Justified

by Jay Crownover

  I shifted restlessly when he moved his attention to the neglected nipple on the other breast. I wanted to get closer but also push him back so I could watch what he was doing. I wanted the image of Case Lawton’s mouth all over my body burned into my brain for eternity.

  I shoved a hand down the length of his torso, my destination clear. I wanted his heavy silver belt buckle and the stiff denim out of the way. I wanted to feel his velvety soft shaft, slippery with pleasure sliding between my legs. I wanted his rock-hard abs pressing me into the bed as he took me over the edge. I wanted to hold on to flexing muscle as he rocked into me over and over again.

  I yelped in surprise when Case’s strong fingers wrapped around my wrist the minute they ventured below the little indent of his belly button. My eyes locked on his and my tongue darted out to taste my kiss-swollen lips.

  Case groaned, the sound full of frustration and regret. He dropped his forehead down, so it touched mine. “Aspen…” My name was a guttural sound that would have completely been a turn-on if it wasn’t for the apology I could see floating to the surface of his ocean-colored eyes.

  “I want you, but not like this.”

  I felt my mouth drop open, and I stiffened underneath his much bigger body. “Not like what?” Needy? Desperate? Out of control? I was only those things with him. He should be trying to take advantage of the effect he had on me, not hitting the brakes.

  “Still married to Barlow.” He sounded honestly pained, but it didn’t change the fact he promised to lead me somewhere beautiful and instead left me hanging high and dry.

  “I haven’t been intimate with David in over a year, and no one after him either. You know how hard I’ve been pushing for him to sign the divorce papers. This is you finding something else to hold against me that I have no control over, Case.” I pushed at his massive shoulders and tried to wiggle out from under him. Once again I was done with the emotional whiplash that came with caring about Case Lawton.

  He caught my flailing hands in one of his and pinned them above my head. “You’re wrong. This is me trying to do the right thing. I haven’t had a woman in my house or in my bed in years, Aspen. Nothing wrong with wanting to do right by the one I’ve got there now, the only one who’s mattered in a very long time. I’m not going to fuck another man’s wife, but I will wait for her.” My heart hammered against my ribs, and my pussy clenched in response to his smirk and raised an eyebrow that accompanied his next sultry promise. “And I’ll keep her happy, and make sure she’s taken care of while she handles getting rid of her excess baggage.” It sounded like a promise and a threat all wrapped up in one.

  Before I could ask for specifics, his mouth was back on mine, stealing away any protest I may have made as his hand disappeared under my panties.

  His mouth devoured mine as thick fingers parted wet folds and slid unerringly into the welcome heat of my body. The initial stretch and invasion made my back bow off the bed and had my body clamping down against the intimate pressure. My head tossed side to side, ripping my mouth free from his punishing kiss. Case took advantage of the jerky moment and send his lips skipping down the side of my neck. Each nibble, every caress made my body soft and pliant under his touch. His fingers dipped deeper inside of me, finally feeling that void I’d felt since our lives intersected and twined together.

  I gasped his name and dug my heel into the base of his spine when his thumb circled the overly sensitive nub of my clit. The sensation was like being electrified and had every nerve in my body lit up and alive.

  Case kissed his way across my collarbone, and down the valley between my breasts. His fingers never stopped moving in and out of my now drenched center, making obscene sounds that matched the low moans and rough murmurs filling the room.

  “Lift up.”

  I obeyed the rough command without a second thought. I barely had my hips arched off the mattress when impatient hands pulled my remaining clothes down my legs. My breath caught when he paused and took a moment to make sure my bad ankle didn’t get jostled around as he arranged me where he wanted me.

  I ended up with my legs hooked over his shoulders where he knelt by the side of the bed. I wanted to be embarrassed at how up close and personal he was getting with all my private places, but it was hard to feel anything but want and need when I felt the bristly brush of his cheeks against the inside of my thighs. His lips blazed a burning trail to all the intimate areas his fingers had thoroughly mapped out moments ago. I felt him drag the tip of his nose along the crease of my thigh and locked my fingers in his hair when I felt the first swipe of his tongue through my wet, willing flesh.

