Deploy, Part One (Rawlings #1)(84)

Almost on cue, days after she had seen Chasen, Murdock started to call her. She ignored him and never went anywhere alone. He’d put her in a prison all over again, and she hated it.

Her precautions were pointless.

Murdock found her at the grocery store. He came up behind her and turned her sharply and doing so caused her stomach to brush right across him. He jarred back as if she had tased him all over again.

“Which one got you knocked up? Or do they not even keep tabs? All in the fam and such.”

She reached in her bag, a move he saw and with faster reflexes than she expected he clenched her shoulders. “I’ll be damned if you strike me again.”

“Off of me,” she said sharply. Rightful fear was edging up her spine. She had more than her to worry about right then.

“Got news for you, sweetheart, those f*cking letters of yours are going to be your curse. Fix it. You tell them right now you forgot—he gave you those before he left. You tell them you’re still missing others or some shit. That’s what the text he sent you was about.”

“Fuck off,” she said, jerking back.

He leaned into her. “It was on record I was with your dad before you came home, that when you came home we hung out by ourselves and he had an accident. Everyone knows where he was before he came home. I didn’t tell them I saw Nolan because I didn’t. If they keep pressing me I’m going tell them why I didn’t see the f*cker—because I wasn’t there, because some whore ass girl I wanted killed her father for no reason and I thought to help her out like some dumb, messed up, love sick kid.”

Murdock glared down at her stomach. “It would make sense for one of their heathens to be born in jail, grow up without a mother.”

She sneered. “No. You don’t get to threaten me,” she said as she tried to jerk out of his clutches but his grip was too tight.

Right then Justice heard commotion, some older man asking what was going on. Then she heard Boon, who was with her at the store and had only gone an aisle over, yell. “Hey! Hey! Fucker,” as he took Murdock’s hands off of Justice and moved him back with the brunt of his chest.

Murdock went to swing, Boon ducked and pushed him back, crashing him into a display.

The Sheriff came out of nowhere then. Apparently, Murdock was there with him. More security came and the old man and his wife defended Boon, as loudly as they could. “He stopped that fool from beating on this girl, right here in the open!”

When the store manager offered for the Sheriff or deputies to overlook at the footage to determine blame, the Sheriff quickly squashed the entire ordeal.

Justice’s hard glare had told Boon not to say a word during the whole upset. It didn’t matter that he was three times her size, she still saw him as Declan’s baby brother, the kid she tutored, and he saw her as woman that was best not to cross, especially lately.

Last week alone she’d caught him drinking juice from the carton, and Boon was sure the woman was going to gut him where he stood.

On the way home, Boon made his fury known, though, showing his ass like a true Rawlings. “That son of a bitch is asking for it. One good reason. That’s all I need.”

Justice didn’t engage, all Murdock had done was put the fear she had at seventeen front and center again. There was nothing she could do about any timeline he was worried about; the investigation was in full force again.

In the past, it was only the investigators the Rawlings had hired that suspected Nolan had returned to Bradyville late in the evening. Now there was proof, or at the very least a strong enough lead that the investigators had to take another look—basically they were going over everything Providence had pulled together, or so Dawson told Justice. For her sanity, she kept her distance from the investigation. The stress was the last thing she needed.

Justice pushed the fear back down as she came close to her home.

They had all the groceries in before Boon glanced down at her. “You all right? He didn’t like, jar it out or anything, right?”

Justice lifted one brow, finding the blush on his face amusing.

“Jar it out?”

He nodded at her belly.

“Figured that out did you?”

Boon’s blush deepen a bit more. “I’m not blind. I do live here.”

“Is it in a Rawlings’ handbook to just not talk about things that bother you? Ignore them?”

There was no hiding her belly, not anymore. She still wore big clothes around town, she told herself it was because it was comfortable, but she knew deep down she just didn’t want the news to get to Declan before she had a chance to tell him.

Today was the first time she had really crossed people that knew them both. She’d spent a lot of time in Savannah at work, or finishing up her training and schoolwork.

It wouldn’t be long now, though. That damn Sheriff or Murdock himself would make sure the whole town knew, and right then, Justice couldn’t decide how she felt about it.

She was scared, and no matter how strong she seemed...she wanted Declan. She wanted to know he was home safe, that she was going to be fine—they were. For once in her life she wanted certainty, but like always, it was nothing more than a pipe dream.

“Bother me?” Boon asked, pointing at his chest. “Ignore that,” he said with a tick of his head.

“It doesn’t bother you this is my secret?”