Justice (18 page)

It was a better day than Justice had expected, and it’d already started off perfect with Paul giving him the best blow job. Justice had lost it there at the end, and Paul had eaten that right up.

Paul trusted him. Paul loved him. Things would only get better between them.

Chapter Fourteen

An annoying buzzing woke Paul up. He poked Justice’s side. “S’your phone going off.” It sounded like it was going to vibrate right off the nightstand. Justice snored and Paul jabbed him harder. “So much for shifters having superior hearing.”

“I heard that,” Justice slurred as he slapped at the stand. “You wore me out, honey.”

Well, Paul couldn’t complain about that. The last two sessions with Vivian had been intense, and he’d needed a lot of relief afterwards. That Justice getting off did more for Paul sometimes than coming himself came in handy.

Paul turned on the lamp by his side of the bed. “Maybe it’s Oscar telling you everyone arrived,” Paul said as Justice finally grabbed the phone. There’d been one delay after another, even for the much-anticipated arrival of Remus, the Super Shaman, as Paul was tending to think of him.

Justice sat up, suddenly alert. “No. No, it’s not. I think it’s a text from Cliff. How’d that fucker get my number?”

Paul tried not to give in to the fear that clutched at his heart. “Why do you think it’s him?”

Justice fired off a text. “Because all it says is, ‘Two more down, five to go. Your apartment wasn’t clean in the first place—the blood will wash out. Maybe. C.’ What the hell, man?”

“Two down? He killed two more?”

“Sounds like it,” Justice said. “What was he doing in my apartment?”

“He knew.” Paul wasn’t tired at all now. “They know about me and you, obviously. I’d hoped it was only that…that Cliff guy, but either he told them or they knew somehow, and they went to your place looking for me—”

Justice’s phone buzzed again. He read the message then glanced at Paul. “You’re good. He broke into my place and waited. I don’t think he told them about us.”

Paul remembered something Justice had said in one of their conversations about Cliff. “He told you his goal is to protect his species. Don’t you think someone like that wouldn’t care about using me as bait?”

Justice set the phone down, frowning. “I don’t know. I really don’t know him, or what he’s capable of doing. He has power, but I don’t know anything about that, either. Now I wonder, whose side is he on?”

“The side of his people.” Paul thought that was obvious. “What if he didn’t hide away the other freed people? What if he killed them to keep everything about shifters a secret?”

Justice snapped his gaze to Paul’s. “Gods, he could have. I just believed what he said. Fuck, I let him go.”

“Which was for the best,” Paul assured him. “We could be wrong, he might be the most honourable man in the world next to you. All I’m saying is, we don’t know him. No one does.” They’d found that out through the family gossip. Even Marybeth had been confounded by what she’d heard about Cliff.

“I need to go to Phoenix.”

Paul shoved the covers off. “Okay, then let’s go.”

Justice shook his head. “No, you need to stay here. I don’t want you with me in case Cliff is there.”

The idea of that scared the shit out of Paul, but he wasn’t going to let that keep him from being with Justice. “I’ll set the Taser you got me on crispy. I’m not staying here without you.”

“Paul, be reasonable,” Justice began.

Which put ‘reasonable’ off the table and slammed ‘pissed off’ smack dab front and centre. “Be reasonable?
Reasonable?
How is leaving me here reasonable? Don’t you think that if this was a plan to get your attention, maybe the goal is to get you away from me so I can be killed? Or you can, then me? Maybe you leaving me here plays right into their hands, whether ‘they’ is Cliff or the other fuckers who want me dead.” He got up on his knees and scooted over to Justice. Logic was probably his best bet. “We need to stay together. If we’re separated, and someone were to get one of us, they’d have the leverage to have us both, wouldn’t they?”

“Yes,” Justice agreed. He rubbed his hands over his face then pulled at his hair. The once-short strands had got long enough to be gripped. Justice did it hard enough that his eyebrows were tugged up, making him look like he’d had bad plastic surgery.

Justice let go of his hair and massaged his scalp. “Hate it when I do that. Stings.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t pull it,” Paul suggested. “How are we getting to Phoenix?”

“We’ll drive,” Justice said after a jaw-popping yawn. “I need to call Oscar, let him know what’s going on. He can fill everyone else in. I want to get on the road.”

