Page 14 of Justice's Reward


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Justice chuckled. Oh man, he wished he could hear what Stain would say when a police car showed up.

“He’s parked near the Saint’s Outlaws Clubhouse. I was running by when I saw him. I’m just so glad I wasn’t running with my kids in the stroller like I do sometimes. Well, ma’am, you need to get someone out there fast because my husband’s due homein a little bit. I can guarantee he’ll go teach that man a lesson if the man is still there. Thank you,” she said, hanging up.

Laughter and applause rang out. Nita leaned over, taking a bow and smiling.

Pit motioned, and Crux put the camera that faced the street on the big screen.

“Shall we see how long this takes?” Pit asked.

“Yes, but let’s eat. I have a feeling seeing Stain’s face might put me off my food,” Aunt Charlie said.

Justice walked over to where Pit was sitting by Ariel while she held his son.

“He’s just perfect, Justice. I can’t wait for ours to be here so they can grow up together,” Ariel said, dropping a kiss on Ian’s forehead before handing him to Justice.

“Me too, Ariel. How are you feeling?” he asked. Knowing what Ariel was goingthrough with her pregnancy made him feel horrible he wasn’t there for Gina. He’d not liked her, but he never would have made her go through it all alone.

“Good, but ready to get this over with. I want to see my feet again and not wake up every hour to pee during the night,” she said, grumbling. “Of course, after keeping Ian, I know I’ll just exchange getting up to pee for getting up to feed our little guy,” she said.

“True, baby, but I’ll get up and change him and bring him back to bed to you,” Pit said, leaning close and brushing a kiss across Ariel’s forehead.

Justice watched with envy. He loved his little guy and his family helping him, but if he could choose, he’d be raising Ian with a woman he could call his own.

He tamped down his need for that woman to be Adley. He definitely should not dive in deep with Adley while she was his lawyer. He could, but if he screwed it up, he didn’t want to end up in jail because Adley hated him. Though he honestly couldn’t see the woman allowing her feelings to keep her from doing her best for someone she believed innocent.

Justice sat down with Ian in his arms while he pulled up his email. He opened the one from Adley and started reading.

What he read concerned him. Detective Stanza came to the Kansas City Police Department eight years ago. He’d moved from patrol officer to detective six months after joining the department, which was outside of the guidelines to become a detective. But after hopscotching over the time required for detective, he’d spent the next seven and ahalf years without moving up. It begged the question for Justice of why?

Justice watched the police car pull up beside Detective Stanza’s car. The officers didn’t even get out of their car; they just pulled up alongside, spoke to him for a minute, then drove off. Less than a minute later, the detective left.

Once he had both arms free and could type, he’d send Adley his thoughts because something was off with the detective. He just couldn’t figure out what. He read what she had on Gina’s murder and was more confused. No witnesses, and the big red flag for Justice was that Gina had no defensive wounds. Which meant she knew her assailant, was drugged, or wasn’t expecting to be attacked and was incapacitated before she could fight back. He looked to see if there was a toxicology report from Adley,and there wasn’t. He had a lot of questions to send to Adley. After supper was plenty soon enough to deal with this. He was going to cuddle his son and forget about the detective for a while.

A grunt, then a splash of water against the floor near him, had him looking up. Pit had his arms around Ariel. His eyes were closed.

“Please tell me that your water didn’t just run down my jeans,” Pit said, shuddering.

“Your son is obviously coming a week early, and you’re whining about a little fluid on your jeans. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of your son’s fluids getting on you this year. Now call my brothers and parents to let them know we’re heading to the hospital. Tack, would you drive us to the hospital? Charlie, can you grab my bag from our house?” Ariel directed before pausingto breathe through what Justice was guessing was another contraction.

“I’ve got to grab Ian’s bag from my house and my pickup. Aunt Charlie, I’ll get the bag so you can head to the hospital,” Justice said. “Looks like you’re getting your cousin tonight,” Justice murmured to Ian.

Guess anything about the detective would have to wait. The Saint’s Outlaws had a baby being born.

Chapter Nine

Adley settled into her chair with her food and placed Macy’s plate on the table. Macy was getting their drinks, and Adley was queuing up their show. She was right. Macy had stayed up late watching their show while she was on her trip.

Macy had picked up supper. They were both tired from all the threads they’d followed this week. They knew more than they did last week, but it wasn’t enough. Adley was positive that they were missing something that could tie it all together.

“Here’s your drink. Let’s start,” Macy said.

Adley started the show, then dug in. She’d missed lunch because she’d been at the courthouse. One of her clients from a couple years ago had needed some help. Adley was happy to do so, but it had thrown her behind in her schedule. She’d found a small packet of pretzels in Macy’s purse from the airplane that she’d eaten.

Adley lost herself in the show. She wasn’t going to think about work because sometimes she did her best work when she wasn’t actively thinking about a problem. She and Macy giggled at the show and panted after the leading man. Once the show finished, Adley laid her plate on the coffee table and kicked back. It had been a long week.

“Any plans for the weekend?” Adley asked.

“Does lying around doing nothing count?” Macy replied.