New Species 04 Justice (13 page)

Justice collapsed onto the desk hard, sat there stunned and closed his eyes. He

couldn’t breathe at first, too stricken at the news that the vibrant woman who’d shared

his bed had been shot. It took a lot for him to draw in a painful breath.

“You think she’s going to die?”

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“She was shot in the back of the head. What do you think? She wouldn’t wake up

and it was bad.”

Pain tore through Justice’s chest. Jessie was gone to him forever. Her face flashed

through his mind, the memory of her lying naked under him with her arms wrapped

around his neck, smiling up at him with her pretty blue eyes. Her red hair had been

spread out on his bed. More pain tore through his chest.

“Where are you? I’m on my way.”

Tim hesitated. “Of course. Policy,” he ground out. “It will make a nice photo

opportunity, right? You can stand outside the hospital and say some shit in front of the

reporters about how brave she was to give her life in the line of duty to save your

people. You didn’t know her.”

Anger tore though Justice. “I know Jessie. Don’t you ever accuse me of something

that deceptive again. I don’t give a damn about getting my picture taken or about what

humans think right at this moment. I want to know where she is because I’m coming

there to see her.”

Tim sighed. “I’m sorry, Justice. I didn’t mean that. I know what a good man you are

but I’m just totally mind fucked right now. This is tearing me up. Do you understand

that? She’s like my daughter. I was threatening to turn her over my knee and whip her

ass for what she did tonight and ten minutes later I’m holding her in my arms watching

her bleed. I’ve never felt so damn useless in my life and now I’m just so pissed it could happen that I’m tearing into anyone I can.”

Anguish.
That was the feeling Tim expressed, Justice identified with him and it, since that emotion poured through his own body. “We’re fine, Tim. Where is she?”

“We’re in Portland, Oregon. It was the nearest trauma center we could fly her to.

The takedown happened in Washington State in a remote area.” He named the hospital.

“I’m coming. You’ve got my cell number, correct? If not you should have it now

since I just called you. I want you to contact me the second you know anything about

her condition.”

“I will, Justice. Again, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that shit.”

“Don’t give it a second thought.” He hung up and dialed the control center of

Reservation. He arranged for the helicopter to be fueled, the pilots to be woken and a

security detail to meet him in five minutes. He remembered Tiger in the guestroom,

woke him too and rushed to his room to dress.

He froze, unmoving, when he sat on the bed to jerk on shoes. Jessie’s image fixed in

his mind caused him to bite back another roar of pain. He’d never get the chance to kiss

her again or see her smile. At best he might be able to reach her before she died and get to hold her little pale hand.

Life wasn’t fair, he knew that, he’d had a lifetime of shit handed to him but the loss

of her would leave emotional scars too. They’d had so few moments together but they

were ones he’d never forget. It hurt.

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Justice grimly adjusted his tie for the hundredth time as he glanced at his security

team. Humans stared at them as they entered the hospital lobby but it wasn’t unusual.

Six large Species males, all dressed in black uniforms but one who was a nice business

suit, was bound to draw a lot of attention. Justice ran his nervous hands down his dark

gray jacket as he paused in front of the nurses’ station. The female lifted her chin and

her mouth dropped open, nearly competing with her wide-eyed gaze.

He tried not to intimidate the woman by speaking in a soft tone. “We are here to see

Jessie Dupree. She was brought in as a shooting victim.”

The woman snapped her mouth closed and swallowed hard. “You’re New Species,

aren’t you?”

Justice refrained from growling and flashing fangs. He didn’t want to carry on a

conversation with the nurse. He didn’t want to play twenty questions either. Jessie was

still alive as far as he knew and he wanted to reach her side before it was too late. Tiger tensed at his side and reached out to place his hand on the counter.

“This is urgent business,” Tiger softly growled. “Answer Mr. North please and

remember to be a professional.”

Justice normally would have flinched but tonight he didn’t mind one of his men

being blunt. He wanted the woman’s cooperation regardless of how he got it. “Yes. As I

said, we’re here to see Jessie Dupree.”

The nurse glanced at her computer, typed in information and gave them directions

down the hall to a waiting room. They didn’t make it ten feet from the desk before they

heard the woman on the phone telling someone that a group of scary-looking New

Species were at the hospital.

“Do you think she’s calling the local news stations?” Tiger groaned. “I hate those

bastards.”

Justice shrugged. “We’ll avoid them on the way out.”

He didn’t really give a damn about the press.
Is Jessie still alive? Will I get to see her
before she dies? This is killing me.
He just needed to see her. He wanted to inhale her scent and touch her at least one last time. His chest hurt badly knowing there wouldn’t be

any hope in his future to spend a night with her.

Tiger walked into the waiting room first, kept his body in front of Justice and made

sure there wasn’t any form of threat inside the room. Justice immediately spotted

Senator Jacob Hills sitting in a chair with his hands covering his face, bent over and

softly crying. Justice froze inside at the grief-stricken sound.

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He felt his emotions shutting down from the pain of knowing Jessie had already

died. His fingers curled into fists though, rage flashed and he swore vengeance. He was

going to find out where they held the sniper who’d killed her, if the man was still alive he was going to kill him with his bare hands. He’d tear the son of a bitch apart for

killing Jessie, make him scream and suffer greatly before he died. Pure rage and pain

battled until he regained control enough to speak.

Tim Oberto shared the room with four other men still dressed in their task-force

uniforms. Justice had to keep taking deep breaths to stop himself from losing the shaky

control he had found. The animal urges inside him pushed forward strongly, he wanted

to tear the room apart and go insane from the knowledge that Jessie was gone.