  My legs shook next to his head, and I heard him chuckle in satisfaction right before his lips closed around me and he sucked with enough force to scatter what was left of my mind in a million directions. I might have screamed. I may have pulled his hair hard enough to get a grumble of complaint out of him. I knew I thrashed under the tender assault because nothing ever felt as good as Case’s mouth on me at the same time he pushed back inside of me with his talented, dexterous fingers. It was sensory overload. The way everything felt and sounded. The way he looked so confident and right between my legs. The scent of sex and something earthy and manly that I would always associate with the man taking me apart.

  Case used the edge of his teeth to trap and then torture the tiny, aching little bundle of excited nerves he was lavishing attention on. At the same time, he twisted his wrist, driving his fingers deeper and hitting that spot I’d almost forgot existed.

  I saw white. A burst of light exploded behind my eyelids.

  “Case!” His name was wrenched out of me with a hoarse cry. “Don’t stop.” If this was his way of apologizing, maybe I didn’t mind arguing with him.

  It’d been a very long time since anyone had played my body so perfectly, and I’d never been with anyone who seemed to instinctively know exactly when and where to touch in order to make me forget who I was. My fingers tingled, and my toes twitched. I felt my body clench around his fingers, and a rush of warmth spread slowly with each thrust and wiggle. The orgasm wasn’t a slow spark that took a minute to ignite. No. It was an explosion that wrecked me and left me limp and shaking in Case’s very capable hands.

  “I think you made me actually see stars.” I couldn’t remember any other man who made me feel drunk off of sex and loopy in the aftermath. Case was intoxicating. It didn’t take much to imagine getting quickly addicted to his particular brand of distraction.

  I felt a wet kiss on the inside of my leg. “That’s just the start. You and me, we’ll be worth the wait. Trust me.” He sounded so confident I had no choice but to believe him.

  Chapter 14

  Case

  The next night, after a frustrating day of dealing with dead ends and no new prospects on Aspen’s case, a call came through that Shot and his boys had tracked down the SUV. However, Aspen was on her knees in front of me, and my cock happily nudging against the back of her throat when my phone rang, so I missed the call. The fact the car was abandoned and the driver gone was almost enough to zap the delirious haze of satisfaction she left me in. According to the biker, a second set of tire tracks near the vehicle indicated the driver ditched the car and already had a getaway driver waiting for them. I’d visited the Coleman brothers once again, but I had nothing to leverage against them, and they predictably alibied each other for the time of the car chase. Jethro seeming particularly smug about everything and was really rubbing in the fact I couldn’t touch either of them without evidence no matter how strong my suspicions were.

  Shot sounded as frustrated as I felt at having the best lead so far go nowhere. I was tired of the bad guys always being one step ahead and the threat on Aspen’s life continually growing. Now that I could openly admit to myself I had feelings for her beside resentment and anger, I wanted to put her under lock and key and make sure nothing ever touched her again.

  Frustration, and literally having nowhere else to turn, was the only reason I go
t up early the next morning and took the long, desolate drive out to my father’s property.

  The winding dirt road made me feel like I was traveling back in time. I remembered being so isolated out here, so far away from anyone who could help. It had felt like no one cared what living under Conrad Lawton’s cruel regime was like. The place and property had never been pretty or well maintained, but after my mother died it really went to shit. Dad didn’t care. This was his tiny, vicious kingdom and he never wanted anyone close enough to see past the carefully curated mask he wore for the people of Loveless. Sure, it was well known the patriarch of the Lawton clan was a tough taskmaster, a strict father, and an unbending disciplinary. All things that made him appealing as a no-nonsense lawman. What no one could see, since we were hidden away here on the outskirts of town, was the violence, the punishments, and the emotional torture. It was all done in the name of making sure we toed the line and didn’t disrupt the sweet gig Conrad had lording over the small Texas town.

