Looks like Trouble to Me (Bad Boys Need Love, Too #1)

by Calinda B

  “Not a clue,” another said.

  Jace stared at them, saying nothing.

  “We don’t know anything, man, honest,” the first one said.

  “Funny, I don’t believe you,” Jace said.

  Marni bounced up and down in her pack. “Da! Da!” she said brightly.

  “That her kid?” the second guy asked.

  “What do you think?” Jace said. “Her kid, her responsibility.”

  The girlfriend with lead for eyelids pried them open. “A baby,” she said dreamily, before the effort got the best of her. Her eyes slammed shut. She mumbled something incoherent.

  “I need to find my sister,” Jace said. “I think she’s in trouble. And I think one of you knows more than he’s saying.” He swung his gaze from guy to guy to guy.

  They all looked away, apparently finding their shoelaces a sudden source of fascination.

  “Come on, you dipshits. Anything happens to her I’m holding you accountable.”

  Marni squealed and bounced on his back, batting his head.

  “I think one of her friends knows something. Ask Debbi at the boat school café,” Leroy said.

  “Debbi,” the girlfriend mumbled, not bothering to open her eyes.

  “Debbi’s hardly her friend. More like her supplier. But I’ll ask her, thanks.”

  “Anything to help, man,” Leroy said, looking pleased with himself.

  The other males continued to study their shoelaces.

  Jace strode away with Marni babbling behind him.

  He arrived at the café in short order, enjoying walking with Marni. “You’re in a good mood,” he said to her.

  She attacked his head with both hands.

  “Careful with the hair,” Jace said, prying her fingers off a lock. “It took me several seconds to style it.” He swung open the glass door of Schooner School Café, eyeing the cozy dining area. Several round tables were occupied with patrons drinking tea, sipping coffee, eating scones and muffins, and chatting amiably. A nautical themed display of ships, sails, anchors and other seafaring paraphernalia adorned the walls.

  “Hi,” the young woman behind the counter said. She grinned at him in that hopeful way girls usually grinned at him.

  “Hi,” Jace said, working her with his smile. “Debbi around?” He placed both palms on the counter.

  The young woman frowned slightly. “She’s upstairs. Shall I call her for you?”

  “That would be great, thanks.”

  “Shall I tell her who wants to see her?”

  Jace considered, thinking, she’ll bolt. “No.” He smiled in that winning way that had gotten him laid, a lot. “I want to surprise her.”

  The woman squinted at him, nodded, returned the smile. “Debbi? Someone’s here to see you,” she said into the phone. “I don’t know. He didn’t give his name. Said he wanted to surprise you.” Her eyes widened and she turned away from Jace, speaking in hushed tones. “Yes, he’s sexy. Way!” She whirled around and hung up the phone, her face flushed. “She’ll be right down,” she said gaily. “Cute baby, by the way.”

  “Thanks,” Jace said.

  Debbi came around the corner, patting her short, auburn hair, smiling broadly. When she saw Jace she scowled, glared at the girl behind the counter, and quickly looked behind her.

  “Don’t bother running, Debbi. I only want information.”

  “Lucy,” Debbi said. “Get our friend here whatever he wants.”

  “Nothing thanks. Can we go somewhere private?”

  They stepped outside into the airy, open corridor that separated the café from the boat building school. Jace let his attention wander to the wooden canoe being built in the glass enclosed shop. The frame had been meticulously constructed and it looked like it would be a beauty when finished.

  “What do you want?” Debbi said. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest.

  “I want to find Jayna. Leroy thought you knew where she was.”

  Marni let out a whimper and batted his head.

  Jace bounced her up and down, reaching behind to give her his hand.

  She grabbed his finger and squeezed.

  “I don’t know anything,” Debbi said, sliding her gaze away from him.

  Jace tugged free of Marni’s fingers, reached out and grabbed Debbi’s jaw, turning her to face him. “Debbi. Don’t bullshit me. You know something.”

  She pushed his hand away. “Let go of me!”

  “Are you going to talk to me? Or does this have to get ugly?”

  Marni started to cry.

