Broken Justice (Justice Brothers) (4 page)

The last thing he needed right now, though, was to be distracted by a female. That’s not who he was and not at all how he lived his life. Best he remembered that and get his head back in the game before he did something dumb. Dropping some money on the table, he pulled an old baseball cap over his shaggy hair and ambled out of the diner without bringing any attention to himself. Looking back over his shoulder at the last second, he saw her turn around and crane her neck to catch sight of the old clock above the lunch counter. Sensing she might be on the move soon, he made a snap decision to follow her and see where she was headed.
So much for not getting involved.

The intriguing Ponytail didn’t disappoint when ten minutes later she left the diner and headed to the bus stop on the corner. From his vantage point, he had a perfect view of her as she stood with several others waiting for the next bus. Noting where the bus was headed and figuring that would be the end of the Ponytail for today; Cam was startled when, as the bus approached and people stood ready to board, she quietly and effortlessly vanished into the deep shadows of the alleyway where the bus stop sat.
Shit
. She was deliberately trying to cover her trail.

She was good but not as good as he was. There was a reason why high profile clients lined up for the expertise the Justice Brothers offered. He followed her easily on foot, deeper and deeper into what was referred to as the other side of the tracks, where abandoned and sometimes crumbling houses scattered along cracked and worn streets.

When she cut across an empty lot surrounded by a rusty and ancient chain-link fence that she easily squeezed through, he was right behind her. With ever-watchful eyes, Cam took in the surroundings. A dilapidated apartment building sat watchful on the corner next to a long row of run-down homes. Two empty lots overgrown with weeds and piles of dirt partially hid several old, abandoned houses.

In the blink of an eye, his elusive Ponytail slid through a fence around one of the abandoned buildings and headed for the mission center tucked at the end of the dirty alley. Cam was suddenly assailed with a wave of anger followed in short order by a sense of crushing familiarity, nodding his head fractionally as he processed the facts before him. She was relying on the mission for shelter, trying to survive, and most likely hanging by a thread. All were conditions he knew too well. His gut wrenched as he pushed the memories flying into his brain back into the cold, dark corner of his mind.

Distaste for the person he blamed for having put him in desperate straits made his mouth burn. The woman who had given him life was a selfish waste of humanity. He never referred to Lorraine as his mother because she had been far, far from being a parent. A common prostitute with an off and on drug dependence, the woman had sold her body to satisfy her needs, leaving him to fend for scraps and cast-offs to survive.

He’d never known a time as a child when hunger and uncertainty wasn’t a part of his everyday life. Lorraine collapsed and died of a drug overdose right in front of him when he’d been just a boy. After that he’d found himself deep in the social services system, where the hunger and uncertainty never let up. His so-called mother had done nothing to protect or nurture him and the only charitable thing he could eke out for her was the simple fact that she had given him life.

He wondered who had let the Ponytail down because ending up in a filthy alley next to a run-down mission at her young age wasn’t a situation that happened without help, usually in the form of an authority figure or adult having dropped the ball somewhere along the line.
Fuck.
He was sucked in now.

Suddenly, Cam caught glimpses of two burly individuals appearing in the alleyway. Seconds later a scuffle of some sort broke out. Gazing toward the commotion he saw a flash of light hair followed by a small shout of alarm. Next thing he knew, his long legs were pounding down the alley a heartbeat later as he shouted at what appeared to be two older teens while they struggled with the Ponytail for the mangled bag she carried.

“I suggest you run for the hills, fellas!” he barked in a booming voice that threatened serious retribution for anyone not heeding what he said as he landed in the middle of a street fracas gotten out-of-hand. Apparently, she wasn’t giving the backpack up without a fight.

“Mind your own fucking business old man,” the biggest of the teens hollered a split second before Cam’s fist connected with his face. Cam knew he could easily have killed the little fucker with no effort but he held back on the punch and tried not to do any more than just scare the kid off. The frightened accomplice forgot all about the Ponytail as he dragged his stumbling friend to safety.

Satisfied her assailants had been effectively warned off, Cam turned his attention to the woman jumping up from where she’d been pushed, only to find her grabbing that blasted backpack like it was a lifeline and hauling ass away from him as fast as her shaking limbs could move.

Growling impatiently, Cam bit out, “Hold on there, lady! Are you alright?” She never even looked at him as she kept putting distance between them. Moving into action Cam leapt forward, grabbing her arm to stop the retreat, repeating again only this time in a menacing tone, “I
asked
if you were alright.”

Pretty much the last thing he expected right then was a cry of pain when his fingers wrapped forcefully around her forearm to stop the attempted escape. Glancing where his hand had grabbed hold, he saw blood seeping through the sweatshirt sleeve.

“Take your hands off me,” she screamed in his face as surprise and hesitation loosened his grip. “Let me go.”

She appeared two seconds away from being hysterical, not that he could blame her. She’d been mugged in an alley, gotten injured somehow, and even though he was in fact rescuing her, from a victim’s standpoint she must be terrified by his less than friendly demeanor and dark, menacing appearance.

Not having much experience when it came to being reassuring or amicably friendly in any way, Cam was out-of-his-league on this one. That was what years in the military and solitude did to a man. He probably should have gentled his demeanor but he was in uncharted territory and feeling a tad out of sorts so he resorted to tried and true tactics and went with the He-Man approach.

“Settle down, lady,” he snarled, pulling her closer to inspect her injured arm. Her gasp of pain barely found its way into his conscious mind, but the way all the color leeched from her face did. Unfortunately, when he yanked her she had been forced into his personal space by the fact that she weighed next to nothing. The terror on her face as she collided with his hard-muscled physique surprised him.

