Brute Justice (Justice Series) (14 page)

Chapter Twenty-seven

The burn hit him, woke him from a deep sleep. He sat straight up. This was the first one to slam him in the middle of the night, and he was surprised at how disoriented he felt. He rubbed his head.

Ow
! Are you kidding me? Well, this sucks. Wait, where am I?

He swung his legs to the floor and stood up. Looking around the room almost in panic, his eyes finally lit on the open bathroom door. The faint glow of the night light Mrs. D had lit helped him recognize his surroundings.

He stumbled over to the chair, sat, dropped his head into his hands.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

Ouch!

His left leg started to bob quickly, pivoting up and down on the ball of his foot. He rubbed his temples in agony.

Stop. Please.

A faint knock rapped on the closed door.

Huh?

“Yes?”

The door opened silently and Lexi hurried across the room to him. She knelt down at his feet, resting a hand on each knee. “What can I do?”

It’s 3:20 in the morning. What is she doing up?

“What are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I was tossing and turning when I felt the signal. Thought I’d come down and check on you. Are you okay? Need a cold cloth?”

“No. I’m fine. Well,” he winced, “not fine. But this one’s better in comparison. Where’s Sam?”

“He’s a pretty sound sleeper. He always slept through my flashes, and I was in the next room!”

His face crinkled with a smile, despite the burn.

Lexi sat in silence as he continued to rock back and forth in his seat. She said nothing, sensing her presence was more valuable than any words she could offer. Every now and then she would check the digital clock on the bed stand. After what seemed like an eternity, he lifted his head, wiped the sweat from his brow.

Finally.

Clint leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Thanks, Lex.”

“Better now?”

“Yes, much.”

She glanced at the clock again. “When did it start?”

“3:18.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s like thirteen minutes!”

“Felt more like thirteen hours,” he huffed.

She smiled sympathetically. “I’m going to get you some water. I’ll be right back.”

He heard her bare feet pad up the stairs and across the kitchen tile overhead. A few seconds later she was back on the steps and appeared in the doorway.

“Are you up to some light?”

“Sure. My head is fine now.”

Rather than switching on the overhead fluorescents, she reached down and hit the low setting on a lamp next to the love seat. She handed him the bottle of water she had in her hand.

I never knew flannel pants could look so…

He shook his head to clear his mind. “Thanks. For the water. For coming down to check on me.”

“It’s no problem, Clint. You’d have done the same.”

“Yeah.”
She probably needs to go back to bed.

“Do you want me to help you log this one?”

“Uh, sure. I mean no. I can get it. I mean…”

“What’s the matter, Clint?”

Her eyes look sad. Confused. I can’t say anything right.

He sighed. “Aw, Lex… It’s the middle of the night. It’s the first time I’ve had the chance to be alone with you, and it’s 3:30 in the morning! What if your mom comes down? Sam?”

“What if they do? We’re not doing anything.”

Yeah, but…

She smiled as if she read his mind. “Where’s your laptop?”

He walked around to the far side of the bed and grabbed his computer from where it lay on the floor, plugged into the charger. He hit the power button.

“Here, let me have it. I can type faster. You just talk.” Lexi waved for Clint to hand it over. He opened his progress notes file and took the laptop to her.

Better sit across the room, the way she smells. Way across the room.

Lexi looked at him as he settled on the edge of the bed. “Did it wake you?”

“Yeah, I was sleeping hard. I came up out of the bed like my sheets were on fire. Then my mind was foggy. I couldn’t figure out where I was.”

“Oh, Clint!”

“
Shhh
. I’m not telling you this to make you feel sorry for me. Hey, if you want me to do this myself…”

“No, you’re right. I’m sorry.” Her head went down and her fingers started tapping on the keyboard.

They spent the next twenty minutes filling out notes of the episode, leaving out nothing. When he couldn’t think of anything else to add, he leaned back on his hands. “I think that’s it, Lex. Thanks.”

“Okay, enough about that,” she flipped the top down, put the computer aside. “Tell me more about what happened tonight at the club.”

