Ryker’s Justice

by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy

  “Don’t talk.” Adam had reverted to being a bossy older brother. “I found Junior. I clocked him over the head and he’s tied up in the barn. I called Mitch, too, and they’ll coordinate with your feds when they show up.”

  As he spoke, Adam cinched his belt tight around Jude’s upper thigh. He welcomed the pressure, hoping it would help ease some of his symptoms. His brother kept talking but Jude failed to make out most of it. He heard the thin wail of an ambulance and surrendered into unconsciousness.

  He roused twice, once as EMTs loaded him into a helicopter with blades whirling overhead. Adam stood beside him, his expression grimmer than any Jude could remember.

  “Where’s Nicole?”

  “She’s with me. I’m taking her with me. They’re flying you to a trauma center in Springfield and we’ll meet you there. Jude?”

  “What?”

  “I love you, brother. Hang in, all right?”

  “Yeah.” He scraped the word from his throat and out of his mouth with effort.

  Nicole appeared. She leaned over, saying something he failed to hear, and held his hand for one brief moment. Then they loaded him into the craft and his world faded to stark, empty black.

  Chapter Twenty

  The scent of roses filtered into his consciousness and he struggled to open his eyes. I hope I’m not dead. Jude attempted to sit up and found it impossible. He lacked the strength and the effort shot pain through his leg. Okay, I’m alive. Dead people don’t feel pain. He lacked any conscious memory of what had happened but he thought he must be in a hospital. During his career, he had landed in enough to recognize the specifics. He struggled to think and one name, one face came to mind. Nicole.

  Scraps of what had occurred flitted through his mind, like litter driven by a strong wind. He struggled to put them together into some kind of coherent sense and when he did, he remembered everything. Alarm coursed through his body and he forced his eyes open. He tried to say her name but he couldn’t. His throat ached and he realized he had a tube down there. Jude drew on every ounce of strength he could muster to shift his head and when he did, he saw her.

  Nicole stood between the bed and the window, with her back to him and her head bowed down as if she were in prayer or crying. He managed to make a sound and she whirled around. Her tired face erupted into a wide smile and she came to the bed. She grasped his hand in hers.

  “Oh, Jude,” she said. Her tone made his name an endearment. “You’re awake. Everything will be fine now.”

  She burst into tears and as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t do anything to comfort her.

  ****

  Jude sat up and stared at his lunch tray. He stirred the lime gelatin without any interest and poked at the mystery meat with disdain. “I can’t figure out what the hell this is supposed to be,” he said.

  Nicole laughed. “I don’t know either. I can’t decide if it’s a chicken fried steak, chicken patty, or pork chop. Try to eat it so you can get your strength back.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” he said. He stirred the mashed potatoes and gravy, then tried a bite. “I just want to go home.”

  Her eyes welled up with tears. “You will, soon,” she told him. “Jude, you almost died. It took twenty vials of anti-venom to save your life. You ran a high fever for three days and you weren’t aware of anything for two more. As soon as you’re strong enough, can pee standing up, have a decent bowel movement, and can walk, they’ll release you.”

  “It won’t be soon enough for me,” he griped. “I’d go now if they’d let me.”

  “Good thing they won’t,” a deeper, male voice said. Jude glanced up as Adam entered the room. “The nurses all think you’re a troublesome patient.”

  He laughed. “Maybe I am. I thought you’d headed home.”

  Adam parked his rump in the room’s only chair. “I should but no, not yet. Are you feeling better?”

  “I feel good enough to wish I felt better,” Jude said. “So, tell me what happened. You keep putting it off but I’m strong enough to hear it now.”

  Nicole smiled. “I’m going downstairs to get something to eat. I’ve heard this three times and it still upsets me.”

  “Adam hasn’t told me three times, has he?”

  “Yes,” his woman and brother said together. Nicole added, “You don’t remember because you were still very sick.”

  They had to be right although he didn’t remember. “Whatever,” he said. “Tell me now.”

