Chapter Two
Justice woke to her head pounding and a wave of nausea that had her wondering if it was best to open her eyes or not.
She peeped one eye open and realized she was in her pickup truck, and it was moving.
She also noticed it was starting to get dark out, and she slowly sat up, trying to piece together exactly what had happened to her.
The last thing she remembered was a sexy man standing in the alley telling her some story about how her grandmother sent him.
She held her head and groaned, chancing a look over to the driver’s seat.
“Fuck,” she whispered when she realized that not only was the sexy guy from the alley a liar, but he also stole her truck and kidnapped her, probably to take her straight back to her father.
“Yeah, well, that’s pretty much how I feel about this whole day, too, princess. You kneeing me in the balls was a real treat.” Justice thought back to the way she tried to fight him off, and she groaned at the memory of hitting her head on the road as she fell to the ground.
“Why are you doing this?” Her voice was little more than a whisper since her throat was so dry.
“You don’t even know me. Why would you want to hurt me?
” Justice looked over to where the sexy stranger kept his eyes on the road ahead, almost refusing to look at her.
He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something and then quickly closed it.
His jaw clenched, and if she wasn’t mistaken, she saw something that looked like regret cross his features.
She should be afraid of him, but for some reason, she wasn’t.
Maybe she just hit her head hard enough that fear wasn’t registering with her, but the guy sitting to her left didn’t frighten her.
The thought of seeing her father again—now that was a different story.
“Okay, that question must be a tough one for you. Let’s start with something easy like your name.” Justice sat up straighter and buckled her seatbelt. “I’ll go first, my name is—”
“Justice,” he finished for her and turned for a second to look at her.
His half-smile almost touched his green eyes, and she had to admit she could get lost in his soulful gaze.
Maybe this is what they meant about falling for your abductor.
What did they call it? Stockholm Syndrome, yeah—maybe she had that.
Whatever it was about this guy, she couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about him pulled her in.
“So, you know who I am then?” He nodded, and his overly long brown hair fell into his eyes.
He pushed it back from his face and sighed as if trying to decide if he wanted to share anything about himself.
Justice found herself holding her breath, almost hoping he would tell her everything and more.
If she wanted to find a way out of this mess, maybe getting to know her captor wasn’t a bad idea.
“My name is Jagger, Jagger James,” he almost grumbled.
Geez, even his name was sexy. She needed to get herself together because the last thing she needed to do was forget that this man was holding her against her will and probably delivering her to a whole heap of trouble waiting for her in Goose Creek.
“See, that wasn’t so hard.” Justice plastered a fake smile on her face, and he nodded, looking back to the long stretch of road before them. Judging from the barren landscape, they were almost to Goose Creek, and she and Daddy Dearest would be having that family reunion he had threatened her with.
Once she got away from her father two years ago, Justice found herself in Harvest Ridge.
She took a job at Sunny’s bakery, agreeing to work as much as needed.
Sunny was pregnant and alone, not knowing if or when Aaron would ever come back to town.
Justice took an instant liking to her new boss, and the two even became friends.
When Sunny and Aaron were in trouble, Justice sent them to her grandmother’s ranch, but helping them gave away her location.
Up until that point, she didn’t tell anyone where she was.
She sent a message to Granny Norma that she was safe, but that was it.
She kept a low profile and even gave Sunny a fake name in the beginning, trying to stay off her father’s radar.
Helping Sunny and Aaron was worth exposing her whereabouts, but now she worried she had overstayed her welcome in Harvest Ridge.
She thought about running again, but her friends became her new family, and the thought of leaving them made her miserable, so she stayed.
She even started visiting her grandmother again.
Justice knew that by showing up in and around town, she was poking the bear, but she also hoped her father would move on to find another way to kiss up to the wealthy landowners that could make or break his political career.
She thought enough time had passed that she was safe, but she should have known.
Her father never gave up, and he didn’t like to lose—ever.
“I’m assuming you work for my father, Tony Hobbs?” Justice stared Jagger down, waiting for an answer.
He finally nodded, “Yes,” he whispered.
“He sent you to bring me back to him?” Jagger nodded once more.
“I’m assuming that he has plans to lock me away again, and this time he’ll let Jordan Wolf finish what he started with me?
” It wasn’t a question since Justice already knew the answer.
Her father was probably watching her this whole time, waiting for the right time to put his half-cocked plan into action.
She knew that politically, he was at his most vulnerable.
With the election for the Governor’s office right around the corner, securing a marriage between his daughter and the most powerful family in Colorado would be quite the coup and would most likely win him the election.
With less than two months before election day, he probably wanted to move his plan forward quickly.
“What, wait—what?” Poor Jagger seemed confused, and it was almost comical. Didn’t he know what kind of man he worked for?
“Hm, you seem a little upset, Jag. Didn’t know what kind of guy my dear old dad is? You must be new to his fleet of covered-in-tats, overly muscled goons.” Justice laughed at her assessment of him. She looked him up and down and laughed even harder when Jagger gave her the “Who, me?” look.
“Don’t look at me like you don’t own a mirror, Jag.
You are covered in tattoos and have muscles on top of muscles.
I’m betting you work out a few times a day.
” Justice settled back into her seat again and turned her focus back to the landscape that was quickly disappearing into the twilight.
She noticed her truck was just about out of gas.
Jagger would have to stop and fill it up before they reached Goose Creek.
That would be her chance to make a run for it.
She was pretty sure they were about twenty miles from her grandmother’s ranch.
If she could just make it to Granny Norma’s, her father wouldn’t be able to get to her. Her grandmother wouldn’t allow it.
“I’m not a muscled goon,” Jagger barked, seeming hurt by her assessment of him.
Justice barked out her laugh as if trying to egg him on.
“Sure, Jag. You tell yourself whatever you need to. How can you sleep at night knowing you work for a monster that would abduct his daughter and sell her body to the highest bidder?” Jagger seemed to squirm in his seat, turning a little red under his shirt collar.
“Is that what he plans to do with you, Justice?” His question was so quiet she almost had to lean into him to hear it.
“Yes,” she whispered, almost not able to admit it out loud.
When she was a child, her mother used to tell her she should only say things out loud if she wanted them to happen.
Putting negative, hateful words out into the universe would only bring bad luck.
She knew now, as an adult, that her mother was just superstitious, but as a child, she believed.
Saying those ugly words out loud made her heart hurt.
Justice thought back to that night two years ago when her father all but offered her up to Jordan Wolf on a silver platter.
“My father wants me to marry a man named Jordan Wolf. His family is one of the wealthiest, most powerful families in the state of Colorado. He and my father struck up a deal about two years back when my father was entertaining the idea of running for the Governor’s office.
My father would give him me, and he’d give my father the state of Colorado.
” Justice looked out at the passing mountains and red rocks that dotted the landscape, finding it hard to look at Jagger while remembering that awful night.
“He tried to rape me, but my grandmother’s men found me before he got he could finish the job.
She saved me, and I ran as far as I could—all the way to Harvest Ridge.
I made a new life for myself and even made friends.
I guess my father couldn’t accept defeat because here I am being dragged back to him.
So, I’m assuming he wants the same thing from me—for me to be a good little girl so he can sell me off to the highest bidder. ”
“Fuck,” Jagger cursed. It was hard for Justice to believe he knew nothing about her father’s plan.
“You must be new if he hasn’t clued you in. He always made sure his goons knew a little too much; that way, they would remember their place, which was usually under his thumb.” Jagger nodded.