He hoisted her over his shoulder, grabbed her bag, making sure to leave no trace of her behind, and carried her over to her pickup truck. He dug into her tight little jeans and found her keys, unlocked the door, and slid her into the passenger seat. He started back over to his bike, but was stopped by an SUV that pulled into the alley and parked next to a pink ice cream shop. Jagger ducked behind Justice’s pickup, closing his eyes, and saying a little prayer that whoever it was didn’t see him hiding or Justice passed out in the passenger seat. The woman hopped out of her SUV, got a kid from the back seat, and went into the back entrance of the pink building. He breathed a sigh of relief at not being caught trying to abduct sexy little Justice. He was pretty sure most people in this small town knew each other, and Jag worried that making a clean getaway wasn’t going to happen if someone spotted him with Justice. He decided to leave his bike, knowing he was taking the chance of it eventually being found and possibly leading the cops right to him. He didn’t care what happened to him, and hopefully ditching the bike would buy himthe time he needed to get Hobbs’ daughter back to him and get Jules out from under that crazy man’s thumb. His sister’s safety was his number one priority now. Whatever happened to him, he’d deal with later. Jules needed him, and there was no fucking way he was going to let his little sister down again.
CHAPTER TWO
Justice woke to her head pounding and a wave of nausea that had her wondering if it was best to open her eyes or not. She peeped one eye open and realized she was in her pickup truck and it was moving. She also noticed it was starting to get dark out, and she slowly sat up, trying to piece together exactly what had happened to her. The last thing she remembered was a sexy man standing in the alley telling her some story about how her grandmother sent him. She held her head and groaned, chancing a look over to the driver’s seat.
“Fuck,” she whispered when she realized that not only was the sexy guy from the alley a liar, but he also stole her truck and kidnapped her, probably to take her straight back to her father.
“Yeah, well, that’s pretty much how I feel about this whole day, too, princess. You kneeing me in the balls was a real treat.” Justice thought back to the way she tried to fight him off, and she groaned at the memory of hitting her head on the road as she fell to the ground.
“Why are you doing this?” Her voice was little more than a whisper since her throat was so dry. “You don’t even know me. Why would you want to hurt me?” Justice looked over towhere the sexy stranger kept his eyes on the road ahead, almost refusing to look at her. He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something and then quickly closed it. His jaw clenched, and if she wasn’t mistaken, she saw something that looked like regret cross his features. She should be afraid of him, but for some reason, she wasn’t. Maybe she just hit her head hard enough that fear wasn’t registering with her, but the guy sitting to her left didn’t frighten her. The thought of seeing her father again—now that was a different story.
“Okay, that question must be a tough one for you. Let’s start with something easy like your name.” Justice sat up straighter and buckled her seatbelt. “I’ll go first, my name is?—”
“Justice,” he finished for her and turned for a second to look at her. His half-smile almost touched his green eyes, and she had to admit she could get lost in his soulful gaze. Maybe this is what they meant about falling for your abductor. What did they call it? Stockholm Syndrome, yeah—maybe she had that. Whatever it was about this guy, she couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about him pulled her in.
“So, you know who I am then?” He nodded, and his overly long brown hair fell into his eyes. He pushed it back from his face and sighed as if trying to decide if he wanted to share anything about himself. Justice found herself holding her breath, almost hoping he would tell her everything and more. If she wanted to find a way out of this mess, maybe getting to know her captor wasn’t a bad idea.
“My name is Jagger, Jagger James,” he almost grumbled. Geez, even his name was sexy. She needed to get herself together because the last thing she needed to do was forget that this man was holding her against her will and probably delivering her to a whole heap of trouble waiting for her in Goose Creek.
“See, that wasn’t so hard.” Justice plastered a fake smile on her face, and he nodded, looking back to the long stretch ofroad before them. Judging from the barren landscape, they were almost to Goose Creek, and she and Daddy Dearest would be having that family reunion he had threatened her with.
Once she got away from her father two years ago, Justice found herself in Harvest Ridge. She took a job at Sunny’s bakery, agreeing to work as much as needed. Sunny was pregnant and alone, not knowing if or when Aaron would ever come back to town. Justice took an instant liking to her new boss, and the two even became friends. When Sunny and Aaron were in trouble, Justice sent them to her grandmother’s ranch, but helping them gave away her location. Up until that point, she didn’t tell anyone where she was. She sent a message to Granny Norma that she was safe, but that was it. She kept a low profile and even gave Sunny a fake name in the beginning, trying to stay off her father’s radar. Helping Sunny and Aaron was worth exposing her whereabouts, but now she worried she had overstayed her welcome in Harvest Ridge. She thought about running again, but her friends became her new family, and the thought of leaving them made her miserable, so she stayed. She even started visiting her grandmother again. Justice knew that by showing up in and around town that she was poking the bear, but she also hoped her father would move on to find another way to kiss up to the wealthy landowners that could make or break his political career. She thought enough time had passed that she was safe, but she should have known. Her father never gave up, and he didn’t like to lose—ever.
“I’m assuming you work for my father, Tony Hobbs?” Justice stared Jagger down, waiting for an answer.
He finally nodded, “Yes,” he whispered.
“He sent you to bring me back to him?” Jagger nodded once more. “I’m assuming that he has plans to lock me away again, and this time he’ll let Jordan Wolf finish what he started with me?” It wasn’t a question since Justice already knewthe answer. Her father was probably watching her this whole time, waiting for the right time to put his half-cocked plan into action. She knew that politically, he was at his most vulnerable. With the election for the Governor’s office right around the corner, securing a marriage between his daughter and the most powerful family in Colorado would be quite the coup and would most likely win him the election. With less than two months before election day, he probably wanted to move his plan forward quickly.
