Broken Justice (Justice Brothers) (10 page)

“You’re offering me a ride to Arizona and a job when we get there?” At his quiet nod of affirmation she hesitated one more time. “Why are you being so nice? I’m practically a stranger to you. It doesn’t make sense.”

Without any hesitation, he answered, “Hell Ponytail, I’m gonna give you that. You need a way out and me…. well, maybe I need a chance to prove to myself that I can be human. That too many hard years in the military and a bunch of empty ones on the outside didn’t make me a complete bastard. ”

She snorted a low chuckle at his answer and nodded. “It’s been my experience that most men are complete ‘you-know-what’s’ but I don’t see you that way at all Cameron.”

“Don’t be fooled, Lacey. I
am
a complete bastard and in no way a gentleman but I assure you, if you come along with me, I’ll behave and do whatever is in my power to help you get on your feet again.” His green eyes bored into hers.

“Let me think about it, Cameron,” she whispered while her hands got busy clutching and smoothing the corner of his blanket where it draped over her leg. “Are you hungry?” she asked, quickly changing the subject. “I’ll run across the parking lot and grab you something. You’ll feel better after you’ve eaten.”

As if on cue his stomach rumbled loudly and he was hit by a thirst that plain water wasn’t going to quench. Grabbing his wallet he withdrew a bunch of bills and pressed them into her hand. “Man, that would be great,” he murmured. “I need a carbonated soda, preferably one with a shit-ton of caffeine so don’t grab any of the unleaded crap. I’ll munch down on whatever they’ve got. Make sure you get something for yourself too, Lacey. Later on I’ll drive us into town and we can get something hot to take-out, okay?”

Glad to have something to do, Lacey jumped to her feet, scrambling for her bag before heading to the door. “Leave the backpack Ponytail. You don’t need to lug it with you everywhere you go.”

She hesitated, pondering Cameron intently. There was something about the way he looked at her as if he could read her innermost thoughts. As someone who didn’t trust easily, the way she felt driven to believe in him rattled her cage.
How the hell did he do that anyway
, she wondered.

As slowly as humanly possible, she lowered the rough and ready bag to the floor while she gnawed on her bottom lip, filled with indecision and doubt. She’d been protecting that bag, her only possessions, for what seemed like a lifetime and had even engaged in a street fight to keep from having it taken from her forcibly. She was in no way used to going anywhere without it. Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, Lacey opted for strength in the face of fear as she pushed the bag with her foot to a corner near the sofa. Turning and leaving took all her strength but she managed to do just that, locking eyes with her dark knight just before she slipped out the door with a softly muttered, “I won’t be long.”

When the door clicked shut, Cam practically high-fived himself at the current state of things. He had wrung just a hint of trust out of her as evidenced by the ugly rucksack crammed discreetly in a corner of the room. Plus he had nearly convinced her that going with him was a great idea even though she wasn’t completely sure it was the right thing to do. His first reaction at her belief that men were bastards was to throttle every man who‘d ever given her cause to feel that way and the second was to immediately disabuse her of whatever hero status she had bestowed on him.

Now though, he felt - better. And not just better because he wasn’t sick any more. This kind of better seemed deeper. He even felt stabs of joy at the idea that once he got her to agree to his plan they’d have several long days together in his truck as they made their way southwest. Time enough for him to enjoy the sound of her seductive voice. He squashed the surge of happiness that reared its surprising head and pushed away everything except satisfaction at how things were turning out.

That satisfaction came at a cost however as the inner voice of his conscience growled at his rejection of the obvious fact that he shouldn’t be doing any of this. Everything about his fair damsel-in-distress screamed innocence and he should know better.
Screw knowing better
.

Hours later, after the snack bar food and a long hot shower, Cameron insisted he was feeling human and in command of himself once more. He suggested they drive to a fancy hamburger joint on the outskirts of town, near ground zero for the hordes of credit card toting tourists who stopped along the way to shop while enjoying the fall scenery tours. It didn’t take much for Lacey to give in to his suggestion because she wasn’t a complete idiot and realized he would just keep at her until he got exactly what he wanted. He was one of those types of men and oddly, though she normally avoided alpha types like the plague, she rather enjoyed taking a backseat to his decision-making. It made her feel special somehow.

His truck, while slightly rough around the edges on the outside, was a modern, state-of-the-art vehicle on the inside. Behind the tinted windows she found herself seated comfortably on a plush leather seat watching silently as he punched in an address to the on-board GPS and adjusted the satellite radio to an oldies station. She tried not to react like a kid on Christmas morning but she really couldn’t help herself, turning this way and that in the comfortable passenger seat. Noticing the cooler in the cab behind their seats, a stack of books at her feet, and a funny looking bobble-headed dog perched on the dashboard. While the cab of the truck was big, he was bigger, and no amount of extra space was going to keep Lacey from being deliciously aware of how he smelled after his shower or how strong and capable his hands looked where the gripped the steering wheel.

She’d retreated into silence as the afternoon and early evening ticked by, feeling slightly lost and uncertain about what to do next. He wasn’t exactly being a chatty Cathy either seeming to prefer his own thoughts to actual conversation. When he suggested they leave the motel to grab some dinner she let him sweep her along with the least amount of discussion possible. She had questions, a million of them, but long held habits kept her from asking too much. For now she would see where this unexpected change of events would take her, and him.

