He rounded the desk and dropped a kiss to her forehead as he handed her a keyring. “Also, I came by to drop these off. I found them in my car.”
Courtney gasped. “Ah, my hero. I was looking all over for those. I was wondering where I’d left them.”
“You’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached to your neck,” I told her.
“What are you talkin’ about, Faith? I lost my head a long time ago.”
I grinned.
Felix tore his hungry gaze from her and turned it on me.
“How’s Faith, today?” he asked.
“She was just leaving,” I said, sparing Courtney a knowing glance. “I apparently have company coming to stay.”
My best friend laughed a salacious sound. “What, you don’t want to stick around?”
I was already on my feet, waving them off. “Um . . . no but thank you.”
Felix frowned, the cop in him immediately on edge. “Who?”
A lump formed in my throat. “Jace . . . an old . . . friend.”
God, I didn’t even know what to call him.
An old lover?
My dead husband’s cousin?
Yeah, neither of those things sounded all that right.
He frowned. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? If you aren’t feeling safe out there, you should stay with Courtney or your parents.”
I should take him up on the suggestion.
But I was shaking my head, hating the idea of some monster chasing me out of my house. “I think what’s done is done.”
“All right . . . just . . . be safe, okay?” he said.
“I will. I promise.”
I pushed open the door to the bright, bright summer light.
Laughter rippled from behind me. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Courtney called before her voice dropped to a whisper meant only for Felix.
“I won’t do anything you would do,” I hollered back, managing a grin as I stepped out onto the sidewalk. Sun bright and warm, I lifted my face to the blue sky as I headed down the walk to the side of the building where I’d parked.
Doug, an officer who I often saw driving by my house, was the one who was sitting at the curb.
I gave him a little wave as I opened my car door, and he returned a grin and playful salute before he pulled from the curb.
I sank down into the driver’s seat, hit with a rush of gratefulness that people were watchin’ over us.
Then I thought of Jace. Packing his things. Coming back to me. And I wondered if it was guilt that sloshed through my senses when I thought of him, the small shot of comfort injected into my veins at the thought of him bein’ around.
Shaking it off, I shifted my car into reverse and glanced out the rear-window, attention catching on what was sitting in Bailey’s car seat.
A rose.
Not just any rose.
One of the one’s from my garden.
A lavender rose.
Terror raced, a drum in my heart that made it difficult to see. Difficult to breathe.
I rammed on the brakes and threw it back into park, hands shaking like crazy as I reached back and grabbed it, the little slip of paper that had been left under it.
Time’s running out. I want it, and I want it now. For your sake, I hope you’re smarter than him.
Thirteen
Faith
Sixteen Years Old
A rowdy clatter of voices lifted in the cafeteria. It was always about fifteen decibels too loud in the big, open room. The linoleum floors like a loudspeaker set to high, tossing the noise higher and higher, as if each one had to climb on top of the other to be heard.
In the middle of it, Faith was trembling her way through the line, filling her tray to the brim and looking over her shoulder as if she were on some sort of covert mission.
She paid for the food and sucked in a breath, her feet quaking in her shoes as she looked for the courage to take the long way to the table where she always sat with her friends.
Dropping her head as if it might conceal her, she hugged the wall at the far end of the room. Slowly, she cut between two long tables, her heart rate spiking with each step she took.
She was sure her approach was louder than the din that blasted her ears. Sure that everyone was watching.
She felt like an intruder as she slinked down to the farthest end where students sat sporadically.
A few alone.
A few together.
The nerds and the outcasts, the troublemakers and the friendless, which was just sad in itself.
She was shaking like a leaf.
Heart hammering.
Throat dry.
She edged up behind the boys. This time, four were in their group.
Mack, who’d lived in the area for all of forever, and the three new students the town had been going on about.
Only now she knew their names.
Ian.
Joseph.
And Jace.
Jace.
That terrifyingly beautiful boy who was tucked against the long table, acting as if he were too cool for the tray that he’d pushed off to the side.
He’d edged it toward his brother. His brother who was again shoveling food into his mouth as if he didn’t know when he’d get the chance to eat again, their cousin doing the same.
Faith sucked for air. She swore the only thing she did was breathe in his anger and hostility.
But she continued, determined, the little bit of courage and hope she felt was the only thing that allowed her to be able to grab the extra sandwich and milk she’d purchased.
She slowed just enough to discreetly set them on the table beside him as she passed.
Her arm brushed his shoulder.
His spine stiffened.
Her knees turned to goo.
Oh goodness.
She faltered a step and squeezed her eyes closed against that same sensation she’d experienced for the first time yesterday in the office.
Though this time, it almost felt like a welcome memory. As if she were aching to feel it again. She inhaled it. Kept it.
Her feet were barely able to keep her standing, but she knew she had to keep moving. That she couldn’t stop to wait and see what he would say.
She made it to the end of the table and beelined it for hers, panting from nearly sprinting the rest of the way over as she slid into her spot.
Her tray clattered to the table in front of her.
Courtney, who was sitting directly across from her, looked at Faith as if she’d gone crazy. “Did you get lost or something?”
Faith widened her eyes at her, telling her to mind her own business. “Just tellin’ a friend hi, is all.”
Courtney’s gaze flew the direction Faith had been.
Crap.
That’d been the wrong thing to say.
Even though she wasn’t looking that way, Faith could feel hard, hard eyes glaring back. She swore that they held the power to shoot fire. Heat seared across her flesh.
She shifted in her seat.
Courtney kept looking between her and the direction Faith had just come from.
“Stop it,” Faith hissed, angling her head at Courtney.
Courtney looked back at her, worry on her face. “What are you up to, Faith Avery?”
“I’m not up to anything.”
“Sure looks like you’re up to something to me.”
“Stop it, you’re bein’ ridiculous.”
Courtney frowned but was quick to get distracted by Keegan, who sat next to her.
Faith tried to eat her lunch, but she found she could only pick at her food, still too off balance because of the stare she could feel burning into her back from across the room.
Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.
“I have some studying I need to do for my math test seventh period. I’m gonna head to the library.”
Courtney jerked her attention back to her. “You barely even ate.”
Faith shoved what she could into her mouth before she stood. “There.”
She walked across the cafeteria and was quick to toss her tray into the dirty bin and race out the door, her head dropped between her shoulders.
She didn’t know why she was feeling so uncomfortable. As if she’d done something wrong when she’d only been trying to do something right.
Something nice.
But she guessed she understood it better when she was standing out in the courtyard and she felt the presence press against her from behind.
That hot, blazing hostility.