Forgiven Justice (Cowboy Justice Association Book 14) Read online

  Forgiven Justice

  Cowboy Justice Association: Book Fourteen

  Olivia Jaymes

  Contents

  Forgiven Justice

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  About the Author

  FORGIVEN JUSTICE

  Copyright © 2021 by Olivia Jaymes

  * * *

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  * * *

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  Forgiven Justice

  With two teenagers at home, Logan and Ava don’t have much time to relax. There’s always something going on in the Wright household whether it’s dance lessons or baseball practice. They wouldn’t have it any other way. It would be nice, though, to see their friends more and have some time away from the daily grind.

  * * *

  So Logan and Tanner team up to surprise their family and friends with a huge vacation. It will be all the guys - and their wives and kids - on a two week fun-filled extravaganza.

  * * *

  But lurking in the background is a sadistic killer with a grudge. He’s got a list of targets and he’s knocking them off one by one. When Logan gets pulled into the investigation, he realizes that they have an eerie connection to the victims.

  * * *

  And they just might be next…

  1

  The sun had gone down, leaving the house dim and shadowy until he flipped on a few lamps in the living room. He’d been distracted and hadn’t noticed the growing darkness, too consumed by the television program to care much about his surroundings. This wasn’t even really his house. He was only renting it. He clicked off the television, the silence soothing on his nerves.

  He sat down at the kitchen table, methodically filling his empty stomach with a baloney and cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. It had been his favorite as a child. Other kids wanted peanut butter and jelly, but he’d always favored anything with cheese.

  He rinsed out his empty glass and plate, placing them on the dish rack next to the sink. His home growing up had always been clean and neat. Orderly. She’d always said that there was a place for everything, so everything should be in its place. He got that from her.

  He didn’t go back into the living room to continue watching his program. Instead, he descended the creaky wooden steps to the basement, the smell of copper and damp hitting his nostrils. Even when he was young, he hadn’t much liked the darkness of a basement. They smelled funny and there were noises that he couldn’t always identify. Maybe the furnace, maybe something or someone else. He hadn’t known what, but as a kid he didn’t like going down there by himself. He’d usually tried to convince one of his siblings to go with him.

  The tension had been building inside of him. He didn’t know where it came from or when it had started. In a way, it had always been a part of him, except back then it hadn’t been so strong. He’d been able to pretend it didn’t exist.

  It had only become larger, growing as he had grown. Now it was as much a part of him as his hand or foot. He’d become used to it, sometimes demanding and sometimes quiet. He’d long ago forgotten what it was like to be without it.

  At the bottom step he paused, taking in the scene in front of him. The man hadn’t been here long, less then twenty-four hours. His wrists and ankles were cuffed to a chair, and his clothes were slit and torn where the knife had cut into the fabric and the flesh below. What had once been a pristine white button down was now encrusted with rusty brown blood.

  He had to give the man credit. He hadn’t cried out or begged at the beginning. A tough son of a bitch. He’d kept asking questions, of course. Eventually those questions had ceased, pleas for mercy taking their place.

  No one ever talked about the surge of adrenaline. It ran through his veins, heating his blood with a fever that he wanted again and again. That addictive thrill that ran up the spine when a knife was placed in his hand and he brandished it wildly, cutting up the flesh in front of him. Then the screaming and begging started and that feeling would become almost overwhelming, bubbling inside like the fountain in the Corville community park he’d played in so many years ago.

  That feeling when you’re on a swing and you’re flying through the air, higher and higher? That feeling? That’s what this felt like. He might fall off and hurt himself or he might soar into the blue sky, tumbling in the cotton clouds. It was all up to fate.

  “It’s time again, Tanner.”

  He grabbed onto the man’s hair, now damp with sweat and blood, lifting his head so that they were eye to eye. “Wake up, Tanner. It’s time for some fun.”

  One lid lifted partially, the other too swollen to move.

  “Why do you keep calling me Tanner? My name isn’t Tanner. It’s Brian. Brian Wells. You’ve made a mistake. I’m not who you think I am. You can stop all of this. Just stop. I’m not Tanner.”

  His voice was thready, but still easily heard. Desperation. That’s what it sounded like. Desperate men will say or do anything.

  Stepping forward, the plastic tarp crinkled under his shoes. He lifted the knife, bringing it down sharply, slashing the vulnerable flesh. The blade slid in easily, the warm blood splattering on his hand. Immediately, the tension inside of him was released, a rush of euphoria taking over, his entire body trembling in reaction.

  He waited for his shaking hands to stop before raising the knife again.

