Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

29. Jud

TWENTY-NINE

JUD

I’d often wondered the day the demon was born.

If who I’d become had purely been a circumstance of my upbringing. If it was due to my mother’s fear when we’d been little boys, the way she’d tried to shield and protect, all while her cries would seep through the walls at night, fill my ears, and make me be the one who wanted to shield and protect her. The way she’d promised she’d find a way out, that everything would be better, until the day all four of us had to stand and watch as she’d been brutally mowed down.

If it’d manifested that day into abounding rage and eternal hate.

Possibly it’d bloomed in my blood the day I was conceived, and the wickedness of my father had been passed on to me.

Or maybe it had already been a piece of my soul, grabbing a free ride when I’d been plucked from Hell to walk this Earth.

I was betting on the latter right then.

Because fury had taken up residence at the base of my throat. Wrath was the only thing I could taste. Bitter venom on my tongue because God knew, the vengeance itching at my hands was sharp as a blade.

I didn’t think I’d ever felt more helpless than I had yesterday afternoon.

That straight-up fear that had hit me so hard I might as well have run flat into a brick wall when I’d seen the blacked-out BMW about six houses down from Salem’s.

In an instant, my spirit had seized as awareness smacked me in the face. A swell of depravity in the atmosphere, a crash of evil blistering through the rays of late afternoon light.

I’d grabbed Juni. Held her tight.

I’d known, right then, that I’d do whatever it took to protect her.

That I wouldn’t let go.

The car had been gone in a split, fucker taking off before I could get a chance to catch a glimpse of who was inside, my focus all wrapped up in making sure that Juni was okay.

But right now, it was Salem I was dying to wrap up and hold. Promise her it would be okay. Honestly, I was shocked she’d shown at work today. Hell, if I were being honest, I was shocked she’d stayed .

The entire day today, I’d watched her riding a razor-sharp edge, wearing those heels and a modest black floral dress, girl so apprehensive it was alive in every step she took.

Anxious.

Agitated.

Afraid.

Nah.

She wasn’t okay.

Could feel it.

The energy that whipped and thrashed and howled.

Bashing against the walls and trembling along the floors.

A warning that shook me to the core.

My girl was getting ready to run.

It had taken forever to get her calmed down yesterday afternoon. With the commotion out front, Darius had come running, demanding to know what the hell I’d done.

Had wanted to clock the asshole in the face.

I knew it only came from worry, though. Knew the same fears that lived inside Salem lived inside him. He’d uprooted his life and moved here to a place where Salem would be safe. Even if he hated me, he wanted the same thing for her that I did.

Her freedom.

Her joy.

Her peace.

So, I’d sucked it up and allowed him to help us get her back to the house. I’d hovered and worried, sharing glances with Trent, both of us on edge.

All while poor Juni kept touching her mother’s hand and telling her it was going to be fine. When she’d said, “See, Mommy, the bad man is gone. We don’t gots to worry. We can stays right here. We don’t need to goes on a new adventures.”

It’d ripped out my fuckin’ heart.

Like the adorable smile she pinned on her mouth would make everything better, and just claiming it would make it true.

This little thing who wanted to stay .

Darius had knelt in front of where we’d seated Salem on the couch, brushing her hair back and insisting it was a random car. He’d done his best to coax her into peace. He said it was probably someone who lived in the neighborhood or maybe a friend who stopped by often, which would be a good explanation for it showing twice.

He’d told her time and again it was her paranoia getting the best of her.

Personally, I’d known his suggestions were bullshit, especially considering I was certain it was the same car that had been lurking outside my shop.

I hadn’t argued, though, since it’d been the only thing that had gotten Salem to settle. What bought me the time I was gonna need to weed this fucker out and put him in the ground.

Darius had taken her by the face, said, “You’re fine. You’re not going anywhere. Promise me you won’t just leave.”

She’d sniffled and taken a deep breath, whispered, “I promise.”

All while the demon inside me had raged.

Because even when I’d finally stepped out of her house after nine last night, I didn’t get far. I’d sat in my truck, standing guard.

Even once the sun had cracked the sky, I’d still been buzzing. On alert as I’d followed Salem to the shop.

She’d been here for three hours without saying a word to me. Lost in her worry.

I tried to focus on work, but the only thing I could feel was her anxiety winding tight, and I couldn’t do anything but edge into the reception area again, needing to check on the one who’d upended my world.

My skin prickled the second I stepped inside.

A storm on the horizon. One that made landfall the second I felt her spirit thrash through the room.

It beat the fuck out of my insides. Destroying me in the best and worst of ways.

