The Proviso (108 page)

“No, you’re my pimp.”

“But—”

“If you still can’t come up with the money when I
come collecting, I’ll have you evicted. I’ll warn you now that
every deputy in the county and every trooper on this stretch of
highway is either terrified of me or loves me, so I won’t even have
to file suit before your clothes are out on the roadside. And you
should feel lucky I’ll let you have that much. Everything on this
piece of property is mine now, along with the money Knox gave
you.”

Justice walked back around his chair, across the
living room, and out the front door, her sperm donor dragging
behind her like a wet rag. She wasn’t surprised to see the troopers
gone and Knox casually leaning against the front of the truck
waiting for her, wearing jeans, a thick black pullover sweater, and
driving moccasins. His badge hung on his jeans pocket and she could
see the bulge of his gun stuck in his waistband through his
sweater.

His hair gleamed gold in the winter morning sunlight
and his thick morning beard made him look delectably wicked and
dangerous.

She caught her breath at his beauty, then shook her
head to clear it. This was business time. She clipped down the
stairs and across the crappy dirt where lawn should’ve been. She
tripped on a clod and sneered at it, comparing it to the smooth,
lush (although now brownish) lawn at home. Lazy bastard.

“Howdy, Martin,” Knox drawled with a smirk.

“You went back on our deal!”

“Nope, sure didn’t. She works her own deals. They
teach you how to do that in law school.”

“She shot me!”

Justice stopped cold and turned to glare at him.
“You’re lucky I didn’t blast your dick into the floor,” she
snarled.

“Hilliard! Are you going to let her talk to me that
way?”

“She does what she wants and right now, what she
wants is to kick your ass, so sorry. Can’t help you.”

“Oh, I see. Big badass Hilliard’s pussy
whipped.”

“Say. Martin. Should I have my deputies canvassing
River Glen for any teenage girls you might’ve taken a fancy
to?”

Justice watched as he paled and gulped. Her mouth
dropped open and she drew in a long, slow breath. She felt Knox’s
gaze on her and she closed her mouth with a snap.

“I don’t have time for this,” she said to Knox when
she’d recovered herself. “Bank closes at noon. Let’s go.” She
climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV.

As Knox got in and started the car, she stared out
the window, away from that man on the porch. She thought if she
looked at him, she might puke.

Knox escorted her into the bank with a hand on her
back. His presence garnered the attention of the branch manager,
who helped her himself. She then proceeded to drain every account
Martin had and pour it all back into Knox’s accounts. Knox made one
brief phone call to Sebastian. It wasn’t very long before the bank
officer, thrilled to have had contact with
the
Sebastian
Taight, had an email with an encrypted zip file of all of Knox’s
account numbers and detailed instructions on how Sebastian wanted
the funds parsed up and routed.

Most of the money was still there. Martin hadn’t
known what to do with it after he’d bought the car. The only thing
that money represented to him was a lifetime of easy chair and TV
and beer and cigarettes and no work. Perhaps a fifth of Jack
Daniel’s if he happened to be not lazy enough to get off his ass to
go get it.

He’d be able to afford none of that now.

Knox didn’t say anything as the documents were
notarized. He lazed in the chair beside her, his right ankle
propped on his left knee, his elbow on the arm of the chair, his
face on his fingertips, watching her, watching the process.

It was after one when she’d finished her business.
The bank had been closed for an hour and she didn’t care that a few
people were inconvenienced.

Once they were back in the car, she said, “Back to
the farm that I own now. Gotta pick up my car, plus I want to show
you something.”

Knox still remained silent for another long while
and she finally looked at him. He was leaning back against his
door, his elbow on the door ledge. He watched her carefully.

“Did you
mean
to make him a
sharecropper?”

“Yes, I did.”

“What are you going to do if he doesn’t produce
anything?”

“Won’t matter,” she muttered. “He’ll be in jail by
spring.”

Knox stuck his tongue in his cheek. “Gonna follow up
on that, then?”

“Yes.” Justice swallowed, hard, and wouldn’t look at
Knox.