Senator Hills glanced up, his hands dropped and his tear-filled gaze discovered

Justice. He looked surprised to see the Species and stood on unsteady feet. “Justice,

what are you doing here?”

Justice swallowed hard. “I heard about Jessie and flew here right away.”

The Senator blinked back more tears and approached. He wiped his hand on his

slacks and held it out. “Thank you. I never expected any of you to come here but it

means the world to me.”

They shook hands. “The doctor was just in here.” The Senator smiled. “I’m sorry for

the show of tears but I thought my daughter was dying.” More tears flooded his eyes.

“She’s going to be fine though.”

Immense relief tore through Justice, followed by a sense of need to find Jessie.

“Where is she?”

“They are cleaning her up.” The Senator laughed. “I always said she had a thick

head. The bullet grazed her skull but it didn’t penetrate.”

Justice closed his eyes to hide his raging emotions. Jessie was going to live and a

graze meant she wasn’t seriously wounded as long as there was no brain trauma caused

by the impact. He opened his eyes and took calming breaths. He needed to stay in

control. What he really wanted to do was tear apart the hospital until he found Jessie.

He wanted to bury his face against her neck and breathe her in. He didn’t move though,

afraid he wouldn’t stop there.

“She’s pissed about her hair.” The senator wiped at more tears, laughing. “Can you

believe my daughter? She could have died and she’s upset that they had to shave her

hair from the back of her head.”

“They shaved her head?” Justice growled. He took a deep breath. It was only her

hair she’d lost instead of her life. It would grow back. The Senator tensed, eyeing him,

stunned.

“We’re weird about head shaving,” Tiger stated, stepping forward to include

himself in the conversation. He shot Justice a worried look but forced a smile. “We’re

grateful that your female will live.”

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Justice nodded. “I apologize. I’m upset that Jessie was harmed.” He forced himself

to go into Justice North mode, the male who represented all of New Species. “We

wanted to show our support.”

The senator smiled. “I knew you were a good man, Justice. My daughter would

love to meet you. Would you mind hanging around for a little while? You did fly all

this way and she would be tickled pink to get to meet the man I’ve told her so much

about.”

“I’ve met her,” Justice informed him. “I would like to see her.”

The Senator appeared surprised. “You met Jessie?”

“Yes. She brought a group of our females to Reservation and stayed there until last

night.”

“Your daughter can be quite persistent.” Tiger chuckled. “I thought she was going

to shoot me if I told her she couldn’t escort our females and help them settle in at

Reservation after the raid in Colorado.”

The Senator laughed. “That’s my girl. I raised her not to take no for an answer.

She’s a tough little shit. She took after her mother and it scared me because she was

always so small but with such a big personality. You’d think she was a seven-foot

linebacker with her attitude.” He showed fatherly pride. “She can be a handful.”

“Yeah,” Tim chuckled. “She is. Last night I was going to put her over my knee and

spank her ass.”

The senator gasped. “You were going to what?”

Tim sobered. “She reminds me of my daughter. We had a situation where the Gift

Female was being held. Two of our men were pinned down and three assailants broke

into the back of the house. Jessie was ordered to stay out of it but refused to listen. She killed three of the bastards and kept them off my guys. Then when we couldn’t find the

female she went looking and damned if she didn’t find her. We would have missed the

female if Jessie hadn’t been so sure there was a Species there.”

One of the Task Team members stepped closer. “I’m Trey Roberts, Jessie’s team

leader. She saved my ass and Mike’s.” He jerked his head to the other man standing

next to him. “We were pinned down and those assholes could have picked us off since

we couldn’t retreat. We were under fire. Jessie shot all three of them.”

“She faked one out,” Mike chuckled. “She pretended to be shot and dying to get the

son of a bitch to come finish her off. She took him down in a snap.”

The Senator’s mouth hung open. “She killed three men? No one told me that.”

Tim paled. “I would have but you just arrived. I ordered her to find a hole, sir. She

should have hidden until we could reach her but she refused to listen to me. That’s why

I was going to put her over my knee.”

“She isn't supposed to be in danger.” The Senator gasped. “You aren’t supposed to

send her in until it’s safe for her to make contact with the New Species.”

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“You’re the one who gave her a gun,” Tim grunted. “She thinks she’s part of the

team because you keep telling her she is. You know how stubborn she can be. I tell her

what to do but she doesn’t listen. If she did then she would have waited outside but hell no. Not your daughter. She demanded to go in with the men so she could be right on

the spot for the woman if we found one. She would have probably stolen a car and

rammed the gates on her own if I hadn’t put her with a team.”

The Senator took deep breaths to calm but he still appeared angry. “You’re right.

That’s Jessie.” His mouth tensed. “She’s fired. I never thought it would be so dangerous

that she’d have to kill three men or get shot. She’s not going back. I’ll find a replacement on the team immediately but it won’t be her anymore.” His gaze turned to Justice. “I’d

like to request one of your people to take her place temporarily until we can find

someone trustworthy. I don’t care if it’s a male or a female but the team needs someone

your women won’t be terrified of. Who better to tend to any of them than one of your

own?”

Justice didn’t want Jessie going back to work either considering the males on her

teams had allowed her to be nearly killed. “I’ll find a replacement.” He studied the men

inside the room who belonged to Jessie’s team until he stared at her team leader, Trey

Roberts. “Which would work better with your team? One of our males or a female?” He

paused. “Keep in mind our females would get testy if any of your men harassed them

or sexually bothered them.”

Trey blinked. “Definitely male. We tease Jessie all the time but she knows we’re

kidding. It’s a stress breaker. I don’t know if one of your women would understand the

jokes and one of my guys might slip.”

“Done. I’ll ask for a volunteer and have him contact you within the next few days.”