  “Have you talked to Maddie about it yet?” Logan asked. “I haven’t said anything to Ava as I wanted to get more of the plans hammered out first.”

  “I haven’t,” Tanner confessed. “But I think she’ll be completely on board. She’s been saying that she wants to get away for a couple of weeks and just relax, that we never see our old friends anymore. We’re always working. This is the old two birds and one stone situation.”

  “You say that but she may not think going on vacation with a bunch of other people is all that fun. Maybe she only loves us in small doses,” Logan joked. “But what about you? Are you sure you can take the time? Now that you’re a big-time lawmaker and everything? Tell me what it’s like to leave small town politics behind and serve in the state legislature.”

  “Frustrating,” Tanner growled. “I should never have left being mayor of Springwood. At least there I was able to get things done. How did I let all of you talk me into this? Now I just sit in meetings and we talk. That seems like all we do. There’s little to no action going on.”

  “The wheels of government turn slowly.”

  “That, my friend, is the understatement of the century. Seriously, I can get the time off. I need to decompress. I swear the state of Montana and its lawmakers are trying to send me into an early grave. I need to breathe some fresh air, sleep late, and eat food that isn’t good f
or me. Having my best friends to hang around with would be the icing on the cake.”

  “It will be worse when you’re governor. Or maybe a United States senator.”

  “That will never happen.”

  “Never say never. You also said that you didn’t want to run for mayor. And then you did. Then you said that you didn’t want a statewide office. And then you ran. And won. Seems like your political career might have just started. Soon everyone in the country will know your name.”

  If they didn’t already. Although all these years later, it was mostly serial killer junkies and law enforcement that were interested in that old story.

  “Hopefully, they’ll know me as an honest, hardworking man.”

  “You don’t hear too many people talk about politicians that way.”

  “That’s okay because I’m not a politician. I’m a retired cop. I do think there’s still a place for an honest man or woman in politics. I guess I’m just an optimist at heart.”

  “You are but in the best way. This country needs someone like you, Tanner.”

  Logan believed in his words wholeheartedly. Tanner was someone that could make a difference in many people’s lives if he was put in the right position. He’d certainly made a great deal of improvements in Springwood. He’d do the same in Montana, and then maybe the entire United States.

  Tanner didn’t have a chance to respond to Logan’s statements. The front door flew open and Ava and Brianna came bustling into the house, both of them speaking animatedly at the same time so he couldn’t really make out what they were saying. They were smiling, however, so their shopping trip must have been successful.

  Brianna ran up to Logan, holding a long plastic bag with the logo of the local department store on it.

  “Dad, you have to look at the dress I got for the dance. It’s so gorgeous. Mom helped me pick it out.”

  Colt had been reclining in the living room playing video games and ignoring everyone else, which wasn’t unusual these days. Logan had been warned by other parents that the teenage years royally sucked but he hadn’t quite believed it until now. Colt didn’t even want people to know he had parents if it all possible. He certainly tried to pretend that he was magically hatched from an egg and avoided talking to or spending any time with his family since turning fifteen. He only talked to them when he wanted something. Like dinner. Or a ride somewhere.

  “I can’t believe you’re going to that lame dance,” Colt retorted, laughing at his own joke. “Only losers are going.”

  Or when he wanted to be mean to his twin sister.

  “Takes a loser to know a loser,” Brianna taunted back. She took none of her brother’s crap. She was so much like Ava. “You’re just crabby because Sara Templeton is going with Greg Miller.”

  The twins’ only form of communication these days was bickering. Logan was getting tired of it. He opened his mouth to tell them to cool it but he was far too slow. Ava beat him to it.

  “Both of you need to watch your mouths,” Ava said in a warning tone. “Stop being so nasty to one another. Someday you’ll be glad that you have a sister or brother.”

  “Why? You never talk to your sister,” Colt smarted back. “You don’t seem very glad to have Aunt Mary as family.”

  There was an awkward silence and Colt seemed to realize that perhaps he’d gone too far. Brianna’s eyes were wide, her gaze darting back and forth between her parents wondering what they were going to say or do.

  The whole “family situation” was rarely brought up in the Wright household.

  “Colt, go to your room,” Logan said in his best no-nonsense Dad voice. “Right now.”

  His son was about to argue back, but must have thought about it a second time because he levered up from the couch and stomped back to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. Brianna rolled her eyes and groaned before heading to her own room. This time the door didn’t slam.

  “He shouldn’t have said that.”

  Ava sighed, placing her purse and keys on the kitchen island. “What he said was the truth. I can’t punish him for that.”

