“You won’t touch either of them again, fucker,” Jagger growled.
Wolf laughed. “I still have men who are loyal to me, Jag. You won’t walk out of here alive.” Jagger knew Wolf still had about five men on the grounds. He also knew that Dean and his inside man would have taken care of most of them by now. The question was, where was Justice? Jagger decided that he had wasted enough time. He radioed Dean to let him know where he could find Wolf and told him he was going to search for Justice. She had to be around the house; no one would have gotten in or out without Dean’s team knowing about it. If Wolf didn’t know where she was, he was pretty sure his clever wife had gotten away and was hiding somewhere in the house. The question was where. All he knew was he wasn’t going anywhere without her again.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Justice walked into the room that used to be her mother’s. She knew she needed to get out of the house before Wolf or one of his guys found her, but she let a wave of nostalgia wash over her. She pushed open the door that was usually locked when she lived there. Her father never allowed her to enter her mom’s room after her death. He made some excuse that he didn’t want her to do anything that would cause her anxiety over her mother’s death. What he failed to understand was that not having her mother to help guide her through her troubled adolescent years caused her more anxiety and stress than just entering her room ever would have. She heard a ruckus down the hall and figured that Wolf had returned to find her missing. Judging by the amount of screaming he was doing, Wolf wasn’t pleased by her absence. Justice knew she had to hurry down memory lane and hightail it out of there, but she couldn’t give up the chance of seeing her mom’s room one last time.
Once she left her father’s house, this time she would never come back. She planned on disappearing once she said goodbye to her grandmother and her friends back in Harvest Ridge. The thought of finding her way forward without Jagger made herwant to curl up into a ball and give in to the grief that seemed to consume her every time she thought about the cabin exploding. Justice almost wished that she had never asked the questions that helped her recall what happened just before the drugs took effect. Of course, Wolf was all too happy to fill in the blanks for her, recounting every painful detail with a pleasure that only a madman would experience.
Justice walked into her mom’s room and looked around, surprised that it hadn’t changed much in almost a decade. Everything seemed the same, right down to the rose-colored shag carpet and the white, billowy curtains that used to remind her of dancing ghosts when her mom would leave the windows open. A cherrywood four-post canopy bed stood in the corner of the big room, surrounded by matching dressers and night tables.
“Hi, Mom,” she whispered. She knew she was being silly talking to the thin air, but it was almost as if she could feel her mother there with her. She crossed the room and sat down at her mother’s dressing table, remembering the way she used to like watching her mom get dressed for special occasions. She would sit on the big bed and watch her put on her eye makeup with so much precision. Justice was sure she would never master it. Her mom would curl her hair and then offer to do Justice’s, and she would jump at the opportunity to sit next to her mother on the flowery upholstered bench in front of the cherry table that held all her makeup and hair accessories. Justice ran her shaking hands over her mother’s brush set and lifted the hand mirror to look at her reflection. She knew she looked like her mother, but looking at the pictures of her sitting on the dresser only drove that fact home. Justice’s pale expression looked back as if mocking her. Her eyes had dark circles around them, and her cheeks looked hollow and sunken, all signs of the hell that she had been put through in the past twenty-four hours.
“I met a wonderful man, Mom. We even got married, but now he’s—” Her sob broke her train of thought, and she broke down, watching herself crying in the mirror. Her mother always told her that someday she would meet a wonderful man and fall madly in love. She would ask her mom if that was how it was with her dad, but her mother never answered her question. The sadness in her mother’s eyes told her everything that she never said out loud—she wasn’t in love
with Justice’s father. Justice wondered if she ever was or if the rumors were true and their marriage was one of convenience. Justice overheard her father talking to her mother one night, telling her that he did her a favor by marrying her. Justice’s grandfather owed her dad money, and he offered his daughter as payment. Justice was too young to understand everything that the bargain entailed, but now she was all too familiar with that world. She wondered if her father had always been mixed up in the human trafficking business or if he had recently been introduced to that world. Either way, she hoped that her father would pay for what he did to her, Jules, and countless other women. She wanted to finish telling her mom about Jagger, feeling the need to fill her in on the small amount of happiness that she found, even if it was for a short time.
“Jagger is, well, he’s—” Justice looked at herself in the mirror and was drawn to the movement in the doorway, sure she had been found out. But the man who stared back at her wasn’t Wolf or even one of his men—it was Jagger. That was impossible, though; he was gone. Justice knew her mind was playing tricks on her, but she didn’t care. Seeing him again felt right, like her world was spinning off-kilter until she saw him again. It was a sign that everything was going to be all right.
“I’m right here, honey.” Justice shook her head, not believing her own eyes or ears. Her tired, muddled brain wasn’t processing reason, and she was sure that she was either crazyor dreaming. Either way, she didn’t want to face the reality that awaited her outside of her mother’s room. She wanted to stay there in a place that felt comfortable. A place that felt safe and a place where Jagger and she could be together again, even if he was just a figment of her imagination.
“I know you’re not here, Jagger, but I don’t care. I’m so happy to see you again, and I’m sorry it had to end this way. You got mixed up in my mess, and you didn’t deserve any of this. I’m so sorry.” She hung her head and cried. Justice lost the only man she could imagine herself loving, and she was all alone.
