Absolute Valor (Southern Justice #3)

by Cayce Poponea

  “The citizens of Charleston will not soon forget the horrendous fire which broke out in a residential home three weeks ago. Experts from across the state were called in to help local investigators find the cause of such an intense blaze. In a statement released today, fire officials report the fire broke out in the dining area of the home where a number of propane containers were found. With the history of numerous drug arrests at the home and the type of accelerants found, authorities are ruling this a meth lab explosion. The remains of three men were also found in the rubble; twenty-six year old Lucas Campbell of Charleston, forty-two year old Clifford Campbell, also of Charleston, who had been released from jail on a parole violation charge and twenty-four year old Kevin Winters, who was wanted in several cities for fraud, also known on the streets as Largo. The discovery of meth labs have increased in the last few years according to reports. The making of the drug, as we all know by now, is an extremely dangerous operation with tragic results. Up next…”

  Turning back to the motor, the memory of setting up the dining room was in the forefront of my mind. Kakos had shown me how to use ordinary chemicals to create hidden explosives. I’d watched him take a number of chemicals and mix them together, standing back and watching what the mixture would do. When I saw the different bottles against the floor, I knew in an instant what I would be leaving behind. Our system had failed women like Audrey, slapping douche bags like Lucas on the wrist and giving them the opportunity to do the crime all over again. With him gone, she could walk down the street without fear of him pulling up in his truck, harassing her into giving him her last dime. Setting her free had been worth it, even if it meant being free of me as well.

  “I never got to say thank you.”

  Gasping, I dropped the socket wrench in my hand, spinnin in the direction of the voice. Audrey stood with her purse over her shoulder, hair down with the ends curled. Her skirt was shorter today, touching the tops of her calves instead of her ankles. She had purchased a new sweater, pale pink with white buttons. She was still so beautiful.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” She said, a hint of glee in her voice which matched the pride in her eyes.

  “You’re fine, I’m just distracted, that’s all.” I returned, admitting someone got the jump on me was like admitting I’d fallen asleep on watch.

  “I never said thank you for that night, for sending Grace to me.” Stumbling over the word ‘sending’. I’d hurt her, I’d broken my promise and hurt her.

  Placing my hands on my hip, I turned in her direction. “It was the right thing to do, something I would have done for anybody in your situation.” The words like acid on my tongue. What is wrong with me? Why can’t the right words come out when she’s around me?

  She nods her head twice as she glances quickly to the floor and back. “I know. It’s the definition of a hero; giving selfishly of yourself for the benefit of others. Just because the uniform came off, doesn’t mean it changes who you are inside.”

  She didn’t give me an opportunity to correct her as she left the room just as quietly as she entered. I’m no hero, not by a long shot. I’m a fucked up man, who’s in love with a girl he feels the need to push away, punishing her for a crime she didn’t commit.

  Crossing the room to retrieve my phone, I press my speed dial and wait for my friend to answer. Leaning against the counter, I have the perfect view of her desk. Audrey always leaves her office neat as a pin, not a paper remains when she waves good-bye. Her tiny picture frame, on the corner of her desk, holds a selfie of her and Grace in a park. The masochistic side of me took a shot of it with my phone so I have something to look at as I sit alone in my room every night. It’s a constant reminder of how badly I fucked this up.

  “Hey, Morgan! When did you get back to the states?” Slash has been my friend since high school and owns the tattoo shop not far from here. He’s the only guy I’ve let ink me.

  “Hey, Slash, you busy?” The line is quiet for a second, I imagine him searching the room looking for the appointment book he never uses.

  “Nah, man. Come on over.”

  I jump on my bike, something I haven’t done since Audrey was on the back in Florida. I needed to remember what it was like to have her wrapped around me, touching me in the pool and laughing at my stupid antics. It had been so hot that day, yet she never complained about her hair, or the sweat which poured off her. She was content to be with me, happy to be included with the family. My stupidity and insecurities destroyed everything we had built in that short time. I was no better than Lucas at crushing her hopes and dreams.