  “Shhh, baby girl, don’t worry,” Jace said, jiggling her up and down. “Uncle Jace isn’t going to mess up Debbi’s face - much.” He gave Debbi a menacing glare. “Talk to me, Debbi. I know the kind of shit you do. I could easily make a call to someone to check up on you.”

  “Okay,” she said, throwing her hands in the air. “I’ll tell you what I know. She said she was going to head up to the islands, that’s all.”

  “San Juan’s?” Jace asked.

  The clatter of metal tools landing on concrete turned their heads. A guy working on the canoe had dropped a wrench. Jace turned back to Debbi. “Well?”

  “Yeah,” Debbi said, her eyes flicking to the guy who’d dropped the tools and back to Jace. She gave a subtle shake of her head.

  “What was that?” Jace asked.

  “What?” Debbi said.

  “That sign you gave that guy.”

  “It was nothing. Just letting him know I’m all right.”

  “That’s debatable,” Jace said, filing away the guy’s face for future reference. “Keep talking.”

  “Said she had business to take care of, she didn’t know when she’d be back.”

  Jace’s forehead creased. “What kind of business?”

  “She didn’t say. Only that it was important.”

  “How was she getting up there?”

  “She didn’t tell me.” Debbi rubbed her arms with her hands. “It’s cold, Jace, I need to get back inside.”

  “It’s seventy. You’ll live. Your drug cocktails are probably messing with your system.” His jaw grew tight. “Did she say where in the San Juan’s she was headed? There are several islands up there and a lot of water in between.” He chewed on his lower lip.

  Marni squirmed in the pack, sounding impatient. She let out a whine of protest.

  Jace rocked back and forth. “Did she say? Tell me, Debbi. So help me, God, if you’re leaving something out and I find out about it….”

  “That’s all I know, Jace, really.” She hugged herself tightly. “I have to get back inside.” Her eyes darted back and forth.

  “Okay. If you hear anything…anything at all, you call me. You got that?”

  “Yes,” Debbi said, her voice high and tight. “I hear you.”

  “Don’t mess with me, Debbi. My frustration’s growing by the day. I’m this close to letting loose on someone.” He held up his thumb and forefinger, shaking it in front of Debbi’s face. “This close.”

  She bent away from him, eyes wide and full of fear. “I got it, I got it. If I hear anything you’ll be the first to know.” She reached for the metal door handle, pausing to look at him. “You’re good with her baby, you know that, right? Your sister makes a terrible mother.”

  Jace sighed, his forehead furrowing into a deep frown. “Get out of here before I lose my temper. I’m only doing this because I have to. Not because I want to.”

  Marni began to cry in earnest as Debbi zipped away.

  Jace began to walk, murmuring soothing sounds to his niece. “No, no, baby girl, that came out all wrong. Your Uncle Jace is sorry. I want your mama to step up to the plate, is all. I love you. Uncle Jace loves you.” And why can’t I say that to my girl, Zoé? Too soon? Or too fucking scared?

  Chapter 19

  Zoé sat in the kitchen before her iPad, the golden bouquet by her side, fingers poised over the keyboard. The sun shone through the window, making it hard to see the screen so s
he angled it slightly. This is a stupid idea, she thought. People do it all the time, she countered. It’s like spying, she protested. He’ll think you don’t trust him. She drummed her fingers on the table. I don’t. Unwilling to listen to reason, she started typing. Jace Savage, Port Townsend, WA.

  Her fingers shook as page after page after page of information came up in the Google results. She clicked on the top one. Local Man Wins Award in Prestigious Photo Contest. Port Townsend Tribune. She skimmed the article, completely impressed. Jace beamed out of a photo, looking sexy as hell, making her pulse race. He held up a gold and glass statue and a giant check for twenty thousand dollars. He looks so proud. Further down the page she eyed the winning image - a photo of a black jaguar drinking water from a waterfall filled pool, a gorgeous sunset lighting his glossy pelt. Wow, the guy’s talented. How’d he get so close to that cat?

  Finished with the article, she clicked the back button. She nervously eyed the next one, chewing on her lip - Savage Bust in Rural Washington. Don’t do this, she reasoned. She massaged her temples. I need to know who I’m dealing with. Stomach in knots, she left-clicked her mouse.

