Justified

by Jay Crownover

  I thanked the deputy for letting me use his radio and strode purposely toward the school. I needed to see my kid. Needed to let him see me because I was sure he was worried sick. When I got to the principal’s office, it was chaos. Teachers were screaming, the phones were ringing off the hook, and several of my officers were trying to keep the peace. In the midst of it all, I could hear my son screaming at the top of his lungs to be let out of the office. He was pounding on the door so hard the wood was shaking in the frame. The principal apologized for keeping him locked in the room but told me it was his only option when Hayes had tried several times to leave the school. The first time was when the first shots went off. The second time, he tried to go after the girl who’d slipped past everyone and ran directly into danger. All I could do was thank the staff for keeping my kid safe. At the end of the day that was all that mattered to me.

  When the door to the office was opened, my six-foot-three, 180 pounds of solid-muscle son fell into my arms like a five-year-old. He took one look at the blood on my face and started to sob into my chest. I shut the door so he could have his moment, assuring him I was fine and that his mother was okay. It took a solid minute for him to catch his breath and compose himself.

  When those eyes, which were the same as mine, finally cleared, I knocked my forehead against his while squeezing the back of his neck and warned, “You know better than to try and leave a secure location when there’s an unknown threat.” We talked about it all the time. I was proud of his bravery, but he was also in so much damn trouble.

  “Sheriff.”

  I looked up as the door opened and the same female officer who brought Hayes’s little friend back into the school stuck her head in the room. “Special Agent Gamble said to tell you Mrs. Barlow isn’t answering either her cell phone or the office phone.”

  I swore under my breath and nodded. “Thanks.”

  That wasn’t good. Not good at all.

  Chapter 19

  Aspen

  My mother made a disgusted face and looked down her nose at me.

  For a brief second, I swore every single important moment in my life flashed before my eyes. I saw everything I wanted a chance to redo, and all the right steps I’d taken to finally get the job, guy, and life I wanted. It was a good life, one I wanted to make better, to do more with. One I wasn’t giving up without a fight. There was no way I was going to let this woman, who never gave me anything, take everything from me. I was done being nothing more than a means to an end to her.

  I clearly remembered the phone call in which she’d harassed me for over an hour about changing the beneficiary on all my accounts over to her after I told her I was leaving David. At the time I was almost foolish enough to believe she was supporting my decision to walk away from my marriage in some small way. Little did I know she was putting deadly, dangerous wheels into motion. I felt like I should’ve known better.

  I watched, horrified, as her finger twitched on the trigger. The cup of coffee in my hand jolted, sloshing hot liquid on my still healing fingers. I hissed at the burn, but my mother didn’t notice. She was too busy trying to figure out why the weapon in her hand didn’t fire. It appeared that Jethro Coleman had provided her with a gun but hadn’t bothered to explain how to use it. She’d never embraced being a Texan when she lived here. If she had, she might’ve known the first thing she should’ve done when she pulled the weapon was check to make sure the safety was off.

  When my fingers tingled in irritation I looked down at the coffee she had passed off. With all her attention on getting the gun to work, there was a limited window of opportunity for me to get out of the building before she figured out the safety. Even if she had no clue how to shoot, at such close range, the likelihood of her missing some vital part of my anatomy was slim.

  Catching my breath, I pushed off the wall and moved closer to where my mother was hovering in the middle of the room. Her head jerked up, and the gun snapped back in my direction. I had no clue if she had figured out how to take the safety off, and I wasn’t going to wait around and find out.

  With a flick of my wrist, I sent the mug and hot liquid flying in my mother’s direction. My aching fingers were proof that the coffee was still hot enough to scald. My aim must’ve been on the money because I heard my mother shriek as I shouldered past her and barreled my way to the glass front door. Luckily I’d been so distracted by her sudden appearance I hadn’t locked it after letting her inside. The impact when my shoulder hit the glass as I stumbled into it jarred my teeth together. My hands shook violently as I pushed the heavy door open, and I was lucky I stayed on my feet because my knees felt like they were made out of water and my ankle still wasn’t 100 percent.

  The warm air from outside rushed by, and so did a platoon of police cars. The sound of multiple sirens screaming was deafening as the entire sheriff’s department raced down Main Street. The sound was loud enough that not one of the cars stopped when the glass door shattered behind me as I bolted for the sidewalk. Instinctively I lifted my arms and covered my head, ducking down, eyes searching for someone to realize what was going on. The gunshot was muffled by the sound of sirens, but I heard it because it was uncomfortably close. It seemed Mom had figured out the safety.

  “Aspen!” My name was a shrill sound that made my skin crawl.

  The woman really had gone off the deep end if she thought I was going to stand still and make myself an easy target while letting her put a bullet in me. I’d survived her hired gunman for weeks, and he actually knew what he was doing. There was no way in hell I was going to give up now. Not when I had a future with Case in front of me. And not with the possibilty of building the family I’d always wanted with him and Hayes on the horizion. My lunatic of a mother wasn’t snatching any of the beautiful possibilites I now had away from me.

