Deploy, Part One (Rawlings #1)(71)

Justice swallowed stiffly. There was.

Her expression answered the question.

“Do you want to know? Or do you just want to stay with the plan we have.”

The plan they had, medication that would stop infection and pregnancy, tests Justice would have to return for, pay for out of her pocket because her insurance sucked. Justice dropped her head. The world could not be this backward, this cold.

The doctor put the pregnancy test on the table and patted Justice on the shoulder as she left. “We’ll finish up in a few, make the choices we need to.”

“Be right back,” Dawson said as she followed the doctor out.

The doctor had been nice and reassuring but she was not agreeing with this lack of reporting. Even if Justice laid it out for her, how many demons she had, she doubted the doctor would see it her way.

Dawson got it. She didn’t completely agree, but she got it and was doing her best to make sure the doctor didn’t report it anyway.

Justice took the test, and then as it sat on the table and the clock ticked, she paced. She clenched her fist in anger and she cussed God himself. Rage boiled inside of her and she thought of everyway to kill Murdock, of every place she could run and hide.

Then the suffocating trap she was in seemed to squeeze her even tighter.

She’d missed her flight. And now, one way or another, she’d have to tell Declan something and no matter what she said, someone from his family was going to be in her face. The knowing Rawlings’.

They’d figure it out.

Anger and panic came to her when she thought of how this would be the final snap in Declan, what he’d never be able to get over.

What she’d never be able to get over...

Her rage erupted then and she went wild. She knocked over the table, the chair then slid all the counters clean.

Seconds after the first crashing sound, the nurse had charged in, and then too many people for Justice to even notice. She was too busy fighting, everything.

“Out!” Dawson yelled. “I said out!”

Then Dawson, who was more or less the same size as Justice, wrapped herself around Justice and slid down against the wall. Justice fought her but Dawson was an exercise, kick-boxing fanatic, and there was no winning this fight.

Finally, Justice crumbled into tears, gasping, unable to breathe and Dawson rocked her back and forth.

“It’s going to be okay,” Dawson said, moving her hand across her brow.

A second later she reached for the test.

“Negative. He didn’t take anything from you. You’re going to have a house full of hell raising Declan’s one day,” she swore.

Justice shook her head. “He’ll kill him...they’ll take him away.” She was sure that would happen. Declan would not be able to let this go; there wasn’t enough self-control in the world. And somehow, the secrets of how her father died would come out too. Life was over.

“I got a plan.”

And Dawson did have one.

It was Providence. They had been base brats together in the past, a bit more the year before Nolan went missing. Dawson knew Providence would understand where Justice was coming from, and would trust Dawson if she said it was better that he didn’t need to know all the details.

He’d be a dick about it. End up doing it his own way. But still he could be the buffer Justice needed right then.

***

Dawson was outside waiting for Providence when he finally decided to show up.

“What the f*ck, Dawson,” he said, charging up on her. “I’ve gotten my ass chewed twenty ways for not answering my phone. You want to hear these messages? Declan is losing his f*cking mind—the whole family is—and you call me out of the f*cking blue and say ‘Hey, I bet you’re looking for someone?’”

“She was raped.”

Every inch of Providence’s thick six three stance tensed and he went to charge forward. Dawson threw herself before him and managed to make him hesitate when she put all her weight behind her slug.

Providence was a smart man; he knew Dawson was capable of throwing him down if she really wanted to. If she was pushing against him, it was nothing more than a gentle reminder.

“She doesn’t want him to know.”

“Too f*cking late,” Providence growled.

She shoved him back. “This something you’d want to hear? Right before a mission? Or when you still had over a year on your contract—when you already have family issues? Would this push your sanity button? Keep you alive out there when you’re face to face with an enemy?”

His angry jade eyes searched hers.

“She’s trying to keep him alive. She’s beat up. Bad. We need to tell him she was mugged or something. We can’t hide it all.”

“You want me to lie to my boy? Are there no limits with you?” he hissed.

“No. I’m telling you that is what she’s telling him and anyone who asks, and when they push you to find who did it because no one is going to tell his family anything, you might find this truth.” She glared up at him. “You tell Declan, I’m going to teach Justice to take down a man twice her size with little effort, and I’m going to arm her.”

He leaned forward, glinted with the same stubborn anger he always had when he bothered to look at her. “No bullshit cover story you want me to cram down Declan’s mouth is going to stick. Declan Rawlings is intensely aware of Justice Rose. If he takes one look at her, this is over—he’ll know. Brace her for hell because I swear to you, nothing but that is comin’ of this.”