Paul thought about suggesting they get more sleep, but knew that’d be futile. They were both wide awake.
Almost wide awake.
“I’m going to make some coffee.”

“Make it strong enough to scoop out with a spoon,” Justice said as Paul stumbled out of bed. “Like coffee porridge or something.”

“Gross, but probably necessary.” Paul started to make his way to the kitchen, only whacking his hip on the dresser as he tried to get his sweats on before he got out of the bedroom. Justice was already in the bathroom by then. The man was faster at waking up than Paul ever would be.

He still had the coffee done and a cup of it chugged down before Justice came in wearing black jeans and shirt.

“Looking to do a little breaking and entering?” Paul asked as he poured Justice a mug of coffee.

“This feels like it calls for blending in with the night.” Justice took the cup and closed his eyes as he inhaled deeply. “Gods, Paul. If I weren’t already in love with you, this would have done it.”

“And then I would have always thought you only loved me for my coffee.”

A knock at the door startled a squeak out of Paul. He slapped a hand over his mouth, not just from sheer mortification. Someone was outside and he didn’t know who.

Justice gently pried his hand off his mouth and gave him a chaste kiss. “Oscar, and probably Josiah. I’ll get the door.”

“I’ll pour the coffee.” Paul’s heart was racing. He pressed a hand to his chest, and Justice’s soothing voice in his head helped calm him down. There was a lot going on, and he still had panic attacks. He wasn’t healed up, and might not be for years, but he was getting better. He could do without all the new drama, but at least he had fabulous people around him.

He had a family, even if he might be a little nervous around some of them.

“What’s going on?” he heard Oscar ask as soon as the door was opened. “Gawd, I need coffee.”

“Coming right up,” Paul called out.

“We’ll come in the kitchen, honey,” Justice told him. “Don’t worry about bringing it out.”

“Okay.” Paul set the mugs on the table and took the half and half from the fridge. It’d do for creamer if anyone wanted some. The sugar was in the cabinet, and as he got that out, he kept an eye on the kitchen door. Justice came through first, with Oscar and Josiah right behind him.

There was the fluttering in his chest again, and the tight squeeze of his lungs. Paul grabbed the sugar and began the calming breathing he’d been working on. For all he knew, it wasn’t even Josiah who was threatening to set off a panic attack. He’d just been feeling edgy and over-stressed. Coffee, though he needed the caffeine, probably hadn’t been the best idea.

He brought the bag down right before Justice appeared beside him.
“It’s okay, honey. Just take deep breaths, and focus on my voice.”

Paul did, and the panic attack died before it could truly grip him. Paul opened his eyes, having closed them to concentrate on his breathing technique. “Thanks.”

Justice rubbed the small of his back. “Any time.”

When Justice’s fingers glanced over one of Paul’s scars, Paul was reminded that he hadn’t put a shirt on. He was only wearing sweat pants. His scars were horrible and there for everyone to see.

“You’re beautiful,” Justice told him. “If this will help you relax, take it.” He pulled off his shirt, slipped the bag of sugar out of Paul’s grasp and slid the shirt over Paul’s head, saving him from having to run to the bedroom for clothing.

Paul turned and gave his man a proper kiss, with tongue and gratitude.

“Guys, coffee,” Josiah whined. “Please? Pretty please?”

Paul stepped back, feeling much better than he had a few minutes ago. “Coffee,” he said as he twisted around to grab the pot. “There’s creamer on the table and Justice has the sugar. Grab spoons from the drawer on the right if you need one.” Paul poured the coffee. There was something so relaxing about the deep, dark colour of coffee, and the scent—the only thing that smelt better was Justice.

There wasn’t any talking until Oscar and Josiah had chugged their first cup. They both held their empties out to him, pleading silently with their eyes. Paul rolled his. “Aren’t y’all family now? Which means self-serve?” But he grinned and poured the coffee, topping off Justice’s cup last. “Let me get another pot going real quick. Commence plotting and planning.”

They did, and Paul listened as Justice told them about the text message and their possible scenarios.

“He never texted back again?” Oscar asked.

“Not after that, no. You’d have to meet the guy, he’s—” Justice paused. Paul finished preparing the coffee pot and pressed the button to get it brewing. “He’s weird, yeah, but it’s not just that. There’s this…this power, that he exudes even though it seems like he’s trying not to. I can’t wrap my head around him being a bad guy, but I can believe he’d do anything necessary to protect shifters from being exposed to human beings.” Justice looked at him. “Anything, and that’s not acceptable.”

