Redeeming Justice

by Suzanne Halliday

  Carmen tried not to look surprised but failed miserably when she asked if she should open up the Casita where friends and family normally stayed only to hear him instruct her to put Meghan in a guest room in the family quarters. Near his room.

  And just like that he’d arranged for Meghan’s luggage to be brought from her car into the main house while she sat there slack jawed as he started issuing orders like the commanding officer he once was.

  Carmen scurried into the house to do her boss’s bidding; feeling rather pleased that he was doing something so uncharacteristic. He liked his solitude and his privacy. Not only was it unusual for him to invite anyone to stay over, it was twice as unusual for a guest to stay in the main house and not down at the Casita.

  The minute she made it into the kitchen she found Lacey and Tori dropping off a stack of paint chips for Alex to look at. The wives of his two Justice Brothers had convinced him that the offices and conference rooms needed some sprucing up and since he couldn’t say no to either woman, they were taking full advantage of the situation.

  “Hola Carmen,” Lacey trilled sweetly. “Cómo estás?”

  Carmen hugged both women and gave each of their tummies a little pat. At nearly seven months pregnant, Lacey Cameron glowed the way every happily expecting mother-to-be should. Not to be outdone though was Tori St. John. For being such a tiny thing, she was carrying her pregnancy like a champ but not without some difficulties. A few months behind Lacey, soon there would be two babies in the Justice Brothers family and no one could have been more delighted by the prospect than Carmen.

  Tori noticed that Alex wasn’t alone on the patio and asked what was up. Carmen grinned like a schoolgirl when she announced, “He’s got a guest. A woman.” The emphasis she placed on the word woman got the pregnant ladies dashing for the archway leading to the patio so they could check out what was going on.

  “Holy shit!” Tori giggled, peeking from behind a large antique pantry next to the doorway. “Quick, Lacey! Look. I think he’s smiling.”

  “Ehrmygawd!” Lacey laughed aloud. “Who is she?”

  Both sets of eyes turned on Carmen expecting an explanation of the situation.

  “Well, I’m not sure where she comes from but I do know her visit rattled the Meeester’s cage. She’s been here for a while. They had lunch together and talked. Next thing I know, he’s telling me she’s staying.”

  “Really?” Lacey asked. “Is she going to be in the Casita? I loved that little house,” she added dreamily as an afterthought.

  “Actually, no.” Carmen replied.

  “No?” the ladies chimed in unison.

  “What does that mean exactly?” Tori questioned. She’d been working as Alex’s assistant for months and anything outside his normal mode was going to pique her curiosity.

  “What that means ladies is this. Alexander Valleja-Marquez just instructed me to put her in a guest room in the hacienda. So what do you think about them oranges?”

  “It’s apples and I think flabbergasted covers it nicely, thanks,” Lacey mumbled looking at Tori with a sly smile. Suddenly, both women had a burning need to run home and see what their husbands were up to. Carmen laughed knowing the earful the other two Justice Brothers were about to get. Poor Alex.

  With Cam and Drae joyfully married and babies on the way, only Alex was still clinging to the ridiculous notion that he didn’t deserve to be happy. Carmen would never understand why any of them felt that way but she knew enough about their Special Forces experience to accept that dark shadows from the past sometimes made it hard to see the light.

  Meghan was astonished how quickly and easily Alex had maneuvered her into staying at the Villa. Truth was, she hadn’t been all that difficult to convince. At some point during their time on the patio she’d started feeling more than just a little bit drawn to the handsome man with the mussed hair and broad shoulders.

  She didn’t have a type, the way most women did. Maybe it was because she came from a family dominated by men that she had simple tastes when it came to the opposite sex. Alex Marquez hit so many high marks she didn’t know where to start.

  He was large which was a plus. As a healthy Irish girl with more curves than straight edges, she felt like a hippo next to men of average height who wore skinny suits and looked like they got the occasional facial. His athletic build turned her on, plain and simple. He was also well mannered and didn’t take himself all that seriously. More big pluses in the win column.