  In a somewhat blurred image, Jace held his hand up to the camera, trying to shield his face, holding onto a very beautiful blonde with his other hand. Kate. Mouth dry, she read, Port Townsend resident, Jace Savage, age 28, arrested at the home of his girlfriend, Kate Bethlehem, age 25. In one of the largest Ecstasy seizures ever in Washington, 45 kilograms of the drug with a minimum street value of almost $2 million were found at a Port Angeles house Friday during a series of law enforcement raids, authorities said Tuesday. Her eyes continued to skim but nothing registered, her heart pounded so hard. I’m dating a criminal. I’m in love with a drug lord. She quickly closed the browser window, her eyes stinging with tears, her hand pressed to her mouth. “I’m in love with a bad guy,” she whispered.

  When her phone rang, she nearly jumped out of her skin, knocking her water glass to the floor. The plastic tumbler bounced, spraying water everywhere. “Damn, damn, damn!” she said, leaping to her feet. She glanced at the caller ID. “Jace! Get it together! He can’t know I know.” She tapped the connect icon, took a deep breath and said, “Hi,” her voice shaky and breathy.

  “Hi,” he said, concern evident. “Everything okay?”

  Crap, can he already read me? “Uh, yeah. Everything’s fine. I knocked my water glass on the floor. Hold on a sec while I clean up the mess.” She tiptoed across the puddles, grabbed several paper towels, dabbing at the water until she’d soaked most of it up. Breathe, Dubois, breathe. She squared her shoulders, picked up the phone and said, “Okay, I’m back,” a little too brightly.

  “Okay,” he said cautiously. “Are you sure everything’s all right?”

  She pictured his vivid green eyes peering from his handsome face, and she squeezed hers shut, gritting her teeth. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He can’t know I snooped. “Fine. Everything’s fine.”

  “Don’t bullshit me, Zoé. You know I don’t roll that way.”

  She set the phone on the table, tapped the speaker button and said, “Can you still hear me?”

  “Yeah, I hear you. What’s going on?”

  What do I say? She wrung her hands round and round. “I’m fine, Jace. Honest.”

  “Out with it, Zoé. Tell me now or I’m hanging up.”

  Make something up! Anything! My dog died. I don’t have a dog. My grandma…my grandma…what? She’s already dead. Her breath came in quick, panicked puffs.

  “Are you going to talk to me or am I going to disconnect the fucking phone?”

  “Okay,” she said in a small voice. “Were you ever going to tell me you were arrested?”

  A huge sigh met her ears. “Fucking hell, Zoé. What did you do? Google me?”

  “Maybe.” Her voiced sounded far away. She felt all of five years old, like she’d been caught in a naughty prank.

  Another sigh blew through the phone like a gust of desert wind. “Fucking hell.”

  “You’re right, Kate’s beautiful.”

  “On the outside, yeah, she is.” He sounded dejected and tired.

  “So did you do much jail time? How did it all go down?” She tried to sound casual, like she was asking him about the weather or telling about some project she’d done for college.

  “I didn’t do any jail time,” he said in that same, monotone voice. “I was put in a holding cell until my boss, Neil, bailed me out.”

  “The article said it was one of the biggest busts ever in Washington. How is that possible?” She blinked back tears.

  “That was the headline, baby. The whole thing got a lot of press, a lot of sensationalism played out.”

  “I see.” She stood, walked to the sink and squeezed the paper towel, watching the water dribble into the stainless steel sink. Her hand clenched the moist paper, choking the life out of it, before pitching it into the plastic garbage can under the counter.

  An aching silence filled the room.

  “Baby.” Jace’s voice sounded hollow.

  “What?” she said.

  “Did you read anything else? Did you read the smaller article on page five or twelve or wherever it currently appears?”

  “No. I closed the browser, figuring I did enough damage already.” Tears trickled down her cheeks making wet splotches on her shirt.

  Another big sigh poured through the phone. “You should have been more thorough. If you would have dug, you’d have found one small mention that I was acquitted. All charges against me were dropped.”

