Bounty (Page 80)

This meant Jussy had a full ceiling, all the drywalling was done with the insulation blown in the panels and it was all taped. Wood, Tate and Ty, along with Bubba, had all shown and they’d primed all the walls the day before.

Deke would be on to painting and maybe even beginning to lay her floors the next week and Max would be sending a full crew of seven more guys the week after that.

Then shit would get done and fast and Jussy would have her home.

That all happened and Callahan was now gone.

He’d left behind a seriously comprehensive system.

Code panels at each door. Inconspicuous panic buttons in a variety of places where, if Jussy was breached, she wouldn’t have to run far to flip open the latch, hit the switch and Carnal cops would buzz out. And Cal had put in unobtrusive motion-sensor lights at all the outside eaves, the sensors hugging the exterior walls close so the bright light would only activate and scare the shit out of someone if they were right up at the house doing things they shouldn’t be doing, not critters that may get close and constantly set them off.

Cal had also nixed the door to the laundry room, torn out and adjusted the framing and ordered a steel-reinforced door Deke would put in when it was delivered. He put a landline phone in there, effectively making that space a safe room that it would take a bigger blast than a grenade to get through or they’d have to hack through walls. If Jussy’s house was violated, she got there, there was a panic button and a landline so she could communicate, call for help and stay safe until that help arrived.

And last, he’d buried all wiring to the house. All of it had been laid from road to home underground but it came aboveground to provide utilities on the outside. Callahan had shifted this inside so if someone wanted to cut her electricity or knock out her phones, they’d have to either climb electrical or phone poles or do it from the inside through a wicked screaming racket that would be made if any door or window sensors were breached, racing against time because a call would go directly to the cops within seconds.

Outside of having a guard at a gate at the head of her lane or cameras everywhere monitored 24/7, it was the most comprehensive, thoughtful security system Deke had seen. It was there but discreet so Jussy didn’t have to face its existence with every animal that came close or every time her eyes landed on a panic button.

Callahan had taken off after Jussy had insisted on giving him a dinner of Rosalinda’s (this, Deke went to go get and they ate in her living room) as well as a tight hug before he got in his SUV and drove to Denver so he could get back to his family in Indiana.

But Jussy’s Mr. T was still around, his command center being mobile, managing her situation, as well as the careers of her aunt and uncle, him either running it out of Justice’s living room, La-La Land or Carnal Hotel.

In order for him to do this, he’d somehow pulled some strings to have the cable company turn Jussy’s service on as a matter of urgency (this meaning it was done by Wednesday afternoon). And that day he’d brought all the equipment to establish a network with Wi-Fi, set it up in the room that’d be her study, all of it protected from the construction with heavy plastic tarps.

This allowed Jussy to go full steam ahead with her decorating and she was approving shit her designer sent left and right (shit, Deke did not miss, she only approved if she had his approval too).

Not to mention, she’d already given the go ahead for some dead-cool deck furniture, a lot of it, all of it looking like it was made out of logs or hefty branches with thick tan cushions. That had been delivered and set up on her back deck.

This came complete with decorations. Big kickass outdoor candleholders, large colorful pots, even a fucking outdoor rug.

She loved it and Deke approved since she could sit out there while he was working, Jussy not breathing any drywall dust, and he could still see her.

Every day he worked. Every night they came back to his trailer and it was not lost on him that she did not lie when she said, outside of being with her father’s guitars, being in that trailer was the second best place she could be.

She visibly relaxed the minute she climbed in.

At first, Deke sensed it was being in a place he’d made safe after what had been done to her.

Then it became more like she was just coming home.

It was a huge fucking understatement to say he liked that.

Since her attack (and even before, if he’d been paying attention), it had become clear she was no fake gypsy princess. She was a straight-up gypsy, more at home in an Airstream with electricity running from a generator and not a single soul within miles than she was in her big house by a river.

And with that, as well as driving up to her house and seeing two police cruisers, a lot more had become clear to Deke because those cruisers extricated Deke’s head right out of his ass.

And he started paying attention.

Jussy was Justice Lonesome, the girl who’d inherited a lot of money and even more talent from her father, the girl who made her own mark on that world.

But that was what it was and it was only a small part of who she was.

In reality, she was just Jussy, even if being just Jussy said a fuckuva lot.

Deke had no idea if he could work with that.

What he did know was that he was going to try.

He also had no idea where Jussy’s head was at with that except she did not once balk at waking up with him, going to work with him, coming home with him and bedding down with him.

She gave him long looks occasionally and he knew it was on her mind to ask what the fuck was up with him…with them…because in the beginning, all the shit he was doing could be shit any friend would do.