Love Heals (The Love Duet Book 2) Read online

  Of course, it was all Jason’s fault.

  He was far too handsome and he was touching me. And the topper on the cake? He was still holding my hand, and begging me not to cry.

  Such an arsehole.

  “Aww, don’t cry Mermaid. I couldn’t handle your tears when you were ten and I can’t now. If you want to clean my house then I won’t say a thing. Just please no crying sweetheart, you’re hurting my heart.” It was then Jason gathered me in his arms, stood up taking me with him, reversing our positions, him on the seat and me in his lap.

  Without a conscious thought, I buried my face in his neck, my arms wrapping around his neck and promptly wiped my nose on his collar.

  “Did you just wipe your snot on me Kelsey?” Jason asked me with an amused grunt.

  “No,” I mumbled my mouth brushing against his throat. His skin was bristled with a few days’ growth of stubble, which gave him that dark and dangerous appearance I dreamt about on a fairly regular basis… okay so it was every night but who could blame me. The man was a work of sculptured art and I was sitting on his perfectly muscled leg. The fact that I was bawling like a crazy person and wiped my nose on him was just a small glitch in an otherwise perfect moment.

  “I think you did, you know Shiloh does the same thing so I recognise the signs when someone uses me as a human hankie,” he said very seriously, making me laugh through my tears which were happily starting to dry up.

  Perhaps my period is due, that had to explain the bucket load of emotions swirling in me.

  “You calm enough to hear some words of wisdom now?” Jason asked me, his finger under my chin making me look at him, his blue eyes etched with worry. For me. I gave myself a mental shake, this was not the time for my overactive imagination to get the better of me. Jason was just being a concerned friend and nothing more.

  “Words of wisdom or a lecture on why I should stop worrying about being a thirty-one-year-old virgin and spending all my nights with a fat, sausage dog and watching reruns of Friends?”

  Jason knew pretty much everything about me, he made it so after he rescued me from the car boot. I also had a sneaking suspicion he inserted himself firmly into my life to distract his mind from finding a new person to love. He no longer believed in love, didn’t want it in his life ever again. Zoe was in his mind and heart… irreplaceably. Which sucked donkey dick for me… and my fantasies of being more to him than the woman across the street he had known since the beginning of time.

  “Did you ever stop to think that watching reruns of that stupid show is the reason you are in the position you find yourself in, and not the scar.” His sexy smirk doing exactly what he hoped it would. Giggling quietly though a hiccup, I gave myself an extra minute to soak up the joy of just being this close to Jason, feeling his strong arms around me, one hand gripping my hip his fingers making slow circles over the thin cotton of my shirt. Our physical encounters were few and far between and almost always consisted of quick hugs and kisses to my forehead, once he patted me on my arse when we were crossing the street. I looked far too much into that one, and went to bed convinced he was in love with me. Granted, I had only been twenty-three at the time, and still very green when it came to men.

  I was still green, just a slightly duller shade now. Years of men staring at you with either pity or disgust tended to pull a woman’s head out of the clouds and give her a good dose of reality.

  “Sweetheart, it will happen for you. Out there somewhere is the perfect man for you and when he lays eyes on you for the first time, he will see in you what I do.”

  I stilled at his low, throaty tone, his lips vibrating against my forehead.

  Licking my dry lips, I asked the question I desperately wanted to know the answer.

  “What’s that?” Oh my god was that my voice? Raspy like I swallowed a bucket load of gravel.

  Jason then rocked my world with one word. One word I would treasure for the rest of my life. Take with me when all seemed hopeless and I got lost in the darkness of being alone.

  “Perfection.”

  Chapter 5

  JASON

  Someone was going to get a punch in the face, looking at Deck I decided it was going to be him. I wasn’t in a good mood and as luck would have it, my brother was directly in my firing line. Why was I pissed off you ask?

  Five days ago, I did the worst thing I could have ever done.

  I told Kelsey the truth.

  In my defence I was under the influence of her tears, plus her round firm arse had been planted on my lap making me all kinds of confused and my dick hard.

