by Sienna Skye
“Do you want kids, Jace? Because while it’s not impossible, the odds do decline as I get older.”
“Yeah, I’d like to have kids. But, there is never any guarantees in life. I could marry someone younger than me and still not be able to have kids. Hell, as far as I know, there are no little Jaces running around out there so who knows if I can even have kids. But there are other options. There’s adoption. But if none of that happens and its just us and Ryan and Alexis, I can live a full happy life with that.”
She didn’t say anything but got up and hugged me.
“I hope that puts your mind at ease.”
“It does. So much.”
“But make no mistake, Madison. Even if we can’t have kids, I intend to get in a lot of practice.”
I had hoped that would lighten the mood a little and her laugh let me know it did.
“I wish we had some time now, but I have to pick up the kids in a few minutes.”
“Me too. Especially since I won’t really be able to spend any time with you over the next few days.”
“Why not?”
“I start my shift tomorrow with Julia and the kids.”
“I thought Trey was staying with them.”
“He’s been. He took the first half of the week and I took the second.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I told you that we’d both be helping.”
“I didn’t know that meant that you were going to stay there.” Her words were slightly clipped.
“Two sets of eyes are better than one. Trey has been sizing things up while he’s been there, now I will bring a fresh set of eyes.”
“What about your clients at the gym?”
“Trey will cover for me like I have been covering for him.”
“What about Kyle? Can’t Kyle stay with Julia and the kids?” Her voice was growing louder now. Not to mention how ridiculous her comment was.
“Madison, Kyle is an architect. He has no security background at all. It’s not just watching out for them. It’s getting things set up in the house and questioning Julia to see if we can get some more intel. Why on earth would we choose him to stay with them over me?”
“Because I am not comfortable with you staying alone for days in that house with Julia!” she screamed at me.
I was taken aback. Was she fucking kidding me? After everything we just talked about. The future, a family, kids. She was questioning my faithfulness to her?
“I can’t believe you are fucking saying this to me. After everything we just shared here tonight. I promised Morgan I would look out for them and I will for damn sure keep my promise to him. I love you, Madison. But, I will not let him down for your sake.”
“What about any promises to me?”
“I take a lot of fucking offense that you think I would not only cheat on you, but that I would fuck around with my best friend’s wife. Do you really think that little of me Madison?”
“No. And it’s not that I don’t trust you.”
“Well tell me what the hell it is then, because that’s what it sure sounds like.”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll tell you what. You get back to me when you figure it out. I don’t need anything clouding up my mind and stopping me from keeping them safe. It’s bad enough that I didn’t do what was right because of you.”
“What do you mean by that?” she asked.
“I knew something was wrong with Julia. I sensed it more than once. And each time I ignored my instincts because I was afraid of your reaction. Maybe it wouldn’t have gotten to this point if I had done what was right instead of being worried about you jumping to conclusions and getting pissed off. I will not go against my better judgement again.”
She stood there staring at me. I could see her fighting back tears of anger and frustration. I needed to go. I had to get my head straight. Concentrate on keeping Julia and the kids safe. I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to them because I was distracted.
“I have to go. You let me know when you figure it out. Goodnight, Madison.”
I grabbed my keys and walked out the door. I jumped in my truck, slammed the door closed, and drove off. I wanted a future with Madison, but that couldn’t happen if she continued not to trust me. Continued to have this ridiculous idea about me and Julia. They were always going to be in my life. If she couldn’t handle that…we couldn’t spend our lives fighting over something that didn’t even exist. I didn’t even know how to make it better if she couldn’t even figure out what it was that made her feel that way.
I decided to stop by the gym and get in a workout. I needed to work off the anger and frustration I was feeling. It would help me focus. Get my head on straight. I’d deal with this after Morgan came back home.
Chapter Twenty Four
Jace
Years of training allowed me to push everything with Madison out of my mind and I was able to get a good night’s sleep. By the time I went to relieve Trey, I was entirely focused on the task ahead of me.
Trey answered the door when I got there. The kids came barreling down the hall when they heard me. I picked them all up and gave them hugs.
“Uncle Trey told us it’s your turn to help out with the puppy,” Sophia said.
I agreed with Trey. She wasn’t buying it, but I don’t think she had a clue anything serious was going on. Trey must have done a good job keeping any of his concerns under wraps and keeping Julia calm.
“That’s right, Princess. I get to hang out for a few days with you guys, now.”
Trey looked pointedly at Julia before speaking to me. “Why don’t you catch me up on what’s going on at the gym.”
Julia nodded at him. “Okay guys. Let’s go get some breakfast.”
Once she had the kids out of the room, Trey and I sat down to talk. He filled me on his thoughts about the security system. Morgan had a state of the art system and there were only a few additions and adjustments he recommended. I agreed with his suggestions and told him I would make a sweep as well. In the meantime, Trey would let Hunter and Morgan know what he came up with. He told me that Julia was less nervous. Or at least less frantic.