  She pressed her thumb and forefinger to her eyes, trying to dam the waterworks. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Because I didn’t do anything. Kate gave up the ringleader so she got probation. It was a rap on the knuckles actually, not what she deserved. They knew I was a weak link. They used me to get to Kate. They used Kate to get to the supplier.”

  “I see.” Her voice cracked.

  “Are you crying? Don’t cry, baby. Please don’t cry. I’m not there to hold you.”

  His kindness only made her cry harder. “I’m an idiot, Jace. I’m so sorry I spied on you.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “The internet is pretty seductive for checking up on people.”

  “You don’t give me much choice,” she blurted, wishing she could take back the words. Shit. Her ears filled with a weighted silence. “Jace?”

  “Yeah, baby, I’m here.”

  “Well, you don’t, you know. I have to beg for scraps of data on you.”

  “Why do you have to dig? It’s my past, not yours. I want to put it behind me, where it belongs. But you’re like a backhoe, determined to keep digging it up, spreading bones all over the field.”

  “I want to know you, that’s all.”

  “There are parts of me I’d rather you didn’t know. Baby, please.” He sounded worn out. “I’ve done some shit I’m not proud of. I wasn’t kidding when I said I’m wild and uncontrolled. I’m trying to make amends for the bad parts so I can keep living the good parts.”

  “You’re not giving me enough to go on,” she said. It sounded like a whine. She hated to whine.

  “Are you telling me I’m not enough for you?”

  A hint of insecurity seeped through the tone of his words. “No, Jace. I’m not saying that at all.”

  “What then? Too much?”

  She almost burst out laughing. “You’re pretty intense, that’s a fact.” A burst of pleasurable sensation emanated from her core, like he’d lit a fuse between her legs. Oh, dear. His breathing came slow and steady in her ear. “Jace,” she whispered.

  “What?” This time his voice came out in a deep, growling purr.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “How much I’d like to fuck you right now.”

  Oh, dear, God. I’m losing it. “Jesus, Jace. You’re right, you’re wrecking me.” She closed her eyes as sensual tingles snaked through her, making her legs part. She wanted to open to this man, open wide and let him enter.

/>   “We wouldn’t be arguing about the internet or my fucking past.”

  “No? What would we be doing?”

  “I’d be buried inside you, deep. I’d be making circles with my hips, grinding into your sweet pussy.”

  “Fuck. How do you do this? You make me crazy.”

  His breathing became heavy. “Are you wet for me?”

  “Yes.” Her heat beat against her chest. Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump.

  “Only me?”

  “Yes, Jace. Only you.” Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump.

  “Exclusive rights?”

  “Exclusive rights. I only want you.”

  “Good.”

  “God, I want to fuck you.”

  He let out a deep laugh. “Watch that dirty mouth, baby, or I’ll fuck you harder next time I see you. You won’t be able to walk when I’m done with you.”

  “Jesus, Jace, stop.” She felt herself spinning out of control, completely intoxicated. I can’t be doing this with this…this…this man who won’t tell me anything!

  “You want me, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know how hard it is to be away from you?”

  “Tell me.” She slithered down in her chair, feeling gravity pull at her. Come on! Get it together! This is senseless!

  “Fucking hell,” he said. “If I could, I’d be inside you all the time.”

  She let out a chuckle. “We wouldn’t get much done, would we?”

  “Who gives a fuck what we get done as long as we’re together.”

  Oh, dear, God, he’s making me love him even more. She took several calming breaths, feeling like a leaf caught in a whirlpool, spinning madly into this man’s bad boy charms. She listened to his steady breathing. “Jace?”

  “Yeah, baby?”

  “What are you thinking about now?”

  “My thinking hasn’t changed. I’m going to be thinking about how much I want to fuck you until I fuck you. Then I’m going to be thinking about how much I want you again. You make me fucking crazy. I wish you could see how hard I am right now.”

  Oh, Lord. The man is going to give me a seizure. “When will I see you again?”

  “When do you want to see me again?”

  “I’d say right now, but you’re miles away and I’ve got to get ready to go to work soon. Damn.”