  Slash’s shop hadn’t changed since the last time I let him work on me. His music was still loud and his hair long—but the motherfucker had skills. “Well, if it ain’t the fucking Marines.” He joked as we slapped each other backs in a man hug.

  “Not anymore, man, I got out a few months ago.”

  Slash closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’ve done enough of you guys to know that shit ain’t true. Once a Marine, always a Marine. Now, what are we doing?”

  I’d always appreciated the straightforward attitude he possessed, leave your bullshit at the door kinda guy. “I’m gonna need another star.” Recognition flashed in his eyes. He knew the meaning behind the three stars around my insignia. We’d had long conversations about why it was important to remember a nameless man.

  “Well, Morgan. Every tattoo has a story, let’s hear this one.” Waving his hand in the direction of his chair, I strip off my shirt as I followed him. The cold leather feels good against my back, the temperature outside still hadn’t cooled off, even with the setting sun.

  “You back for good, or is this a stop along the way?”

  “Home for good this time, opened a shop of my own actually.”

  “Same star as last time?” Black gloves cover his fingers, reminding me of the pair Austin tried to shove at me. I needed a reminder of the type of man Lucas was. Something to always remind me of the type of man I never want to become. He didn’t deserve the same recognition the other three had. They were taken from acts of war, where Lucas was an execution for crimes he committed.

  “No, this one is different.” I paused, searching for the right words which would leave him in the dark, yet make what I wanted perfectly clear. “I did something incredibly stupid by breaking a girl’s heart, without intending to.” I shake my head, trying to get her last words out of my head.

  “Well, tell me what I’m going to do and then you can tell me what you did”

  Once the design was agreed upon, I laid back once again and told him the highlights of what had happened. I left out how I shot a man in the balls for talking trash about the girl I’m in love with, and then killed him good and proper for all the shit he pulled. I couldn’t very well tell him, ‘hey you know that fire a few weeks ago? Yeah, that was me’. Nope, couldn’t tell him any of that.

  “Has she moved on yet? Gotten a new boyfriend?” His question crushed me. In all of my moping and avoiding, I hadn’t thought about another man touching my Audrey, or, heaven forbid, little Grace calling some other swinging dick Daddy.

  The other night when I was looking at their photo on my phone, I remembered how Lucas had taunted me when he said he would always be her father. Grace will never know the cruel and horrible man who helped give her life. She’ll never feel the pain of knowing he refused her time and time again, using her as a pawn to get what he wanted from her mother.

  “No.”

  “Have you been following the rules; sending her flowers, calling her phone?”

  “No, but she ain’t like that. I tried to pay her electric bill for her and at first she didn’t take it well, but I thought she had gotten over it. The other day, after I’d shown her how stupid I was, I found a deposit in my bank account for the exact amount of the bill. See, she does the payroll for my shop and—” Just like a mule kicking me in the gut, I realized what I’d done; I’d questioned her loyalty due to her association with Ginny and
Lucas. Yet, she had access to all of our accounts from the beginning, and instead of robbing me blind, she deposited over a grand into my account.

  “And?” Slash waited, his eyes peeking up at me over the top of his round glasses.

  “And I’m a fucking idiot, she didn’t change, I fucking did. Me and my goddamn pride changed because of some cunt who screwed me seven ways to Sunday, and not in the way I wanted her to.” I was so pissed at myself for allowing my fucking pride to cloud my judgment and close off my heart to her.

  Slash pushed back his chair as he pulled his gloves off. “You know what, Chase?” He adjusted his glasses, and then crossed his arms over his chest. “When I wanted to open this place, I had no clue how to apply for permits or hire an accountant. All I knew was how to turn on that gun and draw a great picture on a man’s skin.” Rising to his feet, he pulled the hand mirror from beside his station and handed it to me. “But when your granddaddy offered to help me, he told me something I’m going to share with you now.”