“I wish Remus was here. How odd is it that some kind of sickness hits his pack when he was about to come out?” Oscar mused.

“At least it isn’t deadly,” Josiah added. “That’s my family, too. So far it’s only been headache and, uh, gastrointestinal issues. That’s still something that we’ve never had to deal with before. Shit, shifters don’t get sick.”

“Unless humans pollute their environment with chemicals to treat weeds and make the soil better, or to take care of pests and rodents,” Oscar griped. “It’s not just our kind they’re poisoning, or the weeds or bugs or whatever. The humans are getting sick, too.”

Paul sat beside Justice. “How’d the shifters get exposed?”

Josiah grunted and crossed his arms over his chest as he glared off at some point in the distance. “Farmer nearby got careless, polluted the whole goddamned river. Maybe it wouldn’t make a human so sick, but it’s causing problems that Remus has been able to fix so far. The Fates are being good to us, but humans are trying to kill us even inadvertently.”

“I’m sorry.” Paul didn’t hate all wolf shifters, apparently, because he really was sorry Josiah’s pack family was suffering. “They’ll be okay though?”

“Remus says they will, but the kids won’t be able to go playing in the river like we did growing up. Not without the water being checked first.” Josiah sighed and looked tired. “It seems like a piece of my youth just got poisoned.” Then he smacked his forehead. “Damn, I sound like a whiny bastard. This is what happens when I don’t get enough coffee in me.”

Paul rose from his seat and got the fresh pot of coffee. “Let’s cure that problem, at least.” He began pouring everyone fresh coffee then sat down once he’d finished. He left the coffee pot sitting on the table. It wouldn’t be there long enough to cool off.

“When’s Remus coming here?” Justice asked.

Josiah hitched a shoulder. “I don’t know now. Supposed to be here later today—” He looked at the clock. “It’s almost four a.m., so he was supposed to be here in about twelve hours, but chances are someone else will get ill. Wasn’t just the kids that played in the river. Lots of the adult shifters liked to go have fun in it at night.”

“At least Bobby and Sully didn’t get sick. Remus would probably end up dragging both of their whiny asses back to the river and drowning them. I remember when Sully hammered his thumb a few years ago. Could hear him whining all across Grandma’s house.” Oscar shook his head. “Can’t imagine Bobby would be a good patient, either.”

“Nah, he’s a big baby,” Josiah agreed.

“We’ve gotten off track,” Justice said. “Not that I don’t hope your pack will all recover, and the farmer will get locked up for environmental contamination or something. I do, but I want to get on the road.”

“My fault. I started babbling about it all.” Josiah waved a hand. “This Cliff guy, he helped Wes and his mate free a kid who was being held in one of those conversion camps. I think he killed a few people then. Not sure how what he was doing there helped out the shifter people.”

Oscar made a humming sound before he spoke. “Yeah, I meant to tell you about that, Jus. Wes said Cliff helped because he’d been in conversion hell before. Maybe he doesn’t just focus on helping shifters, if that’s the truth.”

Justice growled and twirled his coffee cup around on the table. “Damn it, I thought we could move him over into the bad guy side, but knowing that he helped Wes rescue a human? I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“I think it’s best to err on the side of caution,” Oscar said. “Don’t trust him, but don’t kill him on sight, either.”

“That is generally the way I deal with most people,” Justice said dryly. “We’re going to pack a few days’ worth of clothes and hit the road. If you hear anything, see anything suspicious, let me know. We’ll do the same.”

“Hopefully we’ll just be cleaning up a mess someone else made.” Paul repressed a shudder. He was afraid he would freak out over the blood, if there really was any.

“Be careful.” Oscar and Josiah stood. Oscar clapped him on the back. “Don’t let my cousin do anything stupid.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Paul awkwardly thumped Oscar’s back in return. Josiah winked at him and Paul felt his cheeks warming with a blush.

After they left, Paul and Justice packed a few changes of clothes. Paul took his Taser out of the nightstand drawer. He hadn’t practised with it, but he figured it wouldn’t be too hard to work. At least he’d read the manual on it and watched the how-to video.