When shit happened, it usually happened quickly. The whispered anguish in her husky voice pleading with him, “Please don’t hurt me,” echoed in his brain as she collapsed in a dead faint. Luckily, his swift reflexes stopped her from hitting the pavement.

This was the first time he’d gotten a really good look at her up close. She looked awfully young, with flawless skin and fair coloring. She came naturally by what many celebrity women paid surgeons thousands for, a pair of plump lips that looked bee-stung and about as delectable as a woman’s mouth could be. Even out cold, her chin angled in a way that dared the world to mess with her. It was the smattering of light brown freckles across the bridge of her perfect nose, however, that melted his brain into his socks. With her hair swept back into that tight ponytail, she looked more kid than woman, a thought that made him uncomfortable.

A frozen spot in his soul suddenly heated up, making Cam all too aware of how unfamiliar he was with anything that resembled actual feelings. A chance encounter with a young ponytail was throwing his carefully detached demeanor into the shredder. Deciding that he was simply moved by her obvious struggles after what he’d experienced in his own life, he tried to bring his thoughts back into focus. This was not the time to let a pair of pouty lips distract him. Those lips and the freckles, however, had the power to stop his thoughts dead in their tracks.

Some of her coloring was returning, suggesting that she’d be coming around soon so Cam quickly inspected the bloody forearm before she came to her senses. He wasn’t sure if the slight gash he found was the work of a blade or an accident but it didn’t matter. His first aid kit and battlefield training could handle the injury but he wasn’t so sure he had anything that would solve the problem presented by having gotten involved in her life.

She was seconds away from regaining consciousness. When her eyes fluttered open, it took a handful of seconds for her head to clear but even that didn’t stop the protective instincts that he appreciated all too well. With the grace of a cat, she leapt from the ground, grabbed the worn straps of her backpack, and made a supersonic dash away from him. Unfortunately for her, he was prepared for such a move, and being a great deal faster than her, effectively blocked her hasty retreat with his physical presence.

Stopping dead in her tracks Ponytail eyed him warily sneering, “Go away.” Cam was partially successful at trying not to enjoy the sound of her voice but lost out on projecting an air of disinterest when she fixed a pair of bright, baby blue eyes on him. Having never seen eyes that color before, he was fascinated by the long, fringed eyelashes blinking at him. He knew that he was scaring her with his presence, but all he could wrap his mind around at that moment was how stunning her eyes were.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Cam murmured, removing the ball cap that shadowed his face. He watched her eyes dart, seeking a secondary route of escape. The last thing he wanted at that moment was for her to disappear, a thought as uncomfortable as it was shocking since he never gave two seconds of emotional thought to anyone or anything.

Going for clinical and straightforward he nodded toward the arm in the bloodstained sweatshirt. “I’m guessing one of those idiots had a weapon because there’s a slice in the hoodie and you’ve gotten quite a gash. I’ve got a well-stocked first aid kit in my truck a few blocks from here. Let me help you out.
You’re safe with me
.” He didn’t analyze why he added those last words but something of her alarm and panic had made him want to set her fearful mind at ease.

“Please,” he added, indicating with his outstretched hand that she should follow him as he led her away from the dark alley.

It took an eternity until she nodded her consent, while continuing to eye him cautiously. Cam was impressed by the Ponytail’s control in such a difficult predicament.
Down but not out
, he mused. Interesting.

It didn’t take long to get her back to where his truck was parked. Convincing her to go with him to the motor court so he could attend to her injury took a bit longer. She said not a word when he promised to help her with no strings attached although she appeared to wobble a bit. Cam remembered what it was like to be cautious and suspicious about offered acts of kindness.

Once at his motel room, she sat warily at a table by the window while Cam gathered his first aid kit. That she never relaxed her grip on that old bag she carried told him, while she was going to accept his offer of his assistance, she also had one foot firmly out the door at the same time. Clearly trust was an issue, something he understood all too well.

Keeping her bag stuffed under one arm, she pushed back the bloody sleeve on the hoodie to inspect the injury. The heavy sigh that followed told Cam she was surprised and probably a bit frustrated that there was one more thing for her to deal with. Turning those baby blues back on him, she kept silent when he moved to the table and began setting first aid supplies out for use.

Cam was struck again by how young she looked and kicked himself for being his usual gruff self. She’d been through an ordeal and he should at least try to be civil and unthreatening. Unfortunately, a headache bumping around the corners of his brain and a deep achiness overtaking every inch of his body robbed him of the ability to feign friendliness. Being the loner he was, it took effort on his part to go through the motions expected in polite society of civilized people. Right now, he was feeling less than civilized.

Aware that her watchful eyes didn’t miss a thing and deeply conscious of her wariness, he cleared his throat and tried for polite. “By the way, my name is Cameron.”
Jesus, was he actually waiting with baited breath for her to answer with that deliciously feminine voice he’d heard earlier?

Instead of offering her name in return, she calmly said, “You chased those guys away in the alley.” The sound of her voice reached inside Cam’s empty heart and took up residence. Unsettled by his reaction, he nodded but didn’t say anything else as he held up a tube of antibiotic ointment to indicate what he was about to do. Putting a folded towel down on the table, he jerked his head as direction for her to lay her injured arm on it. When she cautiously complied, he grabbed a bottle of water and poured some of the liquid on the bloodied gash. Noting how the Ponytail tried to silence a gasp of pain as her hand suddenly fisted, he wanted to reassure her but kept on with the task at hand against a backdrop of silence.