Chapter 20

“Hi.”

Justice swung around from the sink, a little bit startled as he hadn’t heard her come out of the bathroom. For someone who talked so much, she’d been awfully quiet since he’d found her.

His gaze raked over her body, and his throat tightened. Her t-shirt appeared just a little too snug, the outline of her small breasts and perk nipples evident as she crossed her arms over her chest.

She hadn’t put her bra back on.

“Feel better?” he asked, trying to ignore his body’s response to her breasts.

“Yes, sir. Thank you.”

He grinned. “You can just call me Justice. No need for the ‘sir’ stuff.”

“Okay.”

He’d considered cooking her some vegetables, but then he’d have to explain where he’d gotten them. As the bunker was supposed to be abandoned, he didn’t want to give her any solid clues that he’d been living there. He had probably already shared too much.

He handed her an MRE and motioned for her to sit down at the table.

“Thank you,” she said, and took a chair.

He opened the pouch and poured the beef stew in his bowl that he’d set out on the table earlier. She did the same, then picked up a spoon and brought a large portion to her mouth.

“It’s not the best, but I find when I’m hungry, taste doesn’t matter too much.”

She nodded in agreement, and they ate in silence.

He watched her delicate mouth as she chewed, and grinned thinking of the damn thing moving a hundred miles per hour as she did her inspection on the bunker.

There had been so much she’d unwittingly shared with him and his crew as she did her job. They’d learned about a friend of hers, Heather, getting married and moving away, and how lonely Holly had felt as she didn’t have many friends. He recalled the times she’d complained of exhaustion as she had sat up with her brother the night before, trying to calm him from his night terrors. She’d spoken of dates every now and then, each not ending very well. His favorite story had been when she’d had a first date with a male named Michael. They’d gone to dinner and then to a movie. In the middle of the movie, she’d begun to feel a little sick, but ignored it. She’d ended up with food poisoning and vomiting all over the person in front of her. Michael had been so embarrassed he’d abandoned her in the theater to fend for herself.

She’d also frequently talked about her runs. From what he could gather, she did tricks and flew through the air as she moved through the city. She’d once referred to it as Parkour, and he’d lain in bed for a few nights trying to imagine what she described.

As he stole glances at her while they ate, he tried to contain his smile. He knew this female, and over the year of listening to her, he’d grown to really like her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as she met his gaze, pulling him out of his thoughts, the question catching him off-guard.

He should have thought of an answer to this question first thing, and frankly, he felt a little surprised she hadn’t asked it sooner.

“Just completing the inspection process,” he said. He needed to put the focus back on her. “I think the question is, what are you doing here, Holly?”

She looked back down at her bowl, scraped the last bit of stew onto her spoon, and brought it to her mouth. Taking a deep breath, she met his gaze, her features passive, but the fear in her eyes evident.

He put down his spoon as his heartbeat accelerated and laced his hands together on the table in front of him, giving her his full attention.

“I’m in trouble. I’m being accused of something I didn’t do.”

He had a feeling he should simply get her on her way, but curiosity got the best of him. “What’s that?”

“My brother. He was murdered today and I was framed for it.”

He felt as if someone had just kicked him in the stomach. His breath hitched as he sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. As he’d heard Noah say, it seemed shit had just headed south.

No, he never should have asked, but he had, and now, he stood knee deep in her problem.

Might as well wade in all the way.

“Can you please start at the beginning, Holly? What exactly happened?”

She told him about the fight she’d had with Billy, tears welling up in her eyes, but they didn’t fall.

“The whole reason we live downtown is because the V.A. Hospital is there, and all I asked him to do was get up off the couch and get ready for his appointment. He didn’t do it. I take care of everything for us: groceries, bills, cooking, cleaning … I just wanted him to shower before seeing his doctor. That’s it. I was so mad at him that I went for a run. When I got home, there was a man in our apartment. My brother had his throat slit, and the killer made me hold the knife he’d used to kill him. I got blood all over me trying to wipe my hands clean. He then called the police and told them that he’d heard a fight in my apartment and was worried someone had been hurt.”

“What happened, then?”

“I ran,” she said, the tears finally falling. “I’m not going to jail.”

Running his hand over his head, he tried to think straight. He knew there couldn’t be any way that Holly would kill her brother. She loved him. But maybe in a fit of rage?

Glancing over at her, he noted she’d composed herself again and stared directly at him.

“I know you don’t know me, sir, but I would never hurt my brother. He was my only family.”

Justice stared at her for a few minutes and listened to what his gut told him. She didn’t seem the type to kill in a fit of rage. In fact, she’d said she’d gone running because she had been so angry. He recalled her sneakers, running shorts, and t-shirt he’d found her in—running gear.