She felt his hand on the back of her neck and she
turned to melt into his kiss. “I’m sorry,” he whispered against her
mouth. “I’m sorry I did this, sorry I put you through this.”

“I’d rather know the truth, no matter how nasty,”
she murmured in return, her eyes opening again and watching him
kiss her, watching him watch her. “I’ll get some deputies on it
Monday.”

“Yeah. About that.”

Justice sighed. “You already did it.”

“When you came back and told me how he reacted to
you, I started sniffing around.”

“I’m guessing you can’t make a case?”

“No. I couldn’t turn up any underage girls and I
couldn’t get any of the barely legal ones to talk.”

“My mother was underage.”

He started. “What?”

“She was fifteen when I was born. My grandfather
gave him a choice between marrying her or going to jail.”

He stared at her and asked slowly, as if he didn’t
really want to know, “How old was he when you were born?”

“Thirty-three.”

He held his breath and then released it in a long
whoosh and wiped his mouth while he stared out the window. “I
should’ve just killed the bastard when I had the chance,” he
muttered, as if to himself.

“I’m sure my grandfather thought the same many
times.”

“So you’re reliving your mother’s history.”

“I wasn’t underage.”

He shuddered. “Close enough,” he grumbled, then he
chuckled suddenly as he started the car. “Between your father and
my mother, we were just fucked from the get-go.”

Justice had to laugh at that, considering her
earlier realization. “At least I’m not the only one with the
in-laws from hell and a reason to avoid them.”

“Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve
ever had to deal with a woman’s parents. I always ended up dealing
with a woman’s teenage, early-twenties children, who weren’t
exactly thrilled with me.”

Justice’s lip curled and he snickered at her.

“They didn’t like knowing cougar was gettin’ her
groove back, much less how and with whom.”

“Apparently, you got over your vicarious Oedipal
complex without counseling.”

“Ouch. Did you come up with that yourself?”

“I took psychology like everyone else. Even an econ
major like me could figure that out.”

“Okay, okay. Got it.”

“This has been pointed out to you before, I
hope?”

“Giselle says it was a power thing,” he replied with
alacrity. “So, truce?”

“As long as you remember who’s holding whose leash,
Humbert.”

His warm chuckles filled the car. “Yes, Lolita, my
sin, my soul.”

They drove back to the farm, Knox’s fingers laced
through hers, which made her smile. She looked out the window as
they sped along, silent, watching the familiar-but-not landscape go
by. When they drove back into the bumpy yard, the new car was gone,
surprisesurprise, but that was okay. She’d get somebody out here
soon enough to repossess it; she may not be able to throw him in
jail, but she could make his life miserable.

“He went to the bar in town,” she said as they got
out and entered the house. “He won’t be back for hours.”

She tucked her small hand in his big one and led him
up the stairs to her old bedroom, which was completely untouched
except for a layer of dust. Pink, delicate flowered wallpaper,
frilly pink curtains. Child-sized desk and chair. Round table and
rickety kitchen chair that were little bigger than the desk. Tiny
closet that could barely fit the three 1983 Sunday school dresses
she hadn’t bothered to take with her. Maybe she’d give them to
Giselle for burning. Chipboard dresser propped and repaired various
ways so it wouldn’t fall down. She and Knox could barely fit into
the room together.

An ancient white wrought iron full-size bed that was
still neatly made from the day she’d left for work and had
unexpectedly had to get married was on the only wall it could be
on.

“That,” she said, pointing to the table, “is where I
found my voice and made my name. It’s also where I sat and looked
at the wall and fantasized about a law professor I once had.”

She felt Knox start, then relax behind her, his hand
plowing through her hair. “Oh?”

“Yes,” she said briskly as she took her gun out of
her waistband and laid it on the desk. Then she grabbed the hem of
her sweater and pulled it over her head. She heard his quick intake
of breath as she threw it in the corner. She turned and sat on the
bed, lifting her feet one at a time for him to pull off her boots.
He obliged and tossed them over his shoulder where they landed out
in the hallway.