  And then there was the subtle undercurrent coming off him that made her think all kinds of wicked thoughts. He was what the girls referred to as a dominant. She could feel it in her bones. It wasn’t overt – more like an aura of control that really got to her. She bet he was the type of man who would simply say, get in my bed and a woman would eagerly crawl on hands and knees to comply.

  The room she’d been given was tucked behind the master suite in a section of the hacienda that retained it’s original rustic colonial character and was so far beyond charming that it needed its own descriptive word. When he’d walked her through the enormous house and up the wide stairway to the second floor, Alex had kept a light hand on her, just above the swell of her backside. The gesture made her senses tingle.

  As a card carrying Ball Busting Boston Bitch, she would be the last woman to get weak kneed over some big muscles and aristocratic manners. Right? Suddenly she didn’t know. He made her feel ridiculously female and that was saying a lot. Despite being a curvy girl and a gym teacher to boot, Meghan had always been über feminine, the result of being the only girl in a large family dominated by men. As a little girl most of her silly whims had been indulged. All outward appearances suggested she was a girly-girl. But it was that BBBB upbringing that made feeling small and female all the more surprising.

  “What do you think?” she heard him ask softly. They were standing across from the bed where Meghan was peering out a window aware that when she leaned forward, her derrière would be making a statement. A big one.

  What did she think? Wow. That was a loaded question. Think about what? How friggin’ good he smelled? Or maybe how she felt about the romantic room with beams across the ceiling, a corner fireplace surrounded by ancient stone, and a platform bed draped with rich-hued linens? Better yet- what did she think of her well laid plans to finally find some closure on the David chapter of her life? The Major exuded a fierce masculinity that made her forget why she was there in the first place. What in the hell was she doing?

  Turning to look at him she wasn’t in the least surprised to find him admiring her ass. And he didn’t flinch or pretend that wasn’t exactly what he’d been doing. It felt like a challenge in some way. Oh my God! Why was the thought so exciting?

  Coughing to clear away the sudden constriction in her throat, Meghan smiled unsteadily. “It’s so cool,” she gushed like a teenager. Oh for crap’s sake, she screamed in her head. Really?

  “Um, it’s really something is what I meant to say.” Okay, good. That sounded better. Maybe she could actually pull off pretending his presence didn’t turn her into a giggly twit.

  “The door to the bath is behind the fireplace in that corner,” he nodded with his head. “I know it’s small but I thought you might like the rustic feel.”

  “Are you kidding?” she joked. “You call this small? I think my childhood bedroom would fit in the closet! It’s perfect, Alex. Really. Thank you again for opening your home to me. I’m touched.”

  He smiled at her, and she saw the wicked glint come back into his eyes. Unless she was losing it, he was attracted to her. But she knew without question that he wouldn’t act on it. No. There was an ocean of water between where they were now and the end of that particular bridge, but it was reassuring to know she wasn’t alone in the unexpected attraction.

  “My guys will bring in the stuff you need from your car. If you want to get anything else, let me know. I don’t want you trying to lug anything up here.”

  He looked around and seemed a b
it uncomfortable like he didn’t know what to say or do. God, he was so adorable. She knew what he was feeling and wondered how she should respond.

  Yep. This was certainly an interesting position to find herself in. When the day started, she had plans to settle an old debt with an afternoon visit that would once and for all let her close a chapter in her life. Period. End of story. She expected to wake up tomorrow, and be ready to charge ahead.

  What she hadn’t expected was to not even get through the afternoon before life started throwing shit her way. And by throwing shit her way she meant putting one gorgeous hunk of a man in her line of sight. Unfortunately, she was her own worst enemy when it came to being careful—another by-product of keeping up with her brothers. Besides, careful didn’t seem to feel quite right in this situation. There was nothing common sensible or careful about what she was feeling.

  “Thanks again,” she told him as she leaned in to press a kiss on his cheek. It probably wasn’t necessary to lay a hand on his chest for balance, but she did it anyway. The heat coming off him was incredible. She bet he’d work up quite a sweat in bed. Something she wouldn’t mind licking off his body. Yum.

