Deploy, Part One (Rawlings #1)(76)

Declan trusted them to keep her safe now, deep down he really did.

Nevertheless, Murdock had wilted Declan’s rose and he was going to pay. He was going to wish he was never born by the time Declan was through with him. No matter where he was or what he was doing, he’d plan this revenge until it was had.

Declan glanced to his side at Boon, who couldn’t pass for any kind of baby anymore. He’d filled out like Declan and Tobias, thicker in the shoulders, tall. The innocence and youth he had lingered in his eyes which were always equally questioning and angry.

“You don’t leave her side. Fucking move in.”

Boon nodded sharply. He already planned to; he hadn’t been more than hundred feet from her since she came home from the emergency room.

When Declan finally made it to Providence’s truck he slid in the passenger seat and stared forward. Not at his family staggered across the yard. How broken they’d all become, how much worse it became each time he came back, but at her window. Where he left her. She’d come to the pane to watch him leave...something she’d become accustomed to doing.

The smallest of smiles was on her face as the tips of her fingers gently waved goodbye. Just like when they were in high school, their stare seemed to say a million things and nothing at all...what it did do was connect them on a level that neither one of them understood, not even after all this time.

“She’s going to be all right,” Providence said.

“Yeah, and how do you know?”

Providence smirked. “Because Dawson likes her, and she hates everyone.” Providence lifted his shoulder. “I already told you, she’ll make her even stronger, a fighter. Nothin’ is ever going to hurt her again—at least it won’t live to talk about it.”

***

When Bell finally met Dawson, and sensed how much Dawson had helped Justice through not only this ‘mugging’ but also the past, she was quick to tell Dawson they had plenty of room if she wanted to stay a bit. Dawson had jumped at the idea and volunteered to help with rent if they could make it a permanent deal.

Justice had more than one knock down drag out fight with Dawson about how she was not a charity case. The first one happened about five minutes after Declan left.

“You want me to f*cking leave? Fine. Make me,” Dawson had threatened.

Justice tried, she’d fought hard as hell. She kicked, she pulled hair, ripped clothes and somehow by the time it was over she had managed to get Dawson outside but she was the one lying on ground panting for breath, with both Boon and Atticus staring them both down as if they had somehow landed in the twilight zone and weren’t sure if they wanted to stay or go.

Dawson squatted across Justice’s waist and leaned forward. “I’m going to teach you to kick ass, the right way.” She leaned closer. “So when this f*ck comes back ‘round—and he will—you’ll let him know looking your way was a fatal mistake.”

Justice swallowed harshly, trying to catch her breath. “Why do you care?”

“Because I can,” she said as she stood tall and made her way back inside, sauntering right by the star struck Boon and Atticus.

Dawson made good on her word. You would’ve thought Justice was training for the Marines herself starting that next dawn.

They boxed, a lot. But there was more to their routine. After the first day Justice found herself sleeping so deeply that no dreams touched her, good or bad, and at the next dawn, she felt a little stronger.

After three weeks, Justice almost felt like herself again. The scars were still there. The emotions that were toxic, and the thoughts that were just as tragic were too, but she was getting there—breaking through the fog.

She was able to fool Declan, or so she assumed. Their conversations went back to the routine they where used to during the time they were apart, the ones she saw differently now that she knew what his life was like away from Bradyville.

They knew every detail of every day, but nothing deeper.

Because he came to see her when he did he couldn’t come for the next Rally. They thought they weren’t going to get to see each other before his deployment but the one he was assigned to changed again.

Now he was going later, and he was going longer, right until the end of his contract that he never bothered to tell her if he was renewing or not, and if so for how long.

A girl could read into the lack of discussion a million different ways, none of them good.

It was right at a month when she saw Murdock again. She was in the library, studying for the summer course she not only picked up but paid for when she thought Declan was going to be gone, but wasn’t now.

A class that was giving her an excuse to heal a little more before she was face to face with the intensity of Declan and the weight of their uncertain future.

She rounded a corner and Murdock was there, coming up the other way with a cup of coffee in his hand.

He actually sneered at her, which made her blood boil with rage.

Just behind him she saw Dawson walking by. She glanced up as if she heard Justice’s fear calling her name. Instead of coming to her defense, fighting her battle for her, she simply nodded and walked on.

Dawson didn’t go far, only one aisle over, where she could not only hear what went down, but also see Boon who hated every minute of being stuck in a library.

“Well, well,” Murdock said to Justice. “I used to know a girl who looked a lot like you,” he said in a low tone. He nodded toward her stiffly “When did you get back? Did he get over it? Not tight enough for him any more?”