“What, wait—what?” Poor Jagger seemed confused, and it was almost comical. Didn’t he know what kind of man he worked for?
“Hm, you seem a little upset, Jag. You didn’t know what kind of guy my dear old dad is? You must be new to his fleet of covered-in-tats, overly muscled goons.” Justice laughed at her assessment of him. She looked him up and down and laughed even harder when Jagger gave her the “Who, me?” look.
“Don’t look at me like you don’t own a mirror, Jag. You are covered in tattoos and have muscles on top of muscles. I’m betting you work out a few times a day.” Justice settled back into her seat again and turned her focus back to the landscape that was quickly disappearing into the twilight. She noticed her truck was just about out of gas. Jagger would have to stop and fill it up before they reached Goose Creek. That would be her chance to make a run for it. She was pretty sure they were about twenty miles from her grandmother’s ranch. If she could just make it to Granny Norma’s, her father wouldn’t be able to get to her. Her grandmother wouldn’t allow it.
“I’m not a muscled goon,” Jagger barked, seeming hurt by her assessment of him.
Justice barked out her laugh as if trying to egg him on. “Sure, Jag. You tell yourself whatever you need to. How can you sleep at night knowing you work for a monster that would abducthis daughter and sell her body to the highest bidder?” Jagger seemed to squirm in his seat, turning a little red under his shirt collar.
“Is that what he plans to do with you, Justice?” His question was so quiet she almost had to lean into him to hear it.
“Yes,” she whispered, almost not able to admit it out loud. When she was a child, her mother used to tell her she should only say things out loud if she wanted them to happen. Putting negative, hateful words out into the universe would only bring bad luck. She knew now, as an adult, that her mother was just superstitious, but as a child, she believed. Saying those ugly words out loud made her heart hurt. Justice thought back to that night two years ago when her father all but offered her up to Jordan Wolf on a silver platter.
“My father wants me to marry a man named Jordan Wolf. His family is one of the wealthiest, most powerful families in the state of Colorado. He and my father struck up a deal about two years back when my father was entertaining the idea of running for the Governor’s office. My father would give him me, and he’d give my father the state of Colorado.” Justice looked out at the passing mountains and red rocks that dotted the landscape, finding it hard to look at Jagger while remembering that awful night. “He tried to rape me, but my grandmother’s men found me before he got he could finish the job. She saved me, and I ran as far as I could—all the way to Harvest Ridge. I made a new life for myself and even made friends. I guess my father couldn’t accept defeat because here I am being dragged back to him. So, I’m assuming he wants the same thing from me—for me to be a good little girl so he can sell me off to the highest bidder.”
“Fuck,” Jagger cursed. It was hard for Justice to believe he knew nothing about her father’s plan.
“You must be new if he hasn’t clued you in. He always made sure his goons knew a little too much; that way, they wouldremember their place, which was usually under his thumb.” Jagger nodded.
“Your father is holding my little sister against her will. He has some false bullshit that ties her up in his shady business dealings, and I’m working for him to earn her freedom.” Jagger’s admission surprised Justice. “He promised to release the information he has that ties her to him if I work for him and get my hands a little dirty. Picking you up was my first assignment, princess. As soon as I can free my sister, I’m out.” Justice felt bad for him, she honestly did, and that only confused her more. Her father was good at manipulating people to get what he wanted. He seemed to want Jagger James, and there would be no way that her dad would let him go until he was finished with him. If Jagger delivered her to her father, he would only prove his worth, but if he didn’t, her father wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Jagger’s sister. Justice knew that once her father set his mind to what he wanted, he didn’t stop until he had it in his possession. She was afraid a family reunion was inevitable unless she could convince Jagger to help her.
Jagger didn’t know how he got himself so involved in this giant clusterfuck. All he wanted to do was rescue Jules, and once his little sister was free from Tony Hobbs, he’d work his way out. He wasn’t a fool—he knew he was an asset to Hobbs’ organization. He had the skills and knew how to help a powerful man like Hobbs and not get caught in the act. But working for a man who treated women like Hobbs made him physically sick. Listening to Justice tell him the few details about what he wanted to let Wolf do to his daughter made him want to fucking kill the man. He knew Jordan Wolf, saw him sniffingaround Hobbs’ home. He worried he was going to try something with Jules, but he had his eyes set on a bigger prize. He wanted the mayor’s daughter, and from the looks of Justice, he couldn’t blame Wolf.
“What is your sister’s name?” Jagger hesitated answering Justice’s question. He didn’t know how much he could trust Hobbs’ daughter. From everything he heard about her, she was a spoiled princess, but the security guards who worked for his boss were still sore that she gave them the slip two years ago.
He didn’t hear much about the night that Justice was held captive. Her father made it sound as if she had a mental breakdown, and he was holding her for her own good. He even told Jagger he was worried about Justice and that was why he was ordering him to go and bring her home. Hobbs said that he wanted to get his daughter the help she needed before it was too late. But the beautiful woman sitting next to him now didn’t seem to be in a state of mental breakdown at all. In fact, she seemed quite competent, proving that trusting his boss was probably a mistake. Hell, he wasn’t sure who to believe. All he knew was that Hobbs had his sister and was willing to trade her freedom for his daughter to be brought to him. Would he be able to live with himself if what Justice was saying turned out to be true? Could he turn her over only to be sold into a life she didn’t want for the sake of her father’s political career?
“Her name is Jules,” he offered. Jagger decided that he could give her some small truths, and maybe that would satisfy her curiosity and get her to stop asking questions.