  My father should never have been voted into his position as sheriff, and it shouldn’t have taken as long as it did to vote him out. Really, until I decided to play hardball with him and threatened to pull all the family skeletons out of the closet, he had no competition. No one was brave enough to take him on. Small towns feared change, and this one feared my father for far too long. I wanted to ask him for help almost as much as I wanted to do my own dental work with a pair of rusty pliers, but I needed someone with his particular connections. It wasn’t only the regular citizens who were daunted by Conrad Lawton, but the criminals also walked the other way when they saw him coming. My father had his finger on the pulse of every bad deed done in this county. He made more taking bribes from the bad guys than he ever did as a civil servant, and still made his living hustling and helping criminals break the law. It aggravated me to no end I could never catch him in the act.

  I parked in front of the old farmhouse. It had been in my father’s family for years. My dad learned his unforgiving ways at the hands of a master, and the lessons learned in the Lawton home were passed down from generation to generation. Luckily, we’d had my mother to finally break the cycle. Her love, her kindness, were enough for me and my siblings to see a better way. When my mother was still alive, she tried her best to make the place feel homey and bright, but all that remained of those efforts were the long-dead rosebushes and faded yellow paint.

  I pulled to a stop in front of the house and sat in the car, staring at the front door for a long time. It’d been years since I’d willingly walked through that door. It was never a good idea to try and negotiate with my father on his home turf. It was never a good idea to try and reason with him at all.

  The curtains ruffled in the front window, and I heard a dog bark. Well, now he knew I was here, and if I didn’t go to him, he would come to me. I steadied myself and slipped out of the car and stomped up the front steps. The old wood creaked under my boots, and the front door swung open before I could knock. My father propped himself on a shoulder on the entryway. His green eyes were always cool and assessing, and it never failed to unnerve me that we looked so much alike minus the eye color. Age had thickened him around the middle some, but he was still a large man, and I would never forget how heavy his fists were.

  “What are you doing out this way, boy? One of the damn neighbors complain about the dogs?” He narrowed his eyes and stroked his thumb along the side of his mouth. The move couldn’t be viewed as anything other than maniacal and menacing. “I’ll take care of it if they did…Sheriff.” Never had the title been spoken with more scorn.

  “No. Not here about the dogs. Came to ask you about some trouble going around town. I’m sure you’ve heard someone took some shots outside the hospital. You have any idea who might be up to taking such a stupid risk?”

  He stared at me silently for a long moment, and when he finally spoke, I felt like the little kid who was never fast enough to get away from him. “Was it really a risk? You don’t have anybody locked up, do you? Don’t have a clue who’s doing what under your watch. I’ll never understand why anyone thought you could do my job better than me.”

  I inhaled sharply and counted back from ten. Letting him antagonize me was exactly what he wanted. He always tried to drag me down to his level.

  “Women were tired of you not listening to them, so were the all the folks who just happen to be from somewhere else originally. You were supposed to protect and serve everyone, not just the people you decided were worthy.” It was a fact. I won the vote when I ran against him because all of the people he screwed over during his tenure finally decided to take a stand. I was lucky they realized it was my life’s mission to undo all the damage my old man had done. I hooked my thumbs on either side of my belt buckle and asked again. “So I’ll ask again, you hear anything I should know about, old man? Don’t think I won’t drag you down to the station if you decide to give me shit. We both know I’ll do it.”

  My father rolled his eyes at me and crossed his ankles like he didn’t have a care in the world. “How’s your sister? I heard she ran into some trouble on the highway and needed those bikers to rescue her. Where were you when someone was trying to run her off the road? You’re letting an outlaw biker gang do your job for you now?”

  I gritted my teeth and told myself he wanted me to hit him. But I knew I’d find myself neck deep in police brutality charges before I could blink.