“Justice, baby, don’t cry, please,” Jagger begged, and she nodded, knowing he was right. If this was going to be the last time that she ever saw him, she didn’t want to waste time on her tears.
“I will try to be brave.” She smiled through her tears, and he smiled back at her.
“You are the bravest, strongest woman I’ve ever met, honey.” Jagger stepped closer to where she sat, and she wanted to reach out and touch him, but stopped herself. She knew she would only be disappointed that he wasn’t real. She wanted to keep the illusion alive for as long as possible.
“I love you so much, Jagger,” she whispered. “I will do my best to go on, to escape from here, and keep your memory alive.” She cupped her stomach, knowing that she would never be able to share the news of the baby with him. Justice was going to tell him at dinner the night before, but then everything happened, and she lost her chance. She knew that she was going to have to face being a mother alone now, and that thought should terrify her, but it didn’t. She was happy to know that she would always have a piece of Jagger with her, even if she couldn’t have him. Her baby would know him through her. She would tell her baby stories of Jagger, and they would keep his memory alive.
“Honey, what the hell are you talking about? I’m right here. Look at me— touch me, Justice.” He crossed the room and pulled her up from the bench and into his arms. “Justice, touch me, look at me, tell me you’re all right,” he begged.
She wanted to do all those things, but she knew she was just being a foolish dreamer. She saw him die, saw the cabin explode after he went in. Wolf was right; Jagger was dead, and it was too painful to believe otherwise, even for a few stolen minutes before she returned to the hell that waited for her.
“Justice, I didn’t die in that cabin,” he whispered. “I’m alive; touch me,” he ordered. Justice reached up and touched his beautiful face with her shaking hands, tears streaming down her face. Her tentative fingers felt his warm skin beneath them, and she gasped in surprise. Could it be true? Was he there with her?
“How?” she rasped. “How are you here?” Her hands roamed freely over his face and chest as if not believing their initial assessment of him.
“Dean saved my life,” he whispered, gathering her roaming hands into his own and pulling them up to his mouth to kiss her knuckles. “He texted me that I was in danger. I got out of the cabin just as the bomb went off. The blast blew me clear of the structure and knocked me out. By the time I woke up, you were gone.” He wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her tighter against his own. Justice’s mind was racing, and she felt as though she needed to ask a million questions. “There’s so much I want to ask you,” she said.
“I know, but now isn’t the time, honey. Right now, I need to get you out of here and find Dean.” He started to pull her to the door, and she dug in her heels, trying and failing to stop his progress. “Jagger, wait,” she pleaded. “He’s still out there—Wolf.” He looked back at her, flashing his sexy smile and making her knees weak.
“I’ve already taken care of him.” He kissed her forehead as if trying to comfort her. “I’ve tied him up like an animal, and he’s not going anywhere, Justice.” She must have looked as shocked as she felt. Jagger chuckled, and she pulled her hand free from him.
“Just like that?” she questioned.
“Just like that,” he confirmed. “But I don’t know about his guards,” he admitted. “Dean had a man on the inside, but I don’t know if they got all of Wolf’s guards.” He grabbed Justice’s hand and led her out of her mother’s room. She took one last look back and hoped that someday she could call herself as good a mother as her mom was.
“There you two are,” Dean said, bursting into the room. “I was beginning to worry, man.” Dean pulled Justice in for a hug. “It’s so good to see you in one piece, Justice,” he whispered. “Are you all right?” Justice wasn’t sure how to answer Dean’s question. Sure, she was physically all right except for some leftover nausea, but that could be the morning sickness she was experiencing lately and not the remaining drugs in her system. Mentally, she felt like she could sleep for days, and she had a feeling it would take a long time before she would feel completely safe.
“I think so,” she stuttered. Jagger pulled her back to his side and wrapped her in his arms. She smiled up at him. “Jag is alive and I’m still kicking, so I’d say we’re doing fine.” Jagger pulled her up for a kiss, and Dean groaned in disgust.
“Jag and I have some paperwork to do, and then we should head over to your grandmother’s ranch. She can’t wait to see you. One thing I’ve learned about Norma Jeane Hobbs is that she shouldn’t be kept waiting,” Dean grumbled, causing them all to laugh.
“I need to see Granny Norma. There is so much I need to talk to her about.” She couldn’t wait for her grandmother to wrap herin one of her famous hugs. “I’d also like to go to Harvest Ridge in the next day or so to see Sunny and Aaron. I need to meet the newest Steele baby and catch up with them. I’ve missed so much. I can’t believe I missed being there for Sunny after everything she’s done for me.” Sunny was like an older sister to her, a part of her family, and she missed her so much since being away. Justice was thankful to Dean for getting messages to her friends in Harvest Ridge, letting them know that she was alive and well with Jagger. Still, she owed them all a visit and explanations.
“Sure, honey. We can go back anytime you’re ready.” Jagger offered. She saw a sadness in his eyes and knew he was worried that she would want to stay in Harvest Ridge. They needed to discuss her place being with him, but first, she needed to see her grandmother and have a hot shower, a meal, and a good night’s sleep. Then, she would sit her husband down and tell him about their baby, and she would explain exactly where she wanted to be—which was by his side.
