Justice (19 page)

It took them another fifteen minutes until they were out of the door. Justice locked the place up then took Paul’s hand. “We’re going to be fine.”

“I know.” Being positive was half the victory. They walked to the car, and a familiar, unwelcome sensation slithered down Paul’s spine.
“Justice.”

“I feel it. The wind’s wrong
.
C
an’t scent anything out of the ordinary. Take my phone and text Oscar. It might be Levi or Lyndon out on patrol.”

“Maybe.”
Paul lifted Justice’s phone from his shirt pocket. He had the text sent before they reached the vehicle.

Justice unlocked the doors and opened Paul’s. “After you.”

It was cheesy, and sweet. Paul got in. He buckled up after Justice shut the door. Paul watched him walk around to the driver’s side door. Justice got in and Paul breathed a sigh of relief. He’d halfway expected an attack.

“Here.” He handed Justice his phone. Justice pushed it back towards him.

“You hold it. I won’t be messing with it since I’m driving.” He started the car.

Paul jumped when the phone vibrated. He read the message out loud. “‘Levi and Lyndon are on the loose. Jo and I will shift and make sure no one else is out there. Go, we’ve got this’
.
”

“Oscar has really grown up,” Justice said as he put the car in gear. He began backing it up as he talked. “It’s so weird trying to match up the memories I have of him as a kid hiding away from most of the family at the reunions. He’s not shy or insecure now. Not at all.”

“Wow, I can’t imagine him being anything less than borderline dynamic. He doesn’t seem to be the kind of person who would be intimidated by anyone.”

They continued to talk for the first few hours of the trip. Eventually, Paul grew so sleepy that he nodded off despite his best attempts not to. When he woke up, it was because the change in the sound of the engine reached him through his sleep. He blinked and wiped away the bit of drool at the edge of his mouth. “Where are we?” The question came out slurred. Paul scrubbed at his eyes and yawned. “I need to fuel up and my bladder’s not happy at all.”

Justice exited the highway and drove to a busy-looking gas station. “You hungry?”

Paul arched his back, trying to work out a kink in it. “Nothing like gas station food to wake me up. Mmm, burnt grease.”

Justice laughed and parked the car at a pump. “Well, if you don’t want the grease, they have a Subway here. You could get us both a sandwich while I’m pumping gas and using the restroom.”

“I’ll do that, after I hit the restroom up first. What do you want on your sub?” Paul should have known Justice would want as much meat as he could get. Justice handed him thirty bucks. “Thanks.”

Paul tucked the money into his front jeans pocket then headed in to use the restroom. He held his breath as long as he could as he pissed. The place was more on the nasty side than not, with suspiciously wet floors and no soap in the dispensers.

After tucking his cock away, and ignoring the other men draining their bladders, Paul washed his hands to the best of his ability. He remembered that he’d read somewhere twenty seconds of washing your hands under running water killed most germs. It’d have to do, either way. Paul shut the knob off with his elbow, shook his hands, then left the restroom, glad someone was coming in as he was going out so he didn’t have to touch the door handle.

Subway had a line, but it moved quickly. Justice joined him before their sandwiches were made, though. Paul couldn’t help it, he was smiling like a loon just because Justice was there with him.

They took their food and drinks back to the car. “You won’t text and drive, but you’re going to eat and drive?” Paul asked.

Justice started the car. “No, I’m going to park the car, leave it running and eat this sandwich of the gods. Then I’ll drive.”

“I can drive,” Paul offered. “I had a nap. I promise not to run off the road or anything. I do—I did have a license. It wouldn’t have expired yet.”

Justice gave him a soft look and he stroked Paul’s cheek. “You can drive. I trust you.”

After Justice parked the car again, Paul ate half of his sub and folded the wrapper around the other half for later. Justice finished soon after, and they swapped seats. Paul adjusted the seat and mirrors. “Back on the highway we exited?”

“Yeah.” Justice leaned his seat back and closed his eyes. “Gonna be on it for about three hundred miles. Exit one eighty-two.”

“Got it.”

Justice was asleep before they got out of the parking lot.

It had been almost two years since Paul had driven. He was nervous at first, but the thrill of the freedom soon chased away his nerves. He wasn’t driving a fancy car, but he didn’t care. It just felt good to hold that steering wheel in his hands and take on the open highway.

