Seeking Justice (3 page)

"No," Emily replied. "But if there's a change, call me back."

"We will," Justice said.

"I like that you say we," Emily said.

Justice hadn't even realized she'd said it until her friend pointed it out. "Um," she said.

"Have fun with my brother," Emily said. "I still don't see what you see in him, though. He's a punk. Call me tomorrow, unless you need to call me tonight. Bye."

Justice said bye, and then clicked off the phone. She glanced at Zander. "Sorry."

"Me, too." Zander shook his head. He looked down at his crotch, and Justice couldn't help but laugh. "Let's go eat, and then go to the hospital. After that, we can come back here and continue what we started."

"Will there be spankings involved?" she asked, innocently.

The dejected look he'd had when he glanced at his crotch turned into a wickedly delicious grin as he gazed at her.

"Darlin', there's
always
spankings involved when we're together. I haven't heard you complain so far."

Justice winked at him. "I'm not complaining, just wondering what I have to look forward to later."

* * * * *

Miss Agatha was sitting up in bed when they came in. She smiled at Justice and held out her hands. Justice took them and squeezed before she enveloped the woman in a hug, taking care not to squeeze too hard.

"Is that barbecue I smell on your breath?" Miss Agatha asked her.

"It is," Justice said. She turned to Zander, who took a step forward and handed his grandmother a bag. The older woman smiled.

"Shut the door, Zander," she instructed him. "I don't want a nurse walking in while I'm eating my dinner."

Justice sat on the counter that was ubiquitous in every hospital room and watched Miss Agatha open the bag. She brought it up to her nose, inhaled, and glanced inside. Then she glared at her grandson. "What, no ribs?"

"Grandma, it would be hard hiding the bones. I promise to do a barbeque when you're home."

Justice noticed that he didn't mention that Miss Agatha's son and daughter-in-law were heading home from their trip. Justice wanted to jump into her reason for being in Bluefield, but she kept quite while Miss Agatha ate the sandwich, and then the pickle. She was opening a small container of potato salad when the nurse Justice had talked to earlier came inside.

The nurse lifted her eyebrow in question. "You know, that meat could be part of the reason you're in here right now."

Miss Agatha glared at her. "Missy, I'm going to die one way or another. I'd rather do it with barbeque on my breath than with rubber, unsalted chicken, which is what they fed me for supper."

Justice bent her head to hide a smile.

"I need to take your vitals," the nurse said. Justice wasn't surprised she didn't argue with Miss Agatha. Not many people did.

It didn't take long for the nurse to do her thing, but Justice felt as if time were dragging. She wanted to ask Miss Agatha about her reasons for ordering Justice to Bluefield. The room was silent until the woman left.

"Grandma, you need to behave," Zander said. "If you're not careful, they're going to label you a problem patient, and you don't want that to happen."

Miss Agatha laughed. "I provide the donations that keep this hospital afloat, so I'll do as I please as long as I'm stuck here." She wagged her finger at her grandson before she turned to Justice. "Let's get down to the reason I asked you to come here. I want you to find the loot."

Justice frowned. "Excuse me?"

Miss Agatha shook her head in disgust. "The loot the bandits took!" When Justice continued to stare, the older woman continued to speak. "The reason Bluefield hosts Bandit Days every July."

Justice tried to think of a nice way to say Miss Agatha has lost her marbles, but she couldn't. She decided to go for broke and be blatantly honest. "Miss Agatha, that loot has been hidden since the mid-eighteen hundreds. Something tells me I'm not going to rush out and find it now."

"Not without my help," Miss Agatha said. She leaned back against her pillows, looking like she'd just solved the mysteries of life.

"Grandma, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you're in the hospital," Zander said. "And the doctor said when you are released, you have to stay with us at the big house for a while." Miss Agatha opened her mouth to speak, but Zander held up his hand to indicate she should stay silent. "We're following the doctor's orders. You may be flippant about dying with barbeque on your breath, but the rest of us would like to keep you around for a while."

Justice watched a myriad of emotions pass over the elder woman's face. Finally, she sighed heavily. "We'll see about that. In the meantime, I have a whole room full of research that I've done on this very subject since way back when. There have been stories in the local newspaper, the Austin paper, the San Marcos paper, and many magazines. I kept them all and I've made charts."

Miss Agatha fixed a stare on Justice. "You're a smart woman, and something tells me you can go over the information and see things that I didn't."

Justice cleared her throat. "Miss Agatha, part of Bandit Days is a contest to see if anyone can find the loot. They haven't done it in the last—what—sixty years since Bandit Days started? And that's not even mentioning that the men who robbed all those banks, did it more than a hundred and twenty-five years ago! If the money was going to be found, someone would have done it by now."

Once again, Miss Agatha fixed her with a stare. But hidden behind that stare was a look that Justice couldn't quite read. She decided to go for the gold, so to speak. "Why does this mean so much to you?"

"I'm not getting any younger," Miss Agatha said. "This story has fascinated me since I was a little girl, and I would love to see it solved sometime in my life."

Justice wasn't sure exactly what to say. She hadn't really thought about the reason behind Bandit Days before. She'd always seen it as a time to watch Zander ride in the horse race, attend the parade, go the dance at the end of the weekend where everyone dressed in period clothing, and, at some point, enjoy some hot sex with Zander.

"I don't think…" she stopped speaking and cleared her throat again. If this was that important to a woman who had been a good friend to her all these years, then what would it hurt to put her research skills to the test. "Fine, I'll do it. Where is the paperwork you've been collecting?"