  To be honest, Kelsey was perfect, I didn’t see her scar just the beautiful person she was inside and out. Her kindness had no limits, no boundaries or conditions. She was just pure good.

  And I, of course, had to tell her exactly that, Jesus what the fuck was wrong with me? Kelsey was… well Kelsey, not some chick I could hit on and use for one night because that was all it could be. One night. I didn’t miss the heat in her eyes when I pulled her onto my lap, or the breathy pants she made into my neck.

  Fuck me, I was screwed way beyond FUBAR. And to make matters worse I was spending my first day off in two weeks working construction with Deck. My brother was not making my mood any better with his high-handed bossing, which he was directing at me more than anyone else on the crew. I was doing him a fucking favour for Christ’s sake, it wasn’t as if the wanker was paying me to take his shit, or sweat like a motherfucker in the oppressive heat that was summer in Australia. The project was ahead of schedule and Deck was keen to keep it that way, no matter how hot it was or how hard he worked us.

  “Stupid cock sucking prick,” I grumbled, tossing another shovel full of dry cement dust into the cement mixer.

  “Got something to say there officer prick?” Deck asked amusedly. He held a hose pointed at the opening of the mixer slowly pouring water in while I shovelled in the mix. He wasn’t concentrating on his job because in his other hand was his phone.

  I glared at him, as goofy smiles played across his ugly mug. Only one person could make my badarse biker brother smile like a chick. Charlotte.

  The former dancer now dance teacher turned my brother from a man just going through the motions to a protective family man. Not that I would tell the arsehole anything but I was in awe of how he stepped up and became the father that he was now. The day Shiloh was born, and he laid eyes on her, my twin changed. Shiloh became his everything, and he was a damn good dad. Meeting Charlotte and having Bastian just completed him somehow, he was less intense, well that wasn’t exactly true he was still intense only in a better way.

  Charlotte brought out his softer side, public displays of affection were now his normal. I couldn’t say that when we were kids or teens. Deck’s idea of affection used to consist of grinding into a woman against a brick wall behind a building or in a dark corner at some party thrown by the Steel brothers.

  I emptied the last of the bag then cut into the second one before I started to get really pissed off. The idiot needed to get off his phone and see that the mix of cement was about to turn into a runny pile of grey sludgy water and totally useless.

  Looking down at the bag of cement, I grinned wickedly. Deck needed help getting his face out of his phone and back on the job at hand, and being the good and caring twin brother, I decided it had to be me that helped him.

  Sliding the spade into the bag, I got as much cement dust as possible on the face of the tool and did the only thing that could possibly, maybe make me forget my troubles with Kelsey and proceeded to throw it at Deck, covering him from head-to-toe in a cloud of grey dust.

  “You fucking dead cunt!” Deck roared, frantically wiping at his eyes and mouth. Leaning against the handle of the shovel, I fought back tears as I pissed myself laughing at him. His red lips the only colour other than the grey on his face, even his hair, or the little that he had, was grey. “If you have wrecked my phone Jason there won’t be a place you can hide from me,” he threatened, his
eyes were closed and couldn’t see me so I did the only thing I could and snapped a photo with my phone.

  “If you weren’t sexting Charlie and instead concentrating on the job you wouldn’t have fucked up a whole batch of concrete, wanker,” I told him smugly, knowing that using the name only he was allowed to call Charlotte would rile him up even more.

  Ignoring the low growl from him, I turned away when my phone started to ring.

  “This better not be the station,” I muttered looking at the screen with dread. After two weeks of thirteen-hour days, I wasn’t going in unless there was a national emergency.

  So, I was relieved and surprised to see Creed’s name flashing on the screen. We were club brothers so we communicated a fair bit, but mostly through brief and to the point text messages. Creed wasn’t much of a talker, he was more of a don’t text me unless it’s important kind of a guy. So, when he actually phoned he had something important to say. Swiping my finger across the screen, I walked away from my brother to get away from his cursing and his fists.

  “Brother, what’s up?” I asked in way of a greeting.

