Blood dripped to the sidewalk from his mouth, and he could barely make out the figure who was pushing up to sitting, wiping the red from his face, grinning at Jace like he was the one who’d won.
“I’ll kill you,” Jace shouted.
He was jerked up, his feet coming out from under him, two officers dragging him away.
“I’ll kill you.”
* * *
The cell door buzzed, and Jace warily fumbled out, his head hung low as he was released.
Questions swirled around him, the worry of his fate and wondering how his mom had scraped together the money to bail him out.
He’d never hated his world more than right then. Who he was and where he came from. He’d never regret what he did—sticking up for his brother. Protecting him. But he would always regret what lived inside him.
Regret the fact that he was supposed to meet Faith last night and he hadn’t shown. He could only imagine what she’d thought when she’d been out in front of that house in the middle of the night and he wasn’t there.
Fear trembled through his spirit. Because he’d never been so sure than right then that he would never be good enough for her.
He stepped out into the sunlight, blinking against the bright day, only for his guts to twist when he saw the asshole leaning against the side of the building.
He pushed from the wall and grinned at Jace like they were the best of friends. “Ah. Jace Jacobs, the little destroyer. What you did last night wasn’t very smart, but I can’t say I’m not glad you did it. You owe me. Now get in my car.”
Jace’s guts curled in the tightest knot, his spirit pulsing with dread.
Twenty-Three
Faith
“I think it’d be best if I just stayed home.” I wasn’t in love with the way my voice cracked with a shot of uncertainty.
But that was the way Jace Jacobs had always made me feel.
Uncertain and confused and itchy and wanting things I shouldn’t want.
“I have to go, Faith. And that means you’re coming with me.”
He was leaned against the kitchen counter, hands gripping the white stone, so casual and powerful in his stance that I didn’t know how to process what it was I felt when I saw him standing there.
A week had passed since we’d received the last threat. It was like having to start all over again.
Each time one came, I felt as if I were back at square one. Preparing for a new fight, and still, trying my best to go on livin’.
Moments forgetting all about it as I went about my days, only for the next minute to have the reality of my situation slam me from out of nowhere.
The dread and the fear and the anxiety.
Though standing there right then?
I was experiencing an entirely different sort of anxiety.
I had no idea how to step out with him. Not with the way he made me feel. Not with the confusion that lined my insides and tugged at my spirit.
I’d known he’d been about a second from kissin’ me last weekend outside of Bailey’s door. The scariest part was how badly I’d wanted him to. How I’d been silently begging him to erase the space. To hold me. To whisper that it was goin’ to be all right.
Maybe I was a fool for feeling like it was actually going to be okay when he was there.
“It feels too strange to go out. Not with everything going on.”
“And it’s not okay for you to hide away in this house, either. Plus, I won’t be able to enjoy myself if you aren’t there, and half the force is going to be there. It’s the best way for me to look out for you.”
A sigh bled free, and I hugged my arms tighter over my chest. “You can’t be watchin’ out for me all the time.”
He pushed from the counter. “You sure about that?”
“Jace,” I said, trying to make sense of this man. Or really, I was just trying not to get lost in him as I blinked up at his striking face—defined jaw, plush lips, and intense eyes.
“Faith,” he taunted right back. He let a smirk glide onto his mouth. “What would Mack think if you didn’t show for his thirtieth birthday?”
My eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to play me, Jace Jacobs?”
He edged forward, his voice dropping into a caress. “Oh, I can think of all kinds of games we could play.”
More seduction.
“Jace,” I whispered, feeling hot and sweaty and off-kilter.
He’d been doing that more and more lately.
Tripping me up.
Stealing my air and ripping the ground out from under my feet.
“I told you that you can’t go sayin’ things like that to me.”
In frustration, he roughed a hand through his hair before he angled close, his head cocked so he was breathing against my cheek as he murmured, “Maybe I’m getting tired of not saying what we’re clearly both thinking. Not saying it doesn’t mean it’s not right there, playing out in both of our minds.”
Desire flashed across my skin, seeping into my pores, igniting something in me that I wasn’t sure I could ignore much longer.
He straightened and touched the spot he’d just set fire to with his words. “Now, go get ready. You’re coming.”
Twenty-Four
Jace
I stepped out of my bedroom into the quiet dusky hall, coming up short when I found Faith coming out of hers.
She was in this slinky royal-blue dress, which barely hit the middle of those lush thighs, and high heels, which made her appear even taller than she was.
The breath punched from my lungs.
This girl was so fucking gorgeous I was beginning to suffocate beneath the weight of it. Beneath the want and the need and the love for her that refused to die.
Uneasily, her hand fluttered up to her slender neck. She fiddled with the teardrop diamond earring that dangled from her ear. “I hate dressin’ up. I feel ridiculous.”
I gazed at her. Knot in my throat. Dick so deprived and balls so blue that I could feel every inch of my body hardening just from looking at her.
Fuck.
This was getting messy.