She wasn’t behind the desk, and in an instant, I looked to the farthest wall of the lobby where a counter ran the length. She stood away from me and facing the counter, slowly stirring a cup of coffee, those long locks of black cascading down her back, that dress hugging her curves, wearing those heels she was killing me with day after day.

But her head was drooped between her sagging shoulders, this fierce, brave girl curling in on herself, turmoil radiating from her being.

I knew she felt me.

That energy zapped.

Vibrations pulsed from her body, skidding through the air and trembling across my flesh.

A flashfire of greed staked through my chest.

Possession.

Didn’t have the first clue which of us was compelling the other, just knew there was no destination other than the one where we met.

Slowly, I edged closer. My boots thudded the floor with each measured step, and my heart climbed into my throat, cutting off the flow of oxygen.

Chills rippled down her arms as I inched up behind her.

Girl withdrew and withheld.

Wavering.

Wanting to run and hide, all while desperate to sink back into my hold at the same damned time.

“Baby.” The word was a ragged grunt.

All those barriers hardened, and she gritted the defense, “I’m not your baby, Jud.”

My mouth moved to her ear. “Aren’t you?”

My hands found the caps of her shoulders, and I ran my palms down her trembling arms until I threaded the fingers of both our hands together.

A shiver rocked down her spine.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Jud.” Her voice slipped into grief.

“What’s that?”

“Stay.”

Every cell in my body revolted. I tightened my hands around hers. “I know you’re afraid, darlin’.”

It would have been a scoff coming from her mouth if the sound hadn’t have held so much pain. “Afraid? I’m terrified , Jud. Every day of my life is this. Trying to stay one step ahead of him, petrified of the day he catches up to me.”

“Give me a name.”

Salem’s head shook. “You can’t fix this.”

“Let me try.”

“It’s not your burden.”

My spirit roared and the demon writhed. I swallowed it down and slowly turned her in my hold.

Blue eyes speared me, but where they normally flamed and struck and stormed with determination, they’d dimmed with defeat.

I touched her jaw, running my thumb over the scar that represented everything that she was.

A fighter.

A survivor.

Beautiful, inside and out.

“Not sure how it could be a burden, Salem. Not when you’ve become my everything.”

Anguish lanced through her expression. I tipped her chin up farther. “Is this when it normally happens? When you pack up and go?”

Salem blinked and her head barely shook. “No, Jud, normally it’s just instinct. The feeling that I’ve stayed too long. That I’ve become complacent, exposed. I leave long before I get the feeling someone might be watching me. That’s the moment I turn to vapor all over again. If I were anywhere else? I’d have left the first day I noticed that car lurking around. But because of Darius? Because of Mimi? Because I want to give my daughter a home? Because of you …?”

She trailed off, unable to say it aloud.

We had kept her here. Given her a reason to stay. Given her hope.

I wanted to give her more of them.

A thousand of them. All of it. All of me.

Purpose.

Ferocity fired through the dimness of Salem’s eyes. “If he had found us before, Jud? If he’d caught up to us any time in all these years I’ve been running? You need to understand…we wouldn’t be here. And if that car…”

Alarm bled through her aura, pulsed like the blare of a warning.

Barbs of fury spiked in my insides, demon clawing for a way out. Still, my touch was soft as I took her gorgeous face in my hands. I begged her, “I asked one thing of you, Salem. Asked the next time you felt the urge to run, that you would run to me. Run to me, baby.”

“And what if I crash right into you? What if the weight causes you to fall?”

I cocked a grin I could barely afford. “Nonsense, darlin’. Have you seen me?”

She choked a soggy laugh, and tears got loose of her eyes. They streaked down her cheeks and into my hands.

“Run to me,” I murmured again.

“Jud.” My name was a whimper.

Hope and fear and ecstasy.

“You’re real, Salem. You aren’t vapor. You exist. You’re real and whole and mine. Exist with me. ”

She was in my arms before another denial could fall from her lips.

I lifted her off her feet and slanted my mouth over hers. I had one hand in her hair and the other arm looped around her back.

Her hands were frantic as she tried to find a place to take hold. Fingers in my hair. On my face. Sinking into my shoulders. She curled her arms around my neck while I held her close. Her heart beat wild, an insurgence that overtook mine.

My tongue stroked into the sweet well of that delicious mouth.

Lapping.

Licking.

Salem moaned a tiny, needy sound, and I was carrying her toward the bathroom that was just to the left of the counter. I flipped on the light switch and was quick to turn the lock. I moved another step inside and propped her on the counter. I wedged myself between those thighs, tugged her closer, kissed her deeper.

“Jud.” It was a breath. Throaty and seductive, and fuck…

“I have you,” I promised, letting my hands wander her back, sliding over her hips and to the outside of her thighs. I tugged her so she was barely hanging onto the edge and rocked her pussy against my jean-covered cock.