  I waved my arms wildly around my head and screamed for help at the top of my lungs, but none of the patrol cars stopped. Vaguely, I thought I heard a loud, repeated popping sound coming from the direction of the high school, but there was no time to stop and figure out what was going on elsewhere in town. I had my hands full with what was happening here and now.

  I jumped and tripped over my own feet as the newly replaced window to my office exploded seconds after I ran past it. Mom didn’t follow me outside when I ran, but she was still taking shots as I ran frantically past the big windows that covered the building and faced the street. I wasn’t sure where the bullet ended up, but a car alarm on the street started wailing loudly. I couldn’t imagine my mother was crazed enough to try and shoot me down in cold blood in the middle of Main Street, but then again I never would’ve guessed she hated me enough to hire someone to kill me either. I just needed to get out of her line of sight and call for help.

  I hobbled into an uneven run, planning on darting into the first open storefront I came across. But before I could duck for cover, a familiar lime-green Jeep rounded the corner and came flying down the street. Kody was driving twice the speed limit, a cloud of dust kicking up around her tires as she raced in the same direction all the patrol cars had gone. Luckily she caught sight of me trying to desperately flag her down. The Jeep came to a screeching halt in the middle of the road, and Kody stuck her head out of the window as I jogged toward the vehicle.

  “What’s going on?” Kody ran her eyes over my disheveled form and frowned. I was panting and quivering like a leaf when I collapsed into the passenger seat of the Jeep.

  “My mother is trying to kill me for insurance money. She’s the one who hired Jethro Coleman to take me out, but she got impatient and decided to do the job herself.”

  “Oh my God! Coleman just shot up the front of the high school. I was going to make sure Hayes and Case are okay. Every cop in town is on their way to the school. Case has to be out of his mind with worry. He’s going to blow a gasket when he hears about your mom on top of this.” Kody turned her head just as another bullet exited the office window. It was a good thing my mother had no aim. The bullet went w
ide, harmlessly hitting the asphalt a few feet in front of the Jeep.

  Kody swore and turned so she could search for something on the floorboards of the back of the Jeep. “I thought my old man was a piece of work, but I think you win when it comes to having the worst parent in the history of parents.”

  I really did. This situation was unbelievable.

  “Kody!” I gasped when she straightened, holding a scary-looking shotgun clasped in her hand. “What are you doing?” She couldn’t possibly be getting ready to turn downtown Loveless into the O.K. Corral…could she?

  She kicked open the door to the Jeep and climbed down to the street. She barely glanced over her shoulder at me when she cocked the shotgun with an intimidating click and lifted it in her hands. I yelled and jumped a foot in the air when she fired the gun, blasting out the rest of the window to my office.

  “Didn’t learn much from my daddy other than how to be mean and how to shoot back when someone takes a shot at me. I’m not letting anyone else get the upper hand again. I was pissed when we got run off the road. I’m beyond angry my brother got shot because of that lunatic woman in there.” She kept a tight hold on the shotgun and took a few steps toward the office building.

  “Kody!” I scrambled across the front of the Jeep, practically falling on my ass when I launched myself out of the abandoned driver’s side of the vehicle. I caught her shoulder as she lifted the gun once again when there was movement by the destroyed window. I would be heartbroken if anything happened to her because she was trying to protect me. Those Lawtons, their hearts were too big. They were always trying to stand between me and all the bad things following me around. I wasn’t sure what I’d done in this lifetime to deserve that kind of loyalty, but I knew I would never take it for granted.

  Kody was breathing hard, and she was also shaking. I didn’t think her vibrations were from fear like mine were, they felt like angry waves rolling outward. We watched as a small handgun came flying out through the empty window frame. It landed on the sidewalk a few feet away with a thud. My mother didn’t make an appearance but her haughty, “Don’t shoot. I give up,” drifted out toward us.

  “Do you think she has another weapon on her?” Kody cautiously dropped the barrel of the shotgun.

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so. She didn’t even know how to use that one. Her plan spiraled out of control, and she was desperate to salvage it. She was going to try and pin my murder on Coleman. She was going to double-cross him.”

  Kody snorted. “Stupid. He didn’t hesitate to shoot up a hospital and a school. How did she think she was going to elude him when he realized he wasn’t getting paid?”

  I shook my head. “She called him a redneck. She always hated this town and the people in it. She thinks she’s better than everyone, that she deserves more. I doubt she considered Coleman coming after her, because she was counting on Case getting to him first. She was going to conveniently find my dead body in my office, and take the money from my life insurance policy.”

  Kody rolled her eyes. She opened her mouth to respond, but her response was swallowed up by the arrival of several police cars. I almost collapsed when I noticed Case climbing out of one of them. His eyes were wild. His hair was standing up all over the place. He had streaks of blood on his cheek and on his hands. He looked slightly more than worse for the wear, but he was still a sight for sore eyes. I barely registered Kody stiffening next to me, her gaze locked on the tall man exiting the other side of the car as Case rushed toward both of us.