But I couldn’t not say something when she stood there shifting self-consciously, couldn’t not reach out and let my thumb trace the little divot on her chin.
“You don’t look ridiculous. Not even close.”
Twilight flooded the hall, like it was taking up space, forcing us closer, and she sucked in a choppy breath against the feel of my thumb on her skin, those lips parting a fraction.
Shit, I wanted to dip my thumb inside that sweet mouth of hers.
Maybe lean in for a taste.
Just one little taste to quench the thirst that left me parched and needy every damned day, growing stronger with each one that passed.
“I ready!”
I jumped back when the door beside us banged open.
Bailey was grinning from her doorway.
Fucking cutest kid on earth. So full of life and belief. So full of faith.
She hauled a tiny pink suitcase behind her, two dolls and that Beast tucked under one arm as if she were heading on some week-long vacation rather than spending the night at her grandparents’ house.
We’d decided that was the safest place for her to stay. Funny how that might be the place I dreaded stepping foot onto the most.
“Are you sure you want to go?” Faith asked her.
“I’s a big girl, Mommy.”
Faith sighed a restless sigh, her worry bounding through the hall.
“Okay, let’s go then,” she relented.
We headed out to my car.
With no sign of anything else, Mack had finally lifted the twenty-four-hour watch, a cruiser rolling by at random times of the day and night, Mack telling us to call him directly if anything seemed out of place.
Swore, it was a bitch that we could find absolutely nothing solid—no evidence, no names to actually point us in the right direction of the culprit—and still feeling like someone was constantly watching.
>
Thank God the construction crew Felix had hooked me up with had shown on Monday. That put at least five men at the house at all times, which eased some of the pressure because there was safety in the sheer numbers.
It was probably the only reason I felt comfortable taking Faith out tonight. A party with a bunch of cops and detectives was the safest place to be.
This afternoon, I’d put Bailey’s car seat in my car, and Faith buckled Bailey into it while I put the suitcase on the floorboards in front of her. We climbed into the front, and I started down the drive.
Those branches stretched over us, blips of the setting sun breaking through as we bounced over the holes and bumps carved out in the dirt road, covering us in glittering golds and hues of orange and pink.
Silence filled the cab as we traveled.
Faith was jittery and anxious, continually fidgeting and shifting in her seat next to me.
She wasn’t alone.
Because every fraction of a mile that passed had my own anxiety increasing.
Growing and clawing and reminding me of what I’d fought so hard to escape.
The eyes of this town that had watched me. Looked at me like I was trash. Like I was a thief.
Faith’s father hadn’t been any different from every other asshole in this town who’d cast their stones, cast their judgment, without giving us a chance to prove otherwise.
It wasn’t like I’d given him a reason to trust me. Treat me differently.
But fuck.
I could almost taste how much I’d wanted it. How fucking badly I’d wanted to be different.
How I’d wanted her father to look at me and see past the grungy clothes and the rumors that flew and see a guy who just loved his daughter.
A guy who’d do absolutely anything for her.
She and I both knew how well that’d gone.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked as I took the last turn into her parents’ neighborhood.
I chuckled out a rough sound. “Since when do you know me to give up when I want something?”
She cut me a glance. A hard, bitter, pointed one.
The day you walked away.
She might as well have screamed it at me.
Gulping around her silent accusation, I shook my head. “We’re going. Mack is turning thirty. We can’t miss rubbing that in.” My brow lifted as I shot her a grin, doing my best to lighten the mood.
God knew, she deserved a night to just have fun.
She barked out a sudden laugh. “You’re right. We definitely can’t miss that.”
“And when’s the last time you went somewhere and just had fun?”
“Fun hasn’t exactly been on the agenda lately,” she said, raising those brows.
God, she looked fucking fantastic sitting there in the front seat of my car. All legs and sweetness and sexiness.
“Then I guess we’d better jot it down. Tonight Faith Linbrock is slotted for some fun.”
So what if I used her maiden name? Couldn’t bear the thought of her branded with Joseph’s.
“Is that so?” It was almost playfulness in her tone when she said it. Like she felt comfortable enough with me to maybe entertain it. I was determined to give it to her. Even if it was just for a little while.
“Yeah, that’s so,” I tossed back out.
“Fun and birthday cake! I’s want a big piece,” Bailey shouted from the backseat.
I swore, the kid pulled an affectionate chuckle right out from the center of me. “Have you seen Mack? I think he might eat it all.”
“Mack wooks wike a dragon swayer.” Bailey’s voice got quiet in wistful awe, and I glanced in the rearview mirror at the way her dark, dark eyes went wide in some kind of fantastical excitement.
The kid.
“I don’t know about that. I bet he keeps dragons as pets,” I told her.
Hell, the guy was a dragon.
“You better not wet him get my unicorns.”
Faith was worrying at that bottom lip when she turned her attention toward her daughter, letting that warm gaze slide to me, trying to keep from laughing at the cuteness of it all.