She whimpered, “More. I need you. I need you. I need it all.”

“You have me, darlin’.”

It was the goddamn truth.

I was done for. Done for.

This girl possession.

A fantasy.

A dream.

I was straight-up spellbound.

“Enchantress,” I rumbled at that mouth as I rushed to shove the skirt of her dress up around her waist. Her legs exposed and those thighs lush. My fingers sank right in.

Every movement between us was wild.

Desperate for more when it wasn’t ever going to be enough.

“Please,” she uttered low as she jerked at the button of my jeans. As she kissed a feverish path over my shirt. The sound of my zipper being ripped wide open echoed against the walls. It mixed with our haggard breaths, with the pants that jutted from our lungs.

In a second flat, she had her greedy little hands on my dick.

She stroked me hard. I grunted, edged back far enough that I could grab hold of her underwear and rip them down her legs. And she was right there, angled back on the counter, her legs spread wide.

Bare, her cunt glistening with her need.

“Always so wet, darlin’. So fuckin’ sweet,” I rumbled.

I had the aching head of my cock pressed to her center.

A firestorm whipped through the tiny room.

I ground out a hiss at the contact, and I took her by the outside of the thighs.

Wasn’t breathing as I watched myself stretch her wide. As I rocked and jutted and pushed my way into her tight little body.

Bliss clawed its way along my spine.

Girl too much.

Perfect and right and everything.

Salem was gasping, shaking as I filled her, hands under my shirt and pushing it up before her nails were raking down my skin, like she was searching for a way in.

I groaned out when I was fully seated. “Fuck, yes, darlin’.”

Then I was crushing my mouth back over hers.

Fever reheating.

I took her hard. Every stroke of my hips possession as I slipped my arms under her legs and took her by the waist to angle her just right.

Thrusts deep and desperate.

She held onto my shoulders.

Stifled moans wheezed from her mouth as I scored myself into her body.

As I marked her.

Every fuckin’ dive of my dick was a claim.

A proclamation.

Could feel her winding up.

Every nerve ending in her body came alive.

Like all of them were arching toward me.

Pleasure radiated from her being like a shimmery, blinding light.

And I couldn’t get close enough.

Wanted to fall in and sink under and disappear in her storm.

Get lost there forever.

“Forever.” I didn’t mean for it to slip out as I picked her up off the counter and pressed her to the door.

I needed her closer.

I pinned her against the metal.

Felt the coolness echo through the heat.

The flames.

The fire.

I bucked into her as she rode over me.

Hard.

Explosive.

Wild.

Her gasps were mine and my grunts became hers.

The air crackled.

A picture fell from the trembling wall and crashed to the floor as I pounded into her. Chasing down the sensation that burned around us like one of those dreams.

Tangible but unattainable.

It only spun us farther. Wound us into this disorder that only belonged to us.

Our bodies melding.

Molding.

Melting into bliss.

Felt it when she split.

When her walls clamped down around my cock and every molecule of her body blew.

A total eruption.

Her nails sank into my shoulders, and she burrowed her open mouth against my throat in a silent scream as the orgasm streaked through her body.

Salem tremored and throbbed and shot me into paradise.

Where it was just me and her.

I surged and jerked as my sight blurred at the edges.

I finally tripped.

Every promise I’d ever made myself no longer existed.

Because every part of me belonged to this girl.

Salem sucked for a breath while I held her tight where she was pressed to the door.

I edged back an inch, my arms a fortress around her body. “I have you, Salem, I have you.”

Emotion crested through her features, and slowly, I set her onto her feet. I pecked a kiss to her jaw, then pulled my jeans over my hips, left the fly hanging open as I grabbed a washcloth from under the sink and ran it under the faucet.

I knelt in front of her and dragged it between her thighs, cleaning her up, caring for her in a way I wondered if anyone ever had.

I kept peeking up at her, at the way she watched me like I was real , too, even though there was no missing the tumult that still spun through her spirit.

I tossed the washcloth to the hamper in the corner, then I grabbed her underwear and slowly eased them back up her legs. My words were a grumble when I met her gaze, “I want you and Juni to move in with me.”

Shocked panic filled her expression. “What?”

Standing, I slipped my hands up under her dress, adjusting her underwear over her gorgeous ass, doing my best not to cop another feel but unable to do anything but glide my hands back down her thighs, anyway. I pulled her against me. “At least until we know it’s safe. I’m not going to be able to sleep if you aren’t by my side.”

“Jud.” It was a defense.

I shook my head. “Run to me, Salem. Let me be there for you. You know it’s where you belong. Where you’re going to be safest. You know I’ll fight for you. Fight for your daughter.”