  “Just drove down Main Road on my bike. Kelsey is walking, hauling her handcart loaded down with at least six bags of potting soil. Thought you might like to know, you fucking Johnston twins need to get a better idea what your women do,” Creed said, then I was met with the dial tone. Short and to the point, a little confusing with the last part but my mood just got ten times worse.

  “What the actual fuck!” I shouted and immediately found Kelsey’s number and pressed dial, holding the phone to my ear, I paced around in a circle waiting for her to pick up. When it rang out and her voice message picked up, I was about to go postal, my amusement about Deck replaced with anger and worry.

  It was fucking close to thirty-eight degrees Celsius in the fucking shade, and Kelsey was out walking in it hauling a huge arse heavy load behind her.

  “Fucking stubborn woman. Now she is going to fucking do as she is told whether she likes it or not.” Shoving the phone back in my pocket, I stalked away towards the site office. If driving Zoe’s old car was the only reason she wouldn’t take up my offer then she was going to get something else to drive.

  “Jason get the fuck back here. I am going to fuck you up in so many ways you won’t look the same as me ever again,” Deck yelled at me.

  “Like I give a fuck,” I muttered to myself then turned my head in his direction without slowing my pace.

  “Can I borrow one of the site utes for a while?” I yelled back at him, my feet eating up the distance so quick Deck started to follow me to hear what I was saying.

  “You can have the red Ranger, why, what’s wrong with your car?”

  “Nothing, it’s for Kelsey. Creed just saw her walking with a load of soil on Main Road,” I told him with an annoyed grunt.

  Deck let out a grunted laugh, “I remember when he called me to tell me Sweetness did the same thing… just in a tight skirt, heels and… without the soil.” “I thought you were going to let her use Zoe’s v-dub?” he asked confused.

  “I offered but the stubborn woman just won’t accept help, but that stops right now.”

  Deck followed me all the way to the site office, dust flying off him in the strong northly wind.

  How the hell was she walking in this heat? And fucking why? I told her I would help her collect the gardening supplies when they came in. Even after what happened, or nearly happened or might have happened… I was confused on that, we hadn’t avoided each other. We just avoided the elephant in the room and went on as if we hadn’t shared a moment together.

  “Jason.” Deck’s voice was suddenly serious, all signs of him wanting to rearrange my face forgotten.

  “Yeah?”

  “Be careful, mate. She isn’t some plaything for a night’s relief. Kelsey is special, and she has been through a lot in her life.” Deck warned me, and despite the grey covering his face, I could still see the message in his eyes.

  Fisting my hands at my thighs, I resisted answering him the way I really wanted to.

  “I know she is special Decker, I was there for her when she was little just the same as you. I found her in that boot, I live across the street from her, I see every day how fucking special she is,” I ground out, not caring for his nose up in my business.

  “Fair enough. Oh, and Jason?”

  Before I could tell him to piss off and let me go and rescue Kelsey, a fist flew at me, landing square on my jaw, knocking me on my arse. Holding a hand to my face, I groaned at the pain radiating from Deck’s hard as fuck punch.

  “Fuck Deck, really?” I moaned through gritted teeth.

  “That’s for my phone arsehole. Don’t call my wife anything but Charlotte and never call me Decker ever again,” Deck growled reaching through the opened door and grabbed a set of keys off the hook just inside the door. “You can buy the ute if you want. It doesn’t get used as much as the Hilux or the truck. Think about it, I don’t think Kelsey will feel any more comfortable taking this as she is about the Beetle,” Deck suggested to me. It made sense, Kelsey was about as stubborn as they came, taking something from the club would not sit well with her.

  “Thanks mate, I will definitely do that. I have a little left over from selling the GT, even with buying the Mustang,” I told him.

  Giving me a chin lift, then a grimace, I knew he was thinking about my decision to sell my beloved XY GT. I loved that car, Deck loved that car, but the older she got the more time I spent with her up on a hoist fixing oil leaks and replacing worn hoses. Even in the deteriorated condition she had been in, I got a decent price for her.