  When she touched her lips to his face he grabbed her other hand, holding it firm at her side. He was either going to pull her away and put some distance between them or he was holding her in place. A flood of heated moisture drenched her core when he held still, keeping her hand upon his chest and her body close to his for long seconds after the kiss ended. She swore he could hear her heart thumping—that was how loud it seemed in her head.

  Before releasing her he turned his face into her curls and breathed deep. She held her breath at the intimacy of the action.

  “I’m very glad you’re here Meghan O’Brien.”

  When she pulled back and looked at him, they were close enough to touch. She sensed his reluctance when he ran a trembling finger across her bottom lip. Disappointed that he hadn’t kissed her, Meghan thrilled when he dropped a quick smooch on her nose, squeezed the hand he still held and told her in a husky voice, “Very glad.”

  The minute Alex left his unexpected houseguest to get settled in, he headed for the tech cave where he could pretend to be busy while working out his thoughts about what was happening. There was no denying he was wildly attracted to the Irish beauty. Hell. When she bent over to look out the window he had to hold back from stepping up to rub his growing erection against her magnificent ass.

  But he also knew that acting on the lusty feelings she evoked was just not going to happen. Not in this lifetime, anyway. He didn’t do relationships. Even if once upon a time he’d envisioned finding a wife and starting a family, those days were long gone. Gone and buried many times over in the stench-filled, putrid remains of that motherfucking war. It would take all of this and possibly many more lifetimes to atone for the part he played during that time. Redemption was not certain, was in fact highly in doubt. Some things are just so fucked up that trying to make any sense is a waste of time.

  There was no good use in pretending that Meghan O’Brien wasn’t just about the most gorgeously sexy and desirable woman he’d known in his entire lifetime. He’d been without a woman for a while, but he knew without question his response to her wasn’t a case of simple horniness. It didn’t mean that he had to act on that desire though. Wanting to sink his dick into the fiancée of one of his dead soldiers was a step so far beyond what his conscience could take that it wasn’t funny. She was seriously off-limits. There was no fucking way he could handle anything less. He might be a bastard, but he wasn’t that messed up.

  Dammit. A drink was what he needed. Maybe a bunch of ‘em. Anesthetizing his brain was a priority if he hoped to avoid taking a long, slow trudge down memory lane. Somehow though he doubted he’d be lucky enough to keep all that shit at bay while she stayed at the Villa. Fuck. Even right this second he was blocking the visual memory of her fiancé, the guy his old squad nicknamed The Kid. It wouldn’t help to resurrect that particular ghost. Besides, there were plenty more where that one came from.

  A little while later his trusted assistant Tori, who was also conveniently the wife of one of his Justice Brother partners, wandered into the tech cave.

  “Hey Boss,” she hollered across the room. “Did you see the paint chips Lacey and I brought you or did you ignore them?”

  Alex eyed her as she scooted around stacks of hi-tech equipment making her way to his cluttered corner. Watching the little whirlwind, he had to admit that there was no mystery why Drae had fallen so hard and so fast for the feisty little woman. She was a piece of work, this one. Even though the two of them snarked at each other from time to time, her unabashed love for Draegyn St. John was apparent to everyone. His friend was one lucky son of a bitch.

  Helping her into a chair, Alex smiled down at her. “How’s the bump today?” Seeing her little round tummy restored his faith in humanity.

  Tori giggled and rubbed a hand all over her protruding belly. “She’s rocking and rolling today. Takes after her Daddy. Restless energy.”

  He barked out a laugh. “I hope if it is a she that a precocious pink princess drives her daddy bat shit crazy. Serves the old fucker right.” They both laughed.

  “So. Anything new with you?”

  Alex wasn’t stupid. He knew a neat segue to another subject when he heard one. The innocent tone in Tori’s voice told him the gossip train had already left the station and made at least one stop. He wondered how long it would take before Drae came knocking too.

  “Tori St. John – you would so flunk Private Investigator 101,” he told her with a wry shake of his head.

  “For real?” she laughed. “Aw, come on!” Their laughter filled the air. “How ‘bout this instead? So. Alex. Who’s the woman in your guest room? That any better?”

  That was why he liked her. She had a take no prisoners approach to life. He hoped Drae knew to watch himself around her. She’d incinerate his ass if he were ever stupid enough to step out of line.