  He motioned to the finished tattoo before he spoke any further. The star was exactly what I’d asked for; a little larger than the other three with an outline around the edges. Enough of a difference that I would always remember the day I did it.

  “God gives us men a big enough throat to swallow our pride. You have to be willing to choke a little as you wash it down.”

  “You gonna ask Audrey to the low country boil?” Dylan was acting weird, not the typical crass asshole he usually is when Claire isn’t around.

  “Don’t have to, Momma already invited her.” I’d been trying to get a feel for Audrey, see if her hatred for me had lessoned any. So far, she was holding tight to the anger I’d created. “Besides, I already told you I need time to figure my shit out.”

  Austin and Lainie had arrived home a few days ago and momma had invited the close family to a dinner at her house. Audrey called her the day before and politely declined, saying Grace had been running a fever and she didn’t want to expose anyone to whatever she was fighting off.

  Of course I got an earful of how the baby is exposed to all kinds of germs, now that she’s going to daycare instead of playing beside her mother where she belongs. Momma had come by the shop the following Monday to ask Audrey and Grace to have a girls day with her. Again, Audrey declined, claiming she had already made plans and couldn’t break them. Not surprisingly, this earned me a tongue lashing and a crying momma, the latter bothered me more than the chunk of ass she took away.

  “No, you need to pull your dick out of your ass, have it checked out, and then start listening to it.” Ah, the return of the crass dick.

  “Listen, Chase, girls like Audrey don’t come around twice. You need to get over the shit Ginny pulled. Ginny, not Audrey, and show her some fucking respect, pull out her chair and open her door. Because you know what?” He poked his finger into my chest, inching his face so close to mine I could see the pores on his nose. “You wait too long and someone else will.”

  Dylan pulled back once he’d made his point. Audrey had to take the baby to the doctor when she started crying in the middle of the night and pulling at her ears, so this was the perfect opportunity for him and Austin to gang up on me.

  “Up to you, Chase,” Austin took his turn, arms crossed in the same stance Dylan had. “You can go find yourself and watch as she rides off into the sunset on the back of some other cowboy’s horse.” Standing shoulder to shoulder with Dylan, both of them standing firm.

  “Or you can be the cowboy she rides until the sun comes up.” Dylan finishes, not a hint of teasing in his voice. “But you should know, Momma invited Jackson Siever to the party. You remember him, big guy, with a great job and better looking than you.”

  Jackson Siever was the pitcher for our high school baseball team. Pro scouts came and offered him lots of contracts, but he preferred to play for the love of the game. His sister, Darcy, took Dylan for a spin a few times. He had a girlfriend, Becky, all through school. Everyone had assumed they would get married and have thirty-two kids. But after law school, he came back here, bought a farm outside of town and a nice bike from us not long ago. I’d seen him making eyes at Audrey, but she was oblivious to it. Maybe she would continue to not notice him and Austin and Dylan would be proven wrong.

  “You decide. The party’s this weekend, though.” Dylan slapped me twice on the back. “But I’m sure she’ll back out and not come.” His sarcastic tone caused my heart to dip into my belly.

  “Anyway, we need to get going.” Dylan, twirling his index finger in a circle, indicating us. “Kitty said they can only hold off taking any cases for ten minutes before the county calls.”

  Dylan had called Austin and I last night, letting us in on his plan to ask Claire to marry him. He wanted to do it in the place where their relationship really took off, so he had called in a number of favors. Including about thirty officers and an ambulance.

  His plan was to radio in a mass casualty with multiple critically ill people on board the ambulance. Only he would be in the back of the ambulance on one knee, a diamond in hand. The officers, who arrived with the ambulance, would break out in a serenade after she said yes. Our role was to be with him, since he felt she would be marrying the family, not just him and to get the whole thing on video so they could show their grandchildren.