  “Where do you want me to start?” Adam said. “We went to Granite Springs Cavern together. Do you remember that?”

  “Hell, yes. I got snakebite, not crazy.”

  His brother shrugged. “Then you headed home but when you got there, Nicole was gone. She left Junior’s initials in spilled sugar or something, then before you took off after her, Junior called. According to your boss, Agent March, I think, you called him at some point to tell him you’d found the location of the moonshine operation. You drove to Junior’s, got him to admit the leader was Senator Bell, then sent him on a wild goose chase to get ten grand for his getaway.”

  Jude’s pride stung. “Damn, Adam, you make it sound like I made some wrong decisions.”

  “Not at all, kid. But sending Junior to the barn wasn’t one of your most inspired moments. Then you called me, I went over, knocked him in the head and tied him up. From what Nicole’s told me, you went into Junior’s house and although she warned you he’d let rattlesnakes loose, you played the hero and fetched her out. The fact you were bitten by two huge rattlers didn’t matter—except it came near to killing you. Daddy let you watch too many John Wayne movies, I think, or they messed with your head in the Navy.”

  Beneath his brother’s teasing, Jude caught the undercurrent of concern. He had scared hell out of Adam as well as Nicole plus all the Ryker clan. “If I hadn’t got her out when I did, both of us would’ve been killed when the house exploded.”

  “True, I guess,” Adam said. “So, okay, you did your good deed for this year. I knew I shouldn’t have let you come to Boy Scout camp with me. You took it too seriously, Jude. Then Nicole called me and we got you here.”

  His patience eroded. “I know what happened to me. What about the investigation?”

  Adam grinned. “Oh, yeah, that. Sheriff Cole arrested Junior, probably before you ever reached the hospital. Your feds showed up and raided the cavern in conjunction with some of Mitch’s deputies. Over in Memphis, they took Senator Bell into custody. Rick Cockrell and all the other folks who got involved in selling moonshine or meth were arrested. Mary Cockrell went to stay with her sister down at Tulsa and the inn’s for sale. And they busted the meth lab over by Aunt Tillie’s but it turned out to be an independent operator after all. You did what you came home to do, Jude. I don’t know what you plan to do but your boss is waiting for you to recover and return to Washington.”

  He had made up his mind. “Adam, I’m resigning. I want to stay here, where I belong.”

  Adam grinned. “That’s what I hoped you’d say. I’m glad, little brother. I got kinda used to having you around again. You’ve got time to figure out what you want to do and you already know who you plan to do it with.”

  Jude smiled. “Yeah, I do.”

  “Then I’m heading home. I gotta go back to work—I’ve missed more than a week already. Elijah and Noah were here the first few days, too, but they had to go back sooner than me. David even came for a while but you were out of it.”

  “How’s he doing?”

  “Healing,” Adam said. “Just like you.”

  Three days later, Jude came home. Since it was Sunday, most of the family gathered at the old home place to welcome him. The kitchen table held more food than they could eat and the freezer held more. After many hugs and well-wishes, everyone left except Nicole.

  She sat cross-legged on the floor in front of his chair, leaned back against his knees. “Let me know if I’m hurting you,” she told him.

  “You’re fine,” he sa
id. Jude let one hand drift through her hair. “I’m happy to be home and I’m so glad you’re here. Think you’d like to stay forever?”

  “I would, Jude.”

  “Then would you marry me, as soon as I can get you to a preacher?” he said. “I should be kneeling but I doubt I could get up if I got down.”

  Nicole faced him. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll marry you, Jude Ryker. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, honey,” he said. “Think about picking a date, okay?”

  “I already know when—Thanksgiving.”

  He shook his head. “Any day is fine with me but why Thanksgiving?”

  “It’s soon,” she said. “And I’ve already invited everybody to come so we might as well do it then. We can have the ceremony in the morning, right here in front of the fireplace, and then we’ll have dinner. Then after everyone goes home, you can make love to me.”