  When Case’s arms wrapped around me, the world that was spinning wildly out of control finally righted itself. I could feel his heart racing and the fine tremble quaking through his big body. I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my face in the center of his chest after whispering, “My mother just tried to kill me.”

  I wasn’t sure if he heard me or not because Kody’s voice was loud and sharp as she yelled, “What are you doing here, Gamble? How long have you been in town? Case, did you know he was here?” Each question was shrill and rose in volume as she spat out one after the other. “Don’t even think about touching my shotgun, Hill. It was self-defense. That crazy woman in Aspen’s office fired blindly out into the street. I was well within my rights to fire back.” Kody was always excitable and dramatic, but this was the first time I’d heard her sound nearly hysterical.

  “Is Hayes all right? What happened at the school?” I clutched handfuls of Case’s shirt in my hands, not sure I was going to be able to let go of him.

  “Hayes is fine. Coleman is not.” His voice was a deep rumble at the top of my head. I felt his lips lightly touch my hair. “Is your mother still inside the office? I need to take her into custody.”

  I nodded, forehead bumping against his sternum. “She hired Coleman. She manipulated David as a smoke screen. All for money.” I couldn’t keep the hurt and disgust out of my voice.

  Case gave me a tight squeeze, and I felt another kiss on the top of my head. “They call it the root of all evil for a reason.”

  I sighed and forced myself to let go of the death grip I had on him. I blinked up at him, lifting a hand so I could lightly brush my fingertips over his cheek. “I can’t believe it’s finally over.”

  Case grinned at me, blue eyes crinkling at the sides, teeth flashing in his handsome face. “Yeah, but we’re just getting started.”

  I’d never looked forward to anything more.

  Chapter 20

  Case

  It took hours and hours to answer all the questions and fill out all the reports surrounding the events of both shootouts. That was a lot of bullets flying in my normally sleepy town, so the media had descended in droves. They just complicated matters even more. By the time I managed to leave the office I was running on fumes.

  Luckily I’d been able to send Hayes home with Aspen after he saw for himself his mom was okay, and after Aspen had given a very detailed statement as to what went down with her mother. I couldn’t leave, but Aspen jumped in to take care of Hayes. I was glad my son had Aspen to lean on while I was tied up with red tape and never-ending interviews. Neither one of them needed to be alone right now, and they were both strong enough to lean on each other and not collapse.

  My ex was good and shaken up over the break-in. I hoped that maybe she’d finally gotten the wake-up call she so desperately needed that life was too short to take advantage of the people who mattered most. She’d actually sounded terrified when she asked about Hayes, and she started crying when I informed her that he was unharmed. For the first time since we were teenagers, her tears seemed real.

  Aspen’s mother refused to say anything, simply asking for a lawyer and stonewalling anyone who tried to question her. I was going to put the woman away for as long as I could. I wanted her to rot behind bars.

  Watching my son help Aspen into his truck so he could take her home solidified the need to keep her under my roof. She belonged with us. She was ours to take care of and to love. She filled up all the empty spaces I hadn’t realized were there until she broke through all the barriers that I had put in place to protect my heart after my divorce. I needed to move on asking her to stay with us. Asking was a lot less scary than the thought of losing her for good.

  However, tackling my love life had to take a backseat to getting my town back to a secure safe place. Every Coleman in a hundred-mile radius had shown up demanding answers I didn’t have about Jethro’s involvement in the school shooting. Shot Caldwell was also sitting in an interrogation room, cool as a cucumber while Hill questioned him about his whereabouts for the day. The president of the motorcycle club was a decorated sniper back in his marine days. It was common knowledge the man was deadly when he wanted to be. He was also way too smart to implicate himself in a murder, no matter how justified the kill might be. Skill and smarts were how the Sons of Sorrow had thrived in Texas since they’d moved their chapter here. Shot seemed completely unbothered by the interrogation, which annoyed Hill to no end.

 
The Texas Ranger had been on edge since the showdown on Main Street with my little sister. Hill was one of the most reserved, logical, and stoic men I’d ever met. However, it took fewer than five minutes in Kody’s company for him to turn into a grumpy, snarling, short-tempered beast. My sister seemed to thrive on pushing the man’s buttons, and surprisingly Hill let her. It was an interesting dynamic, but being all riled up didn’t get Hill anywhere with the biker. In fact, Shot’s attorney, some woman from Austin, in a two-thousand-dollar suit had him released within a few hours of us picking him up for questioning. Hill was annoyed, which might have had more to do with the fit my sister threw when she heard we were bringing the biker in for questioning.

  It was obvious she was closer to Shot Caldwell than any of us thought, and that knowledge turned Hill into a brooding, sullen asshole. I, on the other hand, had a hard time being pissed off that the man was walking free. Eventually, if there was proof Shot was the one who took out Coleman and saved my ass, then I would do my duty and arrest him. But, as long as there was zero evidence tying the man, and his club, to the shooting, I was just going to count my lucky stars I was getting to go home to my kid and my lady when everything was said and done.