“Me son. I’m so . . . I’m so sorry.” Her voice breaks. “I'm sorry I didn't keep ye safe when ye were young. I took me eyes off ye and Camdyn for one second. A single fecking second. Worst mistake of me life. I was a shoddy mam. Earlier, I was so scared that I’d not protected me Little Brody, knowing someone had come after him. I took it out on ye, Jamie. Y’know Mam’s overprotective now—afraid of everything.”
“Mom,” he squeaks, hormones adjusting to a volley of emotion.
“Nae, my sweet bairn. I'm so, so sorry I wasn't here to protect ye now, and ye had to protect yerself. Yer mam’s never been so sorry, son. Ye mind the last session we had with yer therapist.” Nan wipes a tear from her face, a fragment of a smile quivering on her lips. “We’ll be needing to call her. Tell her ye’re doing so well, taking up for yerself.”
“I did it, Mom. I took up for myself.” The self-confidence shining in his eyes evaporates. Left is a raw hunger to please. “And I saved Justice. She said I saved everyone!”
“I’m fecking sorry,” Brody murmurs, pressing brutal kisses on my forehead.
While I assure him I’m fine, Brody’s fingertips coast over my frame. “Och, lass, I fecked up.”
“Ye fecked up all day,” the one called Kieran says in a gravelly voice.
Jamie moves away from the back pats and into Nan’s arms.
“Ye have to understand, Jamie,” Nan kisses his forehead, embracing him fully, “Mam feels lost too. I want the best for ye, Jamie. For ye to come into yer own. I just . . . I’m sorry, son. This has been a horrible day.”
His voice catches. “I understand, Mom.”
“Son, I’ll regret this day for the rest of my life.”
“Mom, don’t. I’m happy. I did it.”
Eyes sparkling with tears, Nan looks at me. “Och, sweetheart. We haven’t kept ye safe like we should.”
“Justice, I fecked up,” Leith says this time. “I left ye all here.”
Brody clears his throat. “It was me. I apologize to my hen, Mam, and Jamie.”
Kieran clears his throat.
“Wit? Ye need an apology?” I cock a brow. “Ye would have done the same?”
Kieran’s broad shoulders jitter in a laugh. “Feck ye, mate. If I had half a mind, I’d slug ye. If I were in my right mind, nae. Ye said Ewan had all the excuses. Well, today, I would’ve picked ye all off one at a time. Got me a new sniper rifle.”
“Burn!” Camdyn drops a hand on Kieran’s shoulder. “I want you to know, bro, from the bottom of my heart, I wasn’t feeling this today.”
Kieran takes his cheeks. “I’m glad to know ye were on my side while holding a gun to me heid.”
“Technically, it was Ewan’s.” As Kieran laughs, Camdyn says, “But you know what I mean. I’m fucking ashamed of myself, bro.”
While Nan and Jamie embrace and the rest of the guys hoorah over Jamie’s first kill, Brody takes my hand, leading me out of the pool house. He’s quiet as we meander back into the house where more MacKenzie clan have entered. Ewan and Big Brody are strolling toward his office.
Chevelle hurries over to me. “Justice, you okay?”
“I’m alive.”
“Chevelle,” Brody says.
“There’s a first aid kit,” she gestures toward the bathroom. “I’m confident Brody’s got you. I’ll leave the two of you to it.”
* * *
In the bathroom, I suffer a look at my appearance. I’ll say I’ve seen chicks worse for wear after high school brawls. Leaning against the counter, I count the dull aches thumping in my chest. Brody’s tender hands brush beneath my shirt. He pulls it over my head.
“How many Band-Aids?” I chuckle. I look up into a choppy blue ocean on a stormy day. His eyes bite shut, signifying it’s too soon for a joke.
“I don’t deserve you, Justice.” His finger, held inches away, follows the length of the cut on my forearm. He takes deep, even breaths, nostrils flared while shoving the cupboard open and grabbing a first-aid kit.