  “The bikers were in the right place at the right time.” And I would be forever grateful. The last person I wanted to owe a favor was Shot, but it was too late for that. “And I was working. Like you so helpfully pointed out already, I still don’t have a suspect.”

  “Doesn’t it bother you that your baby sister is keeping company with a bunch of bikers? Do you know what she gets up to in that bar of hers? How do you look the other way, Mr. Straight and Narrow?” He was picking at every weak point I had. It was the world’s worst kept secret that Kody liked to run numbers out of the bar. Nothing serious, just a line on college and pro football during the season. She skirted the edge of being a full-on bookie by not handling the money directly. That’s why she knew Shot and the boys as well as she did. They handled all the dirty work so I didn’t have to toss my baby sister in the slammer.

  I sighed and tossed my head back so I was looking up at the sky. I had to put a hand on my hat to keep from losing it to gravity. Why did I think coming out here was going to get me anywhere? When had my father ever been helpful or given something without demanding more in return?

  “If she breaks the law, I’ll handle it just like I would if she was anyone else. So far, we haven’t had to cross that bridge. She’s an adult, one who fully understands actions have consequences. You’re the only Lawton left in town who thinks he’s above the law.” I kicked at the dusty ground and sighed again. “Sorry to bother you, old man. Not sure why I thought you might have the common decency to throw me a bone.” One of the dogs howled, and I could see why the neighbors might have an issue. I was sure they wouldn’t dare complain though. Not when those mutts belonged to Conrad.

  “It was a good shot, right? Would’ve hit the target dead center if you hadn’t dived in front of her?” The question caught me off guard, so I nodded mutely. “Town’s got a few skilled hunters and a couple decorated veterans. Only a handful of people aside from you could’ve made that shot. Most of them not against taking money and looking the other way.” He scoffed at me and pushed off the door. “If you didn’t have the intended victim in your bed, you might’ve figured that out for yourself, boy.” How he always knew what was going on behind everyone’s closed door would always remain a mystery to me.

  I narrowed my eyes and ran through a short list in my head. I narrowed my eyes at him and cocked my head to the side. “Your name could go at the top of that list.” He was one hell of a shot and had no morals to speak of.

  “Put my name on any list you want, Case. I’ll be dead and in the ground by the time you prove anything. Since you can’
t seem to do your job as the sheriff, do your job as a big brother and keep your sister out of trouble.”

  He put a hand on the door and was about to disappear back inside when I asked, “Why has Kody always been the only one you treat halfway human?”

  He cast me a blank look over his shoulder as he pulled the screen door shut. But then I heard him quietly say, “She looks just like your mother,” before disappearing back into the dreary house.

  Swearing under my breath, I stomped back to my SUV. I called the station and ordered twenty-four-seven surveillance on the Coleman brothers. I wanted them brought in if they so much as jaywalked. Jed knew how to handle a weapon, but Jethro enlisted around the same time I did. I knew from the years I’d worked alongside him at the station that he had zero morals, and it wasn’t hard to imagine the man taking money in exchange for a life, steadily moving him up the ladder of who was behind all of this. Jed needed Aspen out of the way to win his upcoming divorce battle. And Jethro was the type of big brother to go above and beyond for his family.

  Luckily, Jed wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box. It only took us a day of tailing him to catch him blatantly violating the restraining order his estranged wife had in place. My deputies arrested him as he was following the harassed woman into the grocery store. He screamed obscenities at her and threw a punch at one of my cops. I was more than happy to slap him with additional charges when we hauled him into the station. I let him sit and stew, not surprised at all when he demanded a lawyer as soon as he sat down in the interrogation room.

  I was, however, caught off guard when David Barlow showed up, looking harried and harassed, claiming Jed was his client. I should’ve looked for a connection between the two men before now, but it never occurred to me Jed could afford someone like Barlow to represent him. My dad was right. I was too close to the victim to see anything beyond keeping her safe. That fact grated on my last nerve.