  “He doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does.”

  “Like most teenagers. It’s fine. I’m going to get a glass of wine. Do you want one?”

  “I’ll pass.”

  Ava smiled and pointed to the phone Logan was holding. “Were you having a conversation when we interrupted?”

  Shit and fuck. Tanner. Was he even still there?

  Logan pressed the phone to his ear. “Are you still there?”

  “I am. I didn’t want to interrupt. It sounded like it was getting intense there for a minute. Aren’t teenagers fun? Wait until they start to drive. You get to stay up and worry the entire time they’re out having fun. And setting curfew is a blast, too. They’ll tell you that all of their friends get to stay out all night if they want to. They’re the only ones with any actual rules or consequences. Everyone else’s parents are cool while you are not. Haven’t you heard the news? Teenagers know everything. They’re smarter than their parents by a mile.”

  “If I were you I wouldn’t be so smug,” Logan laughed. “Amanda still might throw you a curve ball that you’re not ready for.”

  Amanda was twelve and it appeared that she was going to be drop dead beautiful. She was the perfect mix of her parents and boys were already noticing her good looks.

  “I’m fully prepared,” Tanner boasted. “The secret is to not freak out.”

  “That’s the secret? That’s it?”

  “It’s just that simple. Stay calm. This too will pass. Eventually, they come out the other side completely normal.”

  Logan had to admit that both of Tanner’s older kids were pretty terrific. They were both married with children, good jobs, nice people. It had been touch and go with his son Chris but he’d come around too, just later in life.

  “You make it sound easy.”

  “It isn’t,” Tanner assured him. “It feels awful when you’re going through it. I was convinced that both my kids hated me when they were teenagers. I thought it would always be that way. Turns out that they now think I have wisdom. Can you believe that? Wisdom. Because I’m old as hell. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I’m just better at hiding panic.”

  “I’d love to have wisdom someday.”

  “We all would. Sounds like I should let you go. Go hug and kiss your wife. I think she’s having a shit day.”

  Logan was going to do just that. He hung up the call with Tanner and followed his wife out to the back patio where she was sitting with her glass of wine, feet up on a table, staring out at the sun that was beginning to set.

  He sat down next to Ava, placing his arm around her shoulders. They didn’t get much quiet time in the house and this was heaven.

  “I’m going to talk to Colt about what he said.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t. He was right.”

  “He still shouldn’t have thrown it in your face. He doesn’t understand everything that happened.”

  “He understands enough. He knows about Wade and your role in that situation.”

  Logan snorted. “He doesn’t know how batshit crazy your sister is, and that she blames you for how her life turned out.”

  “She thinks that I’m responsible for losing her husband and her happiness,” Ava sighed, taking a sip of her wine. “I don’t think I’m ever going to change her mind about that.”

  “Maybe she should look in the mirror. She’s a goddamn adult who doesn’t want to take any responsibility for anything.”

  After Logan had killed Wade, Mary had gone underground and changed her last name to get away from the publicity. Mary’s only concession to her family was to call her parents regularly. But she never called Ava. They hadn’t seen her since the day they’d told her that Wade Bryson was dead.

  Aaron’s wife Lindsey had done the same with their children. Wade’s wife, on the other hand, had changed her name and moved the kids away much earlier when Wade was initi
ally tried and convicted. No one had heard from her in years, but before she had gone Logan had offered to help if she needed it. She’d told him he would be the last person she’d ever ask for assistance.

  He’d taken her at her word that she wanted nothing to do with him. From time to time he thought about just checking on her without reaching out. Just to make sure that she and the kids were okay but he knew she wouldn’t want even that. The other Bryson brides sure as hell didn’t want him - or Ava - in their lives.

  “I just want my sister to be happy,” Ava said. “She’s been through so much. It can’t be easy losing your husband. But it’s hard to see her treat you like a pariah. She should be grateful.”

  “I understand how she feels.”

  “I don’t,” Ava replied, heat in her tone. “You risked everything, including your life, and they act like you’ve done something wrong. Like you went on a murderous rampage instead of Wade.”

  “I couldn’t stop Wade from killing their husbands.”

  Ava hopped up from the chair, her brows pinched together. “It wasn’t your job to stop Wade. It only became your job when he started killing randomly.”

  “That’s not how they see it.”

  “Then they see it wrong.”

  “Wade is gone. If they blame him, it won’t do any good. If they blame me…well…I’m alive and they can point all their energy toward hating me.”

  “It won’t bring Lyle and Aaron back.”