Read Justin for Free Online Page B

he’d lost. Served him right. Scumbag.
    Deanna was her uniform. She’d given her life to the patrollers, believed in what they stood for.
    And they’d cold-shouldered her the minute she’d made a mistake. Which hadn’t been a mistake. Her prisoner was admitting his guilt.
    But it didn’t count, because all the ruling family had to do was say a word, and it was Deanna who paid.
    Deanna shook out the veil with an angry jerk, laid it over her head and wrapped the ends around her throat.
    Justin smiled. “Mmm. Beautiful.”
    “The silk is nice.” Nicer than anything she owned.
    “I meant you are beautiful. Take the compliment, Deanna.”
    When he said it in that velvet voice, Deanna wanted to believe it.
    “Tell me what you were researching at the library,” she said.
    He shook his head. “Damn, you’re like a dog with a bone.”
    “I always get my prisoner.”
    “I bet you do. How about, instead of talking about me, we talk about you. Who are you Deanna Surrell? Why are you a patroller?”
    Easy to answer, if he wanted to play this game. “It’s what I always wanted to do.”
    “What, your mother gave you a pistol and a badge when you were five, and you went around the house arresting your dolls?”
    She flushed. “Yes, actually. Something like that. But I’d wanted to be a patroller before that. My mother was just humoring me.” Deanna had wanted her mother to be so proud. And her mother was, the rare times she could communicate.
    Justin took another sip of coffee, another lesson in sensuality. “So you went to the academy,” he said. “Were you top of the class?”
    “No.” But pretty damn good. “I won a marksmanship medal.”
    “Shit, no wonder you got me. If you’d been shooting with a regular gun, I’d be dead.”
    “You would be,” Deanna said. “But I’m not a killer. I subdue the target but keep him alive.”
    “And drag him to the cells to interrogate him.”
    “And make sure he’s well cared for in my custody. Wounds healed, nutrition taken care of, no abuse. Some of the patrollers can be . . .”
    Deanna closed her mouth over the criticism. Fine to complain within the division, bad to spill about it to a civilian, especially a Shareem.
    “Yeah, I know how the patrollers can be,” Justin said. “What makes you such a sweetie?”
    “I’m not. I do my job.”
    He grinned. “So all Bor Nargans can rest easy in their beds?”
    “Patrollers swear to protect and defend the ordinary citizens of Bor Narga. That’s what I do.”
    “From the big, bad Shareem?”
    “If necessary. What were you doing up on the Vistara, Justin?”
    Justin raised his hands, still grinning, but his gaze became wary. “I told you, love. What Shareem do.”
    “Which is what, exactly?”
    “The usual. Look it up.”
    “I’m asking you . No evasions and half-truths. I want to know, in every detail, why you decided to go to the Vistara two mornings ago and what you intended to do there.”
    His smile vanished. “If I tell you, then what? You arrest me again?”
    “I don’t have the power to arrest you at the moment.” Deanna’s fingers curled on the table. “But if you were breaking the law, or intending to, you don’t get to go free.”
    “What if I promise you no laws would have been broken?”
    “In that case, you can tell me what you what you were going to do.”
    Justin turned his head to study the nearby stalls overflowing with spices and exotic fruits. Deanna saw in his eyes, in the moment before he turned away, a flash of deep pain.
    “I’ll think about it,” he said.
    “I’m a patroller. I’m questioning you. You have to answer me.”
    When Justin turned back, the pain she’d glimpsed had vanished, and she wondered whether she’d imagined it.
    “You were given a leave of absence,” he said. “So you’re a civvy right now, same as me.”
    “Justin,” she said in exasperation.
    He leaned forward, his gaze all for her. “I like it when you say my name like that. Your face