The gourmet burger restaurant was packed with a line out the door when they arrived, forcing the two unlikely companions to place a take-out order rather than wait an eternity to be seated. Lacey was silently relieved because noticing how most of the women were dressed made her acutely self-conscious about her ratty appearance. Still dressed in Cameron’s extra-large sweatshirt, she was sporting worn jeans that were at least a size too large for her and a pair of sneakers that had seen better days. He was the sort of man who would be the center of every female’s attention in whatever space he occupied and the last thing she needed was for the bitchy negativity she’d be subjected to by being at his side. Once again she thought of the supermodels he probably dated and the sophisticated, modern women he was most likely acquainted with. Suddenly, she felt like the cleaning lady.

Cam wasn’t surprised by her silence. He could hear her thoughts in her body language. She was clearly insecure about how she looked. He marveled at how women’s minds worked and spent several long minutes pensively considering the obvious fact that she didn’t recognize her own beauty. He, of course, was looking beyond the thrift store clothes and focusing only on the fresh-faced attributes that made her so appealing and unusual. Wondering at the sort of transformation she might go through when her existence became less and less fraught with anxiety, Cam hoped she wouldn’t lose any of that all-American, girl-next-door quality she radiated in spades.

When their meal was ready it took but a few short minutes to pay the bill and get back on the road. With the music from a station playing eighties rock in the background, they drove along without talking until Cam suddenly blurted out what was on his mind.

“We’ll spend the night at the motel and then head out mid-morning. Is that okay with you, Lacey? Will you need to stop anywhere before we leave or are you ready to get going?” he asked without taking his attention off the road.

She didn’t answer right away so he kept talking over the silence. “It will take about a week, maybe less, to get to Arizona. With so many miles to cover I don’t drive till I drop each day. I aim for a couple of hours each morning with a break for lunch and some physical activity and then drive for a few more hours before stopping for the night. That way I’m not totally ragged out by the time the trip is over. Sound okay to you?”

“I haven’t said I’d go with you Cameron,” she reminded him softly.

Not normally used to justifying anything to anybody much less this slip of a girl barely out of her teens, Cam spoke his mind in no uncertain terms. “Well Ponytail, I’m not taking no for an answer. I get that you’re being cautious but if you really think about it, you’ll see that I’m offering everything you’ve ever wished for. A chance for a fresh start, a job, and a life that has a future.”

It got quiet again after that and stayed that way all through their shared meal back at the motor lodge. After checking up on her injured arm and finding it healing nicely, Lacey grabbed her backpack and made a beeline for the laundry room at the rear of the snack bar. This left Cam to putter aimlessly, tossing belongings in his bag and generally straightening up the room where he’d been staying for the last ten days.

Try as he might to dismiss the Ponytail from his thoughts and just get on with the business at hand, he found himself fantasizing about what it would be like to spend hours each day alone with her in the confines of his truck. When she returned a short time later having laundered her meager belongings, he was struck again by her fresh-faced appeal and the way she tried so fucking hard to be invisible. He was of the general opinion that most women were high-maintenance while this one seemed hell bent on being just the opposite. He was curious to find out what circumstances in her life led her to the predicament she was in and hoped he got the opportunity to find out more about her. Somehow she’d managed to avoid saying whether she’d go with him or not, a thought that didn’t please Cam one bit.

When the time came for lights out he tried to talk her into sleeping on the bed while he took the sofa but she would have none of it. He was too big for the sofa, she primly reminded him. Throwing herself down on the sofa with her back to him, Cam could only stand there slack-jawed at how neatly she had settled that sticky situation.
Damn but she was good
, he thought as his head eventually hit the pillows on the motel room bed. He didn’t know what had made him try for chivalry by offering her the bed since such gestures weren’t a part of his normal repertoire. His final thought before sleep overtook him was of what she was wearing underneath the hundred sizes too big t-shirt she slept in and whether she changed from the no nonsense white panties into something with less fabric and more lace.

Cam slept like the dead and awoke later than usual the next morning. He’d been dreaming about the Ponytail just before he came to wakefulness. Her indecision the night before had left him feeling grumpy and out-of-sorts. Not like him at all.

He’d decided in a superficially dreamy way that if she didn’t want his help then fine. Screw her. He didn’t need a freckle-faced twenty-something to slow down his roll. In that time-out-of-time between dreams and reality, Cam had reasoned she couldn’t possibly be as inside his head as he feared. If she wanted to go on her way, he would happily drive her to the bus depot and be done with it. After all, he didn’t play the white knight for anyone – especially not a woman. He had more important things to do than babysit a blonde ponytail with a ratty backpack.

The second his eyes popped open however a different reality set in. It took less than two heartbeats to realize he was alone in the motel room.
What the fuck
. He wondered if she had actually bolted in the night. Regret and a sense of loss made his chest burn. He’d blown it with her. Came on too strong, and tried to boss her around.

Jumping to his feet Cam set off across the room to grab his clothes so he could go out and find her.
Wait a minute
. What? Go find her? Where had that thought come from? Hadn’t he just decided he was better off without her?