone ringing.

  He leaned forward to go after it in his back pocket and as he did it was not lost on him he was having a ridiculous conversation about dog sweaters.

  It further was not lost on him that he didn’t care because on the other end of that conversation was Jussy.

  He checked the display on his phone. It said Tate Calling so he took it and put it to his ear.

  “Yo, Tate.”

  “Yo. Where are you?”

  “On the way to the trailer to dump the tanks then we’re headin’ to Krys and Bubba’s. Why?”

  “Brunch is cancelled, brother,” Tate said in a tone that had Deke’s shoulders straightening. Tate didn’t keep him waiting. “Krys went into labor about an hour ago, water broke, everything. She and Bubba are at County now.”

  “Fuck,” Deke murmured. “What is she—?”

  “This happens now, five weeks preemie,” Tate answered the question Deke didn’t get out.

  “Fuck,” Deke repeated.

  “Laurie and me are walking out the door, headed to County,” Tate told him.

  “We drop the tanks, so are me and Jussy.”

  “See you there,” Tate said. “Later.”

  “Later, brother,” Deke replied, lowered the phone and felt Jussy’s vibe that was a response to Deke’s vibe.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Krys went into labor, baby. We gotta drop these tanks and get to the hospital.”

  “Shit,” she whispered.

  “It’s gonna be good,” he assured her.

  “She’s not even in her eighth month.”

  “It’s gonna be good, Jussy.”

  She shut up.

  Deke drove.

  But he did it reaching for her hand, clasping it firm in his and holding both to his thigh.

  He’d had women in his life, some with minimal staying power.

  But since he was a lot younger, he’d not once held one of their hands.

  Jussy’s little hand in his felt made to be there too.

  That wasn’t lost on Deke either.

  And he didn’t mind it at all.

  * * * * *

  Deke didn’t walk into the hospital room.

  Jussy didn’t either.

  They stood arms around each other at the door to give Bubba the knowledge they were there with the intent to leave and hit the waiting room.

  Lauren was also there, in the room with Bub and Krys. They’d seen Tate out in the waiting room, phone to his ear, making the calls.

  Krys didn’t look good, hair wet from sweat, makeup-free face red and pinched with pain or worry.

  What she did do was take one look at Jussy and snap, “Get over here.”

  Jussy didn’t take her eyes off Krys as she let Deke go and got over there.

  The second she got close on the opposite side of the bed from where Bubba was standing like he was a guard, not an expectant husband, Krys grabbed Justice’s hand in a grip that even from his distance, Deke could see was fierce.

  She reached up with her other hand, and as Jussy bent toward her, she clapped it at the back of Jussy’s head and pulled her straight in Krys’s face.

  Deke tensed and through it, moved into the room.

  Lauren gave him a look that said be cool. Bubba didn’t look at him at all, his full attention was on his woman in that bed.

  Deke stopped close behind Jussy, seeing her head go up and down in Krys’s hold, an indication of an affirmative to something Krys was saying, her hand gripping Krystal’s just as tight as Krys had hers.

  “Yes.” He heard Jussy say. “Nothing’s changed from our time in the Camaro, sister. You got this, Krys. You got it, beautiful.”

  “I got it,” Krys replied, her voice wea
ker than Deke had ever heard.

  “You got it,” Jussy said, her voice stronger than he’d ever heard.

  Nothing came after that for some time before Jussy told her, “We’re not going anywhere. We’ll be right outside with Tate. You got this. Give your man a pretty baby.”

  This gave Krys her cue to let Jussy go, something she did.

  When she did, Deke moved in to claim her, wrapping an arm around her belly and pulling her back into him, but not taking her from Krys’s space.

  Krys looked to him, to Jussy, to him and then to Bubba.

  “We are not havin’ another kid,” Bubba said before she could open her mouth.

  His anxiety was clear in voice, expression and posture.

  “Need an ice chip, baby,” Krys said quietly, some, not all of the weak out of her tone.

  Bubba reached to a bowl of ice.

  “See you soon,” Jussy said softly.

  Krys looked to her and nodded.