Dust devils tore up the land on either side of them off and on. Paul would have loved to have watched them, but he was maxing out the speed limit. Another time, he promised himself.

When he saw the exit he was supposed to take, Paul was surprised. Time had flown faster than the car’s tires on the asphalt.

“Hey, Justice, I’m taking that exit.”

Justice huffed, waking up unwillingly it seemed, but by the time they were on the next stretch of road, he was awake, if not fully alert.

“Still got about six hours or so to go,” Justice said. “I’m about hungry again.”

“Eat the rest of my sandwich, if you want. Maybe it’ll tide you over for an hour or two until there’s somewhere decent to stop.”

The trip was fun, even though Paul was worried about what they’d find once they entered Justice’s apartment. That fear made him treasure every minute he spent laughing and talking with Justice even more.

A little over thirteen hours after they’d left, Justice parked the car in the lot at his apartment complex. “I’m not parking close to where my place is, just in case someone’s watching it. My ass is asleep.”

“I’ll wake it up first chance I get,” Paul promised. “Do you think maybe we should wait until it gets dark?”

“I’d rather not. That’d be more dangerous for us, I think,” Justice explained. “There’s a couple of ball caps in our duffle. They aren’t much of a disguise, but they’re still better than nothing.”

Paul turned around after he unbuckled. He leaned over the seat and opened the duffle. He retrieved the two caps and sat back down. “You pick first.”

Justice took the black one with silver stitching. Paul put the dark blue one on his head. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Fifteen

After weeks in the country, breathing in pure mountain air, the scents of the city were an affront to Justice’s nasal passages. His nose itched, twitched and burned. “Damn it.”

“What’s wrong?” Paul asked as they strode towards the sidewalk that wound around the sprawling apartment complex.

“I’m getting congested. This shit never happened when I was a kid, but maybe Oscar and Josiah are on to something. So many more pollutants around nowadays.” He pinched his nose to ward off a sneezing fit. Then his eyes started to water. “Fugh.” Justice stopped them in the shade.

Paul giggled nervously.

Justice blinked then stopped pinching his nose so he could swipe at his eyes. It took him a few minutes, but he got his body under control. Unfortunately, that didn’t include his sense of smell.

“I can’t scent like I’m usually able to,” Justice grumbled. “Damn it, I grew up here, lived here until I joined the Marines, then moved back. I’ve never had allergies.”

Paul cocked his head and considered Justice. “I have, and nothing’s bothering me here.”

They both stared at each other, wariness creeping back and forth between them. Paul finally spoke. “As sensitive as your nose is, I wouldn’t necessarily be bothered by the same chemicals or smells that you would. I wouldn’t even be aware of them.”

Justice pinched his nose again, but the sneeze slammed into him anyway and he let go before his ears popped or his eyes bugged out.

“Bless you,” Paul murmured. “Maybe it is some kind of allergy. After all, people develop allergies after being exposed to something, right?”

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it sucks ass.” He sniffled and tipped his head back. “I don’t get the feeling we’re being watched.”

“That’s good,” a deep, rough and familiar voice said.

Paul’s freckles stood out in stark relief as he paled, his eyes settling on the big man Justice turned to find behind him.

Justice backed away until he was standing with his back pressed to Paul’s front. “What are you doing here, Cliff?”

Paul began to shake.

Cliff arched a bushy brow. “Thought maybe he’d gotten past being scared of wolf shifters.”

“What are you doing here?” Justice repeated. He reached behind him and Paul gripped his hand.

Cliff moved back a few steps and Justice thought regret flashed over his features before aloofness took its place. “I actually felt bad about the blood stains. I figured that was something your mate didn’t need to see.”

Paul’s breathing was too fast, too rough. Justice silently tried to soothe him as he kept his gaze locked on Cliff. “So you were just doing something nice.”

Cliff shrugged. “It happens. Just not to me. I didn’t want there to be any traces of death left behind in case the cops showed up. I assure you, it was all self-serving on my part.” Cliff pulled the leather necklace out from beneath his shirt. He held it right above the little jar hanging on it.

