Cherish Me (The Protected Love Series) (14 page)

Judy tried to hear what was going on but everyone’s words were becoming fuzzy and mixed together.

“Judy, Honey you can’t fall asleep yet.” Abbi’s words were warm.

Before she knew what was happening the group was leaving. She attempted to walk until her heels caught on the ground. Jace scooped her up into his arms as he carried her the rest of the way out of the club.

“But I wanted to keep dancing.” Judy tried to protest.

“I promise we will come back out again. I will take you dancing anytime you want, Love. But we have to go now. It’s not safe.”

The last words that left Jace’s lip resounded through her head,
It’s not safe.
She wondered briefly what had been on that message. As Jace got her settled into the limo she could feel the exhaustion setting in; too many shots and too much dancing. She fought to keep her eyes open until the darkness came over her. She could feel Jace wrap his suit jacket around her as his lips softly brushed against the top of her head. As she settled into his arms she drifted off to the vibrations of the limo speeding off towards home.

Her mind fluttered briefly through random images. The sonogram they had found in the box, the morning Alexis had come to their apartment. Her wild curly hair spinning off in every direction as her smile and eyes warmed the room. Judy held onto that image of Alexis. She wanted to remember her friend as beautiful and vibrant. That’s what Alexis would have wanted.

“I want the address and I want it now. No more dicking around Antonio. We have waited long enough.” Jace spoke into the speaker of the phone in his office.

“You will get the address when I tell you it’s time. You are not my boss, Ese.” Antonio’s voice came through the speaker of the phone.

“If you don’t give it to me I will find it myself; and if that happens Antonio you won’t have a body left to pay your debt. How do you think your boss will feel if you don’t have any proof to show him?”

“If you could get the address you would have already gotten it. But since you’re calling me with this shit I assume you can’t. Can you?”

“The fucker was at the club last night. He was at the club within reach of my girlfriend and all of my friends. Did you know that? Did you follow him there?”

Silence resounded through the room as Antonio let out a long breath.

“Your
homeboys aren’t doing a very good job of following him and he’s gonna get out of reach at any moment. It’s fucking go time. No more waiting.” Jace said sternly.

“I have to get it approved first. I will call you back.” Antonio’s thick Hispanic accent came through the speaker.

“The hell you will! You will give me that damn address right now.”

“I said I. Will. Call. You. Back. Did you hear me that time?”

“You have twenty four hours and then all of my
trigger happy friends
and I are going to come find you to satisfy the need.”

“Got it.” Antonio said angrily before hanging up the phone.

Jace sat at his desk staring off out of the window. He didn’t know what to think last night when Abbi came up to him with Judy’s phone. His first thought was that Antonio had called with the green light, and since they’d all been out drinking there was no way he would have been able to get the team together. But as he listened to the accidental message that had been left on Judy’s phone he began making out their own voices. He listened to the conversations that they’d been having amongst the party before Trent’s familiar voice interrupted. He hadn’t been able to make out exactly what he’d been saying but he could hear the anger and desperation on Trent’s voice.

He’d replayed the message a hundred times since they had gotten home last night and every time he listened to it, it fueled the hate
he had inside of him towards Trent. Tonight was the night that they’d go after him. Tonight they would make him pay for what he’d done to the girls, for what he had done to Alexis. They wouldn’t have his murder on their hands but they would make him beg for it before handing him over to the gang.

As Jace played out different scenarios through his mind the door to his office opened and Mason came through.

“What’s up Mason?”

“Nothing much, man, j
ust wanted to talk with you about last night.” Jace could see the fire in Mason’s eyes as he took the seat in front of his desk.

“I just got off the phone with Antonio. I am waiting for him to call back with the address but we should be good to go tonight.”

“How the fuck was that asshole able to get so close to use without anyone seeing him?”

“I don’t know. He had to be under some kind of disguise. My question is who the hell was with him? We are going to have to start running scenarios that when we enter that apartment that he might not be alone.”

“Ok. Who all are we getting together for this?” Mason asked.

“Listen, Mason. I know that you want to get revenge as much if not more than I do. But we have to think about Judy too.”

“What about Judy? She will be under protection when all of this goes down.”

“I am talking long term Mason. What happens if we go in there and he has a group of street thugs who put bullets in each of us? What is Judy going to do then? She will be all alone.”

“I get where you’re going with this Jace and I respect that you’re looking out for Judy. I know that she is your top priority. But you and I both know that neither of us can sit back. I fought alongside the same brothers you did on the front lines. I won’t back down from this. The sight of Alexis beaten and bruised keeps replaying through my head. This is something we have to do.”

“I know.” Jace let out a deep breath.

Mason had a point. Both of them were too invested to sit it out. They would have to go in execute it perfectly to assure that nothing happened to them. He had made a promise to Judy to not put himself in harm’s way but this was something he would have to do to make sure that she would be safe. He didn’t know what he was going to say to her or how he would explain it but he could only hope that she would understand.

“As soon as I hear back from Antonio I will let you know. In the meantime get Aaron, Mark, and Ryan over here so we can talk strategies.”

“Ten four. I’m on it.”

“You can use my office. I am gonna go see how Judy’s feeling.”

Jace left his office and walked across the hall towards his and Judy’s bedroom. Peeking in he could see her black hair splayed out across the bed as her small body was wrapped up into their covers. He crept silently across the room and sat on his side of the bed. For a moment he just took her in. He allowed himself to remember the hurt and pain from the night he’d been told she had been shot. He would let that pain run through his veins to remind him of how she would feel if anything happened to Mason or himself.