  Deke moved Jussy out while Lauren moved to the side of the bed they vacated.

  They nearly crashed into Jim-Billy who was running into the room as they left.

  Deke took Jussy to Tate, left her with him, went out and bought a shit ton of donuts and coffees. He came back to Ty and Lexie there with their girls, Jim-Billy having been kicked out when the contractions kicked up, and Tate and Jussy on phone duty giving updates to Twyla and the crew at Bubba’s, Chace and Faye, and the great number of folk that loved Krys no matter how skilled she was at throwing attitude.

  As they waited, Deke didn’t bother putting in the effort not to watch Justice goofing with Lella and Vivie. He also didn’t bury how it made him feel, seeing she was just as good with kids, maybe even better, than she was with adults.

  And he didn’t bury the fact that she’d been in Carnal just over a month and she was one of the crew like she’d been there years.

  Last, he didn’t hit her up about what that was with her and Krys and the Camaro.

  Something else he’d learned, women had shit with their sisters and if they wanted to share it, they did. If they didn’t, you didn’t push it.

  Two hours later, Bubba came out looking a lot fucking happier when he told them Breanne Lauren Briggs had made it into the world, breathing good, all ten fingers, all ten toes, and looking like her momma.

  And Krys had done it. Unintentionally, but she’d still excelled at what she’d done.

  On a day her friend needed her mind off what might be to come, she gave her a helluva something to keep her mind on.

  An hour later, when they were let in in shifts to see Krys was all right and have their time with Breanne, Jussy returned the favor.

  While she was holding Bubba and Krys’s tiny baby, smiling her big, happy, open smile, she dipped her face close, gently rocking Breanne like she’d given birth to a dozen baby girls, and in her sweet, low voice, quietly she sang Croce’s “Time in a Bottle.”

  Deke couldn’t tear his eyes away. But as she sang, he saw Tate get close, his phone up, videoing Jussy’s gift to two new parents, something priceless, a baby’s first lullaby delivered by Justice Lonesome.

  When she was done singing, not only was Breanne asleep.

  So was Krys.

  The song ended and Justice kept humming and rocking, her attention riveted on the little, scrunched-up face which was all you could see through cap and swaddling. And as she hummed, Deke noticed that his gypsy’s features were dominant.

  Dark hair, brown eyes.

  He had not lied, his ma would have loved Jussy.

  Dark-haired, brown-eyed babies?

  She’d have loved them a whole lot more.

  He watched his gypsy humming to baby girl Breanne.

  He did it with the realization he was sinking deep in all that was Justice Lonesome.

  But for the life of him, he didn’t care he was getting caught in that mire.

  * * * * *

  “Uh, I’m not liking that,” Jussy proclaimed.

  They were in his truck after leaving the hospital and they were on the way to the mall.

  Deke had just told her their plans for that night and he knew her proclamation was not about the fact they were going to the electronics store to buy her a TV for her bedroom that they could watch while they ate pizza in her bed that night.

  It was about the fact they were spending the night in that bed that night.

  “It’s safe, Jussy,” he said gently. “And you gotta get back there.”

  “Tonight?”

  That came out as a squeak.

  Deke grabbed her hand and for the first time she resisted.

  This didn’t last long because he didn’t give up. When she did, he held her as he kept talking.

  “Your security system is tight and Chace is sending a cruiser. Men with badges, guns, radios and presence to keep watch all night. And I’ll be there.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “You gotta get back home, baby.”

  He felt more resistance at her hand. It surprised him, she’d never resisted. Not a single touch. But just as quick as she started it, she again gave in, letting her hand rest in his but she did all that without reply.

  “He’s not gonna get to you,” he told her.

  She didn’t say anything and he glanced at her to see her looking out the side window.

  “Jussy?” he called.

  “I know,” she said, her voice flat, something he’d gotten from her once, the morning they had their conversation after she performed at Bubba’s. “I’m good. Cal’s system. The cops. You. It’ll be okay.”

  He didn’t like her voice like that.

  “Not gonna let anything harm you,” he promised.