A war blistered through her expression, and her eyes dropped closed for a beat. Felt my own shock when she gave, when she nodded and said, “Okay.”

Thank fuck.

Hugging her to me, I ran my fingers through her mussed hair, pressed my lips to her temple before I angled back and met her with a little more of the truth. “No better place than being in you.”

She sent me a wry smile then she looked around like she’d just noticed where we were. “We really should probably keep our hands to ourselves during work.”

I nudged her chin, shot her a grin. “Perks of the job.”

“Jud.” Exasperation filled her tone. “I’m serious.”

I set my hands on the door on either side of her head, leaned down, and murmured, “Now why would you want to make that kind of rule when you can have all of this?”

I was serious, too.

I let my fingertips slide back under her dress, pressing to the fabric between her thighs.

Salem curled her hands in my shirt. “You don’t fight fair.”

A rough chuckle scraped up my throat. “Never said I did.”

She fought the smile that twitched at her mouth, lightness filling her eyes but unease still lingering under the surface. “You’re ridiculous.”

That time I laughed, dipped in to peck a kiss to her lips.

Then my tone went serious. “I’m going to put an end to your fear, Salem. I promise you that.”

Her nails scratched into my beard, and her voice became a plea. “I can’t stand the idea of you getting hurt because of me.”

The grin I cracked was grim . “Hate to break it to you, darlin’, but I’ve been in far more precarious situations than this.”

Her throat tremored when she swallowed, and then she warily gave me a nod. “I need to get back to work.”

She turned and undid the lock.

I grabbed the picture and slipped it back onto its hook before I zipped my fly and buttoned my jeans as I followed her out.

As soon as I stepped out into the lobby, I felt it.

A heatwave of hate that blistered through the air.

Salem stumbled a step before she lifted her chin and breezed by her brother who was lurking by the window.

No doubt about it, he’d heard me banging the fuck out of her two minutes ago. Not that it was any of his business, but the asshole looked like he was about to explode, fucking red in the face, hands curled into fists, like he thought he had a say.

“Salem,” he grated.

“Don’t,” she said, lifting a hand and moving behind the counter. “Just don’t.”

Shooting me a look that could slay a lesser man, Darius gritted his jaw, looked at Salem once more, before he turned on his heel and stormed out through the door that led into the shop.

I followed.

“Darius.” My voice was low when I called after him.

He didn’t slow or turn. The only reaction he gave to me shouting at him was the flinch of his shoulders. He stalked for the bay where he’d been working.

I kept right up. “Want to talk to you, Darius.”

He spun on me, hands flying out to push me against the chest. “Told you to stay the fuck away from her.”

“You might not have noticed, but your sister is a big girl, she can make her own decisions.”

“Decisions that are going to get her killed,” he spat.

The assertion skewered through me, making me stumble a step before I got in his face, hissing back, “Bullshit. I have her. All I need is a name.”

He rattled a sarcastic, horrified sound. “You have her? You don’t have her. You have no fuckin’ clue.”

I took him by the collar. “Give me the bastard’s name.”

Darius writhed in an attempt to get free of my hold. “Fuck you.”

He shoved me again, and I stumbled back a step, just as he flew at me. Dude actually thought he was gonna start something in my shop.

I was getting ready to take him by the wrist when a bustle came from the side.

Brock was there, his scrawny arms pushed between us to keep us apart. “Hey, now, hey. Break it up. As much as I love me a good fight, last thing we need around here is blood spilled all over this floor. More work to do when we already have plenty. Play nice, boys. Clearly, you both love the same girl, for different reasons. Least I fuckin’ hope so.” Brock cocked a salacious smirk at Darius. “I mean, it must be hard to have a sister that looks like Salem. I feel your pain, man. But take it down a notch or two, sound good, sweetie pie?”

Darius edged back. Hatred boiled in his blood, and he glared at me with vicious eyes. “I warned you, Jud. Warned you to stay the fuck away from my sister.”

With a harsh shake of his head, he swung around, charged across the shop, and bashed through the side door. It swung all the way open, and the metal smashed against the exterior wall. It let in a bright glow of light that he disappeared through before the door clattered shut behind him.

I stood there.

Dumbstruck.

Cracking up, Brock clapped me on the shoulder.

“You did it now, boss. Looks like you got a little too friendly with someone’s sister.” He tsked. “Couldn’t keep your hands off all that deliciousness, could you? Not that I blame you. Salem is fine as hell.”

I grunted at him.

Backing away, he lifted his hands in surrender and grinned. “Don’t sweat it, man. Obviously, she’s worth it.”

Without saying anything else, he turned and went back to work.

I glanced at Salem who stood horrified in the doorway.

That feeling squeezed my chest.

Yeah.

She was fucking worth it.

Whatever the cost.