Free JUSTIFIED (Motorcycle Club Romance) by Brynn Bekkwith

There was no stopping him now.
     
    “Drop the gun,” he said, his eyes locked tight into MJ’s indomitable glare.
     
    “MJ, please!” I yelled with high-pitched desperation in my voice. “Don’t do this!”
     
    Ash took slow steps towards MJ, who had popped her gun out towards him by then. “You don’t have to do this. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
     
    MJ’s lips quivered. “Yes it does. This is how it has to be.”
     
    “You can get out now,” Ash said. “We won’t tell a soul you were here.”
     
    “Right, like I’m supposed to believe that,” she said with an eye roll. Her gun was still pointed straight at Ash’s chest.
     
    “This is your chance to redeem yourself,” he said. For someone with a gun pointed straight at him, Ash was eerily cool and collected. But he was doing it for us.
     
    Tense silence filled the space around us all as we waited for MJ’s next move. The slightest tremble of her finger could’ve meant a fatal demise for all of us, but instead she pursed her lips, dropped the gun, and bolted up the stairs. We listened for the backdoor to slam shut before we wallowed in any sort of relief.
     
    “Marina,” Ash said as he rushed over to me. He pulled a knife from his pocket and cut the zip tie, freeing my hands. He scooped Tuck up into his big, strong arms and kissed his chubby cheeks. “Tuck, my sweet boy.”
     
    “We have to get out of here,” I said, my eyes urging Ash to move quickly.
     
    The three of us ran up the wooden steps and flew out the back door. It all felt like slow motion and we couldn’t move fast enough. I climbed in the backseat of the Ford and buckled Tuck and I together as Ash peeled out and got us the hell out of there.
     
    I spun my head around to see that awful house growing smaller in the distance. “How’d you find us?”
     
    “You gave me that information about the businesses and the streets. I did a search, and then I pinged your phone,” he said, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror. “Lead me straight to you.”
     
    “I thought it was a Trac Fone?” I asked. “Untraceable?”
     
    “It was a Trac Fone,” he said. “I put a tracking device into it. And thank God I did.”
     
    “But LeRoy smashed my phone into pieces,” I said.
     
    “I pinged it the minute I knew you were taken,” he replied. “Led me to that warehouse. Got there just in time to see them moving you and Tuck to another location.”
     
    I covered my mouth with my hands. Had he been a minute later, he might not have found us.
     
    “Is it all over now?” I asked. I stared up at Ash, my hero, as I raked my fingers through my sleeping Tuck’s hair.
     
    “I think so,” he said. “I think we sent our message loud and clear.”
     
    “What’d you do to those men?” I asked. “Wait, maybe I don’t want to know…”
     
    Ash’s fierce eyes squared. “I’m sure you can imagine, Marina.”
     
     
     

EPILOGUE
 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    “Mom! Dad!” I yelled as I burst through the doors of my parents’ home.
     
    “Marina!” my mother came running and wrapped her warm arms around me tight. “Oh, my goodness. I was worried sick.”
     
    My father stepped out from behind her and placed one strong hand on my shoulder, giving me a half smile. He rarely showed emotion, but I knew he was glad to see us.
     
    “You did good, kid,” my father said to Ash. “You saved my daughter and my grandson. For that I owe you everything.”
     
    “Nah,” Ash said. “I just had to protect the two people I love the most in this world.”
     
    He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me into him.
     
    “You mean the three people you love most,” I said to him as I patted my belly.
     
    “What?” he asked, his eyes wild with excitement. “You’re…?”
     
    “Yep,” I said with a reserved smile. “Number two is due in May.”
     
    I patted my belly as Ash pulled me in tight for an enormous bear hug.
     
    “I’m so