Quietly he reached over into his nightstand and removed the old worn dog
tags that lay next to the picture of Ryan and him in the desert of Iraq. He ran his finger over the letters stamped into the worn metal. He needed to get his mind right and start thinking like a warrior soon. He’d never worried about going into battle and losing someone before.

He
never had a family. His parent’s died when he was younger and he’d been raised in foster care for most of his life. As soon as he was old enough he enlisted and taken on the life of a soldier. He had many of his brothers in arms approach him before a mission with a letter to give their families in case something happened to them. More times than he’d wished he didn’t have to; he’d had to deliver those letters. He always felt lucky that he’d been on his own. He’d only needed to worry about but himself. That was different now. This woman next to him, with her sarcastic mouth and spunky attitude, owned him body and soul.

She stirre
d lightly stretching her arms towards him as she blinked up at him with a sleepy smile.

“Good a
fternoon, Love.” He lay down onto the pillow next to her.

“Afternoon? How late did I sleep?”

“Oh it’s only noon. You had a long night last night. How are you feeling?” He ran his hand down the loose curls that fell around her face.

“Aside from starving
, better than I think I should.” She smiled until she took in the look in his eyes. “Jace, what’s wrong?”

“I talked to Antonio a few minutes ago.”

“What did he say?”

“We are going tonight. I am waiting for him to cal
l with the information.” He took a deep breath as he saw the look of sadness creep into Judy’s eyes. “Listen, Honey, I know that you are scared and you don’t really know what to think right now. To be honest I don’t either. I have never had to think of anyone else before. You know I don’t have any family other than you so it’s always been easy going into battle. Now I don’t know what to do. I know this is something I have to do but it scares the hell out of me that if something happens to me that you will be alone.”

“Jace, I know you feel like you don’t have a family but
you do. You have Ryan and Abbi; you have the guys at the office. They are all your brothers. Yes, it does scare the hell out of me to think you might get hurt but I also know that you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if you asked someone else to go in your place and they were hurt instead.” She reached over and softly caressed the side of his face. “What do you have there?” Her fingers traveled down to the dog tags that were in his hand.

“These have gone into so many battles with me. I have always thought they were lucky, that they kept me from harm. Stupid I know.” He held them up.
“Like they held some magical power.”

“I don’t think it’s stupid. You have to have something to believe in.”

“I do. Us.” He gently lifted her off the bed and pulled her to his chest. He took the metal chain of the dog tags and slowly placed them around her head pulling them down to her neck. “I believe in us. I know that no matter what waits for us tonight that I have to get back here to you. I have to be here to protect you for the rest of your life.”

“
You do Jace. I have never felt so much love before. I promise these won’t leave my neck until you walk back through that door.”

“When I leave tonight I would like to have you and Abbi together here. Josh and Gabe will be inside
the apartment with you and we will have a detail outside also. You will be on lockdown. Until I get back you don’t leave. No matter what happens you don’t leave.”

“I promise Jace. I will wait right here for you.” He wrapped his
arms around her and held her, taking in the softness of her skin and the light smell of coconut in her hair.

A soft knock came from
their bedroom door. Jace reached down and covered Judy up with the covers. “Come in.”

Mason peeked his head in. “Hey
, Ryan and the guys are on their way.” He whispered.

“Ok, we will be out in a minute.”

Mason left the room as Jace turned back to Judy. “Go get a shower, Babe. You will feel better after you do. I am going to be in the office with the guys. What would you like to eat?”

“Um, surprise me.” She smiled up at him as she rolled out of her side of the bed and headed for their bathroom.

“Hey, Judy?” He called out to her as she stopped in the doorway.

“Yeah, Babe?”

“I love you.”

“I love you more.” She smiled as she headed through the door into the bathroom.

*****

“I don’t know what to think Abs.” Judy sighed as she picked at the grilled chicken salad that Jace had wrapped up for her.

“I just wish I could be sure that nothing bad will happen. What if something goes wrong, Judy? Am I crazy or is this whole idea crazy?”

“I don’t think you’re crazy. It’s just something we have never had to deal with before. The last time the guys put themselves in this situation it was because they were worried about our safety. Now they are doing it and it’s our turn to worry about theirs. We will get through tonight and everyone will be ok.” Judy put on a brave face.

She honestly didn’t know what to think about what would be going down in a few hours. Jace and the guys would be leaving and she wasn’t sure if they would be coming back. What if there were people there with Trent? What if someone got hurt or worse? She wasn’t sure how she would go on if something happened to Jace.

“I just wish I knew that everyone would be ok. It’s scary
, ya know? Ryan and I have more to think about than ourselves now. We have Olivia to think about now too.”

“Olivia?” Judy looked puzzled.

Abbi’s hand came to rest on her stomach. “We decided to name her Olivia Madison Dixon.” She said smiling.

“It’s not Judy Jr. but it will do.” Judy laughed. “Where did you come up with it?”

“Olivia was Ryan’s grandmother’s name and Madison was my mother’s name. Ryan’s mom insisted that we name her after his grandmother instead of her and Olivia just kinda stuck.”

“I love it. Baby Olivia.” Judy grinned.

“I also have some other good news to share with you. We picked a date.”

“Really! When did you pick?”