Page 88 of The Deputy's Secret Double

JJ closed her mouth.

The deed was done.

And, by the look on Lawson’s face, he had already made his decision well before he said it out loud.

“I guess it’s only fair to accept,” he said. “A life for a life, after all.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Lawson might have accepted the deal but that didn’t mean he was ready to button it up and call it a day. He turned his head and shouted toward one of the closed doors with notable glee.

“Boys? Why don’t you come out so we can all chat.” Lawson turned back to her, his eyebrow raised again. “Wait. I do have a question you didn’t answer in that way-too-wordy speech you just gave.”

He pointed at his face and made a disgusting pout to seem cute.

“How exactly did you know about me when you saw me at the party? I’m fairly certain your father’s intel didn’t include me yet. Like you, my father also kept me hidden until I was older.”

JJ knew it wasn’t the time or place, but what else did she have to lose?

She smirked and was about to tell him another secret she had guarded well through the years.

But, behind him, the world shifted.

The door he had called out to opened.

However, the boys he had been calling weren’t the ones who appeared.

JJ tried her very best to keep her face the exact same it had been before she recognized the two men. She might not have kept talking had she not realized that the burly man, who she believed to have been behind her, had been gone for a bit.

So, to stall, she continued.

“When I was sixteen, I found your father and then tracked him to a funeral he was attending for someone in your group. I stayed on the outskirts, trying to figure out how many of you there were and realized we were sorely outmatched. Then I saw you, standing at his side in a suit even then.”

JJ felt the old anger from the past flare anew.

“After that, I made sure every plan I made included ways to destroy you too. But I was told to take a breath by a godfather who wanted a much better life for me.”

That anger washed away. JJ felt a different kind of warmth in its place. One born from patience, love and understanding.

“Honestly, I guess he’s the reason you and I are both here right now,” JJ added. She turned to one of the men behind Lawson. He was the older of the two, weathered but not worn.

“Does a life for a life apply here?” she asked him.

Riker smiled.

“That’s definitely something we should talk about.”

All hell broke loose within the next minute.

The burly man came back and stayed as simple as before. He ran right at the first person he could, just as Lawson reminded them that he did indeed havesomeskill. He threw himself backward and started fighting Riker, a blessing in itself since the fight would have already been over had Riker had a good shot.

JJ couldn’t track that line of the fight too long. Her attention diverted to her immediate problem. The burly man was back and unavoidable. She braced herself for an impact that would at the very least break some bones.

It never came.

The man was stopped in his tracks by a hit that was so loud it seemed to vibrate through the space around them.

And Price kept going.