“I thought we were going to wait and talk about it when everyone is here tomorrow?”

“I want your side. Not Sam’s. Not Leesha’s. I want to hear what you saw. How you felt.”

I’m not sure anyone has ever really wanted to know how I felt. I don’t remember any woman ever caring. I’m sure Mom, but…

He cleared his mind, then his throat. “Sam’s got more background on the start, on what he heard and saw to tip him off. I can only tell you what I saw once we got there.”

“Okay.”

“It was pretty awful, Lexi. Are you sure you want to know?”

“I do. I feel like I wasn’t even able to help!”

“It all happened so fast. You know from the medics that she was drugged, right?”

“Yes.” Her eyes were sober.

“By the time Sam led us back to where they were, the creep had her pinned to the wall and was pulling her shirt up.” Clint looked up to gauge her reaction.

She’s really trying to be brave.

He rubbed his eyes. “Damn, Lex. Don’t make me recount this to you. It was horrible! I can’t imagine anyone who could… I mean, if this happened to anyone I knew…”

“It won’t.”

“How do you know?” He snapped his fingers. “She was a split second from…”

“But she wasn’t.”

“Sam was furious. I could see it in his eyes – he was thinking about you. About how he’d feel if someone tried to…”

“But it wasn’t me, Clint.”

He caught her dead in the eyes. “I’ve never felt for anyone like I do for you, Lexi. Don’t get me wrong, I’d protect Leesha with my life, too.”

“I know you would.”

“But if anyone tried to put his hands on you. Take advantage of you like that…”

She looked up and saw the fire in his expression. “Well, we’ll just have to make sure it doesn’t happen, now won’t we?”

“How?”

She smiled reassuringly. “We’ll just have to stick close together.”

His face softened. “I’d like that. To keep you safe.”

“Don’t misunderstand. I can fend for myself!”

He smiled. “I know you can.”

“But it’s nice to be protected every once in a while, too.”

He paused. “Promise me something?”

“Okay, what?”

“You’ll let me know if I’m too protective? I don’t want to scare you off.”

Lexi threw her head back and laughed softly. “You got it. But you don’t seem so scary.”

His blue eyes lit as he smiled back at her. “It’s getting late. I’ve kept you too long.”

“No problem. But you’re right. I should probably head back up before someone misses me.”

“Sam?”

“Yeah, mainly.”

He smirked. “I can take him now!”

She laughed and turned toward the stairs. Before she could reach the door, Clint crossed the room, grabbed her wrist with his right hand and spun her around to face him. He wrapped his left arm gently around her waist, pulling her to him.

Bending his face down to meet hers, he whispered “I didn’t get the chance to thank you properly for being here for me tonight.”

Before he could think twice about it, he leaned down and met his lips to hers.

She tastes as sweet as she smells…

Lexi melted into his chest, reaching up to touch his cheek with her fingertips as the kiss lingered. She sighed as he pulled back and looked into her eyes.

“So, thank you.” He smiled.

“My pleasure.”

“You know… It really shouldn’t take a midnight flash to get you all to myself.” He still hadn’t let her go.

“You’re right,” she laughed. “That just doesn’t seem very fair to you.”

“All’s well that ends well, though,” his lips turned up in a crooked, cocky grin. He loosened his grip, knowing it was the smart thing to do.

“Well, good night.”

“Good night, Lexi.”

She turned toward the steps, then looked back over her shoulder. “You know I’m not going to get any sleep now, don’t you?”

He grinned. “Yeah, me neither.”

Chapter Twenty-eight

Fashionably late, Jade pulled into the
Dixon
driveway at five after eleven. Everyone else was seated around the kitchen table, snacking on the brunch spread Marcy had put on the counter.

As soon as Marcy left the room, the group started firing questions about the drama the previous night.

“When did you see him slip her the
roofies
?” Jade asked, popping a grape in her mouth.

“I smelled it first, the strange chemical scent. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it wasn’t right,” Sam said. “And then I tried to listen for his voice. With all the noise, it took me a while to figure out where he was. In the end, it was my nose that led me. I was able to track the scent of the drug, then locate him with my eyes and ears.”