  “I will have Seb bring your bike back to the compound,” he told me, tossing the keys into my lap. “Prick.”

  I then watched my brother stomp off to his bike, swearing the whole way.

  No doubt plotting how to get me back, I thought absently as I pushed myself up. I wasn’t that naïve to think this was the end of his retaliation.

  I worked my jaw back and forth experimentally. It was a wonder it wasn’t fucking broken, or at the very least a few teeth knocked out. Deck knew how to hit and hit hard, the only person to hit harder had been Darth.

  Driving as slow as the traffic behind me would allow, I scanned either side of Main Road looking for Kelsey and her god damned wagon. It wasn’t an easy task, Main Road happened to be a busy route for the people that lived in the outer suburbs in the east of town. It was also one of two roads that trucks could take when coming into the town from Geelong. Lots of trucks meant I couldn’t take my eyes off the road for too long, which meant I could possibly miss spotting Kelsey.

  “I swear to god woman, you are going to drive me fucking insane,” I muttered, going through the same roundabout for the third time. To the left was the direction of Zoe’s and my street, I contemplated going that way but there was no way Kelsey would have made it this far. Creed hadn’t said exactly where he saw her, but my cop instincts were telling me to double back. Checking my mirrors, I swiftly executed a U-turn. It made more sense that Kelsey would be walking on this side of the road, there were more trees on the nature strip acting as good shade to hide from the sun. Kelsey might be stubborn but she wasn’t stupid.

  Pulling into the bike lane, I wished for my police car and more importantly the lights, normally I would pull someone over for driving so far off the road. Being a detective didn’t mean I had to forgo fun and pulling over the odd motorist.

  I only drove a hundred metres before I noticed two legs with white sneakers at the end of them poking out from a thick hedge, also visible was the end of a red cart, a wheel missing with a bag of soil sitting haphazardly on the pavement.

  Pulling over further to the gutter, I parked the car and put the gear in neutral. From here I could just see that Kelsey was leaning deep into the shrub, her body lying flat out and not moving.

  Slipping off my belt, I tore out of the car and ran to her.

  “Mermaid? Are you okay?” I dropped to my kne
es beside her legs and peered into the bush. Kelsey laid still and unmoving, hell I couldn’t even see her chest going up and down under her tight tee. Was she suffering from heatstroke? There was a bottle of water in the ute, but god knew how long it had been there. I toyed with getting it anyway, but the more worried I became the longer she stayed unresponsive.

  Panic rose, my heart thumped wildly in my chest. “Kelsey! Sweetheart?” Crawling closer, I immediately noticed a red welt across her arm and one across her neck, her tee was torn at the collar.

  Jesus Christ, was she attacked in broad daylight? Why the fuck didn’t anyone stop?

  A woman lying half on the pavement and half in a bush wasn’t a common occurrence in this area.

  “Kelsey!” I shouted louder, shaking her shoulder. Using my other hand, I grabbed my phone from my pocket, waking it up and pressing 000. Holding the device with my chin and shoulder I placed two fingers to feel for a pulse.

  When I felt the thump under my two fingers, I sighed in relief, but the fear that something was horribly wrong stayed. A horrible memory of seeing Zoe lifeless on the hospital bed crept into my mind without permission.

  “No, fuck no. That isn’t going to be you Mermaid,” I growled.

  “Excuse me? Sir this is 000, do you have an emergency?”

  “This is Detective Jason Johnston 503 of the Lucas station. I have a woman unconscious, she has two contusions, no other signs of injury that I can see. The address

  is—” I jumped out from the hedge and saw a number painted on a fence post, “457 Main Road, we are going to need an ambulance and see if you can patch me through to Detective Jobe Brayshaw at the Lucas—”

  “I know Detective Brayshaw, give me a minute 503.”

  I waited impatiently to be patched through to Jobe, my eyes never leaving Kelsey’s red flushed face. I decided she needed the water, the car was close, I would only be away from her for a few seconds. I was about to get to my feet when I heard Jobe’s voice come over the line.