  “Okay, Deke,” she replied immediately, a verbal giving in he didn’t like either.

  She was unusually in her head and not giving him what was in it.

  So he went for it.

  “What’s on your mind?” he asked.

  “Oh, nothing, except that guy promising to come back and the first night I’m back in the bed he strangled me on and beat me unconscious on is the night he promised to come back,” she answered, flat gone, sarcasm in its place.

  “He slips by the cops, gets close to a single window, even the boarded one, babe, the whole forest lights up for ten yards and the cops’ll be all over him. He keeps goin’ and actually breaks in, that siren Callahan put in will be heard for a mile.”

  She again switched tactics. “You’re right. All good. It’ll be fine.”

  “Jussy—”

  He knew she’d looked to him when she said, “If you want me out of the trailer, then tonight, at least, I’d feel better being at Carnal Hotel with Mr. T. Maybe they have adjoining rooms. We’ll keep the doors open in between. He’s not exactly young but he used to be a Marine.”

  Through this, getting what was on her mind, Deke’s fingers around hers tightened.

  “I don’t want you out of the trailer,” he shared that truth but did it carefully.

  “You’re being cool and I get it, Deke, that’s how cool you’ve been. Way cool. Super cool. Amazingly cool. But you’re right. I need to get on with it, take charge, get back to whatever is normal. But not tonight. Tonight I’m staying at the hotel with Mr. T.”

  Now he was losing that cool she said he was.

  “You are not stayin’ at a goddamn hotel with a man old enough to be your grandfather the only one lookin’ out for you.”

  “We can tell Chace to park the cruiser outside my hotel door.”

  “We’re not doin’ that either seein’ as you’re gonna be at your place with me and that’s also where the cruiser is gonna be.”

  “What I’m saying is, you’ve been cool. I appreciate it. You’ve done a lot. It’s time to get on with things and I get that’s what you’re saying to me. So I’m getting on with things. You’re off duty.”

  Oh no she didn’t.

  He might not have been forthcoming about where they were at but he wasn’t stupid, she sure as fuck wasn’t either.

/>   He needed to lay it out and they needed to talk it out but she had to know why he was letting that slide after she got assaulted in her own home.

  But she knew better than that.

  And she just plain was better than this passive-aggressive bullshit.

  “I ask to be off duty?” he bit out.

  “Well…no,” she returned hesitantly.

  “That’s because I’m not askin’ to be off duty. I’m tellin’ you, this guy is still around, and there is no evidence pointing to the fact he was stupid enough to make the play he made and stick around, he’s actually even stupider if he makes an approach with a cruiser outside and me inside with you, knowin’ from that his ass’ll be in the can. You think you’re gettin’ what I’m sayin’, Justice, but you’re way the fuck off base.”

  “I…uh, well…okay,” she stammered.

  “And just to point more shit out you’ve probably had too much on your mind to figure out, the play this guy made was probably the only play he had and he knew it. Puttin’ the fear of God in you by sayin’ he’d be comin’ back was just his way of being a bigger fuckwad than he already is. He did something to Justice Lonesome, to anyone, but specifically Justice Lonesome, something that had a permanent end, he’s gotta know he’d have heat on him no way he could evade. He’s tied to your girl, he can’t erase that, made the damn call on your phone, cops would make that connection and he’d go down and he knows that. That’s why he left it like it was rather than ending that shit he did to you in a different way.”

  “Okay, I hear you,” she said softly.

  She heard him but as harsh as he was giving it to her, she needed to hear more to make sure she got it so he kept going.

  “He delivered the message he wanted delivered and now he’s gotta know you got the resources to make any future plays a big fuckin’ fail. You got those resources, you activated them and then some. He had his opportunity. He took it. He’s got a brain in his head, he knows he shot that wad and he’s gotta get to Bianca another way. He shows tonight or ever until he’s caught, he’s Darwinian. ’Cause breaking and entering, assault, criminal threatening and attempted murder are gonna buy him a long stretch and haven’t heard a man bein’ able to reproduce behind bars bein’ the bitch to a brute who comes up his ass.”