Page 89 of Justice for Radar

I colored beet red for an entirely different reason than from embarrassment and said, “The back of the closet.”

He nodded.

“I’m going to take possession of that particular garment now, and when I think you’re ready, I’ll lay it out for you. Then I’m taking you out for a relaxing day just you and me, whatever you want to do… and then when we get home, I’m going to do whatIwant. You get me?”

I nodded mute; my breath stolen.

“Justice?” he asked and it held a slight edge of warning and heat.

“Yes, alright!” I said quickly. “I’d um, I’d like that, please,” I said unsure what elsetosay.

He gave me a crooked grin. “We’ll work on that, but yes, that’s good,” he said.

I smiled and he said, “Let’s work on getting the fuck out of here.”

I sighed, resigned. “I’m beginning to feel like we’re never going to get anything but these stolen moments.” The confession was out before I’d even realized I’d uttered it.

He paused and looked me over and said, “Thank you for telling me that,” and then he stepped out of the room and he was gone.

I took my time getting dressed, pulled out the luggage from the closet and looked at my hanging clothes.

The rest of the house was either boxed, given away, or sold… it was down to basics and I wanted so desperately to be free of this miserable place.

29

Radar…

The back of the U-Haul’s rolling door shuddered and the latch made such a satisfying fucking sound;man…

I sighed, this was it, we were almost fuckingout of here.

I went back to check on her ex’s truck and the trailer we’d rented for it, checking the tie downs on the bikes on the trailer.

“That’s damn sure a fuckin’ shame,” Atlas said and sighed. I grinned.

“Only way to do it,” I said.

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered.

The girls who’d ridden out here with their men were going to take turns behind the wheel of the U-Haul for the drive back. Atlas was going to drive the wasband’s truck with our bikes on the trailer while I took Jussy in her car.

It was a nice truck, barely any miles on it, the payments not too bad, really; and for what we got out of the two muscle cars in the garage – both the completed one and the project car, if Jussy wanted to, she could pay the truck off and keep it.

She was still deciding on things and had expressed a desire to make those final decisions as far away from here as possible and so back to Florida we were to go so she could lose her mind and find her soul.

I just maybe had a stop or two I wanted to make along the way. Something all of my crew had no fucking problem with because hey, they not only got it, they were fucking great people and thebestchosen-family a lucky fucker like me could ever hope to fall into.

“Right, we’re gonna get on out of here,” Cutter called and I gave him and Marlin a chin lift. Stoker came by and patted me on the back of the shoulder. “We’ll see you on the other side.” Cutter called and I nodded.

“Keep the shiny side up, brothers,” I told them all and Justice found her way from the front porch to my side.

I smiled at her.

She’d given the first sign that she was gonna come out of all of this tougher and much stronger when some Karen from the homeowner’s association had knocked on her door to try and fine her for having a fire in her own backyard and Jussy’s response was to roll her eyes, and to ask the bitch, “Can’t you see that I’m in the middle of moving out of here?” When the cunt had started to sputter about that not mattering and that Jussy needed to pay the fine, Jussy had told her, “Oh, fuck off, Cameron,” and had slammed her front door in the woman’s face.

That had been to a rousing set of cheers from the lot of us, and the plan was to give a one-fingered salute as we rolled past Cameron’s house on the way out of the neighborhood.

Also, after that, we’d stopped being fuckin’ polite and had parked our shit wherever we damn well felt like it. Wished we’d adopted that one sooner, getting the bikes in and out of the back was kind of a pain in the ass and by now it was clear whoever Rodney had tapped to fuck with his ex-wife wasn’t going to do shit.

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