“Sarah told me that you were teaching her some combat moves.”
“Yeah. She picks up fast. She goes all in just like she does with her workouts. I don’t know if it’s the fact that it’s given her more confidence and control that has calmed her down or the fact that she has been working at it until she is spent. But, whatever it was, it has seemed to work.”
“I’m just glad that something worked. How many times a day is Morgan calling?”
“He checks in with Julia a few times a day. With me, usually once at the end of the day.” We had already been careful about keeping our voices down, so the kids didn’t hear, but he lowered his even more. “I’ve been looking into Madison’s ex-husband. So far, I haven’t found anything that would lead me to believe it’s him. But, I’m not quite ready to scratch him off the list yet.”
By the time we finished going over everything and setting up a plan for what to do next, the kids were done with breakfast.
“Alright guys, now that we’re all done with breakfast, why don’t we head out and see what Uncle Trey and Uncle Jace are up to,” Julia called out none too subtly from the kitchen.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head and Trey laughed.
Trey was ready to leave a little while later. He grabbed his bag and said goodbye to the kids and Julia. I walked him to the door.
“I’m around. If you need anything, just call,” Trey offered.
“Thanks. I’ll keep in touch with updates.”
Once Trey was gone, I sat down in the living room with Julia. The day Morgan called us over, we had given them instructions. Trey had done the bulk of the work during his stay. Other than keeping watch and giving another sweep of the security, I needed to prompt Julia to see if there was anything that she might have missed telling us.
Later that
night, I was startled out of sleep by the sound of Julia yelling my name. I grabbed my weapon and bolted down the hall. She met me in the middle of the hallway, her face pale, and handed me her phone.
“I thought it was Morgan texting me since it was so late,” she said stumbling over her words. “Why can’t I just change my number?”
“Because we want to lull him into a false sense of security that he has access to you.” And because one way or another, he’d find a way to get to her.
The text came from yet another new number. The message was all over the place. Like a drunken rant.
“We’re good here. Nothing has tripped the alarms, but I am going to review the video footage anyway. Sit down. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
When I was alone, I called Trey. Wherever he was, there was a lot of noise in the background.
“What’s wrong?”
“She got another message. He’s ramped it up.”
“Just now?”
“Yeah.”
“Well I’ve got eyes on Wescott as we speak. He’s at a bar and has been working double time trying to pick up some woman. He hasn’t paid attention to his phone for at least the past thirty minutes.”
I was glad that Trey decided to follow Ralph. What I didn’t know was whether I was glad or frustrated that it wasn’t him sending the texts. At least with Ralph, I knew what we were dealing with.
“Cameras are clean here. He switched up numbers again,” I told him.
“Send it to me with a copy of the message. I’ll work on it from my end. Call me if anything else happens.”
“Will do.”
I still had Julia’s phone. I took a screenshot and forwarded it to me and Trey. I went back to the living room to talk to Julia.
“Everything was as it should be with the security system. There was no unusual activity on the video.”
“I’ve been sitting here trying to tell myself that this is no different than all the other times. We’re safe here.” But she didn’t look like she believed it.
“You’re right. You should go back to bed and try to get some rest. I’ll sleep on the floor in the hallway, so I am close to the bedrooms if you want.”
“I don’t want you to sleep on the floor. You got to me so quickly when I called for you before.”
“Whatever you need. You let me know. You already checked on the kids while I was in the other room, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t we check on them again and then you head off to bed?”
Five minutes later, she was back in her room, though I was pretty certain she didn’t fall back to sleep.
In the morning, I heard her feet walking softly to the kitchen. I kept my eyes closed and listened to her shuffling around. A few minutes later, I smelled coffee brewing. I headed off to the kitchen to join her.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“Sweetheart, I heard you as soon as your feet hit the floor this morning.” It wasn’t a lie. I knew the moment she woke up. “Did you get any sleep?”
“Some. Intense stress is a weird thing. It makes you crazy hyper and then you are spent.”
“It’s the adrenaline spike and crash.”
“Why don’t we have some breakfast before the kids wake up? Eggs and bacon?” She motioned to the food she already had out on the counter.
“Sounds good. I’ll pour us some coffee.” I pulled a couple of mugs out of the cabinet and filled them with coffee. “You still like that sweet creamer stuff in your coffee?” I asked her as I looked for it in the refrigerator.
“It’s a guilty pleasure,” she smiled.
We had just started eating when she picked up her coffee cup in both hands and started staring at me.
“Let me have it, Jace.”
“Have what?”
“Don’t ‘have what’ me. You’ve got something on your mind.”
“Other than all this?” I waved my arm in the air.
“Yes, there is something distracting you.”