"It's in the basement of my house," Miss Agatha said. Justice detected the note of triumph in her voice. "Zander has a key. You can stay there. In fact, the two of you can stay here. I'm sure my son is on his way home, and I'll be forced to stay at the big house, like Zander said. While I'm being force-fed no-salt food and having my blood pressure taken every half-hour, the two of you can reread everything and find the loot. Don't spend too much time hitting the sheets. This is
more important. I'd like it to be done before Bandit Days starts. That means you have a few weeks."

A flush spread up Justice's face as Miss Agatha stared at her, and her words about hitting the sheets seemed to echo in the room.

"Grandma," Zander said. "Behave."

"Oh please," Miss Agatha said. "Everybody knows the two of you are playing hide the salami. I'd be ashamed of you if you weren't, after all these years. I'm just saying make sure you devote as much time to solving the mystery as you do to screwing."

"Grandma!" Zander cried, but Miss Agatha was laughing.

Then she waved her hand toward the door. "I'm getting tired, and the two of you have things to do. Go on, now, and bring me something delicious for dinner tomorrow night. I'm sure that doctor won't let me go until your father and mother are back in town. You might as well settle in at my house, Justice. The key is under the flowerpot by the door."

They said quick goodbyes, both of them kissing Miss Agatha on the cheek before they left the room.

"She seems tired all of a sudden," Justice said.

"That happens lately," Zander replied. "She's been doing that for a few weeks now, full of piss and vinegar one minute and then ready to fall into bed for a nap the next."

They made their way down the hallway and out of the building. As they neared Zander's truck, he reached out and took her hand. "You going to stay at her house or my house?"

The idea was appealing, except for the fact that Miss Agatha's house was far away from the big house, and Justice wasn't sure about staying in a big house by herself out in the country. She was a city girl. But, then she remembered the ride from Dallas, and how she'd thought it would be nice to be a country girl. "Hers. Do you want to stay with me?"

"Damn straight," Zander said as he opened the passenger side of his truck. He helped Justice in, shut the door, and went around to the driver's side.

When he started the truck, she looked over at him. "So, back to the house where we can finish what we started?"

"Oh, we're going to finish it all right,"
Zander said. "But I have a different spot in mind. Something nice and quiet. I just need to make a stop at the house, first."

"What's the matter, not packing any condoms in your wallet?"

He chuckled, and Justice's nipples hardened.

"Baby, I have condoms, but it's something else I'm looking for, something that will make the both of us smile."

* * * * *

Justice had a smile on her face as Zander drove the car toward Miss Agatha's house. About a mile from there, though, he turned right, and she knew where he was going. There was a little creek that ran through the land, and they'd used it quite a few times when they wanted to be alone.

One of the great things about a pickup, Zander had always said, was that it had a built in bed. Except for the fact it wasn't exactly the most comfortable of beds… unless, you had an inflatable mattress like the one Zander had retrieved from the house.

They bumped along the unpaved road, and each dip made Justice think about being spanked and screwed by the man sitting next to her. She always let Zander set the pace, and she never knew if he would want it slow and easy, or hard and fast.

Right now, she was hoping for the latter. It was the way he was leaning earlier in the evening, and she'd been ready for it. But after talking to his sister, and visiting Miss Agatha, there was no telling about Zander's mindset.

He pulled the truck up to the creek. It was that perfect time of evening, where the sun had officially set, but there was an orange-red glow on the horizon. It was cool, but not cold, and Justice knew that once they started playing, neither of them would be worried about the weather.

"I'm going to inflate the mattress," he said. "Why don't you get out and get naked."

Justice giggled. "You want me to do a striptease or something?"

"I want to see you naked before the mattress is blown up, and since it's a mechanical thing, it goes really fast. You'll be racing it."

Her giggle turned into a full-blown laugh. "Are you giving odds on who is going to win? For instance, if I win, I get to call the shots or something?"

Zander's sexy grin made Justice moan. "Afraid you're going to lose?"

"Not at all," she replied. She watched as he exited the truck and opened the door to the back seat of the extended cab. It didn't take him long to take out the mattress. He pulled off the cover in one swift move and turned a valve. A hissing noise filled the air and Justice's eyes widened as the mattress started to unfold on its own.

She toed off her tennis shoes and her hands immediately went to her waistband. She undid the button and pulled down the zipper on her pants. She had this in the bag, she knew.

Behind her, Zander shut the door, and she heard a beep. The sound rushed through her, and she stopped what she was doing and reached for the door handle. It didn't budge.

It took her a minute to realize he'd locked the door, but how had it made it so that she couldn't open it? The back doors had child locks on them, she knew, because it had been on before when she and Emily had used the truck to take Emily's twins into town.

She pulled again, and the door held fast.

"Zander! I don't know what you're doing, but you're not playing fair. Let me out."

She heard his laughter, and she thought that two could play at his game. She finished undressing, leaving her clothes lying in a puddle on the floor. Then she reached up and hit the power button for the sunroof. It opened immediately, and she laughed as she popped her head out, putting hands on either side of the top of the cab and pulling up.

The mattress was almost done, but not quite.

"I win," she said.

"So you do," Zander said, sounding pleased with her. "That means you get a prize, something I know you're going to love."

He held up the key fob and clicked the door open. She wanted to ask him how he had kept her inside, but she would ask him later.

She got out, the prickly grass pushing into the soft pads of her feet. Zander now had the mattress in the back. Justice hurried along, trying to ignore the sharp pains in her feet. She jumped into the bed, settling herself in the center of the mattress and looking up at the small spattering of stars that were making their appearance in the sky.