“When did you find him?” Lexi asked.

“While Leesha and I were dancing. As soon as I saw him slip it in her drink, I told Leesh she’d need to find the manager. Watching them leave, I could tell she was already staggering under the influence, so I knew we didn’t have a lot of time. So I grabbed Clint and we ran after him.”

“Why Clint?” Jade asked.

What? What’s wrong with me?

“Well, I couldn’t fill Bruce in on the details, and I knew I’d need some backup.”

“I know, but why not Leesha? She could have done anything to him.”

“True, but not without raising suspicion about her abilities. If she stopped the punk without touching him, he’s a witness to what we can do. Plus, I needed her to get an adult, and fast.”

“Why not one of us?”

Good grief. She’s pouting about this!

“I didn’t have time to fill you in. Leesha was there, she knew what was going down. It’s that simple.”

“Look,” Leesha tried a little more gently, “it’s going to take all of us sometimes to get things done. We’ve all got different talents. I believe we were all given unique powers so we could use them in different combinations to complete tasks.”

“Maybe,” Lexi pondered this, “but Crain is such a monster! What kind of tasks did he have in mind?”

“This I don’t know. Though I’m not sure it matters at this point. We’re not going to work for him.” Leesha crossed her arms. “But it doesn’t mean we can’t work together.”

“Hey, did I mention my powers are back?”

The whole table turned to look at Clint. Lexi was smiling at him.

“I just thought you might like to know. It may change how we operate today when we head over to Sara Milligan’s.” He grinned.

“Well it won’t hurt, that’s for sure!” Leesha nodded. “When?”

“Middle of the night. 3:20 to be exact. Here are my notes.”

She scanned the pages quickly and smiled. “Yes, I believe this does make things a little different today. Sam, are you still thinking about taking two different cars?”

“I’m not sure there’s any way around it. Jade’s going to need a delivery vehicle, but we can’t all just sit there on the front step watching from her car.”

“I agree,” Leesha nodded. “But I’m thinking it would be good to have muscle in both vehicles. Lexi is going to have to ride with Jade, but she’ll be invisible, so that’s no problem. Sam, you and I can ride together. We can both work from a distance. We’ll position Clint closer, in case he needs to get there fast. Make sense?”

“Yeah, I think that makes the most sense,” Sam agreed. “Since we took Lexi’s car last time, we can take my truck today. That way no one will see the bug twice and wonder. We’ll try and find a different place to park too, but I don’t want to get too far away.”

“Clint, can you hide in the back seat of the Range Rover and keep an eye on the girls from the curb?”

“Sure can, Leesha. No problem.”
Finally I’m able to be useful again.

“So what am I delivering?”

Leesha got up and grabbed a small brown box with a shipping label. “Here, you’ll need to take this with you.”

“This looks like the real thing. What is it?”

“It’s actually a medical journal, packed in a box.”

“Why all the trouble?” Jade asked, taking a closer look at the box. “The book, the mailing label? This actually looks like it came from a real shipping company…”

“The company is real. The package had to seem real, just in case she accepts it for him. We can’t just deliver an empty box. It’ll throw up all kinds of red flags to him. It has to be real, or he’ll suspect something’s up.”

“He will anyway,” Lexi said, “if he opens a box with a book he didn’t order. How do you explain that?”

“I faked a packing slip which looks like it came from a medical society book of the month club. It gives him the direction to mail it back if he doesn’t want to subscribe.”

“Great thinking!” Lexi gave Leesha a high five. “What if he mails it back? Where does it go?”

“Who cares?” Leesha just grinned.

“Good point,” Clint laughed.

“We probably ought to get going,” Sam said. “I don’t want to miss our opportunity. Clint, have you checked the GPS to see where Crain’s at lately?”

“Just checked fifteen minutes ago. He’s at his apartment. Was there all night.”

“Good. Okay guys, let’s go.”

Clint watched from Jade’s back seat as Sam pulled his truck into the driveway of a neighbor’s house across the street.

Why there? Oh. Probably no one home. He’d know that.