  “I plead the fifth,” he joked.

  “Don’t be mean to a pregnant woman,” she teased while making a pouty face.

  “What is it you want to know, woman?” he barked in mock annoyance.

  Tori laughed in his face. “For Christ’s sake Alex. Two simple questions! Who is the woman, and why is she in a guest room and not the Casita? There! Was that direct enough for you?”

  “I’m going to have to speak to your husband about that smart mouth of yours,” he grumbled.

  She snorted in amusement. “Good luck with that! Now answer the damn questions or I’ll get Lacey up here too, and we’ll tag team you till we get answers.”

  “Fuck,” Alex groaned. “I knew letting women in the compound was a mistake.”

  Patting her tummy for emphasis she stuck her tongue out and sneered, “Too late for that, don’t you think?”

  It was an old joke that never failed to get a laugh. The three of them—him, Draegyn, and Cameron—had been living in bachelor heaven until ten months ago when Lacey came on the scene followed shortly thereafter by Tori. In a neatly precise one-two punch, each woman had taken down one of the lone wolves of the Justice Squad. Only Alex was left now.

  Sighing, he grabbed a rolling stool and pulled Tori’s legs into his lap. “Your feet are awfully swollen little lady. Didn’t the doctor tell you to slow down a bit and spend more time off your feet?” He slipped her flip-flops off and began rubbing her soles.

  Tori sighed and grumbled, “I’m going to be huge in another five months!”

  It pained him to hear her distress. She was going to be a wonderful mother but her pregnancy wasn’t going to be an easy one. He knew Drae agonized over her condition. After all, she was just a tiny little thing, and her growing belly was starting to look completely out of proportion to her small frame. She was going to need all of them to get through the months ahead.

  They sat there like the oldest of friends as he rubbed her swollen feet and she caressed her baby bump. He was h
appy for Drae—and Cam too. They both found incredible women to stand by them. He sometimes wished that his future held something similar, until he remembered why it couldn’t.

  In the bluntest of terms, the burdens he carried from his time with Special Forces didn’t play nice with the everyday world. How exactly did one explain the nightmares and the bloody dreams reliving moments of hell and agony? How did you justify a botched nighttime raid or the collateral damage it caused? How did you tell a young woman that her fiancé didn’t come home because of a crazed suicide bomber?

  “You do know a foot massage isn’t going to distract me, right?”

  Alex switched gear from deep introspection to lighthearted in a heartbeat. “It was worth a try, wasn’t it?” he grinned.

  “Out with it or I swear…Lacey…speed dial!”

  “I surrender,” Alex chuckled. “Her name is Meghan. She’s a teacher from Boston. As for why she’s not in the Casita, well…..she just isn’t.”

  Tori sat forward and planted a huge smacking kiss on his lips obviously in approval. “I love you Alex Marquez!” she trilled. Sliding off the chair, she slid her feet back into the flip flops and headed for the door. Apparently, now that she had her information, she was done with him.

  Waving over her shoulder she told him, “I’ll have Carmen set enough plates for a family dinner.” And with that she was gone.

  “Fuck my life,” he groaned as his eyes squeezed shut. A family dinner? Shit. How the hell was he going to explain who Meghan was and why she was here to Cam and Drae?

  The dining room was full of lively conversation and about a dozen people when Meghan made her way downstairs. Carmen had been in and out of her room multiple times throughout the afternoon, making sure she had everything she needed. When the housekeeper let her know that Family Justice would be gathering for dinner, she suspected she was about to be put on display.

  Luckily the Hispanic housekeeper was also a fountain of information, which gave Meghan a grasp on the immediate cast of characters. There were Alex’s two partners, Cameron and Draegyn, and their wives, Lacey and Victoria. In addition to Carmen there was the cook Ria, plus her husband Ben who was some sort of property manager. Betty, the woman who ran the business end of things, would also be there. Then there was Gustavo who took care of the horses and all the riding vehicles. Meghan got the impression Carmen had a soft spot for Gus. There was also Brody Jensen, the guy who trained the agency’s guard dogs.