“I fantasized about him coming to my room in the
middle of the night. Sometimes he’d sneak in the front door or the
back door and magically miss all the stairs that squeaked.
Sometimes he’d climb in my window. But he always found me in bed
and would slip in with me.”

Justice pulled her jeans down and she slid a look
between her legs at Knox to see that he’d kicked off his moccasins
and taken off his own sweater. Gun on the dresser. He unbuttoned
his fly, and she tried not to smile.

“And it was a secret affair, you see, because, while
he
had
to have me, he was protecting me and my good name. My
father couldn’t know because this man had a
baaaad
reputation, but
I
knew better.” Knox chuckled.

Justice shimmied out of the barely-there lingerie
Knox
did
appreciate oh, so much, and went to the bed,
turning it down. She gasped a teensy gasp when she felt Knox’s
naked body against her naked back, his arousal hard against her,
and his mouth on her neck and shoulders, one big hand splayed out
over her belly to hold her to him and one cupping her breast. But
she pulled away from him and climbed into the bed, slipped down
under the covers, and pretended to be asleep.

“And I would wake up,” she whispered, “with him
beside me, kissing me awake. He would say, ‘I love you, Justice’
over and over again while he kissed me.”

Justice smiled when the bed depressed and creaked
under his weight and the covers floated down over both of them. He
wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight, their naked
bodies entwining. “I love you, Iustitia.” He kissed her softly,
slowly, deeply until her eyes fluttered open. “I love you,
Iustitia.”

“I love you, Knox.”

“Okay, and then what?”

She snickered. “And then what I don’t know. He took
over from there.”

Knox laughed outright, then stilled. She watched him
as he studied her reverently. Finally, he murmured, “Miss McKinley,
you haven’t been a very good student this semester.”

“I’m so sorry, Professor Hilliard,” Justice
breathed. “What can I do to make it up?”

“Come to my office for a conference after class. I
may be able to find a way for you to earn some extra credit.”

* * * * *

102:
HOLLY GOLIGHTLY

“Iustitia.”

Who was this person attempting to roust her out of
the cozy warm depths of sleep?

“Iustitia.”

“Goway,” she mumbled into her pillow.

“Iustitia.”

“What?”

“Santa brought you a present.”

“What time is it?”

“Noon.”

“Knox,” she groaned, turning over, presenting her
back to him. “I get to sleep in today without my boss yelling at
me. Just because you don’t like to sleep doesn’t mean I don’t like
to.”

“Iustitia Jane Hilliard, you get out of that bed
right now and come see what Santa brought you. How come you’re not
bounding out of bed and all happy? It’s Christmas morning.”

She sighed and opened her eyes to look at the wall.
“Knox, I told you. Holidays mean nothing to me. I don’t care; I
never cared after my mother died. And besides which, you know how I
feel about that whole Jesus thing.”

Knox grunted and the bed shifted, then she screamed
when cold air hit her like a blast the instant Knox ripped the
covers off of her. He picked her up and grinned smugly when she
glared at him. “You need an attitude adjustment.”

“Fine!” she snapped and Knox laughed. “Okay, okay.
Put me down and I’ll throw on some clothes so I don’t freeze my ass
off.”

He did, and trotted off to the basement.

Justice sighed and looked outside. It was dark, for
noon. The snow fell thick and fast, which was unusual. It very
rarely snowed before January and almost never on Christmas.

Well, whatever fetish Knox had about Christmas,
Giselle and Sebastian shared it. Her companions in Christmas Bad
Attitude were Bryce and Eilis. That didn’t surprise her much.

On Thanksgiving, they’d gathered at the Plaza house
to have dinner, along with Knox’s aunts Lilly and Dianne, who had
started to become regular fixtures at their get-togethers since
Knox wasn’t welcome with the tribe and Justice had to remain a
secret. She wasn’t sure how much the aunts knew about Fen, but Knox
had assured her that they dutifully swallowed whatever lie the pack
told them and kept their own counsel. “The individual families have
their own Thanksgiving dinners, then the tribe has a dozen parties
all weekend. Giselle and Bryce and Sebastian and Eilis will show up
at one or two of those. Christmas is pretty much the same way.”