Page 27 of Judge’s Redemption

Mercer catches my hair. Pain tears across my scalp as he drags me backward. I twist and slam my elbow into his ribs. He curses and loosens his hold. The first man grabs my arm. I stamp down on his foot and bite the hand he clamps over my mouth.

He swears and jerks away. I make it three steps toward the door with the man still grabbing me. Then it opens.

Judge stands on the other side.

His gaze moves from me to the hand wrapped around my arm. The man holding me freezes.

Judge's face doesn't change. He doesn't raise his voice. He steps into the salon and closes the door behind him.

“Let her go.”

Mercer smiles, but it slips at the edges. “You're going to honor King's agreement.” Judge looks at him. The steady hand is still there but mercy isn't.

CHAPTER 6

JUDGE

The man holding Shay's arm lets go and that’s the smartest thing any of them has done tonight.

She moves away from him immediately, putting a styling chair between herself and Mercer's men. Her hair is coming loose, one side of her shirt stretched at the collar, fury burning across her face.

The rear door opens behind Mercer. Tank fills it. Cash steps through beside him with his gun levelled at the second man's chest. Gray comes in behind me and locks the front door, cutting off the only other exit. The blocked service lane and dead lights bought Mercer less than a minute. He mistook that minute for a hole in our protection.

He looks around the salon and finally understands he didn't slip past Kingdom Come. He walked into the middle of it. “You set me up,” he says.

“No. You saw her return to work and decided that made her available.” My eyes stay on the man who touched Shay. He shifts his weight, then thinks better of it.

“Judge, I’m okay.” Shay says. My attention moves to her immediately. There's blood on her lower lip where somebody's hand must've caught her mouth. The room gets colder.

Gray opens the salon door. “Shay, you might want to leave.” She looks from him to me.

Her gaze holds mine. Then she walks toward the office behind reception, leaving the door open. “I’m not going anywhere, they aren’t going to scare me.” The man nearest her makes the mistake of turning his head towards her. I hit him before he faces me again.

My fist drives into his throat. He folds, choking, and I catch the wrist that had been wrapped around Shay's arm. “Was it this hand you touched her with?” He tries to pull free.

I bend his fingers back until two break and his scream fills the salon. Shay doesn't flinch.

I release him, and Tank catches him before he reaches the floor. Mercer's face has gone pale beneath the confidence he brought inside. “This is business.”

“You photographed my daughter.”

“It was leverage. That’s how this world works. You know that.”

“She's fucking four.”

“I didn't touch the kid.”

“You learned where she sleeps. You sent a man after her mother. Then you came here expecting to drag Shay out by her hair.”

His gaze flicks toward the broken mirror. “I needed you to understand the agreement wasn't optional.”

“The agreement was with Reddick.”

“I paid your club.”

“Kane returned every dollar.”

“King would've finished the job.”