He knew Holly loved her brother just from listening to her ramblings during her inspection. Deciding to take Noah’s advice, he listened to what his soul said. What was his gut feeling?

She didn’t kill her brother.

But if she didn’t, who had been the male who did? It seemed like a very brazen kill, and a little bit of panic crept in. Pushing it aside, he decided to focus on the facts before even entertaining the fear.

“Okay. Let’s start from the beginning. I want you to tell me the story again, and not leave out anything. Nothing, Holly. Each detail is going to be important.”

“So you believe me?” she asked, her voice so hopeful he had to smile.

He would not show his cards quite yet. “I think I need more details before I can give you an affirmative on that one.”

She nodded, and he noted the look of hope and eagerness that crossed her face. She wanted so badly to satisfy him, and he would like nothing more than to help her.

He listened as she went over the story again, this time adding far more detail, such as the time of day, why she and her brother had fought, and her feelings throughout the whole ordeal. Anger rose within him as she described her fear of being grabbed when she first walked it the door.

“I was terrified,” she said. “I felt paralyzed—like he had some control over my body or something.”

“What did he look like?”

“Crazy. He looked terrifyingly crazy. Black hair, blue eyes. Average height, probably about five-foot-eight or five-foot-ten. White guy with super crooked teeth, but they were really white.”

He nodded, his unease growing. The tension in his body morphed and expanded, and he realized he’d tensed up every muscle. “Anything else?”

“I’m sure this is the fear talking, but I felt like I was staring into the face of pure evil.”

Uh-oh.

“Can you think about what he said to you?” he asked, shifting in his seat.

“Yes. He kept talking about my conscience, something that he said he didn’t have. He told me that his master would be very pleased with his actions, and that he liked that he had hurt me without touching me because my guilt would eat me up from the inside while my body rotted away in jail.”

“If he didn’t touch you, what happened to your face?”

She brought her hand to her cheek. “I picked up the knife and tried to stab him, but he threw me into the wall.”

Justice swallowed hard. He’d heard a little bit about the Colonist offspring, and this man seemed to fit the profile.

Shit.

“Anything else?” he asked.

She studied the table between them for a moment, and then shook her head. “Not that I can think of.”

He nodded, wondering what his next step should be. He needed time to think, to come up with a plan of action. “Where do you live?”

She gave him the address, and he committed it to memory.

He stood. “It’s late. I think it would be a bad idea for either of us to drive anywhere.”

She gazed up at him. “I don’t have anywhere to go. That’s why I came here.”

An overwhelming feeling to protect her at her most vulnerable time overcame him. Even if he wanted to head back to the silo, he couldn’t leave her alone in the bunker.

“We’ll stay here tonight,” he announced.

Uncertainty crossed her face, and he realized he had to shut down any objections before they began. “I’ll touch base with headquarters and tell them I need to stay because of inventory. They’ll never know you were here.”

She glanced around at the closed doors, and he realized his crew had occupied most of them. No matter where he put her, she would see that someone had recently been there. He needed to sanitize the room as best he could and hope she would be too tired to give it much thought.

“You look exhausted,” he murmured. “Let me set up a room for you. Ten minutes, tops.”

She gave him a sad smile, then nodded. “Thank you.”

He walked over to Macy’s room, figuring as a female, she would have cleaner sheets than any of the other males, except maybe Roman.

Opening the door, he switched on the light and glanced around. Macy tended to be neat, and he appreciated it as he quickly changed the pillowcase and pulled her clothes down from the locker, stuffing them behind it.

Glancing around, he couldn’t find any signs of Macy. Satisfied, he opened the door. “Here you go.”

Holly turned and looked at him. She rose from the chair and walked over. As they stood together in the doorway, he found the space seemed to be getting smaller, or his lungs became tight. Why did this female have such an effect on him?

She stood next to him, taking in the small room with the bed cut out of rock, a thin mattress thrown on top of it. He felt she deserved better, but he couldn’t give her anymore.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he murmured and moved out of the doorframe.

“Thank you,” she whispered, grasping his forearm. “Thank you for believing me and for helping me.”

She wouldn’t meet his gaze, and he felt thankful for that. If she had looked up at him with those big blue eyes, he might have been tempted to kiss her full mouth or touch her milky skin. He reminded himself that she didn’t know anything about him, even if he felt he knew everything about her.

As he stared at her pale fingers against his dark chocolate arm, he became entranced at the differences.

Black and white. Human and SR44ian.

Suddenly, the confusion within him boiled, and he pulled away.

“Have a good night,” he said, giving her hand a quick squeeze. “We’ll talk more in the morning.”