Paul’s wheezing was loud, his panic palpable.

Then Cliff closed his eyes and gripped that container in his hand. Silver light slipped out from between his fingers as he spoke words that Justice didn’t understand. They weren’t English, yet something deep inside him responded, his leopard wanting out to bow at Cliff’s feet.

His leopard was obviously suffering from some kind of head trauma.

Cliff opened his eyes. The gold and silver irises seemed to glow for one second, then Cliff blinked and let go of the necklace. He turned and waved as he walked off.

“What the—” Justice spun around. Paul was staring open-mouthed at Cliff as he walked away. “Paul?”

Paul closed his mouth only long enough to swallow. “It stopped. The panic attack, it was a bad one. He scared me, Justice. He’s…there’s something about him that just seems so big and powerful. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t calm down, and he started that chanting. Everything just calmed inside me.”

Justice wanted to pull Paul close and hold him, kiss him, but had to restrain himself until they were inside his apartment. He settled for cupping Paul’s elbow and steering him in the right direction.

“I really don’t know what to make of him,” he confided in Paul. “I was more than halfway convinced he was an enemy, then Oscar talked me into reserving judgement, and now he did some kind of shamanistic voodoo on you.”

Paul gave him a sideways look. “Why do you think it’s any kind of voodoo? Or were you joking?”

“Joking, mainly. I do think he has some kind of shaman powers, although I thought shamans were healers, not killers.” Justice sniffed. He still couldn’t catch more than the basic scent of his surroundings. Why hadn’t whatever Cliff done helped him out any?

By the time they’d taken the circuitous route to his second floor apartment, the Phoenix sun had worked them both into a sweat. Justice could smell man, and arousal, his mate turned on by him for no other reason than that he was there. It was hot as hell to be able to affect someone so. Paul did it for him like that.

Justice took the keys out of his pocket. He kept Paul behind him just in case. Just in case what, he wasn’t sure, but if there was something or someone waiting to kill them, he was going to do everything he could to protect Paul.

Paul stayed close behind him as Justice unlocked the door. There were two deadbolts and the knob itself to unlock. He wondered how Cliff had got inside.

“Maybe he used some of that shamanistic voodoo,”
Paul offered.

“It’s possible.” Justice didn’t bother to keep the thought unspoken. If anyone was inside, they’d know he was coming from all the tumblers being tipped.

He opened the door and the first thing he noticed was the nose-searing scent of bleach. “Fuck, what’d he do, soak everything in that shit?”

Paul nudged him, trying to get inside. “What? I don’t smell anything.”

Justice exhaled through his nose, trying to get the stench out. “Bleach. You can’t smell any of it?” he asked as he entered the living room. Paul followed him. Justice closed and locked the door. He held up a finger and quietly began checking the place out. Paul stayed by him, a quiet shadow with a Taser in his hands. Justice hadn’t even realised Paul had tucked it in his baggy shorts.

Knowing Paul hadn’t practised with the Taser made Justice a tad jumpy about having Paul at his back. He knew Paul wouldn’t hurt him on purpose, but even a stumble could end with Justice being Tasered.

The place was cleaner than he and Viv had left it. After inspecting every room, he leaned against the living room wall and pulled Paul to him. “Cliff must have some issues. All of our dirty laundry’s been washed, dried, folded, ironed, hung up. Those sheets on my bed? Never seen ’em before, but they’re nice ones, I’d bet. There’s food in the pantry, too. New rug on the—”

“Yeah, that’s better than what I thought we’d find.” Paul wiggled until he was plastered to Justice’s front. Paul’s erection just about burned a trail on Justice’s thigh as Paul began to slowly rut against him.

Justice forgot about his nose and bent to kiss Paul’s parted lips. The taste of Paul was better than anything he’d ever imagined. It rocked him every time they kissed.

“Should let me ditch this Taser so we can get naked in your big bed,” Paul said against his lips.

Justice thought that sounded great, right after another kiss or three. He looped his arms around Paul’s shoulders and dipped down for more kisses.

Paul played dirty, thank the gods, reaching between them and getting a handful of Justice’s dangly bits. When Paul began backing away, Justice followed him, closely. They made it to the bedroom and Paul set the Taser down on the floor beside the bed.