Turning his attention back to the front seat, he waited for Jade to put the car in park before handing the package to her. “You ready? Know what to say?”

“Yep. It’s fine, no problem. Is Sam ready?” She glanced back to where he was parked.

“All clear,” Sam projected to the group. “Sara’s in there, having lunch. She’s alone, so this should be a great time to go in.”

“Okay then,” Lexi said, already invisible. She had disappeared shortly before they turned into the neighborhood. Clint curled his long body in the back seat about the same time, trying to avoid anyone seeing him through the window.

For this to work properly, it’s got to look like Jade’s alone. I hope this goes as smoothly as Sam thinks it will.

“Wait!” Clint yelled as he saw Jade reach for the door handle. “Remember, keep your mind open for Sam to give you instructions. And do your best to get her to think through all she knows about Crain, if she knows him.”

“I know, Clint.”

“And get in and out of there as quickly as possible.”

“Okay, okay. Let me go now, so we can get this done!” They were gone before he could protest further.

Jade rounded the front of the vehicle and Clint gingerly placed his head against the seat and raised it just high enough so his left eye could peer out of the window. He watched her walk up the front path and push the doorbell.

It felt like an eternity watching her stand there, waiting for the front door to open. Clint didn’t realize his face was so close to the window until his shallow breathing started to fog his view.

I hate waiting here, not knowing. I wish I were in Sam’s truck. At least he could tell me what he was seeing, hearing.

He heard Sam project into his head. “Calm down, Clint. She’s coming.”

Is she alone?

“Yes. It’s fine.”

Just then, the front door opened and a petite blonde stepped out through the storm door.

She doesn’t look very old. Maybe mid-thirties. What’s she doing with Crain?

Still wishing he could hear what Sam could, Clint watched Jade talk to Sara, who was shaking her head. Jade gestured to the other houses in the neighborhood, but Sara looked like she had no idea of who Jade was looking for. She just shrugged her shoulders and continued talking to Jade with a confused expression on her face.

Well okay, then. She doesn’t know Crain. That much is obvious.

Then everything happened at once, but it felt like slow motion. Sam was yelling into everyone’s heads. “Get out! Get out! Jade, Lexi – get back to the car now!”

What?! What is it?

Clint scanned the subdivision through his peek hole. His eyes landed on the black Mercedes as it rounded the corner.

Oh shit.

His head whipped back up to see Jade at the driver’s door. She climbed in and pulled her sunglasses on, her ball cap down just a bit lower. She didn’t even appear ruffled.

As she put the keys in the ignition, Lexi slid silently into the back seat, grabbed Clint’s hand and extended her transparency onto him. Relieved by the cloak, he sat up and pulled her to him. She leaned over him to peer out his window with him.

The Range Rover was already in motion before Crain pulled into Sara’s drive. They passed the sedan on the street. Crain looked up into the cab of the truck. His expression showed nothing.

“That was close,” Clint pulled Lexi to him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine.”

“Jade?”

“Sure, no problem.” She looked back in the rear view mirror, though she still couldn’t see either one of them. “It’s a good thing Sam was able to warn us. A few more seconds and we would have passed him on the sidewalk, not the road. Do you think Sam saw him coming?”

“Yeah, he must have. He was screaming before Crain turned onto the street. By the time I saw him, you guys were back here.” He kissed the top of Lexi’s head, still feeling the tingle of her invisibility. His arms wrapped around her tighter.

“
Ow
, Clint,” she elbowed him playfully. “Not so tight, muscles. You’re going to break my ribs!”

“Sorry. I just…” He paused, at a loss for words.

“It’s okay,” she looked up and reached for his arm. “We’re fine. It’s over.”

Jade glanced back into the back seat again. “Sam just said he and Leesha are going to hang back a few minutes and keep an eye on the situation. He told us to head back to the house and they’d meet us there shortly.”

“Perfect. Get some distance between us!” Clint smiled down with a spark of mischief in his eyes.

“Hey, are you two making out back there?” But Jade already knew the answer as Lexi’s muffled giggle responded.