  “I kinda hoped I’d be doing that tonight,” he said. His breath caught short at the idea. He wanted it so much but he hadn’t been able until now.

  “I promise to be gentle,” Nicole said. “But why wait until tonight? Let’s go upstairs.”

  She helped him mount the stairs and in the bedroom Nicole undressed him with slow, hot hands. Then she stripped away her clothing. Jude sprawled on the bed and she lay down on top of him, cautious not to bump his sore leg. Her body in such close proximity to his cock lit his fires and when she stroked his dick, it responded at full attention.

  “I’m glad to see it still works,” she said. As she kept one hand wrapped around it, she put her lips against his lower belly and kissed. Her warm breath against his skin became both invitation and torture. Nicole kissed a slow trail up his belly, her lips lingering and caressing until she reached his nipples. She fastened her lips around first one, then the other, and suckled. He groaned with pleasure as a sweet frisson erupted across his body. Jude shivered.

  Nicole locked her mouth onto his and they kissed without haste. She tongued him and used her lips to make the kiss sheer delight. His cock poked against her body as she played with him, unhurried and with apparent enjoyment. She wore a sweet smile and her eyes sparkled as she reversed direction back down his body.

  This time, she fondled his nipples, almost hard enough to be a pinch. She used her tongue on his cock when she reached his crotch and licked as if she tasted a delicious treat. Then she took him into her mouth, the full length of it and sucked until he thought he’d explode into her mouth. When she had tantalized him to the point of no return, Nicole released him and mounted his erection.

  Her hips moved in a wanton rhythm and Jude caught his breath. No woman had ever had so much control during sex but he enjoyed the different sensations. Nicole rocked back and forth but at slow speed. His leg had been hurting all morning but he forgot the pain as she brought him incredible pleasure. The delight increased with each stroke she made until he lost track of anything but the sensations bursting through his body. Need intensified but she kept the pace until he came in a wild eruption. His body bucked beneath hers and he hollered out, a long wordless cry of delight. He shuddered through one of the longest orgasms he had ever experience and realized as he quivered to a halt, spent, Nicole came hard against him.

  She cried out his name as her face turned crimson with the powerful rush of erotic sensation. Her body bucked against his, then eased down. She lay still, her head on his chest, her hair fanned out over him. When he could, Jude lifted one hand to stroke the silken mass, happier than he’d ever been.

  He had come home, this time to stay.

  ****

  One year later…

  After a long shift, Deputy Ryker entered the house on tiptoe. It was long past midnight but his wife always left a lamp burning in the living room until he came home, no matter how late. He removed his Sam Browne hat and tossed it onto the hall table, ready to bank the fire if necessary and turn off the light.

  The room wasn’t empty, however. Jude knelt beside the recliner and smiled. Nicole slept, the baby tucked against her shoulder. The boy’s dark hair, like hers, covered his small head in a mass of curls but his profile matched Jude’s. He placed one hand on the infant’s back and his wife awakened.

  “Jude?”

  “Yeah, it’s me,” he said. “You should’ve gone on up to bed. It’s late.”

  “Your son wanted to eat,” she told him. “I fed him, then we both fell asleep.”

  “I’ll carry him to the crib,” he replied. He lifted his son into his arms and marveled at the fact they’d created this person between them. “Come on, Justice, let’s go to bed.”

  Justice Ryker stirred in his father’s arms as Jude carried him upstairs.

  With a woman to love, a son, and a future filled with possibilities, life tasted sweet for Jude and would, he hoped, remain so forever.

  The End

  www.leeannsontheimermurphywriterauthor.blogspot.com

  Other Books by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy:

  www.evernightpublishing.com/pages/Lee-Ann-Sontheimer-Murphy.html

  If you enjoyed this book, you may also like:

  Perception by Lace Daltyn

  Wilde Edge by Susan Hayes

  Dangerous Secrets by Moira Callahan

  Evernight Publishing

  www.evernightpublishing.com