“I’ll be sure to tell him.”
“And cake!”
“Whatever you want, sweet one.”
Faith released a strained sigh as I pulled to a stop in front of the house she grew up in.
Both of us feeling the pressure.
It was crazy that it felt like Faith and Bailey had become the center of my life, and I’d yet to have to face her parents.
The times they’d come to the house, I’d made myself scarce.
Just like Faith had called me that first day.
A trespasser.
There when I didn’t belong.
A fucking coward who didn’t want to face them. To see the hate and questions in their eyes.
The house looked exactly the same as it had then.
I was pretty sure I was feeling about the same as I had then, too. I tugged at my collar, which suddenly felt too tight.
I might as well have been wearing my jeans that had been three inches too short rather than this suit that had been tailored to the last centimeter.
Might as well have been anxiously walking Faith to the door for the first time rather than pulling to the curb in a hundred-thousand-dollar car.
Guessed it didn’t matter how much fucking money I made. It never erased who I was at my core. The surface shined but the heart remained the same.
Because there was Faith’s father, standing on the porch in the same spot he’d been that day. That day, there had just been the flickers of fatherly concern in his eyes, suspicion of any boy who would walk his daughter home.
Tonight? There was outright hate. Rage bristled across his skin as he came out to guard over his family.
The guy had always been a couple of inches shorter than me, though then, I’d been nothing but a scrawny kid who was just getting ready to grow into his skin, even though there had been no denying I could scrap it out in a fight.
No one knew how much strength there really was in self-preservation until they were fighting for their life.
Her father’s eyes narrowed as he looked me over where I filled up the seat behind the wheel.
I refused to allow myself to go back to those days when I wanted to cower and shrink under scrutiny, a feeling that had grown and mutated to become this underlying rage.
Yeah, I’d grown into all that strength and hostility. Had learned how to harness that intimidation and make it work for me.
Turned it into an empire that had earned me millions.
But none of that could change what I’d done, and if Faith’s father wanted to throw a couple punches, I’d stand there and take them.
God knew, I deserved them.
Faith reached out and grabbed me by the forearm. “Don’t you dare get into it with my daddy. The last thing Bailey or I need is to see the two of you fightin’. You hear me?”
I blew out a sigh, scraped my fingers across my lips, and did my best to get it together. To remember my purpose. Why I was here. What I was protecting.
“No fightin’. You hear me?” Bailey parroted.
God, these two women. Bossy and right.
“You really think I’m going to get into a fight with your dad?” I said, brows lifted to my hairline, like I was completely offended by the idea.
Faith shot me a look that called bullshit and reached out to open her door. “I mean it.”
At the backdoor, she ducked in and unbuckled Bailey, who scrambled out, shouting, “Hi, Grampa.”
Faith started up the walk behind her, and I reluctantly unlatched my door and stepped out into the approaching night.
The man seemed to have to tear his hatred from me, every inch of him softening as he turned his attention to the little girl who beat a path for him.
She clamored up the two short steps, tripping a little but still smiling when he swept her into his arms.
“Hey, Daddy,
” Faith called.
“How’s my girl?” he asked, his eyes soft as he glanced to her before they bored into me from over her shoulder.
“Good!” Bailey shouted, thinking he was talking to her.
He patted her little leg. “Well, things are about to get better since you get to spend the whole night here with me and Grandma.”
He took that opportune time to send me a warning glare.
Just fucking great.
With just that glance, the guy made me feel like a worthless seventeen-year-old kid.
I ducked into the backseat and grabbed Bailey’s suitcase, keeping my head held high as I rounded the front of my car.
The screen door unlatched and Faith’s mother stepped out. She’d aged too, graciously, her cheeks softened and a few new lines creased her face, but the kindness she’d always shown was still there.
Just like her daughter.
Like it was fundamental to them.
Part of their makeup.
“My . . . look who is here. Jace Jacobs.”
“Good evening, ma’am.”
I mentally cringed. Yup, there she was, making me feel like that seventeen-year-old kid, too.
Not the powerful mogul who commanded every meeting. Took what I wanted. Made it mine.
“I knew you were gonna do big things with yourself. Look at you, so handsome.”
Redness hit my cheeks.
What the hell?
It seemed this whole line of women knew how to hit me at the knees.
I set Bailey’s suitcase down on the top of the porch. “There you go, sweet one.”
“Thank you, Jace,” she said in her little drawl.
“You’re welcome, Button,” I said, that nickname coming too easily. Sliding right off my tongue with affection.
Damn it.
I was getting in too deep. Getting too close. I had to be careful, or I was going to fuck this all up.
I was pretty sure Faith’s mom swooned right there, while her father slit my throat with a metaphorical knife.
Breaking the tension, Faith strode up the two steps, dropping a kiss to her father’s cheek and peppering a bunch of them on Bailey’s. “Be a good girl for Mommy, okay?”
More of You: A Confessions of the Heart Stand-Alone Novel Page 17