“Julia, nothing is distracting me from keeping you and the kids safe.”
“I know that. That’s not what I mean. Please, giving advice is what I do. Besides, it will distract me from all this.” She mimicked how I waved my arm.
“I’m not sure where to start.”
“Just start from the beginning.”
I rubbed my forehead before speaking. “Madison is jealous of our relationship. She flipped out when she found out I was staying here.”
“Oh crap, Jace. I can ask Trey to come back…”
“No.” I startled her with how forcefully I spoke that one word. “I’ve already let you down by not listening to my gut when I knew something was wrong.”
“First, you have not let me down. Second, despite what you might think, you are not infallible. Cut yourself a break.”
“I’m really pissed at myself.”
“Don’t be. I’m not mad at you. Okay, let’s talk about this other thing. She’s jealous. It can’t be because she thinks there is anything between us.” She saw the expression on my face. “Oh shit, she does.”
“Yeah. I knew something was there, but the first time it really got bad was when she found out you and I were down in Virginia at the same time. She questioned whether we ever dated.”
“And of course, you told her we didn’t.”
“Yep, and then she asked me if I ever thought about it.”
“Oh crap. You told her that we had talked about it once.”
“Kinda. I played it down a little more than that.”
She nodded in agreement. “It was such a nonevent, Jace.”
“Hey,” I laughed.
She laughed too. It was good to see.
“So, did Madison understand?”
“Not really. She was being so unreasonable. Irrational. So, I had to prove to her that I didn’t want you.”
“How on earth...You fucked it out of her?”
“Pretty much. And it seemed to work. At least for a little bit. I told you her ex-husband did a number on her. I think that’s part of the reason why he stopped you in the parking lot that day. He picked up on her insecurity.”
“I know you alluded to that when we spoke. I was hoping I misread what you were saying.”
“No, you didn’t. I’ve tried to show her not only with words, but with actions, how much I love her. The night she lost it because I was staying here? We were just speaking about the future.”
“Like the future, future?”
“Kids, family, the works. Then it all went to hell when she freaked out. I asked her how, after everything we talked about, was she trying to tell me she didn’t trust me. She told me she did. So, I asked her what it was. She told me she had no idea.”
“In some ways, emotional abuse is more insidious than physical abuse. Even when you think you have worked through your crap, every once in a while something happens, and you find yourself going back to bad habits. Trust me. I slip from time to time and act out. So does Morgan. And Hunter. That was a long time ago for us, too. It’s just that Morgan and I had shared life experience, so we get where it’s coming from.”
“Hold on. Hunter acts out?”
“Yeah. He probably mismatches his socks or something.” She smirked behind her coffee mug. “Where do you want it to go from here, Jace?”
“I love her. I want a future with her. But, she needs to know that you guys are an important part of my life. She needs to trust me.”
“She told you she trusted you. And you’ve told her that you have no romantic or sexual interest in me.”
“In no uncertain terms.”
“And she said she trusted you.”
“Yes, we just covered that.”
“She trusts you.”
“Hello? Earth to Julia.” Then I saw it. The lightbulb going on in her head. “What are you thinking about?”
“I just need you to trust me.”
“What are you planning on doing?”
/>
“I don’t quite know yet. But, I think I just realized the problem. And Jace? Can I give you some advice?”
I arched an eyebrow at her. “If I said no, would that stop you?”
“Nope.”
“Didn’t think so. Go ahead.”
“I know you have to process what happened and you have your own stuff to work through, but the longer you let this go without talking to her, the harder it’s going to be.”
Later that afternoon, I decided to take her advice. Julia was playing with the kids.
“I’m going to make a call. Just yell if you need me,” I told her.
“We’re good here. Good luck.”
It would be better to have the conversation face to face. I didn’t know if she would even take my call. But, Morgan wouldn’t be home for two days and I didn’t know if it was a good idea to wait that long. I went to Morgan’s office and closed the door. She answered on the third ring.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
There was a moment of awkward silence.
“How’s everything going over there?” she asked.
“There was one incident, but Trey and I are working on it. Look Madison, I don’t like the way we left things the other night.”
“I don’t either.”
“I need to apologize. I shouldn’t have blamed you for me not following my gut when I realized there was something wrong. That’s on me. I’m a grown man and I made my own decision and it turned out to be the wrong one. But, it was unfair to blame you. I’m sorry for that.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry I made you think that I don’t trust you.” She blew out a breath. “I do. I don’t quite understand why it worried me so much.”
This next part needed to be said. I also knew it had the potential to make things worse.
“Madison, it’s important to me that you understand that I know that being here is the right thing for me to do. And that I want to do it because these people are my family. They are, and will always be, important to me. If we are going to be together, I need you to understand that.”
“I know they are important to you, Jace. Do you know that it started with the first time I ever saw you?”