Jonny's Redemption (Gemini Group Book 7) Riley Edwards (ebook reader screen .TXT) 📖

her. But it wasn’t her hair that had him on edge, it was her shorts. Her short-shorts that showed off a hell of a lot of tanned, toned leg. She was too short to have long legs, but what they lacked in length they made up for in shape. The woman had perfect legs and Jonny had spent a good number of hours imagining what they’d feel like wrapped around his hips.

He hadn’t gone past his perusal of her shorts when she sighed and Jonny’s gaze lifted to meet hers.

That was okay. He didn’t need to take in her midriff and chest to know Bobby’s hips flared nicely before her waist dipped in, only to have her breasts swell. Bobby didn’t often bare cleavage but when she did it was impressive and sexy as all hell.

She was a pretty package. But, like Bobby, Jonny was a sucker for eyes. And hers were stunning.

“Maybe I shouldn’t’ve—”

“Shouldn’t have what?” he snapped. “Driven out here?”

Her shoulders went stiff and those beautiful, sparkling hazel eyes of hers narrowed.

“No, Jonny,” she spat in the same tone Jonny had used. “Maybe I shouldn’t have given a shit you came out here to brood and whatever the hell else you’re doing out here all by yourself.”

“Brood?”

“Would you prefer pout?”

That got Jonny to his feet. The wooden chair legs scraped on the newly refinished deck boards as he stood.

“I’m not fucking pouting.”

“You’re not? It sure looks like you are.”

There she was—Roberta Layne in all her glory. Well, not all of it, she still had on her clothes. But this was the Bobby Jonny knew. The spitfire who said whatever popped into her head without remorse or regard.

“So you drove two fucking hours to tell me I’m pouting?”

“No, you ass. I drove two hours because I was worried about you sitting out here beating yourself up about things that are not your fault. That last case—”

“Don’t.”

“It wasn’t your fault. You did everything you could. So did Nixon and the team. You knew you had the right guy. Hell, Jonny, you spent your days off following him. And when that pregnant girl—”

“Ayla,” Jonny ground out.

“Ayla,” Bobby softly repeated. “You did everything you could to help her. I know it’s not cool to blame the victim, especially a pregnant teenager, but she wasn’t supposed to contact Cory. She did that, Jonny, not you.”

Cory Saddler.

The man was now rotting in jail, but not before he violated six young girls. One of them pregnant with his child, one of them dead. Six lives changed irrevocably, their families left in shambles. All of it happening in Jonny’s town on Jonny’s watch.

It didn’t matter that for forty-five days, Jonny had followed Cory when he wasn’t on shift. He’d been studious in making sure he kept tabs on the man’s whereabouts. He’d worked with Nixon and the rest of the guys at Gemini Group and had gathered enough evidence for an arrest. But the State’s Attorney wanted more. Wanted an airtight case. The asshole wouldn’t hear of issuing a warrant without the guarantee of a conviction. So Jonny set out to get more dirt on Saddler.

Jonny thought he’d have a little more time. Ayla had been keeping her head down, doing what her parents had asked, and not telling anyone she was pregnant. Until she was done listening and she contacted that sick fuck who fed her a bunch of bullshit about loving her and wanting their baby. So when he asked to meet her, she’d snuck out and gone to him. Jonny had been at the hospital with his friends. His buddy Jameson’s wife had gone into premature labor. So when Ayla had snuck out to meet up with Saddler, Jonny hadn’t been watching.

And a pregnant girl who’d already been victimized had been beaten up. After that, Ayla’s family packed up and moved out of Kent County and he couldn’t blame them. Jonny had no idea where they moved, what happened to them, what happened to the baby. All he knew was Ayla’s face was still busted up when she fled.

“He never should’ve been on the streets.”

“I agree with you. But that wasn’t up to you, Jonny. And you’re not the only one pissed the SA dropped the ball. All the guys are feeling it. Chasin is so pissed he’s sent dozens of scathing letters to Annapolis lawmakers about the SA. There’s nothing more any of you could’ve done.”

“You’re wrong.”

“You quit,” Bobby accused and Jonny flinched at the turn of conversation.

He had quit his job because he couldn’t stomach another minute of the bullshit. He couldn’t do his job when his hands were tied behind his back and he was gagged. He couldn’t protect his community when the powers that be were working against him.

You quit because you’re a failure.

Christ, Jonny would do anything to make the voices in his head shut the hell up. They were right, all of them—he was a failure. He was an idiot, jackass, coward, who’d failed his own family.

He couldn’t even think of the night his brother had murdered his father without wanting to puke. Time had done nothing to lessen the knot in his chest. Time had not dimmed the memory. He could recall every second with crystal clarity. Right down to the look of horror on his niece’s face when she witnessed her father killing her grandfather.

Her father, Jonny’s brother.

If the day his father cheated on his mother had set the fire that would burn down his life, the day Doug came to live with them was the accelerant. His presence had fueled the flames until they engulfed everyone.

“I wasn’t a good cop.”

“You ain’t right.” Oh, hell. Bobby was slipping into the drawl she’d artfully hidden. “You was a damn good cop and you know it.”

Something else about Bobby when she was pissed and gearing up to have a snit—her lips barely opened enough to let the words slip past, and her cheeks seemed to do the talking.

“No, Bobby, I don’t know that.”

“Now you’re tryin’ to piss