  Everyone parked in the garage across from the hospital. Dylan had changed into the jeans and boots he used to wear, including his star belt buckle. With the back of the ambulance covered in roses, and the future groom about to vomit when we got the call to move, we turned on the siren and drove toward the ambulance bay.

  Dylan rode the entire time with the ring in his hand and his left knee on the floor of the ambulance. I kept look out the window and let Dylan know Claire was standing in the awning with her yellow gown on, and her game face ready. As soon as we pulled into the bay, a multitude of police cars followed us in, parking in a way to block the entrance. Claire ignored the chaos as she took two steps toward the door and twisted the handle.

  “Claire Faith Stewart,” Dylan’s voice cracked as he squeaked out her name. Claire eyes went wide as she took in the scene before her, the officers gathered in behind the open doors of the ambulance, ready to sing the song which will have her laughing through her tears. “You gave me a reason to look inside myself, questioning the man I had become.” Her eyes never left Dylan’s as her trembling hands crept up slowly to cover her mouth.

  “You loved me for the boy I was and the man I’ve tried to be. Being your boyfriend has taught me the true definition of love and, if you’re willing, I’d like to know what it feels like to be your husband. Will you marry me?”

  Claire, having climbed in the ambulance, dropped to the floor with him, her arms circling his neck. Her tears were coming at such a rate she’s unable to do anything but nod. Dylan gives the thumbs up to his fellow officers, who begin singing a current chart topper about having cake at the beach. And like Dylan said, she began laughing, and he got his girl.

  Be the kind of woman who when her feet hit the floor, the devil says, oh crap she’s up.

  Priscilla sounded so broken when I cancelled on her the last time she’d invited me to the house. I didn’t lie to her exactly, Grace did have a fever, but it was due to a molar she was working hard on cutting. Lainie had visited me several times since she had returned from her honeymoon, showing me pictures of Claire’s engagement. She had also warned me not to cancel on this party as it was her reception, and she would never forgive me for it.

  The day before the party, Dylan pulled me to the side and said to wait for him after closing, said he had something he wanted to discuss with me. I worried one of the jobs I had applied for called him for a reference. While I was looking for something else, there were no jobs available that paid as well as Dylan did.

  “Audrey, you know I would never ask you to do anything to get you hurt or in trouble.” After work, and once Chase headed home, Dylan came into my office carrying a pink bag in hi
s hand. “I need you to do something for me at the party tomorrow.” Reaching his hand into the bag, he pulled out what looked to be a few scraps of clothing. “I need you to stay by Lainie and Claire and put this on.” He handed me the fabric, which felt heavy and thick in my hand. “There’s a pair of shorts in here, too. I need you to wear this until Claire tells you to remove it, okay?”

  Dylan left me sitting in my chair, my mouth open and eyes wide. Was he crazy? Asking me to wear less than underwear out in public, and especially around his parents. I drove home from picking up Grace from daycare, a place I really hated taking her to. She had been bitten by another little boy, and somehow managed to get gum in her hair last week. But until I could find another job, she would have to stay there since Chase made it clear she made him uncomfortable. Which was another reason I had both cancelled on Priscilla, and been looking for another job. No matter how much I had grown to care for him, I wouldn’t push myself, or Grace, into anyone’s life.

  In the weeks since moving into the cottage, Grace and I had fallen into a routine. As soon as we arrived at home, I would heat up dinner as she told me about her day. After we ate and had a bath, we would lay on the floor in my bedroom, while I gave her pieces of advice, or maybe it was a way of reinforcing my goals, hearing them said out loud.

  “Tomorrow, we are going to Miss Priscilla’s house, but we are only staying for a little while.” Grace laid on her back, her feet in the air as she reached for them. “You get to wear your new bathing suit and use the floaty Miss Molly gave you.” Some evenings, when it was especially hot, I would take Grace out to the pool we shared with Miss Molly. She would always be out there enjoying a mint julep and listening to music. The other day, she gave Grace a swimsuit with a floaty.